First splatter nails

This manicure marks my first attempt at splatter nails. I wanted to be embody a vaguely Christmas spirit, without a blatant CHRISTMAS theme. Gold and red does that job nicely. I cannot remember where I found the idea, but this is a tutorial for what I did. The basic idea is you use a straw that has paint on one end and blow quickly and forcefully through the other while you hold it over your nail. I dipped the straw directly in the bottle, instead of making little puddles to work with as the tutorial suggests. I have no idea if that helps or hinders the process.

Forgive the crappy quality. I'm still working on my skills there.

Now, as cool and almost "organic"-looking as these nails are, they are a huge pain to do. And rather stressful as you feel as though you are wasting so much nail polish. They take a fair amount of time, and you obviously cannot control where the spatters go on your nails. Which means they also make a huge mess. I probably should have taped around my fingers first... However, I think with some time you could perfect your technique, and for those who are more "art" challenged can create nails that look much more professional and interesting than attempting to draw shaky flowers with toothpicks (I am referring to my early nail art in high school and before. I'm sure you all MUST be brilliant artists).

This shows you the detail of the splatters a little better but is still a pretty crappy photo

I do love the end result though, it almost looks as though I applied random bits of gold leaf all over my nails due to the amazing tone of the gold. Revlon makes a set of metallics that come out AMAZINGLY (they even stamp well!) and are at most $6 a bottle at CVS but can be found much cheaper at Target or Walmart and CVS has frequent sales on Revlon products.

First post in my new blog! I'll start off with the two manicures that started it all. I posted them on Facebook months ago, and since then I have been encouraged by many to start a nail-blog. Of course, I don't ever do things halfway, and with the distraction of school, I have not had the time to give this blog the proper theme it deserved. My nails are not the only things that should be pretty, clearly the blog should be too! Admittedly, my title image needs some work, and perhaps a photo editing software that costs more than "free" will help that. Or not trying to edit photos on a netbook. Someday...

I really enjoyed this manicure. It looks more impressive that it is, despite the fact that it is free-handed and I am no art student. One trick is the accent nail; my short patience makes doing all of them impossible. I'm a busy girl, I have other things to do!

They weren't very long this week I suppose.

The other trick, was as opposed to trying to draw each check separately, I drew black lines across in a lattice, then filled in the leftover squares, first with white so the red would show up, then with the red. So I only had to draw about five of the checks.

I am the laziest photoshopper ever. The main point is what I mean when  I use the word "lattice"

This next manicure I did with inspiration from my friend Shreya. One day at work we were discussing how adorable the little android icon is and one of us realized just how great of a manicure pal he would be, posed against a nice black backdrop! No matter what else I do, to me, this will always be my favorite manicure. It ties the two sides of me, the girly girl side that loves hair, make-up, nails and all things beauty and the geeky, tech, computer science girl in me.

I think the peeking is soooo cute!

Excuse the terrible quality, I took this picture with my boyfriend's phone at night lit by his floor lamp. His phone is waaay to big for my hand so taking a non-shaky picture took quite a few tries.

So that ends my first post. And that's why we are the way we are today.