Acetone Files: 33DC Day 4 - Tribal / Navajo Turquoise Nails
Acetone Files
33DC Day 4: Tribal
Navajo Turquoise Nails
One of my favorite gems is turquoise, and I've always wanted to try putting it on my nails! I don't know about you but I didn't want to do ikat or something like that, and I realized "tribal" can mean Native American as well as African, so I jumped at the chance to do some beautiful Native American art!
I have a bit of connection to the Southwest and Utah specifically - I lived there for 2 years when I was 3. I don't remember much, but I loved the canyons and natural wonders out there, and I still have a few treasures from the Southwest lying around. One is a kachina doll, another is one of those giant turquoise-studded silver cuffs that belonged to my dad (yep, in the 70s, men wore bling too). I have quite a few "turquoise" pieces of jewelry too - mostly fake, but I love the color and cracked texture.
When I saw Lacquerstyle's tutorial, I knew I had to try it! Kristin's nails are absolutely stunning, and I wanted to give it a go with my own twist. You can read her tutorial to see basically what I did. The only difference is the polishes: I used Zoya Wednesday for the turquoise body (out of all my minty greens, that one seemed to be the perfect blue-green), Sally Hansen Golden-I for the dabs of gold, and Color Club Muse for the veins, which is actually a very dark grey - I wanted to change it up a little from Kristin's and give it a softer tone.
My long-awaited package from Born Pretty came at exactly the right time!! I was going to tape/freehand some silver arrows and diamonds on an accent nail in a Navajo pattern, but when I got my wheel of studs, I couldn't wait to make my nails really look like Navajo turquoise jewelry! I used round and square silver studs* from my new wheel, plus a turquoise-ish blue rhinestone from my collection of hobby store gems.
This has got to be my most ambitious manicure yet! I absolutely love it, and I hope you enjoy it too! Thanks to Kristin for the tutorial - try it, you'll get addicted to hairspray water-marbling!
*A word on placing studs/rhinestones: There are a lot of wax pencils/grabbers out there that are really damn expensive! I figured out a much cheaper alternative to handle those teeny tiny nail adornments: roll a tiny ball of putty, sticky tack, or clay and stick it on the end of a dotting tool, old pen, or toothpick. I couldn't have done this manicure without it!
33DC Day 4: Tribal
Navajo Turquoise Nails
One of my favorite gems is turquoise, and I've always wanted to try putting it on my nails! I don't know about you but I didn't want to do ikat or something like that, and I realized "tribal" can mean Native American as well as African, so I jumped at the chance to do some beautiful Native American art!
I have a bit of connection to the Southwest and Utah specifically - I lived there for 2 years when I was 3. I don't remember much, but I loved the canyons and natural wonders out there, and I still have a few treasures from the Southwest lying around. One is a kachina doll, another is one of those giant turquoise-studded silver cuffs that belonged to my dad (yep, in the 70s, men wore bling too). I have quite a few "turquoise" pieces of jewelry too - mostly fake, but I love the color and cracked texture.
When I saw Lacquerstyle's tutorial, I knew I had to try it! Kristin's nails are absolutely stunning, and I wanted to give it a go with my own twist. You can read her tutorial to see basically what I did. The only difference is the polishes: I used Zoya Wednesday for the turquoise body (out of all my minty greens, that one seemed to be the perfect blue-green), Sally Hansen Golden-I for the dabs of gold, and Color Club Muse for the veins, which is actually a very dark grey - I wanted to change it up a little from Kristin's and give it a softer tone.
My long-awaited package from Born Pretty came at exactly the right time!! I was going to tape/freehand some silver arrows and diamonds on an accent nail in a Navajo pattern, but when I got my wheel of studs, I couldn't wait to make my nails really look like Navajo turquoise jewelry! I used round and square silver studs* from my new wheel, plus a turquoise-ish blue rhinestone from my collection of hobby store gems.
This has got to be my most ambitious manicure yet! I absolutely love it, and I hope you enjoy it too! Thanks to Kristin for the tutorial - try it, you'll get addicted to hairspray water-marbling!
*A word on placing studs/rhinestones: There are a lot of wax pencils/grabbers out there that are really damn expensive! I figured out a much cheaper alternative to handle those teeny tiny nail adornments: roll a tiny ball of putty, sticky tack, or clay and stick it on the end of a dotting tool, old pen, or toothpick. I couldn't have done this manicure without it!