Basket weave WAH Inspired Nail Art

One day I looked through the price list of the WAH Nail Art Salons. Looking through, I saw plenty of designs that I wanted to try. I settled on the basket weave look. It's very simple and only requires a base color and striper brush. 

I started with two coats of Illamasqua DWS. It's a medium grey polish with an excellent formula. It was the first Illamasqua purchase which sparked my love for their polishes. Currently I only own two but I am looking to add more of their lacquers to my collection. Next, I used a black nail art striper brush from Sinful Colors to create the basket weave design.

All photos are under artificial lighting.

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Fourth of July Nail Art

Caviar Fish Egg Striped Nail Art Tutorial

Like many other nail bloggers, I've dived into the microbead/caviar/fish egg nail look. You may know the controversy surrounding Ciate and other nail bloggers. Basically, Ciate wanted to claim this look as their own but they weren't the first to do this look. They were the first to produce a kit that you can purchase for $25 to do this look your own. Or you could go to Michael's craft store and purchase microbeads yourself.

I went to Michael's with a mission: to find the microbeads. I found several sets from the Martha Stewart collection and a brand named Recollections. I decided to pick up a six-pack of microbeads from Recollections. For the look below, I used the bead color "Passion". 

I created a look with pink microbeads with black criss cross stripes on the nail. I loved the look but wish it was more practical. Microbeads were constantly falling out though I only wore this look for less than a day. The design still looked good but I hated finding little beads everywhere.

I decided to create a tutorial for this to better explain my process. Enjoy!

First, I applied black nail polish and let it dry. I used Spoiled Visually Slimming.

Then I cut small strips of striper tape, purchased from eBay, and placed them in a criss cross pattern on my nail.

Next, I applied top coat over every nail one at a time.

Each nail was dipped into a small container where I placed my microbeads. I find that dipping nails into a bowl is much easier than sprinkling them on which I've seen in some methods.

The nail should look like this.

Finally, I removed the striper tape and slightly altered some of the beads' positions to create my final look.

It's always a good day when your manicure matches your shirt. :) 

What do you think of this design? I really loved the final look. Was the tutorial useful? Have you ever tried microbead nails before? I'd love to know. I can't wait to try different looks and different bead colors.

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Minnie Mouse Nail Art

Recently I've been getting into doing nail challenges off instagram. I participated in one challenge which involved recreating the nail art of @bedizzle. The concept had to stay the same but colors did not have too. 

Looking through her gallery, I come upon an adorable nail design inspired by Minnie Mouse. As an avid Disney fan, I knew this look would be the one I would recreate. The design features nails of a silhouette of Mickey and Minnie, a depiction of Minnie's bow, a picture of Mickey and Minnie kissing, Minnie Mouse heads, and polka dots.I recreated her design and altered some of the colors. Every nail started with a base of four coats of Essie Pink a Boo while my index nail had a base of two coats of Essie Blanc. The red used in this design is Revlon Red Hot Tamale. The black was Spoiled Visually Slimming and a nail art striper. 

I'm very proud of this freehand design. It took a while but the result was well worth the effort. I sincerely feel my skills are greatly improving as of late.

Close up of thumb silhouette of Mickey and Minnie Mouse

I'm really in love with this design. It was a fun process of recreating someone else's design. Admittedly the thumb and middle nail were quite challenging. It would have been much easier to use acrylic paint though I wanted to achieve the design using purely lacquer. I incorporated pink into the design since it seemed fitting to Minnie Mouse's personality.

What do you think of this design? I think it's fun, cute, and happy. I wish I lived closer to Disneyland or Disneyworld. I feel like this design needs to be worn at a Disney theme park. It's too cheery not too. :)

Have a great Monday!

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Essie Borrowed and Blue

I think Essie is one of my favorite brands. Yes, most of their colors are reds and pinks but whenever they do blues and greens they make sure to do them right. Most safe brands I usually criticize but for some reason I have a softer point of view for Essie. Maybe it's their bottle shape. I really love the Essie bottle. 

Anyways, Essie Borrowed and Blue is a pale, light blue creme nail polish. It only takes two coats to achieve an opaque color. The formula is great and smooth. It is a very light blue. My love for nail art also created my love for cremes. This polish served as an excellent color for the base of my Instagram nail art. It's great to use to create designs.

All photos are under artificial lighting. I just purchased supplies to create my own lightbox. :)

What's your favorite brand of nail polish? I know my posts have been very brief lately, I'll try to work on that. I have a passion for lacquer and nail art. Unfortunately, I don't have much of a passion for writing. Again, I'll do my best to provide better writing in the future. Is anyone else very tired and looking for the weekend? Here's hoping it comes soon! 

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Instagram App Logo Nail Art (@ontothenextpolish)

Ok, I might officially be obsessed with instagram. It's quick, easy, and instant. Don't get me wrong I love blogging, most of the time, but I really like how easy updating on instagram is.

Anyways, in the app's honor, I did nail art based off their logo. Each of my nails are adorned with little instagram logos and hashtags. The base is Essie Borrowed and Blue. I meant to post my swatches of that first but I got too excited about this nail design. :) Does that ever happen to you? Ah, my schedule is ruined.

The rest of the colors used were: Sally Hansen Dune, Milani Precision Nail Art Brush in Black, Essie Blanc, Revlon Red Hot Tamale, Essie Mojito Madness, China Glaze Electric Beat, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, Spoiled Pumping Gas, and Spoiled Visually Slimming. This design is freehand.

All photos are under artificial lighting.

Am I the only one who thinks these are extremely cute?

Posing with my instagram device aka the Iphone 4S. I know I think I'm cool but I'm actually quite lame.

The photo above shows my instagram profile at the time of this manicure. 

You can find me on instagram:

@ontothenextpolish

I think I'll do a few more manicures to advertise the other social media networks you can find me at. Logos are fun and somewhat challenging to copy. I am really happy with the result.

Do you have an instagram? Sorry to those who don't have an app capable device! I'd love to hear about your accounts so I can check them out. Have an great Wednesday! They always seem to be my least favorite day. 

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Neon Checkerboard Print Nail Art

This is an old design but since neons scream summer to me I thought this would be great to post now.

It's a checkerboard print design featuring neon pink and neon yellow. In real life, this manicure was pretty retina-searing and extremely bright. With shorter nails, bright looks don't look as bold though. (Not like I care about the world thinking I have bold nails. :) ) 

To create this design I started off with Illamasqua Rare. It's my favorite extremely bright neon. Then using a striper brush I created a criss-cross design using Color Club Poptastic. To get the checkerboard look I filled in some of the squares with the neon pink and left others alone. 

All photos taken under artificial lighting.

Funny story: when I wore this I distinctively remember a rather serious man I know telling me that I wouldn't get hit on the road wearing that manicure. I think he was a little taken back on the brightness.

I really like checkerboard print nails. It's a design that I return to now and then and each new attempt is better than the last. I really like improving my skills and looking back at the past. Honestly, this manicure isn't that old. It's from a few months back.

The other day I was thinking if I should share my sometimes-horrific pictures of very old attempts of nail art. I was thinking I could do a series where I showed one of my awful designs and showed an inspired nail design that I create now. Would anyone be interested in that? Warning: I was terrible at nail art.

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

The Joker from Batman Super Villain Nail Art

Ever since I did my Avengers nail art look, I've loved the look of comic book inspired nails and nerdy nails in general. Since my personality and lifestyle screams nerd how could I not seek to create other nerdy nails? Problem is that I never know what to start with. Especially when I have nails' block, the nail enthusiast's version of writer's block. Luckily I have great friends that can offer me up with inspiration. I planned on doing a superhero themed manicure but the suggestion of the Joker, the "super villain" from Batman, was too good to pass up. There also seems to be plenty of nail love given to the superhero but not the villain of the story. Hope you can see the resemblance. 

I used Essie Mojito Madness as a base for this freehand design. The polishes I used for the design where: Milani Precision Nail Art Brush in Black (lines), China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses (Joker's tie), China Glaze Marry a Millionaire (suit), Sally Hansen HD DVD (suit), Essie Blanc (face, hand, playing card), and Revlon Red Hot Tamale (creeper smile, heart). I based my Joker off a comic depiction of this man in a purple suit with a green tie. The Joker's signature is playing cards so with my thumb I opted for the ace of hearts sort of a cop-out for a joker playing card. :) 

All photos are under artificial lighting. Comment below if you are wishing to know details on how I created this look. 

Close up of thumb.

He looks very dashing in his suit. So which side are you on: superhero or super villain? Furthermore, should I embark on creating an equivalent Batman nail design? Perhaps for the new movie in July.

Anyways, using comic book characters, whether super hero or villain, as nail inspiration is quite fun. I tend to simplify or cartoon-ize by nature. I love the end result. I really enjoy creating manicures that are fun to make, look at, and share. Let me know how you feel about this design. Have a great day!

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Essie Mojito Madness

This past week I had the nail art equivalent of writer's block. Perhaps I should call it nails' block? Anyways, I had tried to plan out nail art ideas and I just couldn't get myself to do any of them. This happens to me sometimes and I absolutely hate the feeling.

While stuck in my "nails' block" I wore Essie Mojito Madness. It's a gorgeous green creme but perhaps a little uninspiring for me. I wore it for about a week left untouched. There isn't anything wrong with that but for me it felt weird. Interesting story: when I don't wear nail art two random strangers compliment my polish. One even said "Huh, I never thought about green nail polish." What? Admittedly, I'm stuck in this Nail World and I have trouble relating to people on the outside.

Essie Mojito Madness is a medium toned green polish. It seems a little dusty in my opinion. It was extremely pigmented. I hardly needed a second coat. Though as of habit I applied three coats. Application was a breeze and the polish applied smoothly. It's a great color especially for summer. Or if you had not thought about green nail polish.

All photos are under artificial lighting. Guess who just figured out how to set the exposure compensation on their camera? Please don't judge me. Though I've got to get/make a lightbox. You can make fun of me for that.

Tomorrow I will be showing a comic book related nail art design that I finally was able to create after my nails' block broke. I'd love to know any stories about your nails' block as I'm calling it or what non-polish people say/do that surprise you. Have a great day!

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Glitter Heart Nail Art

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Today I have a simple and easy design. Also, I just realized that the title of this post rhymes. (Insert lame joke here) Only two polishes were used to create this look: China Glaze Electrify and Orly Melt Your Popsicle. China Glaze Electrify is from the Hunger Games collection and is a glitter polish of red and gold hex glitter of various sizes. This glitter was utilized to create small hearts on each nail. The base of the manicure is Orly Melt Your Popsicle. This polish is a very bright neon orange. 

To create the look first I applied three coats of the neon orange Orly. Next, I put a small amount of the China Glaze glitter on a piece of tin foil. I carefully picked up polish with a dotting tool. I created three small dots of glitter polish and connected them together. However, my thumb nail features a different look. I created a heart by placing glitter polish all over my nail but left a neon orange heart shape exposed. 

The "opposite" design on my thumb.

Sometimes I really like the look of a simple and quick design. This particular look is quite cute if I say so myself. It's these types of nail designs that bring a smile to my face when I look at them. They're very sweet. :)

On To The Next Polish,

Katie