This morning, Emma from Em's Little Corner spotted this gorgeous mani by PiggieLuv and shared it with me because she knew I'd got the OPI Color Paints recently.... and wow! What a fantastic design! I knew I had to have a go at doing my own version.
I did mine a bit differently, as I didn't want to paint white over the top of glitter and end up with it lumpy, and certainly didn't trust myself to do neat lines freehand. Instead, I started with a base of white (Barry M Cotton) and use curved tip guides to tape off the central section of the nails.
Then I painted a silver glitter over the curved central section. This is 2true Sequins Christy, which is a lovely dense one-coater but with small particles which won't overlap the tape too much.
I topcoated over the silver to make it smoother (Christy has a rough finish to it), and then used the Color Paints to paint my rainbow. I removed the tape, added more topcoat, and there you go.
It's not as fantastic as PiggieLuv's, but I'm pretty damn chuffed with this! The Color Paints look fab over glitter, and I love the contrast of white and the colours. I included this blurry photo because it shows how glossy and juicy these colours are!
What do you think?
I'm always fascinated by brightly coloured rainbow nail designs when I see them on other blogs, and yet am always a bit disappointed when I do them myself, as I always end up with a bit of a mess. Today's nails were inspired by this lovely design by Nails by Jema. Hers are gorgeous, aren't they?
So, here are mine.
I started with a base of Barry M Pearl, the off-white one from the Silks range. I then dotted away with a whole host of other Barry Ms, mostly Gelly colours.
I'm not particularly happy with the way each colour blends into the next (i.e. they don't!) but I do really like the ring finger because the colour change seems a bit more natural.
I think the main difference between the original design by Jema, and mine, is that she has a lot more colour coverage on the nails - I was perhaps too cautious and left too much white showing. Plus I needed a better blend of colours too, so that it's not a sudden switch from one colour to the next.
I did get a bit bogged down in the idea that the colours needed to be in proper rainbow order, but maybe I should have given up on that and just done a more gradient-like blend.
Having said all that, I'm comparing mine to the original, which is a bit negative, I know. So without the comparison, I really like these nails, so much so that I've done them on my right hand and will wear them to work tomorrow.
This week, one of my colleagues went to get her nails done at a salon, and asked for a rainbow accent nail. Apparently, they told her it couldn't be done! (They did a lovely skittle mani for her instead, but it was no rainbow!) So I decided to do a rainbow accent nail myself.
The main colour is Barry M Mist, one of the lovely Silk range. I then used a lot of different colours and lots of striping tape to make the accent nail.
Left to right in the photo above (I think!) are: Models Own Pukka Purple, Rimmel Ultra Violet, Barry M Pink Punch, Barry M Blood Orange, OPI Roll in the Hague, Barry M Yellow, MoYou London Spring Green, Barry M Huckleberry, Barry M Guava, Barry M Blue Grape, and Models Own Pukka Purple again.
I'm really chuffed with how neatly this came out! It's a million times better than the first time I tried to make rainbow stripes!
What do you reckon? An improvement?
I'm SO excited about these nails! I saw something similar on a blog ages ago and wanted to have a go, but thought they'd be really fiddly - as it turns out, it wasn't too bad at all!
I only did the design on two nails, just in case it took forever. The other nails are Barry M Mist - from my much loved Silks collection. I love these, the formula is really good, and I really like the matte but slightly pearly finish. I used Pearl, the white one from the Silks range as a base on my thumb and and ring finger.
I then added striping tape in a ray pattern on my accent nails, and painted each stripe separately. The colours I used were: Barry M Bright Purple, Barry M Cobalt, Barry M Guava, MoYou London stamping polish in Green, Barry M Yellow, Barry M Block Orange and Rimmel Pro Heart on Fire.
When the tape was removed, I was left with this lovely bright rainbow pattern. I then added a pink rhinestone to each nail, topcoated everything, and that was that. I love the result!
I've worn these to work yesterday and today and the stripes are still perfectly in place, so I'm leaving them on for another day tomorrow. The blue nails are a bit scuffed, so I'm going to carefully take that polish off, and do something different on those fingers - maybe even some more rays!
I've got loads of ideas now about how to vary this design! Maybe an ombre skittle, with dark to pale shades of the same colour, but a different colour on each nail? Or maybe a gradient effect across the nails. Or... ooh, all sorts!
I've also just joined a Facebook group for British Nail Bloggers - see my British Blogs Page for more details (and to add your link if you are a British Blog!) and have a browse of the lovely ladies' fabulous designs this week on the links below!
I love seeing rainbow nails on other blogs. I love how bright and vibrant and happy they are. I've been keen to do my own for ages, but was put off by the thought of them being fiddly...
HA! They weren't just fiddly, they were ridiculously fiddly, and I only did my ring fingers! I like that these are bright and happy, but oh dear, I do not like the untidiness of the lines.
I didn't use tape; I tried to freehand these. I should not have done! Oh well. They look fine from a distance, but I am not happy.
I used Barry M Cyan on the plain fingers, and the rainbow is made up of Gelly Blood Orange, Block Orange, Bright Yellow, Spring Green, Cyan, Cobalt and Bright Purple (over a white base).
