Chocolate Swirl Nail Art

Hi everyone! Wow, it's valentines week already? Seems like New Years was just a few days ago.

Well, i'm pretty happy. I love valentines day. I'm not normally the "pink fluff" type of girl, but when valentines day is near my girly side comes out. I'll admit, I'm a shameless romantic at heart. But..I promise that I'll also have some things for those of you who are already sick of seeing hearts everywhere.

My first design of the week is one of those things, today I have something that I hope even the most anti valentine girls might like.

There's one thing that most everyone likes about the valentines day time of year, whether they're single or in a relationship or hate it all regardless..and that thing is chocolate. All the stores have everything out and the day after the 14th it all goes on sale..*sighs happily*.

Anyway, this nail art is my tribute to that wonderful treat.

At first I wanted to do a water marble for this design. But then I decided on something better. A dry water marble. It's faster than a regular water marble, less messy, and uses less materials. There's also no chance of the cup of water getting knocked over, or more accurately thrown across the room in frustration(If you don't understand why than you haven't tried the technique..). Plus I think it looks cooler for this particular design. What I did is this:

1. Paint your nails with a light shade of brown.

2. Paint another really thick coat of the lighter shade on top.

3. BEFORE that dries, place drops of the dark brown color on top of the thick coat of the light brown.

4. Quickly swirl the two colors together. I used a toothpick to do this, but nail art brushes will work fine. You can add drops of the light and dark as you go until you're satisfied with the look.

5. Let it dry and topcoat. :)

The colors I used in this are OPI Ice-bergers and Fries and 10 Professional Chocolate Kiss. The OPI worked well as the lighter base because if it's amazing formula. They also both dry thin on the nail, meaning that while the design will look thick and lumpy while you're doing it, it will dry flat.

This design also marks an exciting occasion for me. My very first video tutorial! The video will be up on my Instagram account, which you can view here. Feel free to give me your feedback on it. I've never done videos before and I'd love suggestions on how I can improve!

Well, until next time, happy painting!

Nail Art Experimenting.. Water Color Nail Art With Markers!

Hi everyone! So the other day I was sitting on the floor trying to see if I could think up a new nail art technique that no one had done before. Then, my eyes wandered to the other side of the room, where I had a bunch of markers sitting out from when I had been drawing, and I had an idea. No, I did not paint my nails just with marker, although I did have fun doing that as a kid. I was thinking of the times where I had drawn on a smooth surface and didn't wait long enough before running my finger over it, and it smudged. I started wondering, what if I could do something like that on my nails to make a cool water color effect?

The answer is yes ladies and gentleman, yes I can. Here's what to do if you want to try this,

1. Paint 1 coat of white polish on your nails (I used Sinful Colors White on White. You can use another coat if it looks really streaky, but be careful, because you're going to use a whole bunch of top coat and you don't want your mani to be really thick.)

2. Paint on a coat of your favorite shiny top coat. (I used Out The Door)

3. Let dry COMPLETELY. (This is important because the next step will dent the top coat if it's not totally dry)

4. Use a marker of your choice to draw on your nails. Leave plenty of white space. I chose to draw chevrons. Make sure you press to get as much marker ink as possibly on your nail.

5. Before the marker ink has any time to draw, quickly paint over it with top coat. Press down with the brush to really pull the marker color through. You might have to go over places twice to get even coverage. 

It took some trial and error to get this right. I drew some nail shapes on paper and covered it with tape to try it on that first. Then I could see which colors and which markers worked best. I found that dark colors and permanent markers worked the best, because they are more pigmented and have a stronger, more visible water color effect, although crayola markers worked too if you want a more subtle effect anyway. You also want to work fast with the top layer of top coat, because if you don't two things could happen. One is that the marker ink will dry and you won't be able to get good streaks of color, or even coverage, and the other is that the top coat you already put on will start to dry and will smear, which doesn't look good.

So, what do you think? If you like it, try it for yourself. Let's see if we can start a trend! If this does catch on, I vote to call the art made with this technique "Marker Manis". :)