Beauty PSA

So I'm going to start posting these Beauty PSAs to keep you all updated on some of the beauty sales and events going on! Right now, Sephora is having a VIB only event where you get 15% off (in-store and online) and an in-store preview event, where you get a Sephora umbrella, sample bag, and some other little goodies! If you're a VIB you should've gotten the email with all the deets!

Caviar Mani

If you've been on Pinterest lately, I'm sure you've seen the "Caviar" mani making the rounds... It's that tiny little microbead mani. I did this mani back in October, and everybody loved it, so I decided to do it again! In October I did a gunmetal polish with silver beads to go with my outfit then, and this weekend I did black polish with gold beads, to match my outfit now. Everybody loved it again. :) Since I was only using the microbeads as my accent nails, I did them first so that I wouldn't mess up my other nails if they were wet. I used Sally Hansen's #310 Gilty Pleasure as the base for the gold microbeads. I did two coats of this. Immediately after I did my second coat, I dipped my finger into my container of microbeads. (You can dip them or sprinkle them. I prefer to sprinkle because I feel like it just makes it non-clumpy. Like, when I dipped my nail, there was a ton of extra beads stuck on it, which are easy to remove and flatten, but it's just extra work. If you are going to sprinkle though, be sure to do it over a plate or something to catch those little buggers! They seriously go all over.) After I got rid of all of the excess beads, I did an generous coat of my Out the Door top coat. In the future I think I would try using a different top coat, maybe one that doesn't fill in a bunch, but you don't even have to use a topcoat if you don't want. I just feel it seals it in better so they don't fall off as easily. For the rest of my fingers I used Wet N Wild's Fastdry in #229C Ebony Hates Chris. (It truly is fast drying. Like, it's amazing.) I only used one coat of this and it gave me a fantastic opaqueness. You really don't need a top coat for it because it shines really nice, but I did anyways. Hope you guys try this mani out!! It's truly eye catching and everybody will want to touch them!

These are the microbeads. I got mine from Michael's and I think they were about $4.00. Mine were in the aisle near stamping supplies. They come in loads of different colors and also in little mini packs with the different colors.

You can see where some of my beads fell off after a long day of work.... Super easy to fix though. Just take a toothpick, dab it with some top coat, dab it on the nail, put the toothpick in the microbeads, and place them where they're needed.

Hunger Games Mani

Happy Hunger Games! So I haven't read the books (I'm thinking about it), but I'm super excited for the movie to come out tomorrow! For this mani I used OPI Cajun Shrimp. Make sure it's super, super dry before doing the next steps! (Like a couple of hours, at least.)  Okay so then I printed out the mockingjay icon and printed it out on a laser jet printer (the size of it was .38 in x .4 in). Then I cut it out and got rid of as much excess paper as possible, laid it on my nail, and used a paper towel with rubbing alcohol on it. Rub the paper towel on the cutout for like two minutes and press down hard to make sure the image transfers (why the nail needs to be completely dry). Remove the paper. Now, it most likely won't be a solid image, (mine wasn't) so what I did next was used a tiny paintbrush and black acrylic paint to go over the image and define it. Top coat to top it off and you're done!

*I had the little strip of holo stickers at the tip of my nail from the day before and just left it on (not that I would know how to easily take it off). The strips are from Sally Beauty Supplies and you can get them here.
**Oh! Also another little note: I was stupid. I should've flipped the image on the computer so that it would turn out correctly, so I would suggest doing that.
***Another stupid move: I could gone over it twice to make it really solid, but in real life you can't really see the unsolidness.

Pink Leopard Mani

This manicure is easy. Go ahead, give me your crazy looks that I got when I told people that, but it really is! (Not to mention, there are tons of color combos you can use!) For this mani I used Sinful Colors' Easy Going as the base and two coats gave me my solid blush color. (I love this color, by the way. Like, love.) Then for the spots I used Sally Hansen's Nail Art Pens in black and coral! (The coral is from the new summer collection that came out recently and they had several other cute colors too!) I really like Sally Hansen's pens because if you mess up, they come off easily with water and your mistake is gone! (Also, this is why it's really important to use a top coat, otherwise your designs will be washed off easily!) Okay so first I did my base color and waited for it to completely dry. Then, I made odd shaped ovals with the coral pen and then I used my black pen and did two lines sort of on either side of each odd shape! See? Easy! Give it a try and let me know how it goes!