Geometric Candy Swirls Tutorial

Finally, after hours and hours of struggling with my internet, I present you the tutorial for my Geometric Candy Swirls mani.  I wanted to get this up yesterday, but my internet decided to have a meltdown.  So today, I ran over to the library and finished editing in record time.  It didn't even take me an hour!  To think I spent hours yesterday pulling my hair out. T__T  Well, let's get to it!

What You'll Need

Ziploc bag (I cut a square out of a plastic packaging bag)

bobby pin

a light base color (shimmer)

a darker accent color (creme)

white creme polish

 

Step 1: Spread out your Ziploc bag and paint a small square using your accent color.  In my case, I used 1 coat of Sally Hansen Pacific Blue.

Step 2: Add a thicker coat of the accent color (Pacific Blue) to the square.  It doesn't have to cover the whole square. I concentrated the polish mostly in the middle.  Now quickly add a few drops of the white creme polish on the wet accent color.















Step 3: It should look like this.  See how there is a thick layer of the blue polish?  I just added a few drops of white in it.  Now grab your bobby pin and pull the two ends apart.  You're going to use this to create white swirls.













Step 4: Use one end of the bobby pin and simply swirl the white polish around to create a marbled effect.  If you're unsure of this step, check out my needle marbling tutorial on Youtube.  You don't need to be as methodical as I am in the video though, since we will be cutting this apart.  Just make sure not to over do it, or you will mix the two colors together.  Your end product should look something like what I have on the left!  Now wait a few hours for it to dry.

Step 5:  When it's dry, you should be able to peel it right off the bag.  Like fruit roll-up!  I made mine a little big for the tutorial, but making several small squares will be easier.  You can make these ahead of time. :)












Step 6: Here's a piece I made the day before.  I just cut the excess around the swirls off and cut it into a square.  Now cut tiny triangle decals for your nails.  Make sure to give it straight edges.  Do all your cutting before you paint your nails.














Step 7: Paint your nails with the lighter base color.  Make sure it's dry.  Then either do one more coat of color or a coat of clear.  Now take a triangle decal and align the shortest straight edge with the side of your nail.  You can use a pair of tweezers to do this.  Once you align the edge with your nail, gently press the rest of the decal down.  Make sure the polish beneath is not wet or squishy, but tacky.












Step 8: That's all there is to it!  Add 2-4 decals to your nails or however you see fit.  Make sure all the edges of your decals are down then seal with top coat!

Ta da~!  You're end result should look like this!  I used a blue scheme this time around, so it looks more like ocean waves than candy swirls.  Of course you can use any color/finish, but I would stick to pink, red, and white for the candy stripe look I did in my first Geometric Candy Swirls mani. :)  Pretty easy, right?

 

 

What do you think?  Is this a look you would do?  If you do do it, feel free to post a pic of your mani to my Facebook page!  And as always, let me know what you think in the comments! :)


Liz