How to Spruce Up a Boring Mani with Simple Nail Art!

I don't know about you, but even if my manicure lasts for DAYS, I find myself bored by the third day of rocking the same color, no matter how pretty it is. So here, I have for you some very simple ways of jazzing up your manicure without having to change polish. This also works for adding a little something extra when the weekend rolls around.

I have broken down the techniques from beginner to intermediate to advanced to expert, but one thing is for certain: no matter what your skill level is, you'll always be able to show off some fantastic fingers!

Beginner Level: Polka Dots!

Frozen Elsa Holographic Gradient

For those of you who have been following me for a while below nails may not look very familiar to you. There's a very good reason for that!

My younger sister is fourteen and decided to dress up as Elsa from Frozen for Halloween. She wanted something that was Elsa-like on her nails and had previously asked me to create a gradient on her nails for a while. So I figured now was as good of a time as any!

I wanted to use something holographic to create an icy look, like how snow and ice glisten in the sunlight. And of course, who can resist rhinestones?

I used four shades for this blue holographic gradient. From dark to light: Zoya Dream, OPI Blue Chips (aka: OPI The Flowers are Blue-Ming), Wet n Wild Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and OPI DS Shimmer.

I used a bit different of a technique for this gradient than I've used in the past. Normally, I sponge on one color at a time, however, I decided to try a different method. This time, I painted on Who Wants to Be a Millonaire as a base coat and painted the gradient onto a makeup sponge, then dabbed that on my nail.
 
It needed a few touch ups, but I was happy with it and my sister was over the moon.

I added some bling in the form of a rhinestone snowflake... unfortunately, one fell off sometime between the night I painted them and the afternoon I took the picture, but it's still blingtastic to me!

What do you think of this blue holo gradient? Did I do Elsa proud?

Milani Red Chevron Gradient

Happy Hump Day, everybody!

While I'm in prepping mode for NYC Comic Con, I thought I'd post some nail art using three of the new red shades from the Milani Color Statement Collection.

I've actually never worn chevrons (I KNOW, RIGHT?!?), so I thought I'd do a bit of a chevron gradient because there were a ton of beautiful reds in this collection. I have four more to show you still!

From cuticle to tip, I used Enchanting, Modern Rouge, and Red Label.

Enchanting is a gorgeous blackened-red, bordeaux cream, Modern Rouge is a rich cherry red cream, and Red Label is a bright tomato red cream.

I only needed one coat of Enchanting to achieve opacity, while I needed two coats each of Modern Rouge and Red Label.

These are PERFECT colors for the fall!

The new Milani Color Statement line is now available at CVS stores for just $3.99 or from Milani’s website HERE at just $3.99 each.

Keep an eye out for a future review of the remaining reds in the Color Statement polish collection!

Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. For more information please visit my Disclaimer page.

Palm Beach Sunset

Hello, everyone! I'm back!

So sorry I've been away for awhile. My new internship, while awesome, is keeping me crazy busy and my sister's bat-mitzvah just passed. You can only imagine the stress in the run-up to that!

Today, I'm returning with a Sunset Beach. I used Zoya Pippa, Lianne, and Elisa for the gradient, with Zoya Raven for the palm trees.

Originally, I didn't use Zoya Elisa. But I thought the nails needed some extra pop.

But man oh man, was this a hit! And surprisingly, it was incredibly easy to remove!

What do you think of my Palm Beach Sunset nails?

Chinese New Year Gradient

Hello, lovelies! And Happy Chinese New Year!

Today, I'm going to show you my most recent glitter gradient featuring, what else? Red and gold!

In order to achieve this look, you need a cosmetic wedge and two chunky glitter polishes. I chose Julep Oscar and China Glaze Ring in the Red, the latter of which I bought my junior year at Rutgers and hadn't used up until this manicure.

Fair warning, my nails are going to look SO much longer here than the last few posts because I rocked this gradient long before I chopped my nails down! I like them so much better now!

I used three coats of Oscar as a base and sponged Ring in the Red from the tip of the nail down. I really like how this turned out. I think that using chunkier glitter makes for a better fade. The pieces of glitter start to get wedged between each other creating a speckle effect that lends itself really well to a gradient.

The main tip I have is to do VERY light coats when you sponge with the glitter for a good speckle fade. Leaving too much on the sponge makes for a big blob... and nobody wants that!

What do you think of my Chinese New Year gradient? Will you be rocking red and gold today?

Zoya Ornate Gradient

Good Monday morning to you all! I hope your weekend was more enjoyable than mine. I have midterms this week, so need I say more? Didn't think so.

Before all hell broke loose and my brain became a jumble of criminal law statutes and jibberish I'm convinced doesn't actually mean anything, I had a little fun with the scattered holo shades from Zoya's brand new Ornate collection!

Here are the three shades I used (left to right): Blaze, Aurora, and Storm!

I started out with a base of Aurora and then lightly sponged Blaze from the tip of my nail to just before where the half moons start. I repeated this about two or three times per nail until I was happy with the blend. Then I sponged Storm until a little below my visible nail line. I applied Storm lightly, but dabbed polish just at the tip a few times to make it a little more opaque.

Here was the end result:

What do you guys think of the finished product? I'm in LOVE with it!

Princess Polish

Falling Forward Nail Art Challenge: Day 5 - Fall Gradient/Ombre

TGIF, everyone! WOO! I'm headed on a cruise for the weekend (literally, to nowhere), so I'll be MIA through Sunday. But I hope you all are excited for two days off!

The final task of the challenge was the Fall Gradient/Ombre nails! I wanted to do something a little less traditional, so I went searching through my polish drawers and was inspired by my various Zoya reds and purples.

I decided to do almost a fish scale gradient using Zoya Julianne, Jem, Sarah, and Reva. Reva is the base color and Julianne is the the tip. Originally, I had used Valerie as the tip but it's so hard to distinguish it from Jem that it didn't make enough of a difference. This is the mani in sunlight.

I found it to be very interesting when seen in indoor light because Reva and Sarah blend into each other nicely and Julianne sticks out significantly more. It has a nice warm glow to it!

LOVE IT!

Would this be something you try?

Princess Polish

Falling Forward Nail Art Challenge: Day 2 - Beachy/Tropical

Happy Hump Day!

Today's post features Day 2 of the Falling Forward Nail Art Challenging. I struggled a bit with the idea for my mani because I kept taking the theme very literally.

And then looking through my stash, I landed on Maisie Shine Aquarium and came up with an idea that I wound up adoring: a blue glitter gradient with just TWO different polishes and NO mixing!

 

I used two coats of Piggy Polish It's All About Blue, a pale blue creme polish, as a base. Then, starting slightly above the half moons of my nails, I brushed on a thin coat of Aquarium. I repeated the process, starting closer to the tip each time. 

This created a light to dark blue gradient, as well as a glitter gradient with a greater concentration of glitter at the tips. I love how this glimmers in the light, reminding me of seaweed and bubbles and fish swimming around the ocean. I'm kind of obsessed with this right now.

The best part of all is that I didn't need cosmetic sponges or color mixing or a crazy amount of clean up. This literally took me all of twenty-five minutes to paint on. Seriously.

So what do you think? Have any jelly glitters you might want to try this out with?

Princess Polish

Swatch and Review: The New Black Week Day 6 - Typography Manicure

Good morning to you all! Thanks for sticking by me during my sick day yesterday. I still feel a little blah, but at least it's minus the pounding migraine.

Today, I have for you the last set of The New Black for the week. It's more of a nail art set, unlike anything else I have tested out this week, and is called the Times Late Edition set.

Newspaper manicures have become all the rage in the world of nail polish. It's pretty easy and relatively anyone can do it. Unfortunately, there are a few problems.

1) You need to use nail polish remover to do it, leaving an unpleasant smell on your hands or drying out cuticles.

2) The newsprint is from an article of your choosing, but there are bound to be words and phrases you don't want on your nails.

3) Most importantly, THE PRINT IS BACKWARDS! The only way to read your nails is with a mirror!

The typography set, which includes a transfer solution and topcoat, solves this. It includes custom sheets of newsprint with phrases like faith, peace, and believe, printed mirror image style so it comes out readable on your nails. And trust me, if you mess up a few times like I did, it's okay. There are enough sheets in there for at least 40 manicures. I swear.

It also comes with a putty-colored gray that makes your nails look just like a newspaper. I wanted to keep the AWESOME fire gradient from the Runway collection and figured this would be a good opportunity to test out the set on other shades.

It's very simple to do. You cut the print the size of your nail, apply transfer solution all over the nail (don't be stingy with it), place the print on the nail, and apply pressure with a cotton ball so that the print saturates. Thirty seconds later, you're done!

As you can see, the end result was decent. I think with a few more manicures of practice, I could get it perfect. My only issue with the set was that it seemed like I could never get enough transfer solution on my nail to make the full rectangle appear saturated so that the print was dark enough to be visible. I tried to apply the solution over the square when I noticed this, but that was more hurtful than helpful. The harder I pushed with the cotton ball, the more the liquid spread over the paper, so perhaps this takes more practice.

Believe me, I'm going to try this again to get it right because the idea is super smart. That being said, it actually faded with the gradient, so it looked somewhat intentional. Just be sure not to move the print once it's on your nail, as you will wind up with smudged text like on my index finger.

Overall, I think this set has a lot of potential. It just takes a little time to get the hang of.

*SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT*: Be sure to come back to Princess Polish tomorrow, when I'll be giving away a special prize from The New Black. I'm not going to tell you what it is until then, BUT I will say that you should probably go ahead and like TNB's Facebook page to get an early start!

All of The New Black sets are available at Sephora, Nordstrom, and Beauty.com. However, this collection is currently exclusive to Beauty.com. All of the sets, like Graffiti, Haze, Waves, and Runway include five 0.125 fl oz. bottles of polish. Polishes by TNB are 3-free, cruelty-free, and vegan friendly! The sets range from $10 to $32, with the Runway Collection retailing for $32.

Remember to check back in because the fun continues tomorrow with a freebie!
Princess Polish

Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. For more information please visit my Disclaimer page. Product photos provided by The New Black.

Swatch and Review: The New Black Day 4 - Runway Collection Part 1

Hello again, all! The New Black week presses on with part one of the AWESOME Color Barometer 8-piece Runway Collection.

When evaluating how to write about this collection, I realized that while I could definitely wear a different color on each finger, the first four and last four kind of went together. It's a very tropical feel for the first four shades, which are a pinky coral frost, tomato red creme, tangerine frost, and a bright sunny yellow creme.

This was entirely confirmed when I put them on my nails. Not only are the shades gorgeous, but they scream tropical vacation to me! I felt like an island girl with these nails.

Only the red needed two coats, the others I used three to even out the color and make it more opaque. But with a top coat, it came out perfect.

But was I done? No. When am I ever?

I realized that these four were a gradient waiting to happen and that in the spirit of TNB, what I needed was an ombre on each nail. So I got to work and here is the end result:

Oh MAN, I love this! It's like my nails are on fire... and it almost has a watercolor-like effect. You can't make me take this off!

For those of you who had emailed me or commented on the Facebook page to ask if the whole bottle is gone in one mani, I assure you that it's not. The bottle usage in the picture is from TWO full manicures at three coats per nail. You can easily get somewhere between 8-10 manicures out of a TNB bottle of nail polish from any set.

All of The New Black sets are available at Sephora, Nordstrom, and Beauty.com. However, this collection is currently exclusive to Beauty.com. All of the sets, like Graffiti, Haze, Waves, and Runway include five 0.125 fl oz. bottles of polish. Polishes by TNB are 3-free, cruelty-free, and vegan friendly! The sets range from $10 to $32, with the Runway Collection retailing for $32.

Overall, I LOVED the range of nail polish shades in this half of collection and for a cost of $4 a bottle, I think it's worth it.

Stay tuned for part two tomorrow!
Princess Polish

Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. For more information please visit my Disclaimer page. Product photos provided by The New Black.

Easter Mani Day 1: Gradient Dots + A Contest

I mentioned on the Princess Polish Facebook page that I would be doing a different Easter-themed manicure Monday-Friday to give you some inspiration for Easter Sunday.  But I need something to post on Saturday and that's where you come in!

Please email me (PrincessPolishBlog@gmail.com) your best Easter mani idea and I will post the top five on Saturday! You can submit them to me through Friday 4/6 at 8pm EST, when the contest will close. I'll be sending each winner a surprise polish in the mail, so be sure to enter!

Now, onto Day 1!

As you all know by now, my love for Zoya is unending. Hence, my Beach and Surf Collection giveaway. So upon rifling through my personal collection, I came to realize that the shades I owned the most of were Zoya blues.

I didn't have the patience to sit and use a cosmetic sponge to do an actual blue gradient like the one I did last fall. So I decided the next best thing would be gradient dots.

Going through my polish, I tried to shades that flowed well together and finally made up my mind.

From left to right, I picked out Ibiza, Tart, Tallulah, Jo, Kristen, and later on, Maisie. I didn't quite know what I wanted to use as the base color for the five, then I realized I could use Kristen as the base. Since I've been dying to get some use out of Maisie, I put on two coats of her after two coats of Kristen.

Instead of doing the dots straight across, I wanted to add a little bit of a wave to them. It ws very easy with my double-ended dotting tool. Some look straighter than others. Here's the end result:

 And here is the mani in the sun! You can really see the fleck effect from Maisie!

Would this be something you would wear for Easter? If you decide to try it, please feel free to post the picture on the Facebook page!

Princess Polish

Shelby's Dragon Lady Nails

My roommate, Shelby, had a big date last weekend and was super in the mood for red nails. Having only lived together since the beginning of the month, she had no idea the amount of nail polish I possess and asked if my other roommates, Cynthia and Charlotte, or I had any red polish she could borrow.

So I broke out my box of polishes and watched as her eyes widened with excitement.

Having just completed my first gradient (see blue gradient manicure a few posts below), I decided to try a version of a glitter gradient.

Shelby picked out an old school burgundy Rimmel named Shocker, I grabbed my favorite China Glaze of all time, Ruby Pumps, and went to work.

The result was pretty cute and something I might try again for myself, but this time, with a darker red shade that borders on black. OPI Black Cherry Chutney, for example.



And for those of you who were wondering... the date went even better than the manicure looked.

Gradient Tutorial

I have been dying to try a gradient for as long as I can remember. So as a reward for sitting through my three hour LSAT class, I decided to sit down to watch Project Runway and break out the nail polish. And I couldn't believe how easy it turned out to be, using just nail polish and a makeup sponge.



(From left to right: China Glaze Blue Iguana, Wet and Wild Sapphire Blue, Zoya Ibiza, Rimmel Midnight Blue, and Sally Hansen Black Diamond)

Here are the five polishes that I used. You can use less, or even more if you're ambitious, but it's up to you. These shades aren't mandatory at all, go with what you have. I found that these were a nice gradient of blue and even though Blue Iguana was substantially lighter than Sapphire Blue, I think it really made the manicure pop in the end. So take that under consideration.

Also, if you're thinking about using a black with some sparkle like I did, use one that is a true black that's not grainy. Black Diamond looks okay on the tips, but being nitpicky, I didn't really love the grainy look and feel of it in the end. It doesn't blend as well as another black. You may be better off using a black satin color and then adding a hint of glitter with a top coat at the end. But it's totally up to you!

Are you ready to become a gradient pro? Well, let's get started!

1) Tape your fingers. I can't tell you how much easier this would have made my life, considering how hard it is to get blue nail polish off without staining your skin. One pieces on each side of the nail and right below would make your manicure much cleaner looking. Take my word for it.



2) Apply two coats of your lightest blue.



3) Using your second blue, swipe a line of polish across the WHOLE tip of your makeup sponge and dab it twice on a nonporous surface (in my case, a paper bowl) to prevent uneven sponging.

IMPORTANT: Wait until your base polish is only slightly sticky to the touch before you start the sponging process or you'll create goopy bumps that will ruin your hard work. I promise, the extra wait is worth it.



4) Starting at the tip of the nail and using the whole width of the sponge so it curves around your nail, lightly dab the sponge down your nail, leaving a small amount of your base color at the bottom.




If you notice that the polish did not sponge well to the sides of your nail, repeat the sponging process using the corner of the sponge on those bare areas.

5) Repeat steps 4 and 5 for as many colors as you desire, EXCEPT your last color, lessening the length of the sponged area as you go.

Here is how the sponging looked after Zoya Ibiza and Rimmel Midnight Blue:






6) For your last color, apply the polish to the sponge as your did for the others. When you dab this time, do so until you barely see any polish on the plate/bowl. This will make the color much sheerer on the nail, but will look like a more even blend. This may require more than one repeat of sponging until you get a true dark tip (in my case, black), but it will look blended instead of just a painted tip.



Don't worry that your nails look spongy, that will be solved in the next step.

7) Now, remove your tape and apply a top coat! I use Seche Vite because I find it creates the smoothest surface, especially when using grainy glitter or sponging. Plus, it's dry time cannot be beat.

Here is the end product, with a little nail art flower:



Happy sponging!

Cherry Blossom Nails

I've been dying to try to do a sponge gradient on my nails for a while now and figured yesterday was as good of a day as any. Using a makeup sponge was surprisingly easy after a few failed tries, but I got the hang of it rather quickly.

I used Milani She's So Glitzy with Zoya Breezi for the tips.

Here was the end result with my cherry blossoms painted on:



Just a tip, I've found that blotting the sponge repeatedly until it barely leaves a print makes the application much lighter on the nails, giving it a better fade. It's always easier to go back over than to put on too much and start again. You'll get the hang of it pretty quickly, I promise. :)