Needle Drag Mani

Hello!

I was inspired by this picture to do a needle drag mani. I modified it a little to make it my own version of a needle drag/swirly marbled mani.

-I used NK Nail Enamel in "Crystal Clear" as my base coat, then applied two coats of Kleancolour's "Retro Green" polish. It only needed one coat to be opaque but I added a second coat so my nail wouldn't show through if the needle scraped the top layer of polish off.
-I applied blobs of the other colours randomly over my nails. This step has to be done fairly quickly so the polish will stay wet enough to marble nicely without turning into clumps so I recommend doing one nail at a time. The colours used are Colour Club's "Emerald Depths," Sinful Colours' "Love Nails" and "Let's Talk," a polish by N.Y.C. which no longer has a label (a pale shimmery blue) and a few dots of Jordana's "Yellow Energy."
-I used a pin to drag and swirl the colours together. I used the side of the pin more than the tip itself, and at some points I mixed the colours together rather than just swirling them in sharper lines.
-About a minute after finishing, I gently pressed on the nails with my fingers to try to flatten the peaks that had formed during the needle drag.
-I applied top coat to smooth the look out. I didn't wait long enough for all the polish to dry so there are bubbles in the top coat. The next time I do this, I'll also add a second coat of top coat since one wasn't enough to smooth it out properly.

Happy polishing!

Divali Delicacies Mani

Hello!

As you may or may not know, Divali, the festival of lights will be celebrated next week (Tuesday in Trinidad). This is a very important and exciting festival for Hindus and non-Hindus alike and a lot of work goes into preparing for it.

I wasn't in the mood to do a mehndi pattern or deyas but I'm looking forward to Divali sweets so I did a mani based on that.

If you're unfamiliar with these foods, or if you're wondering how to make them, click the name of each sweet and you'll be taken to a recipe. Pictures are also included on the pages I've linked to, so you can see what they're supposed to look like.

Halloween Mani

Hello again!

In my quest to use an untried polish, I came across Sinful Colours' "Cloud 9." It's a shimmery tangerine colour and since it's October, I immediately thought of doing a Halloween mani (even though Halloween isn't a big deal here and I've never actually seen anyone carve a pumpkin).

-I used Colour Club's "Wham! Pow!" as a base since "Cloud 9" is very sheer. I used one thick coat of it to maximise opacity.

-"Cloud 9" went on over the first coat of polish.

-I used an old black polish and a long striping brush to draw lines radiating from one corner outwards on my ring finger and thumb. After that, I added the small curved lines in between to create the spiderweb design.
-For my index and pinky fingers, I used the same brush and polish to draw pumpkins on half of each nail. Sinful Colours' "Happy Ending" was the perfect green to add the stems.
-I used Shany's SH02 plate and black Konad Special Polish with my Konad stamping set to stamp the cat image onto my middle finger.
-I took a photo without topcoat because I was afraid of smudging the designs with the topcoat brush.

-Then added topcoat.

Happy polishing!

Neon splash nails

Hello again! Today I have another past mani to show you. This is a neon splatter/splashy look on a white background. I did this design for a friend and I loved it so much that I decided to try it on myself. I kept it for almost a whole week, which is a pretty big deal for me.

-I used Sinful Colours "Snow Me White" as the white base. Only two coats were required for suitable (enough) opacity. The colours I used for the neon splash were Colour Club's neon polishes in "Pucci-licious," "Warhol," "Chelsea Girl" and "Almost Famous," and Sinful Colours' "Rise and Shine."

L-R: Snow Me White, Pucci-licious, Warhol, Chelsea Girl, Almost Famous, Rise and Shine

(In real life the colours are much brighter than shown in this picture. In fact, "Rise and Shine" looked so dull in the picture that I did a very lame Photoshop and put a better picture of it in there)

-After applying the white base, I placed a drop of my first colour on a piece of plastic and used a dotting tool to pick some polish up. I tend to do this instead of dipping the dotting tool directly in the bottle since it's less wasteful and I avoid having the entire bottle dry up from being opened every few seconds.
-I applied the dot to the corner of my nail and used the dotting tool to drag the colour out towards the base of my nail in streaks. I did this for all my nails, one by one.
-The next colour was applied in the same way, and this continued until all the desired colours had been applied.
-When I had finished, I touched up with more of whichever colours I thought were underrepresented on each nail.
-I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear topcoat in "Invisible" to protect my mani.

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