Friday, May 17, 2013

Braided Nails Pictorial

Here's the pictorial for the Braided Nails that I posted on here and on my Instagram! Many of you requested this so I decided to take pictures of my process and share! Sorry for the large watermark on this, it's the only way I can somewhat still get credit from thieves!

Start off by choosing your three colors that you want to use in this design. I chose a coral color, (Coral Reef by Sally Hansen,) a Light Pink shade, (Easy Going by Sinful Colors,) and a gold polish, (Golden-I by Sally Hansen.)
  1. I started off with the coral polish as my base. 
  2. Next I got my gold polish, started at the edge of my nail and swiped it across diagonally to create the first part of the braid. 
  3. With the light pink polish I started from the other edge of my nail and swiped diagonally to the right, overlapping the gold to create a triangle looking shape with the coral color. 
  4. Now using the coral again, I'm going back to the right side and swiping the brush across, overlapping the pink shade.
  5. It's time to go back with the gold, start from the opposite edge and swiping the brush to the right to continue the braid.
  6. Going back with the light pink, I continued the braid.
  7. Using the coral I swiped the brush from left to right diagonally. 
  8. The braid is now starting to end, using the gold I repeated the last few steps.
  9. Finally with the light pink I finished off the braid, making sure that my line is as neat as possible because it will be fully shown.
Now you're done! I know my steps are confusing but I tried my best to explain! Haha hopefully the pictures explained it better than my words. If you try this out, please send me the picture so that I can see it! Or you can post the picture to Instagram, tag me in it and make sure to use the hashtag #inspiredbysabrinasnails. Have a great day and I hope you try this!

Braided Nails

This is my second attempt at braided nails and they aren't so bad if I do say so myself! I really didn't know what to add on top of Coral Reef after I swatched it the other day and I thought that this would be perfect! The color scheme was a bit tricky to figure out but I ended up choosing a light pink, Easy Going by Sinful Colors and a shimmery gold color, Golden-I by Sally Hansen.
I still have a tremendous amount of trouble making each part of the braid even, some of my lines are shaky and it is something I still have to work on.
I also have a problem with this design because it tends to get rather thick. To achieve the braided nails, you have to keep layering the three different colors of nail polish, so by the time I get to the last few strands of the braid, it is extremely thick. So thick that even my trusty Seche Vite topcoat can't smooth it out. 
These nails unfortunately took hours to dry and have already had many dents in them and now as I'm typing this, are all pretty much ruined. But they were super pretty while they lasted and I was able to take some pretty snazzy photographs of them! I'll have to practice this design more often until I master it and I'll be posting a pictorial on both here and on my Instagram soon just in case YOU would like to recreate these too!  

Target Haul

I went to Target yesterday and picked up a few polishes! The Target that I went to didn't have much of a selection, almost all of the Essie's were gone which was what I was looking forward to the most, so that was disappointing. But, I did buy some that I really love!
Loreal
       I Will!                        Lacey Lilac
I bought two Loreal Polishes that I am so excited to add to my collection of Loreals! This is one of the best brands that I've tried, the polishes are creamy, opaque and super easy to work with. Loreal also has really nice pastel colors for Spring and I almost own all of them! On the left is a plain but gorgeous white called, I Will! I've been needing a new white polish because my old ones are starting to turn thick and goopy. On the left is Lacey Lilac which is a very unique shade of pastel purple, unlike any that I already own. These are so pretty and I can't wait to try them out!
Sinful Colors
Pink Forever                     Hazard
The Sinful Colors section at my Target had some very bright and exciting colors that I had never seen before so I decide to purchase a few. Pink Forever is unlike any nail polish in my collection, once I brought it home I compared it to my other pink shades and there were none like it. Its a very bright, almost bubblegum pink color that is very pretty in the bottle and looks very opaque. Hazard is a bright coral/peach shade that definitely leans more toward orange than it does pink. 
Revlon
Coastal Surf
Lastly I bought Coastal Surf by Revlon. I really love Revlon but this polish isn't the best. I opened the bottle in the store and it unfortunately had a funny looking brush with a few crazy hairs not in place, but it was the last one in the store so I decided to buy it anyway. I guess its partially my fault for still purchasing it but I couldn't resist! This shade of blue reminds me of Avenue Maintain by Essie but this one is a bit brighter. I really like it and I hope I can still apply this somewhat easily despite the funky brush.