NAILS I Shibori Tie-Dyed Everything This Summer, Including My Nails

by Allison
I love this perfectly imperfect manicure.

Do you ever see something once and then all of a sudden it is everywhere?

That was me this summer with Shibori-style tie-dye. I saw one tutorial, tried it, and then I go to Target or wherever and everything is tie-dyed. I was pretty obsessed with the process and the results and I ended up dyeing far more fabric than I could ever need. 

So, obviously, I had to figure out how to do it on my nails, too.

I want to preface this saying that I tried several more highbrow ways of doing this tutorial using nail polish tools and techniques, even busting out a clear plastic thing to use as a palette, but this super-easy one with markers ended up giving the most authentic-looking results.

You will need permanent markers — one in a blue and one in a slightly darker blue — rubbing alcohol, cotton swabs, white nail polish, and a top coat.

50 Simple Nail Art Designs For Beginners

by Amit Tripathi

Lazy Girl Nail Art Ideas

After hair, clothes and shoes, the next trendy item in line is nails. Nail art is getting extremely popular by the day as it allows the girls to get the requisite attention that their nails can bring in for them. In order to get the nail artwork right you need to make use of variety of art forms. A lot of you girls, may be in awe of the nail art designs, yet some maybe apprehensive of creating these designs on their own nails considering it to be a difficult task. Thankfully, with our simple nail art designs for beginners and lazy girls, it will not be as difficult as you imagined it to be but keep in mind creation of any design requires a level of patience and practice from your end.
Here are some simple nail art designs that you can start with before graduating to the complex designs.

Alternating the Colors

This one is the simplest nail art design. Simply use alternating colors for different fingers and get noticed.

After Years of Picking My Nails, This Is the Routine That Finally Got Me to Let Them Grow

By 

Allison
I finally got a good regimen down to keep my hands and nails healthy using products that, in some cases, literally hold my nails together.

I was never a nail biter. Instead of using my teeth, I was a nail picker. Like, with my nails against other nails, which is kind of worse because it's basically nail cannibalism.

It was a compulsion to have my nails be even. It didn't matter if they were short or I gave myself a bunch of hang nails in the process, I would pick and pick at my nails until they were all passably uniform and straight. So God forbid I'd break a nail — I would spend the rest of my day picking at all of them until they were right.

It has taken me a long time to get over this. I didn't do anything dissimilar to what people recommend for nail biters, except I also started keeping a nail file on me at all times so I could iron things out on one nail without having to pick at all of them. Add in a genetic predisposition for weak and flaky nails, I really didn't think I could have nice-looking nails until maybe two or three years ago.

I finally got a good routine down to keep my hands and nails healthy using products that, in some cases, literally hold my nails together. And all of a sudden, they started to grow.

Part of nail care is hand care and that means keeping them clean and moisturized. I keep on my bathroom sink both hand wash and lotion so I remember to moisturize right after washing.

There is a Deborah Lippman quote that pretty accurately sums up my hand washing and lotion routine, and you can extra-trust her because she's Deborah Lippman. Anyway, it goes, "Think of your nails and hands like your face. It wouldn't occur to most women to wash their face and not apply a moisturizer, but they wash hands over and over without applying hand lotion." 

Well said, Deb.

 The apothecary style bottles get me every time.

My Foolproof Technique for Making Nail Polish Last Way Longer Than It Should

by

Christina

And no, it's not "get a gel manicure."

Is there anything that makes you looks more put-together and polished (awful pun intended) than a good manicure or pedicure? It's like the ultimate finishing touch on a makeup look or outfit. 

The problem with beautifully painted nails, though, is that they can be work. The main issue isn't necessarily in the painting itself — although that can be pretty time-consuming and annoying, depending on the nail polish and your patience level — but in the way nail polish just doesn't seem to last. Like, going to all the effort of painting your nails (or having them painted) only to have them chip and look kinda gross in two days? Not cool.

Is this a good look?

The best thing about beauty problems, though, is that they're pretty much always solvable, and this isn't the exception. When I actually do my manicure right, it takes a really long time before it starts chipping.