Pinterest Challenge: Nail Art Edition

Image via Young House Love

 

It's that time again...it's Pinterest Challenge time! Hosted by Sherry of Young House Love, Katie of Bower Power, Megan from The Remodeled Life, and Michelle from Decor & The Dog in an effort to stop pinning and start doing. This marks my third time participating in the Pinterest Challenge! Looking back at my old projects I always seem to whip up something girly. I've done a bow clutch, a hair accessory organizer, and this go around I decided to try my hand (pun intended) at some nail art. My instinct is to write a disclaimer here (you know, about my DIY manicure shortcomings) but I won't.

 

Let me first share my Pinspiration. I found several beautiful and awesome nail ideas. My goal was to just do a little experimenting and maybe discover a new technique for doin' my nails at home. I thought this was very chic and looked very simple to do.

 

No link available. Sorry! : (

 

I loved all of the ideas below and you'll see glimpses of that pinky idea in the looks that I did.

Image via The  Berry (click on picture to follow the link)

 

These map nails are SUPER COOL! I didn't get to try it out but I will definitely have to do so very soon.  

 

Image via Need Supply Co. (click on picture to follow link) 

 

For my first attempt at some at-home nail art, I used the following colors: Loreal After Dark (navy), Loreal Not a Cloud in Sight (turquoise), and Nicole by OPI in The Next CEO (gold).

 

 

I used the navy as my main color, added one finger of turquoise for a pop of color and applied some gold triangles to the navy. To add the triangles, I taped them off with mailing labels  that I cut up like so...

 

 This is what the final product looked like. Thank you Instagram for being so forgiving because my manicure skills left much to be desired. I always end up with polish all over the place! So, I wore this around for a day and decided it wasn't my favorite look.

 

 

 I decided to lighten things up by using white polish and the same turquoise and gold color as before. I started with this...

 

 

Then, I added the little triangle detail and tried out the gold stone technique like my first inspiration piece showed with a piece of plastic wrap. I simply added a little gold polish to my ball of plastic wrap and dabbed it over the white nails.

 

 

So, my little DIY manicure was fun because I learned some new ways to add interest to my nails. On the other hand, I also came to the conclusion that...

A. I need longer nails

and

B.  I need some professional intervention to clean up my dry cuticles.

I think I"ll be gettin' on the sooner than later!

Do you have any nail wisdom to pass along to me?

 Any fave products to deal with dry cuticles?

 

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to head over to Young House Love to see all of the amazing projects out there. You gotta love Pinterest Challenge day!