Alternative Valentine's Day Nails

Hello friends!
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, AKA one of my favorite holidays. I'm a romantic type, so I love having a holiday that celebrates love all over parts of the world.

About two years ago, I posted a heart nail tutorial based on one by The Clothes Horse. I was thinking about re-trying it this year, but it's already been done! So this time, I opted for a more soft-colored, pretty nail tutorial that isn't the standard pink or red for Valentine's Day. I like going for more alternative styles every once in a while, just to mix things up from prior years. It's fun to see how creative one can be! So I hope you folks like this version of a Valentine's Day nail look.

Also, side note: I know my nails and skin are not in the best condition. I work at a fast food restaurant and a green house, so my hands get pretty dry--in addition to us having cold weather here in Ohio. So I hope my dry hands don' distract you from the content of this post! :)

Let's get started, shall we?

Now this nail tutorial technically only has three steps. And they're super simple! I'm using three polishes from Poparazzi, as shown above.

I guess you could start with a base coat of some kind, but because I'm not exactly the most amazing nail-painter ever, I don't care to do that. When it comes to doing my nails like this (yes, I've used this technique a few times in the past), I usually just zip on through, so I skip any coats of polish that I find take up too much extra time. This particular polish that I'm using first, however, is Poparazzi's "Toes in the Sand" nail polish. It's taken me ages to find a nude-ish color that doesn't require too many extra coats.

So for the first step, I'm just applying that nail polish, using only one or two coats, on each finger nail, for a nice, solid nude color.

This was one of the first polishes from Poparazzi that I've ever purchased. It's starting to run low, but it's held up (without getting goopy) for several months, I'd say. This one is the Poparazzi POP FX "Hit the Goldmine" nail polish.. I don't usually wear glittery nail polishes, but this one is the one I choose when I do! I appreciate that it's not too yellowy and not too dull.

Yes, I know; my painting skills are sometimes not the greatest! But stay with me, I promise it'll get better. In this step, I dabbed the gold nail polish just near my cuticles, so they can be their busiest at the lowest part of the nails. It looks obvious that there are two distinct polishes there, but in the next step, we clean up that divide.

If you couldn't guess, this is Poparazzi's Quick Dry Top Coat. This plays the role of smoothing out the two polishes to make them blend more beautifully.

I start right where the separation is, then work my way from the lowest part of the nail to the top. Depending on how damp the glitter polish still is, some of it should flow a bit higher, making the gold look less compact and more gradated. Even if you get a couple sparkles at the tips of your nails, don't sweat it! There's nothing wrong with imperfection. In my opinion, it gives the look more character.

And after you let them dry, that's all there is to them!

Thank you all so much for stopping in today and reading! What are some things you're doing this Valentine's Day? Comment them down below!

​-L