A Springy Braid + Tutorial!

I decided to do another braided look because it's so easy and I love the way it looks! I wanted to do something a little softer and springy, so I grabbed a white and some blue and got to work! I was texting my friend, Sarah, and when I told her I was doing a braid, she said I still needed to show her how to do one. So I decided to make my very first picture tutorial. It was a bit time consuming, but I had a lot of fun with it! I hope it's helpful for anyone wanting to try out braided nails!

The colors I used were OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Essie- Mint Candy Apple, and Essie- In the Cab-ana.

Step 1. Paint your base color
Step 2. Start at one "corner" of your cuticle and paint a stripe (doesn't have to go clear to the other side, just needs to cover the middle)
Step 3. Paint another stripe from the opposite "corner"
Step 4. Overlapping your first stripe, paint another with your base color
Step 5. Continue adding stripes, alternating colors
Step 6. When you get to the end, be sure to cap the tips to make your polish last longer!
Step 7. Paint your last stripe!
Step 8. Clean up around your nails and add a top coat to smooth everything out!

I hope you enjoyed this one! Let me know if there is any other design you would like a tutorial for! I'll see what I can do :)

Braided

So I finally did it. I took the plunge. I download Candy Crush. I probably shouldn't have, but at 3am when I couldn't sleep, I needed something to do! And now I'm hooked. And stuck. On level 34. I've heard about the dreaded level 65 and am not looking forward to it.

On to today's look...I have lots of braided nails on my Pinterest board. I love how they look. I've always wanted to try it, but like I always say, just never got around to it. I got so many amazing new polishes for my birthday, I really need to work my way through them! So I used 3 of my new ones for this look.

I started with 2 coats of Essie- In the Cab-ana on all but my ring finger. This color is amazing! The formula was perfect, I could have easily gotten away with one coat. On my ring finger I did 2 coats of OPI- My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I've been lemming that color for a loooong time, and finally got it :) For the braid part, I used those two colors along with Essie- Bobbing for Baubles. It looks pretty black in these pictures, but it's such a gorgeous dark gray. I love it.

I thought my braid actually turned out better on my right hand (weird since I'm right handed!) So I threw in a close up of that one as well.

Have you done braided nails? I thought doing it just as an accent would be easier, but after playing a round of Candy Crush in between each swipe to wait for it to dry, my phone died and I realized if I had done them all braided, by the time I got to my 10th nail, the 1st would be dry and it probably would have been quicker in the end. Talk about a run-on sentence!

Turquoise and Caicos

I've been wearing this for the last couple of days. I just love this color! I bought it last summer after seeing some swatches on Pinterest and I haven't worn it nearly enough. It's so pretty.

This is 3 coats of Essie- Turquoise and Caicos.

One coat of HK Girl on top. I love how shiny this stuff is!