Anchors Away!

The finger nail fashion trend for this summer is very nautical in nature.  Anchors are at the top of the list of nautical inspired manicures lately.  So, I tried my hand at painting my own anchors to see if it was difficult or not.  I also tried a slightly different method for creating stripes too.

Materials
Top and base coat
White polish
Medium blue polish
Yellow Polish
Yellow glitter (optional)
Floss pick

After applying my base coat I applied two coats of OPI's Alpine Snow on my pointer and mid finger, two coats of Nabi's Lime Light on my thumb and ring finger, and one coat of Nabi's Blue on my pinky.

On my thumb and ring fingers I decided to add a little extra flare so I added Nabi's Yellowette.

I then drew anchors on my thumb and ring fingers.  Using a thin brush and my blue color polish I drew a straight line (the center of the anchor).  I then drew the anchor arms, by drawing a simple slightly curved line on either side of my line.  I then drew little  triangles on the end of the curves.  Lastly, I used a dotting tool to make a dot at the top of the anchor.

On my white fingers I wanted to draw lines but I didn't want them to be perfect.  I used a floss pick and painted blue polish on it.  I then created my imperfect lines by rocking the floss from one side of my nail to the other.  If you decide to create  these lines you may have to reload the floss with polish after a couple stripes.  If you don't apply enough polish or it dries out the lines will be very thin and the under color may show through.  If you overload the floss you'll end up with thick blobby lines.  You may find it best to apply thin lines and go over them a few times till you reach your desired opacity.

Perform a bit of cleanup around the cuticles and apply a top coat and there you have another variation on an anchored manicure.  Are you onboard with anchors or do you feel that anchors are over done?

  I think the nautical themes are fun and I'm glad I got to practice some of my freehand.  I also like the concept of using the flossing pick to create stripes but I think I need to practice this technique a bit more to get it a little cleaner.  I hope you enjoyed this post, and just as an FYI I will be traveling for the next couple of weeks so I will most likely not be posting anything on this blog for a bit.  However, I will still be up on Facebook and Instagram so follow me there for the latest polish plebe updates.  If you happen to recreate this mani share it on Instagram and #polishplebe or @polish_plebe in the comments.  Thanks for tuning in and I'll post as soon as I can when I get back.

Your Fellow Plebe,

Watermelon Nubbies

I think watermelon nail art designs are one of the cutest summer designs out there so I did my own interpretation on a watermelon nail art design for you.  So this "What are you wearing Wednesday?" is also a tutorial.

Materials
Top and base coat
Light green polish
Medium pink or light red polish
A green nail art striper (darker than your shade of green polish)
A white nail art striper
Black polish
Dotting tool (small to medium size)
Hole reinforcement stickers
Drying drops (optional)

Please excuse the nubbiness of my nails.  My yard work has been particularly tasking this last week and my poor nails did not fair well.

After applying a base coat, I applied my light green polish to my thumb and pinky.  I applied my medium pink polish to my pointer, mid, and ring fingers.  For this design I used colors from Zoya's Tickled collection, Tilda is the light green and Rooney is the medium pink.

After my pink polish was dry (I used drying drops to speed up the process) I applied the hole reinforcement stickers onto my nails.  I wanted the three fingers to appear as one slice of watermelon so I applied them so that the middle finger was mostly center and the pointer and ring fingers showed opposite edges (this will probably be more obvious in later pictures).

I then applied my light green polish above the stickers near the cuticle.

Working as quickly as possible I then drew dark green lines using a nail art striper to create the watermelon rind.

After removing the stickers I used a white nail art striper and lined the edge of the rind.  This helps give the design definition and hides any major imperfections.

I then used black polish and a dotting tool to create watermelon seeds.

To finish of the look I used the green nail art striper to create a watermelon rind appearance on my thumb and pinky fingers.  I intentionally made these lines wavy and irregular widths because frankly have you ever seen a watermelon with perfectly straight lines.

After a little clean up around the cuticles and applying a top coat to give it the extra shine this is what I ended up with...

I think this design is super cute and compliments my little stubbikins.  The colors are bright and vibrant perfect for summer.  This nail art design would be great to wear to a picnic or a bbq or for any reason at all really.  It is also a really easy design for beginners too because it doesn't have to be perfect to look good.  This watermelon design allows you to practice using different nail art tools like stripers and dotting tools without the stress of worrying about perfection.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial/What are you wearing Wednesday? post.  If you would like to show off what your wearing today head over to my Facebook page and share it there or share it on Instagram #whatruwearingwed .  While your there like and/or follow me to keep up with my blog.  And if you re‐create my watermelon design share them on instagram with @polish_plebe in the comments or #polishplebe and I may share them.  Until next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

Tickled and Bubbly What a Great Combination

It is not at all surprising that Zoya's Tickled and Bubbly collections go together so well.  The colors pair up nicely between the two collections it is really difficult not to wear them together.

I've been playing around with these two collections all week and what fun I've been having.  I wanted to share with you a manicure I did using Rocha from the Tickled collection and Jesy from the Bubbly collection.




Materials
Top and base coat
Two shades of polish
Striping tape





For this manicure I started with one coat of Rocha on my thumb, pointer, and pinky fingers; two coats of Jesy on my mid and ring fingers.

Once that was completely dry, I used striping tape and placed them randomly on my pointer and mid fingers.  As a helpful tip when you are doing a random pattern like this try to keep in mind what order you placed them down in so that you can take them off in the reverse order.  I failed to do this and had a hardtime taking them off without causing problems.

I then placed a coat of Jesy over the Rocha on my pointer and a coat of Rocha over the Jesy on my mid.  Then remove the tape (hopefully in the right order).

This design reminds me of a laser light show.  The color combination is awesome too! I really like the new Tickled & Bubbly Collections from Zoya.  I have been having so much fun with them.  I hope you enjoyed this mani as much as I did.  If you liked this post please follow me through Google+, Bloglovin, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and/or Nails2DieFor.

Your Fellow Plebe,