Making Your Own Nail Art Brushes

 Most of the time even the smallest brushes I can find are typically to big for me. I know you can get some fairly small ones online but I hate ordering things and having to wait for them to arrive, it drives me insane. I ordered a sable brush from Sally Beauty Supply online, used it for one stripe dipped it in acetone to clean it like I do all of my brushes and when I took it out all of the bristles were gone, I kid you not. Needless to say I was fairly disappointed. I also think part of the reason I hate ordering online is our mail isn't delivered to the house we have to pick it up at the post office but that is another story.
 Anyways what I tend to do is check out the art sections of most stores or any craft store I come across to see what brushes they have. I usually find them for a dollar or two. If you can't find one that is small enough you can make your own, and it is pretty simple. All you need is a brush, a pair of small scissors or what I prefer to use, cuticle clippers.

 After I find a cheap brush I like I take my cuticle clippers and go around the edge near the base of the handle and clip small sections out going towards the middle of the bristles. I like to keep the edges somewhat even so that when I get it to the thinness I want all of the bristles are in the middle of the brush and not to one side.

 Continue cutting small sections all the way around evenly until you feel the brush is thin enough for you.

 In the picture below are a few of my brushes, you can see how thin some of them are. Also, you might notice out of the five pictured, I have two of each of the black handle brushes. The only difference being that one I have cut more bristles off.

 

 So when I find a nice cheap brush I usually buy a few to make several different sizes, to have as backups in case one gets very used and I end up trashing it or lost.

How to Make simple Hearts

 I thought I would just do a quick post on how I make my hearts. They are super simple, all you need is a small brush or dotting tool. If you don't have a dotting tool they are easy to find online like ebay or BornPrettyStore.com or at you local craft store, or you can simple use a toothpick, pencil or pen. I find for me it is easier to use the dotting tools as I seem to have more control  making the hearts with that than a brush but you can use anything you like.

 To make the hearts I start by placing a dot and dragging it down slightly.

 Then I start with the top of the other side of the heart, doing the same step. Make a dot and drag down until you reach the bottom of the first line.

V-Day Manicure

 I am typically not a big fan of Valentines day in general, but I do love all the pink, hearts and girly things around February. Lately I have been in a nail art slump also and I really wanted to take advantage of being able to do V-day nail art before it was to late. I am so excited that the holiday season is now over and my nails are recovering nicely, and getting back to normal.

 Anyways for this mani I used You Make Me Vroom for my ring fingers and Elephantastic Pink for the rest, along with those two and Black Onyx, Alpine Snow and The Show Must Go On for the hearts lines and dots. I also did my toes to match my ring finger but I wont show you those since they have been a bit neglected for snowboarding season. I love doing nail art on my toes because it last so much longer though!

Horrid Cuticles

 I haven't posted anything in a while but today I have a surprise! I have never had any luck with Sally Hansen products. Nail polish, strengtheners, cuticle cream or oil, lip products, you get the idea. Nothing from them has ever worked. Well, while I was at the store this week I saw this and figured why not? If I am right it was around four bucks. Since my cuticle have been horrid this winter I needed something. 

 I am pleasantly surprised with Sally Hansen this time! I did not take before pictures or my cuticles because honestly, Sally has never been kind to me. But trust me I have problems with my polish chipping around my cuticles because I cant get them off my nail bed, and I use a chrome cuticle pusher!

 The instructions say to apply a thin strip and wait one to two minutes, I left it on around five. I did not use the built in cuticle pusher but none the less it worked great for me. It totally removed the cuticles stuck to my nail bed and seemed to actually leave the skin around my nails nice, soft and moisturized. It smelled nice also.