Nail Art From The Vault: Poker Nails

Nail Art From The Vault: New Series

For a series, I thought it might be neat to show you some of my older nail art. I won't bear you of the darn right ugly though (some of my designs were just bad). However, I thought you guys might enjoy some of my previous work. You will notice the very short nails and less quality pictures for sure. But it would be a way to be able to post more (especially when I'm away which is now) and still show something interesting. (EDIT: I haven't continued this series yet but let me know if you enjoy this post and want more like this in the future).

Anyways, on to the polish. This nail art was inspired by playing cards. On each nail was a heart, diamond, spade, or club in red and black like those on cards. I called them my poker nails. :)  I clearly remember using Illamasqua DWS as a base. The symbols were done using those nail art pens from Sally Hansen (red and black).

At the time, this manicure was a big deal to me. I was so proud of myself. I used to used those Sally Hansen nail pens for every manicure. If you want pics of what they look like, just ask. I'd be glad to show you exactly what they look like if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Tips for the nail art pens from Sally Hansen:

Use a base coat and/or nail polish underneath. Otherwise it could very well stain your nails badly.

Make sure to apply a topcoat. A nice thing about the pens are that they are water based. This means that if you were to make a mistake you could simply run your hands underneath a faucet and start over. But it also means without a topcoat your hard work can wash away.

Finally, make sure your base for the design is dry. You sort of have to press down to get the design to show up. With a wet manicure you will get dents.

Close up of three fingers but it's kind of blurry.

Looking back I love this idea still. I'll have to try it again sometime. Illamasqua can be purchased from Sephora or the company's website. Their polishes are $14. Sally Hansen offers the nail art pens in numerous colors with different finishes. The black shown here is more of a creme while the red is a metallic. They are pricey at $8 a pop. This manicure was before I knew the wonders of Ebay nail art pens for cheap.

Hope you enjoyed my blast from the past. Do you like this idea for a series or should I stop now? You're probably thinking I should have kept my short and even nails. Don't worry if you're thinking this I've probably broken a few nails out in the wild right now. By now, I really miss the internet and have a lot of blog posts to read. I'll have issues with technology withdrawal for sure.

On To The Next Polish,

Katie