Water Marble Holo Topcoat Technique

I just saw this video the other day and it is a really great idea for applying a holo topcoat to other nail polishes. It's the water marble technique, but instead of making a bulls eye of different colors, you are creating one layer of the same holo polish. I used the silver Sally Hansen Nail Prism holo. It's not a very strong holo, but it's the only silver holo I have.

http://yamiidoesnails.blogspot.de/2012/01/sally-hansen-nail-prisms-diamond.html

To show you the difference in application between this water marble-esque technique and regular polishing, I did one technique on each hand. In the first two pictures, I painted the silver on my hand. You can see how uneven the application is. You have to use several coats to get it somewhat even, but then you cover up a lot of the color underneath.

In the last two pictures, the red nail looks a bit wonky from the water I have to use (bottled water in Germany doesn't respond well to water marbling like it does in the US). But in general, the nails look more even (at least to me).

 Do you find this technique for holo topcoats as interesting as I do? I'd love to try this with a proper linear holo and cooperative bottled water. ha, ha. :)

The Husband's Mani

In the stamping group I'm in on Facebook, last Sunday's challenge was to let someone else pick your plates. I truly don't remember if I let my husband pick my mani first and then it happened to fit in with that week's challenge or if I saw the challenge idea first. Either way, here is a stamping mani.

The images are: dragonfly, small bird, paw prints, ice cream cone, cupcake, and bow.

I was so excited with the result of my animal print mani that I couldn't wait to do another stamping mani. I asked my husband for color suggestions first. His answer was blue, red, yellow, and green. I picked out the shades and gave him my plates to choose from. He just kept picking out image after image and I think we ended up with 6 images. I didn't want a plain white background, so I think the light blue was a good option.

What do you think? Are these just busy and distracting? I got a lot of compliments on them at a family brunch the other day.

Stamping Playtime

 I was on a 4 month no-buy during the wedding planning, but I couldn't help myself one day and bought the new Essence stamping plates (some of which you saw in my last post). I was so excited to play with them that I just started stamping and this is what I came up with. The thumb nail in the second picture is actually one small cluster of stars stamped repeatedly, as is the index finger with the clusters of triangles.

Lions and Tigers and Bears... Oh My!

To date, I have never tried freehand animal print nail art (unless you count this mani, which I don't). Many of my fellow nail junkies/blogging friends have said repeatedly how easy leopard print is and that it is their go-to design, but I still think it looks intimidating. One of these days I'll try it, but today is not that day. Instead, I was really wanting to do some stamping. The only plates I have that consistently work are the ones from Essence, but I'm itching to buy some Cheeky or Dashica plates.

Three of the Essence plates have these full nail animal print images, so I decided to do sort of a rainbow animal motif.

I actually LOVE these nails. My family lives in Bengals territory and the orange zebra stripes make me wish I cared AT ALL about football and was actually there to sport this design during football season.

My thumbs are usually too wide for full-nail images, but I found that with the cheetah and leopard designs, I was able to successfully double stamp the design. That is usually what keeps me from doing full-nail designs on all my nails. I hate trying to line up stripes or dots perfectly.

On a side note, I totally wish animals with these colors existed in real life! But then they probably become extinct from all the people who think they need to wear real animal fur.

Do you wish there were technicolor zebras/cheetahs/giraffes/etc. like I do?  How do you feel about full nail stamping designs? And are you braver than me about free-handing leopard nail art?

Wilkommen in Deutschland Nails

 After my disgusting Project Runway Week 7 nail art, I removed it immediately and did these German flag nails for my sister's first time in Germany! I free-handed the lines, so some are a bit wobbly. This was my first time doing horizontal stripes and I was happy with them. To be honest, they reminded me more of toucan beaks than German flags due to the nail shape.

It's a good thing I took these pictures when I did, even though they're a little blurry. My nails ended up being badly chipped by the time I picked my sister up the next morning. These were taken at about 11pm after a full day of cleaning, so it's safe to say the lighting was cruddy.

Fun little side story: Many years ago when I was a freshman in college and had just started dating my now husband, we were hanging out in the common room of my dorm and I was doing my nails. With his influence, I decided to do a different country's flag on each nail. I didn't know the order of colors on the German flag, so my husband told me how they went. Well, he messed them up. He's full German, but didn't grow up in Germany, but I still like to tease him about it. :) Poor guy.

Project Runway Challenge - Week 7

  

*Yawn* Project Runway has been so boring this season, even the textile challenge from the most recent episode was pretty boring. In Episode 7, the Lord and Taylor challenge, most designers went with dark colors. It was difficult to find inspiration. I chose to use the above left dress for my mani. I also was trying out a potential design for my wedding art, which is what you see on the accent nail.

I tried to make a matte black V, like a neckline and then stamp over it with a glossy black lace-esque design.  After stamping the lace, I realized that when you stamp, it's not thick enough to be glossy, so it didn't stand out. Bummer. To fix this, I tried to use a regular topcoat over the naked V section. That helped, but it still didn't help the lace part over the matte black part. I eventually decided that this was the best I was going to get for this challenge.

I realize this mani is a few weeks late now. I did these on the 1st and had planned to post them on the 2nd. Unfortunately with my sister's arrival, my parents' arrival, and my wedding, I'm just now getting around to it. I hope you'll forgive me. :)

What do you think? Has this season helped you sleep better? lol. 

MSMD: Navy with White Dots

 I based this mani off an image that I pinned on Pinterest a long time ago:

http://nailsbyrebby.blogspot.de/2011/11/black-white.html

I did not realize that the original was BLACK and white. I thought it was a dark navy, so I used the darkest blue I have. I matted one nail, used SV on one nail and asked the fiance' to decide which finish to go with. He picked matte, but I only have 2 types of Essence matte topcoat and they're really not matte enough for my liking. I think I can get the Essie one here, but I'm too cheap to fork over the cash for it. Unfortunately my topcoat smeared my white dots a bit.

Before I removed the polish, I threw a layer of SV on top to show how it would have looked if that's the topcoat the man candy had chosen. (Personally I prefer it this way. :))

How do you feel about matte topcoats? Do you have a favorite?

Apple of My Eye

One of my favorite nail artists is Cute Polish and she recently did a tutorial on how to do apple nail art, but I originally saw the idea on Pinterest here.

Seeing as how I've been lacking in inspiration lately, I thought this would be a good time to try them out. And of course I added a layer of fine holo glitter to top it off.

How do you feel about fruity nail art? Do you like the partially nude/barely funky french nail art like I do? For some reason, I am really digging it! :)