Newspaper Nails!

As most of you  know, I recently moved 1,000 miles away from everything I've ever known to start a new life in California! Its beautiful, new, and exciting out here! With that being said.. I'm bored out of my mind! I don't have a job, so I spend most of my days trying to find new ways to occupy myself (hence the start of this blog). I cook, clean, and paint my nails.. A LOT. When you paint your nails 3 times a day, exciting new designs become limited. Luckily I have a wonderful cousin, who helped me discover this gem, and now I, shall pass it on to you.


And so it begins...

Tools

Base coat
White, or light gray polish
Small strips of newspaper
Rubbing alcohol
Top coat

Step 1
You always want to start off by applying a base coat to your nails. This prevents any type of staining on your natural nail (you know that lovely crack-head orange hue your nails give off after painting them red, or some other fabulous color) it also acts like a primer for your polish, ensuring better adhesion of polish to the nail. I use "Base Coat" by OPI.

Step 2
Next you're going to want to apply two coats of your color. Some people like to use a pale gray for this, but I don't have gray..so I used white.

Step 3
After waiting at least 15 min for your polish to "set" You get to start the fun part! Submerge your entire nail into your little cup full of alcohol. You can use the cap of the alcohol bottle if you don't have a small cup.  Luckily, I gifted myself this sauce cup from Chili's.

Step 4
The next step is a little tricky, take your small piece of newspaper, and apply it to your freshly alcohol-ed nail. Personally, I like the ink to be a little messy. But if you want your lettering to be uniform, be sure not to wiggle the newspaper around while applying it to your nail.

Step 5
Once you have completed the 4 steps above to all ten or your fingers (assuming you have the average number of digits, I don't judge) apply your top coat. This is an extremely important step. Without the topcoat, the ink from the newspaper will rub off, plus it adds a nice shine to your nails :) I use the good old Salon Hansen brand.

And there you have it! Super fancy nails.

And as always, please excuse the mess around my cuticles.