In a previous post I mentioned that I was completely incapable of doing nails, especially my own. I was spending so much money on going to the nail salon… Gel $45, Oh white tips? $10 more. You want design? $7, you want gems? $2 per gem. WHA?! I was getting to the point where I was spending $50-$100 per go depending if I was getting a pedicure as well.

One day I just snapped and stopped going. I also happen to have a friend pop into my life at that time who is amazing at nail art, and had invested in her own shellac system. Good on you Mel.

Here is some of her work.

As you can see, she’s pretty talented, and completely self taught, if you want to get to know her or check out other stuff she has done find her on Instagram @melanieeobrien.

Enter: Formula X. I was struggling with my nails becoming brittle from all of the shellacking, so I did some research and found the Formula X system at Sephora. It is a cross between regular formula nail polish and shellac. It blows my mind, absolutely amazing, and I have been singing it’s praises to anyone who will listen to me for about a year now.

If you want to invest in a good solid collection this is it, their top coat works with everything and I find it 100 times better then Seche Vite. Each year, around the holidays they release a collection of minis that has more than enough to get you through a few years with a huge selection of colours.

Lucky for me, I had watched how Mel did things so many times I was confident I could struggle bus my way through some nail art as well. So I went on a hunt for some of those nail art doo-dads.

Sparkles and rhinestones and stamp plates oh my! I found many sellers on amazon who would shipped free, and gave hundreds of nail art supplies for next to nil. I also picked up a set of dotting tools for $1.50, and a set of stripping tapes for .99 cents. Last step, pick up some nail glue on Ebay for .50 cents, and you’re more than on your way.

Another great find was the Orly nail arts. These things make my life so easy. Complete even. If ever I needed to draw wispy lines on my nails, these things have my back for sure. You can find them at any Shoppers in Canada and I believe they are about $4 each.

Here are some examples of nail looks I managed to do when I first started out, unfortunately most of my recent stuff was deleted do to a phone incident.

This was today’s look, simple and quick. Just painted, swiped on a couple of lines of Orly in black, and silver sparkle, topped it off with Formula X top coat and five minutes later and that stuff was hard as a rock, and I was ready to roll!