31 Day Challenge (v.2!) Day 20: Water Marble

Morning Ladies! Welcome to day 20 of the 31 Day Challenge!

Today's Challenge is Water Marble Nails! Yay!!! I love water marbling, despite the fact that I have yet to master the mess. Someday I will be able to tape well enough to not have to spend 8 hours cleaning up my fingers, but that day is not today. Despite the mess, water marbling is still one of my fave forms of nail art. I really need to start marbling more often.

For this mani I decided I wanted to try something other than the usual flower petals, stripes, and swirls. I started with a base of good ole Wet N Wild Black Creme. For my marble colors I used Sally Hansen Black Out (Since it works fabulously for water marbling) and Sally Hansen Silver Sweep. For my design I too inspiration from the Queen of Water Marbling, Colette from My Simple Little Pleasures. Back in March, she had done this really cool star water marble. She had mentioned that when she used more points, it looked like a pinwheel and since my nails are nowhere near as long as hers, I decided to try something closer to the pinwheel version. However, instead of using 8 points, I used 10, which made it look almost like a starburst/firework on my nails.

Isn't that eye catching? My camera kind of flipped out trying to focus on it!

I'm pretty pleased with how these came out given that it's my first attempt at this design. I do wish that my middle finger was centered, but y can't win em all, right? The overall effect is pretty cool though! I will definitely be trying this design with different colors, as well as Colette's original star design. If you dig water marbling, I highly suggest checking out her blog as well as her youtube tutorials. She is amazing and I have learned everything I know (not much compared to her!) about marbling from Colette's blog and videos.

What do you think of this mani?

Be sure to check out all the water marbled Varnished Vixens today!

Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles 


We'll be back on Friday with the start of the Inspiration Manicures - Inspired By A Color!


Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

31 Day Challenge (v.2!) Day 14: Flowers

Morning Ladies! Welcome to Day 14 of the 31 Day Challenge!

Today's theme is Flowers! I have to admit, I was very close to going with stamping (I LOVE stamping and sometimes I have to remind myself that there are other forms of nail art), but I decided to try something a bit different.

It's no secret that I love water marbling. I don't do it often since it can be time consuming, but it's one of my favorite types of nail art, and I always love the results so much that I'll wear a water marble for as long as I can get away with. I actually did this mani earlier than I normally do with challenge manis just so I could wear it for awhile.

I chose to use the standard flower water marble design for this mani, but I took my inspiration from something a little different. My favorite flower is the Orchid. Particularly Black Orchids. I think they are just the most amazing flower.  Here's a quick pic of one (Source: Orchid Care via Google Images):

Gorgeous right? I love the duochrome petals on these flowers, and really wanted to try to create something like it.

I started with a Base of Finger Paints Black Expressionism, my go to one coat black. Once that was nice and dry, I water marbled using Sally Hansen Black Tie, Orly Mysterious Curse and China Glaze Want My Bawdy (oh how I hate that name!).  I chose Black Tie for obvious reasons, and since there was no way anyone would see the design had I used the actual colors of the Orchid, I decided that Mysterious Curse and Want My Bawdy would look nice and give the design some much needed contrast. I did originally try this with Black Tie and Black, and although it looked kinda cool, there way no way to capture it on camera. It was pretty hard to see IRL and I'm sure I only was able to see the design since I knew exactly what I was looking for.

The downside to this design is that it is near impossible to truly capture it with my camera. Or any camera really. Trust me, I tried several. In the end I had to use 2 very bright lights shining directly on my nails and at very close range, which made my skin look strange and washed out in some pics, but hey...I'd rather you see the mani than stare at my skin color anyway! IRL these are much darker and mysterious and more closely resembles the petals of a black orchid. I wish I could show you guys but on camera it just looks like black with an itty bitty bit of random color. Maybe this wasn't my best idea.....

Enough of my babbling explanations of why this isn't as bright IRL and my photography woes! I give you.....Black Orchid Inspired Flower Water Marbled Nails!

IRL in Natural Light these are much more subtle, but for photo purposes I chose to light these babies up like crazy so you can see the design. Most of the time they look like a flower shaped oil slick on my nails, and I'm really enjoying the effect! I will say the Mysterious Curse was rough to marble with. It made a great ring, but dried very fast so I had to make sure I dropped my polish at lightening speed and created the design even faster. I had originally intended to do a different shaped petal design, but the polish wouldn't cooperate for that due to the quick dry time in the water, so I decided this worked too. I know it's hard to see, but trust me, it's there!

What do you think of dark water marbles like this? I love it, but I think I'll end up sticking with marbles that are easier to see!

Don't forget to check out all the Varnished Vixens' flower nails!

 Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles  

Be sure to check back Monday for Delicate Print. And of course I'll be spamming you guys with polish posts in between!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing! 

-Kimber

It's been awhile - Pink Water Marble!

Hi guys! Happy Friday!

I'm actually a little embarrassed to post these pics. I am in desperate need of some cuticle remover, but since my cuticles have been waaaaay less swollen, sore and sensitive since I've started using Solar Oil and Burt's Bees to moistuize and cut back on the cuticle remover to once a week, I didn't want to tempt fate by using it before my 7 days are up. I'm actually at day 6 today, hence the ugly cuticle growth. Blech! As a bonus, since I don't actually "edit" my photos past cropping and watermarking, you can also see some Burt's Bees hanging out in my cuticle area. I thought I had rubbed it all in, but macro shots don't lie! But I digress....let's get to the mani!

For this mani I started with 2 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Bubblegum Pink. This is the polish that made me really want to wear pink again. I love a good bubblegum pink creme, and once I pulled this girl out of my unused stash while organizing, I just knew I had to give her some love. I had planned on using BP for a water marble originally, and I decided to stick to the plan. I grabbed Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Grey Area and Essie's Cocktail Bling and voila! Water Marble goodness!! It's not perfect - I'm a bit out of practice - but it's pretty nifty and I really like the color combo. Now that I'm past the uber nubbin stage, I foresee more marbling in my future.

I had so much fun doing this mani. I love to marble, and I can't believe I went so long without a single water marble mani! I think one of the reasons I love this mani so much is that I used all Cremes this time around. Usually I marble with shimmers, since they ring-out so well and I just love the way they look marbled. But lately I have been just head over heels for Cremes, which is bad timing since most of my new (to me) polishes are Shimmers! I do wish my index finger had come out better, but I didn't hate it enough to spend the time on re-doing it.

Bubblegum Pink, although a really awesome pink, was a bit of a PITA. Very thick and gooey, yet still able to flood a couple cuticles. Not only was it too gooey to really apply well in one shot, but it also dries so fast that it clumps up if you have to double dip to cover the nail. Thank God for SV!! It was an uneven mess before I added a good coat of SV, but looked absolutely gorgeous afterward.  In fact, it was so pretty that I wore it alone for half a day before I marbled. Grey Area, being an Xtreme Wear, is wonderful for marbling. It rings out fast and dark, and no issues getting a good, quick drop off the brush. Cocktail Bling marbled much better than I had anticipated. I thought it may be too light to use over BP, but the coverage was just fine. It also rings out well, but takes a bit of wiggling to get the drop off the brush. CB is one of my very fave polishes, and I really want to use it as a base for a water marble soon!

Hope you all are enjoying the start to your weekend! I plan on hitting the cuticle remover and playing with yet another pink polish.

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

More fun with watermarbling!

I hate falling behind on his blog. But, I have a little time at the moment, so I'm going to show you guys my most recent watermarble. I actually wore this mani for 2 days earlier this week while I was still recovering from my bout with the evil cold plague, and it held up rather well. I think that's one of the reasons that I love marbling - they wear very well and look soooo neat!

 I loved wearing this one, guys. It came out a lot better than I had anticipated, namely because I wasn't sure the colors would play well together, but they ended up working very well. I used Sally Hansen Marine Scene and Sally Hansen Pronto Purple for this watermarble, and instead of using the usual flower design, I went for something a little more stripey. My camera really did not want to pick up either color very well at all, which peeved me, but I assure you the teal is very vibrant with lovely shimmer and the purple is a bit brighter.

All of these pics were taken in the light box due to another winter storm killing off all the sunlight!

I was very happy with how this one turned out. This was the first time I have used Marine Scene, and I was let down by the formula. Very sheer and thin with lots of drag. I used 3 coats as my base, and it was still rather sheer with very obvious VNL. The water marble took care of that, but worn alone this would probably be a solid 4 coater. It is, however, a very beautiful teal, but if I'm going to wear a teal I'm more apt to wear Trophy Wife than anything else. It does marble very well though, so I will more than likely incorporate this into another water marble mani sometime in the future.

I'm hoping to have time to post my first holiday mani in the morning. I have a bunch that I really want to do, but I'm not sure I'll have time to do all of them before Xmas!

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber