Water Marbling

The first nail-art I ever tried was water-marbling.

I had watched MANY youtube videos and this was the one I wanted to try. It looked so interesting.

On the night before a flight to America to visit my in-laws, in a hotel room, my husband and I tried this.

To do water-marbling, you only need a few things...

a paper-cup
something to drag the polish around to make a pattern on the water
clean water
2 or more polishes (that will spread on the water)
Cellotape

First, you need to tape around your nails, so that your skin is covered.
Next, fill your papercup with clean water, to near the top of the cup.
Start dropping your nail polish in drops on the water, building on top of one another, creating a bullseye effect.
Use your dragging tool (a dotting tool/toothpick/orangestick/needle), move the polish around on the surface of the water to make a design.
When you are happy with your design, dip 1-4 fingers into the design, keeping your fingers parallel to the design, and then dropping them into the water.
Use your dragging tool, once more, to remove the excess polish on top of the water, so when you pull your fingers out, your design will not be ruined.
Remove the tape, and repeat for remaining fingers.

Here is the results of my first attempt:

I think my first attempt worked pretty well, don't you?

Neon Stripes on Black

 I was inspired recently by watching yet another youtube tutorial, to try using neon colors on a black background.

I had been wondering what to do with my neon colored polishes ever since my husband had chosen them for me in a random purchase last year. Someone I was watching had used neon colors on a dark background and they looked really good.

I decided that I would try using my neon's to do something fun too.

To do this really EASY but eye-catching design you will need:

1 black polish,
1 white polish
Neon polishes (you choose how many)
A stripper brush/ thin brush/ dotting tool/ toothpick

To achieve the design:

Paint all your nails black.
Using the tool of your choice, make lines on the black with your white polish.
After cleaning your tool, use your neon colors to go over the white polish designs on your nail.
Seal with a top-coat of your choice.

I got a lot of comments from people on this design while I was wearing it. They said it was fun, pretty and bright.

This was a really easy nail-art design to do too.

Honestly, if you don't have brushes or dotting tools, you can do a number of things.
 1) use a tooth-pick or a pencil or a pen that no longer writes, dip it into polish, and let it set, dip again, and let it set, and dip it a 3rd time and use it to do your design.
2) Take a clear nail-polish brush, or a brush from an empty polish bottle, trim off some of the bristles on the brush. Fill the polish bottle (an empty one of course) with some nail polish remover, and then put the trimmed brush back into the bottle. Now you have a stripper brush, and you can use it with any color, and replace it into the remover between colors to clean it.
3) look around your house for something you can repurpose for your needs... a bobby-pin? an old paint-brush? a toothbrush? Anything... use your imagination.

Light Purple Lattice Stamping on Dark Purple tips with Rhinestones

 One of my first attempts at nail-art stamping was to use a Konad stamping plate, and some FaceShop nail-polishes. The brand I used is called "Gel-Touch". This polish is a thick polish that feels like you are wearing Gel nailpolish on your nails, but it's just a simple lacquer.

To do this simple and pretty design, first I used Light Purple Gel Touch, and painted the whole nail.
Next I used Dark Purple Gel Touch on the criss-cross stamp on M64, but I only used half the image. I put that onto the tip of my nails, and then added purple rhinestones, I think these are 3MM sized ones. The whole manicure was finished off with the Gel Touch top-coat. It lasted about 10 days I think.

This manicure was done in 2012, so I don't recall it well.

If you would like to see pictures of the polishes used, and the plate as well, leave a comment below and I'll try and put them up.

KONAD Stamping

So, back in 2011, I started getting interested in Nail art, and I watched many youtube tutorials on the topic.

Many of the videos I saw included something called KONAD stamping. I looked up on gmarket to see if I could find anything to do with KONAD, and found a LOT of stuff.

In March, 2012, my husband asked what I'd like for my birthday, and he looked at what I'd been watching, and he started on a search for some KONAD stuff for me. I'm a very spoiled person, because not only did he find me KONAD products, but he actually bought me Professional Kit 1. Now... for those of you who don't know what that is... have a look at this picture...

In this kit, there is a large stamping plate (with the first 36 plates images on it), up to 10 small round plates (I can't recall how many exactly), a plate tray, 3 scrapers, 3 stampers, 2 top coats, a base coat, a cuticle oil, 19 stamping polish colors, 4 files, some nail glue, rhinestones, rhinestone sticks, glitter, tweezers, a nail-polish remover pump, and a polish tray. It's all inside a briefcase container, and has a sheet of sponges to protect the polish as well.

Now this kit is not overly cheap, although when he bought it, it was cheaper than it is now. If you are interested in getting this kit, you can have a look here, (but beware the ad is in Korean).

I have since built on this kit, and have most of the plates available. I have a small list of plates that are left to buy, but I have seen recently that KONAD have started making different plates too. I am interested in getting all of them, as the designs on the plates are really nice.

I have also tried using BundleMonster and a couple of other offbrand stamping plates, but so far, I like KONAD best.