Monday, December 12, 2011

Frosty Stiletto Nails

I've been pretty busy lately. So busy I haven't had time to do my nails. Today I made time. I wanted to have some frosty Stiletto nails to match our weather.

Here are the steps I took to make them.



I prepared and disinfected and primed my natural nails as usual. Then I put on the foils and reverse applied some transparent pink to my nail bed. It sticks up a bit at the edge of my nail and makes a little ledge at the smile line to keep the coloured acrylic from invading that space later. I added a very thin layer of clear and speckled it with some iridescent Mylar and some confetti sparkles.




I made some little balls of clear acrylic and laid them on the sparkle layer. I tried to keep the balls separated and sticking up as much as I could. You'll see why in the next few steps.




After the clear balls cured I added some white acrylic over them and packed it right on in there to make sure it hugged each little cranny. I also paid attention to the smile line and keeping that crisp.



Next I removed the foils so I could file the tip area to shape and take the lumps off the tip area exposing the clear sections or balls I made earlier. You can see right through there to the sparkle layer I made at the beginning.



I needed to smooth everything out and create a curve to strengthen the nail so I coated the whole works with a thin layer of clear acrylic and let it cure.




I gave it one final file over to make sure everything was smooth and shaped prettily.




I used white acrylic paint and a Heinz Jordan mini script liner to make some swirls on my thumb nail and ring finger nail. I dotted some swirlies there too and the rest of the nails got a dotted smile line.



I coated the nails in a clear UV gel top coat and cured it in the UV lamp for 2 minutes.



I kind of like these ones, even if they do make me think of chilly cold snow and icicles.




I kept them a nice short to mid length stiletto so I can get work done.

I can't wait to show you everything I've been working on but I have to keep some presents secret! Prying eyes you know!