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.

Dainty Snowflakes

I have been on a roll with wintry/Christmassy nails!  Here's a manicure I did a few days ago:

I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat.  I then painted two coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White on all my nails.  After that I began stamping.  I used the two single snowflake images from Bundle Monster's plate BM-319.  I stamped on different colored snowflakes until I was happy with the effect.  

The shimmery darker blue is Essie Blue Rhapsody, the peach is Essie Haute as Hello, and, though you can't see it in the pictures, I also stamped on light blue snowflakes with Essie Borrowed & Blue.  The gray dots I added with a small dotting tool are Sinful Colors Cool Gray.  

There is a light blue flake in the lower left side of this nail.

I finished off the manicure with a coat of Sally Hansen Diamonds to add sparkle and shimmer, and then I applied two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

It is snowing at my house right now!  I love it!  It isn't really sticking, but it looks so pretty!

Rainbow Gradient

For this rainbow gradient look I decided to start at orange on my thumbs and go to purple on my pinkies. I did not include red or indigo. I achieved this look by sponging. I picked out one light and one dark shade for each color on my nails. I decided not to use red because I didn't feel like having any pink.

I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat and then painted on 2-3 coats of all my pastel base colors. I started with pastel bases because I didn't want to be sponging light colors over dark colors. On my thumbs I used three coats of Essie Haute as Hello; on my pointers, three coats of Sinful Colors Unicorn; middles--two coats of NYC High Line Green; rings--two coats of Essie Borrowed & Blue; and two coats of Rimmel Wild Orchid on my pinkies. After that had all dried I applied one coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly so that the sponge wouldn't remove my base color. I then got to sponging. For all of the colors, I put a stripe of my base color and a stripe of my darker gradient color slightly overlapping on the sponge. I then stippled that on my nails and applied more polish to the sponge as needed. I used a couple pieces of sponge and used different sides of them for the different colors. You can get many uses out of one sponge.

Here are the darker shades I used: orange--NYC Spring Street; yellow--Avon Sunshine; green--Revlon Rain Forest (which is actually glittery, but you can't notice it that much with the glitter over top of all my nails); blue--Rimmel Blue Eyed Girl; and purple--Revlon Impulsive. I decided to put some fine, iridescent glitter over top of the gradient (Sally Hansen Diamonds). I finished off with two coats of Dries Instantly.

Tropical Gradient

I couldn't wait to do my nails any longer. I am also really in the mood to blog, so I couldn't even put this post off any longer (I did it yesterday)! Haha!

I started out with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat. I then applied two coats of Sally Hansen Hard to Get, a white polish. After that was dry, I applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly so the stippling motion of the sponge wouldn't pick up my base color. I then took a makeup sponge and painted on five different colors. I overlapped each one slightly so they would blend into each other. I had to reapply the polish to the sponge multiple times. Starting at the cuticle, the colors I used were Revlon Dreamer, Essie Borrowed & Blue, Avon Sunshine, NYC Spring Street, and Rimmel Stiletto Red.

I stippled on the color until I was happy with how vibrant it was. I then applied a coat of Sally Hansen Diamonds, a very fine, iridescent glitter, over top so I could have a subtle sparkly effect. (I LOVE this polish! It isn't even hard to get off because the glitter is so fine!) After sponging, I didn't wait very long to apply it because if it smudged the manicure, it would just blend the gradient together even more. I then took a while to clean up my fingers with a Q-tip dipped in acetone and then a nail art brush dipped in acetone to clean up closer to my nails. Then I applied two coats of Dries Instantly. I cut off the painted end of the makeup sponge with a large pair of scissors so I can get many uses out of the same sponge.

Outer Space Nails

A while ago I did my mom's nails for her.  It was "space week" at the preschool/daycare she works at, so we thought it would be great for her to have space themed nails.  Kids really do notice nails.  I know they always notice and appreciate mine, especially if they have studs or gems on them.

I started out with two coats of Sally Hansen Black Out.  I then used a dotting tool dipped in Sally Hansen Hard to Get to make random dots and star-shaped things for the stars.  If I was to do this again, I would put a few less stars on.  You really can put them on sparingly.  After that was dry, I applied a coat of Sally Hansen Diamonds, which is a super fine, iridescent glitter.  It is so pretty and I really like it!  The glitter is so fine that it is no problem taking it off!  I finished off with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Galaxy and Earth Nails

I have always LOVED the galaxy nails that The Nailasaurus has created.  She has created multiple galaxy manicures, and I decided to try it out on my best friend.  I loosely followed The Nailasaurus's tutorial (http://www.thenailasaurus.com/2013/07/galaxy-nail-art-tutorial.html).  I also loved a picture I saw on Pinterest of an amazing earth manicure (http://media2.onsugar.com/files/2013/03/12/6/1844/18445232/9f3f8c9ce83394b9_DSCN8471ala.jpg).  So, here is what I created on my friend's nails:

  

My friend started out by painting two coats of Sally Hansen Black Out on all of her nails.  Then she applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  After that, I did the detailing.  I painted a blue partial earth shape on the tips of her ring fingernails using a flat nail art brush with Essie Borrowed & Blue.  (The trick to putting paint on another brush is to make sure the new brush is saturated in the paint, just like the brush that comes in the bottle is.  This will help you to avoid smudging the polish underneath and will help you to get a smooth, non-streaky covering of polish.)   Then I began the galaxies on all her other nails.  To create the galaxies, I used many colors and sponged them on using tiny pieces of sponge that I held in tweezers:

 Above are all of the polishes I used for this manicure.

I used a different piece of sponge for each color and I made sure I dabbed the sponge on a paper before applying it to her nails to avoid sponging on too much paint.  After making all of the galaxies, I used a dotting tool to dot on differently shaped stars with Sally Hansen Celeb City.  After the blue earths were dry, I mixed together a little green and white polish to make an even lighter green.  I then applied light blotches using a small nail art brush.  I just winged the shapes of the continents and it came out fine.  At the end, my friend suggested that I put some glitter over the black above the earths, so I carefully applied Sally Hansen Diamonds.  To finish off the manicure, I applied two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Trees in the Snow

I saw this really cool picture on Pinterest and decided to try to recreate the manicure because I realized that I had the same stamping plate that the girl had used in the design:

For my recreation, I just put the trees on my ring fingers and thumbs to cut down on the time it would take to complete the manicure.  I started out with two coats of Sinful Colors Cool Gray on all of my nails.  On the fingers that I wouldn't be sponging and stamping, I applied a coat of Sally Hansen Diamonds, a fine glitter.  Then I put on one coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.  I also put a coat of Dries Instantly on the nails that I would be sponging so avoid taking off the gray polish with the sponge.

When that was all dry I put some gray and white polish on my makeup sponge like this:

There is actually a line of white polish underneath the gray polish (Sally Hansen Hard to Get.)  It is touching the gray polish.  I found out how to successfully sponge nails!  You need some of your base color on the sponge too, so the new color you are sponging on seems to blend with the base color.  I used a stippling motion to sponge on the polish.  I was so excited to see that it actually worked for me this time!  A few months ago I attempted to sponge my nails, but it did not turn out very well.

When the sponged polish was dry, I stamped on trees from Bundle Monster's plate BM407.  I used Sally Hansen Black Out as my stamping color.  On my left hand, which is the hand I post on my blog most of the time, I accidentally stamped the trees crooked.  I just pretend that they are blowing in the wind.  Haha!  I stamped better on my right hand:

I applied two coats of Dries Instantly over the stamped nails.  After the manicure was complete, I used acetone to clean up all the polish around my nails.  I am very excited by this manicure.  Pinezoe.com is where the picture on Pinterest came from.  She is a very talented nail blogger!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!  I cannot believe it is tomorrow!  My next blog post will be a series of pictures showing exactly how to stamp your nails.  

Pinezoe's nail picture is here:  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/421368108857517435/  

     

Candy Canes

Again, sorry that I haven't posted in a while.  I have just been so busy!  I only have one more week of school to go before this semester is over.  I cannot wait!

I used two coats of Sally Hansen Hard To Get (the white polish) as my base color for all my nails.  Then, on my pointer, middle, and pinkie, I applied a coat of Sally Hansen Diamonds.  You can't really see it in the pictures, but it is a very fine, sort of iridescent glitter.  It is so pretty and reminds me of sparkling snow.  When that was still wet I applied red and green rhinestones near my cuticles and then used two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly to finish them off.  

For my thumb and ring finger, I put on a coat of Dries Instantly and then, when that was dry, put on some tape.  The thick stripes were achieved with pieces of scotch tape and, for the thin stripes, I used striping tape.  I painted on Rimmel Burgundy Flirt and then immediately removed all the tape with tweezers.  A bit of red paint got under some of my tape, but I used a small nail art brush dipped in white to fix it.  I then applied two coats of Dries Instantly.  I am very happy with how these came out!