Can I Do That: Eye Nail Art

I constantly see things online that I'd love to have, but that I can't afford. Clothing, hair colors, nail designs, home decor, etc. all haunt me as I scroll through Instagram. It's no secret that I love DIYs, but what if I can't find a DIY to satisfy my needs? I'm starting a new series called "Can I Do That?" in which I try to imitate cool things that I want on the internet. In this premiere post, I'm inspired by Amanda Smith's amazing nail art, shown below.

Just got home from another session with @zaphirenails and I love these little lashes so much. 🖤💋 . . . #nailbabez #zaphirenails #coachella #coachellanails #naildesign #gelnails #funkynails #fashionnails #nailstagram #nailpolish #nailaddict #coachella2017 #festivalnails #coachellavalley #desertnails #cactusnails #tribalnails #bohonails #midirings #vintage #ootd #instadaily #instafashion #instastyle #instagood #f4f #aboutalook #postthepeople #handpainted

A post shared by Amanda Smith (@amandasmitthh) on Apr 27, 2017 at 12:44pm PDT

I'm starting off with a fresh set of nails. I had to scramble to find the nail polishes I needed for this project, and ended up borrowing one of the colors from one of my roommates. Perks of living with 4 roommates, I guess.

Step 1: Gold

I can definitely do this. I've painted my nails with this color dozens of times, as you might be able to tell from the worn-off label. It's an old L.A. Colors color that closely resembles this Essie color.

Step 2: The Whites of Their Eyes

This is where it starts to get tricky. The only white polish I had was this Sally Hansen nail art pen, which isn't meant to thoroughly cover an area of your nail. So, the white part is a little uneven, even after going over the area a couple times.

Step 3: Eyelashes

This is where things really started to go south. I love this black color, but I didn't use it very well. I don't know what possessed me to buy these nail poorly-designed nail art brushes, but they're definitely not meant to paint on nail polish in the ways I needed them to. Plus, anyone who's ever painted their nails before knows that it's a serious struggle to paint your dominant hand using your non-dominant hand. I'm too embarrassed to show you all what my right hand even looked like at the end of all this.

Can I Do That? Verdict: Actually, I kind of could... On my left hand, at least. Some of the eyes look a little droopy and the eyelashes aren't even, but it looks pretty good from far away. If you're ambidextrous and/or have any significant experience painting your own nails, I'd give this a go. Otherwise, take the nail art slow.