Jessie J Black and Gold Manicure

As promised, here is the other manicure that I spotted in Jessie J's music video for Domino. Did you spot it? Here are some screen shots:

I really like this one. It's pretty fierce and I love how she pairs it with that bedazzled hat. Awesome! For my version of this manicure, I started with two coats of Essie's Licorice (my go-to black). For the gold accents, I picked up one of Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear nail colour in Golden-I. It's a little bit more silvery gold as opposed to Jessie J's yellow gold, but I didn't have my YSL Gold that I used here. 

After letting two coats of black and one coat of Seche Vite dry for about 20 minutes, I used Scotch tape to section of a thin line in the middle of the nail.

Then, after making sure there were no bubbles along the tape line on each nail, I carefully painted one coat of gold over the uncovered areas.

One word of caution - wait as long as possible to let your coats of base colour and Seche Vite dry before doing the tape step. For this manicure, even though the tape didn't pull up any black, the tape left tiny, and almost unnoticeable, ridges and valleys in the black as it was still slightly sticky under the Seche Vite.

I decided to add gold polka dots with my dotting tool (found in the painting/sculpting section of your local craft store - a toothpick would also work) instead of adding 3D decals like Jessie J's. I love the look of decals but would rather not have them all over my nails. It would be so devastating if one caught on something and ripped off - taking some of the manicure with it! Then I added one coat of Seche Vite to lock it in and, fortunately, this final coat of polish eliminated the appearance of those minuscule ridges and valleys mentioned earlier. This is what it ended up looking like:

I didn't realize until after I got started that these nails are probably supposed to be dominos (duh) but, either way, they are cute and I see a lot of variations of this manicure in Beauty School Dropouts' future!
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Geometric Christmas Tree Holiday Manicure

Usually, when I'm thinking up ideas for cute themed manicures, I try to avoid just painting a tiny picture of something onto the nail. Instead, I like to come up with creative ways to work something into the shape of the nail so that it comes together as a whole instead of being made up of separate parts (like this and this and this). However, I do paint images onto the nails sometimes, like here and here, because it can also look really adorable.
So, when I wanted to do a manicure with something resembling a Christmas Tree, I decided to give it a geometric feel. I used Nailene's  Perfect Tips and Toes French Polish Guides to create the Christmas Tree Shape on the nail.

After a base coat, I painted one coat of Yves Saint Laurent's Gold polish. Only one coat was needed - this is a very beautiful and buttery polish. At this point, I used one coat of Seche Vite and let the nails dry for 30 minutes so that the stickers wouldn't peel the polish off.

Then, I used the Nailene stickers that were meant for toes (they are straight unlike the guides designed for fingernails) to section off a triangle on the nail.

Then, I painted OPI's Jade is the New Black as the trees.

To finish it off, I carefully peeled of the stickers and added another coat of Seche Vite. I really like the way this one turned out - it's both geometric and modern and the shape of the "trees" also elongates the nails. Plus, the gold and green are great holiday colours and look super luxurious together.

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The secret to a perfect manicure.

The secret to a really flawlessly executed manicure is a great topcoat. Ok, well, this isn't the only "secret" there is and I suppose for a lot of people who are obsessed with nails, it's no secret at all, but for us, it's a major make-or-break step. If you're not accustomed to doing a home manicure with a topcoat, I beg you to reconsider and get one ASAP. You will see a huge difference in the appearance of your mani, as well as the longevity.

We are devotees of Seche Vite. Haven't heard of it? Well, GET WISE! You need it. 

No exaggeration, Seche Vite will change the way you do your nails and how much you end up liking your manicure. This is THE topcoat. It actually dries your polish within seconds. We don't know what we'd do if we didn't have this topcoat at the ready (other than maybe wait for each coat of nail polish to dry which is obviously asking too much).

You apply it to WET polish and it is designed to "penetrate through nail lacquer to the base coat forming a single solid coating over the nail plate for a much more durable finish" (according the Seche website). What I take away from that is that it's both science and magic. Anyway, it dries the polish super quick and provides a very shiny and durable finish over polish. For our purposes, it's necessary to have a fast drying topcoat when doing designs on the nail or else they can wear off very quickly.

There are a couple downsides to Seche Vite that we have noticed. It does occasionally 'pull' the edges of a manicure and it gets kind of gloopy quickly (when exposed to air frequently). However, the pros outweigh the cons. We have probably bought it a zillion times. Can't live without it. 

In Canada, you can score Seche Vite at Sally Beauty Supply stores and occasionally at Winners. 

This product is a MUST-HAVE. Really.  Pin It