The Fault in our Stars Nails

Awhile back I talked about my favorite book, Looking For Alaska. Well, LFA is written by a spectacularly popular author and internet personality (is that a thing? I think so), John Green.

John Green's latest book, The Fault in Our Stars, or tfios, was recently turned into a movie. And unless you avoid all forms of media, I am sure that you knew this.

I am going to be talking a lot about this movie experience I had, and how I feel about the book/movie in general, in an upcoming post but first I wanted to show the nails I wore for the movie premiere.

I actually went and saw the movie Thursday evening (if you want to know how, be sure to come back and look at the future post!)  so on Wednesday I sat down to do my nails.

I have seen a dozen tfios manicures over time and they all pretty much feature the color scheme and design of the book cover.
Mostly because it is an aesthetically pleasing and easily recognizable cover.

picture from Wikipedia

This is what the cover looks like. It also helps that the design is a fairly simple one.

So instead of basing my nails off any examples I saw online, I decided to kind of go with the flow and do my take on the cover.

The fault in our stars nails

So here is my interpretation of the book cover!
First I painted my nails with Rimmel 60 seconds in Blue My Mind . 

Next I painted black cloud shapes with my dotting tool using Sephora Black Lace. (on all fingers except thumb, in which I painted my attempt at an infinity symbol using the same black polish and dotting tool)
Then a little lower I painted a similar cloud shape using Sinful Colors Snow Me White

posing with my tfios necklace

Lastly, the most difficult part. I wanted to see if I could write "Okay? Okay." on my fingers. I have pretty small fingers so this was a fairly ambitious endeavor.

For my middle finger I used a pen tip to paint the word. I could not fit the question mark. There wasn't enough room.
So when I did my ring finger I tried it with a mechanical pencil because it was thinner. I thought, if I could finish and fit the period, I would redo the middle finger with the question mark. However it didn't make it any easier so I abandoned the idea of fitting the punctuation. Oh well.

It is not perfect and i discovered that I'm really bad at making cloud shapes? (Who knew) but I'm pretty proud of it overall. They definitely look better from a distance.

Originally the plan was to make the design on both hands be the same, minus the 'okay's on the right hand. However once I started the clouds I realized even those were too ambitious for my left hand to draw. So I settled on a dotticure using the same colors. I really liked it and think it still captured the spirit of the book cover.

On my pinky nail is Spoiled by Wet n Wild in Pet My Peacock

As per usual I topped this manicure with my Seche Vite fast dry topcoat.

Initially I had my nails looking a little more similar to the book cover-

note: this was pre-cleanup...obviously!

I had my nails like this at first but decided the black 'okay' wasn't visible enough. Where I could read my middle finger from arms distance away, I could not read my ring finger. So I decided to redo it the same was as the middle. I also redid my pinky nail because the glitter did not turn out how I expected. Pet My Peacock has a very thick base that makes it difficult to get the right glitter-to-base ratio.

The truth is that this manicure took me an embarassing amount of time. However it lasted for a few days, which is longer than my nails usually last. And I actually haven't done my nails, like, at all this year. So I was happy to try my hand at some nail art for the first time in a while!

What do you think of my The Fault in our Stars nails? Did you do a similar manicure to celebrate the movie coming out?

Broadway Nails imPRESS press on manicure review

*I received this item courtesy of Influenster in their Vox Box that I blogged about here. 

When I saw this in my Vox Box I was super intrigued. I haven't used any sort of press on nails in years. In fact the only times I have ever used them were during sleepovers with friends. A fun activity but ultimately not a long-term commitment. I am sure that every time, all the nails popped off before going home the next day.

So when I saw the imPRESS Press on Nails from Broadway, I didn't have high expectations. From what I remember of press on nails they are messy and kind of a pain in the behind. I remember dabbing glue on and then quickly pressing nails (that were always too big for my nail beds) on and getting glue everywhere. I'm sure most of us have those memories of sleepovers doing the same thing. But these press on nails don't use glue. So I was instantly on board.

The packaging is cute- it's designed to look like a nail polish bottle but it's really a plastic container that houses the nails. You can see the design on the nails directly so it's easy to find a design that rings your bell.

Once you open them up there are 24 nails in 12 sizes. That was music to my ears because like I said I have rather small fingers/nails so I hate nail strips that you have to cut to size. This was perfect, in fact searching for a match to your nails is the hardest part of the whole process. Which is saying something since that is obviously not that difficult. 

Putting them on was extremely easy, you just peel off the sticker on the back of the nail and apply it to your finger. I held it and pushed down for a few seconds just to try and have a more secure bond.  I thought this would get tricky once I had nails on most of my fingers but it actually was not hard at all.

As you can see the design I got is a giraffe type print in black and white. What may be hard to see is that there was gold shimmer only on certain spots on the nail. It was an impressive design but I will admit that it wouldn't be what I would choose for myself- especially because they have so many designs, there has to be a design for everyone. 

So here's the thing. These were mostly the same length as my regular nails. In fact you can see above that my thumb nail was actually longer! I honestly did not think anything of it when I was putting them on and did not notice until after they were on. Sometimes I forget that my nails get so long so quick and I don't realize how long they actually are!

But even though they didn't add length, they added two things I didn't know I was looking for in nails: strength & uniformity. 

Honestly I always thought my nails were strong enough but with these over top of them they felt so thick and strong. And of course the uniform shape and length of the nails is very nice. 

In fact I liked them so much that after a few days I got curious and painted some of my nail polish over the design, to see if it worked.

It worked out pretty well! You may not be able to tell but I actually put a white coat down first since the majority of the design was dark and I didn't know how easily it could be covered.

I really like the idea of finding a design you like, wearing it for a few days, and then painting them again to shake things up. Then you can enjoy multiple manicures with the same nails.

To be honest I liked the feeling of them so much that I wanted to go out and buy some more for myself. These retail for around $6. While that isn't all that expensive- I would still hope for a coupon or sale because I would love to get these for even cheaper.

Now for an important question- how long did they last? 

I didn't have high expectations at all. And when my first nail came off maybe 5 hours after applying them, I felt that my fears were confirmed.

However my 2nd and 3rd nails didn't come off until 4 or so days afterwards. So it's possible the first nail was just a fluke. And my last nail wouldn't come off (no matter how hard I tugged) for a week. 

The instructions do say you can take these off with acetone but I avoided that because I wanted to see how long they would last without it. 

I think that the claim that they can last a week isn't a far fetched one. However it's hard to make all of the nails behave the same way and most times you want to take them all off after you've lost a nail or two.

Keeping both of those facts in mind I think this is a great option for a special occasion or a holiday weekend or even when you just want your nails to look better. 

I personally really liked these nails but I know they aren't everyone's cup of tea. However, for someone who is like me: you don't get acrylics, you don't use press on nails often, you like having better nails without the comitment- these might be right up your alley.

Have any of you ever tried this brand of press on nails? What did you think of them? 

If you go to the website/ and tell me your favorite designs, I just might pick one up and do a surprise giveaway! :O

My personal favorites are Space Cadet & TGIF.

Rose tip manicure- simple nail art!

I haven't done a manicure post in a long time, and this one is far overdue!

I was inspired by this pin on pinterest. Here is the picture from it. There was no credit on the pin (it just leads to a list of "pastel nails") but a little google magic lead me to this blog! Apparently the picture is from before she had a blog so that's why it's hard to find credit.

So, while mine are of course nowhere near as pretty as the original, I gave it a shot and I don't think they turned out bad!

Um close they really don't look like roses. I get that. But they are a ~full on Monet~ so they look pretty good from far away.

I put together a short pictorial on how to replicate this. Or how I did it , anyway.

First I painted all nails with Sally Hansen Instadri Pink Blink and layered Sinful Colors You Just Wait on top of it. It may not be obvious in the pictures but this is a GORGEOUS combination! I loved that the SC added a pearly pink sheen on top of the baby pink SH. It reminded me of a barbie doll.

Next I added small blobs that would be the rose buds across the top. These are Sally Hansen Instadri in Flashy Fuchsia and on my accent nail I started layering Wet n Wild Shine in Sparked. The blobs don't have to be perfect, just circular shaped.

Next I added little 'C' shaped and swirls into the rose buds in Wet n Wild Shine French White Creme to create dimension to the roses. I added small leaves in Sinful Colors Irish Green.

I added more Sparked to try and get a more opaque glitter.

All in all I really liked how this manicure turned out. It was very feminine and pretty.

All products used, from left to right. SC You Just Wait, Wet n Wild Shine Sparked, Wet n Wild Shine French White Creme, Sally Hansen Insta-dri Pink Blink, Sally Hansen Insta-dri Flashy fuchsia, Sinful Colors Irish Green.

What do you think of this manicure? Do you ever use 'abstract' roses as an accent to your manicures? 

Let me know!!

Follow your bliss,

Ember Darling

Independence day nails!

So as you may have already seen I recently posted a quick post of what nails I did for Independence day, but now I'm ready to go more in depth with my look and tell you how you can achieve a similar one!

First off, I love holidays. I love...themes. and partying. and holidays provide a lot of that! Unfortunately this year I had a very uneventful holiday. But that didn't stop me from rocking some awesome nail art!

I had seen lots of inspiration on other blogs and on pinterest all week. But I couldn't decide what I wanted to do myself! I finally decided that there was no way I could choose one of the manicures, so instead I decided to take elements of several different ones and make it my own!

I apologize in advance that some of these are smart-phone quality photos. But I still think they get the point across!

4th of July nails!

Instructions after the jump-->

4th of July nails *sneak peak*

I know that waiting until the actual holiday to post holiday nails is a little...ditzy. How is anyone supposed to be inspired if they see it AFTER the holiday? (that's my philosophy anyway!) 

BUT I didn't actually do my nails until last night. Whomp, whomp, whomp.

So here's a sneak peak of my nails. This was just taken with my cell phone so, better pictures are to come, along with the details of how I did it and the polishes I used!

Thanks for checking them out! I know they aren't great but I'm pretty pleased with them. I can see myself getting better, although I have a LONG way to go! 

Hope everyone has a great, fun-filled, safe holiday! Personally, I love holidays. I love doing all the cheesy things that come along with holidays. So, I hope everyone has a beer, eats some grilled food, and plays with some fireworks today!

4th of july nails

let's not talk about how much love my cuticles need. And also let's not address my inability to stay between the lines.

Follow your bliss,

Ember Darling