Argyle Nails

Hello, all! Today I'm going to do a tutorial for something I've been wanting to try out for a while. After multiple camera and painting issues, I'm not quite sure if I love how this one turned out, but it's still plenty of fun to do.

You will need:

- Base coat

- white polish

- three different polishes of your choice 

- a black striper

- top coat

Start out with a base coat. Then paint two coats of a solid white on all nails.

Sally Hansen - Hard to Get

Use your three colors to make little triangles on the tips of each nail. I used each of the colors in a random order on each hand. Try to get the point of each triangle in the very center of your nail. You can use two coats, but I used one just because for whatever reason, I really liked the splotchy paint look.

From L-R: China Glaze - Secret Peri-wink-le, First Mate, and Exotic Encounters

Now make a second triangle on each nail, again with the tip of it in the center. You should get a sort of hourglass shape.

Now use your striper to make diagonal lines across the hourglasses, like in the picture.

It's So Easy Stripe-Rite Black

Finish up by painting the rest of the lines. 

And then it's time for cleanup and a top coat!

I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial. It's quick and easy and it even matches your favorite pair of argyle socks!

Don't forget to follow! The button is on the top right of the page. You can also 'like' Muffin Nails on Facebook and follow on Twitter.

Thanks for reading!

Spiffy New Polishes

I happened to have an extremely lucky week in terms of nail polish haul and thought I would share what I found with you. 

First, I took a trip to Sally Beauty Supply to pick up a new top coat and a white striper. Here's what I ended up with! China Glaze's Hunger Games Polishes were all on sale, so I snatched three of them for just $3.29 each.

L-R: China Glaze - Smoke and Ashes,
Electrify, Foie Gras

I also found a gorgeous navy polish by China Glaze, which I had to get because I don't find many blues that I like. It's much lighter than it appears in the picture. I also found my new top coat, along with the striper. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I also got a ridge sealer to help fix up my poor nails.

L-R: China Glaze - First Mate, Northern Lights Hologram
Top Coat Silver,  It's so Easy Stripe Rite - White

I was also finally able to get my hands on some nail glue. I am already in love with this kit, and the once-chipped tips of my nails are now perfectly smooth thanks to this. 

Orly Nail Rescue Kit

And yesterday, you'd never guess what I recieved! More polish! This was all from a family friend who had some extras she didn't need. First are some amazing pale pink-purple colors.

L-R: OPI - Steady as She Rose,
Sparrow Me the Drama

 I also got some new shatter polishes:

L-R: OPI - Silver Shatter, Red Shatter

 This package happened to come with another top coat, so I have a bunch of different ones to use now! The other polish in the picture is a spiffy pearly white that I am DYING to try out.

L-R: Sally Hansen Strengthening Top Coat,
Pure Ice - Platinum

So all in all, I think I've had a pretty good week nail polish-wise. A bunch of these are going to be included in my upcoming tutorials, and I'm excited to try them all out. Are there any of these you'd like to see in my next tutorial? Tell me below! And don't forget to follow!

Piggies!

Hello, guys! Today I thought I’d try out something I’ve wanted to do for a long time on my nails. So without further rambling on my part, please enjoy this tutorial on decorating your nails with cute little piggies!

You will need:

- Base coat

- White polish

- Light pink polish

- A darker pink polish

- A Black striper

- Brown polish

- Top Coat

Paint your nails with a base coat as usual, and then paint all nails with two coats of white polish.

Sally Hansen - Timeless White

Next, use the light pink polish to make semi-circles on your thumbs and ring fingers.

Unforgettable Moments - Twirl

Use the darker pink to outline the nose and ears.

Unforgettable Moments - Ballroom

Using the black striper, draw the eyes and nose.

It's So Easy Stripe Rite - Black

With the brown polish, dab a large amount onto the tips of your first fingers, middle fingers, and pinkies. Make separate dots of varying sizes on the nails and connect them to the main amount of polish at the top to get the dripping mud look (I apologize that the polish looks black in the picture, but it is meant to be brown).

Essie - Little Brown Dress

Now all you need is a top coat and these little critters will be ready for a night on the town!

Northern Lights Hologram Silver Top Coat

I hope you love these cute little piggies as much as I did! Let me know in the comments what you'd like to see in the next tutorial and don't forget to follow!

-Muffin

Pokemon Nails

I recently rediscovered the fun game that is Pokemon, and couldn't help but recreate one of my favorite little critters on my nails. This tutorial will teach you how to design your nails like a Pokemon Master!

You will need: 

- Base coat 

- White polish 

- A plastic bag

- Yellow Polish

- Black Striper / Black nail polish and tooth pick

- White striper / white nail polish and tooth pick

- Red nail polish

- Top coat

As usual, paint a base coat at the beginning to protect your nails.

Paint on two light coats of white polish on all nails.

Sally Hansen - Timeless White

Pikachu Nails:

 I was going to use the plastic bag technique. However, I ran out of time waiting for them to dry and had to quickly freehand them on my nails instead. I forgot to take step-by-step pictures for the freehand ones, though, so I will show the ones I did using the plastic bag technique.

First, paint on little Pikachu shapes roughly the same size as your third fingers and thumbs onto a plastic bag.

Sally Hansen - Lightening

Next, use a black striper to make the eyes and nose.

It's So Easy Stripe Rite - Black 

Fill in the eyes with white.

Sally Hansen - Timeless White

Now use red polish to make the little cheeks.

Kiss Colors - True Red

Let this dry for 1-4 hours, until you can easily peel it off.

Pokeball Nails:

While you are waiting for the Pikachu nails to dry on the plastic bag, finish the pokeball nails.

First, paint the top halves of the pinkies, index, and middle finger nail red. I also did this freehand, but if you don’t have a steady hand or dislike painting with your non-dominant hand, then you can use tape to guide it.

Kiss Colors - True Red

Use a black striper to outline the separation between the white and red.

It's So Easy Stripe Rite - Black

Draw a black dot in the center.

It's So Easy Stripe Rite - Black

Draw a white dot in the center of the black dot.

Sally Hansen - Timeless White

Finishing Up:

Once the Pikachu drawings are dry, carefully peel them off and place them on your thumbs and third fingers.

Cover each nail with a top coat.

L.A. Colors - Base coat / topcoat

And that’s it! I hope you liked having this cute pokemon on your nails!

- Muffin

Color Blocking, Part 2

This is part two of my last post. Here I'll spiff up the color blocking design even more!

You will need:

- your nails, already painted with the color blocking design

- a black striper

- top coat

Use the black striper to outline the different colors.

It's So Easy Stripe Rite - Black

Next, use it to make stripes on the blue section.

It's So Easy Stripe Rite - Black

Use the striper to make lines going a different direction in the yellow section.

It's So Easy Stripe Rite - Black

Finally, draw stripes going a third direction in the green section.

It's So Easy Stripe Rite - Black

Follow up with a top coat and you're done!

L.A. Colors - base coat / topcoat

Thanks for reading!

Verticle Stripes

Hello, all! 

I really loved my new colors from last week, so I just had to use them again. So I used both Essie's Navigate Her and my black striper in this design. Enjoy!

You will need:

- Base coat

- Light Green polish

- Gold polish

- A Black striper

- Top coat

First paint your nails with the base coat. Next, paint it two solid coats of the green. 

Essie - Navigate Her

Now use the gold nail polish to create a vertical stripe down each nail.

China Glaze - Harvest Moon

Take the black striper to outline the edges of each gold stripe.

It's So Easy Stripe Rite - Black

Cover with a top coat and that's it!

Sally Hansen - Super Shine

This design is quick, professional, and easy. I hope you all have a great week, and please leave your comments below!

- Muffin

Green Leaves

Happy monday! I happened to come across some new nail polish this weekend, and I decided to use it in a design. I hope you like it!

You will need:

- Base coat

- A light green nail polish (I used Essie's Navigate Her, one of my new finds)

- Makeup sponges/art sponge brush/etc.

- A dark green nail polish (Here is China Glaze's Agro, one of the colors in the Hunger Games themed line)

- A yellow nail polish

- Black striper

- Top coat

First, paint on a base coat to protect your nails. Next, paint two coats of the lighter green.

Take the sponge and dab a bit of the darker green polish onto it. Using the sponge, lightly press nail polish onto the top one third of each nail. Place more polish onto the sponge as necessary.

Your nails should end up looking somewhat like this. This method is naturally messy, so save the cleanup of your cuticles and skin for the very end. 

Using the same sponging method, dab on the yellow nail polish onto the top third of each nail. Your fingers should now look like this. 

Using the black striper, draw a line straight down the center of each nail.

Next, use the striper to paint diagonal lines branching out from the center line. 

Cover your nails with a clear coat and use a cotton swab and nail polish remover to clean up any unwanted polish.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Please post your questions and comments below- I'd love to hear what you think!

- Muffin