Neige à Paris

  The other day as I was admiring my latest nail polish color and ogling over my color collecting addiction, I told my boyfriend I had enough nail polishes to paint my nails a different color every week for an entire year. To which he responded, "You should do that! And make a blog about it!"

WEEK 14: Neige à Paris

A few weeks back in my Mixed Media post I briefly introduced one of my oldest nail hacks: Ring Reinforcers. Now these little stickers have many different styles and names, and quite honestly I had no idea what they were called before I decided to put them in my blog. Thank goodness for Google. And you've probably stumbled across some of these yourself in the deep dark corners of your father's desk drawer or in that odd aisle of office supplies with all that stuff no one actually uses.... or even knows what it is for that matter. Well, allow me to enlighten you.

The original intent of their inventor was that they be placed over the three-ring binder hole of a piece of paper to keep it from ripping out. Reinforcing the ring's hole. Thus, their name. Personally, I find them a rather fascinating invention, seeing as I will always choose good old fashioned files in a binder over files on a computer. But to the rest of the world, these poor little guys are basically useless and on the verge of extinction. But I say, NO. Let us bring back the ring reinforcers with new life and vitality. And let us give them a new name. A French name. For a French Tip.

If you choose to use a base coat with this particular design, be sure to give it plenty of time to really set up beforehand. If you don't the sticker will peel up sections of it when you remove it, and learn from my failures that dry to the touch does not necessarily mean it won't peel up. But if you choose to skip the base coat, carry on.

After making a slit in each sticker to allow it to lay evening across the curved surface of the nail, I used them to mask off all of the nail from the tip. Feel free to adjust the amount left uncovered based on your own nail length and personal preference. I then used a light creamy pink to paint the tip of the nail, working carefully as to not get any polish on the uncovered center of the nail. After a few moments I slowly lifted up the sticker leaving a perfectly crisp French Tip on each nail.

In order to add a little more festive glamour I wanted to create a snowflake-like pattern on part of my ring finger. I started by creating cream colored dots across the section of the nail where I wanted to design. Then across some of the larger dots I painted little Xs. Next I used a white polish to create smaller dots around and even over some of the cream dots. Finally, I used my metallic silver polish to add some more dotting throughout the design and finished with a few silver Xs over some of the silver dots. 

I absolutely love this design for two reasons. First of all, not only do the ring reinforcers create a precise stencil so you don't have to color between the lines, but even the snowflakes themselves don't have to be perfect, because the more layered and sporadic it is, the more it looks like a blizzard, at least in my opinion. So basically, it's an almost foolproof nail set. And secondly, there's just something magical about combining the chaos of a winter flurry, with the elegance of a French Tip.

Products Used:
 

- Nabi - Nude Pink
- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White On
- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Celeb City
- Nail Art Brush Set