Lana Del Rey Nails: Tutorial

Last winter, Lana Del Rey released her awesome music video for Born to Die. When I watched it, one of the first things I noticed about it were the nails (obviously). I promptly recreated the design on my nails and posted about it on the blog. The nails were tipped with a red Vv" outlined in gold glitter. Here is a video snapshot I took of the video:

I can see that a lot of you have been checking out that post, so I thought I might show you, step-by-step, how I recreated this look. 

What you will need for this manicure:

1. Clear base coat 

2. Nude polish (optional)

3. Red polish

4. Gold glitter polish

5. Top coat

6. Small paintbrush

Obviously, you can change up the red polish and gold glitter to other combinations if you wish!

1. Start with a clear or nude base

Here, I simply did a clear base coat on the nail. Use a clear polish if your nails are healthy and not stained - mine are slightly yellowed around the tips, but that will be covered by red polish for this manicure. If you are less inclined to show your natural nail, feel free to use a nude polish instead. 

2. Dot the middle of the tip

Using your small paintbrush and red polish, use a dot to roughly mark where the middle of the nail is on the tip.

3. Dot the middle of the sides
Using your small paintbrush and red polish, use two dots on each nail to mark the middle of the nails on  both edges.

4. Create the "V" shape
This is the slightly trickier part, but the dots are there to make it easier by guiding your brush. With the small paintbrush, connect each side dot from step 3 to the middle dot from step 2. Here, I usually round the lines slightly, creating a bulge and making the "v" slightly concave. However, if you prefer, you can make these lines straight but it takes a little more patience and steady-handedness.

5. Fill in the "V" shapes
Here, you can either use your small paintbrush, the polish brush, or a combination of the two. If using the polish brush, be sure not to stray beyond the lines of the "v"! Cleaning up could be quite the task here (you might have to re-start). To be safe, you could roughly fill in the larger areas with the polish brush and then fill in the leftover, hard to reach spots, with the small paintbrush.

6. Outline the "V" in gold glitter

This part may seem daunting because of the thin line, but it isn't. This is because glitter tends to be forgiving when creating delicate shapes. With glitter, it is not very obvious if the lines are not perfect and the individual glitter bits can be pushed around with a toothpick and pushed into the right shape. That is why I recommend using a glitter for the outlining as opposed to a metallic or opaque polish - glitter camouflages imperfections!

There you go - the infamous Lana Del Rey manicure. In my opinion, this is one of the best manicures out there right now. It is universally flattering and elongates the fingers. Plus, it is pretty sexy. Try out for yourself and you will see!

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American Apparel X Beauty School Dropouts

My set up

Last Saturday, I spent the afternoon at American Apparel in the Rideau Centre doing fun manicures all day. I had access to all of AA's nail polishes (amazing colours) and the manicures were free! 

The spread

I genuinely love working with AA polishes - they have amazing colours that go on very opaque (an important quality in a polish), have bold and awesome glitters, and perfect neons. The possibilities were endless! I had such an amazing time painting everyone's nails and making your nail-art ideas happen! Check out some manicures below with the corresponding AA polishes.

For this leopard print manicure, I used Gold Flash for the base, Cocoa for the spots, and Hassid for the accents. 

For this blue rose manicure, I used Summer Peach for the base, American Denim and Mount Royal for the rose, Crescent Heights for the leaves, and Hassid for the accents. 

For this adorable fairy nails manicure, I used Coney Island for the base, Light Year glitter on the tips, and T-Shirt for the tiny bow on the ring fingers. 

For this girly bow manicure, I used Angeline as the base and Hassid for the bows.

This lovely girl was headed to the Carivibe Festival and wanted to represent Jamaica on her nails - this is what I came up with! I love these nails. I used Hasid, Neon Green, and Sunshine State. 

For these rose nails, I used Mount Royal as the base, Poppy and Rouge for the rose, Crescent Heights for the leaves and Coney Island for the accents.

Love the twist on the classic French Manicure here...I used Dance as the base and Gold Flash as the tips.

I absolutely love this version of the Lana del Rey manicure! This manicure is universally flattering and has an uber-cool factor thanks to the lady who first wore it. I used Dance as the base, Passport Blue on the tips, and Gold Flash for the accents. 

What a great day! Plus, being surrounded by AA clothes was not so horrible either...other than the fact that I was tempted to spend my entire life savings on summer clothes ;)

Can't wait to do this again! Thanks to all the ladies who came out and the superb AA employees who helped make my day awesome.

Thanks for having me!

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