A few days ago I threw my mom a birthday party. This wasn’t just any party, it was a Sally Hansen #IHeartMyNailArt color blocking party! She has done a lot for me lately and has a bit of a nail polish obsession, so I couldn’t think of a better way to show her how awesome I think she is. We had a blast giving ourselves manicures and trying out the latest color blocking trend, so read on to see a recap!
I started preparing a few days before the party by checking out Sally Hansen’s nail art page for some inspiration and went from there. The color blocking trend is really hot right now so I used that as my theme and decided on a garden party with a nail polish bar, brightly colored food and cocktails. I got the nail polish at Walgreens because I have a balance rewards card that let me rack up $20 in rewards and picked up the food at Publix because they have the best produce.
I wanted the food to be light, colorful and easy to pick up with wet nails so I went with fresh cut fruit, crackers/dip and home made cake pops. (Warning: DO NOT make cake pops for the first time the night before you need them – those suckers are hard to do!) It took a few hours of trial and error but by the end I finally figured out how to make them look presentable. I also dipped some strawberries in candy coating and sprinkles for a fun and colorful accent.
The day of the party I went over to my mom’s house while she was at work to set up. She has the most amazing back yard – really big, lots of shade, a huge deck for everyone to sit at, a picnic table and more. I wanted my setup to be simple and elegant so I threw a white tablecloth over the picnic table and set the food out on top with very little decoration. I love that the colors of the food and nail polish were the main attraction, and I think that if I had a lot of extras it would have taken away from that. Here’s what I came up with:
For the nail art bar I had a few jars of nail polish in every color as well as some nail art pens and Salon Effects nail polish strips. I’m a huge fan of the Insta-Dri line so I made sure to have plenty of that on hand. I found an old appetizer tray in my kitchen that I thought would be perfect to hold the polish, so in each of the four sections I put a color combo to give people some ideas for their nails. I also had q-tips and polish remover on hand for mistakes.
The polish bar was a total hit and my mom LOVED it! It felt great to be able to do something really special for her like this and everyone had a blast!
I’m sure by now you are dying to see how everyone’s nails turned out, so get ready for some serious awesomeness. Most of the ladies here had never heard of color blocking before, and some had never even ventured away from simple pink but they got super creative and came up with some amazing designs! Here they are with descriptions on how to get the look below each picture.
This one is my absolute favorite. Chevron is SO in style right now and the color combinations are endless! This look uses Insta-Dri in Blue-ming Fast and a white nail art pen. For a variation of this try Sweet Stripes.
This look uses Insta-Dri in Man-go Team! and Salon Effects glitter strips. If you can’t find any glitter strips try this Block Party look. You can also purchase hard to find shades through Walgreens online.
Create this look by combining a mauve base with nail art pens in white and turquoise.
I just adore these, they got their inspiration from the food! These looks were created with Insta-Dri in Butter-fly Stroke and Knockout Pink topped with nail art pens.
Here is mine. I know my nails are terrible and nubby, but I love my design! This look combines Insta-Dri in InRecord Lime with Salon Effects sparkly nail polish strips.
I can’t believe how fabulous this party turned out, I truly couldn’t have hoped for a better time! It was great seeing all of the different color blocking patterns everyone came up with and having some much needed girl time with some great people. I know that my mom definitely deserved the break and I think she had a lot of fun!
Are you a fan of the new nail art trends? What colors/combos would you try out if you could? If you want to win a year’s supply of Sally Hansen products for yourself, check out this awesome Pinterest party and enter to win today!
Need some more awesome nail art inspiration? Check out more great bloggers as they share their own nail art looks:
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