4th of July Nails

Wahh so I've been super busy lately and have completely neglected my poor little blog. At first it was because I didn't have anything interesting to post, but then I did and of course I just kept getting busier and busier. But I actually have a couple of fun things to post that you should see soon :) I have another Manicure Monday look, a DIY high waisted jean shorts tutorial and a fresh  new eye makeup look :) So stay tuned for those!

But anyways this post is about these patriotic nails I did for the fourth that didn't turn out great, but I thought they were cute enough to share :)

So basically the idea of this manicure was red and white stripes with blue and white polka dotted tips.
You can pretty much guess the way I did it, but basically I just painted the majority of my nails white (from the nail bed to about what they call the "Free edge" (the little white part on the nail). You don't have to worry about it being completely opaque because in the next step I took a fine paint brush and dipped it in the red nail polish and drew the vertical stripes (approx. 3-4 per nail). Next I just used the regular nail polish brush to paint the tip of the nail with blue (as if I was doing a french manicure) and then used a tooth pick to create the dots on the end of the nail.

By the way I didn't think of this look myslef. I stole the idea from Beyonce from the music video telephone :)

I kinda wish I had put little jewels on mine I think that adds a cute touch :)

Anyways I know it's very late, but I hope everyone had a great fourth! I got compliments on my nails even after the holiday (mostly by little girls) but still! haha <3

MANICURE MONDAY(ish) - Mermaid Nails

Hey guys just wanted to show you what's on my nails now. When I was stumbling through pictures of nail art, I found this idea of a sort of sea-foam green under gold sparkles. I don't know the names of the nail polishes I used, but I got them both from Urban Outfitters.

The process to create these nails was very simple. I just painted one coat of the sea-foam green nail polish (which really wasn't that thick, but I wasn't too concerned since it would be under the sparkly coat), then one coat of gold sparkly nail polish, and one clear top coat.

I thought the look was kind of edgy, and even "Ke$ha-esque", but my friend pointed out they would make a beautiful design for a mermaid tail, lol

Sorry the nail painting job looks a little crappy, I waited almost a week before I took the pictures :)

So yeah, there you have it, a sort of "mermaid meets Ke$ha nail design" haha

It was kind of hard to choosing outfits that didn't clash/went well with these nails, lol

PROM?

Last Monday I got asked to prom, and I was just a little too excited :) hehe. Maybe it's just because I'm a girl, but I love prom asking season. Not only is it fun and cute, but I'm a SUCKER for those spontaneous couplings. When that shy guy asks that girl that he kinda knows from math class, or whatever. I don't know why, but I think it's so cute!! Anyways I love knowing ahead of time when people are getting asked or helping distressed guys plan out how they're going to ask someone. Since I didn't go to prom last year I'm making a big deal out of it this year, and so I'm posting the pictures of how my friend asked me to prom.

Right before my Spanish class I was "guided" towards the Senior parking lot, to find my car covered in neon post-it notes. In complete shock, I started walking towards my car to get a better look, and my friend popped out of my passenger seat sporting a dress shirt and a tie.

He gave me these beautiful light pink roses after he got out of my car :p

This last picture is of my friends and I asking my friend's boyfriend to prom on Wednesday night. We had a mini flash mob (just the four of us) and then at the end my friend came rolling in on a shopping cart (because he works at the deli of a grocery store). Haha we had fun :)

MANICURE MONDAY- Zebra Print French Manicure Tutorial

I admit that I have fallen for the animal print trend (I even bought a pink leopard print bathing suit :] hehe). One day when I was at Walgreens in the beauty section I saw these great zebra print fake french manicure nails. I used to have the picture, but it was on my black berry :[ Anywaysss whether it was out of just cheapness or craftyness (I prefer to think it's the latter), I decided that I could just re-create the nail art myself at home :) This is the second time I've done it (honestly I think the first time turned out a little better, but this time I took pictures ;)

ZEBRA PRINT FRENCH MANI

So here we go:
The first step is (obviously) to clean off ay existing nail polish on your nails, trim and/or file them. My nails are naturally pretty long, so even when I cut them you can barely tell.

These are the MATERIALS for the next steps. Any type of sparkly top coat nail polish. I used a really old New York Color gold-ish nail polish it. I like it because of the multi-colored sparkles :) Next you need a black nail polish. I used Wet n Wild Fast Dry in Ebony Hates Chirs (I'm obsessed with the name!!). You're also going to need a white nail polish and tooth picks, or some other sort of small pointy object [when I did it on my friend's nails we used a safety pin] :) Also it's optional, but I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear clear top coat, which protects the design and adds shine.

The second step is to paint the white french tip on your nail.

I just used the brush of the white nail polish to make the line of white on my nails. As you can tell the lines are not perfect (i dont have steady hands at all!) but I would suggest to paint fast rather than slow. I've also heard of using rubber bands or those ring/hole reinforcers that you use on three hole punched paper to get a straight and smooth edge, but the ringie-dingies would not stay on my nail!

The third step is to use the tooth pick and the black nail polish to paint on the "zebra stripes"

Basically to make the zebra stripes you dip the tooth pick (or sharp object) into the nail polish and create vertical "squiggly-ish" lines or triangle-like shapes. Be creative and dont worry about a shaky hand because the point is not to make straight lines.I found it helpful to look at examples of zebra print nails and just try and mimick the lines I saw.

The fourth step is the fun part, but completely optional. You may be satisfied with your zebra print looking nails the way they are, but if you want to add a little "pizazz" to the nails you can use the sparkly top coat to paint over the french tip part.

^Sorry the sparkles are a little hard to see^

The fifth step is of course optional and that is just to paint the whole nail with a clear top coat which adds shine :)

And now to model them off :)

OOTD - cheetah and floral

Last week was beautiful! On Thursday I knew I would be going to our school's tennis match and track meet, so I decided to wear a dress [i was trying to get my tan on ;) lol]. I wore my "go to" navy blue dress that you might recognize from my first OOTD. I was going to style it similarly to how I did back in December, but instead, on a whim, I tried a cheetah print belt. I really liked the combo and got a lot of compliments on it. So here's just a couple of   pictures of it. Sorry for the bad quality! :(

 

 

The ruffles around the collar make the dress very flattering. I also like that in contrast to the small busy print of the dress, my legs look really smooth and even toned.

I paired the look with a plain gray cardigan and converse, which i often do when styling dresses for school :)

New Hair Braiding Style

I also wanted to do a post on my new favorite braid hairstyle. Since I have very thick and curly hair I'm always looking for new and pretty ways to style my hair since I can't just brush it and walk out the door like straight haired girl can. I found this really sweet hairstyle when I was stumbling (how else do I find anything remotely cool? lol) and I wanted to share it because it works for both curly and straight haired girls (if your hair is long enough to braid).

I'm pretty sure the beauty blog I found on it is Lauren Conrad's hairstylist's, which is pretty awesome.

                  http://thebeautydepartment.com/2012/02/you-asked-for-it/

This is the photo of the braid from the site. Basically it is a normal side braid except when you separate your hair into the three sections for the braid, you braid one of the three sections. In all of the times I've tried it I've used the middle section as the one to braid. Then once you've braided one of the sections you pull it apart horizontally a little bit to loosen it up. Also you should keep a couple of thin pieces of hair out around both sides of your face, and then bobby pin up the longer pieces on the side with the braid.

Okay so now for my pictures:

Keep in mind these pictures are from the end of the day, and the braid was a little less messy when I went to school. This was on a day that I straightened my hair first, so I had to curl the wavy pieces on the side. To style my hair, I made a slight side part curled some pieces of hair close to my face (then raked my fingers through them). Then after I made the braid I used bobby pins to touch up the look.

             

                                                 

For the curly hair, the strategy was basically the same except I didn't have to curl the pieces that framed my face (yay!) I tried to show a close up of the braid above, but you can't really tell what's going on it just looks like a complicated braid.

I get bored of the same hairstyles all the time, so I really like this twist on the traditional side braid. Plus the pieces of hair hanging out give it a girly feel rather than regular side braids that can kind of seem athletic.

Well I'll be sporting this new hairstyle for awhile and I encourage you to do the same because it's not too complicated, nor time consuming. <3 

OOTD - February

Even in California we're feeling the cool temps of February. I based this outfit off of a look I found on lookbook ( which of course I saved on my blackberry :(... so i cant share it with you). Basically the idea is jeans, a chunky sweater, a thin belt and a scarf and booties :) It's warm and cute!

  

        

Pac Sun jeans

JC Penney sweater

Target leather belt