NOTD: New Year's Super Blingy Ombre Glitter Mosaic + Tutorial

So far, we have already received nearly a foot more snow than we normally average in an entire winter.  And all that shoveling is what I'm blaming my lack of posting in January on ... winter doesn't appear to be letting up any time soon but I guess I'm not surprised ...  that's where the name Minne"snow"ta came from =)

Anyway, here is what I had on my nails for New Year's, just before I made a big chop (which if you haven't see on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc will be coming up in my next post).  The base color is just OPI Black Onyx; the glitter ombre is done with Martha Stewart glitter from Michaels in the colors Onyx, Sterling, Florentine Gold, Fire Opal, Garnet, Tourmaline, Kunzite, Charoite, Lapis Lazuli, Turquoise, Verdalite & Olivine:

The overall ombre was a beautiful effect, although some nails the difference was very drastic, such as on the black/silver nail - some nails the difference was nearly invisible, such as on the red/orange nail:

Here's the tutorial:

This look was inspired from a design on Pinterest, and I did it my own way before I actually read up on the blog posts by the original creator.  That's how I usually do it unless I really can't figure out how to accomplish the effect, but after the fact I learned quite a lot from reading, watching, and even a few comments back and forth with Polish All The Nails.  So the next time I do a glitter mosaic - and there will definitely be a next time - I plan on using at least 2 coats of my base color, to give the glitter a deeper layer to be pressed into.  Also, I trimmed the overhanging glitter & then added a topcoat - I think I would topcoat to help the glitter stay in place, then trim, then more top coat to smooth everything out.  This wasn't horribly rough - and actually wore much better than I expected, only losing a few glitters by the time I took it off - but I think with practice I can get it even smoother!

This was a super fun manicure to wear, I kept in on a whole week & I got a LOT of compliments ... here's a look at it in motion:

Do you have the patience to do a look like this?  Maybe just as an accent nail would be enough for many LOL.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Spring Pastel Rainbow Water Marble + Tutorial

So, Nail Art April started off with a marble that didn't quite fit into March =)  I used Orly Au Champagne for my base, then Marbling was done with 6 Revlon pastels - Sunshine Sparkle, Peach Smoothie, Pink Again, Gum Drop, Blue Lagoon & Minted.

I actually started out this design with a big fail that turned out kind of cool in hindsight; I wish I'd taken more pictures.  I wanted each nail to have just an arc of color, but it turned out too pale - I tried an overlay-marble of black that turned out looking grey ... and so after I did one hand I took it off & stared over again.  Here's a look at the fail that maybe wasn't quite such a fail:

Either way, this is what replaced it - due to the way I dipped my nails, they almost all turned out just a little different.  Very pale, especially in certain lights, but it was well suited for the Easter season it happened to be at the time:

I didn't have any nails that I didn't like, which as you know is pretty rare - so I took close-ups for all of them:

And of course here is the tutorial:



Thanks for reading.

~Colette