The One with the DIY Star Decals and Some Lovely ORLYs!
9:00:00 AMGood morning polished world! How are you all doing today??
So, ever since I posted that Press Release for the new ORLY Breathable Treatment + Color polishes, ORLY has been on my mind. I wanted to wait and share a manicure using the Breathable polishes with you, but unfortunately, the polishes did not survive the shipping. Sigh. New ones are on the way though! That doesn't mean that I can't use my regular ORLY polishes in the meantime!
HannahRoxNails on YouTube posted this tutorial for DIY polish decals using hole punches. Back when I started blogging, there weren't any fancy vinyls like there are nowadays, so I had to make my own "vinyls" using star or heart hole punches and painters tape. The process was tedious but it was well worth it in the end. My most popular manicure using this technique was my Pixie Dust Star mani. I did the same thing a few times after that, but since it was so tedious, I kind of gave up, leaving my hole punches in the Melmer untouched.
After I saw Hannah's tutorial, I decided to brush the dust off the hole punches and try it out! I grabbed a plastic bag, painted it with a whole bunch of ORLY Liquid Vinyl. Let's take a look at what I created!
Colors Used:
- Orly - Indie
- Orly - Purple Crush
- Orly - Push the Limit
- Orly - Glowstick
- Orly - Mirrorball
- Orly - Liquid Vinyl
Oh, my amazing! Am I right?! Honestly, by far one of my all time FAVORITE designs I've ever created! It's like my star manicure of the past beyond upgraded!!! When I first saw the video, I for sure did not think that it was going to be as easy as Hannah made it out to be. I painted the plastic baggie with streaks of Liquid Vinyl. I let the bag dry for about two to three hours. I then peeled the paint off the bag and started punching holes in it. I started by doing one at a time, but I couldn't get the stars to come out of the little collecting tray. So I tried to do 3 or more and they began to just fall out.
I put all the little stars on a paper plate and then painted the base on my nails. I really had no plan at that point, I just knew that I had star decals and needed to do something with them. I decided to go for a fun gradient using Indie, Purple Crush, Push the Limit, and Glowstick. I thought the colors together looked like a beautiful, dusky sunset. Perfect backdrop for stars. Also the perfect polishes to make a gradient with. Opaque and bright...the key to a nail artists heart.
After my gradient was on, I went through with some INM Northern Lights and added a quick top coat. While the topper was still wet, I used a toothpick to pick up the stars and placed them on my nails. A few of them I cut in half to fit around the cuticle. It seemed a little bare, so I added some black dots using my smallest dotting tool. Then I just added a top coat over the top to seal in the stars.
It seems complicated and time consuming, but it's really not as bad as you would think. I think if I had a clear plan as to what I was going to do when I started this design, it would have gone a lot faster. I've also learned little tips and tricks with the stars so next time it will go faster as well. For instance, I will paint the baggie the night before so they can set over night making the peeling/cut out time go a lot faster.
What do you think? Fan of this design? Love how bright the ORLYs are??
If you're going to try the DIY decals, I HIGHLY recommend using opaque polishes. ORLY Liquid Vinyl is almost a one coat black polish, so it was perfect for this.
I really think the ORLY polishes made this manicure. Mirroball, ugh, love it. So happy I have about five bottles.
Well, I should stop babbling on and on. Until next time, <3.
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