Hello peoples, I'm back with another blog post though it's been a couple of weeks, I have been avoiding using my computer as I have had some issues with my eye sight and it got so bad I had to give in and go to the opticians! Of the many things I dreaded about entering my 30's, a rapid decline in eye sight was not something I had considered, but over the last couple of months I have been really struggling to see things in focus, and it has gotten so bad that I now have a permanent line in my forehead from squinting all the time! Painting my nails and using the computer had become a real struggle so I decided to hold off for a while until I got my new glasses, I just picked them up yesterday and am amazed at how well I can see now!
My optician says I don't have to wear them all the time, only when I'm reading, writing, drawing, painting, doing my nails, using a computer, watching TV, driving, and 'any other time I have to concentrate my eyes on something'.
Errrrrm, so all the time then?
Anyways, now that I can actually see to type without all the letters getting their groove on and dancing all over my screen, I'm going to show you a mani I did a couple of months ago using the liquid stone method that's very popular with the Russian nail artists it seems.
At christmas my hubby updated my nail kit with all kinds of wonderful new nail technologies, and I now have everything for acrylic nails, gel nails, resins and gel polish. The acrylic and gel stuff has been great for repairs, and though I don't really enjoy wearing the gel polish because I change my mani up too often, I have enjoyed experimenting with it for 3d effect stuff, the gel products provide a lot of additional artistic techniques without having to go for a full gel mani, and the gel top coat also works better with my nail foils so I will be able to start using them again without being ruined by topcoat, so I'm pretty pleased with the hubby for kitting me out!
Liquid stones are basically 3D jewels sculpted with gel, made sparkly and gorgeous by encapsulating glitters and what not within the gel bead. After seeing a few liquid stone mani's on line I was dying to try it out, so I went for a simple mint mani with jewelled accent nail.
My base coat is my cheap Italian market brand 'Riveel' that have no names (annoying!) in a lovely minty colour. Normally in the liquid stone manis I have seen they are also decorated with gel paint and gel foils, so the nails look like actual metal and gem jewellry, which I tried to do with my normal foils but didn't work, so next on my nail shopping list is proper gel paints and foils for the full on gilted effect that I am so in love with and looks great with the jewels. As I don't yet have the gel foils I had to improvise for this mani, so I used a nail sticker which is basically an oval shaped decorative frame, and created my liquid stone in the centre of the sticker. To create the stone I used a bit of clear top coat to stick some hot pink mylar flakes inside the sticker frame, and then applied thick, clear nail construction gel over the mylar flakes. I got a huge bead on the end of my brush, and applied it in a circular motion to create the oval dome shape, and then cured for 6 minutes. Et voila!
The myar flakes look AHHHHH-MAZING in the gel bead, and I couldn't stop moving my hands around in the light to catch all the pretty patterns and colours inside! The gel bead really creates some light & sparkle magic!
I totally loved my little jewel and it was so much fun to make, it was absolutely worth getting gel products just to do this! I can't wait to get my gel paints and foils and create many more gilted and jewelled manis! It goes without saying, jems are my favourite! :)
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If you like what you see please my help my blog to grow by becoming a follower! Knowing that you all appreciate what I do helps keep me going on those days where I feel like everything I do is poo! :)
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