Less Is Much More!

Two posts in one day!

I am still on my dots kick.  Probably always will be, but as much as I love them, no matter what color or size, sometimes less is more.

As I have said before, once you start adding dots to your marbles - or any mani - you can get very carried away.  When you look and are satisfied, STOP.  Please... well, okay;  add those pink ones but then please - no more!

Yesterday, after I completed my water marble, I had to admit that it was not the prettiest one I have done.  Still, it took some time, and it wasn't horrible.  AH:  add some dots.

In my tutorial, Water Marble Tutorial... Kind Of., I mentioned that if you happen to get a design that you simply don't like that you can just marble over it.  It works... 99% of the time.  Sometimes the powers that be give me a double ugly marble.  I was hot, tired, fed up, and just decided to let it dry.  "Dot's will fix it!"  Well, yes... and no... see for yourself:

Truly, a hot mess.

See the bubbles?  Sometimes I like them.  Not this time.  In the second photo, you can see how the heat of the day made the polish melt together.  I am still learning girls, and lesson learned is either do marbling inside on HHH days or wait until it's cooler outside.  Adding dots.  Look that the photo on the right.  Overkill.  More to come, kids!  This is what NOT to so with your dotting tool:

♪♫ I'm so dizzy, my head is spinnin.'♫♪

It's so much fun to add dots, and so hard to stop.  This is overkill.  This is what you should not do.  The first time you are satisfied with the dots... this is your stop sign.  Put the dotting tool down.  Do not pick it up.  Even if your creative eye is screaming for "just two in that naked spot" -  Don't go there.

Lesson learned, the hard way.

Until next time... thanks for reading and stay polished!

Butterfly Wings? I Love That!

Hello!

First, allow me to update to my Water Marble With - You Guessed It - Dots! post.  The mani that I posted using Orly's Rubberized Bonder as the base coat  lasted - without a single chip- for FIVE DAYS! I'm sold!   I am pretty much convinced that it would have lasted even longer, but I tire of manis very quickly and took it off.  It came off with ease!  I most certainly will be adding it to my mani routine.  Orly Rubberized Bonder;  I LOVE YOU!  Okay.  Today is June 14th.  I will not remove my mani until I absolutely have to.  Let's see just how long Orly Rubberized Bonder will last (this will be hard for me, but I really want to test it out)!

Now, onto today's mani!

I love water marbles.  I love dots.  Add the two together, and you get a gorgeous mani!  I posted this on one of my favorite polish Facebook pages and one of the lovely comments compared them to butterfly wings! Thank you, Janique! I love butterflies!  I think you might be onto something, there!

Today's mani starts with a coat of Orly Rubberized Bonder.  This time, I put one coat of OPI NEOF.  I then did a water marble with:

• China Glaze - White On White
• China Glaze - Papaya Punch.  

I then put another coat of OPI NEOF followed by one coat of Seche Vite Fast-Dry Top Coat.  I really wanted this to set and waited fifteen minutes.  Plus, I am still VERY sore from my breast lumpectomy I had on Friday.  A nice little break.  Then I simply looked through my collection of polishes.  The water marble was very light and summery, so I opted for fun, summery colors for the dots.  In no particular order:

• OPI - Strawberry Margerita (largest dots)
• OPI - A Grape Fit
• China Glaze - Secret Peri-Winkle
• China Glaze - Let's Groove
• Avon - Sunshine
• China Glaze - White On White

The Fairy Dust doesn't show up very well, but my skin sure does... wow!

As mentioned in the color list, I chose Strawberry Margerita as the largest dots.  No reason why.  I like to follow the lines of the marbling.  Again, I found myself really having to stop myself as it is a lot of fun, but you can quickly get very carried away.  This bears mentioning once more with dotting; less is more!  Still have fun with it.  I swore to myself that I was not going to put a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust on top.  I did.  I think I'm addicted to Fairy Dust.  I need an intervention.  I put a coat of Seche Vite on top.  When that was completely dried, I then went over SOME of the dots.  It give the mani a depth that is really nice.  Some are dusted, some are not.  I like how it turned out.

I am having a lot of fun with this kind on manicure.  If you have any color suggestions, I'd love to hear from you!  I'm thinking of July 4th, already!

Oh...

I just found out that Seche Vite, which is notorious for getting very thick, and useless, has finally come up with it's very own thinner!  I plan on purchasing this ASAP!  There is nothing more distressing than a bottle of SV that still has a 1/4 of it left, but that it is too thick to use.  What do yo do with it?  I collect them.  Why?  I can't bring myself to throw them out.  I suppose I will keep them and test this thinner out, now!  Stay tuned!

Until nex time...
Stay Polished!

Peace :o)

Still Seeing Dots Before My Eyes!

Good Morning!

First of all, I must confess;  my latest mani is a blatant theft of another mani I saw online.  The moment I saw it, I knew it would be my next one to try.  I really don't know why I'm on such a dot kick, lately.  I am having fun with the new dotting tools, I must admit.

It was a lot harder to do than I thought, even with the knowledge that my right hand would look a lot worse than my left.  Funny thing is, my right hand looks better than my left!  And not because I knocked my left thumb against my dresser, either!  I almost cried when I did that.  Still, it's not a horrible mark, so I didn't sweat it.  I did learn a few things in doing this one.  "Take your time -- but hurry."  The polishes tend to get very tacky when on the plate (my palate is a paper plate)

All things being said, while I like how it turned out, I'm not in love with it. It looks sloppy, and I know I could have done a better job.  I did it way too fast.  I will try this one again, though, and instead of starting the dots at the bottom and working my way up, I will start in the center and dot out from there.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

One paper plate
Two dotting tools, a #2 and a #4

Colors:
Base is OPI NEOF
One coat of ORLY Rubberized Bonder

Base color: China Glaze Recycled
Dots:
China Glaze - White On White
China Glaze - White On White mixed with OPI - Gargantuan Green Grape (use dotting tool to mix on plate - one drop of each color)
Sally Hansen - Green With Envy
Sally Hansen - Green With Envy mixed with China Glaze - Holly Jolly
China Glaze - Holly Jolly
Sinful Colors - Black On Black

After all of the dotting was done, I let it dry for ten minutes. I then put on one coat of China Glaze - Fairy Dust, then added Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat. Next time, I'll leave the Fairy Dust off.  It takes away from the dots.

I love gradiations of color... on anything!  I hope to perfect this and will try it out with different colors. 

Until Next Time -

Stay Polished!

Peace

Hot for Dots!

Was at the mall over the weekend and  I passed the Dippin' Dots kiosk. Instead of longing for ice cream, I immediately thought about how I could incorporate dots onto my nails without them looking so crowded. Today, I came up with the answer:  Okay, so it's a bit crowded.  I like it!  I started with OPI Nail Envy Original Formula (Always) then two coats of OPI Strawberry Margarita (Thank you, Jennifer), immediately followed by one coat of Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat.  20 minutes later, I started dotting!  Now, I have had a really neat dotting tool set sitting on my nail shelf just gathering dust.  I had never used them before, and bought them a year ago on a whim.  I never really had an any idea when I'd use them, but I was inspired at the mall.  The set I have is by a company called Kuanglung and it's called simply, "Marbleizing 888 Spiral Tool." #s 1-5.   Alrighty, then.  Amazon.  $4.99.  Can't beat that.  Here they are:

The colors/dotting tools I used for the dots were from largest size:

China Glaze Papaya Punch - tool #5 -  large ball
China Glaze White On White - tool  #3 - larger ball
China Glaze Grape Pop - tool # 4 - smaller ball
Sally Hansen Green With Envy - tool  #2 - smaller ball
Finished with another coat of Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat.

Since I decided to dot on a whim, I did not plan.  I had nothing to dab my polish onto, so I grabbed my scotch tape and turned it onto its side.  I dabbed the polish onto that.  Worked okay.  It melted the plastic!  Live n' learn.  I'll buy some small paper plates and use them instead.

So yeah;  this was fun, and a learning experience.  If you look carefully, you'll see some what looks to be a hair on my ring finger nail.  It's actually the Grape Pop polish.  If you let the polish sit for too long, when you dip your dotting tool into it, it will 'string.'  Ah well.  I love how it turned out.  I love dots.  They remind me of my other passion; beads.  Who knows, maybe I can bead my nails!?  Anyway, have fun with color.  Maybe try to stay within a family of colors.  White base with black and greys.  Greens.  Hot colors.  Cool colors.  Complimentary colors might be fun!  Drop me a line and tell me what you think!

As always, thanks for reading!