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BBAC 2014, Day 4: Drizzle Stripes NoTW

Posted on Wednesday, at • bought • 770 views

Welcome to Day 4!! Today is the first of the Nail of the Week posts (and I'm actually doing two of them per week, so that's kind of a misnomer…but work with me) and I'll be showcasing another beauty site. Check out Danielle's post for today by looking at the Beauty Blog Advent Calendar.

I have long wanted to try drizzle nails - not the stringier kind, that is sometimes called “spun-sugar” drizzle nails. But thicker lines, more widely spaced, like drizzling on top of holiday chocolates. I remember seeing this look in Zoya's promo pics for its Cashmeres polishes. I searched for tips, finally found what I thought might be some good tutorials, and settled in for a day of manicure-tryouts.

...results were mixed…

BBAC 2014, Day 4: Drizzle Stripes NoTW

In my first attempt, I tried using a long thin brush to paint on the stripes in a random-ish fashion. This didn't really work - it looked more like a crazed striping-tape manicure - so I wiped off my one nail-attempt and started over. I did not bother taking photos of that one. Next I tried using the long thin brush as a drizzling tool. In theory, it was wonderful. In practice, I got either not enough polish picked up to drizzle, or got too much and ended up with large spatters and drops rather than thin drizzles. I didn't take photos of that one, either. (At least I'd only tried that on one nail to start with, so cleanup and reset was a fairly quick matter. Next up, I got some thin coffee-stirring straws, and tried using those like pipettes. The plan was to fill them up, stopper the end, hold them at an angle to control the flow-rate of the polish, and drizzle that over my nails. This could potentially be a little messier, but I had hopes. You can see in the photos below, how well those hopes were served.

Photos that show how the product actually performs...! See how I create my swatches

BBAC 2014, Day 4: Drizzle Stripes NoTW Nail Files: NoTW: Drizzle Stripes Nail Files: NoTW: Drizzle Stripes

Fourth and final attempt was one that I'd tried to avoid, since it had (to my mind) maximum mess potential. It also seemed like it would use a lot more polish than I wanted to, and more of it would end up on the paper towel and my hands than on my nails. This method came closest to giving me thinner stripes, initially. As the polish dried, though, the thinner lines spread a bit. Some were more like stripes than drizzle lines. And this method did go through more polish than the other ways I tried. So maybe with some refinement of this technique, I might be able to get closer to the results I want, AND the look that I want. But you can see, in the images above, that even taking my super-short nails into account…the stripes were a bit too thick. They were nicely distributed, but they were just too thick.

I did learn some other tips while preparing for this manicure, though: putting Elmer's Glue on your cuticles is a GREAT way to easily clean up manicure messes. It's like a dropcloth for your nail polish. Once you're done with your manicure (and you've let the polish thoroughly dry) you just carefully pull the glue up, et voila! I used a cheap eyeshadow-sponge applicator to apply the glue. It worked very well. It also gave me another idea for my next attempt at a manicure, since after going through three rounds of glue-around-the-nails, the sponge came off the little plastic paddle. That plastic paddle thins down at the end, but it's broad and flat and actually has a blade. Maybe using that, instead of a toothpick, would give me the longer thicker “strings.”

So…I didn't successfully give myself a drizzle stripe manicure, but I learned some things. And I have a plan of attack for next time…

Today's Featured Site: Lipstick and Linguine

Another relatively new blogger, but a fairly good amount of activity - at least two posts a week every month, even in the middle of summer when people are either off vacationing or on their winter-holiday break (hello, southern hemisphere!) Most of her posts are beauty or beauty-related, but she's got some general lifestyle and decor bits in there.

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