BellaSugar

Akiko Ogawa Takes a Twist on the French Manicure

BellaSugar — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:00:09 PST

Even though these pink nails were shown for a Fall collection, I think Akiko Ogawa's runway manicures would be a great way to welcome springtime. French manicures normally aren't my favorites, but Alisha Rimando created a fresh version by using four colors (Dashing Diva polish in Headliner, Dashing Diva, Cosmopolitan, and Debutante).

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To get the look at home,

While the polish is wet, apply Dashing Diva to the top third of the nail. Make sure that the color blends or fades well into the nail.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 on each nail.
Start with the first nail and apply Headliner to the edge of the nail.
Using very little polish on the brush, apply Headliner to the very tip of the nail, blending or fading it onto the Dashing Diva pink color. You'll want to apply it to about ⅛ of the nail edge.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 on each nail.
Apply Debutante over all nails. Finish with topcoat.

Of course, if you don't want to go the DIY route, you can always head to a Dashing Diva salon if you're in New York. (Much easier.)

Photos courtesy of Alexei Nemchenko

Try It: Dashing Diva Virtual Nails

BellaSugar — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:00:11 PDT

Fashion Week is one of those times, like someone else's wedding, where you feel pressured to look amazing even though no one is paying attention to you. So when I realized my nails were a cracked, bitten mess, I decided to go for a complete overhaul. Enter Dashing Diva. DD is a nail salon that offers a service called Virtual Nails (click through for a list of locations all over the world), during which your nubs are lightly filed and falsies are glued on.

Diva differs from a typical nail salon because of its superior hygiene and sanitation regulations. My favorite being that they give you a set of tools to bring back on your next visit. That and they don't use acrylics that smell like chemicals, you know the ones which often require technicians to wear surgical masks.

At the NY salon, the service costs $35 but that's a small price to pay for nails that are neither toxic nor cause the same kind of damage I'm trying to hide. To find out more about my visit,

My technician, Maria, started by rubbing sanitizer on both of our hands. She then trimmed my cuticles and filed my nail beds. Next, she had me wash my hands and then spent a lot of time meticulously choosing the perfect size nail for each of my fingers, writing down what she settled on for next time. Once the nails were glued on, we settled on a length and shape and she trimmed and filed them. As for the color, I chose a modest rosy shade, thinking that I may as well not call attention to my fake nails, but changed my mind and went for a bright yellow called Anna Banana. After all, when someone asks me if they're real, I can always respond, "real cool!"

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Be A Dashing Diva!

BellaSugar — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 14:19:50 PDT

A fab line of nail lacquers called Dashing Diva has hit the marketplace. They are a chic (and pink!) worldwide salon that specializes in manicures, pedicures and waxing. Although they've been around for a while, somehow they've stayed under the mainstream radar. However, with the launch of their Extra Virgin Collection, they've just entered the big time. Celebs, fashionistas and divas extraordinaire are crediting their fresh and fierce nail polish shades to Dashing Diva!

The collection consists of eight of their best selling colors that range from delicate to dark. All together they now have 150 colors that retail for $7.99 each. From what I understand, they are chip resistant and the color stays true. Also, they are DBP, toluene and formaldehyde free. This means they are better for the environment and are less smelly. Yay!

A Few Beauty Tidbits From Gwen at Spring Fashion Week

BellaSugar — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:20:12 PDT

It's 2010 Spring Fashion Week, and one of the first designers to show her collection was L.A.M.B.'s Gwen Stefani. For her show, the models wore MAC makeup on their faces, Vaseline's soon-to-be-released Sheer Infusion Body Lotion ($6.25 to $9) on their skin, and a trendy, opaque white shade of nail polish from Dashing Diva called NYC Fleet Week ($8). Lucky for us, Pop caught up with Gwen in NYC and asked her about her popular Harajuku Lovers line, for which Snow Bunnies ($30) just launched.

"Sunshine Cuties is coming out in the Spring," Gwen dished. And by the sound of it, there's something else up Gwen's perfume sleeve. "There's always something in the works. I do really enjoy doing the fragrances," she added. I guess we'll have to wait and see what she's got cooking in the scent department. In the meantime, I'm off to get my white nail polish trend on. How about you?

Photo by Ann Lawlor