A Lot Like Love

I wanted to combine a couple of techniques I hadn't seen together before (maybe for a good reason, I'll let you be the judge of that!) for the next mani in the Valentine's Day series: a retro element in the shape of water marbling (out of sheer stubbornness!) and the very current negative space.

I used Kiko polishes for this look. Have I ever mentioned that Kiko is great value for money? All of these were under £3 and the formula is pretty good, as is the brush. The water marble features 316 (violet), 389 (mint) and 338 (lavender) and for the outlines I used 433, a lovely duochrome.

I painted my nails with base coat and then cut a heart out of magic Scotch tape and placed it on my nail. For the letters I used striping tape to create the shapes. Then I taped all my fingers in preparation for the water marble.

When I was done dipping my fingers in the water, I removed all the tape and, using a very fine nail art brush, framed the heart and the shapes of the letters with a much darker polish, as they were getting a little lost amongst all the shapes and colours. I finished it with two coats of top coat, for extra shine and protection.

I may have inhaled a lot of acetone and nail polish fumes or something, because when I looked at my nails after I'd finished this mani, I immediately thought: "This mani is a lot like love!"

 

Why, you wonder?

Much like a water marble - and in the words of Mariah Carey - love takes time. Some people are lucky enough to get it right first time but for most of us it takes practice and patience. Love can be irregular, no two types of love or relationships are the same. Even if you follow someone else's tutorial, your results will still be different. It can be messy, sometimes you need to accept it's not as perfect as you wish and compromise. It can have the odd negative space... But on the upside, love is FUN, colourful, bright and unique. And a teeny weeny bit cheesy!