NYE nails!

I have become pretty obsessed with painting my nails- especially since Pinterest helped me discover the 3-Way Glaze by Essie...

it's basically a do-it-yourself gel manicure!  you can use your own nail polish- any kind you'd like...AND...for an $8 bottle...I've done at least 50+ manicures and still have some left!  well worth the investment people!


so for New Years Eve...I decided to go sparkly...but understated sparkly...

 I used two bottom coats of the 3-way glaze...3 coats of the "It's totally Fort Worth it" by OPI and one coat on my ring fingers of "Seduce Me" by Pure Ice- a christmas gift from Mom :)  followed by one more top coat of the glaze!  

then I did my other top secret tricks for drying your nails- spray with some cooking spray and run under ice cold water.  you can see my pinky nail did not survive as well as the others...so next time I will break out the nail polish dryer my brother got me for Christmas!


there ya go!  nails perfect for New Years eve!!

DIY Wednesday - at home gel manicure!

so I am definitely a fan of nail polish...I think the obsession has grown significantly...I have a whole shelf in my bathroom that is bursting at the seams currently. 

for a while I wasn't using my own polish as much because I got a gel manicure, and it was amazing...six weeks without so much as a chip in my jewelry-making, art-teaching nails...I was sold!  except for the $30-50 price tag, depending on where I went.

fast forward to my new obsession...Pinterest..and I found this pin via The Small Things Blog that tells you how you can get the quality of a gel manicure at home...of course I was skeptical, but I had to try...if it could save me money and my nails could still look nice, I was willing to give it a try.

 photo from The Small Things Blog

I couldn't find the Nutra Nail 5 Minute Gel Polish, but I did find the Essie...so I just used that for the top and bottom coats- and it worked great!  you can link back to the original post here, but the steps are so simple!

2 coats of the Nutra Nail 5 Minute Gel Polish **this is where I substituted the Essie
2 coats of your favorite polish- any shade, any brand!
1 final coat of the Essie 3 Way Glaze


the best part is that you can use any polish you already own- it doesn't have to be anything special!  so all those nail polishes I had at home had new life breathed into them!