I love doing my nails. I've never had them done at a nail salon, mostly because I have too much fun trying out new styles and techniques and am often indecisive. If I don't like what I've done, I can just take it off without feeling guilty about spending too much! Anyway, in anticipation for this past Disney trip, I did my nails in quite a few Disney themes. This first one was inspired by Aladdin on Broadway, which Jim took me to as a Christmas present (we saw it this past March). They are Princess Jasmine-inspired (with my little Vinylmation Abu keychain)!
I tried some Up nails! I'd seen this idea on many instragram accounts and finally attempted it myself, although I was out of white nail polish so I had to use White-Out, which didn't come out that well! I've seen these done more recently with tons of balloons all over the top 4 nails, and the house a lot more detailed with pastels, but I didn't have any tools at the time besides dotters! (Now I have a detail brush but I haven't quite figured out the best way to use it yet!)
I'm not a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland but I do love the art! I have a lot of pinks so I decided to make Cheshire Cat nails. This was my first time using gold striping tape (it is difficult to work with!!) and I had a thin brush for the painted stripes. It reminds me of the Pop Vinyl collectibles, since I gave the cat 2 small round eyes!
When we'd officially booked our trip, I celebrated by giving myself the Minnie Manicure they seem to offer at the Saratoga Springs spa. I thought Disney would offer crazy-awesome themed manicures, but this was the only one I could find! I used french manicure nail strips which I still need practice with! I'm holding my Minnie Mouse phone handset here :)
My friend Katherine and I love Winnie the Pooh so I made a classic Pooh on my thumb holding onto that big red balloon! I used nail beads for the bees that surround him. I was very happy with this! My summer campers were thoroughly impressed! (The beads fell off overnight because I was reluctant to use a topcoat. Whenever I use a topcoat it makes my nail art smudge in the direction of the brush. Any tips?)
My piece de resistance, Lady and the Tramp nails! I am most proud of these!! I think they are the best nails I've done yet! Jim & I love this movie, and I challenged myself by attempting an homage. Lady is wearing a yellow rhinestone as her ID tag (which also fell off by morning haha! But I had a gold paint dot underneath anyway).
The "cement" on my thumbnail was really fun (in the movie they add their paw prints to an already-drawn heart in the cement)! I coated it thickly with gray (essie's "chinchilly"), then drew on it with a dotting tool. You could see the blue underneath so when it dried a little, I blotted on more gray. It came out better than I had hoped! Here's a little step-by-step I put on my instagram (you can follow me at @elysebuckley):
And finally I bought a set of mini nail polishes at Sir Mickey's in Fantasyland while we were at Magic Kingdom. They are villain-themed (aaah!!) but I bought them anyway! I painted these last night (large circles are really hard to do!! I used the brush from the bottle, but there has to be a better way. Anyone have ideas? I wonder if there is a tiny sponge they make for that..). The gold is nice and opaque, and the silver pops on dark colors. I had to use about 4 coats of the blue to make it this dark--it's not as clean as the other colors. I didn't try the purple yet, and the black was my own.
Do you love Disney nail art? Send me a link to your blog or instagram account in the message area below!
