Water Marble Picture Tutorial

Okay, so since I had quit a few requests to do a tutorial on how I do my water marbling, here it is. I start with filtered water, and since ours is refrigerated, I heat it up for a about 20 sec. in the microwave, just to make it room temp. I use a throw away coffee cup that I have cut in half. Here are my basic supplies. Oh just so you all know, this is with my sad, pathetic broken middle finger. I know it looks awful, and I'm sorry, but I have decided to just let it be, and hope it grows out soon.Okay anyways, for this mani I used Sally Hansen Gray Area, OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender and China Glaze White on White.

I first did a base of the OPI (sorry about the poor lighting, where I do this, it's not near a direct light source)

When I start, I make sure all the lids are off. Here I just dropped in a blob of my first color, Gray Area, and you can see it spreads.

Then I dropped in a blob of White on White, right in the center of the Gray Area

and dropped in a blob of the OPI

I repeated the 3 colors again, until I was happy with how it looked.

Then using my pencil, I lightly drag the polish into designs in the cup

This is what it looked like, when I stopped, and I liked the designs I had.

I tape each finger, using 3 pieces of tape.

Then you pick which part of the design you made, you want on your nail.

and dip your nail into it, at an angle.

Once you have fully dipped your nail, I take my pencil, and with my nail still in the water, swipe it around my nail, and this picks up all the excess polish, so you don't ruin your nail, when you remove it from the water.

I then remove the tape, and do the rest the same way, re-doing the polish dipping and all. This is what I ended up with.

Then using some nail Q-tips, I clean up the excess polish from around my nail with 100% pure acetone.

Here is my mess, when I'm all done, lol

Then once all fingers are cleaned up, and my top coat has been applied, this is my final mani :)



I really hope this helps you guys :P

Stamping with Sally....

Good morning ladies!! This is a mani I did last week, pre-break, I'm still so mad, lol. For this I used Sinful's Black on Black for the base, and a Sally Hansen Color Quick Chrome polish pen, in Turquoise Chrome, for the image. I used the Bundle Monster plate BM20. These Sally Chrome polish pens, work GREAT for stamping!!

VALENTINE'S 2

American Apparel Giveaway!

UPDATE: The contest is open to international readers :)

I've made no secret of my undying love for American Apparel nail polishes. For a fledgling nail polish line, I think they've really hit the mark. I'm a big fan of creme finishes, which comprises all but 2 of their polishes (Echo Park & TopCoat/Basecoat), so naturally each and every one of these beauties has found their way into my collection, some I even have bought multiples of! (Cotton and Hassid, I'm lookin' at you!)

Well, in an exciting twist, the lovely people at American Apparel have offered me the chance to share my love of their polishes with YOU, my dear readers.

The lucky winner will receive a mix of 4 American Apparel polishes!

To be eligible:

1. Send me an email at thedailynailcontest@gmail.com with:

• your contact information (so I have it if you should win)

• whether you want to be included on the American Apparel newsletter email list (you can get discounts, sales, deals, and other information!)

• what you would do with 4 American colors if you had them (and which colors!)

2. Be a follower of The Daily Nail- whether on Twitter : @dailynail or here on the blog with Google Friend Connect - make sure you tell me which you follow with in your email! :)


3. If one of these things is NOT in the email, you will not be eligible to win this prize!

Contest entry deadline is Friday, January 28, 2011, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

Looking forward to your emails! :)

Gold & Green Funky French

So to take a break from the Water Marbling, I decided to show you a funky french I did last week. Oh and before we get to this mani..............I BROKE A NAIL!!! Grrrr, I slammed it in a car door :( It broke my middle finger nail, down far!!! I'm debating on putting a fake on, or ljust letting it be, and grow out. I don't know, this sucks!! Okay, whew, rant over, now on to the mani. For this I used the brand 10, color #415 for the base, Ulta Urban Jungle for the tips, and Claires 14 Karats for the Konad.

This is 2 coats of the base, 10, #415

Then with the Konad on :)

And the final mani :)



A Patchwork mani with Across the Universe

Remember how I did a few manis using OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Matte??? Well here is another, lol.
I actually did this just for fun, when I had the OPI Deborah Lippmann, and black in my purse for like 2 days. I didn't wear this out, but just tried it to see how it would look. I actually really liked how it turned out, even though the black is kind of hard to see, oh well. I used Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe, Sinful Black on Black and OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Matte.

Color Blocked

I've always been a fan of simple, clean design, whether it be on packaging, in ads, or in architecture. I love interesting combinations of colors, and their applications in everyday life. Today's nail art design is based off of a tile pattern that I saw in an elevator when I was watching TV the other day. In this manicure, I used some french tip guides I received for review from Nailene. Since I rarely (if ever) do a french manicure, in addition to reviewing them (in the next few days) in the regular application, I wanted to see how else I could utilize them. I decided to use an X-acto knife to cut each straight guide in half, creating thin strips of nail stickers. To achieve the manicure you see below, I used those strips to create a grid and then painted in between the lines. As you can see, some polish seeped underneath, but I'm guessing that was since they weren't meant to overlap, and they started lifting at the intersections. In any event, I'm still relatively pleased with out it turned out.

I used American Apparel Cotton as a base, with American Apparel MacArthur Park, American Apparel Trenchcoat, American Apparel Port, China Glaze Flyin' High, American Apparel Raccoon, and Essie Alligator Purse. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Disclosure: Some products in this post were provided by the manufacturer for review.

More Water Marbling....

Okay, so I hope you all don't mind another post on Water Marbling. I did 2 more, lol. I'm just having so much fun with these. Thanks a lot Crystal, haha. I promise tomorrows post will be something else.
For this one I used Sinful's Dream On and Pure Ice Risk Taker. I first did a base of Sinful's Black on Black though.

For this one I used a base of Sinful Black on Black again, and OPI DS Original, OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender & Sinful's Black for the marbling.