Election Day!

Today is Election Day in the United States! I am a strong advocate for voting and I think that every person who is eligible needs to exercise their right and civic duty. Voting is something that people in the U.S. take for granted, and that needs to change. I created a nail art look that will hopefully remind some of you to head out to the polls or official drop sites to make sure your vote counts before 8pm tonight! I dropped off my ballot at an official drop site last night. In Oregon we have vote by mail and it is too late to mail it, so please google your nearest official drop site in your county!

On to the nails! I started with a base color of Color Club Mamba and then added the stripes with stripping paint. I then let everything dry and taped off the lower section and painted the upper section with China Glaze One Track Mind (to be reviewed very soon). I added top coat and waited for that to dry then I painted little stars and top coated again. On my ring finger I just painted Mamba and carefully added the letters with paint from the stripper.

Nail Art: Patriotic Roses

I have an exciting mani to share today! Patriotic Roses! I recently went to a meet up with other nail polish lovers in my area and we talked about doing "Portland/Fourth of July" themed nails. Since Portland is the Rose City I combined that with the fourth of July colors and created this. I used my nail vinyls for the first time, which was really exciting! I used so many polishes here:

1. Essie- Aruba Blue

2. Sinful Colors- Snow Me White

3. Essie- First Timer

4. Color Club- Wild Cactus

5. OPI-Quarter of a Cent-Cherry

6. Ruffian- Ruffian Red

7. Nika K- Red

8. Essie- Head Mistress

Phew, seriously that was a ton of polish! I also used a red acrylic, because I realized part way through that all of my reds are very similar in tone. Oh well, here is the final look:

Nail Art: Patriotic Nail Designs!

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July!! Independence day kinda snuck up on me there. I love how festive things are for the fourth. BBQs, camping, fireworks and parades are just a few things that always remind me of the fourth of July. For the occasion, I thought I would share some red, white and blue inspired nail art!

Water Marble

Glitter Gradient and Doticure

Simple Flag Design

First up is the water marble design. Water marbling is hard work! I haven't mastered the art yet, but I'm trying. You can find lots of tutorials on YouTube, but it really takes practice. I find that you really have to find thin polishes that separate immediately, if not, it won't work. I use regular tap water, but I try to use colder water. After I water marbled my nails, I just added some contrasting dots. I really love the dotted effect. 

This is what the water marble looks like before you dip your finger.

Next up is a crazy design that uses a couple different techniques and looks great! I painted my nails blue with white accent nails. On the blue ones I added a glitter gradient just using the brush, no special tools. After that, I just added a ton of dots on the white nails.

Last but not least, I have a very simple American Flag design. This was inspired by Miss Jen Fabulous on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaTEKSqPBpk. As you can see, she definitely inspires me!! I just used regular tape to make the stripes, freehand painted the blue and used a dotting tool for the "stars".

These are the colors used for all designs. From left to right: Essie "Head Mistress", NYC "French White Tip" (really clever name...), Pure Ice "Celestial". The red photographed a little strange in some of these photos, but I really love the tone of this red. 

This was really fun for me. I love themed nail art! Well, I love all nail art, but I especially love themed nail art and I love America! I hope you all get to try some patriotic nail art. It is a very small way to show pride in the USA. Thanks for reading!!