Fourth of July Nail Design

Fourth of July Nail Design

July 4th! 

Just a quickie. The red color is from Hot Topic, the silver sparkles are by Stripe Rite, the Blue is from Forever 21 (I believe...), the white on the thumb is Alpine Snow by OPI, and the white on the ring finger is also Stripe Rite. The stars I got in a pack from some random nail store in LA. I'm not patriotic at all, but I liked the theme, and I had nothing to do, so this is what resulted. :) 

I hope everyone has a safe 4th of July! Please, don't drink and drive! Let the only thing that dies tomorrow be your brain cells from the alcohol, not a person from your driving. 

XOXO

Easy and Elegant Gold Accent Nails

Easy and Elegant Gold Accent Nails

So these are very easy to do, it just takes some patience. The base color is Tutu by Ulta, but any nude or sheer pink color will work. You don't want to overpower the gold and end up looking trashy (since the whole point is elegance right?) The gold polish is Too Fab by Orly. I waited for the base to dry, then I literally glopped on a bunch of the gold, and used a nail dotter (toothpick will work fine) to move the sparkles around until they were in the correct shape. Then I sealed with a clear top coat, and whalaa! Very simple, and great for prom or graduation, or whatever fancy event you're going to, but don't want just a regular french tip. 

Black and White Lace French Tips and Roses

Black and White Lace French Tips and Roses

Black and White Lace French Tips and Roses

I used a konad plate knock off that I got off amazon.com from bundle monster, there are many different sets, and it's a great deal. Since my thumb nails was a little larger than the templates, I had to stamp it twice by lining up the second stamping, which was a little difficult. It's okay though, since the lace obscures any imperfections! I honestly didn't really like how these turned out, but I figured I'd upload it anyways. 

Vintage Jade Meets Floral Roses Nail Design

Vintage Jade Meets Floral Roses Nail Design

Vintage Jade Meets Floral Roses Nail Design

iPhone quality again, sorry! Anyways, flowers are same as in my other design found here: http://uponarooftop.blogspot.com/2013/06/pink-and-pearl-freehand-flower-nail.html 

I go into detail (more detail than usual) about painting the flowers and whatnot. 

Easy Teal Plaid Nail Design

Easy Teal Plaid Nail Design 

Easy Teal Plaid Nail Design

Another iPhone quality photo... 

Anyways, this was  relatively simple design, it's really just overlaying a bunch of lines. If the toughest part is drawing a straight line, then maybe wait until the base is dry, and using tape or a business card edge as a stencil? I free-handed it, once again, since I'm lazy, but I imagine a business card would work just fine. 

Sometimes, I only do designs on two of the nails, because I'm too lazy to conjure up something for the rest of them... and it's faster. ;) 

Pink and Pearl Freehand Flower Nail Design

Pink and Pearl Freehand Flower Nail Design 

Pink and Pearl Freehand Flower Nail Design 

iPhone quality, sorry! I used Pretty Please (40017) by Orly for the solid pink, and Kyoto Pearl (NL L03) by OPI for the base of the flowers. I drew the flowers using a small flat-headed nail brush, and I mixed the paint colors using water-based acrylic paints (Craft Smart from Michael's!). 

The following is regarding water-based acrylic paints:   

Important thing here is that the nails have to be completely dry prior to painting the flowers, but good thing is that the flowers wash off if you mess up ;) (Since they're water based, so wash with water!). Then, of course, I had to cover the flowers with a clear top coat to seal it in. I especially like using acrylic paints (not acrylic powder! two very different things!) for designs, because it's easy to work with, and much cheaper than wasting a bunch of nail polish. If you're using nail polish, you end up losing a bunch on whatever palette you're using, and it's impossible to clean off the brush! I highly recommend investing in some water based paints (non toxic ones of course), in primary colors (red, blue, yellow) and you can mix and make whatever colors you like! AND, it washes off if you mess up! 

Leopard Print and Rose Gold Nails

Leopard Print and Rose Gold Nails

Leopard Print and Rose Gold Nails

So the leopard print is a stick on from Ulta (could be easily drawn, but I got them on sale and I wanted to try it out!) and the other three nails I just put on a pinkish nail polish, then dotted it with a darker color (it was supposed to be swirls, but you can't really tell...) and used a gold flake glitter polish. I really liked how they turned out, EXCEPT for the fact that I couldn't get the pink colors to match. Despite my massive nail polish collection, I just didn't have the right shades of pink to match the leopard sticker thing haha (another reason to buy more!). 

Red and White Flower Nails

Red and White Flower Nails

Red and White Flower Nails

So, I did these nails on my mom for a special occasion. Now, like any other Asian mom, she always yells at me for buying a shit ton of nail polish, and about how I'm going to get cancer and stuff. She doesn't like her nails painted often. However, after I finished painting them, she was gawking at them for days! HA, Mom, you're just as vain as I. ;) 

Punk Stars and Checkerboard Nails

Punk Stars and Checkerboard Nails

Punk Stars and Checkerboard Nails

Did these a while back. A little secret, I actually did this over the Hello Kitty French Tip Nails (http://uponarooftop.blogspot.com/2013/05/so-i-took-this-picture-couple-days-old.html) that I posted as well. I think the hello kitty ones were old, and I didn't want to redo the french tip, so I just painted over it (with the all-powerful OPI Alpine Snow), and added a bunch of checkers and stars and crap. (I probably took the two pictures on the same day, tbh) ;) 

Twilight Apple Sparkle Nails

Twilight Apple Sparkle Nails

My bestfriend and I were on a mission: Sparkle-fy erryythaanngg. So we pretty much just layered on sparkles after sparkles. Then we were like "we should take pictures with a prop" and this is what resulted. Below is a picture with the focus on the nails. Now, I'm not a fan of the twilight series. However, I did read all the books in their entirety, due mainly to my OCD and need for closure. ;)

Pink and Black, Novice Level Freehand Nail Design

Pink and Black, Novice Level Freehand Nail Design

Another free-handed design. I much prefer the design on the thumb, but I did this a long time ago, and I didn't have the skill to do the flower on all 10 fingers! haha 

Moral of the Story: Practice makes perfect! 

Btw, the last few uploads aren't really in order of when I did them. I just decided to upload a crapload of photos, since I'm currently stuck at a party with my mom's friends, and managed to find internet. 

Dark Purple and White Flower Nails

Dark Purple and White Flower Nails

I think the polish is Eiffel For This Color by OPI, the flowers I bought a long time ago from CVS or something. The thing about the stickers is that the nails have to be absolutely dry for them to stick. A couple of the flowers started falling off or moving around when I was writing. 

Short Nails Hot Pink Sparkles

Hot Pink Short Nails, Hearts, and Sparkles

Free handed design. Used a nail dotter for the dots, obviously... and various polishes. This is a great look for short nails! I did them on my friend for her prom. 

Coral Love Hearts Nails

Coral Love Hearts Nails

This one was free-handed. I used a coral colored Ulta nail polish, and one of those nail art pens from Sally Hansen. 

Hello Kitty Nails

Hello Kitty French Tip Nails

So I took this picture a couple days old, and they were kind of messed up by the time I remembered to snap a shot. Once again, I used a konad plate (Yea, I cheated). In my defense, it's really easy to use, and I recommend using konad plates for beginners, because it gives you the type of look you want, saves time, and lends practice. 

This was back when I didn't have a DSLR, so picture quality isn't that great, sorry! 

Dark Red Lace Nails

Dark Red Lace Nails

Anyone who knows me knows I'm actually a rather dark person. I did these nails using a dark red nail polish from ulta (the name of which I cannot recall at the moment, and I am not near my collection), and used a konad plate off amazon to do the lace over with a black polish. The lace is subtle, and only really visible under camera flash. I like these because they're rather elegant looking, right? ;) 

Silver Snowflake

So... I know it's been a while and these are totally out of date, but I decided maybe I should get back to blogging, since I'm bored and sitting in a cafe at school right now. My physics lab got out early and I don't have class for another 2 hours. These nails I did over Christmas, it was relatively easy; just a simple french and some lines. The sparkles I pulled out of a bottle of sparkle nail polish using a dotting tool, and I just eyeballed the snowflake. 

I'll try to upload more, but no promises. :) - Jessica

Blue Sparkles and Flowers Nails

Blue Sparkles and Flowers Nails

First time I tried the fading effect with the blue and stuff. I think it worked out relatively nicely... :)
The colors and sparkles don't show up as well on camera as they do in person... oh well.
Enjoy!
-Jessica

Tribal Nails

So... It's finals season, and I'm studying in the basement of Leavey Library at USC, completely cut off from the world, since my phone doesn't have any service down here =[.
While taking a mental break, I decided I would upload a picture of these nails I did on my friend a couple weeks ago. They took a while to do, because she showed me a picture of the nails she wanted (which I can't show you guys, because I can't find it online), and I tried to copy it on her nails. However, I didn't know how they did it, and I'm pretty sure they used acrylic paint, instead of nail polish, to do the designs, which would have been much easier to work with, had I had any acrylic paint. But oh well, I tried my best. teehee.

Tribal Nails - Purple and Red

It was like 3am by the time I finished, so I gave up on cleaning them up. Zzzzz... :) Hope you guys like it.
-Jessica <3

Update - Summer Sunshine Nails

Oh damn, I haven't updated this in literally 5 months! Sorry!
I could say that I've been busy, but that's just an excuse for my inability to make time. haha
These are the nails I did one day when I was bored and the sun was shining brightly outside. :)
Ahh... sunny socal <3.
Sorry I didn't make a tutorial for this on youtube, I have many reasons why.
I'm going to make an update video, as soon as finals are over, explaining changes in my life in the past 5 months, and why I haven't posted any new videos.
Also, I just checked yesterday, and somehow my www.youtube.com/UpOnARoofTop account got 106 subscribers! haha, I didn't even think I'd make it to 6.
Thanks guys.
-Jess

Sumer Sunshine Nails - Yellow and Orange