Rooty Tooty...

Continuing with my summer-nail obsession, this week I convinced my mom to go Fruity! She's usually not one for glittery glam but as soon as she handed me her new red Essie Polish, A list, I knew glitz was imminent. Normally this particular 3D Nail Art is used in Acrylic Nail designs. But since Mom shares my passion for short-but-sweet length, I figured we could merge the two styles. Using Cinepro Nail Creation's Tutti Fruitti Kit, we crafted a cherry sweet look! 

click to enlarge

You may have seen these 3D treasures before, in popular Japanese Nail Art Designs. They are made from Fimo Clay and can be purchased in thin slices or long rolls that you can cut yourself. I picked up this small kit at Cosmo-Prof but you can order them anywhere online. I will advise: they are 3D so you'll want to apply on top of fresh polish while lightly pushing down with an orange stick or application tweezers. Once the fruit piece has set into the polish and is not lifting, follow it up with a few coats of top coat----and you're good to go!

I decided to give Mom's red polish a little extra punch! with Martha Stewart's Craft Glitter in Candy Apple. While the second coat was fresh, I shook a small amount of glitter atop the bright red polish. My favorite part? This glitter throws a yellowish iridescent cast that shines beautifully. A few coats of my current favorite top coat, Seche Vite Clear, and the look is complete!

This was actually my second time using the Fruitti Kit <3 I tried it on myself using a deep purple polish as my background. Its fun, easy and I highly recommend it! 

Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams

Lately I've been gettin jiggy with 3D Nail Art. This week I attempted to work the Caviar Mani, and I've gotta say it's awesome. I was inspired by the Ciate version but didn't want to fork over $25 bucks for the official kit at Sephora. In a DIY mood, I headed over to Michael's and picked up some micro-beads and a small arsenal of glitter. 

1.  I mixed a small mixture of opaque black micro-beads and a delicious, iridescent Martha Stewart    glitter called, Black Licorice, into an empty glitter tube. 
2.  On the first three nails I laid one light coat of a dark purple Essie polish in Sexy Divide. 
3. On the second coat of purple, I shook the bead/glitter mixture directly over the wet nail, working one nail at a time. 
4. After cleaning up the side with an orange stick and lightly pushing the beads into the polish, I waited for them to dry a bit. 
5. And for the last step I added two very light coats of Seche Vite clear top cloat. For this step, you'll want to have very little product on the brush when you drag it across the nail. To much top coat may take away from the three-dimensional aspect by filling the area---making the beads disappear. *this only applies to dark colored beads.  

Its a super fun, edgy look. Definitely not meant to endure or last very long---maybe 2-3 days at most---MAYBE five. But if you have a special event, party or dance---its a cool eye-catching look. And with the vast array of colored micro-beads at Michael's, you can taylor your caviar to your party dress!