Negative Space Stripes Re-Creation

Before anything else, I want to tell you that this manicure is inspired by a picture I saw online.  This is not original.  I saw a picture by So Nailicious and loved how her mani looked!  Check her out at sonailicious.com!  Here is the link so you can go right to her tutorial on how she achieved the look:

http://sonailicious.com/negative-space-nautical-nails-tutorial/

Okay!  On to my version of it!

I started out with a coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat.  I then applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly because I planned on sticking striping tape on next.  I didn't want the tape to lift up my base coat, and you cannot use Sally Hansen Dries Instantly as a base coat.  The formula does not stay put on your nails.  I learned from experience when I used it as a base coat and then my entire manicure peeled off in only a day.

I applied striping tape where I wanted my natural nails to be visible.  I then dripped small puddles of nail polish onto a piece of scrap paper and took small nail art brushes to fill in the stripes between pieces of tape.  I worked as fast as I could so the polish wouldn't dry too much before I removed the tape.  I used the brush from the bottle of polish to paint on the tips.  It was easier that way.

The colors I used are as follows:

Peach:  Essie Haute as Hello

Gray:  Sinful Colors Cool Gray

Teal:  L'Oreal Now You Sea Me

After finishing a nail, I removed the tape as soon as possible.  I finished everything off with two coats of Dries Instantly.  I got bored of doing this, so I painted my right hand with solid colors (the same I used for the stripes.)  I actually like how it looks to have both my hands a bit different, but still color coordinated!  Oh!  One last thing:  If you get any polish where it is not supposed to be, just use a small brush and acetone to neaten it up.  I had to do a lot of neatening up before taking these pictures!

Follow me on Instagram at popstermargie! 

Negative Space Star Trek

So, once again, I have let my inner Trekkie out.  I have been wanting to do another Star Trek manicure and have been meaning to try negative space nails.  So, I decided to combine these two ideas.

I started out with a base coat of Sally Hansen Double Duty.  Then I painted two coats of each color on my nails.  On my ring fingers and thumbs I used Sally Hansen Black Out; on my pointers, Covergirl Out of the Blue; my middle fingers, Rimmel Stiletto Red; and Avon Sunshine on my pinkies. 

Once that was dry, I took a small, flat nail art brush and dipped it in acetone and dabbed and stroked off the black polish to create the Star Trek insignia.  (That is what a negative space design is.  Part of your nail will not have color on it.)  This took a while because I had to go over the same spots over and over, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  I don't know how well nail polish remover works for this.  Acetone works wonderfully.  I had to repeatedly dip my brush in acetone and wipe it off on a paper towel every few strokes to avoid the build up of too much black polish on it.  I created the insignia the same way I would have drawn it with polish.  I made an upside down "V" shape and then drew a diagonal line from the left side to the middle of the right side and then dabbed off the center.

  

When all that was done, I took some hexagonal, holographic gold glitter (I got a set of 12 colors from Amazon for $7.  The pieces are a little less than one millimeter in diameter.) and applied a line of it around two thirds down each colored nail.  I used Sally Hansen Double Duty to do this because it doesn't dry as fast as a fast drying top coat, allowing you more time to place the glitter.  I applied the dots of Double Duty and picked up the glitter with a small dotting tool.  I also applied a piece of glitter in the center of each insignia.  The lines of glitter remind me of Kirk's uniform in the Original Series.  He has a stripe of gold at his cuffs.  

To finish off the manicure, I applied two coats of Seche Vite.  I am really not happy with this top coat.  It dries super fast and is really shiny, but it does shrink my manicures and the second day I had this manicure, it chipped a little.  Dries Instantly doesn't chip for days!  (I have run out, though.)  Lots of girls say this is a great top coat, so maybe I really do have a bad bottle.  Have any of you tried it?  What do you think of it?