Nail Art!

So, I've realized that not everyone will have the chance to take a look at my nail art pictures besides what's on the sidebar. Here is a list of pictures containing all of my old and newer nail art in no particular order. 

Gradient Tutorial

My most recent mani is a super bright neon gradient. I think gradients are one of the easiest looks to do but at times it can be hard to get a smooth transition, straight lines, or pigmented colors. I admit I am not the best at gradients and I still have trouble doing them, but for those still learning, I made a tutorial for you to follow. 

Colors I used: Alpine Snow, Celtic Sun, I'm With The Lifeguard.

If you do not let your nails completely dry the tape will stick to the polish and pull it off when you try to remove it.

Make sure there are no open spaces for the color to go under when you sponge it on.

For the V part you do not need to paint thick stripes, unless you are doing the whole nails.

I like to put on at least two or three sponged layers to get the colors as opaque as possible. When sponging on the colors make sure to do it in an up and down motion to get the gradient effect.

You can stop here and only do an accent nail, you can do the V design on all fingers or continue on and do a gradient on the full nail.

To do a gradient on your full nail make sure you tape up your nails for easy clean up. Also, paint new thicker stripes on a clean side of your sponge.

I added one coat of Fairy Dust by China Glaze, then added my top coat.


I hope this tutorial was easy enough to follow. I did forget to add to clean up around your nails, especially if you didn't use tape. If you decide to try this out please tag me on Instagram (@carriedawaynails or #carriedawaynails)  I want to see all of your creations and see how it worked out for you.

Top Five Summer Favs!

I normally have nail art done, but if I have just one color these are my go to polishes.

5. Turned Up Turquoise

I love mint, but I like wearing it more in the springtime, so this is my alternative. If I want something toned down I will definitely use this polish. Turned Up Turquoise dries matte, has a very light shimmer to it and with my experience, chips within the first two days. 

4. I'm With The Lifeguard

I normally do not like greens but this is so bright and eye catching I love it. In this picture I have two coats over white. I feel like its very hard to get its true neon color without a coat of white under. I'm With The Lifeguard dries matte and has a light shimmer to it as well. So far I haven't had any problems with it. 

3. Alpine Snow

Not just Alpine Snow, but any white that can be opaque in two coats, I love. White can go with anything unlike many of my other favs. It is still eye catching yet not as flashy as the neons. Since it is just a plain white, it looks and behaves like a normal (not neon) polish. 

2. Raegan

Raegan was the first Julep polish I have ever used. I tried to do nail art over it but it was so beautiful without it. I'm not sure if all Julep polishes has the same formula, but this polish only needed one coat! Between all five this is the most toned down polish, I'd wear it everyday if I had more bottles. Raegan didn't chip until three or four days later.

1. Flip Flop Fantasy

This is my all time favorite polish. Its neon coral and very hard to get a picture of its true color. From what I've seen Flip Flop Fantasy can be two different colors, some bottles are more of a pink-coral and others are orange-coral. I think the only con with this polish is that it can chip very very fast. 

Bonus pic of my "Weekend Mani"

Colors used: Black, Flip Flop Fantasy, Platinum Sliver (China Glaze)

Butter London polish review

BUTTER LONDON

I love all types of polish and recently decided to go out of my comfort zone of OPI and China Glaze and purchase some Butter Londons. After what seemed like hours I finally decided on three: Fiddlesticks, Fiver, and Tart With a Heart. 

FIDDLESTICKS

I picked fiddlesticks because I don't have any other color like it. It's an almost maroon colored base with magenta glitter. It dried like a textured polish but not as.... textured? I love the color but the glitter is throwing me off. Even with Orly's Bonder as a base this polish chipped within the first day. Overall, I don't think this polish is for me and will probably not wear it again, if only it was a cream instead.

FIVER

Fiver... I could not get enough of this one. I picked it because it's my own personal polish goal to collect every mint color. Though this mint is more green than it is blue, you can't tell unless you have it painted on your nails right next to a blue mint like Re-fresh Mint by China Glaze. With Nail Envy as a base coat the polish lasted until I changed it, which was about four days, even then it didn't have any chips. I love this polish and I want to buy a billion more just in case I lose one.

TART WITH A HEART

What sold me with Tart With a Heart was swatches of it over black. Like I mentioned before I'm not too fond of glitters but this totally won my heart over. On the website it's described as a pale pink glitter but honestly I think its more of a sandy-gold glitter with bigger teal glitter. If worn by itself it looks like sand and would be perfect for a beach themed mani, I also tried this over a light blue and I felt like Cinderella. This glitter can basically go over any color and look beautiful. With this I used Nail Envy as well for a base coat and it too lasted until I changed it. I do like this polish but I probably will only bust it out for fancy outings. 

After testing these three I decided that I need more Butter London polishes but these babies are about $15 a .4 fl oz bottle. If you want to splurge on some high-end polishes I would definitely recommend these.

Bonus picture of fiver with my favorite drink just because...