Nailed it!!

I dare you to do this. I mean, who on EARTH would do this? Hysterical!! Haha this made my day.

I wasn’t always into nails.  I grew up as an athlete and the only time I really cared about my nails was around prom time where I’d always get a hideous acrylic set that I eventually chewed off.  As a result I had sore, chipped finger nails all summer.  Being a child of the 80s & 90s and growing up in NJ I’ve been exposed to it all.  The airbrushed neon flames, an intricately painted scene on a two-inch ring fingernail, and more rhinestones and decals than my mind lets me remember.  I was so young then, but I’m still reminded of this time mostly because there are a few of those Bon Jovi t-shirt clad Jersey girls from the 80s still lurking out there.  We all know what the Korean nail technicians are saying about them as they dust off the box of rhinestones to get set up for their appointments.  We don’t understand it and it’s barely audible, but we know.  Get with it ladies!

Some totally rad nails.

As an adult I’ve learned to appreciate a nicely manicured hand and I’m LOVING all the nail art trends.  I just think nail polish is such a genius and subtle way to show your style.  There are certain trends that are my go tos, like the “odd man out” nail.  It’s just wearing a complementing color on your ring fingernail.  I also like to do it with a design nail.  I’ve seen so many things on style blogs and pinterest that I love and that I’ve been dying to try but honestly sometimes with my kids crawling all over me it’s tough to paint my nails.  I know I can get them done at a nail salon like most people, but I get aggravated if it doesn’t turn out the way I like.  Somethings I think I can just do better myself.

“the odd man out” look with a graphic print

My favorite nail polish brand is Essie and has been for years.  They have every color you could ever want for any occasion and they are always right on top of the latest trend.  Best part is that you only used to be able to buy them online or in nail salons but now they carry them in CVS!  Smart move Essie, smart move.  I cannot go into CVS without buying at least one.  The basic colors retail for $8.

When browsing through the latest CVS display something new caught my eye.  Essie has answered their competition with a new UV cured, long-lasting nail applique called Sleek Stick.  I had to buy and try!  This is what it looks like…

I bought these in “oh my gold.” Retails for $10.25

I bought these in “oh my gold.”  They come with 18 applique strips, 1 cuticle stick, 1 file, and a set of instructions.  I’ve used a similar product made by Sally Hansen and I couldn’t wait to try Essie’s version.  Basically you take off any existing nail polish, wash your hands, and push back your cuticles with the cuticle stick provided.  Then you choose an applique for each nail that best fits (that’s why there are 18 instead of 10).  Then you simply apply the applique to your bare nail applying even pressure on your entire nail, fold the excess over the tip of your nail and use the file to file it off.  It’s that simple…

This is what they look like before you fold the excess over and file it off. Please excuse my short fat fingers. Another one of my enviable qualities…

My hands are small I know, but they’re not yours they are my own… lol.

There you have it! Finished product.

I have a few recommendations when doing this.  For best results use the cuticle stick to push the appliques into your nail beds.  This ensures a perfect fit.  I also topped it off with a clear topcoat to help seal the ends.  I really love the way it turned out.  This was super easy, looks professional and very pretty.

I also found something called Snakeskin Magnetics or Essie’s Repstyle Collection.  The idea behind this is so cool!  Basically there are little bits of metal in the polish and when you hold the provided magnet over a wet nail it draws the metal bits to the surface and makes your nails look textured like snake skin!  I had to buy and try this too!

This is the Repstyle color from Essie that I bought in “snake it up.” Retails online for $11.25 essie.com

This was much harder than it looked!  I loved the color a lot.  It’s like a shimmery dark navy.  The problem is that the result is SO subtle that you’d only notice the reptile skin pattern if you looked really closely.  This is how mine turned out.  As you can see the camera didn’t even pick it up.  Totally not worth the extra $3.25 in my opinion.  I tried several times too.

Essie’s “snake it up”

This is a different angle. You can hardly see it but if you look closely there is a little texture to the nail.

There are so many options out there for nails these days and experimenting is totally acceptable.  Get out there and try one of these new products.  At the very least it’s a lot of fun   I plan on trying more.  Let me know if there’s something you’d like to see.  I’d love to hear from you!! Happy painting!!