Monday 31 December 2012

Glitter Gradient Stars (for New Year's Eve)

Hi guys, happy new year's eve! This year has just blasted by, I'm definitely not the only one to think that. I had a really good year this year and I can't wait for next year. I have so many nail art ideas I can't wait :) I haven't really thought about a new year's design cause I've been absorbed in Christmas (and I was happily absorbed). I've thought about this design and thought it would be appropriate for new year's. But let me tell you, it wasn't easy...

After all the effort though, I'm a fan. I haven't gone into my love of stars before but I think they're fascinating and beautiful. I matted this design with the Rimmel Matte Finish topcoat. I haven't done a star design before surprisingly, I thought of this and was reminded of Chalkboard Nails's beautiful star design, her's is amazing. I knew mine would not be of that calibre but I could do a half baked attempt. She made a lovely tutorial too but I couldn't do it. I didn't have the essential equipment for the design so I searched around the house for things that could be used.
You find some crazy stuff when searching around the house, I hoping for some star stickers to make my job easier but no cigar (I've never understood that expression :/). I found quite a lot stickers (and a comb that says "I love milk" which was SO cute) and actually I found 1 tiny star sticker that wasn't going to work. But 2 days ago I was cleaning out my desk and I found star confetti, how convenient!!! My thumb has the prototype attempt, I stuck some tape to the back of the star and painted, but the star was flat and my nail is rounded so it failed a bit and I just freehanded the stars on that nail. Below is how I got the stars on my other nails.

How to achieve stenciled stars the difficult way (no pictures, maybe in the future but probably not as this design was so tedious with my method)
1. Paint your base
2. Get some sellotape and stick the confetti stars on (the more stars packed on the piece of tape the easier to cut out)
3. Cut around the star and peel the star shaped sellotape off (be careful as the tape could rip and rage ensues)
4. Stick the star piece of tape on your nail (don't press it on too hard or it will take the base off) and repeat step 3 for however many stars you want on your nails
5. Using an opaque polish (I used Rimmel - Black Pearl) paint over the nail and the tape
6. Let the polish dry a tiny bit and start peeling the tape off
7. Fix imperfections with your chosen tool
8. Have a pretty funky star design on your nails

Step 4 with pressing the tape too hard and having the base come off happened to me. I just re-patched it up late though. I think my middle finger came out best. Sorry for not cleaning up properly. I was fed up. Just use Chalkboard Nails's tutorial, it's simpler, prettier and less tedious. Peeling the tape off the confetti stars was hard -_-

This is the glitter gradient I did before the stars, I took pictures in case the stars failed so I would still have some pictures. I really like it, glitter gradients are easy.
Pink nail: Barry M - Pink Foil (base), Barry M - Amethyst, Butter LONDON - Shambolic and Barry M - Hologram Hexograms
Blue nail: Essie - Bikini So Teeny (base), Barry M - Silver Glitter, OPI - I Lily Love You and Models Own - Freak Out!
Purple: Barry M - Berry Ice Cream (base), OPI - Last Friday Night, Barry M - Aqua Glitter, Revlon - Radiant and China Glaze - Luxe and Lush
I was busting out those Barry M's, but I love those polishes. The brush for Freak Out! is so wonky, I have also realised my strong dislike for shards, the more I look at them, the more I don't like them. They don't look nice. For the stars I thought I could've done in the outlining in silver or something, but it's too late for these things now. But I think the design is very appropriate for new year's due to the glitter and the stars. I don't know what's new year's eve appropriate in all honesty, I thought a normal new year's eve is sitting at home watching tv or something. Apparently not. I didn't even realise what NYE stood for til yesterday (-_- as you can tell I'm slow).

I haven't done one of these rambly posts for a while. It's refreshing, I love to ramble. Well done if you actually read something from this post (but y'know I think you should, it's a pretty good read :P). Thank you so much for reading, I hope you have a lovely new year's eve and see you in 2013!!!! :D

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