33 Day Challenge: Dots

Here we go with the first day of the Crumpet's Nail Tarts 33 Day Challenge. Looking at all the prompts, they look kinda scary but I'm hoping my creativity stretches enough to create good results for a whole 33 days. Or be prepared to browse Pinterest for lots of inspiration. :)

This first manicure was strongly inspired by this manicure from the Polish Chest. I've been wanting to recreate it for a while but hadn't found the opportunity to do it. Good thing  the first prompt is dots. Woohoo!

I started with one coat of Ulta3 in Black Satin followed by one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat and then applied a coat of OPI Matte Top Coat. Once it all dried,  I created the silver dots with a larger dotting tool and Ozotic in 509, a silver linear holo which I believe has been discontinued. Of course, I had to bring it out to the sun to show how awesome this polish is.  

Click on the page break for more sunny photos.

Dots: They May Be The End Of Me

After having spent some time in the nail art blogsphere, I have discovered even the best bloggers have one technique they can't quite master. For most it may be the water marble, for some less it could be the perfect gradient, others have trouble with tape. I'm by no means saying I'm one of the best out there (but I will aspire to be one... eventually), but the technique that fails me every time would be dotting. Yes, dotting. The one that you can do with almost anything that's slightly pointy and that should be super easy. The one that looks amazing when done properly. For some reason that I'm yet to discover, I cannot make the dots into circles. They tend to go pear shaped (sometimes literally) and I get frustrated.

I decided to give one a go today since it had been a while since my last attempt at a dotticure and was determined to have a steady hand and lots of patience. The result wasn't half bad but there is still a lot of room for improvement. I started with three coats of OPI's DS Classic then used two different sizes dotting tools to apply Topshop's High Voltage for the pink dots and Ulta3 in Orchid for the purple shimmer dots. I applied a coat of Seche Vite to even all the layers out, once dry I topped it all off wit one coat of Essie's Matte About You.

It's not perfect but it's wearable. After so many failed attempts I'm OK wit that. 

One SUPER annoying tiny little thing that is happening lately is shrinkage from Seche Vite. It doesn't happen with all my fingers, it just happens on my index and it makes it look like I have bad tipwear. I'm thinking it may be because that finger is more curved than the others. 

I liked the pattern I managed to create with this finger and the dots were mostly all circular. Woohoo!

The more I look at it, the more I begin to accept it may not be such a bad job. I'll just have to keep practicing an try to keep my hands steady.

I'd like to know, is there a technique that you'd like to master but haven't qquite gotten there yet?

Till next time, 

Laura