A Hug Here and a Kiss There

This month, I finally decided to take part in the monthly mani challenges on Instagram, #nailartfeb. So far, I have completed three, glitter, polka dots, and below, xoxo (appropriate for Valentine's coming up). I know I will not be able to complete all the challenges this month, but I like the fact that I am participating in something like this. I find that it helps me improve my polishing and nail art skills, every time I do the different 'topics'. Day (7 was XOXO. I have Salon Express stamping plates, and one of them has xo's on it, so I thought I would use that ... I was wrong ! For some reason, the stamp didn't want to work with me Friday night, so after many failed attempts to try and get a good transfer on the stamp, I scraped that idea. Instead, I went with simply writing XOX on my ring finer, which, I must add, turned out a lot better than I had anticipated ! On my middle finger I used a heart nail vinyl from Make It Stick (www.makeitstickdesign.com), she has incredibly cute nail vinyls at great prices, go check her site out ! I used three different polish colours, Essie's Tarte Deco, a no name Barielle polish, and Maybelline ColorShow's Iced Queen. All were adorned with a simple glitter of Essie's Pure Pearlfection, a great little shimmer.

I loved using three different polish colours on my nails, they remind of the little candy hearts you get at Valentine's Day that have the horribly cheesy sayings on them ! I guess you could say this is where I got my inspiration from for doing this mani. I just love how simple it is, nothing crazy or over the top at all.

Just a quick close up of the heart nail vinyl and of the XOX on my ring finer.

All the nails in one shot.

I am finding that now that I'm becoming more active on Instagram, and especially since starting this blog, I have gotten better at painting my nails, as well as the clean up around my fingers. I am starting to polish my nails better, and concentrating on what I am doing, instead of rushing through everything, and having it smudge and smear two hours later. Nails are like a work of art, and you must be proud to show them off ! I am now learning to do this, and it gives me great pride, to post them here in my blog, as well as on Instagram. It makes me feel great to have people look at my pictures of nails, and say "Yeah, those are pretty well done. Good job!". I only hope to get better over time, and be able to do some great work in the near future !

Happy blogging
Sarah Jane :)