I picked a few of my favorite colors and I came up with this striped design...
Materials I used:
INM Ridge Free base coat
Sinful Colors 'Snow Me White'
Nicole by OPI matte topcoat
Sharpie markers
Rubbing alcohol
Cotton swabs (q-tips)
I began with a white base polish topped with a matte topcoat. I highly recommend that if you use sharpies on your nails that you use a white or colored base coat. Not only will it make your colors brighter but it will also prevent staining, Sharpies are permanent markers. The matte topcoat is optional but I prefer to use it because I feel it helps capture the colors, however I noticed it affects the overall appearance. If you want to go with a more watercolor like appearance do not use the matte topcoat.
I first drew stripes with my markers. Then to smooth out the colors I used rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab. I tried a few different methods to blend the colors and what I found works best to create this look was to flood the nail with rubbing alcohol and then dab the nail with a dry swab to absorb the alcohol and the loose colors. As a side note, if you are using fine tip markers like I am be careful about digging the tip into your base polish, I accidentally did that a couple of times which leaves the surface lumpy and uneven. If you are purchasing markers specifically for nail art I would recommend going with the medium softer tip Sharpie, this way you are less likely to have this problem.
What is nice about this method is that if the colors blend too much or you rub too much color off you can go back over it with the marker and re-dab it to make it more the way you want it.
Once, I was happy with how these appeared I performed a bit of clean up with acetone and a brush, and applied a final layer of matte topcoat. Of course, for your final topcoat it is up to you whether you go with a matte or glossy.
I was hoping when I created these that I would be able to blend the colors a little better to create a gradient like design, but I wasn't able to blend them quite as much as I would have liked. I think if I had skipped the matte topcoat I would have had a better gradient affect.
I do like the bright colors and the rough stripe affect that I was able to create. They kind of remind me of a pastel version of a Mexican blanket or serape.
As you saw in the top picture I have a ton of Sharpies and I have a few other watercolor type designs that I would like to try out, so expect to see them again in the future. I hope you enjoyed this nail art design, and found the tutorial and tips useful. Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.
Your Fellow Plebe,
