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How To Quickly Get Nails Like The Pros

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Sometimes when you look at pictures of models and celebrities online and in magazines you often wonder how in the hell they managed to get such extravagant nails and why yours can’t be as beautiful. Well, the difference there is usually because they have the help of highly paid nail art technicians. Not all of us can afford such a luxury, and not everybody possesses natural expertise at crafting fabulous nails like the professionals. So what can be done?

Well fret no longer, because it is possible to cheat at getting great nails without having to attend a two year course in professional manicure training. With these simple tips you’ll be able to quickly buff up your nail skills and show off to everyone fabulous fingertips they’ll think were done by pros.

So let’s begin the fast track beautiful nails 101 lesson!

Read WikiHow Guides

The internet is a massive resource of free and accessible information, but it’s often surprising how Nail Artmuch people overlook its usefulness. Guides like this appear all over the web and WikiHow, an open source website dedicated to users contributing ‘how to’ guides on almost every subject imaginable, has countless articles on nail beauty. They’re easy to read, have picture demonstrations and break things down into simple steps so everybody can learn at a steady pace. There’s also a fair learning curve so newbies don’t get overwhelmed. By following the simple guides, you can become an expert in minutes and pretend as if you’ve known everything about advanced nail art the whole time.

Use Nail Appliques

Some nails can look really gorgeous with little acrylic decorations and jewels attached to them, but often these delicate designs can be tough for amateurs to master. Luckily you can cheat and make it appear as if you’re a master at these kinds of beautiful designs by getting ready made acrylic nails straight from beauty stores. They come in all different kinds of great styles and are remarkably easy to apply with just a bit of glue and nail polish. Even the clumsiest of you out there won’t be able to mess up putting these on, so they’re a great way to feign manicure competence.

Watch Online Video Tutorials

Sometimes the best way to learn is not by reading, but by visual demonstration. Apart from going to nail beauty classes, which can be expensive, you could take a look at many of the hundreds – perhaps even thousands – of video makers on YouTube that have compiled tutorials on nail art. Whole channels from users such as Robin Moses, who uploads many of her unique creations, and luxuriousnails provide easy to follow guides to making great nails. There are many more to discover with hours of content just a click and search away. Free knowledge is what the internet was made for, and you can find the best of it on YouTube.

Visit Nail Art Forums

Nail GlitterAnother sure fire way to ensure you get quick, free and easy advice is by engaging with the nail art community online. Visit forums where nail artists congregate and like to chat and you’re sure to find welcoming users that will happily share with you tips and tricks, as well as posting inspirational ideas you can use. A quick Google search will reveal the top forums, and Tumblr is a good place to go and see nail art blogs, but the Reddit community r/RedditLacqueristas is also another popular and open community for nail addicts.

Practice On Dummy Nails

If you’ve great ideas but don’t want to mess them up on your real nails, then buy some fake plastic or dummy nails to practice. Trial and error is the way forward when it comes to building up and learning new skills, and doing it in a safe, consequence-free way works the best. Fake nails are disposable so if you mess up it doesn’t matter and you can stock up on as many as you like until you perfect your technique and signature style.

Practice, practice, practice is really the best advice we can give, but with these hot tips going from boring nails to fabulous nails can be sped up. Soon you’ll be able to confidently wield beautiful nails that’ll be the envy of all your friends and they’ll want to know your secret. And the secret is – there is no secret. Just being wise and knowing the right places to research and learn.

Featured images:

Kelly Jacobs is a fashion and beauty blogger that still considers herself a noob when it comes to doing her own nail art.






Matching The Perfect Jewelry To Your Little Black Dress

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There are few things in any woman’s wardrobe as versatile or iconic as the little black dress, and whether you have tens of different variations on it or just one favorite you pull out time and time again, chances are you have and love one. Of course, with something this simple, it can feel like accessorizing is a bit of a challenge – do you go for statement bags and jewelry that add character to the dress and draw away from its simplicity, or do you keep things eternally classic with minimalist yet luxurious matching black shoes and bag and simple, elegant jewelry?

Well, the answer is, whatever suits your style and the occasion! A little black dress that fits well will look just as good whether you layer on cool modern silver jewelry, bold ethnic pieces or classic diamonds! Below are some ideas for different looks.

Fun and Modern

Just because the party you are going to is likely to be full of trendy types doesn’t mean the little black dress has to give you an overdressed or ‘safe’ look. You can pair it with interesting, artistic jewelry like sculpted silver bangles, big dangly statement earrings, or bold necklaces. Silver is a great metal to wear with black, so if you are a fan of chunky silver pieces or weird shapes in metal then the LBD is a wonderful thing to try wearing them with. You can also inject some bohemian style by using a color in your jewelry. Turquoise is a very good choice, but you can also work with things like amethyst, rose quartz and tiger’s eye.

Discreet and Classic

If you want to capture some real old school chic, less is more with the jewelry yet it should still give off a sense of luxury and impeccable taste. Pearls are one of the easiest ways to do this as a simple string of pearls around the throat (not too long unless you are going for a twenties inspired look) paired with pearl studs or tear drops in the ears looks expensive, chic and classy. This is also a look that works at just about any age.

Glitzy and Glam

Nothing says glamor like diamonds, whether you can afford the real thing or simply plan to achieve that sparkling look with cheaper diamond effect glass or diamante jewelry. You can go for the full Audrey Hepburn look with ornate diamond necklaces and long earrings, or, if you want the sparkle without it distracting from your dress, try some simple diamond stud earrings and a subtle chain necklace with a diamond pendant. Another good way to add the sparkle of diamond to any outfit, including the little black dress, in a way that is unpretentious and practical, is to have a watch with some diamond embellishment. Many people forgo a watch altogether these days, or don’t wear one with evening wear because they want to wear other jewelry on their wrists, but a well chosen, dainty watch actually makes a fantastic accessory to any level of dress other than perhaps a full scale ball gown!

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The author of this post, Nolan Grey, is currently working for Diamonds on Web. He regularly volunteers at a local senior citizen home and he is very passionate about photography.

Hate Queues? Then Online Shopping Is The Way Forward For You!

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It’s a common misconception that all women love shopping – but this is just wrong! Sure, some do, but for others the idea of heading into town, paying for parking, standing in queues and getting stressed out trying to find the needle in the haystack is enough to send them to the nearest pub instead! If you are the kind of women who would really rather not bother, then you need to do your shopping online. Here are just some of the things that are MUCH easier to buy online:

Presents for People

We’ve all trawled shops aimlessly looking for a gift for a loved one haven’t we? It seems the more you look, the fewer ideas you have. This is a really frustrating thing to do – and you’ll probably get nowhere. It’s time to look online. There are online sites dedicated to gifts and they’ll throw ideas at you that you never would have thought of otherwise. It’s all done in a fraction of the time too – flicking between web pages is much easier than dashing in and out of stores. Gift buying is far less stressful when you do it online, and you can get organised too – no more frantic last minute dashes into town for you. Just order the present plenty of time beforehand to take into account delivery time, and then you can wrap it at your leisure and present your present!

Clothes

Whether it’s glamorous party dresses you’re after or plain old t shirts, you’ll find it much easier to get what you’re after online. Many people are put off by the fact that they can’t try things on, but any online shop worth its salt has a flawless returns policy – so if you don’t like it, just send it back! Websites these days are great at telling you exactly what you’re getting – you can zoom in to see the material’s pattern and texture close up, and read the detailed description of what the item is made from. It takes all the stress out of clothes shopping as you can try things on in the comfort of your own home rather than a tiny dressing room with bad lighting!

Groceries

Online grocery shopping is one of modern life’s best bits! Shopping in the store is always a hassle – navigating trolleys around small aisles, avoiding screaming children, is something we could all do without. Simply put your order in online, pay a small delivery fee and you’ll save yourself loads of time and loads of stress. You will also save money as you are far less likely to make those impulse purchases that add a lot of money to the final bill.

Thanks to modern technology, shopping stress is a thing of the past. Why put yourself through all the hassle of shopping in town when you can sit down with a cup of tea at a time that suits you, and make your choices in peace? It’s a no-brainer – let those who love shopping wander around town and stand in queues, and take the easy route instead!

Attached Images:
  •  License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://pixabay.com/en/business-card-credit-debit-female-15721/
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source
  •  License: Creative Commons image source

Today’s feature writer, Jenny Wadlow, is a freelance blogger and a fashion enthusiast. She likes to follow the latest fashion and prefers buying her dresses online at Pilgrim Clothing. She is a fun loving person and likes to be a part of many social gatherings. You can follow her on Twitter @JennyWadlow.

Credit Crunch Shopping – Why Op Shops Are The Way Forward!

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In these times of austerity we could all do with finding ways to save money and tighten our purse strings. There is very little we can do about our utility bills, rent and mortgages. But what about everything else? We still need to buy things on a day to day basis and what we spend has a major effect on the bottom line of our bank balance every month. The future surely is in thrift shopping? Here are just a few of the many ways you can save money by spending a little more time in the charity shops:

Home Furnishings

You never know what you might stumble across in an op shop! That’s the beauty of it – you will come across many things that would look lovely in your home. Kitchen appliances, rugs, pictures, crockery, cutlery, lampshades…you name it, you’ll find it in the charity shops. Of course not everything will be to your style but that doesn’t matter – just keep looking. You’ll find one-off pieces that nobody else will have in their home, and you’ll find things so unique that you’d never have found in the high street shops. Op shops are the place to pick up quirky and original pieces that your friends will think you have paid a lot of money for!

Clothing

Cast off all of your preconceived ideas about buying clothes in charity shops. A lot of people wouldn’t even consider it, but they are missing out. You never know what you might find – from everyday basics to designer labels, it’s all there. You just have to rely a little on chance! The organised shops have their stock displayed in sizes so that it’s easy for you to flick through everything that might fit you. You’ll pay a fraction of the price you’d pay for new clothing, and you’ll more than likely find something that you’d never even find in the shops in the first place! If you think style and individuality is important then you’ll thrive in the thrift shops.

Children’s Toys

We all know how long the novelty factor of children’s toys lasts for – approximately three minutes! Where’s the sense in paying loads of money for brand new toys that will be cast aside in no time at all? Take your children to the local charity shop and get them to pick toys that they like. It’s a good lesson to them if you allow them each to pick one thing they really want. It’ll cost you next to nothing, they will be thrilled, and when they are done with them you can just take them back instead of them just causing more clutter around the house.

Charity shops are amazing places! Once you’re in the swing of thrift shopping you’ll love the suspense of walking into a shop not knowing what treasures you might find once you start digging in. Check out which charity shops are in your town and spend a day getting to know them all – you never know what you might come home with!

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Today’s guest author, Jenny Wadlow, is a freelance blogger. She is a humanitarian and a regular visitor and of various op shops in Melbourne to donate whatever she can.

Shop til we drop

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A friend of mine called me the other day and we made plans to get together this weekend and go out shopping. She’s getting married this summer and she wants some help with her wedding plans. I’m certain she has just about everything planned already but she’s still tinkering with things.

I know one thing that she definitely wants my help with and that is picking out her diamond wedding band. You see I used to be a jeweler and I still have a lot of connections downtown in the jewelry trade. So … we’re going to see a few of my old jewelry contacts and get her a custom made diamond wedding band. I think she’d going to have a custom made band made for her fiance as well.

I have a feeling that we’re going to be so busy this Saturday that we’re going to Shop ’til we drop! Ah oh well, we’ll finish with a nice dinner and have some fun.

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