Tag Archives: nail art

Watermarbling is one of the hottest trends in nail art, but this technique has been long used by paper and silk artists to bring beautiful swirled décor to the world. Today, I am using nail polish and faux eggs to product colorful swirls on eggs perfect for displaying on Easter!

Needed Supplies:
-Cup or bowl with 3.5-4 inch opening (red solo cups work great!)
-Wood skewer or toothpick
-Distilled water (room temp)
-Faux Eggs (I got mine at Wall-Mart)
-Nail Polish
-Painters Tape
-Paper towels

Polished used: KBShimmer Let’s Not Coral, KBShimmer Shore Thing, KBShimmer Sky Jinx, and KBShimmer Radiant Orchid.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/ptVilp4adk8[/youtube]

The possibilities are limitless! You can further decorate with stickers, nail vinyls, glitter. These eggs make a unique addition to any Easter table!

How To Use KBShimmer Nail Vinyl Decals

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We are so excited to now be offering our vinyl nail decal sheets in 6 different patterns (set for launch 06/20/14). These are a new product for a lot of people, so we have a step-by-step tutorial below showing how to use the vinyl pieces as a peel off stencil. To see how we use them as a leave on sticker, see our Tribal Nail Art post.

For a long lasting manicure, start with clean nails. Use KBShimmer pH Prep to clean and prep nails for base coat.

Follow by applying a base coat like Basic Training. Let dry before moving on to next step. Completely dry polish is key when using vinyl decals.

Use a polish that applies in 1-2 coats. You want polish to be dry, and too many coats will risk the bottom layers not being dry enough. I am using Radiant Orchid for my bottom color.

Cleaning up now will make final clean up much easier.

I strongly suggest that you use a quick dry top coat like Clearly On Top to ensure your nails are dry before the next step. Using a quick dry top coat will also make cleaning up any mistakes easier.

Again, making sure the polish is dry is key for a good turn out. Wet polish will pull up with the vinyl.

I find using a tweezers to remove the vinyl from the sheet works best for me, preserving the manicure on my other nails! Here we are using our Zig Zag Nail Vinyl Decals.

Stick the vinyl to your hand to help remove some of the stick. If they are too sticky, they can be difficult to remove, or can pull up polish.

Using a tweezers helps me place the vinyl pieces, but you can use your fingers. There are so many ways and design possibilities with these, but I have chosen to line them up for a repeating zig zag pattern.

Press the vinyl pieces firmly. Doing so will help polish not seep under the vinyl, leaving you with crisp lines.

Now is the fun part. Cover the vinyls with 1 coat of your accent color. I love textures, holographic colors, polishes that cover well in one coat and have visual interest. For this tutorial, I am using She Twerks Out. If you want your color only in certain areas, or want different colors between the stripes, use the brush carefully apply polish between the vinyl pieces. Since I am wanting the same color over the whole nail, I don’t worry about “coloring” between the lines.

Once your coat of polish is on, you want to start removing the vinyl pieces as soon as possible. If you wait too long, you risk pulling up the accent polish you just applied along with the vinyl pieces. Only paint the accent color one nail at a time to prevent the polish drying before you can get the vinyl removed.

Here is the nail after vinyl decals are removed.

Clean up any polish you got on the skin and cuticle area. If you used a quick dry clear coat before applying vinyl pieces, you can also use the clean up brush dipped in acetone to clean up any polish that may have bled under the vinyl. Lightly dab polish you want to remove with the brush. Repeat if needed, keeping brush damp, but not dripping wet with acetone.

I now follow-up with Clearly On Top to smooth out the manicure, add shine and protect the nails. Make sure to apply top coat to the very tip of the nail to reduce chips.

Finished nails!! Repeat on additional nails if desired, or use technique as an accent nail.

We think our new nail vinyl decals are a easy way to add a fun look to manicures. Do you have a manicure using KBShimmer nail vinyl decals and polishes? Send it to us to share on our website and social media outlets. customerservice@kbshimmer.com We would love to see them!

Gradient Tribal Nail Art Using KBShimmer Nail Vinyl Decals

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Nail vinyl decals are a fun way to add art and design to your manicure. Today, I am going to show you step by step how to create the summer look below using a gradient technique with Life Rose On, You’re So Shellfish and Chick Me Out along with Eclipse and our new Tribal Themed Nail Vinyl Decals.

First, start with a white base to make the gradient colors pop. I used a white from Wet and Wild, but any white will do. You can see the white on my middle two fingers.

Next, using a cosmetic wedge, paint on a stripe of each color. I did this twice for each color as the sponge sucks in the polish.

Take the sponge and position above nail you want to paint. In a dabbing motion, use sponge to apply polish to nails. Try and move it top to bottom a tiny bit to blend the color. Do this quickly and lightly, as too many dabs or lots of pressure will pick up the polish from the nail leaving bald spots.

Repeat on additional nails by again painting stripes on the wedge, touch up any blank spots around nail edge with corner of sponge.

Clean up fingers with acetone and brush. Cleaning up now will make additional clean-up easier later in the process.

Here is the look after clean-up.

At this point, you can just let the colors dry. But I like to use Clearly On Top to ensure that the polish is completely dry before moving on to the next step.

Either way, make sure to wait at least 20 minutes before moving on to the next step so vinyl decals do not ruin polish when removed later on. Adding a top coat will also help smooth out the look of the gradient and, if you happen to get some polish that seeps under the vinyl decals, the clear coat will provide enough of a barrier between the gradient design that you can use a clean up brush and acetone to remove it.

When removing nail vinyl decals from the sheet, I like to use a tweezer to grab and place vinyl. These fine point Tweezerman tweezers are my go to. Some pieces may have additional cutouts inside that need to be removed before use.

I remove the desired vinyl pieces from the sheet and place on my hand. I then remove and place on my hand once more for pieces I want to later remove (those being used like stencils). This will help remove some of the adhesive that can pull up polish (if polish is not fully dry).

Using your tweezers, place the vinyl decals into nails in the desired positions. Press firmly to ensure that polish will not seep under vinyl decals. Some of these pieces will actually stay on the nail, but for longer pieces like straight lines, let one end overlap the nail for easier removal later.

We will start with the pinky nail. Paint on a coat of Eclipse, a black cream. Use a polish that covers in one coat, as you do not want polish to dry before removing vinyl and do not have time for multiple coats.

Here is the pinky nail covered with paint. Wait not more then 20-30 seconds before removing vinyl. If using a quick dry polish, remove right after you finish painting. Only paint one nail at a time, if you do more the polish may dry before all pieces are removed.

Using your tweezers, remove vinyl by pulling the free edge up that touches the skin or hangs off the end of the nail. Pull away from your nail in a steady motion.

Then, move onto the point finger nail and repeat process on that nail.

The thumb is next. The thumb has three pieces to remove.

Next, we will move to the middle finger. This finger has two pieces that overlap for easy removal, and in the middle, the large diamond will also be removed. Since there are no areas of the diamond, we will use a different technique for removal.

Paint the nail like the others. Quickly remove both the upper and lower stepped vinyl decals.

Using the pointy tip of the tweezers, carefully pierce the center of the diamond vinyl. “Hook” the tip of the tweezers, and pinch tips to help pull up the diamond piece. You can also use a safety pin. If you prefer, you can also try and catch the edge of the diamond and pull up to remove.

Here is it removed. At this point, the ring finger has a vinyl piece on that we will be leaving in place as a nail sticker. Clean up excess polish on cuticles as done previously with brush and acetone.

We can also use the bonus smaller diamonds and triangles as accent pieces. For the middle finger, we will be using a smaller diamond from inside the ring finger piece.

Center in the blank diamond area and place on the nail with the tweezers. Press down firmly.

From the pointer finger vinyl decal pattern, we can pull tiny triangles to use as accents on the pink nail.

Place on the pinky in desired positions.

When last decals are placed, ensure all pieces are stuck to the nail by pressing firmly and follow with 1-2 coats of Clearly On Top to add shine and a protective finish to the nails. It is perfectly fine to use top coat over the vinyl decals to seal in place. Nail Vinyl decals are not reusable.

There you go! A fun, summery tribal look made easy with vinyl decals.

Mix And Match Manis – Guest Post From Jenny of Lavish Layerings

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Hi everyone! This is Jenny from Lavish Layerings and I’m honored to be guest posting for KBShimmer today! I’ve long been a huge fan of their glitter polishes and I have recently been doing a number of nail art looks utilizing their new creme line, which is equally fantastic!How many of you would like to give nail art a try but just don’t have the time? I really enjoy nail art and I often do full blown nail art manis when time permits, but sometimes I cheat a bit. If you only do the nail art on a few nails instead of ALL of your nails, the task doesn’t seem quite as daunting. I have seen more and more ladies on my favorite blogs and on Instagram doing looks like these, and I like to call them Mix and Match Manis or accent nails. There are so many nail art techniques that are very simple, but when incorporated in the right way can add a lot of pizzazz to your manis without a lot of fuss.

First up, I thought we would start with a simple glitter gradient. I started off with a base of Sky Jinks on all of my nails. I then used 1 coat of Squared Away on all of my nails except the middle two. On the middle and ring finger only, I did a glitter gradient. No special tools needed; just use the brush parallel to the nail to dab on glitter to about halfway down the nail.

Sky Jinks and Squared Away

The trick to a glitter gradient is to wipe off most of the excess polish before you begin dabbing so that you don’t get big clumps of glitter in one spot. If you want, you can even place glitter pieces exactly where you want them using the tip of your brush. Once you get your gradient how you like it, just topcoat and you are done! Now you have a little more interest in what would have been just a normal glitter mani with very little extra effort! Squared Away is discontinued from KBShimmer’s line (I’m sure you can find it on blog sales still), but you can use this technique with any glitter topper. It would look very cool with one of their newer glitter toppers, Rush Flower Traffic.

Next I have a mani that I doesn’t really incorporate nail art so much, but it still has some added visual interest. For this mani, I chose two polishes that I thought complimented each other well: A Touch of Glass and Laugh Myself Lily. I used Laugh Myself Lily on the middle two nails and A Touch of Glass on all of my other nails. After A Touch of Glass had dried completely, I added a single pink stud at the base of each of those nails. Be sure to seal in the studs with topcoat after you apply them (I used 2 coats of topcoat).

A Touch of Glass and Laugh Myself Lily

The contrast of the glitter and creme polishes is really nice and the studs compliment the pink glitters in Laugh Myself Lily to make a really cohesive look. If you don’t have any nail art studs (or don’t like something sticking up off of your nail), you can use pieces of glitter in the place of them or even use a dot of a contrasting polish made with dotting tool/bobby pin to acheive a similar look.

This next look incorporates a nail art technique from The Nailasaurus, a blogger who (to me) is one of the pioneers of the idea of these Mix and Match Manis. This mani was inspired by Watercolor, which I used on my pointer and pinky nail here. The name and beautiful colors of this polish made me want to incorporate a nail art look that looked like a watercolor painting. I had recently seen The Nailasaurus’s tutorial for Nimbus Nail Art, and thought this technique would be perfect to acheive that effect.

Life Rose On, Watercolor, and Sky Jinks

For this technique, you only need a few creme polishes, acetone, and cotton swabs (Q-Tips). I started off with a white base and then used Life Rose On and Sky Jinks to do the Nimbus effect. Basically, you dab some of your creme polish on a disposable surface (I used a paper plate) and then thin it out with acetone until it is very runny. Then you use a cotton swab to dab random dots all over your nails and then repeat with your other color(s). The Nailasaurus’s tutorial is very thorough, so I will let you refer to that for a full rundown of the technique. I will say that I believe that I thinned my polishes even more than hers and made sure that my cotton swab was completely soaked in acetone so that the effect was very light and ethereal, like a watercolor painting.

Finally, I have a little more of an advanced technique for you. I know so many people want to give water marbling a try but are hesistant to do it because it is SO time consuming. I good way to get your feet wet is to start out with only doing a few marbled accent nails. For this mani, I used Honeydew List and Life Rose On. I used Honeydew List as my base and then added the marbled accents on my middle nails. After I got done with the marble, I went back in and added a few random dots of Life Rose On with my dotting tool to add a bit more interest.

Honeydew List and Life Rose On

There are a million tutorials for water marbling out there that you can find via Google search, so I will not bore you with yet another one. I will however give you a few tips and tricks that I have learned along the way to help you have a successful water marbling experience.

1) Be sure you are using filtered water (I used bottled water) and not tap water for your marble. If you don’t do this your polish won’t spread properly.

2) Be sure your water is room temperature or even lukewarm to help the polish spread well across the water’s surface.

3) Do not set up your marbling station in front of a fan or vent. The blowing air will cause the polish on the surface of the water to dry too quickly and you won’t be able to create your designs.

4) After you tape off the skin around your nails, brushing a little nail oil on the small bit of skin/cuticle that is between your nail and the tape will really aid in clean-up.

5) After you dip your nail in the water, be sure to completely remove the excess polish off of the surface of the water before bringing your nail back out of the water or it will get on your nail and mess up your design. Just blow on the surface of the water to dry the excess polish (if it is not already dry) and drag an orangewood stick across the surface of the water to collect the dried polish.

I really hope that you all have enjoyed my post! Although it may be a bit basic for you nail art experts out there, I hope it will inspire some of you nail art newbies and those of you who are pressed for time to explore these techniques a bit! Another cool thing about Mix and Match designs is, you don’t have to stop at two different nail designs if you don’t want to! You can take a peek at ChitChatNails to see the history of the Skittlette Mani where you have 3 or more different complementary nails. Basically, the possibilities are endless with this sort of Mix and Match mani.

A special thanks to Christy for allowing me to share with you today! If you want to see more of my nail art designs, be sure to check out my blog, Facebook, and Instagram!

Nail Art For “Shorties” – Guest Post by Dani of From Polish With Love

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Good morning Polish Peeps!! I’m Dani and I’m the nails behind From Polish, with Love! I’m so excited to be doing a guest post over at KBShimmer’s blog!! KBShimmer is one of my favorite indie polish brands so this is quite the honor!! Christy sent me some of the new Spring 2014 Collection to review and I knew as soon as I saw the creams that I wanted to do some nail art but I recently had a break so I figured what better opportunity than to do some nubbin’ ( or shorties ) friendly nail art!! The techniques I’m showing you today are so easy to do and really will work for any length. This is also my first step-by-step tutorial so please bear with me!!

This is what you will need. If you don’t have dotting tools, household items will work!! You can use the end of a bobby pin, toothpick, anything really!

Polishes are Pansy-Monium, Sky Jinks, and A Touch of Glass. You will need a good base coat and top coat. I used KBShimmer’s Basic Training base coat and Clearly on Top top coat. Tools needed are a striping brush and dotting tools of various sizes
First you want to start off by prepping your nails with a good base coat. I like using KBShimmer Basic Training Base Coat. It really helps the polish cling to your nail and extends the life of your manicure!! It also helps to create a smooth base to start.

I applied A Touch of Glass on all nails and let completely dry. You really need to allocate time for this so you don’t disturb your base. If you’re pressed for time, just apply a coat of Clearly On Top and let dry for a few minutes and you should be set to continue with the art since it dries pretty quickly!

1. For my index finger, I decided to do a funky french tip with just some simple lines. I started off with applying Sky Jinks with my striping brush in two over-lapping lines.

2. I then applied Pansy-Monium in two thicker lines just below Sky Jinks. Apply top coat and you’re done!!

3. For the middle nail I decided to do a combo of lines and dots! I started off by taking my striping brush and with Pansy-Monium, making 3 lines vertically down the whole length of my nail but leaving plenty of space in between each line. This is where the dots will go!!

4. Then using a small end of your dotting tool and Sky Jinks, make dots down each “row”. Seal with top coat!

5. For the index I decided to do a simple “cloud” design!!

I started by taking Pansy-Monium and using the applicator brush, making 3 thick lines starting at a bit above the middle of the nail bed and making my way down to the tip. You want to cover the whole nail, no spaces. The edge of your cloud needs to be staggered so it’s best to not make them all the same height. If your “cloud” edge isn’t as rounded the first time, you can always take some more polish on your brush to the ends of the cloud to fine tune them!

6. Let Pansy-Monium dry or apply Clearly On Top and you can finish off the cloud with the same above steps using Sky Jinks!!

7. For my pinky I decided to do a funky gradient “dotticure” so you will need various sized dots for this one.

I started off randomly dotting Sky Jinks in different sizes on my pinky. *Please excuse the blurry pics. My camera decided to misbehave and wouldn’t focus as hard as I begged!

8. Then taking Pansy-Monium, I filled in some of the empty spaces with assorted sized dots. I then took Sky Jinks once more and made a few more dots til it was to my liking!

I hope you liked the easy nail art I created with these 3 shades! I know sometimes having shorter nails makes you feel like you have no room for nail art but hopefully these designs will change your mind! I have short nail beds and I find these all very flattering!! Show those nubbins some love!!!!

I want to give a huge thanks to Christy for having me today!! I hope you all enjoyed my very first step-by-step tutorial!!! Now that I have gotten my feet wet this won’t be my last! Make sure to check out my blog and Facebook for more nail art!! Have a great day!!!

BIG thanks to Dani for such a detailed guest post. I rock short nails often, so it is lovely to see nail art that works for any length of nail. Thanks again Dani! Christy – KBShimmer

Stamping With The Spring Creams – Guest Post by Kirby of The Mercurial Magpie

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Hey, everyone! I’m Kirby, the blogger behind The Mercurial Magpie! I’ve been a big fan of KBShimmer ever since I discovered the world of handmade polish and I’m super excited to be posting here today!

So, let’s talk creams. To a polish lover, are they always the most exciting thing? Your first thought might be no, but I say…YES! You see, they’re incredibly versatile. On their own, they can be a nice palette cleanser or pop of color for an accent nail, maybe even a base for nail art! But oh, reader, their appeal for me doesn’t stop there. One word- stamping!

It’s the first question on anyone’s minds when they read about new cream colors- “Yes, yes, you claim it will fold my clothes, wash my car and have dinner on the table when I get home from work, but WILL IT STAMP?” Is that just me? It is? Oh. Well, regardless, it’s certainly the first thought that I had when the press release for these came out. I’m happy to report that for the most part, they do! I tested them all out and some of the lighter shades are very subtle if not stamped over a light base, but the darker colors all work perfectly. I have three combos to show you here today! The first combination I did was to use Pansy-monium over My Life’s Porpoise. I used KBShimmer Clearly On Top as a top coat for each of these. I used a flower design from the Moyou London Suki 01 plate that kind of reminded me of the KBShimmer logo.

The second combination I did was using Eclipse over Chick Me Out. This color combo was screaming for a bee stamp, but unfortunately I didn’t have one! What I do have is a plate full of awesome bird stamps, so I used a couple of designs from Messy Mansion’s MM14 plate.

The last combination I did was using Sky Jinks over A Touch Of Glass This felt like a very ocean-y duo so I decided to use this cute fish stamp from Moyou London’s Sailor 05 plate.

There are plenty of ways these shades can be mixed and matched for stamping & I hope this post inspires you to try some out yourself! I’d love to see them if you do! If you’d like to see more from me (including some future KBShimmer-centric posts!) you can check out my blog (http://www.themercurialmagpie.com/), my Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/themercurialmagpie) and my Instagram (http://instagram.com/themercurialmagpie#). Thanks for reading!

Using KBShimmer Polish With Gel Polish – Guest Post By Michelle of Manic Talons

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Hi there!

I’m Michelle from Manic Talons and gel polish is my “thing”. If you’re a gel user you know firsthand that gel polish is seriously lacking in certain finishes, such as crellies, unique glitter bombs, duo and multi-chromes, and linear holos. All of these are areas that KBShimmer has covered in spades! So I’m going to show you three ways to get the best of both worlds by pairing KBShimmer polishes with soak off gel polish.

Layering Polish on Top of Gel

Layering is the simplest way to pair traditional polish with gel.

1) Do a complete gel manicure start to finish.

2) Once you remove the tacky layer from the final top coat, apply the KBShimmer lacquer directly on top of the gel. There’s no need for a separate base coat as the gel takes care of that.

3) Finish with a fast dry top coat and you’re done.

Layering in this manner is awesome for several reasons. First, the gel provides serious strength to your nails. Second, regular polish dries much quicker over gel, so the wet nail wait is decreased. Third, regular polish applied in this manner over a soak off gel manicure wears like iron! I have had regular polish last for over a week on top of gel with minimal tip wear. Finally, you can remove the polish with non-acetone remover without harming the soak off gel manicure if you want to change things up!

Want to see a layered manicure? I started with a basic white soak off gel manicure using Couture Ooh La La French. I then applied two coats of Oh Splat! on top of the gel and finished with a fast dry top coat. The result is this gorgeously opaque mani with incredible depth.

The Regular Polish (RNP) Sandwich

The second way I like to pair regular polish with gel polish is to sandwich the regular polish between layers of gel. This one can be a bit tricky, but once you know the method the possibilities are endless! So, how do you create a successful RNP sandwich?

1) Apply your soak off gel manicure. This is your usual process with one slight modification. When applying each layer of gel, be sure to wrap the tip a bit deeper than you might usually. I like to wrap the gel so that it overflows approximately 1.5 mm under the tip of the nail. If your nails are shorter, you may not be able to wrap quite this deeply, but wrap as deep as you can without getting the gel on the skin under your nail.

2) After removing the tacky layer, apply a thin coat of your KBShimmer polish of choice. Cap the tip as usual, but not quite as deeply as you did with the gel. The trick is to leave a margin of gel exposed under the tip of the nail so that the final gel top coat can bond with it unobstructed. Allow the coat of polish to dry before applying a second coat if needed. At this point, you might choose to apply a fast dry top coat to speed things along, but it is completely optional.

3) Now we wait for the polish to COMPLETELY dry.

If you used only 1 thin coat, wait at least 1-2 hours before proceeding to step 4. If you applied two or more coats or used a thicker coat, allow a minimum of 4-6 hours. The dry time is crucial to creating a successful RNP sandwich. If the RNP is not completely dry before adding the gel top coat, the top coat will chip off within hours. Or worse, the RNP will wrinkle under the top coat and destroy your beautiful manicure.

4) Once the RNP is completely dry, apply a layer of gel top coat. Be sure to wrap the top coat deeply like you did with the base gel manicure. This allows the top coat to grab the gel under the tip of the nail and completely seal in the RNP. I usually apply two coats of gel top coat just to be sure I have completely covered the RNP, but that is definitely optional as it tends to add thickness to the nail.

5) Remove the tacky layer, apply cuticle oil, and enjoy your longer lasting manicure! I just removed a RNP sandwich mani from my right hand that lasted the full 2 weeks without a single chip. It could have gone longer, but the growth was driving me nuts. 😉

Want to see an RNP sandwich? I thought you might. I started with a base gel manicure and used Couture Royalty as my gel color. I then topped it with one coat of KBShimmer Clown Puke, waited for it to dry, and finished with two coats of soak off gel top coat. The gel top coat pairs really well with this one and smooths the glitter effortlessly. I seriously LOVE this polish! Every time I dipped the brush, I discovered a new glitter I hadn’t seen before. I’m quite certain there are more shapes, colors and sizes in the bottle that are not represented here!

Nail Art and Accents

The final way I like to use regular polish with gel is for basic nail art. In this manicure, I did a RNP sandwich on the index and pinkie nails and dotted the middle and ring fingers with Pigment of My Imagination. I also use RNP for stamping regularly. When using RNP for nail art, it still needs to dry completely before adding the gel top coat, so the amount of time will depend on the thickness of the layers in the artwork.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and learned a few new tricks. I invite you to swing by my blog at www.manictalons.com for gel polish swatches and nail art combinations.

Thank you, Christy, for inviting me to share these methods!

~Michelle

St. Patrick’s Day Nail Art By MadamLuck

St. Patricks Day Art – Guest Post By Nidia of Lit From Within