Matte Gradient Splatter Nails

A while back I saw a beautiful design by one of my favorite nail artists: Lady Crappo. She did a matte gradient with metallic splatter on top and I really wanted to have this design on my nails as well. I decided to go for the green gradient and I used OPI - You Are So Outta Lime! plus KIKO - 347 as my gradient colors. I then used Essie - Matte About You for the matte finish and added the metallic splashes with Essie - Penny Talk. She did a tutorial on how to do all of that.

Heute gibts ein Design von Lady Crappo. Den grünen Farbverlauf/Gradient habe ich mit OPI - You Are So Outta Lime! und KIKO - 347 gemacht. Für das matte Finish eine Schicht von Essie - Matte About You aufgetragen und dann die Spritzer darüber mit Essie - Penny Talk. Sie hat auch ein Tutorial dazu, in dem sie genau erklärt, wie das alles geht.

Spring/Summer Splatter Nails

I haven't done splatter nails in a while and I thought I could include one of my new neons from the Maybelline Bleached Neons collection in a cute spring and summer neon splatter design. You can find out more about how I create splatter nails in my tutorial for DIY Decals. For this one I used Flormar - 400 as my base and then added Maybelline - Chic Chartreuse, Essie - Shake Your $$ Makers, Essie - Lights and Flormar - N006. The first pictures shows the design with a shiny top coat and in the second I'm wearing one coat of Essie - Matte About You on top. 

Neon Splash

For today I have a simple design to show you, that I did a while ago. I used two coats of Flormar - 400 as my base and then painted on some random splashes and spots with China Glaze - Pool Party (Neon), China Glaze - Highlight Of My Summer (Neon) and H&M - U Must Have This. I did like the colors, but they do look a bit boring in the pictures. And I like the idea of splatter nails without the actual mess, so I might try this again with different colors. 

Grey & Neon Pink Splatter Nails

I tried again and came up with another color scheme for Splatter Nails. I did these for the Splatter Nails Competition over at My Awesome Beauty, which will end tomorrow. I chose a grey splattered base color with Essence - Got A Secret, Essie - Maximillian Strasse Her and Essie - Licorice. And the neon pink cherry on top is once again China Glaze - Pool Party. I used my DIY Decals technique this time, to avoid a big mess. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer. 

Neon Splatter

First I planned to enter the Splatter Mani Competition by Sophie from My Awesome Beauty with this design, but seeing the result I decided for it to be a test run. I'm not quite happy with the colors I chose and I think it's just a bit to busy. Plus it isn't too photogenic (neon!) so I think I can do better! You can win the Art Deco collection by Linda Johansen, which is a very tempting price. You can enter your own splatter designs until the 15th of July! 

So for this one I used two coats of Flormar - M103 and then splattered on the following colors with a straw: China Glaze - Pool Party, Kleancolor - Bikini Green and Essie - Licorice. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer. 

Essie - Neon (Summer 2013)

Essie Switzerland sent me the Neon 2013 collection as well and I didn't swatch this one until now because I wasn't very excited about this one. I read that a lot of people are disappointed with the formula of these six shades and I have to say that I am as well. Essie suggests that you wear a white base for all colors because it's going to make them brighter. It does indeed make all of them brighter and I personally don't like them without the white base. The only shade that I would wear without white is Boom Boom Room (light pink). But the thing is: white nail polish is the most annoying nail polish when it comes to formula. So why would I want to use a white base every time before I paint my nails? I don't want to! Also in my opinion this collection isn't a neon collection because the only shade that appears as an actual neon color to me is Saturday Disco Fever (orange). And most of the colors were quite thin and streaky and not a pleasure to work with. Nonetheless I found a way to enjoy this collection by combining all of them in a nail art design, which you can find at the end of this post. This is a long post again, so you can find all of the swatches after the jump.

Splatter & Sponge

Today's design was inspired by this pillow on Society6 from the artist Melissa Smith. I love the color and the technique used, but it was not until five minutes ago, that I realised it's called Iron Man and that it actually shows Iron Man. Well, my nails don't show Iron Man! I used a combination of sponging and splattering polish on the nails with a straw which I think looks really cool together! I used two coats of Essie - Blanc as my base and then sponged on Essie - Angora Cardi, Zoya - Dree mixed together with Essie - The More The Merrier and Essie - Licorice. Then I splattered it with the red, green and white using a straw and finished with one coat of BTGN Top Sealer.

Deadly Sins Challenge - Day 8: Sloth (Essie - Hip-anema + Splatter Nails)

This week I was trying a new shade from Essie called Hip-anema, which I have received from Essie Switzerland. This pretty red is part of the Madison Ave-Hue Collection and I will post about all six shades in Sunday's post. But for today and for Day 8 of the Deadly Sins Challenge, I chose only one of them. Today's theme says: (Only if you want) Create a manicure inspired on your laziness... or whatever... I'm so tired... 

Illustrations by: dahlig

Alright, so I used one coat of Essie - Hip-anema and then added color splatters with a toothbrush and acrylic paint. This is an amazingly easy and fast way of doing splatter nails, which I read about on Globe & Nail. The only thing that you have to pay attention to is, that you do one hand after the other, because otherwise you might ruin your design along the way. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer.

Black & Golden Splatter Nails feat. Catrice - Shanghai

A while ago I got a packet from a dear friend. She sent me a lot of awesome stuff including a golden nail polish out of the Catrice Big City Life LE. I didn't wear this one until today and I decided to use it for Splatter Nails first. I used my DIY Decals technique and p2 - eternal as my base color and then added the golden splatters with a straw and Catrice - Shanghai. On top is one coat of BTGN Top Sealer.

Have a nice weekend! 

I need your support! Essie Girls Switzerland

Dear readers, I need your help! With today's design I'm taking part in a contest from Essie Switzerland. I have the chance to win a lot of Essie polishes and to be an Essie blogger for a year. This would mean a lot of swatches for you, including limited editions! It would be awesome if I'm going to win this and you would make me really happy if you vote for my picture! So if you like my design, this is how you can vote for me:

1. Go to the Essie Switzerland Facebook page and like it:

http://www.facebook.com/essieSwitzerland

2. Go to Essie Girls and vote for my picture:

http://www.facebook.com/essieSwitzerland/app_260985374013280

They asked for our favorite Essie nail polish, but you know me, I can't make decisions. This is why I included all of my favorite Essie fall colors in a Splatter design. I chose Essie - Velvet Voyeur as my base color and then added the splatter design with my DIY decal technique. The splashes are done with Angora Cardi, In Stitches and Penny Talk. On top is one coat of Essie - Good To Go. 

This is my contest picture, posing with Penny Talk ;) 

Thank you so much for your support! 

Galaxy Splatter Nails + DIY Decals Tutorial

I love Splatter Nails! But the average technique to get Splatter Nails - blowing the paint with a straw directly onto the nails - is really annoying in regard to cleaning up the cuticles. That's why I always do Splatter Nails with the plastic bag method. I call it DIY Decals because you basically create decals and then stick it onto the nails. You can find my tutorial on how to do those at the end of today's post.

Today's color choice reminds me of Galaxy Nails. I used p2 - Night Out as my base color and then added Essie - Mint Candy Apple and Essie - Penny Talk with my straw. On top of everything is one coat of Revlon Quick Dry Topcoat. 

What I love about the selfmade decals is the fact that you can chose the spot with the best pattern. When I did my first Splatter Nails without the plastic bag, I had some nails flooded in polish and others with no splatter at all. 

So the process of creating your own decals is very easy but you will need some time to let it dry. You will need a plastic bag, a straw and your colors of choice. Then paint your base color onto the plastic bag. I always paint a rectangle about 10cm wide and a little bit more than two times my nail length. If you do this for the first time I'd recommend painting a bigger area so you have some spare decals to practice the technique. Take care not to paint the polish too thick because the thicker the decal the more difficult it will be to place it onto the nails evenly. Then you dip the straw in the bottle of nail polish and blow in the other end, so that the polish will splash onto the painted area. I always let my decals dry over night so they can be removed from the plastic easily. The next day you can cut the decal with your scissors and create small pieces in the size of your nails. Paint your first nail with one coat of the chosen base color, remove the decal from the plastic with tweezers and add it onto the wet polish. Press it down gently and wait for a little while. I  can remove most of the overlapping parts with my other finger nails. After that I apply a first coat of clear nail polish to "melt" the decal and the base color together. Then I can clean it up like I would with my usual manicure and add a top coat.

And this is how you shouldn't be doing it. Hard to remove ;) 

I had so much fun making this tutorial and I plan on doing more of them if you like it!

NOTD: Red-Black-White Splatter Nails

I love splatter nails! I did another color combination with the DIY nail decals technique, but this time I had some problems with the application. My decals were too thick because I started with two coats of white. As a result they were very stiff and difficult to handle. I'd recommend doing them as thin as you can, you can always add a base coat underneath! 

I used the usual black and white and for the red I chose Essie - Limited Addiction, one of my favorite reds! 

One coat of Essie GTG on top.

NOTD: Pastel Splatter Nails / DIY Nail Decals

Remember how I said I'm never gonna do splatter nails again? Well, problem solved! I did it again and it was much more enjoyable this time! I tried the so called Plastic Bag Method, where you paint the nail polish onto a plastic bag and let it dry for a few hours (to be safe: over night). 

When your design is completely dry, you can pull it off the bag gently and stick it onto your almost freshly applied base color. Cleaning up was much easier than with my first attempt, since you can almost scratch off all the excessive parts. Add top coat and you're done!

Splatter Nails with my favorite coffee mug ;)

I used the following colors:

OPI - Alpine Snow (Base)

Essie - Mint Candy Apple

Catrice - Sweets For My Sweets

Artdeco - 95

Artdeco - 93