tutorials

CONFETTI NAILS

photos/post/graphic design: Kristin Ess post sponsored by Beauty.com

There are so many reasons to celebrate — your birthday, friends’ birthdays, holidays and every day in between. Today we’re partnering up with Beauty.com to celebrate their Friends & Family Event (which is happening now!) and to show you a crafty way to add this pretty party to your nails. My favorite part about this manicure is that you’re just punching out tissue paper circles and applying them to the nail. No major skills required, unlike most nail art! Here we go:

  1. Punch out tissue paper circles. Put about 5-7 pieces on top of each other to get a good solid punch.
  2. Paint the base of the nails with any color you want. We used Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Nail Lacquer in Cruising because clearly metallic gold says party.
  3. Use a pen to pick up the pieces of confetti and lay them down on the wet nail polish. Make a couple pieces overlap and/or cut some of the pieces down so you can lay them against the cuticle as seen in the final photo.
  4. Let some of the confetti pieces hang over the edge and trim them down when you’re done laying them all down.
  5. Once all of the pieces are where you want them, go over the whole nail with a good top coat!

The Beauty.com Friends & Family Event is a twice-yearly event that gives you the rare opportunity to enjoy 20% off your favorite brands, like Urban Decay, Philosophy, Deborah Lippmann & many more. It ends on Friday 11/9 at 11:59pm PST!

tutorials

NAILED IT!

photos/post/graphic design: Kristin Ess

Have no fear, the dreamcatcher mani is here! We obviously have a love affair with nail art at TBD, and now we’re adding little more dimension. For this look, I grabbed a couple things from a craft box– some lace, grey string and white string. Let’s get to it! READ MORE…

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MANI MONDAY: MOVE OVER OMBRÉ NAILS!

photos/post/graphic design: Kristin Ess

photos/post/graphic design: Kristin Ess

Gradient layers are so beautiful and we’ve seen them everywhere– from clothing, to cakes, to flowers. We thought it would be really fun to incorporate this look into a Mani Monday post. Lately I’ve really wanted a new spin on the “Ombre Nail” and I think we might have found it. There are a couple of things you need to know before starting this manicure. One: get a color that’s incredibly rich and dark so that as you dilute it for each layer you can get plenty of variation. Two: I had to attempt this 3 times in order to get it right, so come equipped with a little patience. Three: You could do this with different colors but you won’t get the same look because there’s a “see through” quality that you get when you dilute a dark polish color with a clear polish that you wouldn’t get when layering regular nail polish. It’s almost like one stain layered over the next stain. The best part is that all of the colors stem from the original polish color so the tone will be exactly the same throughout. Here we go: READ MORE…

tutorials

DIY NAIL POLISH STORAGE IDEA

photos/post/graphic design: Kristin Ess

It’s fall cleaning time, girls!! Here’s a fancy little idea for storing your nail polish collection. We all love to have a few favorite colors sitting out on the vanity but since nail art has become such a huge trend, you may be the proud owner of LOTS of polishes. In this DIY, you’ll basically be giving a shoe box a quick “pretty paper” makeover and then filling it up with your polish. But instead of just throwing your polishes in the box, we’re going to put dots on top so you can keep the box nice and neat! Here we go: READ MORE…

tutorials

NEW FAVORITE!

photos/post/graphic design: Kristin Ess

I’m sure some of you have stumbled upon this little trick before, but I had never. I was sitting in my office last week and wanted to put some dots on my nails but didn’t have my dotting tool, a bobby pin or anything even close in size. I grabbed a mechanical pencil and tried to use it to make dots. I got SO excited! This was the first time I’ve ever been able to make dots that tiny and have them be perfect. It’s such a small detail but it makes all the difference! I’ve used every tool in the book, but this one, for some reason, works so much better than anything else. A week after discovering my new favorite thing, I grabbed both the dotting tool AND mechanical pencil and combined dot sizes for a tutorial. The result was super cute and “fizzy” looking. Here’s how it’s done: READ MORE…