Friday, April 13, 2018

26 Great Nail Art Ideas Presents ~ Things That Are Round!

Hello Dahlings!

We have ideas for mani that feature Things That Are Round for y'all!

I did this...

 These nail art studs from Winstonia are round, faceted
& have a special feature that is near & dear to my inky lil heart.
More about that later.

I used Unt Ready for Take Off pobc,
Color Club Halo Hues Beyond for my base color, 
with Seche Vite fdtc for my base.

I then used a no-wipe gel top coat with my uv/led lamp
to add the studs that I placed with tweezers.
I only applied enough gel to do 1 row of studs at a time before curing,
as those lil buggers like to slide around.

You can do this mani using clear polish as well.

Over all, this mani held up pretty well!
I did have to deal with the gems snagging in my long hair,
but I only lost 2 of them, off the same finger, on my left hand
& I think it was due to not using enough polish under them.
The rest stayed put until I took them off nearly a week later.

Oh...what is that special feature I mentioned?

 They glow in the dark!
You saw that coming, didn't you?

>^. .^<

Some vintage Ciri "Talk to my butt!" for y'all today.

Thanks for stopping by
& please check out what ideas
the others have for you!
~ Inky

Friday, March 30, 2018

26 Great Nail Art Ideas Presents ~ Pond Manis!

Hello Dahlings!


This time we have ideas for Pond Manis.
What's a pond mani, you ask?
It's when you layer stamping or other nail art
between coats of translucent colored polish.
It's supposed to give an illusion of depth to your nails.


I did this...


 See how the stamped image is darker near the cuticle
& each band of stamping is a bit lighter than the one before?
That's how it works.
I'll 'splain...


 After my base coat dried, I added a thin coat of OPI Indigo Motif.
(We're just going to assume that I let each polish layer dry
before moving to the next step. K?)
Next came a coat of 365 Days of Color After All This Time.
(Sunny's Body Products is still open,
she just doesn't make polish anymore.)
Then I stamped the design using Hit the Bottle Holo There Beautiful!
I used a clear stamper for easy placement.
Next came a thin coat of OPI Turquoise Aesthetic.
Then I stamped the 2nd row & added a 2nd thin coat of OPI TA.
I repeated this a 3rd time.
For the 4th row, I just stamped the image at the tip of my nails
& then applied fdtc to the whole nail.


You can stamp or other wise create an all over image
or random small ones. Your choice!
I went with the bands of stamping as random is hard for me to do well
& all over images can get visually confusing as you add layers.


You want a translucent polish that you can easily see thru.
OPI Color Paints are what I used.
Some other brands are Sally Hansen Triple Shine
& Esmaltes Da Kelly Sugar Bubbles.


Your looking for a tinted polish,
like you would use for the lead lighting technique,
or a rather sheer jelly polish.
You don't want a sheer polish with a lot of shimmer or flakies/glitter.
These tend to build opacity with each layer
& could obscure your design.
Why did I add the layer of After All This Time?


 Duh! LOL
I was impressed that it showed this well
thru 3 layers of tinted polish & stamping.


>^. .^<


What? I wasn't going to dive bomb Luna...Honest!


Thanks for stopping by &
Please visit the others
to see the ideas they have for you!
~ Inky

Friday, March 16, 2018

26 Great Nail Art Ideas Presents ~ French with a Twist!

Hello Dahlings!

This time we have ideas for French manis, but with a twist!
Let's be realz here...French manis can be very...shall I say...dull?
The traditional pink & white have been done to death,
so we decided that new ideas were needed.

I did this...

 This is a funky French mani using magnetic gel polish!
You can do this same concept using regular magnetic polish too.

Apply your base coat to all 5 nails & let dry.
Apply the 1st coat of magnetic polish to all 5 nails
& cure for 1 minute in LED.
(follow the instructions if you use a different brand)
Apply the 2nd coat of polish to just one nail,
then hold the magnet over just your free edge for 45 seconds or so 
then pop that finger under the LED lamp for a minute.
Do the rest of the nails on that hand the same way.
Apply no wipe top coat, cure for 30 seconds.
Do your other hand the same way & you're done!

 I used Madam Glam gel polish products
& a magnet from a set off Amazon.


 While I like Madam Glam products in general,
I'm not as impressed with their glow in the dark toppers.
Methinks I'll be using my usual polish toppers for the most glow.
(Yes, you can use regular polish over gel polish.)

>^. .^<

Look...Diva with a twist!
He's discovered the gas fireplace this winter & he LURVS it!
When it's on, it's a cat sedation device. LOL

Thanks for stopping by
& please check out
what the others have for you!
~ Inky

Saturday, March 3, 2018

26 Great Nail Art Ideas Presents ~ Using a Mat or Plastic for Nail Art!

Hello Dahlings!

This time we have ideas for you on
how to use a mat or plastic to create nail art!

I had an idea I wanted to try, so I did this...

 I've never seen glitter polish used to water marble.
I would think the glitters would sink & defeat the purpose.
I also realized that I've never seen glitter polish used to dry marble.
It works!
It's not as defined a pattern as when using crème or shimmer polish
& you may want to use undies if the polishes aren't tinted
or glitter bombs.

 Mr Inky brought these Chinese polishes home to me
from Taipei, Taiwan recently.
They aren't readily available in the US & only have numbers.

Solone 08 (pink) & 74 (lavender)
Magic Shop 115 (chunky & fine silver holo in a bright blue base)
I did 3 coats of each.

You can use any fine glitter or glitter in a tinted base
to do the drag marble on your nail art mat or a plastic lid or bag.
I painted a layer of clear polish first, let it dry,
then painted 3 rows of each color so they alternated.
I then lightly dragged a pointed dotting tool
through the polish to make the design.
(don't let the tip of the tool touch the mat
or you'll make grooves in the polish)
Let it dry until you can peel it off without it tearing,
but don't let it sit so long it dries out & becomes brittle.
Apply a thin coat of the clear polish
& while it's wet, stick the decal to your nail.
Gently press the decal to firmly adhere it & remove any bubbles.
Smooth it to the edges of your nail & trim with small scissors.
Use a clean up brush dipped in acetone
to bond the edges of the decal to your nail
& remove any excess polish.
Finish with a glossy or matte top coat.

This is the half of the decal I made that I didn't use.
In the upper left area,
you can see where I let the tip of the dotting tool drag on the mat.
Don't do this. LOL

While it did work, dry marbling with glitters is a more subtle look
than when opaque polishes are used.
The glitters spread into each other a wee bit & defuse the pattern.
Give it a try!

>^. .^<

What do you mean I'm not allowed on the table?
Define "on"?

Thanks for stopping by
& please check out what ideas
the others have for you!
~ Inky

Friday, February 16, 2018

26 Great Nail Art Idea Presents ~ Love, But No Pink or Red

Hello Dahlings!

This go around, we're offering y'all ideas for love manis,
but we're not allowed to use pink or red.
Valentine's Day was a couple of days ago,
but we can share the love on our nails anytime we want!

I did this...

 I'm sharing my love of CHOCOLATE!
I was thinking of those really fancy shmancy truffles
with real gold dust stenciled over them.  
Mr Inky is the true choc-holic in our house,
but we both enjoy all kinds of chocolaty goodness.

(I customized Dragon with gitd.)

Not shown ~
Unt Ready for Takeoff peel off base coat
Bunny Nails plates HD-A & HD-B

 Think of how easy it would be to find your chocolate
in the middle of the night if it glowed in the dark?
Alas, eatable gitd does not exist.
DO NOT EAT GLOW IN THE DARK ANYTHING!
It's fine for nails & other cosmetics etc,
but it will make you very sick if you consume it.

>^. .^<

 Mr Inky is in Taipei, Taiwan this week
& Ciri misses him something fierce.
He keeps looking for his Paw, then glomming onto me.
Thankfully the man gets home on Monday!

 You over there Paw?

 How's 'bout behind my tail?

 Paw, are you there? It's me, Ciri.

Thanks for stopping
& please check out what ideas
the others have for you!
~ Inky


Friday, February 2, 2018

26 Great Nail Art Ideas Presents ~ Black & Neon!

Hello Dahlings!

This prompt of black & neon was right in my wheel house!

So I did this...

 I debated between a neon base of various colors with black stamping
& a black base with neon stamping.
I've been wanting to do more multi-color stamping,
so neon over black it is!

I seem to have forgotten to take my usual line up shot,
so you get my don't-forget-what-I-used pics instead. LOL

 Shleee Polish Black Magic
CND Sticky Base Coat

Hit the Bottle ASAP Fast Dry Top Coat

Not shown ~
(I've also bought this base coat on Amazon)
Creative Shop plate 09

Why the sticky base coat if I'm already using peel off base coat?
When I 1st got the HTB neon stamping polishes,
I learned the hard way while swatching them that they dry really fast
& this can make transferring the image tricky.
(Michelle from HTB confirmed this for me,
so it wasn't all user error on my part.)
Wanting a good stamped image for y'all, I went to YouTube
& found THIS VIDEO that offered the tip of using sticky base coat
over your base color, but before you add stamping,
to help the stamping transfer more easily when using these polishes.
IT WORKS!!!
The CND is what brand I had on hand, 
(it also works for applying pigment powders over regular polish)
but other sticky base coats should work too.

 And this is where the Aqua Constellation comes in,
before applying Seche Vite fdtc.

>^ . . ^<

Nip! Nom Nom Nom...I luvs me some nip!

Thanks for stopping by & please check out the ideas
the others have for you featuring black & neon polish!
~ Inky

Friday, January 19, 2018

26 Great Nail Art Ideas Presents ~ Embellished or 3D

Hello Dahlings!

This time we have embellished or 3D manis to show you!

I did this...

 I decided to try something totally new to me...3D gel nails!
I've been using gel for my protective enhancements for several years
& I've used gel polish for vacation manis before,
but I've never used it for nail art.
I usually use regular polish for the art over the gel.
I got the idea/instructions from this video on sweater nails
from Nail Career Education.
You can get a similar look using matte & texture polishes,
it will just take longer to do & may not last as long as gel.

 Here's the sad news...the 2 colors of gel I used are no longer available. 

Bundle Monster neon purple gel polish.
(I got this in a set, but the current purple is more blue leaning.)

CH Nail 017 from Born Pretty Store.
(BPS doesn't even carry luminous/gitd gel polish anymore,
but Amazon does HERE I haven't tried this polish yet, but I plan to do so.)

(I got the set as no-wipe tc is supposed to work with powders.)

Not pictured ~
Unt Ready for Take Off peel off base coat
(I used 2 coats & this way I won't have to soak my skin in acetone
or spend hours filing to remove this mani next week.)

Sensationail Base & Top Gel Coat
(available at drugstores)

clear acrylic powder
(I got mine at Sally's Beauty Supply, but you can find it online.)

a teeny tiny brush for painting with the gel
(I got mine on Amazon, but any nail art brush will do.)

The texture isn't any worse than wearing regular texture polish
& less textured than some of my polishes.


 This is why I didn't use the luminous gel polish for the base color.
I wanted the 3D part to show in the dark cuz...me.

>^. .^<

 Ciri...that's MY pizza, not yours!

Diva, dahling, this is cute, but won't work once you're full grown.
(My laptop flips into a tent to be just a monitor,
but it isn't that large a space under there. LOL)

Thanks for stopping by
& please visit the others 
for more Great Nail Art Ideas!
~ Inky