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I wanted to show you one way to extend the life of a manicure if you get chippy tips after a few days. My original manicure was MAC Earthly Harmony, and I simply used Nail Art Striper in black and a rhinestone to cover the chippy tip!

Do you have any other nail art ideas for chippy tips?

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Totally. obsessed.

I follow WAH Nails of London on Tumblr (and Twitter), and I absolutely love getting inspiration from the pictures they post. Even though I am decent with freehand design, I usually feel that their designs are too advanced for me, or I don’t have the right colors or tools to complete similar looks (ie, Minx, gel nails, etc.). But I realized today that I had collected 3 snapshots of aztec manicures for inspiration, and knew I could do my own.

First, the inspiration pictures:

Now, the tools I used:

Revlon eyeliner brush (used with acetone for clean-up)
Thin paintbrush from craft store (used to paint designs)
White Nail Art Striper
Black Nail Art Striper
CoverGirl Boundless Color Fuchsia Girl 525 (I’m not sure if this bottle is really old or if the formula was bad, but I don’t recommend this polish.)
OPI Paint My Moji-Toes Red
China Glaze Lemon Fizz
MAC Peppermint Patti
Sally Hansen Double Duty Strengthening Top & Base Coat

I started off with this base:

(L->R: OPI Paint My Moji-Toes Red, CG Fuchsia Girl, China Glaze Lemon Fizz)

And then added designs freehand!

I am so, so, so happy with the design, but I have one small dilemma.. my right hand has ZERO polish on it right now. I’m not sure if my hand is steady enough to attempt ambidexterity. I’ll figure that out tomorrow.. :P Hope you enjoyed!

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As I mentioned in a previous post, I had an interview with a school a couple weeks ago and I wanted to do a light/summery manicure and use a polish I haven’t used in a while. I chose MAC’s Silkwig. It was discontinued while I was working for them, so you can’t pick it up any more, but it’s a very dupeable color. It’s a a pale peachy-pink sheer polish with a creamy formula. Even though this bottle is years old, it still applies like a dream and withstood chipping for several days (I’m pretty abusive to my fingernails so this is quite a long time for me).I think this is three coats–I wanted it to lighten my nails, but I wasn’t so worried about the visible nail line, so 3 coats was opaque enough for me! The “flower” design on my thumb was made very easily with a dotting tool I picked up from transdesign.

Base: Sally Hansen Double Duty Strengthening Base & Top Coat
Layer 1: MAC Silkwig
Layer 2: OPI Cha-Ching Cherry & China Glaze Lemon Fizz (flower)
Top: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat

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I’m a nerd, so I love doing themed nail art. I can’t find my camera cord at the moment, but I will post higher quality pictures as soon as I do! I also did my toes and am considering posting those here The bottom two photos are my left and my right big toes respectively. I cropped them so you could only see the nail art, so hopefully that doesn’t skeeve anyone out too badly! (I know it’s a little bit of a faux pas to post pedicure pictures, but I do nail art on my toes, too!) Here goes…

USED:
OPI Russian Navy
OPI Dorothy Who?
China Glaze Ruby Pumps
MAC Vestral White
White nail art striper
Black nail art striper

Left hand, thumb: American flag design using OPI Russian Navy as a base for the blue, CG Ruby Pumps as a base for the stripes, then OPI Dorothy Who? and white nail art striper to make star portion, and white nail art striper for the stripes.
L, index: Black “U” using black nail art striper over half CG Ruby pumps and half MAC Vestral White base. Accented with blobs of OPI Dorothy Who? and the white nail art striper.
L, middle: White “S” using white nail art striper over diagonal half OPI Russian Navy and CG Ruby Pumps.
L, ring: Black “A” using black nail art striper over half CG Ruby pumps and half MAC Vestral White base. Accented with blobs of OPI Dorothy Who? and the white nail art striper.
L, pinkie: Fireworks design over OPI Russian Navy base using white nail art striper and accented with CG Ruby Pumps and OPI Dorothy Who?
Right hand, thumb: American flag design using OPI Russian Navy as a base for the blue, CG Ruby Pumps as a base for the stripes, then OPI Dorothy Who? and white nail art striper to make star portion, and white nail art striper for the stripes.
R, index: Gingham-inspired design using CG Ruby Pumps as a base and checkered using white nail art striper, accented with black nail art strpier.
R, middle: OPI Dorothy Who? layered over OPI Russian Navy as a base, white star outlined in black using white nail art striper and black nail art striper. (*This is the only nail I’m not really happy with. I think I should have done several smaller stars instead.*)
R, ring: Playful polka dot design using CG Ruby Pumps as a base and white dots using white nail art striper accented with dots of OPI Dorothy Who? Dotting tool was used.
R, pinkie: Fireworks design over OPI Russian Navy base using white nail art striper and accented with CG Ruby Pumps and OPI Dorothy Who?

Comment

My favorite nail polish ever. I absolutely must get a back-up bottle, because it’s already given 3 manicures AND I painted the ends of all my makeup brushes with it. Love, love, love this color.

China Glaze For Audrey
Konad Image Plate M62 with MAC Vestral White