Basket weave WAH Inspired Nail Art

2012-07-05T02:00:00.000-04:00

One day I looked through the price list of the WAH Nail Art Salons. Looking through, I saw plenty of designs that I wanted to try. I settled on the basket weave look. It's very simple and only requires a base color and striper brush.

I started with two coats of Illamasqua DWS. It's a medium grey polish with an excellent formula. It was the first Illamasqua purchase which sparked my love for their polishes. Currently I only own two but I am looking to add more of their lacquers to my collection. Next, I used a black nail art striper brush from Sinful Colors to create the basket weave design.

All photos are under artificial lighting.

On To The Next Polish,

Katie

Fourth of July Nail Art

2012-07-04T15:13:00.001-04:00

Caviar Fish Egg Striped Nail Art Tutorial

2012-07-03T02:00:00.000-04:00

Like many other nail bloggers, I've dived into the microbead/caviar/fish egg nail look. You may know the controversy surrounding Ciate and other nail bloggers. Basically, Ciate wanted to claim this look as their own but they weren't the first to do this look. They were the first to produce a kit that you can purchase for $25 to do this look your own. Or you could go to Michael's craft store and purchase microbeads yourself.

I went to Michael's with a mission: to find the microbeads. I found several sets from the Martha Stewart collection and a brand named Recollections. I decided to pick up a six-pack of microbeads from Recollections. For the look below, I used the bead color "Passion".

I created a look with pink microbeads with black criss cross stripes on the nail. I loved the look but wish it was more practical. Microbeads were constantly falling out though I only wore this look for less than a day. The design still looked good but I hated finding little beads everywhere.

I decided to create a tutorial for this to better explain my process. Enjoy!

First, I applied black nail polish and let it dry. I used Spoiled Visually Slimming.

Then I cut small strips of striper tape, purchased from eBay, and placed them in a criss cross pattern on my nail.

Next, I applied top coat over every nail one at a time.

Each nail was dipped into a small container where I placed my microbeads. I find that dipping nails into a bowl is much easier than sprinkling them on which I've seen in some methods.

The nail should look like this.

Finally, I removed the striper tape and slightly altered some of the beads' positions to create my final look.

It's always a good day when your manicure matches your shirt. :)

What do you think of this design? I really loved the final look. Was the tutorial useful? Have you ever tried microbead nails before? I'd love to know. I can't wait to try different looks and different bead colors.

On To The Next Polish,

Katie