Week 8: Cling Wrap Technique

This week is week 8 of the 52 week challenge and the theme is Saran/cling wrap technique. If you've never heard of it before it is pretty simple... I'll list the basic steps with additional tips to this technique are at the bottom of the post. In my opinion this technique is easy to do, but it is difficult to get colors that look good using this technique. Some combos can look just messy or dirty.


Base Color used: Champagne Toast by Sally Hansen

Basic steps:
1. Paint base color. 
2. Paint second polish on.
3. Dab crumpled cling wrap on nail.  

Second color used: No Plain Jane by China Glaze.

Tips:
- Let base coat(s) dry completely on all nails before you move on to steps 2 and 3.
- Do NOT let second polish color dry before moving to step 3. Do step 3 almost immediately after step 2.
- Do steps 2 and 3 on each nail right after another.
- Crumple up the cling wrap as tight as you can so you get a wrinkled surface like this.

- Your second polish must be a thick polish that doesn't dry two quickly. This technique only works if you can successfully pick up the second color with the cling wrap ball, and still get some to stay on the nail.
- Final and MOST IMPORTANT TIP: only dab the cling wrap 2-3 times. You want a nice balance of the two colors and more dabs will pick up too much of the second color and distort the design.

Overall, it took me a few tries to get colors that I liked together. I think I really only like metallic colors with this look. I tried solid grey and it just wasn't happenin.. looked too dirty and like I messed up. Here's one more pic with day light.

Technique: Freehand Fishtail

I just saw this technique the other day on Reddit Laqueristas. It looks sort of like a fishtail braid. I've seen people do it much thicker than this, but if you layer the polish swipes you can get the stripes much thinner... like this!

After you've done your top coat on all 10 nails, set up all your striping polishes unscrewed in the order you want to use them. Here is mine all set up. Colors from left to right are: Why Not by Sinful Colors, Orange It's Obvious! by Essie, Houston we have a Purple by OPI, Fly by OPI, and Electric Pineapple by China Glaze.

Here's a step by step pic tutorial of how I did this fishtail look. Basically its just an alternating layered striping technique. You just use the polish brush for the stripes. The last step is in the next pic.

After you finish the striping you cover up the bottom in your base color. I used a nail art brush for better control.

Tips:
- Use a thin polish if you can and make your stripes as thin as you can.  The thinner the stripes the less the layers mix together.
- Use a sheer polish if you want the layer overlaping to show up.
- GO SLOW. this is why I only did two nails each hand. I had to go very slow to paint in a straight line.
- to have more control of your brush, steady your "painting hand" on the surface your painting. i.e. rest the pinky or ring finger of your painting hand on the table your left hand is resting on. This should steady your hand a little bit.

Technique: Feathers

It makes me sooo sad that I only posted once in May and this is my first June post! Must be the wonderful Chicagoland weather now. It's too nice to stay inside and blog!

Well here is a pretty fabulous and fairly easy technique. Try it on one nail each hand if you don't have that much confidence in your nail art skills. I did all 10, but that's because I have this great nail art polish (STRIPE RITE by So Easy) and it was a piece of cake!

Here's the color I used for the base. Pink Friday by OPI:

And here is the steps I used to make the feather. First was the stem, one simple swoop. Then branches on each side of the stem (step 2 and 3). Then the last step I lightly filled in the branges with more feathers. Real thin wispy lines. Just blend them together a little. Ta da! feathers.  

And as you can see in the finished photo on top that I alternated where the feather was on the nail. It made it more fun and interesting.

Happy Polishing!

<3 La

Technique: Argyle Tips

 This technique is a modern take on a classic pattern. The best part is... it’s pretty easy and doesn’t take long to do. Argyle is a cute preppy pattern, but also very detailed and usually needs to be perfect to look good. These tips only use a tiny portion of the pattern so it isn’t difficult at all!

The first step was obvi the base coat. I used a very sheer pink. I needed 4 coats of this pale pink Essie polish to get the color I wanted. I let this dry a loooong time before I did the next step.

Next was the taping! Since this is a look for your tips I had to be careful not to do a half and half diagonal. To do this I made sure that the tapes did not go corner to corner, but a little but higher than that. To the left is the diagonal tips in Mod Square by Essie (my favvvv pink right now).

Lastly was the dots in the opposite direction. The polish I used was Essie in Mint Candy Apple. I used a dotting tool for these diagonal dots so it was pretty easy. If you don't have a dotting tool you can use a pin head or bobby pin. Seche Vite top coat then I was done!

Below is the final look! I just looooove this look and I will most definitely wear it again!

|La

Tip: Alternating 3 Colors

This tip is simple and maybe obvious to some, but I just did my nails this way so I thought I’d blog it. It is about alternating 3 colors on your nails. First thing to mention I guess would be color. In my opinion, the best color combos are either all warm colors (reds, pinks, oranges, yellows) or all cool colors (greens, blues, indigos, purples). Another good way to do alternating colors is shades of the same color (like lavender, purple, dark purple). For this one I used some happy spring citrus colors, i.e. grapefruit, orange, and lemon. The polishes I used from left to right in the below photo: Essie in Mod Square, China Glaze in Peachy Keen, Sinful Colors in Pull Over.

Okay, so in terms of which colors to paint which nails. The obvious way to do it would be ABCAB CABCA. However, if you do it this way your pinky and pointer finger are polish A on both hands. In my opinion that pattern looks too symmetrical and a little funny looking. I would rather have none of my left side nails matching my right. So the is the pattern I decided on is: ABCAB CBACB. My painted nails are below. I think it looks more random which is what I wanted!

Have fun and happy polishing! <3 La

Technique: Glitter Layered Gradient

I am getting so excited for the Hunger Games movie to come out this weekend! I was so excited I had to buy another Hunger games polish. I think this is my new favorite. . . Luxe and Lush by China Glaze! It’s the glitter polish in the above pic. It looks kind of like broken crystal or quartz. Very Hunger games Capitol style. I just |love it.

 

For the base I used a very pale pink. This one is Step Right Up! By OPI. I used 3 coats because I didn’t want it to be transparent.

Below is only one coat. As you can see the glitter to polish ratio is quite small. So I decided to do a layered gradient!

Below left is the second coat of glitter polish. I started about a third up the nail and did an even layer. Below right is the third coat of glitter polish about two thirds up on my nail.

To apply this glitter polish thicker you have to dab it more than swipe it.  If you swipe to fiercely the glitter comes right off with the brush. If you dab with the brush, the glitter pieces stick to the nail better.

Add a top coat and there you have it! A glittered layered gradient. Only downside it is quite a few coats of polish. Next time I will probably only do 2 coats for the base.

Happy Polishing!

|La

Critique: Color Change Polish

Since we have had such wonderful and sunny weather here in the Midwest lately, I decided it was a perfect time to try this color-changing polish by DEL SOL. I like it! It makes me feel like a kid again :)

The kind that I used changes from an iridescent ivory to “Pretty in Pink”. The left above is inside and the pink on the right is outside in the sun. Its a thin polish so I had to do a coat of white underneath to make it pop.

Overall, it’s a fun polish, but only changes when you are in direct sunlight. When my nails were outside but hiding from the sunrays for a bit it turned back to ivory. To the left is the polish when it was overcast/cloudy out. It was more in-between, like a pale pink. Still pretty though!

Another sad point is that when your inside all day (like I was working for 8 hours yesterday) it just made me want to go outside even more! Hmf.. haha

        

My advice for this one is to get a color that changes more subtly. This one was nice because the in-between was pale pink and not an icky color. Another good choice would be pink to purple.

Have fun in the sun!

|La

         

Technique: Easy Burberry

I didn't start this blog to just show off nail art that I do. I really wanted to make a blog that was helpful to anyone that could use tips for nail styles you could do yourself. So the point of this technique is to try and make something difficult more simple. I have seen a million versions of the Burberry plaid on nails. They all look so intricate! So here is a step by step instruction on an easier variation of the Burberry plaid design.

1. I started with a tan/beige base. The one I used is just a cheapo nail polish from a clothing store. I did three coats to get a solid, even color.

2. Next I used a white polish to make a horizontal stripe. I tried to make it thick and only the width of the nail polish brush to make it one easy swipe. I really didn't worry about making the lines straight because I knew I was going to outline it in the next step. Made it a little faster/easier. The polish I used here is Sally Hansen Xtreme wear in "White On."

3. Step three.. the black stripes. I used a Sally Hansen nail art pen. I tried to make the lines as straight as I could. Have to make sure the pen is always very saturated with polish.

4. Lastly I wanted to switch it up a bit, so I used hot pink instead of burgundy. Much more me :). So first I did two verticle stripes closer to the left side of my nail. Then I did one horizontal towards the bottom of my nail. Quite simple. Here I used Stripe Rite polish in Hot Pink.

 So, there you have it. Still takes a little skill, but a much easier and less detailed version of the Burberry plaid!

Technique: Vday x 3!

What kind of Valentine are you???

Valentine’s Day is only 1 week away… so it’s time to pick a flirty polish for the holiday of love! First you must decide what kind of Valentine you are: Sweet, Sexy or, Sassy! This post has 3 looks to satisfy all! Of course, if you hate Valentine’s Day you could always stop reading here and go paint your nails black haha.

Base colors... I wanted to show you these three colors first because if you don’t feel like designing or don’t have the time, these are great Valentine’s colors all by themselves. From the left we have: Burgundy by FLARE (from Urban Outfitters I think.. but burgundy is a popular color for most brands), mod square by Essie, and it’s in the bag by Essie.

Sweet:

For this sweetie pie look I used two coats of this bubble gum pink nail polish called mod square by Essie. For the hearts I used my Sally Hansen French Tip Pen. I have the pen with the pointed tip, not a flat tip, so it was easy to make these teeny hearts. I would suggest only doing one finger on each hand (thumb or ring finger would be cute) because it takes a while to do all these little hearts.

Sexy: 

This look was super easy. I was going for a black fishnet look over a pale pink, but you could also use a nude/beige/tan color for the base. I did 2 coats of this base because it was very sheer and made sure it dried COMPLETELY. If you don’t let the base dry all the way, this next step will fail miserably, trust me.. haha. To make the black cross hatch it was pretty easy. I used a black SH nail art pen. The key to make the stripes look more like fishnet is to make the crosshatch elongated, not square. Basically, more like diamonds and less like tic-tac-toe squares.

Sassy:

If anyone knows me they would say I am definitely a sassy valentine… so of course this was my choice. It was also the most time consuming so I did a more detailed description of what I did. First I let the burgundy base color set completely. I actually ended up doing the base color one day and the detail/tip the next day. This is because I used French tip tapes (which I usually hate) and they can tend to remove the base polish if you use them when your base isn’t dry... it’s a big mess.

So here is what my nails look like with the tapes on them. The key to applying these buggers straight is to start in the center of the nail. Tap the tape to the center of the nail, and then if it lands a little crooked you can tip the edge up or down to straighten. Then flatten the tape ALL the way to the skin. I even use my other hand’s nail to crease the tape into the area between my nail and skin... if that makes sense? 

Anyway after getting the nail tapes applied, I filed my nails to be the same roundness/arc as the tapes. It’s not necessary, but I think it looks a lot nicer.

Then I used this awesome magenta tinted SH Gem Crush polish called Lady Luck. It went really well with the burgundy but would also go well with a bright magenta. Anytime your using tapes the key is to dab fairly heavy strokes of the polish so you don’t have to apply a second coat. 

After this dries, remove the tapes and apply a heavy clear coat. I used my Essie top coat because it seamed a little thicker than others. The Gem Crush polish is pretty think so you want a thick top coat to level out the rest of the nail.

Below is the lovely finished product.. sassy no?

Have a SWEET, SEXY, and SASSY Valentine’s Day!!!

<3 <3 <3