Rainy days and fancy nails.

The weather here has been gloomy and rainy the past couple days. I had planned on doing an outfit blog post but with the weather all poopy, I decided to stay in instead. I still wanted to do something fun and creative though so what better then a nail tutorial! 

     I try to keep my nails painted on a regular basis. I used to go and get them done by an amazing nail lady (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nailz-by-Amanda/141293629214312, if you are in the Sonora area you should totally check her out. With the economy and lack of funds I have had to stop getting them done, but I would totally recommend her to anyone!  Anyway, I still like to have my nails looking decent since alot of people look at my hands at work. I also have an awful habit of biting my nails so this helps curb that too.

     We'll start off with water marbling. Its a fairly simple to do but it's a little time consuming. I started off putting on a nail primer and letting it dry for a minute. I have been using Sally Hansen Continuous treatment base and top coat. I like it a lot and its works really well as a base coat.Then I put a base coat of white on my nails. The white will help your design to stand out. I've tried different colors as a base before doing the marbling, but the white seems to work best. After the white paint dries for a minute cover around the nail with tape (I used scotch tape), this will help with the clean up part of things. Because you are dipping your finger in the water the nail polish sticks to whatever it touches, if you skip the tape step you will have polish all the way to your knuckle! It may seem annoying and time consuming it really will save you time in the long run.

You will need a cup or in my case a Tupperware, filled at least half way with water, some tooth picks, paper towels and nail polish. I chose three colors, but you can do anywhere from two colors to as many as you would like. I chose a bright blue color, a hot pink color and a grey color. I thought they looked good together but options are endless. 

Start with the color of your choosing and make sure that you have a decent amount of polish on the brush. Hold the polish brush above the water and let the ball of polish that forms on the brush drop into the water, once it hits the water it should disperse, and form into a larger circle, take the next color of choosing and do the same thing with the brush, letting the paint drop into the middle of the first paint circle. Repeat this for the next color and repeat then again until you have the desired amount of rings that you like. I did each color 3 times.  It may take a few times to get this right and you have to do this fairly quickly of else you will not be able to pull the colors (the next step). Don't get discouraged, this took me a few attempts before I was happy with the results. Also a good tip is to use warm water, the cool water will make it dry quicker.   Once you have the desired number of rings, take your tooth pick and drag from one side of the circle to the opposite side of the circle. Keep doing this until you get the desired design you are going for. I think I dragged it through 3 or 4 times.

Once you have dragged the toothpick through the polish and you have the design you like, pick the spot that looks the best to you and dip your finger in the water over the spot of your choosing. Make sure you dip your finger all the way in the water. While your finger is in the water, take the toothpick and swirl it around your finger picking up the paint you did not use. Pull your finger out of the water and then start the steps all over again. This is the part that is time consuming, but the the effect is well worth it. I've tried it a couple times and been able to use the same circle multiple times, other times the paint has dried and you can only do one finger at a time. It all depends on a number of things (temp, time lapse, if your dogs are barking :) ) My advice would be to just try it and see what happens. When you have done all fingers you will notice that there is paint everywhere!!!!! That's were the tape comes in. 

Remove the tape and clean up any extra that went over the tape. When you are done use a clear coat to seal them. I like using a top coat that dries instantly. 

I'm not perfect at doing nails by any means, there are defiantly a few spots that came out funky. I am happy for the most part with how they came out and I hope this inspires you to try water marbling or some other fancy nail technique. 

Ok so I also did splatter nails. Splatters nails are super fun and I've had alot of compliments on them. I started off with a coat of primer and then also a base coat of the same grey color from the last tutorial. Choose a few colors that will pop. I chose a lime green, white and the pink from the last tutorial. I also choose yellow but didn't end up using it. 

take the first color you choose, in my case the green. put a decent drop on a spot on your nail, take a toothpick and pull out the edges of the drop making it look like a splatter. take a few small drops from the thick dot on your nail and make small drip marks all over you nails.

Repeat this step with the other colors you have chosen, I only used the three colors because I have short nails, if you have longer nails you may be able to fit more colors on your nails.  When you have finished all your nails with the splatters cover the whole nail with a clear coat to seal. I have been using Sally Hansen insta-dri anti chip top coat. I like it and it dries very quickly, but if you put a thick coat on it will form bubbles under the surface. I loved the ways these turned out and will totally do this again. I hope this inspires you to try splatter nails or any other fun nail technique. Both of these techniques I found through watching youtube videos. I learn everything from youtube! Good luck and please let me know how it goes!

P.S. I thought you guys might like to see an out take from this set of photos! Don't mind my lack of makeup.