China Glaze

The One With a Fun Watercolor Recreation

9:00:00 AM

Nothing to Disclose 


Good morning Polished World!  How are you all doing today?  It's another Tuesday.  I meant to post yesterday but life got crazy, and honestly I was thinking about pausing the blog utnil i get it up and running on the new platform.  Yes, you read that right.  I'm switching the blog off of Blogger.  Last week two of my posts were removed for guideline violations, and if I didn't fix said violations then my whole blog would be removed.  When I read that I had an instant feeling of panic because this blog has been a huge part of my life since 2012 and I just couldn't imagine it being erased off the face of the Earth.

So, I took a deep breath, backed up the blog, and started the transition.  I need to set it up just how I want to and then I'll be live on the other platform.  I need to figure out how to switch the domain.  But basically, you all will have no interruption.  Most of the links will probably be dead but we will figure that out when we get to it...right?

Anyways, today's manicure is one I absolutely adore.  The weather here is getting Spring-y so it is only fitting that I re-created one of my crazy watercolor splash flower designs.  It's been awhile since I've created something that looks this fantastic.  I forgot how much I love crazy nails.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • Pretty much every single China Glaze Neon I own....lol
Yeahhhhhh, you guessed it, I forgot to write down the names of the polish.  You can't blame me this time, I took the photos for this design and then opened my email to see that my posts were being removed.  Oh to circle back on that, my posts were reinstated.  Now I could leave my blog here, but I just don't have much faith in the system after what happened.  Can't blame a girl.


But with nails like these, who can panic or be upset?  Seriously, this manicure made my day and I couldn't stop looking at my nails.  I love how the gradient in the background look like a watercolor.  This kind of was a multi-step process.  First I had to paint my nails white, then I used the different color neons and sponged them around the nail filling in all the white.  This left a VERY bright neon base.  To tone down the bright neon, I took a make up sponge with white polish and dabbed it over the nails, softening the neons and giving them a more pastel look.

What do you think? Fan of this design?

Until next time, <3.


Orly

The One With the Watercolor Pineapple

9:00:00 AM


Happy Thursday polished world!!  Are you enjoying your week thus far?  I feel like it has been a blur, but to be honest I have been feeling not myself since Sunday.  I'm not sick, but I'm not 100% normal.  *Insert joke of when am I ever normal here.* Tomorrow is Friday which means that the weekend is almost here and before we know it we will be headed into the last week of January.  And I've done nearly not enough snowflake manicures for the year.  Maybe I'll get to another one in the next few days.

I haven't been feeling the snowflake nail art because we keep getting these weird little heat waves.  It goes from 19 degrees back up to 45.  No sooner than it drops about 6 inches of snow on the ground, it's melted the next day.  Listen, I'm never happy when it comes to the weather, but I would be a little happier if it stuck to being either cold or warm, not all over the place.  Since we are in another "heat wave" I decided to have a little fun on my nails and do a more summery look.

Let's take a look!


Colors Used:
  • ORLY - White Tips
  • ORLY - Liquid Vinyl
  • Acrylics
Cute, right?  Nothing says summer like a little pineapple.  I saw a watercolor pineapple on Pinterest, and you all know me and my love of pineapples, it went on the re-create board right away.  The look was a lot simpler to create than I thought it would be.

First I started off with a coat of my favorite black and white polishes.  I rave about ORLY White Tips and Liquid Vinyl pretty much in every post.  They are my go to black and white because they last a long time, apply evenly, and have such perfect shiny finish.


When my white polish was dried, I went through with a black acrylic and painted the outline of the pineapple.  I then took different acrylics and watered them down so they pretty much were just stained watered.  I then took that and added each watered down color individually to the nail.  I let it sit for a few seconds and soaked up the excess water.  I went through and did this with each color.  Once I got the colors I wanted, I went through and cleaned up the outline.

What do you think? Love the pineapple?  I have to say, this probably is my favorite pineapple manicure to date.

Until next time, <3.


OPI

The One With the Watercolor Leaves

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all doing today?  I apologize for not having a post up yesterday.  I meant to, but didn't feel 100% and didn't want to be on the computer at all.  I literally have about 8 posts to share with you, so I'm really mad at myself that I didn't force myself to post.  I guess that means I'm going to have to spam in the next week or so.  Actually one or two posts are blank, and one is a swatch, sooooo I guess it's not too far behind.

Today I'm sharing with you a watercolor leaf design which was inspired by 25 Sweet Peas design.  I loved Sarah's manicure so much that I wanted to attempt to re-create it.  I wasn't about to try to do the design on all 10 of my nails because I didn't have much confidence that I would do Sarah's design justice.  So, I just did a few nails and accented it all with a glitter and black.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
  • FingerPaints - Golden Glaze
  • Sinful Colors - Pumpkin Spice
  • Serendipity Polish - Building My Empire
  • Acrylics
I think, just think, I might have figured out how Sarah got this look.  It was really an experiment figuring it all out.  I started off with a base coat of My Boyfriend Scales Walls, the perfect off white polish for a design like this.  I think if I used a bright white, the design wouldn't have shown up the same.  After my base was dried, I went through with a small paint brush and black and added the outline of the leaves.

Once my leaves were dried, I took watered down acrylic polish and filled in the leaves, and created the water colored dots.  I let them dry for about 20 seconds before I took a dry paint brush and let the water absorb into the bristles.  Alternatively, you could use a napkin or q-tip to absorb the water.  When the water leaves, you're left with the water color look.  Now, you must make sure that they are COMPLETELY dried before adding the top coat, or you will smear the colors because there is water mixed in still.  Dry time is about five minutes, so it's not a long wait.



I bought Pumpkin Spice years ago, and honestly, I don't know if I ever used it.  I think it's a dupe of the China Glaze glitter that came out for The Hunger Games years and years ago.  It's a gold and red micro-hex glitter.  My bottle settled like crazy so I really had to shake it up big time.  It didn't effect the application what-so-ever.


My new favorite black polish, Building My Empire from the Call Me Boss Lady collection.  One coat guys....one coat!  I'm so impressed with Serendipity Polish and love their collections.  I cannot wait for the winter collection, which they confirmed to me on Instagram they're working on!

What do you think of this look?  Something you would try? Ever tried the watercolor look using acrylics??

 Until next time, <3.

China Glaze

Water Color Nails with Splash Flowers

9:00:00 AM


Good morning!  How are you all today?  I'm doing well.  I want to apologize for my brain fart.  I planned on having this post up yesterday, but literally forgot it was Thursday.  I'm shocked I did that since I get so excited for Friday.  I blame the 80 degree day earlier this week for throwing me off.

Anyways, better late than never.  Today I am sharing with you the nail art I added to Tuesday's watercolor manicure.  After wearing the watercolor for one day, I got a tad bored with the plainness of the nails, so I decided to go through and add a splash flower design.  The splash flowers were originally inspired by Emily over at The Lacquerologist.  I've done a few manicures with the design and it's one of my favorite, easy, go to floral patterns.

I think it was a perfect, eye catching addition to the water color design.  Let's take  look!




Colors Used:
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
  • China Glaze - Glow With the Flow, UV Meant to Be, Highlight of My Summer
  • FingerPaints - Frosty Lemonade
  • Orly Instant Artist - Black
Not much to say about the technique since I explained it in the last post.  Base, sponging, acrylic bubbles, and top coat.  Day later added the flowers with my striper brush.  Can you believe even my dots on the outside of the flowers were done with my striper brush?  I'm still kind of shocked I didn't have to pull out a dotting tool.  I think it's because my Instant Artist has seen a better day and it's getting thick.  Since it's a water based polish, I'm probably going to add some more water to it or squirt some black acrylic into the bottle.  That striper brush is one of my favorites so I'm doing everything I can to not throw it away.  I should probably just invest in some more.


Hands down, one of my all time favorite manicures.  I should make a Tag for that on the blog "Alaina's Favorite."  I'm sure by the end of the year, a good three quarters of the posts would be tagged with that.

What do you think?  Like the added artwork?  Would you try this look?

 I am off to enjoy my Friday!  Until next time, <3.

Twinsie Tuesday

Twinsie Tuesday: Watercolor Nails!

9:00:00 AM


Good morning polished world!  How are you all today?  It was in the 80s yesterday!  That's right, the 80s!!!  It's going to drop to the 60s today, but hey I will take it.  Anything is better than -5 degrees!

Today is Tuesday, which means it is time for another Twinsie Tuesday.  I can't believe how fast these posts come up.  I swear I just was posting one yesterday.  Anyways, today we are posing watercolor manicures.  Watercolor manicures are typically done using either jelly polishes over white, like in my tutorial, or using brushes and acetone.  Me + acetone = nightmare.  You can mark my words that I would have destroyed my manicure if I tried that technique.

I was too lazy and didn't have the patience for my jellies to dry, so I decided to try something different.  When I created this bubble accent nail for Twinsie Tuesday a few months ago, I thought that the base looked like a watercolor.  So I decided to re-do that for today's watercolor!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
  • China Glaze - Glow With the Flow, UV Meant to Be, Highlight of my Summer
  • FingerPaints - Frosty Lemonade
So I started off with a base coat of white polish.  I then sponged on the different colors and added a top coat to lightly blend them together.  When the top coat was COMPLETELY dry, I took acrylic paint mixed with water and put dots all over my nail.  I waited about 15 seconds and then took a Q-Tip and lightly dabbed the dots.  This sucked away the excess polish and left behind the outline of the bubble.



I think the bubbles really made it look like a water color.  It really blended the base together gorgeously and added dimension to a manicure that would have not been as stunning.

What do you think?  Fan of this look?  Do you think it passes as watercolor?

Don't forget to check out the other Twinsie's post!


Amanda at Amandalandish
Amanda at Fashion Footing
Amber at Nails Like Lace
Bridget at A Painted Nail
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Jessica at Blue Velvet Lacquer
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Savannah at Addicted to Polish

So I got a little crazy the day after I did this design and I went and added some art to it.  I'll be sharing that on Thursday, so make sure to head back over to see what I did! :)

Until next time, <3.

Tutorial

Sally Hansen Palm Beach Jelly Watercolor Tutorial

9:00:00 AM

Happy Sunday polished world!  As promised, to day I am sharing with you my tutorial for the watercolor manicure I did using the Sally Hansen Palm Beach Jellies!  Goodness, I love these polishes.  If you want to have a look at that manicure and read my tiny review regarding the polishes, please head on over to that post!

If you were a reader yesterday and are itching to see what I did, then let's take a look at the tutorial!!! :)


Colors Used:
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
  • Sally Hansen - Vitamin D-Light, Sea Through, Ice Mint, Grape Jelly, Water Melon
Tutorial:
  1. Start off with a base coat of your favorite white polish.  If it is a sheer white, I suggest using two coats since these jellies are sheer and you can see your base through the design.
  2. Pick a polish and begin your water color!  For mine, I started with Vitamin D-Light since this was the lightest and you could build the best on top of it.  Apply the polish randomly on the nail using the brush itself.  I did so by dripping a tiny bit on the nail and painting it towards the edge.
  3. With another polish, I followed what I did in step 2 just in a different place on the nail.
  4. Repeat
  5. Repeat again, but start filling in the blank white areas.
  6. Repeat one last time filling in the last few blank areas.  Make sure there is no white left on the nail!
  7. Add a holo glitter top coat!  Enjoy!
Do not be upset if you overlap any of the colors on accident.  This overlap makes the look and gives it more of a watercolor finish!

Okay, kind of didn't need to make all the steps for this tutorial since it kind of is straight forward after the first few, but I think it's helpful!

What do you think?  Is this a look you're going to try?

Now, if you do not have the Palm Beach Jellies, no worries, you can achieve this look with the OPI Sheer tints and any other squishy jelly polishes you may own!  I believe Loaded Lacquer created some awesome jellies a few months ago that I believe would work kind of awesomely for this kind of design!

If you re-create this design, please tag #tlcinspiredmani!  I want to see your designs! :)  And, as always, if you have any looks that you want me to create a tutorial, please let me know!  I have so much fun doing these!

**I purchased all the polishes used in this post**

Love you all!  Until next time, <3.

watercolor

Watercolor Manicure Using Sally Hansen Palm Beach Jellies

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished peeps!  Hope you all have a fantastic Saturday planned!  I'm pretty much laying low since I have felt a tad under the weather.  Maybe I'll do a little web shopping and get the purse I have been eyeing at Target.  Hint: it's mint.

Have you heard about my newest obsession?  If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, then you would know that I'm obsessed with the Sally Hansen Palm Beach Jellies.  Now, this is really really odd for me seeing previously I have only owned two jelly polishes and had no idea how to use it.  I failed at a jelly sandwich.  Yes, you read that right, failed at a jelly sandwich.  Don't ask.

Well, after seeing the OPI Sheer Tints and all the amazing things one could do with them, I had to find them.  I tweeted Sally Beauty Supply asking if they were going to get them in, and sadly they responded that they weren't.  I then struggled with the idea of purchasing them at Ulta, but I couldn't bring myself to spend that much on something that I may not like.  Then, I saw this post on Nouveau Cheap featuring swatches and reviews of the Sally Hansen Palm Beach Jellies.  Holy gorgeous, I needed to find them, especially after seeing her watercolor manicure!  Lucky for me, first store I went to, I found a full display.  I snagged five out of the six, ran home, and started doing a watercolor manicure like hers.

Let's take a look!  Okay, my camera couldn't capture them how I wanted and they're more pastel looking than what they were in person.




Colors Used:
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
  • Sally Hansen - Water Melon, Grape Jelly, Sea Through, Ice Mint, Vitamin D-Light
Omgoodness, super cute right?  I LOVE these polishes!  I can see myself using these for so many different nail art designs.  Before I did this water color, I tried to do a tape manicure and my nails looked like stained glass.  I got kind of lazy though after doing two nails and gave up, so I will be doing that soon..

I personally believe that you need a white base if you really want these to show on the nails.  Like the OPI Sheer Tints, these are sheer and are just like a stain on the naked nail.  When you put them on top of white, you really see the color pop.  When they overlap with themselves or with one another they become darker.

Out of all five of them, Grape Jelly was the sheerest.  Kind of a shame since it looks amazing in the bottle.  You can get it to build if you apply a second coat.  The second sheerest was Ice Mint (blue).  Sea Through and Water Melon are my favorite and the least sheer.  I think these two you could create a decent jelly sandwich with.  Vitamin D-Light is that middle one that's still sheer but not too sheer.  Not too sure you could create a sandwich with it, but it's awesome none the less.



Here you can see how the colors are more bright.  I added the glitter because, well, it's glitter and how could you not?  I received so many compliments on these nails from customers at work.  They thought they were nail stickers and kept asking me how I did it.  A few of them had seen the display of the Beach Jellies and had no idea why someone would want them, then after seeing this needed to go purchase a few for themselves.


Here's a shot from my cell phone.  This is the closest I could get to what these polishes looked like in real life.  You can see the sheer purple clearer in this photo.  Why couldn't I get my actual camera to do this?

What do you think?  Have you snagged any of these polishes?  Fan or hater?

 This post got a tad longer than I thought it would, so tomorrow I'm going to have a bonus post for you!  I'll share a tutorial about how I got the look!  We will leave this post to drool and love on the Sally Hansen Palm Beach Jellies.

Until next time, <3.

**I purchased the polishes used in this post**