Painted Flower manicure

Here is my bright hand painted flower manicure made in One stroke technique, hope you ll like it.

May the 4th Be With You

So apparently there is this saga which involves 6 movies, a guy in a black cloak and helmet, some white armor clad things, some teddy bear looking things, a little green guy, and the force...but here's the thing... I've never seen them...ever. I know that I'm one of the few, and possibly the proud, but yeah, nope, not likely to happen. However, I recognize that 90% of the world (probably more) have seen these movies and love them, worship them, and some actually LIVE them I think, so in honor of today (and a suggestion from reader Rebecca, who brought the holiday to my attention), which is Star Wars Day, I decided that I would suck it up and do Star Wars nails. I understand that by having never seen any of the Star Wars movies, that I am sure to lose my nerd cred, but I feel like I have to be honest. :-D



I used American Apparel Cotton as a base for the Stormtrooper helmets, and American Apparel Hassid for the black, as well as for Darth Vader's helmet. I also mixed a little of the American Apparel Cotton to make a dark grey to paint the features of Vader's helmet, which, unfortunately, are hard to see. I topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

...I AM your father.

How to: How I paint my nails

Hi everyone! Today I decided to finally to post about the subject I get most questions about: How I paint my nails.

I know a lot of you would love to see a video, but unfortunately my camera is only capable of producing the crappiest, pixelated movies ever. Add my camera-shyness in the mix and it's just a recipe for failure. Instead of making a fool out of myself on camera, I drew some pictures last week to explain my way of painting my nails.
I also know a lot of you already paint your nails perfectly, so this one goes out for everyone that just doesn't know where to begin.

1. Start off with a clean nail, make sure the surface is nail polish and oil free.	2. Apply your base coat or ridge filler. This prevents staining and chipping. Let it dry.	3. Place a drop of polish at the center of the nail, a bit above the cuticle.	4. Carefully push the drop towards the cuticle, leaving just a small gap.	5. Now move your brush upwards making a straight line till the end of the nail.
6. Go back to the base of the nail and swipe the polish along the curve of the nail.	7. Keep dragging the polish until the whole side of the nail is covered.	8. Repeat step 6, but do this on the other side of the nail.	9. Repeat step 7, but do this on the other side of the nail.	10. If necessary apply a 2nd or 3rd coat. Finish with a (quick drying) top coat.

Some other tips:

• Go to the bathroom first - not kidding on this one ;-)
• Make sure you have decent lighting
• Gather all the stuff you need and place it in front of you
• Rest your hands on a table or desk to remain steady
• If you're not that good at painting your non-dominant hand, start with painting your dominant hand first. You'll be less shaky. Move around the fingers you are painting, instead of moving your brush a lot.

Done, but everything is still a bit messy? Please check out my clean up tutorial.
I hope this was helpful!

Thanks so much for reading and till next time,
- Michèle