Studs and Spots

Hello lovelies,

I sat down to do a complex architectural mani for a contest, and found out that I had zero energy for it. Nada. So I decided to play with texture instead.

Water spotting looks cool when it works, but it is even more finicky than water marbling. Here's why: TWO variables (polish and spray) instead of one (polish). You could find a polish that works well for spotting, but your hairspray (e.g.) doesn't work at all, or some permutation of the above. Nutso. These two polishes also spotted into a completely different way, which I thought was neat!

Nonetheless, this mani (after much trial and error) didn't turn out badly. I think it looks pretty cool. The base is 1972, which is a much pinker lavender in real life, but everything going on made my camera unhappy. :) It was glorious to apply, as all la couleur couture polishes are; I also think they have my single favourite brush of all time.

Polishes used:

la couleur couture - 1972

Essie - Penny Talk

Nina Ultra Pro - French White

hairspray

tape (to cover fingers)

1.5mm silver studs

Duri - Rejuvacote (base coat)

Seche Vite (top coat)

As I mentioned yesterday, I'll be taking the week off to try to get my hands/nails/cuticles back to a healthy state, because they are incredibly unhappy right now. I will play it by ear as I go. I'm also finding that I've run out of steam when it comes to nail art, so I think taking a short break will do me good. Absence, fonder heart, blah blah blah!

See you soon! ;)

J.

Jelly Watercolour Nail Art

Today's look is not exactly how I imagined it would turn out, but it's not bad for a first attempt. :) I've long wanted to do the watercolour technique (wherein you dab on nail polish then use them as watercolours, except with acetone instead).

For this look, I started with a base of two generous coats of Funny Bunny, which I topped with two generous coats of Poshé; this protects the base colour from the effects of the acetone. I then dabbed on Y'All Come Back, Ya Hear? and spread them around with acetone until I was happy. I did the same with Guy Meets Gal-veston, Houston We Have a Purple, Katherine, and Frida.

MY NEVER-SEEN LEFT HAND!!
I started on this hand and kept these nails simpler than the ones on my right hand. I'm not sure which look I prefer.

Once the colour dabs were dried, I covered them in another coat of Poshé. Somewhat annoyingly, the brush I was using for the watercolouring had previously been used in a foil polish, so there are little bits of microglitter in this mani that I wasn't anticipating. (Most noticeable if you zoom the above and check out the ring finger.)

Not content to leave well enough alone, I decided to try the water-spotting technique overtop:

To do this technique, you drop polish into a cup of water (use a glass cup, or a disposable plastic cup) and then, when it has spread out, you spritz the surface of the water with hairspray/perfume/hand sanitizer so that the polish starts glomming together and opening up holes, as above. You then dip your fingers into the design, remove the excess floating on the surface of the water with a cotton swab, and then spend roughly a million years cleaning up the excess polish on your skin! Yay!

This was my first time doing it, so the results are not ideal (hello, pinkie, you pain in the hiney). Through trial and error, I found that my perfume in a travel atomizer worked the best (that's what produced the index and middle fingers).

Polishes/supplies used:
OPI - Nail Envy Matte (base coat), Funny Bunny, Y'All Come Back Ya Hear?, Guy Meets Gal-veston, Houston We Have a Purple
Zoya - Katherine, Frida
INM - Out the Door (top coat)
Poshé (top coat)
pure acetone + small paintbrush

I think tomorrow will be something simpler. I'll institute Straightforward Sunday. :)


J.