Today feels a bit redundant, like my color inspiration did. I used different tutorials for many manicures this month (gradient, galaxy, water marble, animal/sponging, etc.), even more manis for inspiration, and really have found so much help out there! There are a million other tutorials I am excited to try, but today I wanted to do a dot mani from one of my favorite blogs, Chalkboard Nails. I wanted to make this a little Halloween-y, so there aren't any untrieds today.
*1 coat Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Hardener
*2 coats China Glaze Elephant Walk
*Julep Kate
*Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out
*1 coat Seche Vite
Now, before I begin, let's talk about the elephants in the photos (no pun intended). First off, those awful red cuticles are a little reminder of my beloved Supernatural mani yesterday. I scrubbed and used q-tips. They were getting drier, but not cleaner. Sorry! Secondly, today I did not work, which means that I let my hair stay down. As long as it is, that made a big problem. As I finished up, it rubbed right over the top of my tacky black dots. I know, those streaks are the only thing I can look at too. I liked everything else so much that I just didn't have the heart to redo it all...
I used Elephant Walk as my base because I didn't think it was opaque enough to use for dots. I love the soft shimmer of this polish, which you can really see in the pictures. Using the larger end of my dotting tool, I used Kate first, and then switched to the smaller end.
The dots are supposed to overlap a bit (I wish I had done more of that) so I decided to do Black Out second, unsure of how well white would cover it. Again, I started with the large side and then switched to the small. I love how they look like little bubbles! The ones my hair did not ruin turned out really cute. I had to go back and adjust the shape of my dotting. A couple moved down one side more than the other, almost like a little wave. This would have been fine if I had done it for all for them, but I didn't. That's one thing that is wonderful about this design--it's so easy to add dots in and adjust the effect!
That middle nail is my favorite! It turned out the most like the tutorial and the dots are clean. I think that I would like to try this again with a bigger difference in the sizes of the dots--these are kind of close, so there isn't a ton of contrast. Overall, this is such an easy, cute design that can lend itself to any color combo or season. You will be seeing it again very soon!
What tutorials have you found and loved? What do you think I should try out next?
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