Water Marble Nails

 

 This was my first attempt at Water Marbling. I think it went pretty well. The colors I had brought were to try this sand and water pic I had seen and then I saw a a little tutorial on water marbling and thought, "Heck, why not. All you really need is polish, a cup of water, and some q-tips." Well ok, that is over simplified. I found the tape to be very helpful and you need remover too, to clean things up.

Colors I used:

Orangie/Red - Essie Geranium

White - OPI Alpine Snow

Yellow - Revlon Buttercup

Blue - Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh Mint

 

 
I used the scotch tape to tape off my cuticles as best I could. Color order was a drop of Geranium, then Alpine Snow, then Buttercream, then Mint, then another drop of Geranium.

 My first time I only did one nail but that seemed like a waste so next time I did 3 of my nails at once and it worked great. Did it with the remaining nails too. It wasn't so much that I felt I was wasting polish. It was that I hated having to put one drop in at a time. I know, ridiculously lazy. Once you peel off the tape you have little corners that you can use the q-tip and remover to clean up. I had a few weird spots I cleaned off and then painted over like a corner of my pinkie that got clumpy because I accidentaly didn't clean the polish away from the nail in the water and so it doubled over.

Once your nail is cleaned up and touched up, clear coat with Seche Vita.

 

Here is part of the mess left behind. This is just 1 nails worth. It can be messy work but I have been loving the variety and color pop of my nails today so it is worth it.

Patriotic Nails

Red, White, Blue Glitter - Icing Patriotic
Red - Nivea Cardinal 20
White - OPI Alpine Snow NL L00
Blue - OPI Dating a Royal NL B70

1 coat of the Cardinal as the base for Icing Patriotic glitter. Since Patriotic doesn't cover fully, even with the 2 coats i used, I wanted a bright base that wasn't just white. Trick with Patriotic to get it even remotely ok is to put on one coat and then let it fully dry. That way you don't pull up the 1st coat when you are trying to glob on the 2nd. After the 2nd coat is at least tacky, apply the Seche Vita to rapid dry the rest. It will still be waterbed-esque for a while so becarful not to cautch it on anything.

2 coats of Dating a Royal. The 1st coat always makes me worry because it is so translucent but the 2nd coat magically makes it opaque and just the perfect color blue.

Ring finger is a base of 2 coats Alpine Snow.

I used Cheeky nail plate CH4 to make the stripes and the stars.

I was having issues with Nail Polish Remover residue, so I actually had to touch up the stripes with a dotting tool. Cardinal is one of the only 2 colors (The other is Pure ICE Wild Thing) I have found so far that will smear with Seche Vita so I used that to my advantage to smooth out my touch up marks.

I was worried that my index and pinky would make it look too cluttered if they had any stamping so I stopped there. I am pretty happy with the results and now I just have to resist the urge to try out something else before the big day on Thursday.

Memorial Day Nails

White - OPI Alpine Snow NL L00
Blue - OPI Dating a Royal NL B70
Red, White, Blue Glitter - Icing Patriotic
Red - Rimmel ?

The day I got caught in the rain and it ruined my Peach Fuzz nails, I waited out the rest of the storm in the mall. While there, I found the Icing Patriotic glitter. I was super excited because it was a round glitter where they are all the same medium size glitters. I am not a fan of medium round glitter mixed with small or micro glitters. I don't know why. I am just picky that way. I should have tried it in the store or something though because it is a real beast to apply. It is so thick you can't get good coverage without a half inch think layer of polish. I would just really love Milani to do one cause they have the best formula for glitter.

Fuzzy Peach

Sally Hansen - Fuzzy Coat Peach Fuzz
Purple - Old Wet n Wild Megalast Through the Grapevine

Base coat of Through the Grapevine. 1 coat of Peach Fuzz. It takes a lot of effort to get the bar glitter to look ok. Tried 2 coats but it looked like a weird mass of glitter. No top coat. Not sure if the lack of top coat contributed to it or if it would have happened anyway but I got caught in the rain 2 hours after this had dried and my nails got all gummy and just wiped off. I have to believe a coat of Seche Vita would have prevented that. Will try it next time.

Inadvertant Kermit Nails

Green - Pure ICE Wild Thing
Blue -Wet n Wild MegaLast Salon Nail Color I Need a Refresh-Mint 218A
Top Coat - Seche Vita

Pure Ice base green 2 coats. Taped off single chevron using regular scotch tape. 1 coat Wet n Wild.

I've used is green over this blue before and it worked great. This was my first time using the green as the base and it did not work out like I had wanted. It bled through the blue and changed it from a robin's egg blue to a minty green color that as the night went on just got more and more green until it was full on Kermit Collar Nails. I had wanted something in my wedding colors for my anniversary. Not an ode to Kermit for a Muppet movie premier. They didn't last longer than 8 hours.

Grey/Yellow Chevron

Yellow - Revlon Colorstay Buttercup
Grey - Maybelline Audacious Asphalt
Top Coat - Seche Vita

Buttercup base. Used pinking shears to cut zig zag strips of tape and mark off chevron stencil.Tape was not very strong and kept tearing so it took a lot more concentration than normal.

Doctor Who Nails

Blue - OPI Dating a Royal
Gold - Pure Ice Jaguar
Sparkle - Northern Lights
Red - Nivea Cardinal 20

Blue base 2 coats. Nail Stamp Plate to make outline of bow that I filled in with red on the thumb. Used gold and stamp plate similar to Gallifreyan on one nail. Used a nail plate stamp of a present to kind of make windows and then freehanded the rest of the TARDIS on the other. Used Northern Lights to make a star sparkle on remaining 2.

Easter Chic Nails

Yellow - NYC Lexington Yellow
Black - Sinful Colors Black on Black
Orange - Essie Geranium
Blue - Wet n Wild MegaLast Salon Nail Color I Need a Refresh-Mint 218A
Light Pink - Milani PinkHottie 507
Purple - Wet n Wild MegaLast Salon Nail Color Bite the Bullet
Light Green - Pure Ice 616 Wild Thing
Matte top coat - Revlon Matt Top Coat

Pinterest copy on the baby chick nail.Yellow base with dot tool eyes, beak, and feet. Used nail stamp plates to make egg-esque designs on other nails. Finished off with a matte topcoat to give the egg/soft chick feel. Be very patient with the Matte Top Coat. It makes everything very gummy and takes a lot longer to dry.

Off-set French Tip Nails

Orange - Essie Geranium
Nude - Loreal Walk on the Beach

Pinterest copy. Base coat nude. Used tape to mark off the off-set french tip.

Green French Tip Sparkle Nails

The irridecent glitter flakes ate nice in this and the gel is thick enough to be able to fish enough out of the bottle but the nail maintains a lump clumpy feel and I would rather it didn't have the light green tint.

Mint with Gold Specks Nails

Mint - Maybelline ColorShow Green with Envy
Gold Glitter - Milani 531 Gold
Stripes - Gold Nail Tape



 This was my first nod to St Patrick's Day but yet still trying to keep it classy.

Layer of Mint with gold glitter over each except ring finger with the gold tape stripes with clear coat to keep it all together.

It was all very fast and easy but looked super slick. Loved it. Only issue is the tape starts to fray at the edges if there are any missed spots with the top coat.

Heart Stencil Nails - Gold Edition

Red - OPI Skyfall
Gold - OPI Golden Eye (Really close dupe of this is Sinful Colors All About You)

Used the heart sticker outlines as stencils again. Loved the gold heart and not as much of a smearing issue.

Heart Stencil Nails

White - Sinful Colors Snow Me White
Red - Mystery Red

I used the outline part of a pack of heart stickers as a stencil to make large heart shapes.

They worked really well actually. Only issue was the top coat I had (revlon Double Twist) would smear so it was a pain to try and keep the red out of the white. Solution to that is Seche Vita top coat. It it fabulous at not smearing. I know this now.

Polka Heart Nails

White - Sinful Colors Snow Me White
Light Pink - Milani PinkHottie 507
Purple - Old Wet n Wild Megalast Through the Grapevine
Red - Old Revlon Vixin

used a dotting tool to make the hearts. Each top of the heart was a dot that I pulled to the point. Most difficult part was trying to keep the order of colors straight and the angle the same on each nail. Loved the end effect though. Was a big hit at the office too.

I only did a single slightly larger heart off center on the thumb because I was worried so many hearts across my thumb nail would be distracting when I was typing at work. I really liked the variety it gave and was happy I did it even though I don't think it would have ended up being distracting.