We’ve noticed plenty of scalloped hems popping up on the LuLu*s shop with the spring collection slowly releasing, so we were inspired to do something with a scalloped inspiration. We decided to take a bit of a cue from one of our favorite mythical creatures and do a dreamy mermaid look! So check out our full tutorial and make this scaly look a part of your world.

Here’s the look we’re going for:

What you’ll need:
- a minty green nail polish
- a darker teal nail polish
- a makeup sponge
- a black striper brush nail polish
- fast dry top coat

Start with a few coats of your base color. Make sure each coat is dry before applying the next and let these dry completely.

Now take your makeup sponge and apply a dab of the darker nail polish directly onto a corner of the sponge. I use the same sponge for multiple manicures, so usually I rip of the end where old nail polish has dried onto the sponge. Then just take the sponge and dab the polish onto the tip of your nail. This might take a few coats to achieve a darker look, but be patient and let each coat dry in between, or your sponge will end up lifting away your polish instead of putting it on!

Continue dabbing at the tip of each nail until you have a subtle ombre effect on every finger.

Then take your black nail polish and use a striper brush to draw a scalloped design.

Draw single rows of scalloped lines on top of each other until you reach the tip of your nail. Do the same to all of your nails and then simply top coat and you’re done!

This “under the sea” look is an amazing bold look that will surely get you in the mood for warmer weather!

The post Manicure Monday: Mermaid Nails with Syl and Sam appeared first on Lulus.com Fashion Blog.

Here’s the look we’re going for:

What you’ll need:
- mint nail polish
- hot pink nail polish
- white nail polish
- green nail polish
- fast dry top coat
- a toothpick

Start with a few coats of your base color. Allow the coats to dry completely before continuing.

Now take your pink nail polish and dab a small dot on your nail. Then grab the white polish and dab a small dot directly next to the pink one.

Then take your toothpick (quickly before the polishes dry) and “stir” the dots together to make a swirled together spot of polish.

The take the other end of your toothpick and pick up some green polish. Dab the toothpick sideways to create a small leaf shape on the sides of your flower. Repeat the above steps multiple times on each nail to make a repeated flower pattern.

and then top coat and you’re done– your nails will be ready or the spring in no time!

The post Manicure Monday: Floral Nails with Syl and Sam appeared first on Lulus.com Fashion Blog.

Here’s the look we’re going for:

What you’ll need:
- black nail polish
- white nail polish
- fast dry top coat
- a dull pencil
- a toothpick

Start with a few coats of your base color. Allow the coats to dry completely before continuing.

Then take your white nail polish (any contrasting color will work!) and put a few drops onto a scrap piece of paper or on some foil.

Then use your “dotting tool” and dip it into the paint.

Simply touch the tip of the pencil to your nail and you’ll have a perfect dot! Continue in an alternating pattern with the dots evenly spaced out.

Then take your toothpick and dip into the paint.

The smaller tip will make tiny dots, so use this tool to “connect the dots”. Just adjoin the larger dots with a dotted line. Form little diamond shapes to get a quilted look!

Do the same to each of your nails.

and then top coat and you’re done– your nails will look luxe and textured like a certain expensive designer bag

The post Manicure Monday: Quilted Nails with Syl and Sam appeared first on Lulus.com Fashion Blog.

We’re back with another nail stamping tutorial. These manicures require a couple of extra tools (a nail stamping kit), but it’s a worthy investment if you’re a big nail art enthusiast! We decided to go with a festive red and white plaid to match your Christmas morning pajamas or that sparkling holiday dress.

Here’s the look we’re going for today:

What you’ll need:
- A base color (we used red!)
- Konad Special Nail Polish (white)
- A top coat
- Konad Image Plate, Stamp and Scraper
- Nail Polish Remover & Makeup Remover Pads (not shown)

Start with a few coats of your base color & allow it to dry completely before moving on to the next steps.

Now gather your Konad Stamping items together. These special tools can be purchased online & getting a starter kit costs under $25. The metal image plates are available with hundreds of different designs on them. You also need a “stamper” and a “scraper” and their special nail polish… the first step is to grab your special polish & apply it over the entire etched design that you want to apply to your nail.

Then take your scraper and using one swift movement, scrape off all the excess nail polish off of the design. It helps to have a piece of scrap paper sitting under your plate so that you don’t end up scraping the nail polish onto your table.

Moving VERY quickly, take your stamper tool and pick up the design from the plate. It’s important to move quickly or the thin coat of polish will dry onto the plate. Usually, the thinner the image (these stripes are tiny!) the more quickly the paint will dry up!

Now that you’ve transferred a detailed design onto your stamper, you can carefully stamp it onto your nail in a rolling motion.

Once you have done one nail, grab the nail polish remover pads and clean up the excess polish from your plate and stamp. You can repeat the step for each nail and then clean the excess off your cuticles with a cotton swab.

After finishing all nails, top coat them to seal in the design & be sure to take quick swipes so that you don’t smear the design. And there you go! The stripes on mine came out slightly wavy because of some unsteady hands, but practice makes perfect & sometimes you just have to embrace those little mistakes on a DIY manicure.

The post Manicure Monday: Plaid Nails with Syl and Sam appeared first on Lulus.com Fashion Blog.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been obsessed with the abundance of gold in fall fashion right now! The pretty baroque style filigree on everything has been a constant in my daily wardrobe and I wanted to try wearing it another way. Here was our inspiration this week:

The Mink Pink Outrageous Fortune Slashed Baroque Print Jean Shorts, the Privileged Lolla Black Fringe and Filigree Platform Booties, and the Foil Me Twice Gold Print Pencil Skirt

So today we’re going to show you how to do your own gold filigree nails!

Here’s the look we’re going for:

What you’ll need:
- oxblood red or any dark color nail polish
- gold nail polish
- fast dry top coat
- a striper brush (really thin brush for nail art)

Start with a few coats of your base color. Make sure each coat is dry before applying the next and let these dry completely.

Now take your striper brush and dip the tip into your gold or yellow polish.

Then simply draw on your nail with the striper brush. You should be drawing pretty S-shaped swirls in all different directions.

With a metallic polish, like the one we are using, the first coat may go on a bit light. Metallic polishes are a bit more translucent so you may need to do a second coat so that your filigree shows up nicely! Then just add a top coat to seal in your design, and you’re all done!

You can choose to do another base color, but the gold accents are so hot this year, this is the perfect look for your holiday parties!

The post Manicure Monday: Filigree Nails with Syl and Sam appeared first on Lulus.com Fashion Blog.

We’ve been noticing a lot of outlined manicures lately and despite not initially digging the look, we decided to try it out anyway! Turns out, I kinda liked how it really made every nail “pop” and it actually got a ton of compliments too!

Here’s the look we’re going for:

What you’ll need:
- taupe nail polish
- black nail art pen
- fast dry top coat
- gold microbeads
- a toothpick

Start with a few coats of your base color. Let your nails dry completely.

Then simply take your nail art pen and outline your entire nail bed. It might be hard to get close to the cuticle without making a mess, but if you do smudge the black, simply use a cotton swab and nail polish remover to clean off the excess!

For the accent nail, we did a simple studding technique with microbeads. You simply take your toothpick and dip the tip into your clear nail polish. Then touch the tip of the toothpick to a single microbead to pick it up. and then touch it to a wet nail to stick it in place. For a more detailed instructional on this technique, check out our Studded Nails Tutorial

Top coat and you’re done!

The post Manicure Monday: Outlined Nails with Syl and Sam appeared first on Lulus.com Fashion Blog.

This week I’m going to combine the hottest colour with a classic manicure look– the half moon manicure. It looks glamourous, doesn’t require long nails and is SO easy to do with this one special trick! Check it out:

Here’s the look we’re going for:

What you’ll need:

-oxblood colour nail polish
-fast dry top coat
-paper reinforcement stickers

Start with some paper reinforcements– yes, those little stickers in your stationary kit that you use to fix ripped out punched holes!

Now stick a single sticker on each of your nails, carefully positioning them to how you want your half moons to appear. I went a bit higher than where my natural moons are.

Then using your nails (on your other hand) carefully press the stickers in at your cuticles so that they are sitting nice and flat on your nails.

Now that all your stickers are firmly in place, just paint your nails as usual with very thin coats of polish.

Allow each coat to dry completely in between, keeping the stickers in place the whole time.

Let your nails dry briefly and carefully peel off each sticker to reveal your perfect half moons!

Top coat and you’re done! You can also do the same but with a coat of colour as a base so that you have contrast colour moons, but I love the look of the oxblood contrasting my natural nails.

The post Manicure Monday: Half Moon Manicure with Syl & Sam appeared first on Lulus.com Fashion Blog.

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