DIY Manicures over the years

If you've been my friend ever since I was 16, you'll know that for the past 3 - 4 years, my nails have never been uncovered.

Uncovered - meaning that I've always had nail polish on them!
I've only ever had my nails done professionally twice - once for prom, and once when I came back from Perth and had nothing to do lol.

I enjoy doing my own nails, mainly because I have no patience to sit in the nail salon and spend hours waiting for my nails to dry.
I do them at night so that I don't smear them while doing stuff.

Did you know (stupid random yet important fact) that your nails take 24 hours to fully dry?
So even when you leave the salon a few hours later and feel as though your nails are dried - they are not.
Only the top coat is dry!

So, especially in poly where everything is slack, I try to go a little inventive on my nails!
I tend to buy polish from Face Shop - it doesn't really last.
But I change my nail colour almost weekly, so it doesn't matter!
For longer lasting ones, try Skin Food or OPI.
Affordable, and last long!
The best one I've used is Sally Hansen :)
Even after years, when you want to use it again, the polish DOES not dry up!


Amazing, right? HAHA.

I've uploaded my manicures that I've done in the past year on Facebook;
Don't judge the uglier ones, I've uploaded them so if you guys wanna replicate it, you can!
Replicate it nicely hehe.

Here are some of the nicer ones that I've done :)
The story behind them, and how easy it was to accomplish!
I'll be awarding them smiley faces, ☺ for hard to do, and ☺☺☺☺☺ for easy!

I recall doing this for an event, can't remember what now haha.

I got the navy blue polish from Face Shop, and the nail appliques from Daiso.

The blue is a shiny blue, this photo wasn't a good one :(

The nail appliques lasted for around 5 days before starting to fall apart.

Rating: ☺☺☺☺

I got inspired by Instagram for this one, I thought it looked like ballet/rock chic.

It was pretty easy to do as I knew how to use my nail pens well by then,

Nail pens were purchased from Face Shop!

Polish was also from Face Shop.

Rating: ☺☺☺

Because my nails were chipped really easy last time, I thought, what if my nails were painted in like a chipped off fashion? Haha I think it looks cool. This is EXTREMELY easy to make.

If you want it to be nicer, you can colour block the nail combinations, not necessary for you to use white.

I was playing with the French Manicure/Chipped nail image hehe.

Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺

I used Skin Food's sparkly purple polish here.

I bought this polish in Christmas 2012, so quite recent for about 7SGD a bottle! CHEAP.

The ribbons are from this craft store in Plaza Singapura, on level 3 i think.

The stickers cost 2.90SGD!

The stickers didn't last very long though, for only about 3 days before they started to fall apart :(

Rating: ☺☺☺☺

I got inspired on Instagram again, I thought it was a cute use of pastels and polka dots, my two faves.

This was time-consuming to do, took me about an hour just to get everything right, not including the time to let it dry. 

But the effect was extremely pretty! ^^

You can use an alternative sticker for the middle finger, that's what I did.

The Instagram photo used a Chanel oversized sticker, which I don't have.

Replaced it with an apple instead hehe.

Rating: ☺☺

Did these nails during the London Olympic period, hence the Union Jack.

Used Face Shop polish for this and OPI Shatter (Blue) for my index finger.

Nail pen from Face shop as well to draw on the others.

Rating: ☺☺

I love these the most, this was featured in last week's blog post as well.

Simple and cute! A nice twist on the classic french manicure.

I used Face Shop's nail pens to draw in the ribbons and polka dots.

Base nude polish from Face Shop, Blue polish from Skin Food!

Rating: ☺☺

Received this Essie pale pink polish in a beauty box, and pink glitter gradient is a gift from Joan!☺

It's from Etude House I think.

Rating: ☺☺☺

Some of the nails were really easy to do, and some were tough.
My way to kill time when doing this at home is to watch a television show.
An American one, most of the time.
Like Criminal Minds, or Bones, or Pretty Little Liars (cos sometimes they're really gore-y)
Hehe.

Hope this helps your nail-inspiration! :)

The rest of my photos are on  Facebook! Click to see more hehe.