Hey everyone, hope you're all ok! Today I have something a little bit
different on my blog. I've saw a lot of blog posts and videos on DIY
glitter nail polishes, which I have also seen referred to as nail
'frankens' - like Frankenstein! Get it?! You basically mix a bunch of
stuff together to create your own one of a kind custom nail polish! It
looks so fun and unique, I just had to try it out myself. So I thought I
would share my first attempt with you all, as well as provide a
step-by-step tutorial on how I did it. And just for a quick disclaimer,
the way I did it is basically the way QueenBeauty did it in her DIY Nail
Polish video, which I can no longer find the original on YouTube...but
here's the
link to the same video, just reposted by someone else, if you wanna see that. So anyway, here's how I got on;
What You Need:
- A small spoon
- Post-it notes
- A nail wheel
- A clear top coat
- Stainless steel ball bearings (ensure they fit in your polish!)
- Tape
- Xantham gum
- Your choice of different sized glitters
For the glitters, I chose 3 different sizes and colours. Apparently, if
you just use the same sized glitter, the end result isn't very even and
doesn't work well. So I chose a navy 3mm hexagonal glitter (
LB1000)*, a turquoise 1mm+0.2mm glitter (
LB700)* and a white/silver 1.5mm glitter (
B0100A)*. So I had a good little selection of different sizes and colours. I got mine from
KKCenterHK,
which stock tons of awesome nail art supplies. I have reviewed products
from them in the past, and have always been happy with their service
and product quality.
Step By Step Tutorial;
- Ok, so first you want to either use up some of the top coat over time,
or just pour some of it out to make room for all the glitter. I
recommend you use a cheap one for first attempts like I have here, and
maybe have a back-up one just in case something goes wrong with your
first go. Once you are a pro at DIY polish, then you could consider to
move up market a bit more if you wish.
- Add some ball bearings to the polish to be used as stirrers later on.
This is really important to be able to evenly separate the glitter
inside. I used about 5 3mm ball bearings that I got from
Simply Bearings online. You could put less than this in, but you would need to shake the bottle up for a much longer time.
- Then take a post-it note and roll it into a cone like the above image.
Use a small amount of tape to secure it in place, then cut a good
amount of the top off with scissors. Make sure the smaller end fits in
the polish bottle. Some people have used little cake icing cones or
whatever they're called which look perfect for this, but I didn't have
any, so made do with what I've got.
- Next, place your cone in the polish and using the spoon (or whatever
tool you like), pour in some xantham gum. I used about half a teaspoon,
but it depends on the size of your polish bottle. Mine was quite small,
so this was enough for me, but you may wish to add more to suit.
- As you can see above, it just kind of sits at the top, so put the
brush back in and screw shut. Shake very well until all the xantham gum
has spread evenly throughout and your clear polish now looks cloudy as
photographed above.
- After that, take another post-it note and fold the middles of each
side slightly to create a kind of rubbish boat, like above. You could
use a small deoderant lid or similar, but again, I didn't have any
spare, so just stuck with the post-it notes.
- Pour out equal amounts of your glitters and mix together with the end
of your spoon until your happy with how it looks. If you like one
glitter more than another, go ahead and add more of that to the mixture.
Apparently, it doesn't work as well if you just dunk in a glitter at a
time. It's best to mix them all together first.
- Again using your trusty cone funnel, pour in the glitter mix from a
crease of the 'boat'. You may want to just pour a little in at a time,
put the lid on and shake well, until all the mix is gone, so that it
doesn't all get stuck at the top and overflow.
- Keep adding your glitter mix until your happy with how the polish
looks and shake VERY well. I kept adding more and more until there was
tons of glitter in, as i wanted mine very, well...glittery! This is
where the nail wheels come in handy, to test how it looks applied to the
nails as you go.
Finished Result
And here's some pictures of the finished result! It didn't turn out as
good as I thought, but I think I did well considering it's my first
try. I LOVE that turquoise glitter. Next time I try this (cause I'm
definitely doing more!), I will reconsider the sizes of glitter I
choose. I wouldn't use a 3mm glitter again, as as much as I liked this
one, I found it didn't sit on the nails well and lifted off very easily,
even with top coats. But other than that, I am happy with how it turned
out!
Here's how 3 coats of this polish looks over different bases. The first
of the nails from the nail wheel is over just the nail wheel itself, the
second is over 1 coat of black nail polish, the third over 1 coat of
navy polish and finally over 1 coat of white nail polish. I personally
preferred it over the black polish, which is what I chose to wear at the
end.
The glitter does start to settle at the bottom over time, so be sure to shake it on a regular basis to keep it nice and even.
Overall, I really enjoyed doing this and definitely am going to get some
more supplies to do some more DIY nail polishes. It was so fun and I
like the end result and highly recommend you all try it yourself if you
haven't already!
Have you tried DIY polish before?
*DISCLAIMER - Products above marked
with an asterisk (*) were sent to me by KKCenterHK to consider for
review. As always, this does not effect my opinion of the products and
all opinions are my own and 100% honest. I was not paid in any way to
write this post or review.
Thank you, pretty--wonderful
Check out pretty--wonderful blog
http://www.pretty--wonderful.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/my-first-attempt-at-diy-nail-polishnail.html
