Piano Key Nails

Hello everyone! It has been such a long time since I've been able to create a video, blog post, or even just do a design on my own nails...but alas I am finally figuring out how to make so "me" time amongst all the chaos. So for my first design back I figured this piano key design was the place to start.
Overall the process was simple and all it really comes down to is drawing a lot of straight (or in my case semi-straight lines). I hope you enjoy the photos and video below and would love to hear your thoughts!

Color Block/ Mod 60's Inspired Nails

I’ve really been wanting to use these French manicure guides that I’ve had forever to do something, and I truly couldn’t think of anything until today! (BTW I don’t wear French manicures very much at all so that wasn’t really an option.)

The French manicure (FM) guides that I have actually came from a FM set I bought a few *years* ago from Sally Hansen. At the time I had no idea that Stripe Rites and other nail art polishes existed so I purchased the set solely for the white polish with the thin brush. Included were a sheer polish, top coat, and the white polish along with the aforementioned guides. To this day I’ve kept them around thinking that I may one day use them and today my friends I found their purpose!

I’ve wanted to do a color block design for a while now and I’ve tried creating them several times which were all overly complicated and usually ended in a steaming pile of fail. On my attempt today I decided to keep it simple and *finally* came out with a wearable design. If you are curious as to what I’m blabbering on about, here are a few pictures:

The products I used were:

BASE
Nail Magic Nail Hardener (Review can be found here)
Seche Clear (base coat)
Zoya- Purity (white)

DESIGN
OPI- ‘The “IT” Color’ and ‘You’re a Pisa Work’ (yellow and pink)
China Glaze- ‘Flying Dragon (Neon)’ and ‘Blue Sparrow (Neon)’
Misa- The Grass is Greener on My Side (Neon)
Stripe Rite in White (my line corrector/eraser)

TOP
Seche Vite

All in all I really did enjoy the way this came out. If I was going to do it again I would find something thinner than the FM guides as I think they were a little too thick for the size of my nail.

If you’d like a more in depth description of the process than check out my video below:

New York Fashion Week Inspired Nails: Marc Jacobs

I wanted to shoot out a quick thank you to everyone who has sent me inspiration pictures (they can be of anything from nature or nails, to abstracts and people) . It is incredibly helpful! Also if you have some inspiration photos that you would like to share please feel free to send them my way: Audrey@allnailandcosmetics.com.

Now onto the good stuff:

When I asked on twitter for inspiration I received many suggestions but the one that I chose to work with was “New York Fashion Week”. Truth be told I am not too crazy about fashion/trends. I try my best to think about what works for me and what will be relevant in the years to come. So, for this topic I decided that Google was going to be my bff. I typed in my phrase and went straight to the images section. It only took me until page 2 to find something that jumped out at me.

(Source: Harpers Bazaar)

I chose this Marc Jacobs outfit purely based on the fun colors (neon’s will be big again for spring nails this year) so it was a bit of a no-brainer to choose this one.

The main colors/themes of this look were:
Polka Dots (Black-Zoya Raven; White-Zoya Purity)
Black (see above)
Bright Green (Misa-The Grass is Greener on My Side)
Fuchsia (Essie- Life Guard)

Here is what I’ve come up with:

Now, it has been pointed out to me that the polka-dots on the blouse (inspiration pic) were actually pale yellow but I used white (accidently I should add).



This look like my others is a focus on quick, easy, nail art that nearly anyone can do! I hope that you’ve enjoyed this one! Let me know what you think in the comments!

Gradient Nails Take 2!

If you've folowed my blog since the beginning then you would know that one of my first nail art designs (if that is what you'd call it) was gradient nails. Meaing the color faded from clear to another color, in my case teal. This was a big moment for me and I made sure to take my time and practice it long before I ever filmed it. Well, today I am sitting here with my nails in that exact same design except this time it didn't take me an hour to do; it only took about 15 minutes from beginning to end. The effect is still very much the same, in fact they are almost identical--I am very excited to share with you the easy way to create a gradient effect!

To refresh your memory, here is the original (my nails were crazy long!):

And my re-creation:

The colors I used were the same in both:
OPI Teal the Cows Come Home
China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway
China Glaze Fairy Dust














The first method involved careful placement and blending and the second a sponge! I hope you enjoy this easy way to create this fun effect!
Here's how I created them:

What I Was And Am Currently Wearing 2

If you don't follow me on twitter, or watch my youtube channel then you may have missed out on the Halloween series that I have started. The first design I did was inspired by several "Dark Fairy" looks that I found while searching around youtube--oddly enough my video never made it to youtube because the footage and contrast of colors was too dark to be seen easily. It is however pretty self explanatory!
Dark Fairy/Angel Nails:

If you've seen the videos that I have seen then this generally idea is what most of the "Dark Fairy/Angel" tutorial's have consisted of.

Next, I painted my nails with Zoya Trixie (most amazing silver ever!). After a day of plain nails I moved along in Halloween series to do cobweb/spiderweb nails. Here's what that looked like:

Yet again, an easy to do look that is fitting for the holiday and not too crazy.

What I am currently wearing is what I am calling my "Friendly Frankenstein" nails. This one was inspired by cartoon frankenstein as they are one of my favorites! Here's how this one looks:

He's just so cute!

I hope you've enjoyed this What I'm Wearing....let me know what you think of the above designs, or request something you'd like to see!

Fire Nails

Since I haven't put up a nail art tutorial on my youtube channel in a while I figured that today I would bite the bullet. From my previous posts you can probably tell that I've just been going with plain nails--meaning that I've been letting all my amazing new colors I've recently purchased do all the work. Honestly I wasn't ready to go full fling into hardcore nail art today so instead I took the middle road and went with something easy, not to obvious and best of all quick. The technique that used is actually called marbling. It is basically swirling wet polishes together to create a marbled effect. If you've been with me long enough you might remember a water marbeling video/blog post--well this is the same idea without the water. So here is what I ended up with--nothing to ostentacious but also unique as each nail is a little different:

Another Animal Print

I really must say that I have never, ever, ever been a fan of animal prints until about 3 months ago and even then it had to be something special for me really like it. I guess the tacky animal prints of the 90's (specifically those worn by women in my family) really scarred me. After the Zebra Nail Tutorial I did I was feeling good about them, at least on my nails. So when leopard was requested I was worried. Well, it only took me two months to do it but I also added a little twist to it by making it pink! Who doesn't like pink?!

I can't say that I really changed any of the design except the color scheme. But, here's what it looks like: