Monday Blues: Ink Watercolor

Hello my lovelies! It's still a holiday in my country, so today is a day off for me. I couldn't expect more from a Monday! The weather isn't great and I think it's about to rain, so indoors activities are in order. I don't mind because I've been looking forward to get some rest and catch up on my reading and TV shows. Anyway, today I'm bringing the first Monday Blues of May. These nails have been an experiment that I pretty much consider as failed, not because of the result but because of the creation process. It's the first time I try to do some Sharpie nails and this is the result.

I've been very curious to try doing Sharpie nails for a while now so I decided to give it a try. I don't have actual Sharpies but I used some colored markers that I have and I think they work just the same. I started with a base of Barry M Cotton and I think I only used one thicker coat because I was going to cover it anyway. After it was dry, I took 2 blue makers and one black marker and started drawing randomly on the nail. I then used a brush dipped in alcohol to dissolve the ink and spread it randomly on the nail. What I learned in this process was that you need to work on each nail individually because the marker dries on the nail and doesn't spread as nicely after a while.

The first issue I had with these was the fact that the ink just runs from the edge of the nail towards the center. That's why you see that white frame around the design. I could probably solve that issue by using a mattifying top coat but then I'm not sure the ink would spread nicely with alcohol. The main issue I had though was concerning cleanup. The markers stained my cuticles and fingers because this is quite a messy technique. I thought it would come off with alcohol or acetone but it didn't, so I ended up with smurf fingers all day. I only managed to clean them after washing my hands repeatedly and also using a nail brush. My Cinderella hand, which of course was messier, still had some ink on it the next day. I also did some stamping over these using the FUN 17 plate and Jumbo Clear Stamper from Fab Ur Nails. I used a white stamping polish from the Born Pretty Store.

I really like how this looks with the stamping on top, especially because it masks that white frame that bothered me a lot. I will probably not try this again because of the staining that the markers do. I will stick to nail polish and acrylics in the future. It was an interesting experience though and I don't regret experimenting with markers. Let me know what you think and if you ever tried doing Sharpie nails. And make sure you check out the rest of today's Monday Blues by clicking the links below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Have a great week!