Acid Wash Nail Manicure

As always, I've been scouring the web looking for cool and interesting nail manicure ideas to show my avid readers and I came across this on Pinterest: the acid wash manicure. It's a really cool effect, the one below is denim-themed and can be done very easily. This isn't a complicated technique like some of the others I have posted about, this is something you don't have to be too fussy with to get it to look right.

All you need to complete this look is a base nail polish color (in this case royal blue) and the color you want to be on top of the 'acid wash' look (in this case white) as well as cotton buds or q-tips and acetone/nail polish remover. The first step is to paint 2-3 coats of your base color and wait to make sure that they are dry and smooth, this requires some patience as some nail polishes do not dry as often as others. Then, after you choose a contrasting color to make the 'acid wash' effect come to life, you should apply just one layer of the top color. After letting it dry thoroughly, soak a cotton bud/q-tip in acetone (but make sure it's not dripping wet, just saturated). If your cotton bud is not saturated enough, it will just smudge and blend the two contrasting colors together, which may make for an interesting effect, but will not allow you to achieve the acid wash manicure. Swipe the cotton bud over your nails, not pressing it down but gently dragging it over so that it removes only parts of the top layer of nail polish (of the contrasting color, white in this example) and leaves your blue intact - this is one of the reasons why you want to apply at least 2 coats of your base color. Finally, as with any manicure, if you want staying power you should place a layer of topcoat to seal your design and smooth out any bumps.

You can achieve really varied looks depending on which colors you choose, remember that when you apply your topcoat, you will stop the acetone from eating through that layer. For example, in the manicure below, you can achieve this design by doing the base in a yellow and then making sure to seal it with a topcoat so that it will not wipe away when you swipe with the cotton bud. Then you want to add a layer of orange polish and a layer of gray nail polish, not sealing these down with topcoat. You can use your acetone to remove parts of the top two layers of polish. As always, seal and protect your design with a final layer of topcoat when you have finished your faux acid washing.

Various colors of nail polish manicures using the acid wash technique

Have fun with this look and happy experimenting! Please post photos of your nails on the blog if you achieve this look!

- Alex

Lace Nail Manicures for Sale!

Since I have been noticing a lot of interest in my posts about lace nail manicures, I've decided to devise a way to get them out to people who want to achieve this look but are incapable of doing it themselves. I found that the easiest way is to create the lace nails on "Nailene So Natural Nails, Real French, 24 ct."   and letting everyone choose their base nail color (although I prefer them on french nails) and lace color. After taking custom orders, it will take about a week to manufacture them (since the fabric and nails have to be bought each time and then they have to be manually crafted with the lace appliques). They do look fabulous and I encourage you to try it by yourself if you feel like you can do it!

This is the posting:
http://www.bonanza.com/listings/Lace-Embellished-Artificial-Nails-Custom-Made-to-Order/63927311

Here are photos of some I did for a quick test-run:

You can find other items for sale at:
http://www.bonanza.com/booths/lethalglam/

Comic Book Nails

Lately, perusing the blogosphere and fashion magazines, what has stood out as an awesome new trend is comic book nails! These are highly graphic, colorful manicures not for the feint of heart. If you're down with this look and want to experiment with it, you'd better be ready for lots of compliments and attention from guys and girls alike!

Comic book action bubbles are a simple way to spruce up your nails, using a white base and colored polka dots on top, you can add pizzazz by creating zig-zagged and imperfect speech or action bubbles outlined with a thin-tip black polish. Write your words of choice like 'Splat!', 'BAM!', 'Pow!' and 'Zap!' or whatever other fantastic word you can think of!

Another fabulous way to incorporate this look and to make it look more 'unified', you can use a single-colored background base color and keep your dots in one color as well, such as white. The only thing you would be varying in this version of the manicure is the position of the action and speech bubbles as well as the words you put within them.

If you're into a particular superhero you could do your nails in tribute to them! This lady chose Spiderman and did his mask on her thumb and webs on all the other fingers with a red background and black thin-tipped fine brush nail polish. The spider webs are simple to do, just make semi-circles radiating from your cuticle and then draw the lines straight out from the cuticle to complete you spider web. The mask is a little more complex because you will want to draw the eyes afterwards with white polish and then outline them in black after the polish is all dry.

Another graphic idea is to do a heart on your middle finger with a simple heart-shape and then a cardiogram line drawing on the rest of the nails with a black fine-tipped brushed nail polish. Keep your background color a simple pink or red but make sure that your heart can stick out with a more saturated color.

If you don't want to choose one particular superhero over another one, because you're just such a huge fan of them, take all of the iconic symbols from their outfits and incorporate them in black over different colored base nail polishes. Notice how the background colors are representative of each particular hero, for example, Batman's colors are black and yellow while the Green Lantern's colors are green and black.

Check out my jewelry store website here: http://www.bonanza.com/booths/LethalGlam

Tools you can use to create these looks can be found here:

Product Review: Salon Express Nail Art Stamping Kit

I recently purchased this nail art stamping kit from Salon Express at the Rite Aid (you should be able to find it in many drugstores) in the 'As Seen on TV' section. I was intrigued by it because it seemed simple enough to use so that I could achieve salon-quality manicures without  paying a whole lot. The whole kit should cost you about $8-$10, so for that price I considered that it would be worth a try.

The kit comes with the following items:
5 metal stamping plates with various designs (as seen in the picture below)
1 stamper
1 scraper
1 stamping plate base


This kit is fairly simple to use if you read how to do it or watch a youtube video on how it's used, but it's also pretty self-evident. You place a metal stamping plate of your choice (whichever one has a design you like and want to use) onto the stamping plate base. Then you take a nail polish (preferably opaque so it shows up better) of thicker consistency and place it on top of the design stencil stamping plate. Then you take the scraper and run the blade over the design to wipe away any excess polish. Finally, using the stamper you want to quickly pick up the design from the stamping plate by pressing it pretty thoroughly onto the design and then rolling it onto your finger nail to transfer the design.

This is a fairly simple tool to use but it can be time-consuming so if you like to spend time on intricate nail designs, this is the cheapo product for you, but if not, don't bother investing in it. However, if you are really into perfect, precise looking nail designs, you may want to invest in a better set, such as the one Konad makes. Some of the designs on the stamping plates are really thin and over-complicated and will not show up on your nails because they do not transfer properly. You also cannot use glitter nail polish for the designs or anything that isn't very opaque and in stark contrast to your base coat of nail polish because the designs won't show up at all or appear smudged. With these drawbacks in mind, I still really like this product because it is very inexpensive and with a little effort you can have really cool designs that are sure to stand out! This was my first attempt at using the stamper with their cheetah print design. I was happy with the results.