Autumn Pumpkin Nail Tutorial ♡

Although it's now November, there's still almost this whole month of fall/autumn decorations! I love seasonal nails since I love seasons in general so when I recently did a pumpkin accent nail I figured I should make a post about it! If you've been following my blog, I did a Watermelon Nail DIY back in August. Many of you really liked that one as well as my DIY Floral Nails which was actually my first blog post. 

Anyway, I think these would be so cute for Thanksgiving which is approaching fast. Woohoo!

| You Will Need: |

1. Base coat (Orly Bonder)
2. Natural wood toothpicks
3. White polish (Julep Dana)
4. Orange/coral polish (Essie Tart Deco)
5. Red/dark orange polish (Essie Meet Me at Sunset)
6. Green/teal polish (Essie Naughty Nautical)
7. Top coat (Seche Vite)

| Steps |

1. Begin by coating your nails with a base coat to encourage lasting nail polish.
2. Apply two coats of your white nail polish to all but your index finger (or other chosen nail).
3. Apply two coats to your index finger of your orange/coral. (step 1)
4. On your accent nail/ring fingers, create a semi-circle on the end of your nails, reaching about 1/3 of the way up your nail. This will be your pumpkin. (step 2)
5. On a piece of paper or index card put a large drop of red polish. Using a toothpick, thinly outline your pumpkin. Also place a line directly down the center of it, then one curved line on either side of it. So three-dimensional. (step 3)
6. On the same piece of paper, put a large drop of teal. Using a toothpick again, apply a dot of it on the top center of the pumpkin, allowing the bottom of the dot to slightly go into the pumpkin. Extend this line up and to the left or right to create a loop. Curve the line down to the opposite side and have it jut into the pumpkin again. Where the curve begins to straighten out, attach a line to make a loop and bring it up to nearly the bottom of your nail to complete the adorable vine. (step 4)
7. Wait for it to dry completely and apply a top coat.

Explaining it sounds more complicated than it is but it will take some practice. Since it's simpler, you could just make the pumpkin stem (actually called a peduncle) short and stubby instead of creating a vine.
If ya'll have any requests for nail tutorials let me know!
Thanks for reading! xo

DIY Watermelon Nails

During the summer I love being able to do funky fruit accent nails. Recently I saw a picture on Pinterest of watermelon nails and decided I would give it a go. It's actually pretty easy but I got a lot of compliments on them! I think next I'm doing pineapples.

My apologies for the color difference in the pictures- the one above displays the color most correctly.

| You Will Need |

-Base coat (Orly's Rubberized Bonder)

-Top coat (Seche Vite)

-Pink/coral nail polish (Sally Hansen Coral Reef)

-Green nail polish (Essie First Timer)

-Black nail polish (China Glaze Smoke and Ashes)

-Toothpicks (plain wood, not colored!)

-Nail polish remover

| Steps |

1. Clean all oil and polish off with some nail polish remover.
2. Apply a coat of base coat and wait to dry.
3. Apply two coats of a pinky color to all nails. ("step 1")
4. Carefully using a green polish, apply a thin strip like a watermelon rind on your choice accent nail. Apply two coats if necessary. ("step 2")
5. For the watermelon seeds, drop some black polish onto a note card and dip in the toothpick. Apply a dot where you want the bottom of the seed and gently drag upwards to create a rounded, pudgy teardrop. Repeat until you like the pattern. I used five seeds- three on the top and two on the bottom. ("step 3")
6. Generously top coat, making sure to seal the tips so your watermelons last!

That's all! Easy peasy. Let me know if you try this out! You can tag me on Instagram @hannahvanhoozle. Also, I'm always posting pictures of my nails on Instagram as well!

Thank you for reading! xo

Essie Good to Go Nail Polish Top Coat Review

About six months ago or so (maybe longer, who knows?), I was using the end of my Seche Vite top coat and the bastard had turned yellow-ish and made my nail polish color look off. I think it's maybe because I'd had it for a while and thinned it down several times. That put me back on the hunt for a new holy grail top coat. (I have since returned to Seche Vite and I'm so glad I did. It works so dang well and I haven't had any more issues with it)

I remembered that I'd seen a pin for a "gel manicure hack" using the Sally Hansen No Chip Acrylic Top Coat. I did not have a good experience with that nail polish whatsoever (possible review on that later). After returning it, I decided to do more research and Googled something like "best drugstore top coats." I came across the Makeup Alley review page for the Essie Good to Go and it had 4.2/5 and tons of glowing reviews, so I decided to buy it.

| PRICE |

As usual for where I live, this Essie polish was $8. I have no problem with paying that since I'm a huge Essie fan; I literally have over 20 of their nail polishes (no judgement, please. ;)

| PACKAGING |

The packaging is different from the nail lacquers (I prefer those), but I think it's normal for the products other than the colored polishes. The brush size is normal for Essie, and it works quite well to apply the product. I really like that it comes in its own little plastic box. Excuse the price tags, random products, and messy background in the picture. I threw out my old bottle once I finished it so I had to "sneakily" take pictures of it in my local Fred Meyer. They have security cameras on the beauty isles, so I hope someone got a laugh out of me trying to be nonchalant.

| PRODUCT |

Nail polish in general chips pretty fast on me since I have weak, square/squoval nails. With this top coat, it lasts for maybe three days while with others its lasted for up to a week. The bottle claims "rapid dry + shine," and I agree with both. It really does dry fast, and it definitely makes them shiny.

| OVERALL |

This isn't my favorite topcoat, but it's still pretty good. I really like how fast it dries and I also like how easy it is to paint on. I think that since it's a fast drying top coat the chipping protection isn't as impressive as it could be. I'm relatively neutral about this product.
Thanks for reading! xo

DIY Floral Nails

A few days ago I decided to remove my bulky rhinestone and pearl nail polish (they lasted for a whole week without any embellishments breaking free!). They looked similar to these nails on ShayMitchell.com which I was inspired by. They're so dang cute! I found most of my rhinestones and and pearls at Joann's and some of the crystals at Michael's.
Since my acrylic nails seemed to be having an okay time staying on my hands, I figured I should just paint them again. I had pinned this picture on my Hair & Beauty board on Pinterest a while ago and decided that I wanted to do it. I used very similar colors because who doesn't love mint and pink together? You don't have to use these colors though, you just have to have a base color for your nails and three nail polishes that are the same color but different values of light and dark. Several of the pictures pulled the mint rather baby blue, but it's mint I promise. I tried to fix the color differences as much as I could. Since I (hopefully) documented it well, let's get on with it! :)

| SUPPLIES |

1.  A base coat (Orly Rubberized Bonder)
2. A base color for all of your nails (Mint Candy Apple)
3. The medium color for your flowers (Shelby)
4. The dark color for your flowers (Girls are Out)
5. The light color for your flowers (Figi)
6. A top coat (Seche Vite)

| STEPS |

The first thing I did was apply a coat of the Orly Bonder base coat to my bare acrylics to prep my nails. Next, I applied two coats of the Essie nail polish in Mint Candy Apple. This is one of my all time favorite nail polishes. Who else is ready for spring colors? :D

Next, using a sewing pin with a plastic topper, I applied some of the Zoya nail polish in Shelby (a medium pink) on my nails, making blobs that kind of resemble flowers. 

To define the "roses" (used loosely), I applied a dark pink, using some of my Essie Girls are Out nail polish using a toothpick. I made kind of curved lines, accenting the outer petal shapes.

The last step to accentuate the roses is to apply a light pink by some of the dark pink lines, and also in areas by itself.

Lastly, I used the green color, Essie First Timer, and a toothpick to create one or two triangle-ish shapes on each rose.

Then to finish off the nails completely, I used the Seche Vite Dry Fast topcoat over all of my nails. Not only to make them super shiny, but to make them dry really quick so I don't have to sit around and watch Supernatural for hours while they dry. Not that I mind, I mean, helllllooo Sam and Dean. ;)

| FINISHED PRODUCT |

And that's all! It's pretty easy, but it looks fancy and complicated. People keep asking me where I get my nails done, then they promptly get wide eyes and grab my hands in awe when I say I did them myself. Also, even the right hand accent nail looks okay even though my left hand is confused when it tries to properly use anything. I think next time I do these I'll try to do less flowers and especially make them smaller on my right.

Thanks for reading! xo