Show Me Your Nails 2.0

[Tamara76]

Due to some technical glitches with the original Show Me Your Nails Thread, I am starting a new thread with @vegchililover78's blessing (She says "hello," by the way!).

Please share your nail looks, nail art and manicures!

...And don't forget to check out @Beadshopgirl's Nail Stamping Thread for stamping inspiration! ❤️  

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Nailed-It/The-Nail-Stamping-Thread/m-p/3328865

[RGbrown]

@CookieGirl1 

Thanks so much! And yay, I hope you love it!! 🍌

[CookieGirl1]

@RGbrown I got it and it DOES smell like banana bread 🍌😲

[RGbrown]

@CookieGirl1 

Ahhhhhhh, that's awesome!! 🍌🍌

[CookieGirl1]

@RGbrown OH, random but I thought I'd  mention it to you--you had commented when I wore Jreine's Radioactive Nom Nom that you almost wished you'd picked it up and I accidentally found out that they have it as a ltd ed. polish on their own website as well as in their Etsy store until they sell out.  I'm trying to talk myself out of buying a backup 😂.

[Saradestin]

Wow! What a difference! So nice! And how cute to do the same mani! Both look so beautiful @RGbrown ! 😍 

[RGbrown]

@Saradestin 

Thanks so much! I'm always a little amazed whenever I look at older manis of mine...they were decent enough at the time, but the difference is pretty noticeable. 💜

[Titian06]

Love these colors, both now and whatever you used in 2017, and the subtle chevron, @RGbrown ! 💜💜💜  The difference between your nails in 2017 and now is amazing.  I definitely need to up my cleanup skills, then I'll look into cuticle oil. 😁

[RGbrown]

@Titian06 

Good cleanup really made the biggest difference in how my final manis look! I mean, sure, I guess the ultimate goal is complete control while applying such that cleanup isn't even really needed, but I've got some mild tremors and that'll never ever be a real thing for me. I do an ok job now, controlling how much polish is on the brush in the first place is key and most of my messes are small, but a cleanup brush and acetone do a dang fine job of taking care of my mistakes when I'm done!

[QueenMarceline]

@RGbrown So pretty! 💜 Love this color and the chevron stamping. 

[RGbrown]

@QueenMarceline 

Thanks so much! I was very unsurprised to see that my first post was purple 💜😅

[RGbrown]

I've been just busy enough the last few days that I haven't had a chance until earlier tonight to try the decals I made for shimmery swirls. The results are...eh, fine. Maybe with some tweaking and perhaps a more controlled or artistic design, this could be a fun technique, but it's not something I see myself putting much more work or thought into. If I want shimmery swirls in the future, I'm sure I can find a stamping plate for it lol.

Technique:

I used Revlon Pure Pearl, brushed out a few drops on plastic, thin like I was painting my nail, and then took a dotting tool and just went nuts doing loopy circles all different ways, like a kid drawing a tornado or springs. Once I was happy with the swirls, I left it to dry, but I could tell already that this was going to be too pigmented, covering my base more than I had in mind. (I only made one decal out of this piece, it's on my thumb and you can see how much it blots out the base. Swirls do kinda show up in the shimmer of this one, but not as much as I had hoped, especially after topcoat softened it back up a bit)

For the next decal, I laid down a couple of drops of Pure Pearl with a couple of drops of clear polish and two or three drops of thinner, mixed all that up with a brush and brushed it out thin, then repeated my frantic cyclones 😅 This was thin enough that bare lines showed up in the end result, allowing more of the base color to show through. It's still not exactly what I had pictured in the beginning, but it's closer. Three decals from this section, on my ring, middle, and index.

The last one I made was the same method as the second one, just subbed in Essie Zest Is Yet To Come instead of Pure Pearl. 

After drying, I knew especially the last two I made wouldn't come up in one piece since they were so thin and mostly made up of tiny individual bits, so I coated all of them with a thin layer of clear polish. Since I did these Thursday night and didn't get to them for three days, they were too brittle to pull up cleanly today, so I added yet another coat of clear earlier this afternoon and let them dry again before handling. 

Once I was ready to apply them, I cleaned my nails with alcohol and started making rough cuts to get them close to nail-sized, then applied a layer of Orly Bonder to my nails and let that dry. Apply decals one at a time, howl at some of them wrinkling up instead of laying flat, cut off excess with cuticle scissors, then run an acetone brush around the edges to clean up any remaining jagged bits and melt the edges down into place. Top with topcoat and...finally...done 😋

I think I like Pure Pearl best over the two lighter shades, it's a bit more subtle, which is closer to what I was going for in the beginning. It's pretty over the darker polishes too, but the starker contrast just wasn't what I had in mind when I started this project.

And whoops, just realized I didn't clean up after top coat...meh

[ather]

@RGbrown  Wow these are fun!!! I’ll have to try that technique! 

[RGbrown]

@ather 

Thank you! We'd love to see your results if you do! 💖

[itsfi]

Oooh, artistry in action @RGbrown. Love the swirls here. You’re always so patient with your nail art! 

[RGbrown]

@itsfi 

Eh, patience is not my strong suit...I just have to be in the right mood to play 😅 Thank you! 

[CookieGirl1]

That looks great, @RGbrown!

[RGbrown]

@CookieGirl1 

Thanks so much! ✨

[QueenMarceline]

@RGbrown Wow, these are absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing your awesome creativity and your technique. ❤️ This thread never fails to surprise me with the amazing nail designs, polishes and info I get to see here. I have to agree with @Saradestin these sound a bit too complicated for me personally and I'll speak for only myself by saying they are definitely outside the realm of my talent/capabilities when it comes to nails. 😂 

Kudos to you! This is definitely one of the most unique nail designs/techniques that I have seen recently. 

[RGbrown]

@QueenMarceline 

Thanks so much! 

Trying to figure out what I was doing and where I would end up were really the hardest parts of all this 😅 But the technique itself isn't all that complicated, I swear ✨ Learning how to do decals really can open up a whole new realm of possibilities, and I have faith that you could do it!

[QueenMarceline]

@RGbrown aww you're too sweet :')

[Saradestin]

That looks like a too complicated process for me to even try 😅. But it looks spectacular @RGbrown!!! 😍😍😍😍