Black Splats

 

My apologies for missing last week - I did a candy corn manicure I thought was an abject failure, though I got a ton of compliments on it. This week I was going to do orange "splats" on my black nails, but decided I liked this gold glitter instead. Unfortunately, it's insanely hard to photograph - which is too bad since I love how it turned out. 

I used stencils ordered from Nail Art Delights - these fun paint/blood splatter marks. 

Since I was originally going to use orange, I started by painting the undersides of my nails with Pure Ice orange for contrast. 

Then I did the tops with two coats China Glaze "Liquid Leather" over one coat China Glaze base coat. I love LL - the best shiny black out there, in my opinion. 

This is when I started experimenting. I had Sinful Colors "All About Me" on my manicure tray - it's a transparent gold glitter. I wanted to see what it looked like over the black, so I brushed a coat over my pinky nails. 

I wish it would photograph better - it looks almost brocade-like. So I decided to do my splats in that, and started with a coat of fast-dry top coat, and then secured a stencil over my thumbnail. 

Filled it with the gold glitter...

And pulled it off. A word of warning on these particular stencils. Due to the wide open spot in the center, it's hard to get these off without warping the design. Go slow, and don't just pull from one corner, pull evenly along a whole side. 

I finished the rest and sealed the design with two coats China Glaze top coat. I used one of the Avon nail art corrector pens for clean-up...the only problem I have with these is they run out too quickly. I need to play with the refillable style again. Here's a yellow photo that shows the design just a bit better: 

And one in regular light: 

Next week, I'm doing a glow-in-the-dark webs design for our annual Halloween party. Until then, happy polishing!

More about → Black Splats

Purple Bows

Keeping up with the light-colors theme for my super-short nails...I like how this simple design turned out. And I love how easy it is to make precise designs with these stencils! I bought them from Nail Delights and plan on ordering more soon.

I started with two coats of Avon's "Luxe Lavender" polish over a layer of China Glaze base coat. I like this purple...the perfect pastel, I think.

I put one layer of China Glaze quick-dry top coat over to seal and dry everything quickly, and then started at my thumbnail. Remember when using these stencils to take most of the glue *off* by sticking them to the pads of your fingers a few times...it doesn't take much glue to keep them on the nail.

Then just stick some polish on the stencil - I used Sinful Colors "Daddy's Girl" for the bows...

And pull the stencil off before the polish sets. Voila! Sparkly purple bow.

I finished the rest one at a time - it goes really fast with virtually no work.

And then I finished it off with a little purple rhinestone in the center of each bow, and two coats top coat to seal.

You might notice my nails are cleaned up in this last photo - I've finally discovered a polish remover pen that works extremely well for me. Avon's Nail Corrector Pen is quick and easy with less wear & tear on my cuticles than my old shower method, and I'm ordering two more tonight. Something you may want to try if you're looking for a fast & easy way to clean up after a manicure. And no, I don't sell Avon (used to, but haven't for several years) or get anything from the company for this recommendation, I just really like the product. I'm seriously considering trying their cuticle oil pen too...

If you know me at all, you know I *love* Halloween. I even have a Halloween scrapbook blog. In any case, I'm declaring October "Halloween Month" here at Nail Art Tuesday...check back for the first Halloween manicure for this year next week.

Until then, happy polishing!

More about → Purple Bows

Green Squares

Apologies for the lack of posting last week - I got behind and simply forgot to post this. It's all good though since this week's manicure didn't exactly work out, so I'm glad I have this to share with you. :-)

There are a lot of photos this week...bear with me! For this manicure, I used some of the new stencils from Nail Art Delights (linked to the right). As a point of disclaimer, I bought these (and several other sets) to try...and I'll be buying more. I love them! Settle in - I'll show you how they work. Before I started polishing, I cut the stencil stickers in half - I wanted to use the squares/diamonds three at a time rather than six.

I started with a base of Avon's new green, "Jade". Two coats, and it dries very quickly. Nice that Avon is finally putting out new nail colors!

 

Then I put two coats of another new Avon color, "Olive Green" diagonally across each nail.

I defined the line between the colors with my black Sally Hansen nail art pen, which I'm completely in love with.

Then it was time to start stenciling! These stencils have adhesive on the back. Avon polish dries quickly, but as per the stencil directions, I stuck them to the pads of my fingers several times to take the adhesive down a bit. Then I positioned it on the Jade side of my thumb.

I brushed on Olive Green to fill the stencil:

And then I pulled the stencil off carefully right away. If you leave the stencil on, the polish will seal it to your nail - don't do that!

Then I did the Olive side with Jade squares:

And voila! Neat little squares in a straight line, no rhinestones or embellishments needed.

I sealed them with two coats of Seche Vite, and cleaned them up the next morning. This is after a few days of wear.

As you can see, I didn't get the polish as smooth as I'd have liked, but I still think it turned out pretty well, overall. I can't wait to try more of these stencils - so much easier than stamping for me!

Stop by Friday for Notable Nail Art around the blogosphere! Until then, Happy Polishing...

More about → Green Squares