Spring is one of my favorite seasons (Autumn being my second favorite) and I've been trying to think of a happy *~*~*Spring*~*~* manicure that didn't involve pastels as I seem to simply not be a pastel person .-. I like sparkles and vivid, rich colors. However most spring manicures are pastel creams that, while are lovely, are not just me. Suddenly I remembered that in Japan, the Sakura Blossom is a symbol of spring! But what to pair with those pretty blossoms? Well, that's when I went to Google and found this image:
After that everything fell into place. I raided my box o' polish, sat and took two hours of painting and sitting and letting every bloody coat dry (while listening to JRock, fittingly enough), admired the results once I was done... And then had to do dishes. Of course my topcoat was dry by that time but it didn't do any good for the rest of my hands. "Nothing some hand cream can't take care of" I thought. And just to make sure the pictures came out super sparkly pretty, I put on some more top coat juuuust before taking the pictures. In the view finder the pictures turned out great...Until I loaded them onto my laptop and saw my cuticles.
Guys, I'm apologizing for my cuticles right now.
Manicure pictures and how I did it after the jump!
Base Coat: Seche Natural
Top Coat: INM Out The Door
How I did it:
Firstly, allow me to show you the picture I took of my workspace. My iPod's camera lense was slightly dirty so forgive the quality. Also - No. I am not that tan, but compared to the white polish and paper, along with our light bulb going yellow, I appear rather golden brown o.o
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- SO! To start layer down base coat. Because Base coat is our friend.
- Applied two coats of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in White On, waiting five minutes between coats to let them dry.
- Applied a coat of China Glaze's Fairy Dust. I love this glitter, by the way. Let that dry.
- Ripped a cosmetic sponge in half and with the rough edge of the smaller half sponged a mixture of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in Petite Pink and L'Oreal Color Riche in I Pink I'm In Love several times halfway up the nail. The mixture was very transparent and it took several layers to even make a dent in the white. I'd suggest a more opaque pink next time.
- After that dried I sponged CoverGirl Outlast Stay Brilliant in Grapevine a third of the way up. Let that dry.
- Grapevine I messily wrapped my tips and added a dot to the center of my nail and sponged that around to make the tips the most opaque.
- Sponged some Fairy Dust over Grapevine only.
- With a black striper (I have one from Sinful Colors that I'd found in Walgreens but even a thin brush in black polish will do as long as you can make a thin line) I drew on the limbs, trying to make them as wispy and non-repetitive as I could, leaving room between the branches to dot on the blossoms.
- With differing sizes of dotting tools I dotted on thick'ish dots of I Pink I'm In Love in a more or less triangle shape. I do wish I'd used a bolder color as the petals disappeared kind of >.<
- With White On and a smaller dotting tool I put a white dot in the center of each triangle.
- With an even smaller too (My set came in five double ended tools) I put a dot of Pure Ice's Crimson, an with the smallest tool in the set tried to mar it around so it'd blend in with the white.
- I think let them babies dry a very long time. I've found out the hard way that slapping on topcoat right away will ruin the work and reduce myself to a bag of colorful and nonsensical curse words.
- Applied a thick bead of quick dry topcoat. I've found applying it thickly leads to less streaking
- Admired the pretty! (Then freaked out at the amount of time it took)
Wow...I think that was my first tutorial O.O
I'm sure I'll do the Sakura Blossoms again before warm weather's over (and in this part of the states? It'll be here a loooong time., but I think next time for the blossoms I'll use a bolder pink. I wish I'd have broke out my bottle of China Glaze's Awakening for this actually ^^; Otherwise? I'm happier with this manicure than I should be. I hope you guys liked it too :-)
'Til next time!
-
Nerdy
These are so pretty! Good job on the nails and the tutorial! I liked your first step "because base coat is our friend" YES IT IS!! And so is wrapping your tips! :) Don't you just hate when you think your nails/cuticles look so perfect and then SIKE they're all dry or something?? That happens to me all the time, especially in the winter. Booo to that. I think these nails are great tho! :)
ReplyDeletePS: This is totally unsolicited advice, but I was wondering if you have considered removing your captcha thingy for commenting. I think that deters some people from commenting and if you remove it you may get a couple more comments. Your nails are great, cuticles clean and pictures clear so there's no reason you shouldn't have more comments! :)
Hehe, thank you! ^.^'
DeleteWhen I first started doing my nails ages ago I didn't even know what base coat, top coat or tip wrapping was o.o I shudder when I think back on it now. Of course I'd give myself manicure a month at the most and I'd wear it until all that remained was a little chip, which I'd scrape off with a sharp object. I remember at one point I decided I didn't want the color I had on and I took a sharpened pocket knife and scraped it all off O.O How the heck I even have nails now is a miracle.
What's funny is ninety percent of the time my cuticles are great. Soft little things that look oh so nice. Then comes picture day and they looking the deserts on Dune. And egads, the winters are so dry around here. If you don't moisturize often your hands crack and bleed and it's just not fun.
I have a Captcha?! *GASP!* This will not do! A Captcha is the same as having a grey old wizard standing in your comment box screaming about not letting you pass. I didn't know it was there ^^' I guess because I'm the owner it doesn't hit me. And aww, thank you ^.^' I try.
*Goes off to beat Captcha with a stick*