Nail design of the week

This week's design is based on a beautiful French manicure that I saw in The Model Stage blog:

Picture from The Model Stage Blog

I love the grey color, and the subtlety of the fine line for the tips!  So this the result of my manicure:

It is in no way as perfect as hers; but I normally use the nail tip whitener following my own white lines, and since this time I did not have them, it was difficult for me to be precise.  I think I should buy tip guides for this kind of work (I hate using tape!).  These are the tools I used:

Unglax nail hardener as base coat
Margaret Astor Quick'N Go (I believe it is #360, although I am not sure)

Nail Tip Whitener by Rimmel

Seche Vite top coat
Naio coconut cuticle oil for the cuticles when everything is finished and dry

While Ana used a nude color for the tips, I used my nail tip whitener.  I do not like nude colors.  I do not even own one.

Now that I have done it, I am not sure if I like the results on my own nails.  Probably I will like it more when it's Winter and I will be using darker colors to dress.  But I do not think it works during Summer.  Very classy and elegant, yes, but not suitable for a day at the beach, me thinks...

Nail design of the week

This week I had planning on doing a new Konad stamping design, but I have been watching a lot of nail videos featuring French manicures, so I got envious and did a simple French manicure on my nails:

Left hand - the nail on my middle finger broke (ouch!)

Right hand

I am very happy how it turned out.  I think it looks way, way better than my previous Franch manicure.  I was tempted to do a lace stamping on them, just as elleandish did here (very similar to my own!), but I finally decided against it - maybe some other time.

These are the tools I used:

Unglax nail hardener as base coat 

French manicure French Ivory (#433) nail polish by Rimmel *
Nail Tip Whitener by Rimmel
Quick Dry Top Gloss by Margaret Astor

* I just realized that the number of the polish on Amazon is different than my own.  Maybe the numbers change from country to country catalogues?  I don't know...

I used the "rolling motion" technique - moving my finger while keeping the brush steady.  It worked very well for me.  I could not touch up any mistakes, because the nail tip whitener is quite viscous, and the touch ups were very visible (I had to redo one of my thumbs because of that).  Maybe it would be good as a nail polish for stamping?  I am not going to find out though, I will keep it for my French tips.

Here is the French manicure tutorial that helped me with the rolling motion technique:

Let's see how next week's design goes!

First nail stamping attempt

The Konad order arrived on Tuesday, and yesterday I created my first design.  Here it is:

Left hand

Right hand

I did a French manicure (my first one too!) and then spiced it up a bit with the stamping.  These are the tools I used:

Unglax nail hardener as base coat 

Fashion Studio by Margaret Astor #245 Lotus White for the French tip

Konad plate m57

Konad plastic scraper

Konad small stamper

Konad White Special Nail Polish

Konad Clear Top Coat

First I applied the base coat.  Then I painted the French tip.  When everything was dry I used the flowery lace strip for the nail tips, and added a flower on each nail - the big one for the thumb and the middle finger, the medium for the index and the ring finger, and the small for the pinkie.  Then I finished with the top coat.

When I show it in the lab today my coworkers loved it, they said that I seemed to have lace on my nails, and that it would look great as a manicure for a bride.  I do have a wedding to attend to in July; maybe the bride would like me to do her nails...

I know that it is a very simple design and it is far from perfect, but it made me happy to do my first stamping design.