Rainbow Sparkle Nails with Fun Lacquer

A unicorn came and sprinkled magical rainbows of glitter on my nails. 

The good news is, even if you don't have a unicorn yet you can still have ALL THE SPARKLES!!! This technique is super easy. You need 3 key items: 

1. A beyond amazing silver chunky scattered holo polish. I used Fun - Lacquer - Queen (Foil Effect Holo).  I experimented with plain silver glitter polishes but the chunky silver holo definitely boosted the rainbow effect.
2. Some tinted nail polish colours.
3. A plastic sandwich bag. 

Dribble mix tinted polishes into little swirly blobs of colour on the sandwich bag. Leave them to dry for between 30min-1 hr. 

I did get little bubbles in my decals when they were dry but when you stick them on they are not noticeable at all, the sparkle hides the little imperfections. Pull them off a still tacky, don't let them dry out too much. 

Cut up the decals as closely to size as possible before applying to nail. If they are just tacky enough they will stick themselves but its good to run a swish of base coat over your holo around the edges of your entire nail to create a 'glue' outline to help stick down the edges of the decal. Photo below is before the decal is cut to size. 

Tinted Polish are speciality polishes but easy to find or make. They are see through polishes that kind of look like cellophane paper. I used all 4 polishes from the OPI - Tint Collection. If you want to see some other amazing nails using this technique go check out @ermahgerdperlish. Her's are stunning, STUNNING!! 

 You can make tinted polish by adding drops of opaque colours to clear polish but its kinda messy so just go buy some OK. They are great for those super chic see through lace designs that are popping up at the moment and for nail art in general. You can use them for reverse stamping and stamping decals too. 

Hope you guys like these nails as much as I do and try it out for yourself. I promise that you WILL walk into something because you cant walk in the sun without staring like a maniac at your own nails xx 

How to make decals on your stamper video

So the challenge wrapped up last week and I've taken a few days off from nails to recharge myself and spend some time with my family. It was bliss! But it wasn't too long before my pretties called me back.

Before the challenge I wrote a post about how to make decals on your stamper with some pics. But during the challenge I used the decal method so much and refined it each time so I decided to make a video for you guys to show you how I do it now.

          

The two biggest changes I've made are taking the decals off after 30-45 min, don't leave them too long so that they stay sticky. Secondly not using any base coat to stick them on. They stick on by themselves like a sticker and you don't get pesky bubbles and rips. Yay!

I hope my video helps you out and that you give it a try. It's pretty easy. Best advice, when you are pulling the decal off the stamper don't pull in the same direction all the time, the decals will stretch and distort. Alternate the sides you pull from so you don't distort the image and if it still starts to rip leave it another 10 minutes. If you leave it over night these decals go brittle and cant be used, they don't stick or curve to the nail. 

Polish:

• Zoya - Dot
• BC - Shade 8
• OPI - Alpine Snow
• Mundo de Unas - 29

I should mention that I live in Brisbane, Australia which is sub tropical (30 degrees) most days at the moment, so I'm pretty sure that has effect on dry time. If you live in colder climates and find the decals are ripping when you pull them off adjust dry time. I would be really interested to hear from you guys if this is an issue. If you live somewhere cold and you try this out please let me know how you go xx 

#31dc2014 Day 29: Inspired by the supernatural

Well this is what happens when I sit down to do nails without a plan. NEON! These kind of came out of nowhere. I really liked the skull decals I made the other day and that same stamping plate (Sugar Bubbles SB029) was still sitting on my desk. Skulls say supernatural to me and Drama Queen Skull with her little crown was just begging to get stamped and of course she wanted to be neon pink. 

Polish:

• Mundo de Unas - 29 (neon pink) * Restock for Mundos is happening in October - please keep your eyes on our Facebook page for more details *
• Mundo de Unas - 27 (neon yellow)
• Sugar Bubble Plate SB 029 - available here.
• Cici and Sisi 12 - pink collection - swirl pattern

On the back of the stamper decals I used white polish to make the neons pop. The Mundos worked awesomely for making the decals, they came out so vibrant! My eyes burn! I made the swirly stamping decals on my stamper. Head to my original stamper decal tutorial post HERE for the full details on how to do this. Below is a super condensed version with the basic idea.

My top tips for making decals and applying them are:

1. Dont let them dry too much. Leave them 30 min - 45min. The longer you leave them the more brittle they become making it harder to curve to your nail and get clean edges.

2. When you peel off and apply the decals they should be sticky enough to stick to the nail without basecoat. I don't use anything to stick mine on any more. If you peel them off the stamper when they are still pliable and a tiny bit sticky they apply like a sticker...yes really! 

3. Try not to "pull" on the decals when you are peeling it off the stamper, work from all sides and roll the stamper as you are pulling the decal off so you don't stretch the design in one direction. I have killed many decals doing this.

These nails are so me. Supernatural funk! xx

Paint Splatters...the easy way!

One of the things that I love most about nail art is its close links with craft....yes I know that makes me sound geeky but for those of us not blessed with amazing freehand skills....craft is king! For today's design I was inspired to see what I could create using a craft paint blower. Read on for the tutorial. 

I was motivated to investigate an alternative splatter method to using a straw as it uses a tonne of polish and its hard to control the amount of paint that splatters. Sometimes with the straw I end up with big globs of paint versus actual splatters and sometimes when you blow on the straw nothing happens...its just annoyingly random! I'm pleased to say that the paint blower worked an absolute treat, no more straws for me! 

For this experiment I used cheap craft paint because I wasn't sure if it was going to work or how much polish I was going to need and I didn't want to use up my precious goodies. I squirted out quite a bit of paint but I really only needed to put a tiny dab onto the scratch paper because I ended up using a minuscule amount. After I took these photos and removed the design I tried this method with polish and it works perfectly! 

Step 1: Start by sucking up a bit of paint into the blower. Put the blower to the paint with the accordion part squeezed down and as you release your thumb the blower will suck the paint up into the nozzle. You only need a tiny bit.

Step 2: Now to thin down the paint. I could have used water but I had my pump bottle of acetone right in front of me so being lazy, I used that. Repeat step one, squeeze the accordion part and put the nozzle in the liquid and as you remove your thumb the blower will suck up the water/acetone. Again you only need a tiny bit. 

     

Step 3: Aim the blower at your nails and squeeze the pump  and tiny little splatters come out. Gorgeous squiggles and wonderful dribbles create such a cool pattern. No more big globs! The harder and quicker your squeeze the accordion part, the bigger the splatter. Also vary the angle which you aim the blower at your nail as it alters the splatter trail, very cool! 

So your desk doesn't get splatters on it, place your hand over an object that will clean up easily. The manicure bowl worked a treat and caught the excess liquid that sprayed out. It was also prefect for when I cleaned out the blower. To do this just repeat step 2 a few times until your blower nozzle is clear.

If you try out this method I would love to see. Share your pic to any of our DQN social media sites with the hashtag #DQN 

Stamping decal tutorial - The easiest and quickest decals you'll ever make!

There are multiple ways to create coloured stamping designs and each technique has its pros and cons but I promise you that after trying this version you will be making decals quicker than ever before!

In the past I have done coloured stamping by using either a small paintbrush to add colour over the stamp (colouring in), this technique called Reverse Stamping or the lead lighting technique. A pro to colouring in is that's its quick. A drawback to painting colour is its hard to stay in the lines. A con to reverse stamping is that it takes a really long time between each step, however you can make 10 decals at a time meaning your can do an entire mani. Lead lighting has its drawbacks too in that you need to build a collection of suitable sheer or tinting polishes and you may get "smearing" especially with black stamping polish both when you apply the tints and also when you apply topcoat. However a bonus with lead lighting is that again you can do an entire mani and if you are sneaky you can make your own tinted polishes by thinning them and mixing with clear polish. 

If you want to smash out a punchy opaque accent design quickly and easily using the polishes you already own,  then the stamper decal technique is a beauty. There are a few tutorials floating around the net on how to do this but every one I have seen used a squishy stamper. I wanted to test a theory that I had that you can create these decals with any stamper, meaning that you can make a few at once by using all the different stampers that you have. So lets have a look at the results and how to create the decals. White squishy stamper vs. Konad mushroom stamper vs. firm green stamper - all available here.

STEP 1: Pick an image with parts that you can fill in that also has large amounts of background space for your secondary colour to shine through. Choose your outline colour and stamp the image onto your stamper of choice. I used Konad special stamping polish in white. Now the best part, you really don't need to wait very long before the next step, I left mine about 3 minutes. This heart design is from the Bundle Monster 2012 (300) collection, plate 317. Available here.

STEP 2: Use a small paintbrush and your polish of choice to colour in the parts of the design you want to highlight. I chose Orly - Beach Cruiser. Obviously choosing semi-sheer to opaque polish will give you more of a "pop" of colour but sheers and tints also work well because of the way the background colour becomes "undies" to the sheer polish. It's ok if you go outside the lines a little bit because once you flip the design over you won't really see it.  By the time I had coloured all the hearts in on all 3 stampers, the first one was dry so I moved on to step 3 right away.

STEP 3: Paint a thick layer of your background colour over the whole design. I ussed Barry M - Baby Pink which is a creme that is slightly sheer, it needs 2/3 coats for full opacity but for the decals I just did one coat. You can see the design showing through which highlights the density of the polish.

STEP 4: Now this step seems like it would take ages before you could do it. Not so much. I was tricked because the polish looked shiny, like it was still wet. But after 10 minutes it was completely dry! And shiny! Gently slide your nail under the edge and start to peel your design off.

The squishy rectangle stamper which you can get here was a little hard to get started. I jimmed my thumb around the whole edge to make sure it was lifting away but once I got the whole thing free it came away easily. You could also use a dotting tool to poke under it but I would be worried about dinging my squishy stamper. My nail worked fine. I noticed that the decal from this stamper was the most crisp and the stamping itself the most opaque.

It peeled cleanly away with no holes or tears or sticky spots. It may have left some while stamping polish behind but I couldn't see any spots in the design so I'm assuming it didn't.

With the Konad red mushroom stamper available here - it came away SO easily and seemed to be much stronger than the squishy one, more flexible and less likely to break.

It peeled off very easily, it did leave a few teeny tiny bits of white stamping polish on the stamper though and you can see in the outlines where the polish is spotty.

The super firm green rectangle stamper, available here - This one needed some gentle nudging to get it started and I accidentally made a couple of rips because I was being impatient and jabbed at it with a dotting tool. Whoopsie! It was the most difficult to peel but once I got it started it was fine. No polish left on the stamper but the outline was a little spotty.

Here is the end result with my decals ready to apply to my nail. Pretty! Left is firm green stamper, right is white squishy stamper and bottom is Konad mushroom stamper. The squishy stamper one is definitely the best but the others also came out fine, just a bit muted in comparison.

STEP 4: Trim your decals to your approximate nail size.

STEP 5: Apply a layer of base coat to your naked nail then gently place the decal over it whilst it is still wet. Use your finger tip to GENTLY smooth out any wrinkles and also fold over the tip of the nail for a clean edge. When it is firmly in place and the base coat underneath has dried (no decal movement when touched) use nail scissors to trim off excess. You don't need to go to crazy with trimming as you can remove the excess decal with nail polish remover and your clean up brush.

STEP 6: Now this part has options. You can apply topcoat first, wait for it to dry then clean up OR clean up first then apply topcoat. I did the first option. The topcoat will smooth out any dings or wrinkles, its like magic!

I loved how these decals turned out however I was most impressed by how quick each layer dried on the stamper. There was virtually no smearing when I applied topcoat and the finished product is vibrant. Can you just imagine the possibilities of all the different designs you could make! The white squishy stamper was the clear winner in terms of quality. If you give this technique a go we would love to see and hear how you went xx

Post it note decals #heartburstmani

A super simple tutorial today using a post it note and craft punch. You could use this technique with any craft punch shape and leave the space empty for lots of different designs. #heartburstmani

The polishes I used in this mani:

• OPI Don't burst my bubble
• OPI My boyfriend scales walls
• Picture Polish Hot Lips
• Picture Polish Candy
• Holographic heart decals

Use the sticky end of a post it note and a craft punch to create a sticker.

Apply it to your nail over your base colour - make sure your base colour is completely dry, topcoat it if you want to speed up the drying process or its a thick polish. Use your finger to gently flatten the sticker.

This is the striping brush that I used. 

Paint lines of polish coming out from the sticker.

Use tweezers to pull off the sticker. Fill the space with a decal or leave it empty. You could also do this to create a negative space shape just dont use a base colour, apply the sticker directly to nude nail and paint around it. Make sure its stuck down FLAT if you want to try it on nude nails. If you decide to give this try please use the hashtag #heartburstmani xx

The Sideswipe Mani

I was sitting in my nail room staring at my dotting tools, striping brushes and stamping plates feeling completely uninspired when I saw sitting off to the side of my desk a dress making pin. I had used it a few days earlier to do some swirl art and between sips of my cranberry vodka slushie I pondered what else the pin was capable of....and the side swipe mani was born! 

At first I thought I might try a really tiny polka dot design but it didn't take long to realise that the tapered end of the pin couldn't pick up enough paint to make any kind of dot. So in an effort to get some kind of dot on my nail I started to adjust the angle of the pin and instead of dabbing it I started to drag/flick it along or "side swipe" my nail. The swipes all came out different sizes but together they started to look like a cross between an animal print and paint splatters....I loved it instantly and knew I was onto something new and different. 

The side swipe technique is incredibly simple, if you can use a dotting tool you can side swipe. I made a flip vid on IG but really there wasn't much to show as its as basic as dipping a pin in polish, laying the pin on its side and then lightly dab/drag the polish onto your nail. For little swipes stand the pin more upright, for larger swipes lay the pin down. Adjust the amount you drag the pin, if you are getting lines you are dragging too far, its more like a quick flick then a full drag....as much as I LURVE full drag, less is more here! *wink*

The polishes used in this mani:

• OPI - My boyfriend scales walls
• China Glaze - For Audrey
• China Glaze - Liquid Leather
• Zoya - Dahlia
• Silver spikes - available here

If you decide to give the side swipe mani a go please tag your pic with #sideswipemani, I am dying to see how you guys take this idea and run with it.

#31dc2013 - Day 30: Inspired by a tutorial

Ever since the PP 2013 blogfest I have been dying to try out this tutorial for reverse stamping by Shatter me Claire. I love nail stamping so the notion of using it to create multicoloured decals was instantly intriguing. I flipped through my books of plates looking for a design that had large outlined spaces in them. I settled on this geometric print because its something I could never do freehand. Read on for a step by step tutorial that will change your life (if you love stamping that is!).

Today's design features:

• Lime Crime- Pink Parfait
• Lime Crime - Lavendairy
• Lime Crime - Once in a blue mousse
• Barry M - Black
• Pueen plate - PUEEN08

Step 1: Paint 1 thickish layer of topcoat in nail size squares onto baking paper (wax paper, parchment paper). I used a felt pen to draw little squares so I could see where I had put the topcoat. Let your topcoat dry. I used Seche and I left it about 15 minutes.

Step 2: Apply your stamping polish onto your plate as normal, scrape then pick up the image on your stamper just like if you were going to stamp into your nails. Stamp onto the topcoat that you have previously applied to the baking paper. Now this is the part you really need to let dry. I left mine for an hour. 

Step 3: Fill in the blank parts of your design with your chosen colours. If you are doing little accent images you will need to think about the order that you "colour in" but with this print it didn't really matter. I did two coats of each colour. Let it dry for 15 minutes.  

Step 5: Gently peel your decals off the baking paper. Flip to see your awesome print!

Use tiny nail scissors to cut your pattern to the size of your nail. Apply a liberal amount of base coat to your nail then gently place your decal on your nail with tweezers. Gently push the decals down especially near the cuticle to get it to sit flat. Use your nail scissors to trim where necessary. If there are any bald spots or missing bits of your design you can use a small brush to tweak your image.

Wait a few minutes for the decal to settle then apply top coat to seal it down. You can also use your clean up brush dipped in nail polish remover to clean up the edges, your decal is only nail polish so it will gently rub off without a drama.

Those bubbles were from applying the coloured polish too thickly on the back of the stamped image, so make sure not to have blobs of polish when you "colour in" your stamp. 

It was relatively easy to do but it did require patience leaving each step to dry. It's worth it though because the results are really fantastic. I feel like Im wearing a nail wrap but I made it all by my lil ol' self...it's a custom nail wrap! Totally addicted to this new way of stamping...scampers off to find more platessssss!!! 

Thank you Shatter me Claire, your tutorial was a revelation!

Make waves.....with your striping brush!

Since I posted the picture below on Instagram I get asked almost daily for a tutorial on how to recreate this wavy design. I never thought it would be popular so at the time I didn't take any extra photos to show how I did it. But it really is a very easy design and I'm glad so many of you liked it and wanted to give it a go for yourself. Read on a for a mini tutorial.

Today I have substituted the original polishes which were all from the first Zoya Pixie Dust collection with neons. In the original design I used Godiva (nude), Dahlia (black) and London (grey). Pixie Dusts are textured polishes that you apply without topcoat. They give a matte glittery finish that is rough like sandpaper to the touch. The above picture was taken in direct sun and they are really gorgeous polishes alone or mixed into any nail art.

I switched to neons partly because I was dying to use my Lush Lacquer Neon Lights at the time and I thought I could match it with some wavy neon lines. I actually hated the final result and took it off straight away. I shouldn't have put the yellow and green next to each other...anyways as usual with me I put photos away for a while then get them out a few weeks later and I don't mind it now.

To recreate this design you need a medium sized striping brush.  Start with a white base, this is one coat of OPI My boyfriend scales walls.

Pick one of the colours you want to use, put a few drops onto foil or baking paper, dip in your striping brush and start by making a wavy line across the middle of each nail. Starting the lines in the middle vs. at one end of your nail will increase your chances of keeping the design fairly evenly placed across your fingers. Ignore the yellow line on my middle finger, I was testing to see if my yellow was going to be opaque enough.

Clean off your brush in acetone and repeat the first step with another colour. I tend to work from the middle up to the tip of my nail, and then from the middle down to the cuticle area. Keep adding colours until the space is filled. Clean up the skin around your nail with your clean up brush then add topcoat to blend the colours.

If you decide to give this a go I would love to see. Tag me #dramaqueennails on Instagram or share to our Facebook page. Thanks to everyone who requested this tutorial. Please email me any other ideas you would like to see.