With the advent of Pinterest and Tumblr and various other social media outlets the creativity of the world has dramatically erupted and I have to say, our world is way prettier because of it. Not that all these innovative and unique ideas and people didn’t exist before these site, but I definitely believe that they have helped to publicize and really help to spread the ideas.
But with all these new nail trends comes quite a challenge: recreating them yourself when your in a hurry! I know that I don’t exactly have a ton of time to handcraft an intricate design on my nails, let alone the fact that I am still quite shaky when not painting with my good hand. So I have crafted two of my own go-to nail designs that are simple, quick and super fun!
“Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!”
My first nail design that I tend to go with is the classic Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! This is a demure manicure perfect for those who are keen on the finer details in life. I am adorned with the color pink, so I chose a faint shade of pink for my base. It is a matte, which is nice to have for a solid foundation. I painted two coats of this color.
Then I decided to add a chic stripe on the left side of each of my nails. Again, I went with a sparkly pink to keep in line with my color scheme, but you can always add another color here as color-blocking is huge! The first coating was pretty, but I really wanted to sparkle, so I added another coat to each nail. Of course, I always like to showcase my ring fingers – I think it is just the perfect accent finger. I chose to paint the entire nail with the sparkle that I used on the other fingers. And again, I went with two coats for that super glistening finish.
But I wasn’t done there. I still felt it needed a little something to really take it up a notch, so I went with an even darker shade of a sparkling pink nail polish (yes I own quite a lot of this color) and created a super-thin line on the edge of my nails where the sparkle line was. I topped the Marcia, Marcia, Marcia off with clear to seal in the sparkling perfection!
“Staircase to Success!”
My other go-to look is what I like to call the chic Staircase to Success! Yes, that is quite the name for a manicure, but it certainly deserves it. This powerful manicure has structure and elegance, and of course includes a dash of sparkle! I decided to go with a black and grey color scheme for it this time, because it went with my outfit of course.
The base of the manicure is a shimmering silver/grey polish. I like it because it is sleek but not too much, so it can certainly still be professional. It is a sheer color, so I went with two coats for my base, but it certainly could have worked with one. I then began to build my staircase with a shimmering black nail polish. The shimmer makes the polish not as black to me. On my pinky nail was the smallest line of black, then I began painting more and more of each nail, having my thumb nail completely covered with the black polish.
A good height key for this would be your middle finger completely split in half with grey and black. For the stairs I went with two coats yet again to really make sure the black was a punch of color and stood out. Be careful on that second coat though, it can be easy to get carried away and paint over that first line you created. To finish it I wanted to set apart my ring fingers again, so I decided to paint over the black stair on those nails with a sparkling black nail polish. This is an extremely subtle detail on the Staircase to Success that to the average eye one might not notice, but if you look closely you can see the glimmer on those nails!
