Can you believe it's already Wednesday and May is almost over? Zoom zoom zoom! This week's prompt for the Technique Challenge is Newspaper Nails - a technique that I had never tried and which lived up to the name "challenge."
The theory behind newspaper nails is supposed to be simple: you soak your finger and/or your newspaper clipping in alcohol or water for a little bit, then the newsprint is supposed to just transfer right off onto your nail. Geared up and ready to go, I began by applying two coats of a lovely squishy grey jelly to all nails. This is MUA Koala Bear.
I was a bit disappointed when I bought this polish last winter, because I didn't realize it was a jelly (and therefore the cute baby penguin manicure for which it was purchased never happened), but when I was considering my options for this manicure, I remembered that I had it and thought it would make a fun, thin wash of light grey on my nails that would look cool with the technique. I dutifully clipped out some newspaper pieces and filled a shot glass with alcohol. To clarify, that's 99% IPA alcohol, though after a few tries with this technique I was ready to ditch the IPA and head for the single malt. Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail. I tried alcohol, water, three different types of newspaper, different timings, different rubbing techniques. Some of them *sorta* worked, leaving a really weak impression, but most just plain didn't work.
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| Seriously, this was the closest I got to success with the alcohol. |
It was originally part of a full system, and I think they sold sheets of special paper to use for transferring, but those weren't in the bin. Did I mention it was on clearance?
Yeah. I figured even if it didn't work, it was only a buck, so I wasn't too worried about it. Little did I know that this stuff, though stinky as all get-out, was the cure to my newspaper nail neuroses. I followed the directions on the bottle, applying the solution to the newspaper, then held it against my nail for 15 seconds, et voilà!
Are we all oohing and aahing right now? No? Yeah okay, me neither. Still, I was impressed at the difference it made, turning this nail fail into claw awe!
I'm very curious to see how the other ladies fared with this technique, though I suspect there will be some stamping manis for this prompt, and that's okay, too. Please go check them out.
Hope you're all enjoying this 4-day week (in both the US and the UK - HOW WEIRD!) or at least the middle of the week if you didn't have a holiday on Monday. I'll be back tomorrow with a really fun new product and a video to boot!