Blue and White Gradient Nails

So I didn't get my nails perfectly cleaned up for this picture (it's hard to do with the gradient!), but my hand is definitely posed in a much more flattering way.

As far as the style goes, I really like it, and I love that I found a great tutorial to do it without having to pour out and mix polishes.  Instead, I used makeup sponges to kind of stamp the color onto my nails.  I also tried this with hot pink and white, but I made some mistakes, so no pictures of that!  This is another one that I'm looking forward to trying lots of different color combinations to see what I like.

Green Glitter Tips

I loved these nails, they were so simple and fun!  I just did a simple sheer color for the main part of my nail and then added the green tips.  One thing that was hard is that the glitter polish is kind of thicker takes a couple coats to really look good, so the tips of my nails kind of stuck out more than the rest of the nail, if that makes sense?  But it wouldn't be noticeable to anyone but me, so it wasn't a big deal.  I will definitely be doing this again, and exploring with other colors too.  I might even do different color combinations? We'll see.

On a side note, this picture of my hand is just awful and I realized how bad all of the pictures of my hand look so far, so I am determined to make it better.  From now on I will make an exerted effort to actually make the pictures look good.  That includes cleaning up my mistakes and whatnot before I take the picture, as well as posing my hand better.

Purple Prom Nails

I did this style based off of an idea I saw on pinterest (just like most of the styles I do).  Normally, I wouldn't have chosen purple and black together, but I did it to show my little sister who was trying to come up with a nail design for prom, and her dress was purple and black.  I don't love the way the spots turned out, but they're ok.  I might try this again in different colors, but I probably need to look for a better tool to do it; the needle doesn't work as well as I had hoped.

Meet me at the Club, it's goin' down!

These have probably been my favorite nails so far, the picture doesn't do them justice!  They felt very chic, like I was ready to go out on the town--I only wish I had an outfit that matched.  One thing I loved most about them is that for whatever reason (I don't think I did anything differently??) they lasted a long time, almost a whole 7 days.  And that seven days included helping my brother move into his new house the day after I did them.

I really love these colors together and want to try doing a gradient nail with them, though I might wait awhile because such dark colors aren't as fun for summer.

My First Experience with Nail Design

Ok, please don't judge me, this was basically my first attempt at doing anything with my nails other than painting a plain color.  Those were also the only two colors I owned at the time.  And my nails are horribly shaped.  Other than my own shortcomings, I actually really enjoyed this style, especially once I got my fingers all cleaned up.  I especially like this because I can wear it all mismatched like this, or I can choose just one of them to do all of my fingers (I've especially been eyeing the diagonal stripes to do again soon!).

The biggest thing I learned from this was to wait until the base color is COMPLETELY dry before putting scotch tape on, and even then it still sometimes peels.  This is why my index finger and pinky look so splotchy--because I had to go back and fill in spots where the base color peeled off with the tape, and the brand of polish I was using wasn't very good.  The lesson I keep learning with my nails is patience above all else.

Why?

This blog is basically just for my own use.  I want to document different nail designs I've tried and whether I liked them or not.  I can keep track of polishes I like and don't like as well as techniques that work or don't work.  If you've stumbled upon it, I hope you find it helpful, though I am just a beginner so don't expect too much.  Also, I'm still not very good at actually painting my nails, so I always get the polish on my fingers, and I usually take pictures of my nails before I completely clean of my fingers, so please don't judge me!

That's basically it, and I'm sure no one will read that anyway, but to future Becky: remember your humble beginnings on the futon couch in the basement apartment, and never forget that Tom always supported you in your goals!