tiger

Here's another easy touch-up technique that can double as a kind of simple pseudo nail art.  This time, I'll upgrade the plain Damsel in a Dress nails, which I've enjoyed for several days now.  Inspired by some random ad I saw at Sephora, I decided to add a tiger seal pattern to my left hand (right hand is, let's admit it, difficult to do, besides the fact that doing weird stuff on both hands is over-kill).  Using gold regular paint pen -- yes the kind you use to draw on post-cards and stuff -- I drew random tiger-like patterns on my ring finger nail.  I felt like having one nail with a seemingly continuous pattern was a bit awkward, so I let it "spill over" to my adjacent nails.  Finished it off with top coat (I recommend Seche Vite's dry fast top coat by far, but any top coat works.  I'll mention it on a later post) so that the paint pen doesn't come off.  Turned out decent, I think, and certainly gave them a new fresh look.

excuse any typos while my nails dry...

This color is awesome!  Well, Rock Star Skinny is too, but Essie's Damsel in a Dress is in a different way.  It looks exactly like the grape juice I'm drinking, actually, with a hint of brown because of tiny gold sparkles that give it its shine.  But it's not glittery and gaudy, retaining much of the translucent and succulent feel, just like the juice!  Or if you prefer, think of rich, aged wine in a super clean glass.  Really dark cherries would do too! Ok, maybe I got a little too excited about this.

I was actually going to attempt some nail art suggestions that I saw at Sephora, but that's going to have to wait a bit.  Don't want to ruin them just yet.

what chipping?

Just around the time that the nail polish starts getting a little dull or chipping at the edges, I will have a little fun reviving them before removing.   I don't usually play around with them at the beginning for fear of ruining them, but why not after a week or so.  This time I added black tips with gold lining using a ghetto technique.  The gold is actually ::gasp:: paint pen, while the black is pa nail color A112 that I've mentioned before.  Put on a layer of top coat and you get the original shine back, and the marker line will stay on; it's an easy way to get fancy with your nails.  Note again how rich the Rock Star Skinny color is -- it looks so different in different lighting.