NAFB: Straw Manicure #2

This Nail Art for Beginners wasn't supposed to be what it turned out to be. I was trying to do a splatter nail art manicure and it just was not working. The instructions off Pinterest said to "dip a straw into nail polish then blow out the other end of the straw so that it will splatter all over the nail." I just couldn't get it to work. I was getting either nothing or just a glob of nail polish falling out of the straw onto my nails.

So I changed tactics and tried something off the top of my head. I started with a white base, two coats of Sally Hansen Polar Bare, then used different Kozmic Colours nails lacquers for the accent colours. I would put a small drop of the colour onto the nail, and then blow through a straw to spread the colour out onto the nail. This caused the polish to thin and dry almost instantly. I tried to put the dots at different corners of the nails and blow in different directions so that they would all semi-overlap. I then topped it off with some blue glitter and a top coat.

I didn't love this manicure, maybe if I had worn it for longer then a day it would have grown on me. I liked it a lot more before I put the glitter on, so I might attempt it again without glitter. I still want to try and achieve the splatter manicure, so if you have any tips on how to do that manicure, I would love to hear them!

NOTD: Dark Knight Dupe??

A few weeks ago I read a post on Provincial Beauty Blog showing an affordable drug-store dupe for Butter Londons Dark Knight polish. While shopping in the states I picked up the two Sally Hansen polished she mentioned and gave it a try today.

Since I don't own Dark Knight I found a picture online for comparison. It is a really close dupe. I think that the Sally Hansen duo provides more glitter coverage on the nail compared to Dark Knight. Dark Knight has the pink, blue, red, gold glitter mixed throughout, whereas, my dupe has a layer of glitter on top of the black polish.

Overall though, I think that my dupe mani turned out pretty close and I am very happy with it. I love how the light hits the glitter and how the black polish makes the glitter pop.

Check out Provincial Beauty's post and blog, she is incredible. And if you know anymore dupes for Butter London polishes let me know in the comments, because I really cant afford $18 per polish.

Polishes used:

No Name Base Coat - 1 coat

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Black Out - 1 coat

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Rockstar Pink - 1 coat

Seche Vite Top Coat - 1 coat

Photo from Provincial Beauty to show comparison of polish bottles.

Photo from Adventures of a Mad Scientist.

The glitter in this polish is more evenly distributed throughout and gives it more dimension.

Mine looks more like a layer of glitter.