Nail Ideas: Hearts!

Hello polished pretties!

Today, I have for you another Valentine's Day mani!

Yes, more hearts!! I'm pretty unimaginative I guess.

I had wanted to needle marbling for quite a while now after seeing it at Copy That, Copy Cat and My Simple Little Pleasures. So, I've decided to take this opportunity to try my hand at it and needle some hearts.

Although Colette makes it look like a piece of cake, my first few tries were quite disastrous. Initially, I chose OPI Who Needs A Prince as my base but it wasn't very successful because it dries pretty quickly. I couldn't for my life drag through it without leaving a tiny trough on the base color. In the end, I picked up my first franken - which I know, takes forever to dry. At last, victory is mine! As it does not dry so quickly, I have a fairly liquid base to marble with.

Because the red spreads out fairly nicely on my nails, I thought, hey! Why not do it the water marbling way and alternate drops of color on my nail? Thus, the design for my ring finger was born. To get this effect, I dropped a drop of red before adding another drop of the base color and dragging through the colors.

Although I was quite happy with the final results, I must admit that needle marbling requires a little bit of practice - see my index finger for a poor example.

For those who are looking to try out this design, I will recommend using a toothpick to drag through the design because I find the needle too delicate and fine for this design. Of course, I also recommend waiting a few minutes for the nails to dry a little before putting on a top coat or you might just end up ruining your design - see nail on pinky. *slaps self on forehead*

So, what do you think of this design?

Oh! And Happy Valentine's Day in advance!

xoxo,
mich