Guest Blogger No.3 - The One With The Wicked Awesome Flower

Hello Valkyries! I'm Kelly (also known as KawaiiKagura) from Nailpocalypse and I'm really excited to be guest posting today. Thanks so much to Kas and George for even reading my blog and for thinking of me to do this post. This is my very first guest post anywhere so I also put together another first to share with you all, my first tutorial! Are you excited? I'm excited. I have said the word excited a few too many times in this intro so let's move on and pretend my awkwardness didn't happen.

A while ago I did a latte inspired mani (http://nailpocalypse.blogspot.com/2012/05/latte-inspired-mani.html ) using the needle marble or dry marbling technique. Since the flowers got quite a bit of attention, they now get their own tutorial. Before I turn you loose to play with gobs of polish (I know you want to), I will share a few tips and tricks not included in the tutorial itself.

• Be generous with your polish but try not to flood the sides of your nail bed. If the polish starts to slide to the sides, it will pull your hard work with it.
• When dragging with the pin/whatever you use, try not to be heavy handed. If you push too hard down to the nail, it may be harder for your base coat to self-level as you go. I tend to just let the pin rest on the polish and pull to the side, if that makes sense.
• Okay so I lied, this one IS in the tutorial but it's a big one. Working quickly is essential to making this work! To help that happen, have all your colors open already before you start. If you take too long to start needling the polish will start to set and you can get ridge lines in your base coat as you drag. No bueno.

Flowers are just one of the many many shapes and designs you can do with this technique. It really is so versatile and that is why it is one of my favorite things to do with nail polish. Play around with where you place your dots, the size of your dots, how many colors you use, heck make stripes and drag those around! I like to add dots and stripes to my finished marbles to add even more to the effect. There's really no wrong way to do this. So go forth, my new friends, and make messes! I hope this has been able to help a few of you along the way!

Polishes used in the above tutorial:
    •    Sally Hansen Salon Manicure base coat / Seche Vite top coat
    •    Essie Master Plan
    •    Sinful Colors Cinderella
    •    Sally Hansen Black Heart
    •    China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le
    •    Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow