Tape Mani: A Year of Polish Challenge, Week 36

Had to try out Sinful Colors Ocean Side from my recent Walgreens trip.  99 cent polishes are so hard to resist!

Tape manis are not my strong point but this seemed to work out ok.  I was able to pull off the tape to keep it from getting messed up.  One thing I found with this is putting on Seche Vite on top of my base color helps keep the tape from pulling up half dry polish. 

I added dots because, well, I am a dot accent kind of girl!

 

A Belated week 32 of the Year of Polish Challenge: Neon Watermarble Manicure

Watermarbling and I have not seen eye to eye in recent past and I finally figured out why.

Everyone (the watermarbling experts) kept saying that the water needed to be room temperature.  What I failed to realize is that, with my husband's penchant for sub zero a/c settings, not even room temperature water was in fact room temperature in our home.  I lowered the a/c and for the first time I was able to swirl the polish and apply the design to my nails before the polish dried to a messy skin on top of my water:)  I think it helped using some very good quality polishes from my newest stash of China Glaze.  

For these, I painted my nails with one coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White.  Next, I taped up all of my nails in preparation for messy watermarbling.  I dropped dots of China Glaze Purple Panic, Turned Up Turquoise, and Sun Worshiper and used a tooth pick to pull the layers into a petal design.  I then dunked my nail carefully into the design and used a toothpick to pick up all of the excess polish off the surface of the water before I pulled my nail out.  The tape prevented a lot of cleanup but I still had to do a bit of touching up around my cuticles and nail edges.  I then applied dots of Snow Me White to each arc of color and topped those white dots with discs of holographic glitter from China Glaze Techno. 

All in all, very satisfied with my watermarbling experience AND with the resulting mani.  This won't be the last watermarbled mani you see on Nails Actually!

Blossom Nails

I was inspired to do this design by a rubber stamp.  The dots aren't quite to my liking but I love the colors.   This is a very Springish theme.  Anyway, its completely free-handed and different!

Yay for color!

Anna Sui Print Inspired Nails

I was cruising through Elle.com and saw pics from Anna Sui's 2012 Spring show.  I loved the pattern in the picture below.  Click on it and it takes you to Elle's Spring fashion pics including Anna Sui!

Polish Haul and Nails Two Ways: Splatter Mint Nails and Mint Cirlces and Dots Nails

I really, really, really need to stop buying polish but these were such good deals that I couldn't pass them up.  Not to mention, oh my, pastels!  Also, I've been generating all sorts of ideas using studs so the Kiss Nail Art Metallic stickers were an especially cool find!

I couldn't wait to try I Need A Refresh-Mint so I painted my base coated nails with two coats of this mint-y polish.

Next, I decided to try Splatter Nails one more time with a smaller straw and had better results this time!  I call these Splatter Mint Nails.

On the other hand, I wanted to try something different so using the same small straw I created circles, half circles, and arches in four different pastel polishes.  Next I took my smallest dotting tool and applied random dots in the same color to each nail.

The Splatter Mint Nails look so cool and my Mint Circles and Dots Nails are extra cool!

Print Inspiration, Yet Again...Retro Polka Dots from a Myspace Layout image

Since getting dotting tools in the mail about an month ago, you can tell I've been busy dreaming up or being inspired to used the tools in new ways.  I was inspired by the Myspace layout found here, the layout entitled "Pink and Black Rings."  I did not like the jacks-like images throughout the layout or the thin rings nor did I like the colors much.  Moreover, I had just gotten in my 2nd Julep Maven box that had three Julep polishes, including a sexy navy blue called Michelle.  I decided that Julep's Michelle would be my base color.

After applying the base color, I used Sinful Colors' Snow Me White, Dream On (Fuchsia), and Love Nails to make random circular and oval dots with differently sized dotting tools.   I then filled in the dots with the same colors and the base color.  It seemed to work out ok but I think perhaps I need a steadier hand!  Applied a topcoat, and that was that!

Print Inspiration for Nail Art

As I've said before, nail art ideas can strike me at the oddest times and truthfully seeing the strangest patterns can also get the creative polish flowing. 

I saw the print below while searching for background images and instantly decided I wanted the design on my nails. 

The only problem I really had was at the time, I didn't have a single grey polish to use.  I decided the next best thing (or even better thing) was to use silver polish as my background color.

So after applying a clear basecoat, I applied one coat of Sally Hansen's Xtremewear Celeb City.  I then used two different sized dotting tools to make random, but connected dot patterns on each nails in Sinful Colors' Snow Me White.   I then filled in the middle of each dot with the three colors I had that most closely matched the colors in the print.  In my case, it was China Glaze's For Audrey, Sinful Colors' Why Not, and Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri Lickety Split Lime, taking care to leave a ring of white background behind each dot.   This print would look so great in other colors.  Have fun mixing and be sure to send me pics of your results.