Friday, September 2, 2011

Guest Post: Girly Bits Nail Art!

Hey guys!  I am leaving today for a short vacation with my family so I don't have time to write a blog for you.  Instead, Pam from the blog Girly Bits has some nail art to share with you!  I hope you enjoy it!

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Hello Polish Fixators!

I am very happy to be here today with a guest post for Erika at Polish Fixation. I definitely have a polish fixation, for both color in general, and nail art. You can find swatches and a lot of my nail art on my blog, called Girly Bits, found here-->http://www.pamsgirlybits.blogspot.com

Since I am Canadian, I thought it was fitting that I show you a Canadian polish. The line is called Joe Fresh. http://www.joefresh.com/en/bath_beauty/products/nails/ The polishes in general have been good quality, trendy colors, and the price is right at $3.33 a pop, and they are available at the Superstore. The bottles are a little small, at 6 mls compared to OPI at 15 mls, but I can tell you I have never gone through an entire bottle of polish, and if I ever did, for that price I would gladly buy another. The bottle shape is the same as the Wet n Wild Craze line, which in my opinion is not the easiest bottle to manipulate due to it's short stature and wide lid. However, it has never caused a casualty and I continue to be satisfied with their formula and color selection, so I am a happy customer.

I selected a light grey creme to show you, called Cement. It is as straight up grey- it doesn't lean heavily blue or purple. This one in particular did require 3 coats to get full opacity, however most only require two and had I been a little more careful I am sure I could have used only two for Cement.


I also added some nail art, and below, I have a step by step picture tutorial on how to achieve this design.



What you need for this look-

-Your favorite base coat

-A base colour (I used Cement by Joe Fresh)

-Dotting tools, preferably in two or three sizes. If you do not have a dotting tool, a skinny paint brush with a rounded tip on handle end of it works well for the large dots. A skinny makeup brush, ( the end, not the bristles) or the end of a BIC pen works as well. What you are looking for is something with a semi rounded/semi flat end that is a little smaller than the diameter of a pencil eraser. In fact, a pencil eraser that has been worn down a little would work well unless you have really tiny nails. For the medium size dots, if you open up a bobby pin and use the rubber end, it's perfect. For tiny dots, a tooth pic will work.

-An opaque white polish (I like Sally Hansen White On, or Sinful Snow me White)

-Three colors for the dark dots. I used coordinating colors because I wanted a mono chromatic look, but it would be fun with complimentary or contrasting colors as well. I used Zoya Lael, Zoya Kelly and OPI Planks a Lot.

-Your favorite top coat. I use Seche Vite. I like it for a number of reasons. One being its quick drying time, and intense shine. Secondly, I find it does not drag or smear designs like some other top coats do. I usually only wait about 2 minutes after finishing a design to top coat it.

Ok, on to the tutorial.

After letting the base color dry fairly well, (just to avoid dents and such when doing nail art) I went ahead and added large, and medium white dots on each nail using my largest dotting tool and loading it up with a lot of polish. I used Sally Hansen X-treme Wear in White On. After adding the large white dots to all of the nails, I went back over the white dots randomly using Lael, Kelly and Planks a Lot making slightly smaller dots directly on top of the white dots, so a small portion of the white dot still shows.



As you can see, the design is cute just like this. You could stop here if you are short on time but with each addition it gets more interesting.

Next I went back over each dot again with white, using a smaller dotting tool or if you don't have a smaller one just load less polish on the tool for a smaller dot. This creates a bulls eye effect.


Then just to create more interest and balance, I went in with a tiny dotting tool (a tooth pic would work) and added tiny white dots in between the larger dots.

At this point I thought I was done- but oh no, I can never leave a mani alone when I have an idea. :) So I added dots of Icing No Winning on top of the larger dots for bling factor. It ends up looking a little like I added gems. Completely not necessary, but fun!


After it was all done I top coated it with Seche Vite and it's good to go. If you like you mani's to be really smooth and you find it a little lumpy with nail art or glitter, you can use Gelous (found at Sally beauty Supply) first, then top it with Seche Vite. Gelous does a great job at amping up the shine, and smoothing out any lumps and bumps, and completely seals in those top coat hungry glitters.

I hope you enjoyed this look and have fun trying it out!

Do let me know if you try it out. I would love to see what you did, and what colors you chose.

Thanks again to Erika for having me as a guest poster.

Please visit me at my blog at http://www.pamsgirlybits.blogspot.com for oodles of swatches, nail art and more tutorials.

You can also contact me directly at pamsgirlybits (at) hotmail (dot) com


Cheers!

♥pam♥


8 comments:

  1. Great post! From a fellow Canadian, I love that you showcased Joe Fresh polish. Loved the mani and I love that you didn't "leave it alone". The glitter is the cherry on top this fantastic mani. :)

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  2. This looks so cool, I love it!

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  3. Love the colors and the design.. very nice...

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  4. So cute! I NEED dotting tools!

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  5. I love this! Pam you always do such awesome art!

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  6. Thanks for the love everyone! And thank you again to Erika for hosting my post!

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  7. Love this! Pam you are truly a dotting pro!

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