Candy Corn Nail Art

It is time to get into the Halloween spirit. One of the first things that comes to mind when I think of Halloween is Candy Corn. Candy corn is the staple candy of the holiday, so I thought I would kick of my Halloween manicures spotlighting this cone shaped goodness.

Materials
Base coat
Black, white, yellow, & orange polish
Sponge
Matte top coat (optional)

I started this nail art design with Sinful Colors 'Snow Me White' on all fingers except my accent finger (my ring finger in this case). For my accent finger I started with Nabi 'Black'.

Using a makeup sponge I did a gradient sponging in traditional candy corn colors. I used Sinful Colors 'Snow Me White', China Glaze 'Metro Pollen-tin,' and OPI 'Can't Afjord Not To.' I then did a little cuticle clean up, but you can do this at the end if you prefer.

Using a black nail art stripper I drew a triangle shape over the gradient, like so…

I then filled in the outside of the triangle with black.

For my accent finger, I drew random white triangles with a white nail art stripper. I then used a yellow and an orange nail art stripper to make them little candy corns.

I mattified the entire manicure with NY Colors 'Matte Me Crazy' top coat. I think the matte finish more accurately represents candy corn.

This is a cute and simple Halloween nail art design that I think would look good on both short and long nails. I'm so excited that Halloween is on its way, it is my absolute favorite holiday of the year. So, you can expect to see a few more Halloween designs from me. I hope you will give this easy design a try, thank you for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

Fall Skittles Manicure

I love fall it is my favorite season of the year! Everything about it is wonderful, the colors, the weather, the festivals, the holidays, you name it I love it. When I first started this manicure I didn't really have a plan. Most of the nail art designs I do I either have a design or a color scheme or something that I have in mind, but not this one. I just wanted to create a manicure that was purely fall inspired, and this is what I came up with…

Each finger is something that to meet represents or reminds me of fall. On my thumb I painted an autumnal tree, with falling leave.

On my pointer I painted a falling leaves with swirls. The swirls represents fall breezes that blow leaves around.

On my mid-­‐finger I painted a plaid design. I think of plaid patterns when I think of fall.  I'm not sure if it is because of school uniforms or what but plaid comes to mind.

On my ring finger I painted a pumpkin because what is fall without pumpkins. One of my favorite things to do in the fall is to visit the pumpkin patch and pick out the biggest pumpkin I can find.

On my pinky I painted a simple chevron. I think of chevrons when I think of autumn because of Charlie Brown. Of course, I used different colors but that's because I wanted it to coordinate with the rest of this manicure. I did use nail vinyls to create this chevron design.

I used several different polishes and strippers to create this manicure:

• Essie's 'Partner in Crime' and 'Take it Outside' from the Dress to Kilt Collection
• Color Club's 'Off Duty' and 'Apple of My Eye' from the Made in NY Collection (swatches and review coming soon)
• Orly 'Lavish Bash'
• Strippers in green, black, and white

I am so proud of this manicure, I feel that I accurately caught the feeling of fall with these designs. I'm also really excited about how my freehand abilities are coming along. I will not be taking this manicure off anytime soon. I hope you enjoy fall and this manicure as much as me. Thank you for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

China Glaze 'All Aboard' Collection Swatches and Review

Initially, I was going to pass on this fall collection since I was getting "The Giver" collection. But the reasonable prices of hbbeautybar.com in addition to their Labor Day sale made it difficult to pass up. I didn't have any great expectations for this collection because none of the colors really grabbed my attention. Usually there is at least one or two colors that catch my eye and that is why I purchase it. Unfortunately, for my wallet, I am one of those people that can't by just one polish from a collection, I have to buy the whole collection. I feel like I'm separating brothers and sisters if I don't buy the entire set. I know I'm a little weird.

Anyways, this collection really surprised me. Many of the colors are more interesting and beautiful when applied than when you see them in the bottle. Also most of the colors are opaque with one coat. Additionally, it is a very diverse collection there are opaque creams, opaque metallic, jelly metallics, and a glitter. So, if you like variety this is a great collection.

This is a cream polish that is opaque in one coat. This is a very interesting army green-­ish color. In some light it looks very like a muddy green and in others a slightly brown-­ish color.

This is a slightly translucent metallic, shown with one coat. I don't typically gravitate toward purple shades but this is a very pretty dark lilac that is very shimmery.

The cover title of the collection, not at all what I expected it to be. This creamy medium purple shade was opaque in two coats. In my opinion, this is the least autumnal color in the collection. However, it is still pretty and has a good formula.

This was the first big surprise for me in this collection. This is a beautiful opaque metallic polish that only took one coat to get full coverage. This color is very attractive dark fuchsia color. This color is a very mature color, without being granny worthy.

One coat opaque coverage. This is a beautiful rich burgundy polish with just a hint of metallic shimmer. This color is kind of similar to 'Nice Caboose!' but is more red instead of pink. It has a very romantic feel to it.

This was another surprise polish for me. In the bottle I thought this was very ugly, but once you put it on it takes on a whole different look. This unique polish was opaque with one coat. It is a medium-­‐dark brown with large iridescent shimmer pieces in it. I don't own anything like this, though I have seen similar compositions in the indie polish market.

This is another cream polish that is opaque with one coat. This is a very dark brownish-­red/reddish-brown polish. I think this is a perfect fall shade and can see myself using it in upcoming Halloween designs.

Surprise number three for me in the collection is this very unique semi-­‐translucent metallic polish. This super shimmery polish is a very interesting golden tan green color.This polish has so many different facets that I couldn't capture all of them on camera.

This is probably one of my most favorite shades in the collection. This beautiful cream was opaque in just one coat. This shades is a very dark teal green shade that is perfect for fall.

Another favorite of mine in this collection is this rich royal blue polish. This also was opaque in just one coat.

The glitter polish in this collection, to me is not all that unique but it is a perfect fall glitter and goes surprisingly well with most of the polishes in this collection. It is a slightly smokey translucent base with dark micro pieces, I can't tell if they are black or brown, and there are also orangey red (almost cooper) small pieces.

Last for this collection is the color I think screams fall is this gorgeous metallic rich medium orange. Perfectly opaque in one coat I think this is a must have polish for everyones' fall wardrobe.

This is an awesome fall collection for all the reasons I posted above, there are a few colors I wouldn't really consider autumnal or even wintry but all the colors are interesting, each in their own way. If you haven't purchased any fall collections yet, I would recommend you start with this one. I hope you enjoyed these swatches and find the review helpful in procuring polishes for your own collection. Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

Stars Over a Halfmoon Manicure

I am super excited to share my #whatruwearingwed manicure for a couple reasons.  First, my prize package from @jay_jay_bee's 1K giveaway arrived yesterday.  You remember all those vintage manicures I created not to long ago?  They were all enteries for that giveaway and I won!  Well I couldn't wait to use my new beauties.  The other reason I'm excited is because I get to work on glitter placement.  I haven't had any unique glitters to play with so I haven't tried this before, but thanks to @jay_jay_bee I have a fun star glitter polish to play with.  So, this is what I came up with...

Materials
Base and top coat
Two shades of polish
Large piece glitter polish (or loose shaped glitter)
Reinforcement stickers or french tip vinyls
Star stencil vinyls (optional)

I started this manicure of with two coats of Sephora by OPI's 'What Aura Gonna Wear?'  This is not a color I would typically wear, it is super girly and pink.  Unfortunately, it is not opaque enough to cover the ugly bruise on my mid-finger, so I had to cover it up.  I did use a quick drying top coat overth is.  I like to apply a top coat between layers of a design because it speeds up the drying time allowing me to use vinyls and stickers sooner, and because it allows touching up on layers above.

To cover up my ugly bruise and to make this an interesting manicure I placed a reinforcement sticker, cut in half along the top of my cuticle area.  I then painted Revelon's Brilliant Strength 'Fascinate' on the lower part of my nail and then quickly removed the sticker.  I used acetone and a small brush to clean up the halfmoon line.

I then applied a coat of Nicole by OPI's 'She's Lily Something' avoiding the star pieces for now.  This is a really pretty iridescent pink glitter with star pieces in it.

I then fished some star glitters out of the previously mentioned glitter polish.  This was a bit difficult, I found it easiest to fish them out if I shook the bottle vigorously while holding it upside down for a bit to get the star pieces to float to the top.  If you can manage to set the bottle upside down for a while that would help too.  I couldn't set this bottle to stand upside down because of its unusual shape.  Once I dug the star pieces out I used a small dotting tool (you could also use a toothpick) to pick up and place the pieces. I recommend you fish out your glitter pieces before you apply the glitter polish (the previous step).  It is better to place your glitter pieces will the undercoat is still a bit wet.  This make it easier to move the pieces around.

For my accent finger I used a star stencil nail vinyl from nailvinyls.com.  If you don't have star vinyls you could make your own (check out my DIY nail vinyl post), of course, purchased nail vinyls require less work and leaves no room for errors on your part in the quality of the vinyl.  With the vinyl in place I used my purple polish and filled in the stars that I wanted.  I removed the vinyl and added some of that iridescent glitter, less the stars over top.

Of course, don't forget to do a little cuticle clean up and add your favorite shiny top coat.  If you use a thinner top coat you may want to apply two coats to keep your star glitters from popping off.

This is not usually a look I wear.  This pink and purple combo along with the glitter is just over-the-top girly for me but I think it is just too cute.  I hope you enjoyed my #whatruwearingwed 'Stars Over a Halfmoon Manicure'.  I would love to see what you're wearing on your fingers this wonderful Wednesday.  Head over to my Facebook page and post your pictures or use the previously mentioned hashtag on Instagram and tag @polish_plebe in the comment.  While your there like/follow me, you can also follow me by clicking the 'Join this Site' icon on the top right hand side of the screen, or through Google+, Bloglovin, and/or Pinterest.  Thank you for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

Water Marble Decals

Water marble nail art designs are one of the most beautiful and most frustrating forms of nail art design there is. Even those with a great deal of experience can have trouble with perfecting this technique. To say the least there is a lot of experimenting that takes place when creating a water marble design. Determining what water temperature works best, what polishes spread right, and what design looks best all takes a great deal of time and patience. Then there is the actual application or finger dipping to pick up that perfect design.

I can't tell you how many times I have attempted a water marble design and got everything right, made the perfect pattern but when I tried to pick it up…FAIL! It is soooooo aggravating. Either I've missed the mark and didn't pick up the design I was aiming for or inadvertently shook when I hit the surface (I drink a lot of coffee and my nerves aren't great, it’s a wonder any of my nail art designs come out nice). Then of course there are those pesky bubbles from dipping to fast.

Well, after doing my DIY Nail Art Decals last week a thought occurred to me, why couldn't I make a water marble decal. Yes, I've seen tutorials on people making swirled pattern decals on plastic wrap but I wanted to make a true water marble design decal. So, after surfing You Tube I found a video by Sonal Sagaraya on making water marble decals. It seemed so incredibly easy that I had to give it a try.

Materials
Water
Cup/bowl
Base and top coat
Polishes of your choice
Toothpick (orange stick or dotting tool also works)
Wax or parchment paper (recommended but not required)

Make your water marble design like you normally would. Drop polishes into room temperature water, and use a toothpick to create your pattern.  I used three polishes from China Glaze's All Aboard collection, 'Well Trained', 'Conduct Yourself', and 'Stop That Train' (stay tuned, swatches and reviews of All Aboard are coming soon).

But instead of dipping your finger in the desired design. Leave the water marble design and allow it to dry. This will take longer than normal because it is in water.  When the design has dried enough to pick it up, carefully remove the design from the water. Use a toothpick or dotting tool and make sure that it is not attached to the side of your cup/bowl. Removing the decal is probably the most difficult part of this process, if you're not careful it will fold and wrinkle. I found that the longer it sat in the water to dry the easier it was to pick up and didn't fold or wrinkle as much.  Lay the water marble design flat on a piece of wax or parchment paper. This is recommend because it allows the decal to dry out more without sticking to the paper.  If you use a paper towel it may stick to it.

After giving the decal some more time to dry. Apply it just like you would any DIY polish decal. Start with applying a base coat, and while it is still wet place the decal on your nail.  I recommend using a polish that you used in your water marble design as your base, this way if you accidentally tear the decal you have a color underneath that will mask the tear.  Adjust the decal until it is in the desired location. Then use a cuticle pusher or orange stick to smooth the design. Then use a cuticle pusher and apply pressure around the cuticle to cut away the excess decal.  Then buff the tip to get rid of any overhang. Apply a top coat to seal it all in place and perform a little clean up with acetone and a brush.

I think this decal method is so much easier and cleaner. Not to mention it takes all the guess work out of placement. You don't have to mess around with taping or covering your fingers. Though it takes sometime to wait for the decals to dry I think it is worth the wait. So, a super big thanks to Sonal Sagaraya for posting the video, I recommend you all check it out. I hope this little trick will help you all with your water marbling endeavors. Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

DIY Nail Art Decals

For many nail artist particularly newbies and those that don't have time to practice it is especially difficult to paint with your non-dominant hand. How many times have you painted your nails and loved the design but can't execute it well enough to show off both of your hands. Well, here is a trick you can use to create interesting and consistent beautiful nail art designs.

Materials
A flat rigid surface
Base and top coat
Polishes or acrylic paint

In order to create a decal you need a flat impermeable surface that is smooth. Some people like to use a paint palette, or a piece of plastic wrap stretched out on a counter. I like to use plastic sleeve meant for protect documents. You can tell I use this a lot.

Start by painting a square or rectangle of top coat on your surface.

For your next layer start your artwork. I decided to do a random floral pattern to complete this weeks Blogger Bragger challenge. I used black acrylic paint and a small brush to draw my flowers.

I then used various polishes to fill in the flowers.

After you are satisfied with your design cover with a coat of your background color. I recommend two or three coats , you want it to be opaque as well as thick enough so that it peels from your surface without tearing.

I really like using this document protector because I can easily flip it over and see how my design is going to look.

Give your decal ample time to dry and then peel them from the surface. If the decal stretches or is to sticky let dry a little longer. I started this project late in the evening so I left it over night to dry. Very carefully peel your decal from your surface, slower is better for this step.

Applying the decal is pretty simple. Start by applying base coat to your nail, while it is wet place your decal. As long as your base is wet you can slide the decal around until it is where you want it.

Use your finger to apply pressure to get it to stay in place.

Then with an orange stick or cuticle pusher rub out any wrinkles.

Remove the excess decal by applying pressure with a finger nail or cuticle pusher to cut the extra decal. This may create a jagged line but no worries you can easily clean the line with acetone.

To finish up use a buffer or file to remove the excess from the tip. Use acetone and a brush to clean around your cuticle and apply of top coat to help smooth out any imperfections and help keep the decal in place.

And that is how you can create your very own nail art decals. I completed this look by painting my other nails with one of my new favorite polishes China Glazes 'Release' from "The Giver" collection and studs from bornprettystore.com.  If you make a purchase from bornprettystore.com use coupon code CREATEX31 for 10% off your purchase.  I hope you'll try this technique to create your own awesome designs. Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,