H&M-Inspired Colorblock Nails

So I got the new H&M catalogue and just now got to reading it. I loved the beachy photos and bright colors. One outfit caught my eye...

Super sleek and chic. Great for a manicure!

Sort of a chevron-meets-colorblock idea. Plus neons. Perfect and on-trend for summer. 

Plus, easy!

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed are nail polishes (white, black and two neon colors, use pink and yellow to stay true to the H&M outfit!), tape, scissors and top coat.

Step 2: Paint the nails white. Cut two thin strips of our tape, set up in a "V" pattern on nail as seen above.

Step 3: Paint the inside of the "V" pink, the outsides yellow. Peel off tape as fast as you can so the polish doesn't dry then pull and rip as it sometimes does. Make sure these coats aren't really gloomy, keep them thin so the paint doesn't drool into the white "V". Let dry.

Step 4: Take your paintbrush and paint the outline of the yellow "V" to finish the pattern and add some contrast! Let dry, apply top coat.

Hi-five!

Very eye-catching!

See how easy this was?

Color Monday; Sally's Shells Palette

Welcome to the first installment of my new color palettes. Every Monday, I will host a new palette. Feel free to use these colors in your projects, as inspiration, whatever!

All photos copyright Allison Cooling for Quiet Lion Creations.

YSL Mondrain Nail Design

Another nail design tutorial! This time, it's YSL-inspired. You know the iconic Mondrian dress? Well, you can create this on your nails; who knew? Anyways, with a couple of simple steps, you can have this super-cool mani done and ready to wear anywhere. It's pretty similar to my last tutorial, so that means once you get the technique down, you're ready to roll. 

Step 1: Gather materials. Needed are scissors, masking tape, a thin paintbrush, and white, black, yellow, red and blue polish. You also want a nice clear topcoat to finish, and as always polish remover and Q-tips for easy cleanup!

Step 2: Paint a coat of white (or two, if your polish is thin). LET DRY COMPLETELY. Next, cut really thin strips of tape; I used three strips per nail. Set these up so they make a nice Mondrian-esque geometric grid on your nails. You can do a different arrangement on each nail for added interest. Once you've got the tape nice and pressed down (so polish doesn't leak underneath), paint one chunk red, one chunk yellow, and one chunk blue. Leave the others white, to mimic Mondrian's iconic art. Like in the last tutorial, rip the tape strips off as soon as you can (start with the tape on top of the rest, then the one underneath, then the last one to prevent smearing). 

Step 3: Take your black paint, and use your paintbrush to paint over where your tape grid was. Make nice even black lines to finish outlining your color chunks. Clean off any polish on your fingers before it dries. 

Repeat for next nail (see, I have a different tape composition on this nail).

Step 4: Repeat step 2 for this nail. Continue taping, painting the chunks, and ripping the tape off. Then, continue with step 3 for all the nails, finishing your grids with black paint. Clean off any polish from your cuticles/fingers with the Q-tips. Let them dry completely. Finish with topcoat!

Very Mondrian!

Spooky Spider Nails; a Halloween DIY

Halloween is coming.... time for a spooky tutorial!

Here is how to make your own spiderweb nails for Halloween. It's pretty simple, just takes long to clean up. 

Step 1: Gather materials. You need a small dish filled with water (this is my paint mixing dish, so that's why it's so dirty! :) ). Get some toothpicks, black and white nail polish (I used Ulta white and Wet and Wild black). You will also need some nail polish remover for cleanup. 

Step 2: Make you spiderweb pattern. Drip a drip of the black polish into the water. You will see it "disappear" into the water. It's really weird! Now, add a drip of white. This paint should fizzle out a little bit but still hold it's shape. Layer/drip another black and another white on top. 

Step 3: To make the spiderweb look, Take your toothpick and drag gently from the center dot outward, to look like a start of a web. You don't want to break the film formed by the polish on top of the water. 

Step 4: Layer more dots till your spiderweb is as detailed as you want. Continue to pull outward at the same spots to create your spikes. Now, take your nail of choice and gently press down on the part of the pattern you want on your nail. As you can see in the last picture, the film of polish will buckle a little bit. Press down all the way into the water, then take a toothpick and roll the excess film around your finger onto the pick to make sure it doesn't ruin your pattern. Lift out of the water.

This is what your nail will look like! Continue for each nail (layering your polish, dipping, and rolling up the excess with your pick. This pattern was used for my pinky, so I made it a little smaller to not waste the polish.

Here is a close-up of the pinky. Step 5: Clean up. This is how messy it can get (if you use the toothpick to roll-up the excess as explained above, you will be slightly less messy. I didn't obviously and this is how it turned out. So make sure you do it!)

Use your polish remover to remove all excess polish (I used Q-tips. Make sure your nails are all dry before doing this, or they can smear real bad).

 You are ready to rock the look!