Return of the Nerd - Delicate Manicure

HOO BOY! I've been absent from the nail scene for quite a while now haven't I? I apologize for the unofficial hiatus from blogging, it was quite unintentional, and I intend to be a good girl and blog more regularly from now on.

The good news is that in all the time I was gone I was painting and picture taking, so I have quite a few swatches and manis stored up! So without further adieu, here's a brand new manicure and how I did it!

(Note, this manicure was done a few months ago and I may be a little hazy on how I did this, though it's a simple process.)

This is a mixture of gradient and an attempt at a jelly sandwich that resulted in a sweet, delicate looking manicure. I could easily see this being used in a formal setting. What's fun is it's pretty easy to do! So click the jump to see more photos and a short tutorial on how I did it!

Spring Gradient Sakura Blossom Manicure

Hello, Internet Peoples!

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

• 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