Purple and Green Water Marbling

Hello again!  I am getting back into the nail art game!  I am planning on doing my cousin's nails for her confirmation.  I can't wait!  Anyway, I did my own nails yesterday.  I decided to do some water marbling.  The more you try this method, the better you get. Yesterday was my fifth time water marbling.

I started out with a coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat.  I then painted two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White on my ring fingers and thumbs.  I planned on water marbling only these fingers.  It is best to water marble over a white or a light polish so the water marbling colors will pop.  I painted two coats of Essie No More Film on the rest of my nails.

I then took masking tape and applied it all around my nails and about half way up the fingers that I was going to water marble.  This significantly reduces the amount of clean up you need to do after water marbling.  I suggest using masking tape because it is more flexible and easier to apply all around your nails.  It is also easier to remove because it sticks to itself a little less and doesn't peel into small strips, like scotch tape does.

I then started water marbling.  I used Essie No More Film and Essie Mojito Madness.  These were great polishes to use because the consistency was just right.  They spread out across the water very nicely.  If a polish is too thick, it will not spread out well.  Also, the water I used was a teeny bit warmer than room temperature.  Room temperature water is what you are supposed to use while water marbling.  The very slightly warmer water worked fine, though.

After dropping alternating drips of these two polishes onto the water, I took a toothpick and dragged it from the outer edge of the polish floating on the water into the center to create a clover shape.  I kept doing this until I saw something that I wanted on my nails.  Then I dipped the nail into the polish at the point that I wanted on my nails.  I left the nail submerged and gently blew onto the surface of the water to dry the excess polish.  I then took a toothpick and swirled it through the water to collect the excess polish.  After, I removed my finger from the water, removed the tape with small scissors and tweezers, and used acetone to clean up any polish that got onto my skin.  

I finished off with a coat of Sally Hansen Diamonds, a fine, iridescent glitter, on all of my nails, and then two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Luck o' the Irish

So, St. Patrick's Day is soon (Tuesday), and I wanted to be festive.  I think I may have gotten better at doing festive manis sooner, so you guys can see them BEFORE the actual holiday.  Haha!

I started out with a base coat of Sally Hansen Double Duty.  This is not good at protecting against staining.  I really need to get a new base coat.  Any suggestions?  Anyway, after applying the base coat, I applied two coats of my polishes.  I used Sally Hansen Golden-I on my thumbs and ring fingers, and I used Essie Mojito Madness on my other nails.

I waited for that to dry, then I used a tiny nail art brush dipped in Revlon Rain Forest to paint on the stems that would be part of the rhinestone shamrocks.  I then took Double Duty and a dotting tool to apply four dark green rhinestones to my thumbs and ring fingers.  After that, I moved on to my green nails.

I used green and gold  holographic loose glitter to line the free edges of the green nails.  I used Double Duty to apply the glitter, and to pick it up with a dotting tool.  When that was done, I applied a coat of Essie As Gold as it Gets (a fine, gold glitter.  I got it because it was on sale for really cheap.  Honestly, it is NOT as gold as it gets.  It is a little disappointing, but it can look pretty over certain colors.  It is just really subtle.) on the green nails.

I finished off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  Follow me on Snapchat!  I post a lot of random stuff on there.

Green With Purple Polka Dots

I have been doing my nails, but have just not been feeling like blogging.  I took pictures of all of my manicures for future posts, though.  Here's the manicure that I have on my nails now:

I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat.  I then painted on two coats of Essie Mojito Madness.  When that was dry, I took a small dotting tool and created my polka dot pattern.  The purple is Pure Ice Lacquered Lilacs.  

The way I did this was to make a dot in the center of every nail and then make a line of dots down the center on each nail.  I then created alternating lines of polka dots on either side on the center line.  If you follow these directions for creating polka dots, you can achieve perfect polka dots.  This trick really helped me.  

I finished off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.