Nail Pop x Skelanimals Decals

Have you visited Nail Pop lately? They've got some awesome new decal designs, including some that may make you seriously nostalgic for the early days of the internet. One of their latest collaborations is with Skelanimals. Read on for more details and my thoughts about these babies!

Nail Pop decals are water slide decals, which means that you cut out the image you want to use, soak it in water, and slide the decal off of the backing paper. You can then situate it on your nail where you want it, and seal it in with topcoat. I found them pretty easy to use, though I do have a couple of tips!

• Cut around the decal as closely as possible. This eliminates any extra material from around the image and will make it much easier to work with when you go to place it on the nail.
• Choose a light color as your base to help the decals show up better.
• Use a paper towel or makeup wedge to soak up any extra water on your nail before you topcoat.
• Work over a dry or mostly dry manicure. I pressed down pretty firmly on my decals, so you don't want to dent the goods.
• As the water dries out of the decals, they will start to look slightly translucent. Don't worry! The topcoat will soak in and make them clear again. 

Though these aren't my usual style/aesthetic, I do have to admit that they're pretty cute!  I like all of the small pieces too, which could be used to add just a touch of flair to your manicure.

Skelanimals decals are available from Nail Pop or Dolls Kill.

Disclosure: This post contains a press sample.

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WrapArtist Nail Decals Make Cool Girl Nails Easy

Nail decals aren't a new thing, but when I first saw them, WrapArtist's water decals immediately stood out to me. The designs are awesome. They just totally get it, you know? The decals are chic, cool, and trendy, not to mention fully opaque, sometimes metallic, and really simple to use. I put together this look in just a few minutes, and it feels like something that could have come out of a New York nail art salon!

Each set of water decals comes on a small sheet like this. To use a decal, you just cut it out of the sheet, soak it in water for a ~20 seconds, and then slide the decal off of the white backing paper. Position the decal on your dry nail and dab it on a paper towel to remove any excess water, then finish with a topcoat.

One thing I really appreciated about these decals is that the clear part of the decals around the designs are already trimmed. You don't have to cut super close around the design to avoid excess clear around the edges...the work is done for you! Just slide it and stick it.

You can also use them in gel to get a lot of mileage out of your WrapArtist manicure.

For this look, I started with a base of Deborah Lippmann Like Dreamers Do from the new spring collection (swatches soon). The glitter accent nail is Nicole by OPI Get Carrie'd Away.

I added decals from two WrapArtist sets: Being Negative and Say What. The Say What set is especially awesome for those of you that like to get a little saucy, as it includes profanity & other buzzwords.

If you are interested at all in these decals, I highly recommend browsing the Wrap Artist site. There are lots of killer sets, and I've only given you a taste of the awesomeness here. I'm already scoping out some additional sheets to grab for myself.

WrapArtist decals are available at wrapartistnails.com. Decals range from $5-6 per sheet.

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Glittery Skull Cameos

I always take the opportunity to use "glitter" day of the 31 Day Challenge to do some hand placed glitter nail art. I don't have the strength of mind to attempt it most other times. This time, I had some new triangle glitter I wanted to play around with, so I grabbed that and some glitter skull decals and went to town. I ended up with these pretty kickass skull cameo nails!

And you know what? The placement wasn't even that bad or time consuming!

Nail polish and products used:
Nicole by OPI Yoga Then Yogurt (white base)
Orly Glowstick (neon yellow)
Black holographic triangle glitter (use code CHALKBOARD15 for 15% off!)
Joby glittery skull decals
White wax rhinestone picker pencil

I started off by painting my nails with two coats of white, and then two coats of neon yellow. The white base helps the neon pop! I did my topcoating strategy a little differently (read: poorly), but if I had it to do over again, I would have done a layer of quick dry topcoat next.

Then, using a slow drying clear polish as the glue, I stuck on the pieces of triangle glitter one by one. I basically worked in edges, painting a thin stripe of clear along one side of my nail, placing the glitter using the wax pencil, and repeating until the outline was complete. I used tweezers to attach the skull decals. At this point, if you were following my ideal topcoat strategy, you'd apply a final coat of topcoat to seal in the glitter and the decals.

There's no such thing as too much glitter, so be sure to check out my glitter manicures from years past!

• Wet N Wild Correction Tape
• Hand placed glitter party nails
• Midnight Mermaid glitter placement

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Pop Punk Skittlette with Glittery Skull and Distressed Accents

Back in 2002, Avril Lavigne's song "Sk8er Boi" ruled my world. Can you believe that song came out over a DECADE ago? I don't know about you guys, but I was all about that unbearably catchy tune. Maybe not the most poetic single, but I don't mind admitting that I rocked out to that many times as my mom drove me to the mall.

Avril came into the style spotlight for her heavy eyeliner and stick straight hair, plus a propensity for clothing and jewelry that incorporated symbols like skulls and stars. The glittery skull and distressed accent nails in this manicure, plus the combination of rich purple and black, really make me think of the Pop Punk Princess.

Products used:
Indigo Bananas Moonlight (Clair de Lune)
Misa Loveliest of Lilacs
American Apparel Hassid
Joby Skull Glitter Nail Art Decal
Cirque Vectors

I was very excited to play with the silver flake polish by Indigo Bananas (psst...the shop also has a rose gold version). It was less dense than I expected, needing four coats for the opacity here, but it didn't get thick on the nail so I didn't mind so much. It is really beautiful and reflective.

The glittery skull decal came as a part of a sheet with gold, black, and additional silver glitter skulls. I was really impressed with these. They're way easy to use; just make sure you let your base dry before you stick it on. A great accent and it looks really clean.

The ring finger was done using my distressed nail art technique. Cirque's black glitter polish, Vectors, provides a similar effect but with a little bit more geometry.

I think Avril would have been all over this manicure back in her heyday. A little punk, a little glam... Anyone else have "Sk8er Boi" stuck in their head?

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Tiny Chowder Nail Decal

If there's one thing you need to know about me, it's that I'm obsessed with my dog, Chowder. You may have familiarized yourself with him when I did nails for his 5th birthday, or maybe you follow my Instagram account, where I occasionally post pictures of him! Either way, he is the best and everyone knows I love him ALMOST too much.

Imagine my absolute delight when I opened up a gift from Michelle (Sonoma Nail Art) that contained two sheets of custom decals... THAT HAD CHOWDERS ON THEM!

She used a digital illustration that I made of Chowder and modified it to work as a decal. He's got his little front paws up like he does when he stands up on his hind legs. How cute does baby Chowder look on my nail!?

I used Lime Crime Milky Ways as the base of this manicure.

I ended up wearing this manicure for something like six days and loved every second of it. I'm not sure why it took me so long to get it posted, though!

Thank you Michelle for such a thoughtful and personal gift - you clearly know me well!

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bigRuby "Hers" Nail Tattoos

Nail art is my favorite thing in the world, but I'll admit that it can be time consuming and sometimes frustrating. Sometimes you wanna jazz up that manicure but don't wanna spend a ton of time on nail art. ENTER BIGRUBY NAIL TATTOOS!

Press Sample 

These nail tattoos are easy, fun, and sassy. The designs are awesome -- I couldn't pick just one! So I jammed a bunch of them together. Not sure what to call it though... graffiti nails? Collage art? Clipart manicure? What do you think?

These nail tattoos are very similar to the temporary tattoos that you probably used as a kid. The process is simple!

1. Apply your base polish and let it dry completely.
2. Cut the tattoo you want to use out of the sheet.
3. Remove the clear top sheet. Press the tattoo (image side down) on to your nail. BigRuby makes it easy to place these where you want them because they have the image reprinted on the back side of the sheet!
4. Wet the back of the tattoo and press down for 15 seconds. Remove the paper.
5. Smooth your tattoo out (if needed) with a wet finger. 
6. Let dry and finish with two coats of topcoat.

Even that makes it seem more complicated than it is though -- basically the steps are cut, stick, wet, smooth, and finish.

I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls as the base polish, and all of these tattoos came from the "Hers" tattoo set. BigRuby also offers a bunch more tattoo pack themes like "His," "Sea," "Garden," and "Juju," among others!

Obviously I piled a TON of tattoos on my nails, but you could use one or two as an accent if you want a simpler manicure. I actually have a couple of looks saved up that only use single tattoos, but I just couldn't wait to share this crazy one with you.

Overall I was very pleased with the experience I had using these tattoos. They were easy to apply, are well designed, and look beautiful on the nail. Each pack of tattoos comes with two sheets so they are sure to last you a while.

You can buy bigRuby tattoos on www.bigrubytattoos.com. Each pack retails for $12, though they have a few packs on sale right now, too! You can also find the brand on Twitter.

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