French Manicure Tutorial

Hey ladies!

Here's my once in a blue moon nails post! I did a french manicure on myself and it turned out amazing. I have a few tips for making sure you get that perfect white line on the tips and some badass looking nails. I did my manicure about 3 days ago and they still look absolutely perfect, no chips or dents!

I use my own nails, I never use fake nails and I never get them done at a salon, either. I do them myself at home. I've been having a bit of trouble lately with my nails being super brittle after I take off the old nail polish. I've used Sally Hansen Complete Care Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 Nail Treatment once so far and it's actually made a pretty big difference on my nails. I waited over a week before I finally did them, and usually they would chip and tear pretty badly but that didn't happen this time after I used this product for the first time! I just hope that it works great in the long run. I'll update you as time goes on, but right now, I really like this product. I use it as a base coat only.

I use Rimmel's French Manicure Pro products. They aren't the most expensive nail polishes out there, but I find that they do the best job so far out of the products I've tried. I was not a fan of Sally Hansen's french manicure sets. I thought they were sub-par quality. The Rimmel nail polishes are really good and they last a long time. They have 2 different colors for the pink so you can choose between a more natural pink, or a more obvious pink. Each bottle is around 6$CAD.

I used Ciate's Speed Coat to seal in the polish. It was my first time using it and I'm very impressed that it dried my nails in only a few minutes, and that they were rock hard! I don't know how I lived without this before, but this is quickly becoming my favorite top coat.

Keep reading for the tutorial, a list of products used, and of course, pictures of my nails.


French Manicure Tutorial

Before starting, make sure you have done all your prep work, like nail filing, cuticle pushing, removing old polish, etc. If you have brittle nails, like, use Sally Hansen's Complete Care Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 Nail Treatment as a base coat. If your nails are fine, use Rimmel Base Coat Top Coat Pro (I used to use this, but had to switch because the condition of my nails just kept deteriorating). Once they are dry, it is time to apply the white strip using Rimmel 110 French White Tip Pro. The trick to having a perfect line is to do the line all in one smooth stroke. Since the brush is tiny, I have to go back in and make sure the edge has polish. That will not affect your line, as long as you do it first in one long continuous stroke. That is the secret to having a perfect white tip. After they've dried, apply 2 coats of Rimmel French Manicure Pro in 130 French Lingerie. If you want a pinker nail, try 140 French Rose. After your last coat has dried, apply Ciate Speed Coat if you want your nails to dry fast and be rock hard. I used this and I'm in love. I can go to bed and not worry about my nails smudging! If you don't want to use a fast drying to coat, use Rimmel Base Coat Top Coat Pro. So that's it, you should now have a perfect (or close to perfect) french manicure!




Products Used:

Sally Hansen Complete Care Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 Nail Treatment

Rimmel French White Tip Pro in 110

Rimmel French Manicure Pro in 130 French Lingerie

Ciate Speed Coat

Other Products Mentioned:

Rimmel Base Coat Top Coat Pro

Rimmel French Manicure Pro in 140 French Rose

The Manicure:

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed today's nail post. I find that the French Manicure is timeless. It looks good in any decade, any season. I like it because it makes my nails look nice and groomed, especially now that I've mastered the tricks. I do like Rimmel's nail products very much, but I bought some Essie nail polishes in their french manicure shades. I bought a whole bunch actually lol. I'm going to try out the Essie polishes the next time I do my nails and I'll compare the 2 manicures. I always hear great things about Essie nail polishes and I wanted to finally get on the bandwagon.

So what did you think of my nails? I'm so happy I finally got the hang of it. This is the first time I've had such picture perfect nails! What do you think of the Rimmel French Manicure polishes? Are you a fan of them or do you prefer Essie or OPI?? Let me know what your favorite shades for french manicures are in Essie polishes.

Tomorrow I might post my latest haul, but I don't want it to be show-off-y. I might only do just a tutorial instead using more new products.

Steph xo.

Matte Black French Manicure (with Glossy Tips)

Hi gals!

So we had this crazy thunderstorm and tree branches fell all over the place and knocked down power lines so we haven't had power since 3pm local time and it is now 10pm local (EST). What a day. I got a haircut today and right when he starts blow drying it started storming. We almost lost power there but luckily we didn't. I'm going to do a post showing off the new hair and maybe some before and after pics. I also passed by Illamasqua again because I wanted to try out their products. I bought 3 things which will be combined into my upcoming MAC Pro post. So enjoy today's nails post!! And if you want to know about the next couple of posts, check out my facebook page.

Today I'm doing something a bit different with my nails. Instead of doing a traditional manicure, I'm doing a black french manicure. Black is my favorite color and this is a great way to change it up instead of wearing just a black nail polish. It's matte black nails with glossy tips, which is why it's called a black french manicure. I think it's really nice, except I messed my first few nails up a bit, but whatever, I'm learning. I didn't use tape or anything, I drew it on myself. Thinking back though, I should have used tape, even if it's scotch tape. Just put it on your skin a few times to remove some of the glue so it doesn't peel your manicure right off. I also used a whole bunch of different brands, but you can use whatever you have. Just make sure you have a black nail polish and a matte top coat. Those are your most important tools. I know this isn't a very summery look, but whatever. I like it and that's all that matters. And by the way, the feel of the matte polish is really cool! I definitely have to try stripes and shapes next time. And again, I know they're not perfect and I don't care.


Matte Black French Manicure (with Glossy Tips)

Before you start, make sure to file your nails, push your cuticles down, buff them, and whatever else you do to prep for your manicure. I also like to set up my little station by putting some paper towels down in case of an accident. I have all my nail polishes ready. To prepare my nails, I'm trying out Sally Hansen's Complete Care Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 Nail Treatment. This is the first time I'm using this product and I picked it up because my nails are pretty fragile and damaged even though I only do my nails every 2 or so weeks. Hopefully this product will help. I'm using this as a base coat for my manicure. Next, take a black polish like Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in 430 Black Satin. I do 2 coats of black. Now it's time to turn your nails matte! Take your matte top coat, like Butter London Matte Finish, and apply that to the entire nail. Watch your nails turn matte in seconds! Now take your black nail polish again and paint the tips. You can draw them on yourselves like I did, or you can take tape. Personally, I like it when the french manicure is slightly rounded on the edges, instead of a super straight line. It looks more natural. Now your black french manicure is done!

I have to say that Rimmel makes really good quality nail polishes. I buy their regular French Manicure nail polishes and I use their Base Coat Top Coat Pro and I love their products. This was the first time I used a Butter London products and their Matte Finish polish worked extremely well. Now I just have to wait and see how Sally Hansen's Complete Care product is working under there!



Products Used:

Sally Hansen Complete Care Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 Nail Treatment - approx. 12$

Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in 430 Black Satin - 6$CAD 

Butter London Matte Finish - 21$CAD

So that's it! Here are a few photos of my nails. I upload HD pics so you can really see what I'm doing, because I know that I hate it if someone has a 1 pixel by 1 pixel photo and you can't see anything. It's like, why even bother? But because it's HD, it's a lot easier to point out mistakes and criticize things. I know my nails are nowhere near perfect but this is the best that I can do at home. With that said, I hope that you were able to learn something from this. Enjoy the pics.

Thanks for reading and no, there aren't any pictures of me showing off the nails. Hah. I know my lines aren't perfect and they're a little smudgey but honestly I was never great any doing my nails. Part of what messed the tips up was that I was trying to do too thin of a coat because I didn't want to end up with a big blob that never dries. So don't worry about the coats being thick, it'll be fine. Use some tape if you're worried about your lines. I hope you were able to learn something from this post. Matte nails are pretty darn cool and I've seen that it gives cool effects on different finishes of nail polishes, like metalics, neons, glitters, etc.

If you haven't checked out my latest makeup post on MAC's Veluxe Pearl Fusion Eyeshadows using Greenluxe, then click here!

My next post is going to be my MAC PRO Haul. I bought quite a few Pro Only Eyeshadows and I have to say that the shades are way different and unique compared to the permanent line. If you ever get a chance to go to a MAC PRO store, seriously, do it.

Steph xo.

Water Marbling your Nails

Hey glam gals,

Read til the bottom if you want to know what amazing new eyeshadows I'll be using in my next post!

So much going on this week!!! Ahhh!!! They had a 30% off sale at Teavana on select teas so I stocked up on my favs that were on sale. I find their fruity teas are more natural, they have nice big chunks of fruit and stuff and they taste amazing. They're an American chain with a few stores popping up in Canada. I think they're almost better than David's Tea. David's Tea is from my city and they have stores all over Canada and they're opening more and more in the US. I like David's Tea's dessert teas more than Teavana's. I find both stores have their niche. Love both.

I finished reading The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. I loved both books. I'm a zombie nerd so this is so my thing. I recommend getting both books if you're into this stuff. Also, just be aware that the movie is nothing like the book. The movie tells a story from start to finish whereas the voice of the book is after the fact. The narrator goes around the world doing interviews with people who talk about the zombie war in their respective country, so it's more like a collection of short stories, think of it that way. I loved it and I would definitely recommend it. The Survival Guide is basically that. It tells you how to prepare your home, what weapons to pick, how to go on the attack and how to defend. It's pretty cool. I do recommend this book as well.

On another note, I went downtown to get some cheap nail polishes because I want to try out water marbling. I didn't want to waste the good stuff the first time I do this so I bought a bunch of nail polish on sale from Rimmel and L.A. Colors. I went where there are 2 pharmacies right next to each other, and big ones at that. Jean Coutu and Pharmaprix (called Shopper's Drug Mart outside Quebec) both had different stuff. I also realized that Pharmaprix carries the full lines of both Benefit and Stila. I've been looking everywhere and never bothered to check this particular store. I'm sooo happy. Yeah I know we have Sephora here now but they don't necessarily carry the full full product line, whereas the counter does. So I'm going to go back and buy a few things.

And I've also discovered some awesome stuff. Too Faced has released their new Fall Collection, Pretty Rebel, at Sephora! They have all their new stuff online and I imagine it will be in stores within a month. Too Faced is also releasing a new mascara, called Better Than Sex as well as a pressed powder version of their famous Primed and Poreless Powder. So I'm pretty excited for all this new stuff. As I mentioned before, I won't be getting the new eyeshadow palette because I feel like I already have a lot of similar colors, but I will be getting a couple of their new Lip Injection Color Bomb pencils. Ahhh excitement!

A lot of makeup lines are starting to show their Fall previews so I'm going to do a post on that soon.

And now, ON TO THE NAILS!! I know I just wrote a lot, but that's more than a week's worth of random stuff. There's probably more that I forgot to write. Oh yeah like me buying this adorable covered litter box for my cat. I'll show pics eventually. It's really cute.


Water Marbling Your Nails

For this, you need: cheap nail polishes (I'll explain why shortly) in your chosen color, a base polish, a cup you don't mind wasting, distilled water, Q-tips, paper towels, toilet paper, toothpicks, scotch tape, scissors, nail polish remover.

Why cheap nail polishes? This will become evident as I explain the steps. Basically each time you do a nail, you need to do a whole new bull's eye so you end up using a lot of polish.

Before you start your water marble, you need to set up your work station. Place paper towels where you will be working. This will protect you table from getting permanent nail polish stains. Make sure all your supplies are on the table and ready to go. I like to do one clear base coat and then 2 coats of white polish to act as the base for my water marble. I use a lamp as a heat source to dry my nails faster. Once you have on your 3 coats, you need to put scotch tape around all your nails. This will protect them from being water marbled. Open all the bottles of nail polish that you will be using. I used 4 colors: hot pink, yellow, mint green, and lavender. Fill that cup up with water. Take your first color and put a dot in the middle of the cup. Don't drop it from high up, it will just sink to the bottom. You want it to float on the surface. So drop it as close to the surface as possible. For the first ring, you want to put another dot of the same color. Now, start alternating colors and you want to make a bull's eye pattern. Keep dropping them in the middle. When you can't fit any more drops in, now it's time to do your design. Take a toothpick and make lines. Never start on the far edge of the bull's eye. Start on the second or third rings. Once you are happy with you design, take your finger and put it in the water at an angle. Take your toothpick and start swirling it to take the nail polish away. Be careful not to touch your nail. Once you swirled the polish on the surface away, take your nail out at the same angle. Ta dah! You should have a beautiful water marbled finger! Cut the nail polish off and use Q-tips and nail polish remover to remove the nail polish that is on your fingers. For the next nail, repeat all the steps and create a new bull's eye to work with. Follow up with a top coat at the end.

On my nails, I waited until after I applied a top coat to remove the nail polish that was on my fingers. It's up to you how you want to do it.

It was my first time doing water marbling and my nails turned out beautifully. If you still need more help, there are a lot of videos on youtube on this subject.

Here's how my nails turned out:

Products Used:

Rimmel Base Coat Top Coat Pro

Tivoli Color Shock Nail Polish in NP002 (White)

Rimmel 60 Seconds Nail Polish in 510 Pink-A-Boo (Hot Pink)

Rimmel 60 Seconds Nail Polish in 710 Sunny Days (Bright Yellow)

Rimmel 60 Seconds Nail Polish in 210 Mintlicious (Mint Green)

Rimmel 60 Seconds Nail Polish in 410 I Lilac You (Lilac Purple)

Thanks for reading! I hoped you enjoyed reading this brief tutorial on how I water barbled my nails. I hope that this inspires you to do your own water marbling. Please show me pictures of your water marbled nails!! It's really cool how some of the colors mix together to make a whole new color! I picked bright colors because I really wanted it to be eye catching, but you can use different shades of 1 color, or use colors in the same family, or whatever else you can think of! There are also a million ways to draw your designs too. I've gotten a lot of compliments on these nails and a lot of girls asking me how I did them and I've only had these on for a couple of days! I really like them, I think they are a ton of fun. I hope you liked them too and good luck trying this out at home!



And now a little sneak peak of later / tomorrow's post:

Yes, that's right, I'm using the new MAC Veluxe Pearl Fusion Eyeshadow in Smokeluxe! So stay tuned for that! There's also another picture of my look on my facebook page, if you want to check that out. If you "Like" my page, that would mean a lot plus you'll get updates on my next posts and stuff!

Steph xo.

Nails Inc Bling It On - Rebel

Heyy glamour girls!!

Here's to another nail post!! It's pretty obvious that I'm not the type of girl to do my nails multiple times a week. Hell, I don't even do my nails once a month. I usually do it every 2 months, sometimes less, but when I see that my nails are getting damaged and super frail, I give them a break. By this time, they're usually all broken down to the pink anyway so they clearly need time to grow and strengthen. Even now, my nails aren't the longest.

I just want to note that there will be no makeup look today, I wanted to give my skin a little break, especially since I'm starting to break out cuz of this heat. But tomorrow I will do a Rocker Chic look inspired from my nails!!

I was so excited when I bought the Nails Inc Bling It On - Rebel. I had picked it up months ago and refrained from using it because I had gotten this as a gift for my friend. Her birthday was a month ago and we still haven't gotten together yet. I couldn't wait any longer, I just had to try it out. So I'm blocking her from viewing this post on facebook, hopefully she won't notice this post until after she gets her present :P

I'm not sure if this product is still available in Sephora stores, but it is definitely still available online on their site. The product's tag line is "leather, crystals, and skulls" and damn right it is!! It's rebel with a touch of glam. It comes with Nail Polish that has a Leather Effect, Nail Glue, 2 double-ended wooden sticks, one end is pointy like a tooth pick (cuticle pusher) and the other end has a diagonal slant (used to put the crystals and studs on the nail); 40 crystals, 10 studs and 4 skull embellishments. There are basically 4 types of nail jewels: round crystal, smaller round crystal, smaller black round crystal, and square stud.

The nail crystals and studs are really cute and give a glam rebel look. The skulls really make this look more rebel than not. The nail polish is matte black and has a texturized surface. It's hard for me to describe, so you'll have to check out the photos. The glue dries really fast so you have to work fast or you'll find your fingers stuck together.

I used a base coat (Rimmel Base Coat Top Coat Pro) and 2 coats of Nails Inc Nail Polish Leather Effect. I did not use a top coat because I wanted to preserve the look of the leather effect. I did this at night and I went to bed. The next afternoon, I put the crystals on. I wanted to make sure that the nail polish was completely dry because I knew I'd be putting pressure on the nail to make sure the crystals are stuck on properly. My technique to put the crystals on was as so: Put Glue on the slanted edge of the Cuticle Stick. Pick up Crystal or Stud using the slated edge of Cuticle Stick. Take a pair of tweezers and pick up the Crystal or Stud and place it carefully onto Nail. Apply pressure for a few seconds. Continue on to next nail. I applied the crystals and studs at the bottom of my nail, near the cuticle, instead of the top because I did not want them to come off if I so much as touched something. By being at the bottom, they have less chance of falling off. For the Skulls, I applied a tiny dot of glue onto the middle of my nail and another dot of glue onto the back of the skull. I used tweezers and my fingers to pick it up and place it on my thumb. I applied pressure for 60 seconds. If you remove your finger and the skull is still moving around, keep applying pressure until it does not move. Your fingers might be stuck but it will not lift the skull off as long as it is completely dry.

Here are some product photos as well as photos of my nails:
(I didn't think of taking pictures of the product before I blinged out my nails, sorry!)
Please ignore all the glue and nail polish that is still stuck on my fingers.

Rimmel Base Coat Top Coat Pro - approx. 5-6$CAD

Nails Inc Bling It On: Rebel - 30$CAD

Nails Inc Bling It On: Rebel - 30$CAD

Nails Inc Bling It On: Rebel

Inside the box

This is everything you get plus a sheet of plastic the same size as the two squares holding the products

These are the skulls, crystals, and studs
I already lost a skull :(

Do you like this look? Is this a product that you would use on your own nails? Which of my nails is your favorite? If you've used this product, what do you think about it? How long did your nails last and were you able to save some of the crystals? Are there any other Bling It On nail kits that you like? I think the Emerald Kit looks quite nice.

So that's it for today, tomorrow I'll be doing a Rocker Chic makeup look to go with my nails!! I do hope you've enjoyed today's nail post.

Steph xo.