Beach Beauty: Calico Toes

Painted myself some über cute toes yesterday. Calico to be exact. Love ‘em.

I found this tutorial for your fingers, but thought it would last longer, be easier to do, and be pretty dang cute on those l’il piggies.

DIY Calico Toes:

1. Paint toes light blue

2. On a piece of plastic or cardboard, put a small blob of light pink and bright pint polish next to each other so they touch.

3. Dip a homemade dotting tool in the middle of the 2 light polishes (this creates the 2 toned flower effect) and make flowers by clumping 3-5 dots together.

4. Using a tooth pick or nail art brush, paint some thin green lines for leaves.

5. Done. Perfectly pretty springtime toes that will cause you to not wear a closed toed shoe for at least 2 weeks.

Polish Used: China Glaze Hop Top Blue, 4Free by Mary Jo Matsumoto Floating Lotus, Essie Fiji and Sally Hansen Lickety Lime split.


DIY Wish Anklet

Gotta love the simple wish bracelets and necklaces out there. They break off and you get the wish you wished for when you put it on…except for mine have never broken off, and by the time I have to take it off, I forget what the wish was. 

So who knows if they work. But they look cute.

Anyways, it’s time to give your ankles some wish granting capabilities, and subtle adornment. Even better, it’s super easy, and virtually free to make.

1: Grab a few long strands of sturdy thread that are long enough to loosely wrap and tie around your ankle.

2: Find a shell with a hole in it so you can string it. (Don’t have a shell, grab and old bead or charm. Something you don’t mind losing when the anklet breaks.)

3: String your shell so it sits in the middle of the thread.

4: Tie the ends together so they form a knot, securing the shell in place. (pictured above)

5: Tie on your ankle & make a wish..preferably for a new bikini, tropical getaway, or for an ice cold Caipirinha to magically appear in your hand.

Beach Beauty: Confetti nails

I really should call this ADD nails, because I started off doing polka dots, then four different colors of dots later…voila, confetti nails.

The good thing is it’s super easy, and really doesn’t take long at all to do, and is fine if you are messy or don’t have a steady hand.

DIY Confetti Nails:

1: Paint base coat and a layer of clear or sheer pink polish.

2: Using a homemade dotting tool (I like to push a push pin into a pencil eraser) dip the dotting tool in your first color polish and put 4-5 polka dots on each nail in your first color in no specific pattern.

3. Repeat step 2 with as many other colors as you want. I cut myself off after 4.

4. Let polish dry and paint on glossy topcoat.

5. Enjoy! An added bonus of this is…if it chips, it really doesn’t show. Hallelujah.  

Neon Ombre Nails

DIY Neon Ombre nails.

Step 1: Go to a Sephora Store.

Step 2: Try out each neon nail color to make sure it is in fact neon. For the ombre effect, try neon pink, neon coral, neon orange, neon peach, and neon yellow in that order.

Step 3: End up giving your nails a rather stellar manicure in the process…for free :)

Beach Beauty: A trick for super soft lips

Have sunburnt, dry, cracked lips but would rather opt for a smooth, hydrated, & plump pout? Most of us just slather on more miracle lip balms..but that’s pretty much like smoothing butter on top of a croissant.

All you need to do it this:

1. Grab a tooth brush and lightly brush your lips.

2. Slather on some coconut oil.

Don’t believe me? This tip is from Miss million dollar pout herself, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and was also on the Dr. Oz show (he came up with the croissant metaphor) Just try it for a week straight. You’ll notice a difference. Promise.

Photo: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley for Beach Bunny

Beach Beauty: DIY Facial

There is an unexpected perk to 1: having problematic skin and 2: being a self employed penny pincher. I’ve learned to take care of my skin without spending a lot of money.

One of the easiest ways to have soft, glowing skin is to get a facial, yet unfortunately it’s also one of the more expensive things out there to do. Never fear, with some household items, products under $10, and about 30 minutes to kill, you can get the dewy skin and save your money for bikinis.

Alas, I present to you, the DIY at home facial I’ve perfected over the years.

*This is geared towards combination skin that’s out in the sun.

Read more

Beach Beauty: Strawberry Toes

My 3 year old niece, Ella, was the guinea pig for the latest DIY Pedicure. She wanted Strawberry toes, so I was going to give them to her no matter what. So if anyone has a little daughter, cousin, niece or friend who can sit still, this is the cutest little pedicure ever.

It also looks great on adult toes. In case you want to try it out.

DIY Strawberry Toes:

1. Paint base coat.

2. Paint toes a bright deep strawberry pink color.

3. Using a white nail art brush, in the center of each toe, by the base of the nail, paint three skinny triangles that connect at the base, to make the strawberry leaves.

4. Paint over the white with a bright green nail polish (if you can find a nail art brush that will work best.) By doing white first, the green will be much brighter.

5. Using either a black or yellow polish and dotting tool, paint a few tiny dots on each toe for the strawberry seeds.

6. Let polish dry completely, then cover with glossy topcoat.

Eat your heart out Strawberry Shortcake.

Long Lost Jewelry. Treasures Found.

They say the key to being happy at what you do is to find something you love, and figure out how to make a living out of it. Well if that’s the case, Phyllis Nelson, Designer of Long Lost Jewelry, took great notes.

After making jewelry for family and friends for years, purely for the love of it (sheesh, nice friend). Phyllis turned her hobby into a collection of hand crafted bracelets, necklaces, earrings and re-crafted vintage finds. We are all benefiting from her decision to start her business. The jewelry makes you instantly go from beach babe to beach-head-turner-whoa-where-did-she-get-that, babe.

Each piece is beautiful, old-meets-new, extremely versatile, unique, handmade in limited quantities, and the vintage pieces are one of a kind.

Some of my favorites are the gold and turquoise Fraternal Twins necklace (Gosh, I love that combo), the perfect for layering Driftwood/Disc/Pearl combo (pictured above), and the simple, yet appropriately named, Dainty Bracelet.

To Phyllis’s family and friends, thank for sharing her skills with the rest of us :)

Like Long Lost Jewelry on Facebook,

Pick up a piece of your own online and at the Taryn Michelle Boutique.

Beach Beauty: Homemade lip plumper

A big ol’ plump set of smackers. There are a lot of glosses, injections, fillers, and who knows what else out there promising give you lips that look like they could burst. But I prefer a natural plumper that doesn’t cost $30, and I know exactly what’s in it causing the increase in volume. Alas, if you have some spare time, here’s a recipe to whip up for some temporary, yet almost instant plumpification.

DIY Homemade Lip Plumper

Mix together:

1. Aquaphor, or a plain clear gloss as the base

2. A few drops of Liquid Vitamin B6,

3. A few drops of Liquid Niacin

4. A drop of Cayenne pepper (you might be able to get away with tabasco or tapatio)

5. Drops of Peppermint, Cinnamon Leaf, or Clove oil

6. For color and shimmer - add in some loose powder blush or shimmer.

7. A dash of honey

Mix until smooth, and spoon into an empty lip balm pot or jar.

Test on a small patch of skin before slathering on your lips.

Other DIY plumpers that I do not recommend and have experienced first hand:

1: Sunburn lips (My fault)

2. Getting hit in the mouth by a surfboard (Also my fault)

3. A bee sting literally smack dab on the center of your lips resulting in way too much volume, and a trip to the emergency room after realizing you are allergic. (Great Story. Maybe I’ll post the pic here someday)

Photo Via: Fashion Gone Rouge

Recipe courtesy of: ehow.com