31DC2012: Day 27 - Inspired by Artwork

I cheated a little with today's nails. ;) Hehe! I decided that nail art is technically artwork so I was inspired by yet another YouTube tutorial. :)

I watched this nautical nail art tutorial video by CutePolish on YouTube and decided this should be pretty quick and easy to recreate. I was wrong. :)

Video by Cutepolish on YouTube

On my thumb, pointer, middle and pinky I used Sally Hansen - Whirlwind White for the base, and Butter London - Pillar Box Red for the stripes. On my ring finger I used a base of Ulta3 - Blue Marlin and a white striper for the anchor.

I underestimated how hard it would be to do perfect, or even decent, stripes! From a distance they look alright, but up close, not so much. :P I'd like to get some striping tape so that I can do perfect stripes though!

I'm also trying out the Sally Hansen Insta Dri top coat again. I tried it a while back but I forgot how it works. Now I would NOT recommend this top coat for nail art. It totally smudged my lines! :( I ended up sort of "floating" the brush over my nail once I realised that it would smudge my nails. Floating the brush is where you load up the brush with top coat, and then brush it over the nail, without actually touching the nail. It's kinda hard to explain but hopefully you understand what I mean. :) Insta Dri is pretty fast drying, not as fast as Seche Vite (because really, nothing compares to it), but I will use it for my regular manis. :) I also would probably wait at least an hour before going to bed or something after using Insta Dri, whereas with Seche Vite I can go to sleep 20 minutes after using it and not ruin my nails at all.

Can't wait for the mani I have to show you tomorrow! :D

Elissa