Nail pic! Woohoo! 😃

Nail pic! Woohoo! 😃

So this may not look that spectacular, but I tried a new nail art technique and unlike my nail fail the other day it turned out great. This is something that I've wanted to try for ages, but due to my packed schedule and never really feeling like I had time to "play" I just didn't get to it. I guess I'll go ahead and clue you guys in: The thing I wanted to try was gradient stamping!

The background image is stamped, but with 3 different polish colors (ranging from blue to green). It's done like regular stamping except that you put your chosen colors down in whatever pattern you want (as opposed to just one color covering the image) and then you scrape the excess polish off. I found that I needed to use a light hand so I could mix the colors during the scrape. Stamping polish notoriously dries fast (meaning that if you aren't quick, you can't pick it up on your stamping head - and even if you can, it might be too dry to stick to your nail), so you've gotta be quick. I scraped over each of these backgrounds about 3 times to get a nice gradient.

I tried this over white because I wanted to be able to see just how good of a job I did (or didn't) do. I'm not usually a fan of wearing white polish, but it's summer and these are bright so that's ok. I ALMOST decided to wear just the gradient, but by later in the afternoon I was like "Nah. Where's the fun in that?" 🤣🤣🤣

It feels kind of like a cop-out that I chose to wear another unicorn so soon, but I feel like this background was screaming for her. The plate was sitting on my table from being used previously and when I saw her little happy self - I just knew. 🦄🦄🦄 After that it was easy enough to paint in some stars for color variety.

Anyway, that's my mani for the week. I have no idea if / when I'll get to paint again, but I'm hoping that I will have time at least every weekend. It is such a stress relief and I don't really have any other creative outlets at the moment so I need this in my life. 💅💅💅😁😁

Various polishes;
Lina plate Make Your Mark 03, Harunouta plate L045, Sugar Bubbles plate SB 033;
Gradient Stamping, Layered Stamping, and Stamping Decal techniques

It's late so probably no one will see these...

It's late so probably no one will see these, but that is kind of ok.  🤣🤣🤣  I like them because I like puke colors and nature, but I know that is not everyone's cup of tea.  😜  Anyway, I've decided that these are leaf cells.  If you look closely you can see some mitosis happening.  Yay for biology!  And spring!  😄😄😄  (This totally counts as a spring mani, right?  😆)

Gradients look SO NICE, but I've never been that great at them.  The sponge method doesn't work well for me because my C-curve is so strong that the edges of my nails usually don't get coated in polish.  🙁  There is a new stamping plate out - Make Your Mark 03 by Lina Nail Art Supplies - that has a blank rectangle in it.  The first time I saw the plate was on Instagram and a girl was putting stripes of polish in it and then swiping a couple of times to mix them to create a gradient.  It turned out GREAT.  Needless to say I had to have it.

So my left hand (my practice hand) doesn't look quite as nice as this one, but I gotta say that this method is pretty effective for gradients.  The polish that gets picked up on the stamper is super thin so doing a few layers builds it nicely.

Weirdly, the only thing I ended up painting on these was topcoat.  I did three thin layers of white, and then 2 - 3 of my yellow / green mix, and then the pattern, ALL WITH THE STAMPER.  😳  If you don't like the feel of thick polish then maybe you would like this, but you'd need liquid latex or tape or something to keep from having to drench your skin / nails in acetone trying to clean up the mess (which is what I did - woohoo for not planning!)

I tend to like thicker layers on my nails because they are thin and I clean a lot because of all of my ani-pals, so thicker coats protect my nails and stay on longer.  My nails feel almost naked right now and I'm not down with it.  I keep also feeling like this whole mani is gonna flake right off so I decided to get a pic and post it before I destroyed them.

Anyway, what do you guys think?  Too fugly for spring?  😜😆🤣

Research polishes;
Lina Nail Art Supplies plate Make Your Mark 03 and MagnoNails plate D;
Gradient and Stamping techniques