I Love USA

This year I knew I had to top last years 4th of July mani. So I spent a few days thinking about what design I wanted to do then I came up with this!

I thought it was very cute and I'm pretty sure I topped last year!! I received tons of compliments on this mani and most of the design was fairly easy.


Colors I used:
Thumb: "Big Spender" from Pro, "Fame" from Petites, "Skin Tight Denim Cream" from NYC, "Strapless" from Pure Ice, and "Primary Color" from Finger Paints.
Index: "Skin Tight Denim Cream" from NYC, "Primary Color" from Finger Paints, "Strapless" from Pure Ice, "French White Tip" from NYC
Middle: "Skin Tight Denim Cream" from NYC, "Primary Color" from Finger Paints, "French White Tip" from NYC.
Ring: "Skin Tight Denim Cream" from NYC, "Primary Color" from Finger Paints, "French White Tip" from NYC,
Pinky: "French White Tip" from NYC, "Skin Tight Denim Cream" from NYC, "Primary Color" from Finger Paints.

How I Did It:
Thumb: The Base coat was two coats of "Big Spender" from Pro, under one coat of "Fame" from Petites. The writing was done with a paint brush using "Skin Tight Denim Cream" and then I put "Strapless" from Pure Ice over it to make the blue sparkle. For the Red ''S" I used "Primary Color" from Finger Paints.
Index: For my Index finger, I used one coat or "French Lingerie" from Rimmel, this just give my nail a clear base. I did a diagonal tip using "Skin Tight Denim Cream" and "Strapless." For the details I used a fine tip brush and a dotting tool and used "Primary Color" and "French White Tip."
Middle: For my middle nail, I first painted it all white. Then I painted half of the nail using "Skin Tight Denim Cream." Again I used my paint brush and doting tool to create the stripes and dots.
Ring: My ring finger was a lot of fun! First, I painted the nail "Primary Color." Then I took my fine tip paint brush and made random, curved stripes with white polish. I came back through with blue polish and then again with white and add more blue until I had the firework the way I wanted it. This was my favorite nail of my whole manicure.
Pinky: I did both of my pinky fingers different. I couldn't decide on one design so I tried both. First I painted both nails solid white. Then, for the nail on my left hand, I dipped the end of straws in the red and blue polish and placed it on my nails. This was super easy and would make a neat full mani.
  For the nail on my Right hand, I did the splatter paint effect I did a few weeks ago. I changed nothing but the colors of polishes I used.
This manicure was definitely one of my favorites and I was very pleased with the way it turned out.

XOXO's
Love and Nail Polish,
Sierra.

Splatter Paint

After, wanting to do this design for a few months, I finally decided to try out the splatter paint design. I wish I could say this design is as easy as it sounds. However, it was not. Most of it is just trial and error and figuring out what works for you.


Colors I Used:
Base Coat: "Love" from Pure Ice
Splatter Nails: "880 Black Heart" Sally Hansen, "Free Fall," "Vineyard," and "Silver Mercedes" from Pure Ice
Accent Nail: "Free Fall" from Pure Ice and "Party of Five Glitter" from Wet N' Wild

How I did It:
Describing how I did this design is rather easy. You will need at least 3 polishes, an index card and straws. First, paint your nails a base coat and let them dry. Next, place a glob of each polish on to an index card. Then, dip the end of the straw into the polish, place the straw directly over your nail and blow. The paint should splatter over your nail. Then you take acetone and remove any of the polish that didn't land on your nail. I made a few changes to this, because I said before this is a design that is trial and error. First change I made was I coated the skin around my nail with Vaseline. The Vaseline helped with removing the polish around my nail. Because all I had to do was wipe the Vaseline and off came the polish. The other change I made was I painted the polish directly on to the straw. I tried dipping the straw into the glob on the index card. But it didn't work like I wanted and painting a thick layer on the straw worked better. That's all the changes I made, however, I also notice the thinner the polishes were the easier they were to work with. But any polish will do.
Over all this design worked well. I love the way it turned out!!! I would love to hear if you found some other easier ways to create this design, so feel free to comment!

XOXO's
Love and Nail Polish,
Sierra.

Oh my oh so very sweet boyfriend also painted my toes to match my nails!! Didn't he do such a wonderful job!!