Welcome! Here's the Basics....

Hello! Thanks for visiting my nail art blog! Most of you probably know me because we are Facebook friends! If you don't know me (and have stumbled upon my blog), my name is Jennifer and I live in Big Rapids, MI.  I have decided to start this blog because I LOVE painting my nails, and a lot of people ask me how I do my nails!

To be honest, I spend entirely way to much time online finding cute designs for my nails.  Usually, I get my inspiration from other blogs or websites and I attempt to replicate the design on my own nails....this usually turns out to be a disaster! After a couple of attempts I usually get a design that is similar to what I originally found.  So, for this blog I am going to focus on showing all of you how I make these designs simple enough that I (and yes, even you) can do it!

Ok, so to start I want to tell you how I am going to set up this blog (I know, boring right?).  Today I am just going to show you the basic tools that I use every time I paint my nails. When I start posting designs, I want to provide a link to where I received my inspiration (I have to give them nail artists credit!!), then I will get into step-by-step instructions to how I created the design myself.  I will even include pictures!! :)  I plan to make posts weekly (unless life gets in the way you know).

I also want you to send me your cute nail designs that you have done yourself or found online!  My email is jenniferldowell@gmail.com!

Ok, so here we go....Here is what I use for creating my nail masterpieces:

Ok, so this may seem like a lot of nail polish, but it really isn't!  I have seen some people online who have thousands of bottles.....and I don't even have 100!  I am really cheap and usually only buy nail polish if it is on sale! Plus, my husband would cut me off if I spent all of our money on nail polish!

The following are some products that I use faithfully!

These are the nail tools I use before painting my nails.  It is pretty straight forward, I have a tool to push back my cuticles, cuticle cutter (which I try to use as little as possible), nail clippers, a crystal nail file (I use this because I find it prevents my nails from splitting) and a nail buffer to make my nail smooth.

These are products I just recently started using.  The first one is called Cuticle Off, and it is a cuticle remover.  You just put some on your cuticles, let it sit for about 30 seconds and your cuticles practically wipe away! The other product is Nicole brand Drying Drops.  These are fantastic, you just put a couple of drops on each nail after painting and your nails dry to the touch very quickly!!  Now I want to show you some of my favorite polishes!

This is Sephora's Matte Finish Top Coat.  I LOVE this polish because I can put it over any color and it will make it a matte finish....you better believe you will see me use this product!

GLITTER!!  You can never have too much glitter nail polish....and believe it or not glitter is so back in fashion!

These guys are Kiss brand Nail Art polishes.  These are the polishes that come with the long skinny brushes that are used for stripes and other details.  They are about $6 for a three pack, but I got these ones on clearance at Walgreens.  I will let you in on a little secret....I normally use these brushes in my other nail polish colors and then just clean them off with nail polish remover!

These Perfect Tip nail tips are awesome! If you love a french manicure, but can never get it right....buy these!  They are great, and only like $1 at walmart!

Lastly, I have my tiny paint brush.  I actually do not use this brush for painting my nails (although I suppose I could!).  I actually use this brush with nail polish remover to touch up areas that q-tips can clean up!

Wow, this post got lengthy!  I feel that it was completely necessary though!  My next post will be a patriotic nail design to celebrate the 4th of July! Thanks for reading!!