Read Between the Lines

Hello darlings!  With this nail art design, I am finally caught up on my #nailthattechnique Instagram challenges.  Hooray!  And with only one more week left to go (for this month, anyways).  This week's #nailthattechnique challenge is Newspaper Print.  I have created a newsprint transfer design once before, and because I didn't think it was all that difficult I wanted to do a something a little more with this newsprint design.  This is what I came up with...

Materials used:
Base coat - Seche Vite
White Polish - Color Club 'On Cloud Nine'
Red Polish - Color Club 'Red-Handed'
Grey Polish - Color Club 'Tall, Dark, & Handsome'
Pink Polish - Color Club 'Seal it With a Kiss'
Rubbing alcohol
Newspaper clippings
Striping tape
Top Coat - Rica 'Glossy Glam'

I started out with two clean coats of white polish.  I think Color Club's 'On Cloud Nine' has a beautiful clean look to it.  I allowed this to dry till it was set, approximately 30 minutes before proceeding to the next step.

When my base polish was dry, I did the newsprint transfer.  This is fairly easy to do, and doesn't require anything too elaborate.  Clip pieces of newspaper with a sufficient amount of print on them to a size slightly larger than your nail.  Soak the clipping in rubbing alcohol for about 20-30 seconds (I used the bottle cap of my rubbing alcohol as a little bowl).  I used 91% isopropyl rubbing alcohol, you can find this in any department or drugstore.  Then place the print side down onto the nail and apply pressure.  I found the more pressure I applied the darker my print appeared on my nail.  This is why its important for your base color to be completely dry before performing this step.

I repeated this process on all my nails and applied a quick drying top coat.

Though I like the look of these simple newsprint nails I decided to take them one step further.  When they were dry I used striping tape, and applied various width stripes horizontally across my nails.  Primarily leaving the printed text areas exposed.

With my tapes in place I alternated with red, pink, and grey filling in random stripes.  I peeled the tape immediately after an area was painted to prevent as much pulling as possible.

I performed the necessary clean up and applied a final layer of top coat, and that is how I created what I am titling Read Between the Lines nail art design.

As a side note, you may notice some color streaking on these nails.  Sadly, that is due the top coat application.  I thought this was because I was applying the top coat too soon and not allowing the polish to dry enough before top coat application.  However, I have used Rica 'Glossy Glam' top coat on the last few nail art designs, and it seems no matter how long I wait this has been occurring.  Also, I noticed with this nail art design that after it had time to cure (dry completely) that there was a severe amount of shrinkage.

I snapped the above picture, about 12 hours after application and you can see at the tips and smile lines that the polish has shrank back from their original placement.  I do cap my tips (paint the free edge of nail) both with polish and top coat when doing my nails, but this still occurred.  I commonly use Seche Vite for my top coat, and I have heard people complain about it shrinking.  I've even had Seche Vite shrink on me but usually only with older bottles that have become thick and goopy.  This is the worst case of shrinkage I have ever come across.

I really like the glossy shine of Rica's 'Glossy Glam' top coat and it dries fairly quickly, but it doesn't seem to be a good fit for layered nail art designs.  I think in the future, I will use Rica's top coat for basic polish designs or very simple (single layer) nail art designs.

Though this design had a few hiccups and the execution of it turned out poor, I still like the concept and color choices.  I think I'll try this again in the future using a top coat I know will work better for this many layer.  I hope you like this design (even if it's not perfect).  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,