So with the Beauty Bulletin leading the way in getting us all in the mood for Valentines Day, I thought I would start getting into the fun of it.
Now, I haven’t celebrated Valentines Day for 11 years and no, its not because hate it but rather it becomes a difficult evening to organise and costs a small fortune. On top of all that my then boyfriend (now husband ) and I celebrated our anniversary on the 9th so we celebrate that evening instead. Now that our Wedding anniversary overtakes our old anniversary, I thought I would get into the Valentines spirit and do something this year.
My staff this past week must think I am a little crazy as every day my nails have been painted differently in some kind of Valentines Day theme. But the worse is that some days one foot will have a different design to the other and don’t match as I got overly creative the night before. To be honest, right now, my hands as I am typing this have different designs.
The ones that worked I took photos of but most were failures due to bad designs, horrible colour mixes and my lack of nail polish application skill. It was fun and amusing but I have gone through a bottle or two of nail polish remover and my hands have a slight acid smell.
So what have I learnt? Its fun and I’ve never really done anything too wacky with my nails before as I either go one solid colour or a French mani/pedi. I normally, whilst on holiday, get something fun, like hand painted flowers etc… but on a daily basis I am a little boring. I’ve always thought it would take forever or it was hard….but it didn’t and its not. Ok, so they don’t look like a pro did them, but I am proud of them!
Another thing I learnt is that there are a lot of options out there. Did you know that there are special nail stamp kits that you can buy and their not expensive? I didn’t before I did this.
I borrowed a set from a friend as I didn’t have one and wanted to experiment but didn’t have time to go shopping for one. I got loaned the Konad stamping nail art kit which she bought for only R60 and it’s really easy to use.
The stamping kit came with design plates, a scraper and the stamping tool. You apply a base coat then select a design plate which you add polish to. Then you use the scraper to take off the excess before pressing the stamp on the image to pick up the pattern. Then quickly you stamp that on your nail. Afterward I put a clear vanish over the whole nail.
The other way I did things was either paint free hand with a small brush, I made my own stencils with masking tape (cut out shapes, stuck the shape on nail or the outline and painted, then removed with tweezers ) or I used the stick on’s.
So the rundown of nails I’ve had:
Day one: Love to Love you stick on by Essie – Cute white stick on polish with romantic notes of writing. I’ve heard they have one that is a pretty light pink with a white lace detail (if you see these, let me know where).
Day two: I painted my toes with polish I bought overseas by OPI, it’s under their Nicole range. I bought the one because it’s called Haley Good Lookin. It’s a great cute pink sparkly glitter nail polish with a few bigger sequence in it. And I also got She’s lily something – this one is lighter, almost like a light pink clear polish with pink stars in it. They are really sparkly though so I only did my toes. Great for young girls! I might give mine to my much younger cousin of seven years. I took photos but they got corrupted.
Day Three: Time to sort redo the hands so I went with a plain shiny red by Essie called- Sssssexy and one every second nail I went with a shiny glittery pink also by Essie (yes I love the brand!) called – shattered pink diamond glitz. It looked terrible …think the first time a drag queen decided to paint her nails. I have no photo of this as I was too embarrassed and quickly cleaned it off and had nude nails the next day.
Day Four: Ok, so after the previous days embarrassing fail, I decided I would look online for inspiration and boy did I find some. I copied a look I saw online – a heart rate monitor inspired mani. I used a plain white base and then a matt coloured red and hand painted a line (small brush and toothpicks) with a zigzag heart rate then a line again. Then on my ring finger instead of the line I painted a heart. Love this look.
Day Five: I did my toes again. The one foot I did in a hot pink with a light pink heart on the big toe. The other foot I used the same colours but did them in a French mani style. Both nail polishes are Kangol.
Day Six: I used stick on’s again today but this time they are modicure ones, given to me by a friend. I loved these, red with white little hearts all over the nail.
Day seven: I redid my hands, much to the annoyance of my husband who thinks I am wasting polish, stick on’s and remover. I explained that it’s for a higher cause, I was laughed at. Today I did something I saw online….upside down hearts on the nail. Its really easy to do: Put on clear vanish as a base coat and then paint the top of the heart towards your fingers then painting the rest of the nail red – the tips of your nails being the bottom point of the heart. I really loved this look until I broke three of my nails which I had been carefully grooming and growing for two months!
Day eight: Hands again, decided my toes weren’t as much fun to do as no one sees my feet during the day as they are in heels. I stole saw this one online as well and just loved the colours and the style, pretty shroom colour, white and a light pink from Essie.
Day nine: Last day as my blog is due tomorrow. I ran out of time so I didn’t get to my toes and only completed one hand. Painted my hands with a dark plum and then painted light little pink hearts on the corner of each nail. I think I might keep this one for a few days and do it on my pedi as well.
Have fun and explore all options! There are soooo many colours, styles, add-ons for nails these days it’s crazy. I didn’t have time to go shopping but you can buy little stickers and crystals to add to your designs and they look amazing, so have fun experiment and find the perfect nail design to go with your Valentines Day outfit!
Are you interested in more Valentines nail designs? Read about Claire’s Kissable nail design here.
Article by: Hayley Vann http://www.beautybulletin.com/blog-directory/our-bloggers/hayley-vann