I fell in love with nail art during my sophomore year in high school, after watching a couple of nail tutorials on YouTube. I didn’t think I would be very good at it but I decided to give it a go anyway. I bought some glue on full coverage nails, some new polish and a nail art brush, and gave it a whirl. To my surprise I was actually good at it! I decided to abandon the glue on nails because they didn’t last long, and grew out my natural nails instead. All that year I was obsessed with doing my nails but during by junior year it just stopped. I got so busy with school work that I just forgot all about doing my nails. Plus it seemed like they weren’t as strong as they had been before because they were constantly breaking. I did miss having fancy nails though.

I still kept up with nail trends despite not having my nails done and for my senior prom I just HAD to have stiletto nails. I went to a local salon and got french tip stiletto nails with a simple abstract design on each ring finger to match my dress. In about 2 weeks I went back to the nail salon for a fill in and I showed the nail tech a picture of a leopard print design I wanted on my nails. I could not believe what he said next…he told me he couldn’t do it, and he insisted that it wasn’t a free-handed design. He believed it to be a nail sticker or airbrushed. I just settled for simple zebra print but in my head I was thinking “I could do this myself, this is the last time im wasting my money here”. I fully planned to go out and buy an acrylic nail kit but I just couldn’t get up the courage, it seemed like such a daunting task.

This year I FINALLY went out and bought the kit, about three weeks ago actually. It’s the Complete Salon Acrylic Nail Kit by Kiss. It comes with EVERYTHING you need to do a set of acrylic nails and a couple fill ins. It comes with tips, acrylic liquid and powder, primer, a brush, and even a dappen dish. I bought a pretty pinky-nude color by wet and wild to paint my nails with. Since im a beginner I’m not gonna lie, it takes me about 3 hours to prep my nails, lay the acrylic, and paint them. Today however I gave myself a fill in and I went a bit faster this time. I don’t have a nail dryer so I used my blow dryer on the cool setting to speed up drying time. I went with a glittery red color by Sally Hansen and on my ring fingers added gold leopard print. Christmas colors done fierce! Practice makes perfect and hopefully I can use this skill to make a little spare change in college. Heres a list of the items and where you can find them. Happy painting!

First Manicure

Red, and Gold Leopard Nails

Click to See Where to Purchase Each Item

Kiss Complete Salon Acrylic Nail Kit

Wet n Wild Megalast Salon Nail Color: Private Viewing

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear: Red Carpet