A Cult Nails "Converse Sneaker" Mani

Here is a mani I did for my daughter recently. We were browsing Instagram and she seen these "Converse Sneakers" on someone's nails and asked if I could do that. I did some searching and found a tutorial for them (I think I got the tutorial from @thelittlecanvas on Instagram). I had never tried them so I thought that I could give it a try, I'm trying to build my free-hand nail art skills so I thought this would be a good test.

 I had her pick out the colors she wanted and she went through my stash and picked out Cult Nails You're My Dandy Lion for the base color. Then I Cult Nails Tempest and Nevermore for the white and black. Grabbed my brushes, dotting tools, and other supplies and got started.

I put down a base of You're My Dandy Lion, once that was dry I took a striping brush and dipped it into the Tempest and did the tips of the nails for the sneaker tops. Then I took my dotting tool and dipped it into Tempest and created two rows of three dots to create the "lace holes" of the sneakers. Then I took a smaller striping brush and criss-crossed lines going to and from the "lace holes" the create the "laces". Once I was finished with the "laces" I dipped my next dotting tool (just a tad smaller than the previous one used) in Nevermore (black) to dot on top of the white "lace holes" to give them dimension. Then I grabbed another small striping brush and dipped it in Nevermore and drew my half circles on the white tips to give the sneaker tops definition. She only wanted the sneakers on two accent nails on each hand.

On her remaining nails she wanted to add rhinestones in the shades of the birthstones of the people most important to her. Then we let everything dry so that when I added the topcoat it wouldn't smudge the nail art. Once dry I added a topcoat of Out The Door to seal everything in.

I think they didn't turn out too bad for my first ever attempt but I'm definitely going to practice to make them better. I love trying to improve on my skills!! What do you think? Have you tried this type of nail art before? What is your favorite type of nail art??

Cult Nails polishes can be purchased through their site here.

Zoya Ling and Tilda Nail Art

Here's a little nail art I did with Zoya Ling and Tilda from the Zoya Tickled Summer 2014 collection. I seen these two sitting next to each other on my desk and thought that they would go great together for some nail art. So I sat down and tried to figure out what kind of design would look goo with these two colors. Then I went "AH HA!" and pulled out my envelope full of Nail Vinyls from @Teismom (her instagram handle).

 

I layed down my base colors for this mani after putting on my nail strengthener from Sally Hansen (Maximum Growth Nail Treatment) and then put a layer of Zoya Anchor for the base underneath. Then I applied 2 coats of Ling on my thumb, middle, and pinky fingers. I also put 2 coats of Tilda on my ring and pointer fingers. Once these were dry I applied the chevrons to my ring fingers and the single chevrons to my pointer fingers. After I had my nail vinyls in place I applied I good coat of Ling over the top of them and immediately removed the nail vinyls to reveal my base of Tilda underneath. You want to remove your nail vinyls right away while the polish is still wet so that you get clean lines and it doesn't pull up any of the other polish you applied.

 

I waited for these to dry halfway before applying my top coat of Out The Door because I didn't want anything to smudge. There they are all nice and shiny and bright in these gorgeous summer colors from Zoya. I am really loving these together!

 

Zoya polishes can be purchased at Ulta stores, select salons, and on Zoya's site here. The Tickled and Bubbly collections are not available in Ulta stores yet but they are available now on Zoya's site. They retail for $9 each.