Three Color Gradient + Pattern

Arden: Today in the 33 Day Challenge, I was tasked with creating a manicure using a 3 color gradient plus a pattern.  Since I still am a total novice at stamping, I created my pattern using striping tape.

I started with a white base (Julep Nicolette) and then added strips of striping tape to make rectangles.  (If you want all the details, I started by applying two long strips on my nail from base to tip, then added three shorter strips horizontally.)

I then sponged on a gradient using one regular polish (Julep Joanna) and two liquid sand polishes (Julep sea salt finish Tracy and Zoya PixieDust Liberty).  After sponging on the gradient on the first nail, I immediate removed the tape before moving on to the next nail.

For accent nails, on my thumb and ring finger I painted each taped-off square/rectangle with one of the three polishes.

Since I was using texture coat polishes, I did not add a top coat at the end (though you certainly could if you wanted to!).

I think these turned out pretty well, though if I were to do them again I might sponge on another coat on the gradient nails-- they look a lot lighter than the accent nails since the texture polish wasn't as densely applied.  But oh well!

As always, let me know what you think in the comments and check out all the other entries in today's challenge below!

33DC Coral (Animals) Nails

Hiii! It's Lisl, and I am super pumped to share my manicure for the 33 Day Challenge "Animals" theme.  I decided to do a manicure based on my favorite animals, the animals I'm basing my Ph.D. research on - corals!  So, my BFF Steph's husband Jonah refuses to believe that corals are anything other than rocks or plants, but I promise you, Jonah, they're animals!  And they're awesome! Which is why I am manicurifying them.

33DC Flowers - One Stroke Roses!

Hey y'all! Todays, well technically yesterdays, prompt for 33DC was flowers, so I decided to give one stroke flowers another try.  This time, I followed a tutorial on how to make "spiral roses."  So mine do not look nearly as cool as the ones in the video, but it's only my second time doing one stroke ever, so I'm cutting myself a lil' slack.

33DC: Indian Nails!

Hey Y'all!  This week's theme in the 33DC Arden and I are taking part of was Indian nails!  Since I've been spending a fair amount of time pinterest-ing wedding gowns with one of my best friends, I decided I'd base a manicure off of one of the dresses!  (The one I chose was the one that is in the picture above).

Trivial Pursuit Nails

Arden: Hey everyone!  Today's prompt in the 33 day challenge was to "create artwork using your oldest untried polish."  I looked through my collection, and it turns out I really don't have that many polishes that I've never tried.  I tend to try new polishes out as soon as I get them!  So I ended up going with a couple polishes I've barely ever used: Julep Marjorie (shimmery orange) and Julep Drew (hot pink).  I had only ever used Marjorie before to make the center dots in these flower nails, and I know I'd tried out Drew before, but don't think I'd ever done any nail art using it.

I decided for this challenge I would finally do a pattern I'd been itching to try for a while: nails that look like Trivial Pursuit pieces!  I got the idea from this post I found on Pinterest; the original blogger didn't reference Trivial Pursuit, but that was the first thing I thought of when I saw that design!

Full disclosure: I decided to emulate the newer Trivial Pursuit pieces that have replaced the brown piece with a purple wedge, because purple is much prettier than brown. I hope this doesn't anger any hardcore Trivial Pursuit enthusiasts!

I started with a base coat, then painted on two coats of OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service.  I then used three pieces of striping tape per nail to create the 6-wedge design of a Trivial Pursuit playing token.

I then painted each wedge a different color.  I just used the regular brush from the polish bottle, but it did require me to be super careful (especially on my pinkies) so you might prefer to use a smaller brush to paint on your wedges.

Colors used (clockwise from top right):
Sally Hansen Butterscotch 
Sinful Colors Rise and Shine
Julep Drew
Essie Butler Please
Zoya Mira
Julep Marjorie

I then carefully peeled the tape off using tweezers and added a top coat of Essie Good as Gold.  I was a little worried I might have some issues with streaking, but no problems this time.  (Maybe I just waited long enough for the polishes to dry). 

As you can tell above, I had some trouble with the polishes applying evenly.  The top coat helped some with that, but I still think the orange and yellow wedges are a little messy (especially on my first two fingers; I think I must've gotten better at it as I went along).

 

I wasn't sure how the Trivial Pursuit design would look over the sparkly base of Her Majesty's Secret Service, but I think it turned out ok!  A solid color might've looked more crisp, but I feel like the colors of all of the wedges pop more against the sparkly background.

My attempt at doing a more artsy hand pose.  Successful, or claw-like?  You decide!

Overall I was pretty pleased with this rainbow wheel manicure design!  Let me know what you think in the comments, and as always, check out all the other entries in today's challenge below!

33DC Texture Nails

Hey Y'all!!  Today in the 33DC we are doing a texture nails!  I have been playing around with using striping tape to do geometric-y hearts for a while, and I thought I'd test it out with some texture polishes.

Mexican Desert Nails

Arden: Hey everybody!  Today's prompt in the 33 Day Challenge is "Mexican nails."  Not gonna lie-- I have no idea what that's supposed to refer to.  I didn't want to portray any stereotypes, so I decided to do something pretty safe: a desert sunset landscape.  The inspiration for these nails came from this paper mosaic I made a couple years ago and now hangs on my wall:

To create these nails, I started with a base coat, then painted on one coat of white polish (Sally Hansen White On).  Then, starting at the base of my nail, I took a nail art brush and painted on strokes of the navy polish.  I repeated this method for the purple, pink, yellow, and gold polish.  Finally, I took a striping brush and painted on the ground and the cacti.  (And then added a top coat of Essie Good to Go.  Can't forget that top coat!)

Colors used in the sunset:
Julep Lacey
Zoya Mira
CoverGirl Boundless Color Fuschia Girl
Zoya Creamy
Essie Good as Gold

The edges of these were a little messier than I would've liked, but overall I think they turned out pretty good.  If I were to do it again, the only change I'd make would be not to paint a cactus on each nail-- maybe just the pointer and ring finger.

As always, be sure to check out all of the other great nail art designs below!

Saran Wrap Nails: New Method

Arden: Hi friends!  Today I'm bringing you a new twist on the Saran wrap nails we've done before.  In our earlier attempts (here and here) we used the method where you paint on color A, wait for it to completely dry, paint on color B, and then immediately dab at it with Saran wrap to remove some of it and create a marble pattern of the two colors.

Well, when I started out doing this manicure, I was going to use that method again.  I started with a base coat and then two coats of Zoya Dove.

I applied a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat (remember, Essie top coats don't play nice with Zoya polishes!) and waited for it to dry completely.  Then I painted on a coat of Zoya Monica and went to dab at it with my Saran wrap.

I didn't take pictures, but take my word for it: it did NOT look good.  I think it basically took off too much of the Monica and spread it out all over the nail, so the whole thing just looked like a purplish gray blob.  I had recently read about another method for Saran wrap nail art, and decided I'd give that a try to see if it could salvage the situation.

I took a small ball of Saran wrap, dipped it in a bit of the purple nail polish, and dabbed it on gently.  It looked ok, so I did it on the rest of my nails.  I decided to add a bit of dimensionality, so I repeated the same process using Zoya Mira.  Then I felt like too much of the grey had been covered up, so I dabbed on a little more Dove.  (Obviously, you can tell this process could continue indefinitely.)  I ultimately decided I got a good mix of colors and finished with another coat of Sally Hansen top coat.

The result:

These look pretty cool, right?  I love how this method allows you to use more than two colors, so you can get a very different kind of marbled look.  I love it!

Now that I've discovered this Saran wrap marbling technique, I can't stop doing it!  Look for it to appear in future nail art endeavors.

What do you think?  Prefer this kind of marbling to the original Saran wrap method?  (I can attest that it is more forgiving-- if you mess up you can just keep dabbing on more colors!)  Let me know in the comments!

 

Blue Waterfalls

Arden: Hey everyone!  I'm emulating the Nailasaurus' new favorite nail art technique again today!  I've already done a colorful (feathery) version as well as a green (wormy) version, but today I decided to try out a monochromatic striped look, much like the Nailasaurus' original blue waterfall.

[I think this post is going to be very picture-heavy and not terribly explanatory, so if you'd like more details on how to do this pattern yourself, follow the Nailasaurus' tutorial here.]

I started with a base coat, and then added two coats of CoverGirl Outlast Stay Brilliant glosstini Blue Hawaiian.  I then used one of the striper brushes from our MASH nail art brush set to add stripes on top in a variety of blue shades.  I started at the base of my nail, and brushed upward (as straight as I could) toward the tip.

Colors used in the stripes:
Essie Midnight Cami
Essie Blue Rhapsody
Essie Butler Please
Essie Beach Bum Blu
Zoya Liberty
Julep Tracy

I'm not gonna lie-- I wasn't too thrilled with these nails until I added Liberty and Tracy-- two colors that are texture polishes that are packed with glittery goodness.  With a top coat added on top at the end you couldn't tell at all that they were textured, and their glittery-ness (that really needs to be a word) really kicked this manicure up a notch.  It made me want to get more glittery polishes to add that little bit of kick to my nail art designs all the time!

What do you think?  Have you tried out the waterfall look yet?  Hit us up in the comments!

Little Aquarium Nails

Arden: Hey everyone!  I have a super cute manicure for you today.  I found this picture from the French nail blog Mademoiselle Emma and knew immediately that I needed to try them out for myself.

from http://mademoiselle-emma.blogspot.be/2013/08/nailstorming-retardataire-ocean-etoile.html

I started with my trusty L'Oreal One Stop Base Coat and then added two coats of Zoya Neely.  (This polish was on Lisl and my wishlist for a looooong time before we were finally able to snap it up during a sale.)

I then painted on the seaweed fronds using Wet N Wild Caribbean Frost and one of the smaller brushes from our MASH nail art brush set.  I then added bubbles using Sally Hansen White Out and a dotting tool, and drew on the fish, starfish, and jellyfish using Zoya Arizona (orange), Zoya PixieDust Miranda (texture pink), Zoya PixieDust Liberty (texture royal blue), and Julep sea salt finish Tracy (purplish blue texture polish) using the nail art brush. 

I finished up with a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat (used this one instead of my trusty Essie Good to Go because Zoyas and Essie top coats don't play nice).

I think I probably should've added the bubbles after I drew on the fish, because I ended up having a bunch of bubbles on nails with fish-- the poor fish look a little crowded!

And here's my proof that it's possible to draw on this pattern using your non-dominant hand! (I actually think painting my nails has really helped my non-dominant hand become much more dexterous.  See, mom, there is an upside to my nail polish habit!)

Drawn using my left hand!

Left-handed artwork! And yes, I messed up under the goldfish. But you can barely tell!

Has anyone else tried out any fish-themed nail art recently? (Ok, that might be a little specific.)  But still, tell me what you think!

Nail Art Nail-Off: Galaxy Nails

Hey guys! It's Lisl.  So Arden and I have been back and forth crazy traveling all summer and have not gotten a chance to do a proper Nail Art Nail-Off in a while.   But we did it; we did it y'all!  For this Nail Art Nail-Off, Arden decided to go a more traditional galaxy route, and I decided to try out Nailasaurus' pastel galaxy nails!

This manicure takes a lot of nail polish. Like a lot. See?

So, rather than type out, like, every single name of all of them, I'll try to mention as many as I can, and for the rest can just ask us in the comments if you're curious.

Anyway, I started out with a layer of Sally Hansen Bubblegum Pink and some glitter on top of that, because I wanted pink space nails.

Using a make-up sponge, I dabbed on about a million pastel colors of polish, and then some dark purple-sparkly (Zoya Aurora) in the corner for "depth," and then some gold sparkly (OPI Goldeneye) for sparkle.  After all the sponging, you pretty much could not see any of the pinkness or glitter, but that's ok.  One thing I've learned about galaxy nails is you pretty much have to roll with whatever is happening.

Green Splatter Paint Nails

Arden: Hey everyone!  One of my favorite manicures I've had so far is definitely the multicolor splatter paint nails I did a couple months ago.  I was yearning to do something fun (and a little messy), so I decided to try out a monochrome splatter paint design.  I think I might own more green nail polishes than any other color (what a random choice, right?) so I decided to go for green!

I started by painting my nails with two coats of Essie Absolutely Shore.  Then I started splattering on colors!  You can see my earlier tutorial to get a feel for how I did it.  (Though I recently saw online a different method that might be less messy, so I will probably be trying out an alternative way to do splatter paint nails soon!).  The first color I added was Zoya Wednesday.  I dipped a small straw in the bottle, and then blew through the straw to splatter the paint on my nails.

Next up was Julep Korin!

Third was Essie Mint Candy Apple.

I repeated the process (without taking pictures, apparently) with both Sinful Colors Rise and Shine and Essie Navigate Her (this one was a mistake-- it looked too yellow/tan [aka: like puke] compared to the rest of the greens, and I ended up using a couple of the colors again to cover most of it up).  My nails with all the colors on looked like this:

Can we take a minute to recognize how messy this process is?  I had nail polish allllll over my fingers, which then meant it ended up on my face, on my camera, and even on the light switch in my bathroom.  Sooooo messy, but so fun!

Here's the final product once I added a coat of Essie Good to Go and cleaned up my fingers using acetone:

I had the problem again with some small bubbles showing up because the splatter technique dropped huge globs of polish on my fingers.  I'm not sure how to avoid this-- has anyone tried it and know a good technique?  I don't think the bubbles necessarily look bad, but I would like to create some splatter paint nails without them once.

What do you think? Do you like the splatter paint look?  What colors should I try splatter painting next?  Let me know in the comments!