Blue Dripping Chevron Nail Art

Blue! More inspirational to me than green was yesterday. I've painted some dripping chevron nail art, inspired by a pattern I saw on Pinterest. Of course, I had to modify the colors a bit to put them in line with today's 31 Day Challenge theme, but I just had to keep the metallic gold accent from the original piece. It's the right addition to break up the all blue palette.

Polishes used:
Essie Bikini So Teeny
Cirque Colors NYFW
Zoya Sailor
Deborah Lippmann Video Killed the Radio Star
LVX Laguna
Priti NYC Chrysanthos (gold)
Glisten and Glow HK Girl (topcoat)
Essie Matte About You (matte topcoat)

This look was simple to do but pretty time consuming. Each chevron was painted freehand with a small nail art brush, and then at the end, I extended a few of the chevron points into drips. I sealed everything in with glossy topcoat and then, after that was mostly dry, finished off the manicure with a matte topcoat.

 More blue for you!

• Barielle Blackened Bleu
• Blue and white china pattern
• Blue V tape manciure

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Purple, Periwinkle, and Points - Freehand Chevron Nail Art

The other night I sat down at my nail table with a blank mind. As I started to brainstorm, I thought it would be nice to do something with fine lines, so I could continue to work on my freehand control. I started digging through my stash for a base color, and grabbed one of my favorite purple polishes. I thought periwinkle would go nicely with the purple, and then added black and white into the mix for good measure.

I ended up freestyling this purple chevron design, adding elements as I saw fit, until I had a finished look.

For this look, I used Misa Loveliest of Lilacs (purple) and Misa Great Grape (periwinkle). The white is Essie Blanc and the black is American Apparel Hassid.

The chevrons in the nail art are all completely freehanded with a nail art brush that I trimmed down with cuticle nippers.

I think Misa is one of the most underrated polish brands in the market right now, and I know I'm not alone in that sentiment. I don't see many people cover them, but every time I do happen to see swatches, it's pretty likely that I'll go shopping right away. I've always been really impressed with their formula and opacity, and I like their square bottles with the long handles.

I'm happy with the way this nail art came out. I like the simplified chevron designs on my pointer and pinky nails... I think they keep the overall look from being too overwhelming and gave me the added benefit of an earlier bedtime. Nail art can be tiring, ok? :)

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Fiery Summer Chevron Combo

Today's nail art is a quick and fiery chevron combo! This look uses a couple of new Zoya polishes plus one of the brand's more popular shades.

The chevron nails have a base of Zoya Rocha, from the Tickled Collection. I let those nails dry completely and then applied chevron Nail Vinyls. I painted on one coat of Zoya Blaze and then removed the vinyls. Blaze is one of my favorite Zoya shades. The flecks in the gorgeous red base? Divine!

The other three nails in this manicure have three coats of Zoya Alma, from the Bubbly Collection. It really does look carbonated!

I love wearing bright and warm colors in the summer, and chevrons are always "in," don't you think?

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Converging Chevrons: A Holographic Tape Manicure

It's been a while since I did a manicure using striping tape. The thin pieces of tape can often be finicky to work with, so I usually just reach for my nail art brush instead. However, there's no denying that striping tape produces incredibly crisp and clean results, and sometimes there's no other way to achieve the look it provides!

This manicure features a striping tape design on two accent nails. It also pairs two holographic shades from the I Love Nail Polish Summer 2014 collection for a cheerful and summery combo!

In this manicure:
I Love Nail Polish Funshine Smoothie - yellow holographic, 3 coats
I Love Nail Polish Rehab - teal holographic, 2 coats

Both holographic polishes applied easily and without issue, and the holographic pigment doesn't grey out the shades at all. They both flash a medium intensity "holo arc" in the sunlight.

Here's what the striping tape looked like when applied over a dry Funshine Smoothie manicure. After this, I painted two coats of Rehab over the top and then carefully peeled off the striping tape.


Isn't this just such a fun summer design? I want to rock these nails out by the pool with a tropical drink in hand. Ahh...I can feel the sun already!

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Bare Nail Textured Chevrons with Nicole by OPI Gumdrops

Recently, I was lucky enough to spend some time with OPI's social media gal, Jaqueleen. She stopped by my house in Phoenix where we talked polish, nail art, blogs, and more...plus she got to bond with Chowder as she gave him "noodles" (that's his word for dog treats).

I knew she would be checking out what I had on my nails, so I wanted to do a simple nail art manicure that was unique and fun. I put together this little somethin' somethin' with Nicole by OPI. Read on to see how to achieve this look yourself, plus check out the video interview series that I participated in!

This manicure is beyond easy to do at home!

1. Begin with bare nails. If you would like to apply a nail treatment or base coat, you can do so - just let it dry before moving on to step two.
2. Cut two wide stripes of blue painters tape. Connect them together to form a chevron shape, and stick the chevron on your nail close to the cuticle. Be sure to press down on the edges of the tape to ensure a good seal.
3. Paint two coats of Nicole by OPI A-Nise Treat on the exposed space nearest to your cuticle.
4. Paint two coats of Nicole by OPI That's What I Mint on the rest of the nail.
5. Remove the tape slowly and carefully. Let dry!

And for those of you who have ever wondered how awkward I am on camera, you are in luck! Here are the three videos in Nicole by OPI's "Behind the Blog" series featuring...me!

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31DC2013 Day 02: Orange Gradient Chevrons

It's day two of the #31DC2013 and the theme is orange nails. I had a hard time getting inspired by this particular prompt! I tried pulling out some orange shades to see if staring at them would help me come up with an idea... Unfortunately, it didn't.

So off I went to my Instagram "Photos you've liked" page to see if anything there inspired me. Luckily, this tactic yielded better results than my first one. I saw a beautiful gradient chevron manicure tutorial by Storm and Stars and knew I just had to give it a go.

For my version, I used Essie Blanc as the white base, China Glaze Sun Worshipper as the lighter orange, and Orly Melt Your Popsicle as the darker shade.

Ultimately, this is a tape manicure, so you will need zigzag craft scissors or pinking shears to cut the tape. I checked out the craft scissors at Michael's first, but wasn't really impressed. They seemed pretty dull! So I moved on to the sewing section and picked up some pinking shears from Loops & Threads. They're a little more expensive than the craft scissors but they are super sharp and worked great. Don't forget to use a coupon!

The original tutorial uses scotch tape, but I opted to use painter's tape myself. Be sure to stick it to wax paper while you are cutting it -- it makes the tape much easier to work with. I applied the cut pieces to my nails and then sponged a gradient over the top of them. A few minutes of cleanup and I was finished!

I'm super crazy about how well these tape chevrons turned out, and I'm glad I invested in the more expensive shears. I know I will be using them a lot in the future!

Again, for more details on how to achieve this look, visit Storm and Stars' tutorial.

More 31 Day Challenge
View upcoming prompts!
My orange nails from 2012!
My orange nails from 2011!

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Hipster Mix and Match - China Glaze Sunsational Nail Art

Everyone has a little hipster spirit inside of them, and in today's nail art, I couldn't help but embrace mine! I pulled out all the stops: chevrons, bows, drips, geometrics... The only thing I left out were the nebulae. ;)

Press Sample 

Side note: isn't it funny how hipster is basically just the newest word for 80s?

For this look, I used all six of the China Glaze Sunsational collection creme shades. The collection also has 6 jellies but I'll be showing those off another day.

Sun of a Peach is a neon peach; you can see it used as the base on my middle finger. Unfortunately I had a hard time photographing this one correctly next to the other shades! It's a bit brighter and a touch lighter. Lots of fun. The formula was a little bit difficult to work with -- I used three coats to even things out.

Highlight of My Summer is a bright neon mint green. I used it in the dots on my pinky and the triangles on my ring finger. Again, it is a touch brighter than in the photo. I had trouble with application because I didn't wait long enough between coats. I ended up using 4 thin coats to even everything out.

Too Yacht to Handle is a bright teal. I used it as the base on my thumb and for the drips on my middle finger. The formula on this one isn't too bad... I think I used three coats for opacity.

That's Shore Bright is the purple base of my pointer finger and the second layer of dots on my pinky. A bit darker than I was able to capture, this one had the best formula out of all of the cremes. I used two coats for opacity and it applied easily.

Neon & On & On is the coral-y shade on the base of my pinky and as the chevrons on my pointer. I like this shade a lot, it's super bright, summery, and fun. I used three coats for opacity.

Bottoms Up is the pretty pink that I used on my ring finger and as the bow on my thumb. The formula on this one wasn't bad either, needing three coats for opacity.

I recently lost my trusty striper brush, so I was forced to use a different nail art brush for this look. I was surprised to learn that I actually liked the replacement better!

I started with a shorter brush and then cut the amount of bristles down by half using cuticle nippers. If you've never cut a brush before, Candice did a great video tutorial on it that I would recommend checking out. The shorter brush gives me better control, and lowering the amount of bristles let me keep the fine lines that my old striper brush created. Here's an Instagram shot of the new brush if you want to check it out!

What do you think? Do you want to be friends with my inner hipster?

The China Glaze Sunsational collection is available this month at fine salons and beauty supply stores nationwide.

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