The Collector - Golden Decals for Your Odder Side

The Collector - Golden Decals for Your Odder Side || I titled these nails "The Collector."

Doesn't it seem like an amalgamation of weird items that you'd find in some spooky antique shop, owned by a weird dude that probably does a little spellcasting on the side?

These golden Wrap Artist decals pair with the soft, pink base in a really cool way. It's a sort of girly-meets-peculiar juxtaposition that I really enjoy!

I began by applying Presto Secco as my gel polish base. It's a really pretty soft pink that I actually bought for bridal season, but that works great year round as a more "natural" look!

Then, I applied the Wrap Artist decals. These are water slide decals, which is my preferred method of application for decals. They just work better! I used decals from both the "Bone Structure" and "Oddities" sheets for this look, but you should really just go look around the Wrap Artist site, 'cause there are so many awesome options.

After blotting off any excess water, I applied my gel topcoat to seal everything in and cured. The decals are very thin - I only needed one coat of gel top to smooth everything away.

I had a few people at work questioning the weirdness of this manicure (though just as many thought it was awesome, too). A client was like, "Um, did you know you have bugs on your nails?"

Yeah, I'm aware, and I love it!

Glittery Skull Cameos

I always take the opportunity to use "glitter" day of the 31 Day Challenge to do some hand placed glitter nail art. I don't have the strength of mind to attempt it most other times. This time, I had some new triangle glitter I wanted to play around with, so I grabbed that and some glitter skull decals and went to town. I ended up with these pretty kickass skull cameo nails!

And you know what? The placement wasn't even that bad or time consuming!

Nail polish and products used:
Nicole by OPI Yoga Then Yogurt (white base)
Orly Glowstick (neon yellow)
Black holographic triangle glitter (use code CHALKBOARD15 for 15% off!)
Joby glittery skull decals
White wax rhinestone picker pencil

I started off by painting my nails with two coats of white, and then two coats of neon yellow. The white base helps the neon pop! I did my topcoating strategy a little differently (read: poorly), but if I had it to do over again, I would have done a layer of quick dry topcoat next.

Then, using a slow drying clear polish as the glue, I stuck on the pieces of triangle glitter one by one. I basically worked in edges, painting a thin stripe of clear along one side of my nail, placing the glitter using the wax pencil, and repeating until the outline was complete. I used tweezers to attach the skull decals. At this point, if you were following my ideal topcoat strategy, you'd apply a final coat of topcoat to seal in the glitter and the decals.

There's no such thing as too much glitter, so be sure to check out my glitter manicures from years past!

• Wet N Wild Correction Tape
• Hand placed glitter party nails
• Midnight Mermaid glitter placement