Ruffle Manicure Tutorial

Hey guys! Today I have a tutorial for you that I wrote a really long time ago for a collaborative nail art guide that I was asked to be a part of. That kind of fell apart I think, so I'm posting it now!

The tutorial is for the ruffle nails that you may have seen on here way back when. I called it the "Carmen Miranda" manicure back then. Maybe we should call this a Carmen Mirandicure? Today's version uses shades of blue and green for a bit of a different look.

You will need: 

• a large number of polish colors (this example uses 9)
• a large-ended dotting tool or other dotting tool substitute (like the large plastic end of a sewing pin stuck into a pencil)

1. Start by painting your nails a base color.

2. Select your first ruffle color, and using the large end of a dotting tool, add on a row of connected dots that goes all the way across the nail.

3. Select your second color. After you have cleaned your first color off of your dotting tool, add on another row of dots that overlaps slightly with the first row that you did.

4. Continue on in this fashion with the rest of your colors until your whole nail is filled up with fabulous ruffles that would make Carmen Miranda proud. Your last color should go off the edges of your nails to cleanly finish the look.

That’s it! You have now competed a fabulous and eye-catching ruffle manicure.  Finish it with topcoat and go show it off to all of your friends!

As always, I'd love to see if you give this manicure a try! You can easily share with me by email or on the Chalkboard Nails Facebook.

Blackheart Bright Night (Skull Bottle!)

Today's polish is just...cool. Plain and simple.

This is Bright Night, a glow-in-the-dark blue polish from a brand called Blackheart Beauty.

Besides being glow in the dark, one of my favorite qualities in a polish, it also comes in a skull shaped bottle. A. SKULL. SHAPED. BOTTLE.

The only drawback is that this particular polish is pretty sheer. I have four coats on in these swatches and you can still see a tiny bit of nail line. No big deal though, it's awesome enough to overcome that.

Another awesome thing about this polish? The glow isn't the standard "glow in the dark green" that you normally see in glow polishes. This glow is still greenish, yeah, but it's cleaner and definitely more blue toned.

As with most glow polishes, it needs to be charged up to glow, and even then it still won't last forever. I found though that sitting at my lit computer in the dark was enough to charge it, and it does seem to last longer than the other glow-in-the-dark polishes I've tried.

Application was normal (besides the sheerness), I had no issues with the brush, the formula was nice and flowed onto the nail well.

Blackheart Beauty polishes can be found in Hot Topic stores or on HotTopic.com. There are a number of other colors, including more glow-in-the-dark polish, black light polish, and shatter. The bottles sell for $5.00 each.

Candy Warrior - Makeup and Nail Collaboration with Daynasaur of Light and Sugar

Today's manicure is silly and outlandish in the best of ways. Many of you will recall my "I'm a polish ninja" collaboration with my roommate, Dayna of Light and Sugar. Dayna and I met in photography school, and she is currently working on a project where she does a portrait a week, incorporating her makeup skills into the mix, too. Whenever I am the portrait subject, obviously I do nails to match the theme!

Dayna had the idea to make this portrait's theme "candy" and I was all over it. Some of you may not know this, but I am a total candy fiend. It's kind of problematic. Dayna actually had the idea for this manicure, and I freaking LOVE the way it turned out.

SPRINKLES CAVIAR MANI!

So yeah, I attached actual sprinkles to my nails! And they were surprisingly secure! I'll get into that in a bit, but first, here's the actual portrait that Dayna made of me. In case anyone was wondering what I look like, heres a super clear photo, haha. As my makeup was being done, it went in a sort of candy warrior direction, so that's what we started calling the theme!

You guys know I don't hold bottles in my nail photos, but I couldn't resist doing a "bottle shot" for this manicure...

Let's get into the technique. It's the same as a caviar manicure, but with sprinkles!

I filled a shot glass with real sprinkles and painted my nails with one coat of Zoya Kennedy (a nude) to start. Then, one nail at a time, I painted another thickish coat of Kennedy on my nails and dunked them into the sprinkles glass. I pulled out the nail, and would lightly press the sprinkles into the base coat to ensure a good stick. You may need to push them together a bit or fill in empty spaces with spare sprinkles. Let it dry and that's it!

I didn't topcoat these because I wasn't going for longevity. Plus, I think it could have ruined the sprinkles anyway. I did actually wear these out to dinner though and they were totally fine! They felt really secure on the nail once they had dried.

I just love this manicure so much. It's so silly and ostentatious and perfect. I had so much fun wearing it for the brief time that I did.

Make sure you check out Light and Sugar for more portrait goodness!

The X-Out Nail Project

Hello everyone! Today's post inspiration is a bit out of the ordinary, but I think the results came out even better than I could have imagined!

I was recently contacted by a representative for X-Out, a new skincare line from the people that make Proactiv. As it turns out, the brand is running a nail art series with some bloggers, and asking them to create nail art looks inspired by the branding/packaging. Because the brand is about confidence, for every enlisted blogger that agrees to participate, the brand will donate $200 to Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center, a national organization that helps prevent bullying.

Of course, after hearing that, I was all over the idea. I get to do my nails AND help an important cause? Oh yeah. Here's the manicure I created...

...& here are the images that we were to take inspiration from! The first one is a brand manifesto, and the second one is the product packaging.

As you can see, my thumb and ring finger accent nails were inspired by the packaging, while the other three were derived from the angular graphic style of the manifesto.

For this manicure, I used six different colors.

Purple - China Glaze - Gothic Lolita
Light blue - China Glaze - Sky High Top
Black - China Glaze - Liquid Leather
Navy blue - China Glaze - First Mate
White - OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
Light grey - Zoya - Dove

This whole manicure was created with different tape techniques! 

TRIANGLE NAILS: The triangle nails were created by freehanding on three distinct sections of color onto the nail base in blue, purple, and navy with the polish brushes. The sizes of those can be totally random, and you don't have to worry about being neat! You just want the three colored sections to meet near the middle of the nail somewhere.

Then, once that base is dry, cut scotch tape triangles and cover sections of each color with the tape.  Only cover one color with each triangle, and leave the seams exposed! That way, the black polish will cover any not-so-neat freehanded areas where the colors met up. Paint over the manicure with your black polish, and remove the tape. DONE!

THIN STRIPE NAILS: The stripe accent nails were done using striping tape to block off parts of a dry white base. I then filled in the exposed areas with blue and black polish. Once that had dried, I used regular scotch tape to create a chevron at the nail tips, which I filled in with grey. 

I hope you liked my interpretation! I definitely was impressed with the branding on this product, though I can't say that I have used the actual skincare items myself. Plus, the money being donated to Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center really makes me feel great about participating.