Guest post from Alysia (ahleeeshah)

Good morning everyone! So for day 1 of my 10 days of guest posts I have someone very special for you. Well, all of the guest posters I have picked out are very special. But Alysia is a very special friend to me. After I was able to find the Salon Perfect neon glitters for her she became my first nail mail buddy and has turned into a very dear friend. I just love her to bits and her nails are always amazing. You should go check out her Instagram ASAP, her glitter macros will make you drool. I promise.

So lets see what kind of amazingness she came up with for this spot.

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Hello everyone! I am Alysia (@ahleeeshah on IG) and the lovely Casey asked me to do a guest post for her. I am not nearly as good at nail art as most of the amazingly talented people (like Casey!) you see around, so I look for techniques that allow me to look impressive with the least amount of effort possible. A few years ago, someone on MakeupAlley posted a nail art technique that used rub-on scrapbooking decals that looked amazing. I've done this a few times now, and for my post I wanted to share the process with you guys because it is such an amazing way to get a great manicure while barely trying!

First off, you're going to want to paint your base color. I've chosen Essie Lilacism. With most decals, you're going to want a lighter color to really show them off. If you're painting a fresh mani for this, be sure to use a quick-dry top coat so you don't smudge anything when you rub the decals on.

For step 1, you'll need to find rub-on scrapbooking decals. You can buy them from some craft stores like Hobby Lobby, but the best selection I've found is actually on Amazon. The one warning I have with this technique is that not all rub-ons work as well as others. Unfortunately some of the prettier ones, the "glitter butterfly wings" types for example, end up being too thick to work well. The brand in the picture above tends to work the best. For step 2 you need to cut out sections roughly the size of your nails. I like to cut all 10 at once to save myself some time and to plan out what will go on which nail. In step 3 you can see that I've cut one to the right size and I've checked how it looks on the nail. In step 4, you need to peel away the backing piece of plastic from the decal. Once you've done that, you're ready to put it on the nail!

For step 5, press the decal on to your nail. You do not need to press too hard, but you'll want to rock back and forth a bit with another finger just to make sure it's fully sticking to the nail. Make sure the whole section of design comes off the plastic and on to your nail. Step 6 might look a little terrifying, but I'm just using those clippers to trim off the excess from the design. You can use whatever tool you'd like! Once you're done trimming the excess off, step 7 is to top coat it to seal everything in and make it shiny.

Here's the finished mani! I am a bit of a perfectionist, and I can do the decal application in about 15 minutes. Care to see a few of the images up close?

I am a sucker for macro pictures, guys!

I hope you all enjoyed my tutorial! Please feel free to find me on Instagram @ahleeeshah and ask me questions if you have any. If you end up trying out the technique, tag me in your pics so I can see!

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See!!! I told you guys she's good! And those macros!!!! Ugh, she kills me. She is super sweet and very talented, she really shouldn't sell herself short saying she's not good at nail art. If that isn't good nail art I don't know what is!

Thank you for this post Alysia! Love it!!!

I'm excited to show you all the other guests I have lined up and hopefully introduce you to some nail folks you might not know about.

~casey