Rose Quartz Part III - The Return of the Quartz // Rose Quartz Nail Design

I've been trying to perfect rose quartz nails since I started this blog and I think this is the closest I've come using standard nail polish. You can see my previous attempts here:

• Nearly But Not Quite // Pink Quartz
• Rose Quartz 2: The Rose-ening

That first attempt was awful, the second better but still not there. This time I feel I've almost cracked it. My secret is using super sheer layers of a pink polish and acrylic gouache paint.

I started out with a layer of London Court then drew on some very fine white lines, smudging them out with the slightest amount of water. Once dried, I applied a layer of Spaghetti Straps, then drew more lines, some stronger. Then applied a second layer of Spaghetti Straps followed by top coat.

Polishes/Tools Used:

- Essie // Spaghetti Straps (sheer pink)

- Nails Inc // London Court with Collagen (sheer pale pink)

- Pebeo Studio Gouache // 11 Blanc (white)

- Barry M // Plumpy Top Coat

Rose Quartz 2: The Rose-ening // Rose Quartz Nails

I've been experimenting for a while now on how to create the perfect looking rose quartz nails that's simple and doesn't require gel or expensive products and well, here is another attempt. I think this is the best one yet but I think I can get it better. The lines need to be a little more blurred so next time I do it, I'm going to go over them with a little acetone to smudge them out.

This is a pretty cheap look though, all the products used are under £4 each. The entire look would set you back around £25 but that's for 6 polishes, a stamping plate and a stamper so you can just keep doing the look over and over and over again.

How I did it:-

Start off with 1 thin coat of H&M Aurora Mist for a shimmery lavendar/blue base. This is the key to getting that pink you see in the rose quartz. I've found that using an actual pink base makes the entire look too pink or dark. Lavender bases seem to work the best.

Added some veins using Barry M Cotton and stamps from Nicole Diary 76.

Then, I gently floated a layer of Essence Sweet As Candy over the first set of white veins. This is a sheer pink/white that offsets the lavender a little.

Added another layer of veins using the weaker off-white Mystery in Milan by Cuccio. This makes it look they are actually in the background without having to add many layers of polish.

Then I floated a thin layer of H&M Peach & Quiet. This is too peach for rose quartz but the lavender really calms it down.

The last step was to add a layer of H&M Beyond the Pale for extra shine and some added subtle blue sparkles in the sun!

I will warn you that this will take some time to fully dry; about an hour to fully harden due to all the layers. You can add a quick dry top coat to speed it up a little but without gel all those layers will need time. I think next time I will sponge on a base of the lavender and a white polish so it's not all one colour and smudge the veins a little but I'm pretty happy with this one!

Nearly But Not Quite Nails // July 2019

So instead of calling them nail fails, like I have been every month, I decided to call it something else because they weren't really "fails" but rather looks I just felt 'meh' about and didn't feel they deserved their own post, so in the interest of open-ness here is some nail art I've done that isn't great but it isn't wow either. It's more "you tried."

#1 // Antique Berries

Oh man this was so long ago. I did this on the 14th March and I kept meant to post it but never did. The stamping is clean, the colours go nice together but it's just lacklustre. Nothing pops out but damn those Barry M Liquid Chrome polishes stamp like heaven. These photos make miss my old set-up so bad though :(

#2 // Pink Marble

Hot off the heels of Stone Goals, I did another smooshing look but this time adding in some pink. Again, I really wanted to post this but it was so similar and looking back now I feel like the pink was too dark. I think this would've benefited from some gold veins and maybe a succulent or two. I do like this look though and once my lightboxes are back in place in a week I'll try and film the whole smooshing process because it creates perfect marble nails, every time.

Also, how hard am I squeezing the rose quartz? My thumb is almost yellow lol.

#3 // Pink Quartz

This look came about after watching this video by the very talented twi_star where she used sharpies and a sheer as hell OPI shade to achieve perfect Quartz nails. I am nowhere near the level of twi_star however I did buy a sheer as hell OPI shade because of this video to practice doing rose quartz nails. Instead of using sharpies mixed with rubbing alchohol though I just used acrylic paint and I think I got the layering effect right with all the layers of the sheer polish between the veins, but the pink is just too pink and the edges are a bit of a mess where the polish wasn't applied neatly. Then in an attempt to be @lieve_91, I added some gold shimmer and rose gold striping tape.

#4 // Hydration

If you were wondering where this months Look Fantastic nails were...well here they are. *one person slow clapping*. I really don't like this look, it just didn't turn out how I saw it in my head in the slightest. It's boring and the lighting is terrible. The accent finger was a water decal and I now wish I had done the entire hand using the water decals. The stamping is supposed to be banana leaves and an ombre of colours from mint to white and green but it all just merged together to become this boring mass of lines.

And with that I've finally got four folders that I can remove from my pending folder to make way for fresh new stuff. Hope you enjoyed this random assortment of nails, see you next month for the next lot (because there will definitely be more...)

Serenity Crystals // Blue & Pink Crystal Nail Art

Some nail art that isn't terrible! I probably should've scheduled this until April (as I have a whole host of scheduled posts between now and then) but I'm not entirely happy with all the upcoming posts, they're just kind of meh. This look was also for the Clairestelle8 March prompt "Crystals" on the 16th so I'm posting it. 

I saw a look similar to this on pinterest but they had a sort of space pattern going on in the crystal bits but I'm basic therefore I had to do Rose Quartz & Serenity. I also love the Crystal plates from MoYou, I bought two of them before they sold out but I wish I'd bought them all now.

I started off with 2 layers of Blanc then applied a top coat. I stamped on all the designs I wanted to colour in using Pink Planet and then mixed Dream Holiday, Teenage Blush and August Plum with acetone to acheive that nice watercolour look. I could've done something like this on the stamper but I actually prefer colouring stamps in now on the nail and then stamping it back on top again as I find I'm not as shaky.

I adore this look though. I think it's one of my favourites; I want to do a dreamcatcher/feather look using these colours. I also love how my nails are back to normal; I'm definitely a short nail girl, no more experimenting with long nails for me.

Polishes/Tools Used:-
- Essie // Blanc (white)

- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // Pink Planet (gold to pink metallic shift)
- Born Pretty Stamping Polish // #4 (white)

- MoYou London Stamping Polish // Dream Holiday (sky blue)
- MoYou London Stamping Polish // Teenage Blush (coral pink)
- MoYou London Stamping Polish // August Plum (grape purple)

- China Glaze // No Chip Top Coat
- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Crystal 01