I have to know how you did that mani! Dabbing on the holo with a sponge over black? Gah!!! Gotta know!

Asked by
snackystyle

Thanks for asking, glad you enjoyed this mani! Here’s what I’ve been doing for stone-style nails:

1. Use a base coat of your choice (I did Dior ‘Blue Label’ for this, a gorgeous navy cream)

2. Dab on a few blobs of color: I would recommed 1 glitter, 1 metallic, and 1 cream shade that’s lighter than your base.

3. Dab a crinkled piece of shrink wrap to marble the blotches of color.

4. Repeat until you have a look that you like.

5. Wait until this dries completely.

6. If you use gel polish, coat with a clear topcoat and cure. If you don’t, coat with a few blotches of nail foil glue.

7. Dab randomly with nail foil (got mine at dollarnailart.com) until you have a nice look.

8. (Optional) Add a coat of water-marbled irridescent polish such as Ciaté’s ‘Oil Slick’

9. Topcoat and done!

I couldn’t decide on an embellishment for the accent nail but I am in LOVE with how these nails came out. I was inspired by all of the beautiful natural stone jewelry I’ve been seeing this season. Kind of similar to a galaxy nail, but leaning more towards an opal or geode. High-res

I couldn’t decide on an embellishment for the accent nail but I am in LOVE with how these nails came out. I was inspired by all of the beautiful natural stone jewelry I’ve been seeing this season. Kind of similar to a galaxy nail, but leaning more towards an opal or geode.

Hi! I've just started up my own nail blog - all my nails are handpainted/done. I am looking around for inspiration and have just seen your underwater gold leaf mani, it's so beautiful! how did you do it!?

Asked by
thenailphile

Thanks so much, love your blog as well! For that mani, I used gold foil nuggeting found at dollar nail art, and Nails Inc. color-shifting polish in Swiss Cottage. Iridescent shades are all over the place right now, so find one you love for your base, or amp it up by doing a gradient/pattern combo of two different shades.

Next, take a sheet of the gold leaf and tear it into little pieces using two toothpicks. Apply haphazardly onto a sticky topcoat, then top with another coat.

If you’re using gel polish, you can paint a topcoat, cure it (don’t cleanse), then gently place a full piece of gold leaf onto the sticky nail. Gently etch away at it with your toothpick in the desired pattern (I did it randomly but you could go for something like an animal print if you want), then top with another coat and cleanse.

Happy New Year! It’s been a year now since I posted my first mani here, and it’s crazy to think of how much has happened since then. I want to give a huge thanks to my followers and fellow nail artists for all of the inspiration, positive feedback, and for making the nail art community such an amazing thing to be a part of. I’ve got a big project in the works that I can’t wait to share with you; here’s to bigger and better nail art in 2013! High-res

Happy New Year! It’s been a year now since I posted my first mani here, and it’s crazy to think of how much has happened since then. I want to give a huge thanks to my followers and fellow nail artists for all of the inspiration, positive feedback, and for making the nail art community such an amazing thing to be a part of. I’ve got a big project in the works that I can’t wait to share with you; here’s to bigger and better nail art in 2013!

Do you do the art on fake nails, and then apply them? And where do you get good fake nails like that? Love your designs (:

Asked by
good-night-star-light

Thanks! Actually these are my real nails, with a hard gel overlay to keep them protected (I use the Gelish LED hard gel line). This I’ve found is an ideal setup, because I can use either gel polish and/or regular polish for my design, and simply file it off and refill the hard gel to refresh it every time I change it.

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