Summer Nails: Tie Dye

We have a nineteen year old girl living with us as she works and goes to school. A few days ago, she came to me and asked if she could use some of my nail polish to do her nails. I brought out the two, large plastic shoe boxes full of polish and she began going thru them to find the perfect color (or so I thought). Hours later, she showed me her handy work (haha!!), which resulted in her nails covered in wild designs in bright colors. At this point, I was fascinated and insisted that she show me how to do a more “age appropriate” (cough) color scheme for me.



I picked out four pastel (ish) colors that I thought would potentially be conservative enough for an old lady but fun enough for me to express my inner fifteen year old. I chose Essie’s Naughty Nautical, Boom Boom and Tart Deco and CoverGirl’s Pina Colada. The next step was to get a bowl of water, some paper towels, cellophane tape, and toothpicks. Once you’ve done that, take pieces of the tape and tape the skin around each nail. Do this BEFORE you go any further (on any nail that you want to tie dye).


Now the fun starts! The first thing to do is to drop the polish, one drop at a time, into the bowl of water. Some of the polish will immediately dissipate and form a film on the surface of the water (you can kind of see it in the picture above). Then you please more drops of the different colors, one on top of the other, until you get enough spreading out in rings. In the picture above, I first dropped a pink color, which immediately dissipated and then dropped another pink, an orange and then a yellow. Eventually it will look like this:




Once it looks like this, take a toothpick and “draw” lines from the outside of the circles to the middle, forming swirly designs. Don’t wait too long or the “film” will harden too much and make it difficult to work.





Once you’re satisfied with the design, dip your nail into the polish, making sure to get it in a section that has a good mix of colors. Then take you nail out and remove the tape. Take the toothpick and “pick up” the polish in the water. Immediately take the tape off the nail you just dipped. If you are doing more nails, repeat the entire process until you are finished.

Despite covering your skin with the tape, you’ll still have some polish around the edges. The best way to clean this up is with a small brush dipped into nail polish remover. Once you’ve cleaned up the edges, paint a coat of top coat (I use Seche Vite) and you’re set!

My nails are pretty low key compared to a lot of them that I’ve seen but I love them! They’re fun!! Now, I’m not about to wear them on a sales call, but I sure will have fun rocking them when I’m not traveling for business this summer!











Have you tried tie dye? What colors did you use?

Summer 2013 Trend: Bright Nails

Bright nails are a HUGE trend for summer and I am all over this trend! For the past couple of months I’ve been scouring the shelves of my local Target and CVS on the lookout for new colors. I also joined Julep’s Maven program (more info to come in a later post) and am looking forward to even more new colors. If you’re a nail polish junkie, it’s impossible to not be excited about all the possibilities!




It’s really amazing that drugstores these days have such high quality polishes. Back in the day, when I had to walk three miles up a hill in the snow in sub zero weather to get to a department store to buy quality polish….I digress. Anyway, brands like Cover Girl and L’Oreal have long lasting, beautifully smooth polishes available and Essie is now making many of their colors available at Target, of all places, for $7.99! I’ve died and gone to heaven! Whether you color your fingers, your toes or both, there’s something available for everyone. Here are some of my favorites.

Essie Boom Boom

        Essie Mod Square

              

Essie Naughty Nautical

Essie Peach Daiquiri

Essie Play Date

Essie Tart Deco

L’Oreal Jetset to Paris

Maybelline Green With Envy

CoverGirl Appletini

CoverGirl Pina Colada

Have you been wearing bright nails? What are your favorite colors?

Smart Stripes

Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend and are ready to start the new week. We had a nice couple of days off to get work done around the house, relax and catch up on some hockey games (my husband) and watch “The Finder” on Netflix (me).

On Friday evening, we made a last minute decision to go out to dinner. Luckily, I had just received an order from Dobbin and a box from Gwynnie Bee. I decided to wear my Chase Stretch Ponte Cropped Pants (not cropped on me!) and Maya Stretch Camisole from Dobbin and a striped blazer by Eloquii, which was one of my picks at Gwynnie Bee. Finished off with cute, red flats, I was set!

This outfit was sooooo comfortable and I got a few compliments at dinner. I will be wearing this combo again!

So how did you spend your weekend? Please share!

Spring Trend: Bright Lips!!!

One of my favorite trends for spring is bright lips. After a long, cold winter, there’s nothing better than a bright lipstick to light up my face and my mood!


From vivid opaque formulas to colored lip balms, there’s something for everyone. I tend to like pinks and corals rather than the bright yellows and purples I’ve seen in the stores. Here are some of my favorites:




From left: OCC Cosmetics Pageant; Revlon Lip Butter in Sorbet; Maybelline Vivids in Pink Pop; OCC Cosmetics in Narcissus; Make Up Forever Rouge Artist Natural in N31; Maybelline Vivids in Vivid Rose; L’Oreal Colour Caresse in Velvety Fuchsia



From left: OCC Trollop; OCC Queen; Mac Impassioned; Maybelline Vivids in Shocking Coral; Revlon Lip butter in Wild Watermelon

When wearing brighter shades, I like to use a lip pencil, either one that matches the lipstick (line your lips and fill in the entire lip with the lip pencil and THEN put on the lipstick) or one of the newer “clear” ones from Make Up For Ever or Sally Hansen that keeps the lipstick from feathering. If using the clear lip pencils, just outline the lips with the pencil and then fill in with the lipstick.

How about you? Are you wearing bright lip colors this Spring?

Spring 2013 Trends: Stripes!

Picture via

What are your thoughts on stripes? Well, like it or not, stripes are all over the place for Spring 2013.  As you know, stripes are tricky for many of us. I've got some ideas on how to incorporate them into your wardrobe in non threatening ways. Click below for more!