Tutorial: French mani w/ black tips and glitter lining.

I'm a lover of the french manicure design. It's simple, clean, and sophisticated. I got an acrylic french mani when I was younger for my aunt's wedding, and boy did I hate the effects it had on my nails. They took forever to grow out, and left my nails dry and brittle. I also didn't like the fact that if one nail chips off, it makes the rest of the hand look less elegant. Acrylic nails are also expensive for my budget, and in my opinion, not worth the $20-$35 you might be spending. Painting on the french mani design gives you pretty much the same look for waaaay less than half the cost! Most of the time I like to put my own twist on it by choosing different color tips, adding nail jewels, or brushing on designs.

What I used:

• Jordana, Nails Be Strong Strengthener.
  
  It doubles as a base and topcoat!
  I bought this at a local Savemart. They always have this deal where you can buy any 4 Jordana cosmetic product for $5! I like to mix and match nail polishes which brings each bottle of polish I buy from there to be $1.25!
  

• Winmax, Black.
  
  Sadly, this bottle of Winmax nail polish doesn't have an exact name for this shade of black, so I just named it black. Don't let this unknown brand discourage you from buying it! It's one of the best shades of black I ever bought. It comes out really dark the first time, unlike most other brands I've tried which took coats and coats to get as black as what one coat of this bottle took. Where can you get this? Daiso Japan for just $2! Check a nearby mall! Most malls I've been to has this cute little store :)
  

• OPI, Bubble Bath.

I actually got this along with another bottle of OPI Alpine Snow as a birthday gift from T! You might be able to find this color in your local nail salon or beauty supply store for about $5+ dollars. However, I've seen it being sold online for about $4.50.

• Jordana, Pop Art Designer Brush.
  

Unfortunately, this bottle of Jordana polish doesn't have a name either. So I just named it after what was on the sticker. This bottle is packed with glitter of all sorts of colors: red, blue, green, silver, etc. My head spins just looking at how many colors are in this bottle. To be honest, I didn't like the brush very much. It was too thick in my opinion, which dragged too much of the glittery goodness across my nail. Other than that, I love the color! This was also part of the 4 for $5 deal I got at Savemart :)

• 2 coats of each color
  

1. Winmax, Black

2. OPI, Bubble Bath

3. Jordana, Pop Art Designer Brush

4. Jordana, Nails Be Strong Strengthener

• Steps
  (Prep nails with Jordana, Nails Be Strong Strengthener as basecoat)
  

1. Paint one coat of OPI, Bubble Bath.

2. Paint tips with Winmax, Black.

3. Carefully line the border under your black tips with Jordana, Pop Art Designer Brush.

4. Finish off with Jordana, Nails Be Strong Strengthener as topcoat.

Walgreens Haul 7/02

So back to Walgreens I went to pick up some more polishes. This time I picked up Through the Grapevine from Wet n Wild's Megalast line as well as Morbid from Wet n Wild's Craze line. Their sale was going on so these polishes normally priced at $1.99 each were buy one get one 50% off. Swatches will be up soon!

The Real Bijou

Putting to use new purchased polishes, I decided on using Wet n Wild's Bijou Blue and Sally Hansen's The Real Teal along a with pairing the polishes with a simple and cute design ultimately creating what I call The Real Bijou


This design is SUPER easy and fast to create! Poke-a-dots can be done in 5mins. Just grab a toothpick, cut the tiny tip of the toothpick off to create a flattened toothpick, dip it into your polish, and dot away! The daisies are also super easy! First what you want to do is place 5 dots relatively close to each other. Then, picking up more polish with that toothpick, go over your previously made dots again and again until your dots are touching. Then, turn your toothpick upside-down, grab a different color polish, and make one more small dot in the middle. And there you have it! A cute and bubbly design fit for the summer, enjoy!

Side note: I'd LOVE to see designs come to life on others nails so don't be shy and send your nails to thriftynails@yahoo.com!

Swatches--Walgreens Haul 6/27

Wet n Wild's Wild Shine, Bijou Blue:
To show the quality of this polish, I tried to show the difference between multiple coats. Starting with the pinky finger, I applied one coat, 2 coats were applied to my ring finger, and three coats were applied to my middle as well as index. By comparing my fingers to one another, two coats of this polish definitely provides more then enough coverage. Three coats is also do-able because the polish is fairly thin, BUT if youre planning spice up your nails with some designs, I recommend only 2 coats because of the extra polish you'll be applying (:


Wet n Wild's Wild Shine, Lavender Pearlescent:
With this polish it was harder to show the difference between coats because of the brightness in color. 2 coats is definitely enough for this eye popping and bubbly pink!


Sally Hansen's The Real Teal:
This is my favorite of today's haul, its very bright and definitely eye-popping as well for a couple days from application but then dulls just enough to maintain a cute, bright teal (apologies for the blurry picture!)



Now this is where this get a little interesting, Rockstar Pink on top of Lavender Pearlescent:
because Rockstar Pink is mainly a glitter, i decided to pair it with my Lavender Pearlescent. With the added Rockstar Pink, your nails will take on a more tame, deeper pink with a hit of purple. Lavender Pearlescent is defintly more wear-able paired with Rockstar Pink

Walgreens Haul 6/27

Hello lovely nail-addicts, [T] here! Lets kick off this site with a polish haul shall we? Today I decided to make a trip to walgreens and how could I resist taking a look at their polishes? Coincidentally, they were having a sale today so I got lucky! First off, let me show you my haul of the day.

The total for this haul was $5.99, saving me 2.48! Although this polishes are normally reasonably priced, today's sale made them that much more worth it (:


These lovely polishes go by the brand of Wet n Wild's Wild Shine. Normally costing a mere $99 per bottle at any local walgreens, today's sale saved me 50cents due to their buy one, get one 50% off sale. The Wild Shine line is VERY trust worthy. Application is breeze with their reasonably thin solution and perfectly sized brush. The bottle on the left is called Bijou Blue and the one on the right is Lavender Pearlescent


Next up are Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails Xtreme wear polishes. Normally priced at $2.99 at walgreens, these babys were on sale for 2 for $4, basically $2 each. On the right is the Rockstar Pink and sitting on the left side is The Real Teal. Although Sally Hansen polishes can be found any day at Target for $2.09, Target has a smaller selection and todays sale at walgreens saved me a few cents! Sally Hansen brushes tend to be a bit wide for my taste, and as a result causes some mishaps during application. Overtime, Sally polishes tend to get a bit thick, but thats nothing that a little nailpolish remover wont fix!

Swatches of the polish will be coming up soon!

Introducing T & C

Hey folks, this is [T] speaking. Over the past year, my interest in nail polishes and nail art has grown immensely. The first polish I owned were actually OPI and Seche branded which I had inherited from my mom (thanks mom!). As my interest grew, I ventured towards less pricey brands and found that many work just as great!(Although, brands such as OPI and China Glaze are still amazing!)Every since then, I've saved tons of money while still being able to keep beautiful nails. I personally LOVE dark shades and simple designs that require minimal "equipment" to create. I hope that ThriftyNails will appeal to everyone and I'd LOVE to hear feedback! (:

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Hi everyone! This is C :)
My interest in nail polish started when I was a little girl. I was always able to grow out my nails to a nice, not too overly long length. I loved painting my nails but my mom would always warn me about my long nails turning yellow if I painted them too much so I would have periods of time when I stopped painting my nails completely. But being the nail junkie that I am, I couldn't stay away from nail polish and the nail art goodies that came with the fun. I've had nail polish almost every day on my nails for the past year and a half, and still my nails still haven't turned yellow like my mom said they would ( but that's probably bc I always use a base coat and take good care of my nails!). Since I'm an unemployed high school student, I don't have the money to buy expensive brand nail polish. But who needs expensive polish when a cheaper polish of almost the same color is out there? That's where Thrifty-Nails comes in. We can tell you what brands are just as trustworthy as the pricier brands and where you might be able to buy them, along with nail jewels, gems, and other nail supplies!