Spotted Water Marbling Nail Art Tutorial

Today I was inspired to try something new, spotted water marbling.  Specifically, I was inspired by this post I saw over on Cosmetic Sanctuary.  While I don't claim to have come up with this method, I will show you what worked best for me.  I don't think it looks too bad at all for a first attempt.  My middle nail is my personal favorite of the bunch.  I'm sure this is one of those methods that a bit of practice turns into lots of improvement.

What you need:

• Base colour polish (I used Pahlish Though Still And Storm)
• Marbling polish(es) (I used Sally Hansen Black Diamond and Sequin Frost)
• Plastic container
• Room temperature water (filtered works a bit better, but not necessary)
• Toothpick
• Pump (not aerosol) hair spray (I used Herbal Essences Set Me Up hairspray)
• Top coat
• Clean up supplies (cotton pads, nail polish remover, etc.)

Step 1: Paint your nails with your base colour and let them dry completely.

Step 2: Put some water into your plastic container (ignore the black polish drop at the bottom, the first kind I tried sank).

Step 3: Drop some some polish onto the water surface.  Don't hold the brush to high above the water or the polish will sink to the bottom.  I found 3 drops worked well for the black polish.

Step 4: Wait a few seconds until the polish spreads out.

Step 5: Spray a single spray of hairspray at the polish.  I found spraying from about 6" away worked well.

Step 6: Wait a few seconds for the spotted pattern to form.  It won't look exactly the same every time.  Either of the two pattern types below are fine.

Step 7: Dip your nail into the polish pattern.  I found that holding my nail at a slight angle and dipping it straight down worked well.

Step 8: While your nail is still underwater drag a toothpick around your finger to gather up any polish that's still floating.

Step 9: Pull your finger out of the water.  It's gonna be messy.

Step 10: Repeat for all of your nails.

Step 11: If you want a second marbling colour repeat again for all of your nails with a different polish colour.

Step 12: Clean up.  I used acetone remover and cotton pads to clean up most of the polish off my skin and then used a q-tip dipped in remover to clean up close to the edges.

Step 13: Add a coat of your favorite top coat.

Pahlish Through Still And Storm Swatches & Review

It's cloudy and rainy outside today so it seems appropriate that the polish I have for you today is Pahlish Through Still And Storm, one half of the April Shower Duo.  I've been wearing a lot of glitter lately so I decided it was time for a creme polish.  Through Still And Storm is a dusty blue creme with gery-bronze and blue microflakes.  You have no idea how hard it was to capture the blue shimmer in the macro shot.  It is quite subtle.

Application was easy and it went opaque after two coats.  This polish dries to a satin sheen so if you want it to look nice and shiny you'll just have to add a glossy top coat.  It also dried very quickly which was a little bonus.

Photos show two coats of Through Still And Storm with one coat of CND Super Shiney top coat in natural sunlight.  I love the finished look.  It reminds me of some sort of blue stone with dark speckles.  I think it's the irregular shapes of the microflakes that give it that effect.  If you want a bottle of your very own check out the Pahlish Esy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/pahlish.  As always, I am in love with this Pahlish polish.  This brand continues to be one of my favorite indies out there.

Darling Diva Polish Darling Nikki Swatches & Review

Disclaimer:  This product was offered at a reduced price or at no charge to manicuremanifesto.com in exchange for published reviews.  All reviews are fair, honest and reflect my personal opinion. 

Are you guys ready to see another polish from the Darling Diva Prince collection?  I have two words for you to describe it: Sexy Polkadots.  Darling Nikki is a sheer purple base filled with multicoloured microglitter, small black circles and medium black circles.  It can be worn over a different base colour or on its own.  

I decided to try it on its own this time.  I used three coats and it reached about 90% opacity.  You can just see the white of my nail tips peeking through a tiny bit.  Application was easy.  The black glitters were easy to get all over the nail and it dried quite smoothly for a polish with so many larger glitters.  This polish dries to a satin shine so if you want a really glossy shine, you will need to add a top coat.

Photos show three coats of Darling Nikki with one coat of Gelous in natural sunlight.  I love how the black circles peek through the various coats of purple. If you want to get a bottle of your very own then you're in luck.  Darling Diva Polish is having a sale right now.  Use the code 4000LIKES at the Darling Diva Polish Etsy shop to get 20% off your order until Sunday August 3rd.  Don't forget to like her facebook page so you'll know about new collections, contests and future sales too.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this polish looks layered over other colours.  I think a nice shimmery navy blue base colour will need to be tried next.

KBShimmer Don't Teal Anyone Swatches & Review

Happy Monday everyone! Today I am returning to bright summery colours with my very first KBShimmer to show you, Don't Teal Anyone.  That also means that I got to fight with my camera in my attempts to capture the teal base properly.  I got pretty close, but to the eye the polish leans a little bit more towards green than in looks in the photos.  Don't Teal Anyone is a teal crelly base packed with gold, teal, blue, navy and fuchsia hexes in several sizes, and micro fuchsia bars.

I will admit that I didn't realize there was any bar glitter in this polish until I looked at my macro photo.  It is very subtle.  This polish goes opaque in three thin coats.  I only used two and in my indoor lighting it looked opaque, but once I got outside to take the photos I noticed that my nails tips were still showing through a tiny bit.

Photos show two coats of Don't Teal Anyone with one coat of Gelous in natural sunlight.  The formulas on the polish was great.  I didn't need to do any dabbing to get the various glitters evenly distributed over my nail and it dried as smoothly as glitter packed polish can.  In the future I will just use three coats instead of two so that it's 100% opaque.  If you'd like a bottle of your very own check out the KBShimmer website at https://www.kbshimmer.com.  If you're outside of the US you can purchase KBShimmer polishes from Harlow & Co.  I really love this polish.  It's just so bright and playful... and bonus, it's teal.  You can never go wrong with teal.

Lucky 13 Lacquer Trine Swatches & Review

I know summertime calls for bright and vibrant colours, but today I couldn't resist doing a dark mani.  I settled on doing a glitter gradient with Lucky 13 Lacquer Trine over China Glaze Crimson.  Trine is a sheer purple jelly packed with small blue glitter and medium gold hexes.  China Glaze Crimson is a dark almost black plum purple.

I dabbed one coat of Trine over my base colour .  The outcome isn't quite a gradient... more like selective glitter placement but I still think it looks amazing.  If you wanted glitter over your full nail you could definitely just brush this on without any dabbing.  I was just being picky about where the gold glitters went.

Pictures show once coat of Lucky 13 Lacquer Trine over two coats of China Glaze Crimson with one coat of Gelous in natural sunlight.  I absolutely love how this turned out.  It's very eye catching and glittery while still looking sophisticated.  Trine is part of the Humble Indie (Polish) Bundle collection which is only available when Humble Indie (Game) Bundles are for sale.  Keep your eye on the Lucky 13 Lacquer facebook page and you'll know when these are up for grabs.  In the meantime, go check out the Lucky 13 Lacquer shop for lots of other amazing polishes.  I definitely have my eye on some from the Teal collection.  No surprise there, since teal is my favorite polish colour.

Darling Diva Polish 1999 Swatches & Review

Disclaimer:  This product was offered at a reduced price or at no charge to manicuremanifesto.com in exchange for published reviews.  All reviews are fair, honest and reflect my personal opinion.

Happy Thursday everyone!  Darling Diva Polish recently released her Prince inspired collection.  This collection features a whole lotta purple and you know I love me some purple.  So when Carrie asked me if I wanted to review some of the polish my instant answer was YES!!!  Today I have the only glitter topper from the collection, 1999.  This polish features purple, silver and black circle glitter as well as black bar glitter in a clear base.

All the swatches I had seen had a single coat over a solid base colour.  I decided to try something a little different and used it in a jelly sandwich manicure with China Glaze Are You Jelly?  It applied really easily and required minimal dabbing.  As with any polish with large glitter it did dry a little uneven.

Picture show three alternating coats of each of China Glaze Are You Jelly? and Darling Diva Polish 1999 with two coats of Gelous in natural sunlight.  I had to use two coats of topcoat because I had three layers of large glitter.  I'm sure that if you did a single coat of 1999 a single coat of top coat would be more than enough to smooth it out.  This polish is so pretty.  I can't wait to try the others from this collection.  If you want a bottle of your very own check out the Darling Diva Polish Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/DarlingDivaPolish.  I think next time I'll try this glitter over a dark grey.  The purple glitters will really pop against the rest of the grey scale colours.

Picture Polish Paradise Swatches & Review

Oh no! I managed to break my pointer finger nail down to a nub!  I don't even know how I did it.  I was sitting on the couch watching TV and all of a sudden... broken nail.  Oh well.  The show must go on a.k.a. you know I'm still going to keep showing you swatches!

Since I loved Picture Polish Hope so much I decided to show you the only other Picture Polish I own, Paradise.  This polish is an incredibly shimmery medium greyish blue packed with purple micro glitter and small pink hexes.  It also has a smattering of holographic sparkle that shows up in direct sunlight.

The formula was easy to work with and it takes 2-3 coats to become opaque.  It dries to a satin finish so I added a glossy top coat for some extra shine.  This polish looks shimmery in all situations but when you get it outside in the sun in amazing reflective.

Photos show two coats of Paradise on all fingers except for my ring finger which has three coats.  All fingers have one coat of CND Super Shiney top coat.  The bottom right picture was taken in the shade, the rest were taken in direct natural sunlight.  I really like this polish.  I mean, let's be serious.  It's blue and has a great formula.  It's very hard for me to find a blue polish I don't like, haha.  Hopefully my pointer finger nub will grow out quickly so it doesn't look quite so silly next to all the others.