NOTD: Retro Style

It's kinda weird, over the past twelve months, I've gotten quite into doing weird things with my nails, you know, being creative with them. But, I never seem to remember to do any Nails of the Day, in fact, I think that over the course of this blog, I've only done two, and both of those were Konad-based.



Well, rest assured that todays is not Konad based. It's not complicated. It's not all fancy-pants. It's just simple, and probably won't be to a lot of people's tastes, but y'know, I kinda like it, in a really Retro 1980s kind of way. And most importantly, it is so easy peasy to achieve.

Sorry that the quality of this picture isn't too great, but I had to do it using my phone, and luckily for this NOTD you don't really need a Hi-Def quality image, because you can still pretty much see where this is doing.

The Inspiration:

I was really inspired by those jumpers that were very fashionable in the 1980s, and have made a bit of a comeback recently, that are made up of block colours, similar to this one which is available for £35 at BashfulBatWings.

What Do You Need?

You don't have to use the same colours as me, because I know that they definitely won't be too everyone's taste, but you can probably guess that you just need to find two colours that complement eachother :)

1. Anyway, I started out by applying a quick base coat. I used Rimmel's Stronger Double Duty Base Coat, which both strengthens and protects your nails. With my nails being relatively long now, I need to extra strength. But, I've found that using a good base coat keeps the polish one when you want it to, but protects your nails from staining, which is good if you wear bright or dark colours, such as oranges or navy blues.

This base coat really doesn't take very long to dry, although it does stay sticky for quite some time. I'm told that it's okay to apply whilst it's sticky, as this apparently helps the colour to stay on (a Nail Technician told me that, so don't argue with me hehe :))

2. Apply your base coat. I used Rimmel's 60 Seconds in Sky Blue, which is Number 825. I absolutely love this colour. It's kind of a green colour, but also kind of looks bluey. It reminds me of the "Sea Green" Crayola pencil crayon that I used to always choose over every other colour when doing colouring in Primary School, so maybe that's why I love it so much.

Advice I was given by Liloo: If you have trouble applying your polish, in that you always smudge it. Make sure that you apply the hand that you have most trouble with first. Leave it to dry. And only then, move onto the easier hand. Repeat again for extra coats.

For this colour, I think two, maybe three coats are necessary. You really can't get away with just one coat.

Advice I was given by a Nail Technician: Make sure you apply in very thin layers, to allow the coats to dry quicker and smoother. And don't rush to apply polish too quickly after each coat, as you run the risk of creating bubbles, or just making a mess.

3. Give the base coat plenty of time to dry, before taking your final polish. For this I used ELF's Light Red, which is another colour that I love. It's quite a bright red in colour, but applied over the Greeny Blue, it kind of darkens, which I personally felt worked really well for the look I was trying to achieve.

Basically all I did for the final step was sweep the polish across the tip of your nail. The cool think about this look, is that you don't need to do them in perfectly straight lines, in the way "Tips" are done. Instead they can be slanted, which makes for an even more Retro feel. In the past, I've been a bit more creative with this, doing slanted sweeps that take up more of my nail, but for this one, I decided to just do the tips, because sometimes trying to do more can end up looking messy.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this look, and maybe give it a try. Let me know if you do ;)