4th of July DIY Nails

wreath courtesy of my mother in law :) 

 JULY has arrived ya'll!!!  That means Summer is here. I love Summer.  I love the sun and being tan and wearing dresses.  I love warm nights under stars and going to county fairs :)

Every year, my husband and I go down south to Kentucky to spend the 4th with his family.  We are leavin tomorrow!  We stay with his aunt and uncle who have a horse farm,  Shaker Ridge Farms.  It is wonderful.  We spend most of the time in the pool and taking pictures with the youngen's and the horses.  And then we shoot off fireworks :)

Here is my adorable nephew, Sean :) 

I knew I wanted to do my nails with a 4th of July theme so today I am going to show you a simple DIY, 4th of July nail tutorial.

Here are the supplies.

I brought out the big guns as I didn't really have a plan going into this :)  Now, really all you are going to need are:

Blue nail polish
Red nail polish
White nail polish
Glitter (of course!)
Stick on stars
Top Coat
Dotting Tool or Toothpick or Pen

Lucky for me, GlossyBox gave me the PERFECT colors.  I have been searching for a navy color for so long, this really came just in time :)

My white is from an As Seen On TV kit I got at Walgreens,  Hot Design Nail Pens.

What's nice about these is they have the brush for painting and the pen for designing on the same end.  And as of now, it is the truest white I have.

My packs of glitter and my brushes came from KISS Nail Art Kit.

Okay, so first I painted my pinky and index finger navy blue.  Then I painted my ring finger and my thumb red.  And finally, my middle finger white.

I decided I wanted to put glitter on my ring finger as an accent finger.  So while the nail is still wet, sprinkle some glitter evenly over the nail.  Tap off excess.

I wanted the white finger to be the star of the show with the silver stars on them.

Take the dotting tool (or whatever you are using) and dab it with your top coat nail polish to pick up the stars.

Then dab the star onto your finger.  Again, do this while the white nail polish is still tacky to ensure the stars will stick.

Make sure you count how many stars you have.  I did not.  So I have 5 on one finger and 3 on the other finger :)

After the deco part of the nails is done, cover each finger with your top coat to seal everything in.

Done!!

What are your 4th of July plans??

Do you have a go to holiday mani or pedi?

What are your favorite brands to use?

Share with me in the comments below!!

PS-Congrats again to Dorene R., the WINNER of the Beauty Package Giveway Contest :)  I had so much fun with everyone that I can't wait to start on the next one :)

Have a great day!!!

Ciate Feather Manicure Tutorial

So a few weeks ago, I won a prize pack from Ciate.  It was incredible!  All I did was enter on their Facebook page and then they emailed me that I won.

Here is what I got:

Two velvet manicures, chalkboard manicure, denim manicure, caviar manicure, neon manicure, foil manicure and a feather manicure! OH MY NAILS!!

So exciting :)  So let's look at the feather manicure and do a tutorial :)

Some of these I will need some help doing my left hand, but this one was easy!

I love how all of the kits not only come with the tools but with coordinating polishes too!

This kit has the feathers, speed top coat, purple polish and scissors.  There are enough feathers to do several manicures.  And the feathers are SO pretty and fancy too :)

First, you want to start with clean nails.  On the nails you want to do the feathers, paint two coats of the purple polish and let dry for five minutes.

Then take a feather and lay it on the nail so that some of the color peeps through by the cuticle.  You don't want to cover the entire nail with the feather.  Then lightly pat the feather on the nail to ensure it is sticking to the nail.

Cut the excess feather off, but leave a bit hanging off your nail as you are going to file the rest off.  So you want to make sure that there is enough to file without ruining the part attached to your nail.

Paint with the speed top coat, going with the grain of the feather.

Wait two minutes until it is fully dry and file that excess off.

The speed top coat makes the feather hard so it is easy to file off.

Then do the same on your other hand and paint your nails whatever color you want.  I thought the purple it came with was so pretty that I used that on all my fingers :)

I used two different feathers on each hand as I liked how they looked but you can of course use the same feathers.

It is so funky and pretty at the same time. How many times did I say pretty? Jeesh....

I see these kits at Marshall's sometimes on sale or you can Get It Here.

Believe it or not, I had never used Ciate before it came in my Glossybox and I love the polish now.

It lasts forever and I can get away with one coat only if I wanted to.

What Ciate kits have you used?

Do you have any tricks to application?

Let me know in the comments below!

Have a great day!!

NCLA Nail Wraps Tutorial & Review

A few weeks ago I heard about the free promotion with Wantable.  I was able to get all three monthly subscription boxes (makeup, intimates and jewelry) for $1 each.  Normally these boxes are $40 each.  I was happy with the boxes for the $1 price but will not be spending $40 a month on them.

This is what I got in the makeup box.

Last night I tried the NCLA Nail Wraps in Jagged Edges.  They are $18.00 for 26 applications.
Get Them Here.

I am overall a huge fan of nail wraps.  Depending on the brand, they last much longer than traditional polish and come in a variety of textures and patterns and colors.

The instructions say to start out with clean, dry nails.  For the fingers that you want the wraps on, apply a coat of clear polish.  I decided that I only wanted to to do one finger this time to try them out and to save time.  I used a coat of Sally Hansen's clear polish.  Get It Here.

As you can see my green Julep polish was really hard to get off! :) So this was as clean as I could get them.

For the rest of my nails I wanted a bright color that would go with both the purple and the blue in the nail wraps.  I chose Sally Hansen's Sonic Bloom.  This is also one of their insta-dri polishes that dries within 60 seconds. Get It Here.

It is kind of a mix between an orange and a pink color :)  So pretty!!

Then, take the wrap that you want and line it up on your finger with the rounded edge near the cuticle.  Smooth and smooth until all of the air bubbles are out underneath the wrap.

Take the included nail file and simply file off the excess wrap, flush with your finger nail.

TA DA!!

The finished product :)

I think they came out really nice.  My only complaint would be that today I am noticing that I didn't rub out the bubbles well enough on the blue nail.  Also, in this pack that I received, there are not duplicates of the patterns.  So I couldn't have done the same purple on both of my hands if I wanted to.

Have you used nail wraps before?

Which one is your favorite?

Have a great day!!

Julep Summer Brights Review

I currently subscribe to several monthly beauty box subscriptions (which I will post about later).  The boxes come monthly and have an assortment of hair, beauty, makeup, lifestyle and nail polish samples.

I decided to try out an offer that Julep had.

The offer was for only $2.99 (cost of shipping), I would get a box valued at $24.99 with 3 polishes, a lip gloss and a dual ended eyeliner pencil.

I placed the order on May 29th and received it yesterday, June 4th.

Here is what I received:

The packaging was great and it came with a bunch of coupons for my next order.  I did have to sign up for a recurring monthly subscription but cancelled once I received the shipping confirmation.  I did this because I wanted to test the products first and also see how their customer service was.  I emailed them on Monday to inquire about cancellation and I still have not received a response. I also called them yesterday and cancelled via their voicemail option and still have not received a response.

However, I loved the nail polish! I am a nail polish junkie so have many polishes to compare these too.

The polish came out in nice even strokes and dried fairly quickly.  It only took two coats of polish to complete my look and I currently have no chips, despite typing on my keyboard all day.  I couldn't just choose one color so I used them all.

 I always use a quick dry no chip top coat since I find that I feel the need to do things immediately after I paint my nails :)  This one by Sally Hansen is incredible and adds a wonderful shine to my nails, plus it extends the life of my manicure by several days.

The next item in the Julep box was the awestruck lip gloss. It is a pretty nude shimmery color.  Perfect for day use!

Lastly, the dual ended eyeliner. It came in shimmery brown on one end and a matte black on the other end. The box also included a sharpener which was a surprise to me.

I used the black end today and only applied a light cat eye.  It is about 4 hours after I applied and it does appear to be coming off in some spots, despite having used a primer on my eyelids.  I didn't want to be to heavy handed with application but to ensure longer lasting eyeliner, I may have to do that in the future. I myself like liquid or gel eyeliners but this one did glide on smooth and even.

Overall, I was very pleased with the box.  The nail polish most of all.  The colors were so bright and beautiful that I may end up using the 50% off coupon for my next order just to order some more nail polish.

Here is the link to try this offer out for yourself.  www.julep.com

Have you used Julep before? What are your thoughts on both the products and company as a whole? Let me know below!

Have a great day!