Conference Cuticles

When it comes to getting together with other women I immediately panic, but meeting with 700 other women?!? Not just any women, but blogging women that have 1 million+ readers a month? Many of which are expert fashion bloggers. How would you feel??? Well, my mind begins to race and I begin asking myself all of the “important” questions. What am I going to wear? Should I go buy a new shirt/outfit? What am I going to do with my hair? Should I re-color my hair? Should I cut my hair? What purse should I take? … And one of the most important questions in my mind is … What should I paint on my nails?

Well, this is the emotional trauma I went through at the end of February. I attended a two-day blogger conference that had 700 other blogging women there. It was incredible! (Check back for my post, Start With Why.)

The questions mentioned above consumed me for days, no weeks. I ended up deciding my hair was fine and I would just do it my ordinary way. I looked around for a new outfit, but being 16 weeks pregnant nothing looked very well. *Sigh.* So, I picked one of my favorite outfits that I already own, to wear. But, for my nails what was I going to do??? I ended up choosing a bright coral pink that matched my shirt for the first day, glitter that sparkled, and a black and white nail that “popped” next to the pink. Luckily, all that stress was worth it! I had a few fellow bloggers ask questions on how to do gel polish and how to do glitter and designs over the gel. So here is how I did it . . .

Note: I will be providing instructions on how to achieve this look with plain polish, along with Gel Polish.

Step 1: Prep Nails

View my post on Nail Polish Prep.

Step 2: Paint Color onto Nails

Paint all of the nails, except the middle and ring fingers, with two coats of coral pink polish. I used the Shellac color called, Tropix. Paint the ring fingers with white polish. I used the Shellac color called, White Puff. Leave the ring finger plain, until the next step. Paint the middle nails with top coat and while the paint is wet sprinkle with fine silver craft glitter. I used Martha Stewart craft glitter, silver. Note: Once the polish is cured brush off the excess glitter.

Gel Polish: Apply two coats of polish. Cure 2 minutes in the UV light, or 1 minute in an LED light.

Step 3: Chevron Stripes

Remove the sticky/tacky residue on top of the white ring finger. Stick a chevron vinyl guide onto your ringer finger nails. {Note: I just cut my own with my craft cutter –download SVG and PDF file below–, but I have heard that you can buy chevron tape or you could cut scotch tape with pinking shears.} Paint black polish and remove guides.

Download this zip file for the SVG and PDF files for the chevron nail stripes. My SVG file for the set of 3 chevron stripes (good for one nail) measures width: 0.8″ x height: 0.4″