Negative Space All The Nails
Hello again lovely people! You may remember about a month ago, I teamed up with some fabulously talented nail bloggers to create a themed link-up. I am participating for the second time and today, I get to share my designs with all! Can you believe that I’m actually sharing nail art twice in one week? I don’t think that’s been done on my blog until now! I’m happy to be stretching my nail art wings. 
The theme for September’s link-up was negative space. I haven’t incorporated all that much negative space into my nail art repertoire but I always admire it. I think negative space nails always look so chic, modern and even futuristic. Plus it’s fun to experiment with cool new looks. I couldn’t decide what to do for this prompt so I came up with 3 different looks. 2 turned out great and one is a fail. I decided to show you guys the fail anyway because I realized that I rarely show my fails on the blog. I do fail quite often in nail art since I’m still learning and practicing. The perfectionist in me, just won’t allow me to show them most of the time!
Now, let’s get to the good stuff!
First up is a negative space watermarble. I had been wanting to try using a clear polish/top coat in a watermarble for a while now so I thought this would be the perfect chance! I had a heck of a time trying to find a clear that would spread in the water well and not bleed into the colored polishes. I ended up using an unlabeled Wet n’ Wild top coat and it worked relatively well but I’m still going to be on the lookout for something else. If anyone has suggestions, I would appreciate it greatly! For this look, I used Zoya “Rocky” and “Lara” and OPI “Lost My Bikini In Molokini” and as I mentioned an unlabeled clear Wet n’ Wild polish/top coat. I then used China Glaze “Fairy Dust” to give it some sparkle and Zoya “Lara” again to add some french tips.
Next up is a floral mani I straight up copied from Paulina at Paulina’s Passions. I adored her version so much and I loved that she incorporated just a touch of negative space into the design. I need to practice doing smaller flowers because when I got to actually doing the little buds on my nails, they were much bigger and I thought to myself, how on earth can she paint them so small! What is this, nail art for ants!? :P I was joking of course! Haha! But seriously, such talent! For my interpretation, I used Rescue Beauty Lounge “Sunny Skies” as the base, leaving just a half-moon of nail showing and topped it with China Glaze “Fairy Dust”. Then I used OPI “ElePhantastic Pink”, “Suzi Shops & Island Hops” and KBShimmer “Eyes White Open” for the flowers. And lastly, added little leaves using Zoya “Jace”. *Toot toot* I love how this turned out!
And now for the fail… whomp whomp! I’m sure some people are going to be like, that’s not even bad! but I have a tendency to compare myself to other nail bloggers/artists. Because of that, when I try out some decals or nail vinyls, I expect that shiz to look perfect! Even the watermarble was a pain in the rear and didn’t turn out as nicely as I’d like. I started out with a layer of China Glaze “Fairy Dust” (apparently I’ve been on a “Fairy Dust” kick.) Then I used the same unlabeled Wet N’ Wild polish, OPI “Gelato On My Mind” and “You’re Such A Budapest” to create the watermarble. This time around, the polishes were bleeding into the clear polish a bit and it made the edges of the colors all pulpy looking; for lack of a better word. Plus, the polishes weren’t spreading all that well. Once that had all dried completely, I used some unicorn nail vinyls I got from Serum No. 5 and placed them on my nail, painting over them using OPI “Suzi Shops & Island Hops” and removing the vinyl almost immediately. As you can see, the unicorn on my pointer turned out the best and then from there, they just get worse and worse until it basically turned into Mr. Tumnus from The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe on my pinkie. LOL! That’s one of the reasons I rarely use vinyls, they are difficult for me or they pull up my polish underneath even when I wait ten million years for it to dry first. I admire those who use nail vinyls on the regs!
I hope you guys liked reading this post and seeing what I came up with for the negative space theme! I will likely be participating again next month, so stay tuned for that! Please don’t forget to support my fellow bloggers who have such amazing talents and visit their posts below!
believe me or not, the last is my fave ! So sweet colors ♥ If you don’t say for your unicorn/tumnus on the pinkie I had probably not noticed ! The three are beautiful anyway
I had never experienced the watermarble in the negative space way because of this boring issue of clear polish which don’t spread into the water, so congrats for your results !
Do you even sleep? All three of these are beautiful. I actually like your last one the most! Isn’t it funny how things work out that way! You must post your fails more often then
Really, really lovely nails. I am adoring seeing you nail art more again <3
I think you did a wonderful work, repeat after me: I am a true artist loved the first one, watermarble with negative space, never even thought of it.. and I am so new to it that I’m not even close to being able to show even my fails haha liked the second mani, although it’s a bit too romantic for me and the last one.. well.. LOVED the colors and the idea you had.. I know the unicorns did not came out PERFECT but.. you know what? life is not perfect, you have you appreciate and take it perfect as it comes, don’t you think? congrats on this work, I really enjoyed it a lot and gave me lots of ideas..
Oh my gosh! “What is this, nail art for ants!?” You totally cracked me up! But seriously, I feel so honored that you recreated one of my looks and it turned out perfectly. LOVE them! With this one, I also felt like the roses had to be super duper small, but I think you managed really nicely. And honestly, all three looks are beautiful! You are so talented Valesha, so please don’t doubt your nail art skills
I love the negative space water marble. I would love to recreate it one day, but I have a fear of water marble, so I am not sure if it’s going to happen lol.
LOL this post made me laugh AND swoon. You did not just do one amazing negative space look but THREE. *slow claps* Also, high five for going with a negative space water-marble, which is what I did too! PS, your unicorn ones ended up being my favorite one. I see no flaws, all I see is awesome.
Lololol “What is this, nail art for ants!?” that’s hilarious :D. Gorgeous looks though, I love the marble!
OMG I’m dying laughing at your Zoolander nod. These are all so awesome! I love your unicorns too, it’s such a fun design!
Pipe dream polish has a really good clear polish for water marbling called Clearwater. It’s sold out (again!) right now but it is amazing.
OMG the unicorns! Ok so all these designs are gorgeous, but the Unicorns….you’re pulling on my heart strings here. The Mr.Tumnus reference has killed me though, hahaha. Vinyls hardly ever work for me either, they’re a huge pain. But…UNICORNS. <3
I had the same reactions Allie - OMG Unicorns All three manicures are absolutely adorable and excellent but unicorns win! Awesome post, one of my favourites so far from you
All of these are SO gorgeous but my fave is the flower one with the Fairy Dust. Lovely!!
First of all everything here is amazing and gorgeous and I can’t believe you pulled off THREE beautiful negative space looks! But oh my gosh I am still in stitches from reading this because first you hit me with “nail art for ants” and then Mr Tumnus - I died! But I feel your pain, I always have trouble with nail vinyls, I think they’re often too thick and don’t fit the curve of my nail nicely.
I can’t believe you managed three looks, and all of them are perfection. You’re always your own worst critic, we all are, and I really do think you pulled off all of these brilliantly. I think my favourite are the flowers because I’m always a sucker for flowers, but I love them all
You should definitely stretch thos wings big time, ’cause every nail art you come up with is beautiful and full of future potencial Can’t believe you went for three different looks - you’ve been knocking it around the park lately, hun! I love your watermarble better but they’re all too cute and adorable, really (and I know just what you mean about vinyls!! How do they make it look so easy and effortless!? uff!).
I think that all of your designs are really good. Especially seeing as like you said you don’t do nail art often. Vinyls and I have a love hate relationship lol.