tutorials - Lucy's Stash

Hello lovelies,

So today I am joining a nail art challenge/link up after a long, long time! The theme is negative space to which I couldn't resist! Joining me in this challenge will be many talented nail bloggers to which I'll link at the end of this post so you can check their manicures too.

My negative space manicure is based on basic triangle shape and two different colours:

Negative Space All The Nail! Chevron Nail Art feat. 'Ard As Nails & TUTORIAL

I don't do negative space very often because I don't like to show my naked nails much so I hope you like it ;)

The main role in this manicure is played by the new 'Ard As Nails* polishes! I finally got to try this British indie brand and I've used two shades - medium pink Gregory's Girl and grey creme Slated. They were well-pigmented so it was easy to work with them, I'll do a review later.

I've also used a striping tape, sellotape, nail art brush, OPI Natural Nail Base Coat and my trusty Seche Vite top coat.

And here's how you can create this nail art look:

If you do recreate this, then please use #lucysstash or tag me in, I'd love to see your recreations!

I hope youv'e enjoyed today's post and don't forget to check out some other negative space manis from other ladies:

An InLinkz Link-up

Hello lovelies,

So I FINALLY edited a video tutorial for alcohol ink marble manicure. It's been waiting for editing since Easter...I know, I'm that bad!

We've all seen marble manicures or nail tips with beautiful alcohol ink marble but all that I have seen have been over gel polish. That is fine but not all of us wear gel polish and the alcohol inks behave quite differently on nail polish/topcoat. Firstly, let's have a look at the final manicure (without final topcoat as I stamped over it later - mistake!)....

Alcohol Ink Gradient Marble Nail Art & Tutorial

I have found that you can easily wipe off the ink from gel polish but you can't do it on nail polish, it kind of stains it. Plus if you don't use topcoat or if you're doing too many layers and playing with it too long, the nail polish underneath starts to kind of melt and smear. I don't know why but it happened to me more than once. With gel polish you can play with the ink and layer it as much as you like.

Also I wasn't able to create that perfect marble effect over nail polish. The ink doesn't seem to move and seep into each other etc. just like it can do on gel polish. But I will definitely keep trying to translate the beauty of alcohol inks on nails! One thing I want to point out though - alcohol inks nor Sharpies are NOT made for cosmetic use so technically we shouldn't be using them. But unless you get too much on your skin you should be fine.

Here's a tutorial of how I did this gradient marble manicure. I have used all 7 inks I own in Espresso, Ginger, Cranberry, Red Pepper, Raspberry, Purple Twilight, Denim and Pool.