When it comes to doing my nails, I’m a real klutz. I’m a leftie, and I have a hard time doing anything with my right hand. So applying nail polish to my left hand is a real chore. But last night I thought I’d give another dot mani a try.
Back in April, I received a bag of goodies from essence. In addition to a couple of pretty spring nail polish shades, there was a nail art tool: Duo Styling Tool. I had no clue what to do with it. I found out that you use it to apply nail art. Not sure that I’ll be doing that. Last night, I discovered the two different size bulbs at either end of the tool are perfect for making dots!
I started out with Sally Hansen Miracle Cure as a base coat. As a blank canvas, I applied NYC Color white polish 134, and then I waited a while till it dried. Next came the dots. I decided to go with a blue-green palette. I used the larger end of the tool to do the blue and aqua dots, and the smaller end to do the seafoam green dots.
In my stash, I pulled out essence Seafoam and essie In the cab-ana and maintain. I did the dots in each color, separately and waited for them to dry before starting the next color dots.
After waiting for all the dots to dry, I finished with two coats of my trusty essence gel-look top coat. Finally, I sprayed with Onyx 3 2 1 Professional Nail Spray so I could go to sleep without worrying about ruining my nails.
With this random dot pattern, I didn’t have to worry about getting everything even or the right size. I am quite pleased with the results.
I think I’ll play around with different color backgrounds with different color dots before I try nail tape designs. One step at a time.
What about you? Have you tried any new mani patterns? Any tips you can share?
Just a reminder that Thursday, August 15, is the last day to enter the Giveaway for the $50 Gift Certificate for Midnight Velvet, the stylish and contemporary women’s fashion and home decor brand. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment about why you want to win on the “Christmas in August” post by clicking here. I’ve entered a number of giveaways on blogs, and I’ve been surprised that I’ve won 3 times in the past few months. Worth a try!
Wow! I’m impressed! I’m going to invest in that cute little tool because I know the girls will love to play around with it, too. (The Seventeen Magazine that arrived at our house yesterday contains an insert called “Mani Heaven” and is all about nail art.)
Very pretty.
Thanks, Kim! That “cute little tool” costs either 99 cents or $1.99, I believe. It makes rounder dots than the pointed tip Q-tip I tried the first time I made dots. I think the girls would have fun with it. I’ll have to check out that insert, lol. I don’t know whether I’ll ever graduate to tape, but I did buy some 99 cent essence French Mani tip tapes to see what I could do with that 😉
Oh, I love how it turned out!! SO gorgeous! I LOVE the colors you chose! I have the same dotting tool. Seems to work well! I also swear by the NYC white. It’s an easier formula and more opaque than other whites I’ve tried! 🙂
Amber recently posted…Ole Henriksen Perfect Truth CC creme
Thanks so much, Amber! I got the tool from essence, one of my market research clients when I was doing a project for them. I didn’t actually know what it was for at the time. It really makes better dots than the pointed end of a Q-tip that I tried before. And yes, the NYC was quite good. It required 2 coats to get it to be opaque but I can live with that.
Love your mani , easy and trendy 🙂
I also love the the last photo, just pin it into my Pinterest account.
Allison, I am sad that I will miss that giveaway, I think that there is a USA city named Jordan, does that make me live in the USA ? LooL
Dima Al Mahsiri recently posted…The Beauty of Food Review
I am sad about it, too, Dima! I hope the next time (if there is a next time lol) that I’ll be able to do an international giveaway. The contest helped drive a little more traffic to my blog and helped me get a few more subscribers and Twitter followers, so I can’t complain.
Thank you for your kind comment and for pinning my nail collage to your Pinterest boards!! So happy to hear from you, and I hope all is well with you and your family!!
I love dots! So easy to do. I love nail art, but I don’t have the attention span for elaborate taping and painting and drying time .. so dots are always the easiest and quite frankly the most fun!
Monica.
Monica P recently posted…Inglot Nail Enamel in No 139 and Stack Rings
I agree, Monica. I think dots are as complex as I can get. Can’t stand waiting for my nails to dry, and I just can’t do anything complicated using my right (non-favored) hand!
Glad to know that this giveaway worked well for you 🙂
Thank you !
All is going fine, I had a very busy week, and the kids were happy to meet family members living abroad.
As for now, I am back to my blogging world 🙂
Dima Al Mahsiri recently posted…The Beauty of Food Review
Yes, it worked well enough, plus I got a pretty sweater! I’m glad you’re back. I was thinking you must be busy with the holidays. Glad to see you again 🙂