"Ki-wi?" Or "When fruits go bad."

So, I was all jazzed about our classroom fruity fiesta and decided to try more nail art. Kiwis can't be so hard to make, right guys? Right? Guys?

I began with two coats of Revlon Posh for the kiwi base. Posh is a bright, green which reminds me of the new grass during spring. This creme applies like a dream! I probably could have gotten away with one solid coat of polish (I just always prefer two).

Two coats of Revlon Posh. 

So gorgeous!

And then I created this monster. I started with an oval dollop of OPI Alpine Snow. I took a nail brush to create the white kiwi lines. I probably should have used a toothpick or a thinner brush in order to make it more delicate. A small dotting tool and China Glaze Liquid Leather completed the kiwi.

Ugh. This kiwi is rotten.

Yeah, no bueno. But, that's the beauty of nail art. Sometimes you need to fail (epically) in order to keep motivated and in order to improve.

Let's get fruity!

We have been studying various fruits in my preschool classroom, and after the success of Watermelon Day manicure, I tried my hand at some festive strawberries.

I started with two coats of Zoya America - the prefect tomato (or in this case, strawberry) red creme! My photo doesn't do it justice - it's really a bright, beautiful red.

   

 

After a quick layer of top coat, I added a line of China Glaze Starboard to the top of my nail. Using a small nail brush, I created the triangle points. After finishing all the strawberry tops, I used China Glaze Lemon Fizz and a toothpick to make the seeds.
 

Ta da! Quick and easy strawberries :)

I think these turned out super cute!

World Cat Day

I just found out it was World Cat Day - I'm the worst crazy cat lady on the planet! I quickly threw together some nail art to celebrate. Please be advised I did this in under an hour, and while it's not the greatest, it does a smile on my face and I had to share.

I wanted a neutral background, so I began with China Glaze Seashell. I don't normally do "office friendly" or nude colors very often, primarily because I love bright colors, but one of my issues with nudes is because I dislike having to do more than one or two coats of nail polish. This is three coats of Seashell, and you can still see some bald spots. It's a great peach-y color, but at three to four coats, I don't recommend this (unless I have a fluke bad bottle).

On to the kitties!

 

Pointer: I used China Glaze Liquid Leather and a dotting tool to make a cat silhouette. I know these are normally thin, graceful cats, but this is an homage to my fatty mcfatterton, Mr. Nibs and is a little bulkier on the tush.

Middle and ring: China Glaze Life Preserver and China Glaze Ingrid for the cat faces. China Glaze Starboard for the eyes and Zoya Shelby for noses and ears.

Happy World Cat Day everyone! But especially to Nibbler.

Watermelon Day

Did you know that August 3rd is National Watermelon Day? Well, now you do :)

Watermelon nails in natural sunlight.

How to:

I began with two coats of OPI Alpine Snow. Next, a quick dry top coat was added to make sure that the nails were completely dry before applying striping tape (otherwise, it becomes a gooey mess). Top coating a base color whenever you do nail art is also a great idea, because if you mess any details up, you can use nail polish remover to fix your mistake, without destroying your carefully painted base color.

The striping tape helped make a clean white line for the mani, and also acted as a guide where the melon and the rind would be painted. One finger at a time, I used a generous coat of butter London Snog and Zoya Yara, quickly removing the striping tape on the nail before any polish dried to create a clean, sharp line. Then, I would move onto the next nail, continuing the process until I was finished.

Under a lamp, indoors. You can see the yellows
in Yara better than the first photo.

I think they turned out pretty cute. Now, off to celebrate this holiday with some delicious, ice cold watermelon slices!