Good Morning Polished People!!
I was just telling you all how I get my inspiration from all over the place and like to try nail looks that I see on other blogs, Pinterest, Beautylish, Instagram…. where ever. Well today I have some nails I was inspired to do after seeing some awesome nails done by becca84 on Instagram. You can search her name on Instagram and follow her to see some awesome nail art, and you can view and follow her blog here. Here are the nails that caught my eye:
Thanks to Becca for giving me permission to post these 🙂
I loved those half and half nails with the black lines in the middle. I just thought they looked so cool so I had to try them myself. Let’s see my version-
Blues and Black Half and Half Nails
This is a crappy indoor photo but I wanted to show you because I thought they looked pretty cool with the matte black striper stripes before I added my topcoat.
How To Get These Nails:
- Base coat.
- Paint half of your nails with Color Club Factory Girl, and half with OPI Fly. I did this by painting one stripe of Factory Girl down one half of my nail, then painting another stripe of Fly down the other half. On my left hand I free-handed it and it turned out pretty perfect. On my right hand I painted the stripe of Factory Girl, let it dry, then taped that off and painted the other half with Fly but I think in the future I’ll just freehand both hands. You’re gonna cover the middle anyway so it doesn’t really matter if your middle lines are perfect or not.
- When both halves of all your nails are painted, apply a coat of Seche Vite to smooth it out and provide a nice smooth base for your striping. 🙂
- Use a striping polish or regular polish and a striping brush to kind of haphazardly paint a bunch of random stripes horizontally across your nails. You can vary the widths and lengths and give it a shaggy appearance.
- When all your nails are painted with the striping polish, apply Seche Vite in the direction that the stripes go (horizontally) to avoid streaking. Once that coat is dry, apply it in the regular way (cuticle to free edge) to provide a perfect top coat. 🙂
- Tag me on Instagram (@nicole_423) so I can see your version of my version of Becca’s version. 🙂
I was so pleased with myself after doing these nails!! I was half tempted to leave the striping matte but then I worried about wear so I shined em all up. I like it better shiny, actually. 🙂 I am so thankful to Becca for sharing her nails- this is my new favorite design. In fact, I’m in my brother’s wedding next weekend and I just got permission to do my nails however I want so long as they are their wedding colors (purple and aqua) so I’m thinking about doing aqua and purple half and half nails with white in the middle and maybe some glitter….. I’ll be experimenting with nails this next week. 🙂
What do you think about these nails? Aren’t they awesome?! Do you use Instagram? Also- if you have any suggestions for my wedding nails, please let me know! 🙂 I loooooooove suggestions!! 😀 Thank you all for reading, and till next time- Happy Polishing!! 😀
Polish Me, Please! 
*waves* I actually like your version better than the instagram one 😀 But definitely prefer it glossy rather than matte.
Hiiii!!!!!! 😀 Well thank you!! I just thought it looked so cool (and like something I could actually do, haha) so I had to give it a shot. 🙂 And I agree, seeing the finished product I like it shiny. It was just when that middle part dried all matte I was like hmm this looks very cool. But I agree w you for sure! 🙂 Glad to hear from you!!
i have few questions about this mani, the striping polish i guess is the one with the thin paintbrush (?) not sure if paintbrush is the correct word…. but the striping brush is a special tool for the manicures?
Yes you are correct. Striping paint is the one with the really skinny (and long) brush (attached to the cap like regular nail polish brushes). And a striping brush is just a paintbrush used for nails that is really skinny and long too, but it’s loose, like just a regular paintbrush (not attached to a bottle cap) so you can use it w any of your polishes. Let me know if that didn’t answer your question and I’ll try to answer better. 🙂
everything’s ok.. i think i look for the striping brush.. where can i buy it?
You can find a brush online or at a Sally’s or other beauty supple store. Or just get the striping polish w the brush inside. The polish is really nice. 🙂
i went to sally’s today!!! but i found it a little bit expensive.. is $9.99 ok?! I think the store i told you on twitter it’s a sally too.. will go tomorrow during the day.. i’m SUPER tired.. walked a lot and did a lot of shopping too..
That sounds like a good tired! 🙂 I don’t know about in Chicago but that seems really expensive for china glaze, etc. I get mine at sally’s for under 5 bucks.
i think it was because it was on michigan avenue, which is the “magnificent mile” a lot of stuff going there.. i’ll go to the other place tomorrow.. i bought 3 bottles of china glaze at 4.99 each..!! so the price was ok.. the expensive stuff was the brush..
Ohhh that could be. Just an expensive area. $9.99 for a striping brush seems a little expensive too, though. I ordered mine online for like a couple bucks but in-store they are a little spendy. Spendy compared to online, that is.
i think i will have to buy it online then.. i havent found the dotting tools.. i might have to place an order..
Yeah I think I will do the same. I can’t find dotting tools for a price I wanna pay in-store.
Well, you didn’t say that you were going to paint the middle black!! Freehand would of course be faster!! I thought you wanted suber straight lines!! LOL These are beautiful, I can’t wait to see what you come up with for your brother’s wedding!
Well I still wanted straight lines because I wasn’t sure how much black I was putting down the middle. Haha. But yeah, I hold have told you anyway. 😉 I just didn’t take my time w the tape and that’s why it was kinda wonky. Oh well. 🙂 I’m glad you like them and have so much confidence in my wedding nails. I hope I can think of something that’s perfect!!
This is super cute, I’ve got to try it!
Thank you!! You totally should. It looks so awesome and is actually quite easy!! I can definitely see myself doing this w different color combos in the future. 🙂
This looks so awesome! I love when you recreate manis 🙂 You make them look so good! I really like the colors you chose to use for this!
Awww thank you! I loved this too. I just thought it was such a cool concept and idk… just awesome! Haha. I love stamping but sometimes I feel like that might bore people so I wanna do something a little less uniform and print-like. 🙂
I seriously can’t do anything like this. I love how it turned out. I probably would have tried to put some glitter on it and then totally ruined it. hahaha I really want to branch out and be more creative with stuff but I am just so cautious about not doing train wreck nails.
The funniest part of that is that you “hate” glitter but yet I totally believe you about adding the glitter. Even glitter haters think glitter improves everything! Haha. You could definitely do something like this, tho, you’re nuts if you think you couldn’t! I have to say tho- that is my nail polish super power- not being afraid of ugly nails. Haha. I seriously like don’t even care! Is that bad? I’ll do some hideous nails and I almost like them for how ugly they are. Last night I did some major trainwreck nails but I wasn’t able to get a good picture (it was inside) so I can’t post them.
I actually quite enjoy posting my hideous nails. Haha. Anyway- you should not be afraid I seriously doubt you’d end up w trainwreck nails anytime anyway! Everything you do is awesome!
I totally agree with Cynthia…I would never try this due to fear of the outcome, haha. I would not take the time to do the half and half and the black lines. I do not share your superpower…if I don’t like how my nails came out, it bugs the crap out of me.
Although this kind of just hit me that I should set some time aside (HA!) to just mess with my nails without the intent of a manicure. Then I can develop skills so that I can do braver manicures with less fear of the result. Simple, right? I need to force this to happen.
These remind me of radio waves!
Ahhh yes I see the radio waves! Why are you guys so afraid of a bad mani? Come on now…. embrace the ugly! 😉 I know what you mean tho- you don’t wanna put all that time into doing your nails and then take it right off. I however just wear them if they’re ugly. Haha. Last night in fact, I fell asleep painting my nails. Well when I woke up and they were (mostly) painted I just went to bed where I put my hand socks (don’t even ask) on and promptly passed out. Well I woke up to sock (as opposed to sheet) marks and half ruined nails… and just wore them to work. I’m so bad. Anyway- the moral of this long possibly nonsensical rambling story is that you should definitely set aside some time to just play w your nails. Easier said than done, huh? Good luck! Oh and PS- the half and half was really quick. So we’re the stripey parts in the middle. I promise you could do this. 😀
I agree I prefert the glossy over the matte, I am just not a matte fan in general, I only like very few of them. I do like both of these looks! you are awesome at this look, love the combo!
Thank you! I actually just did these nails but in the wedding colors and white for my brothers wedding next week. I may wear them…. I haven’t decided. 🙂
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