On Wednesdays We Wear Pink: Dotticure Flowers

Hello errbody! It's that time of the week again: On Wednesdays We Wear Pink!


To be honest, lately I am feeling uninspired when it comes to nail art designs. Add to that being a bit lazy and being tired all the time, and you have lack of nail art posts! I can do swatches just fine, but when it comes to doing an actual design, my mind is just drawing blanks. My arsenal of techniques are also limited, so I can only do so many designs without repeating myself over and over again.

Anyway, enough of the whining! For this week's OWWWP, I did a design that is basic but one of my favorite designs to do: dotticure flowers.

Thumb shot

Dotticure flowers are, as the name says, flowers made of dots. I did the dots using a dotting tool.

This is the dotting tool I use. It's double ended, with a small head at one end and a bigger one at the other end. It actually came in a pack of five, with different sized heads ranging from very tiny to large. I ordered mine from eBay (I forgot which seller but they're pretty much within the same price range.) Just search for nail dotting tool and you'll find a whole load of sellers, both within domestic and international.

I used three coats of Sinful Colors in Starfish for the base. For the brighter pink flowers, I used Pure Ice in Gossip! and for the darker flowers I used Pure Ice in Rumors. Rumors is appearing a bit more brick red than it really is a dark old rose/mauve. The yellow is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow. The white dots are Sinful Colors in Snow Me White.

Dotticure flowers are one of my go-to designs when I can't think of anything to put on my nails. It's very easy to do and a quick way to brighten up a plain manicure.The possibilities with dotticure flowers are also endless! You can use different colors, or combine different sized flowers. You can even layer dots for multicolored "petals." You are only limited by your imagination. :)


And that's it for this week's OWWWP! I hope you enjoyed this post, and that you'll be back again for the next one. Til the next post! :)


*I bought these polishes with my own money. Sinful Colors can be found at Walgreens, Walmart, Target and other drugstores/retailers. They sell for $1.99 plus applicable tax. Pure Ice polishes can be found at Walmart (the only place I've seen them in, so far) and they sell for $1.99 each plus applicable tax.*


*Disclaimer: Due to variations in screen displays and resolutions, polishes may appear different to each reader. I try my best to capture colors as accurately as I can, and if I can't, then I try to describe the color/s to the best of my ability.*

On Wednesdays We Wear Pink (plus a bit of purple...) Gradient + Inspired-By + Tutorial. *Warning: Picture-heavy post!*

 Whew! That was a lengthy title! Anyway, hello! I didn't do last week's OWWWP post so I figured I'll give you a bonus today: a tutorial! That's right. My very first pic-torial (heh.) so please forgive me if the pictures are not very good. I had to take pictures by myself and I only have two hands... Haha.

Anyway, I know it's supposed to be only pinks but I cheated a bit today and used a purple. I know, I know... "You can't sit with us!" But hey this is my blog and I make the rules here. :P I was actually running out of ideas for nail art til I got inspiration from a small pouch that came with a box of sanitary pads feminine products. It had a gradient of some sort plus white stars, and I've been itching to do gradients lately so I thought it would be perfect for today.

This is a picture-heavy post so be warned, it WILL be lengthy!

Let's start the tutorial, shall we? :)

These are the materials I used:
1. White polish for base (I used OPI Alpine Snow)
2. Two colors of your choice. I used Pure Ice Gossip! (pink) and Last Chance (purple)
3. Cuticle oil or cream (I used lush Lemony Flutter; I transferred some in a sample pot)
4. Makeup wedge sponge (You only need half of the wedge)
5. Nail polish remover and cleanup brush and q-tips

Step 1: Paint your nails a white base. Some prefer to use the lighter of the two colors, but I personally prefer a white base. Make sure it's completely dried.

Step 2: Put some cuticle oil or cream around your fingers. You can use tape, but I found that cuticle cream works better, plus it's extra moisture! :)

Step 3: Take your sponge and paint the color you want closer to your cuticles on the top part of the sponge.

Step 4: Paint on the second color, making sure they overlap in the middle. This step is important, because the overlapping is what creates the gradient effect.

See the part in the middle where the two polishes overlap?

Step 5: Dab the sponge on your nail, with the top part of the sponge near the cuticles. (In this case the pink is what is on the top part and what I wanted closer to the cuticles.) Dab the sponge sideways and up and down (but not too much, or you'll end up mixing the colors instead of just creating a gradient in the middle!

It should look like this:

Step 6: Repeat step 5 two to three times or until you get the desired depth of color you want. I did three to four for this mani. Also repeat steps 3 and 4 as necessary if the polish has absorbed into the sponge.

Step 7: Repeat step 6 on the rest of your fingers. It should look like this: (Don't worry if it's messy, we'll clean it up!)

Ok this is where you can interchange the steps. It's totally up to you if you want to do 9 first before 8, but I personally like to do 8 first.


Step 8: Take your q-tip and dip it in polish remover, then clean up the sides and other stray polish. Use a clean-up brush to clean around the cuticles and the nooks and crannies of the side of your nails.

Step 9: Take your top coat and place top coat on all fingernails. Top coat is necessary as it helps with blending the gradient more and making it more fluid and smooth.

Your mani should look like this! :D

And there you have it! That's the tutorial part of the mani. I actually added white "stars" to this mani, but didn't include a tutorial because basically it's just taking a toothpick and white polish and making tiny tiny cross-shaped things that resemble twinkling stars. Here are some (more!) pictures of the whole mani, plus the inspiration behind it.

The inspirational pouch behind the mani

A rare shot of my whole hand

Gradient with the stars

And there you have it for this week's On Wednesdays We Wear Pink post! I hope you'll join me again next time. :)

*I bought these polishes with my own money. Pure Ice polishes can be purchased at Walmart for $1.99 each. I bought the OPI online on Amazon for about $7.*

*Disclaimer: Due to variations in screen displays and resolutions, polishes may appear different to each reader. I try my best to capture colors as accurately as I can, and if I can't, then I try to describe the color/s to the best of my ability.*

On Wednesdays We Wear Pink: Tape Mani

Hiiiiii everybody! It's Wednesday once again, and you know what that means: it's OWWWP time! 

Lately I'm obsessing over tape manis ever since I decided to recreate this mani by Nicole of the Young Wild and Polished blog. I've been following her on Instagram and she's holding a contest of a recreation of her mani. But, sad thing is I needed to also have a YouTube account (which I don't have) so I can't join. I still decided to draw inspiration from her and since then, I'm hooked on tape manis!


I used two pinks for this mani: Orly Artifical Sweetener and Sinful Colors Folly.

I used the Orly for the base and the Sinful Colors for the secondary color.

In hindsight, I should've taken the opportunity to do a tutorial for you guys, but I'm just going to save that for sometime. (Hmm... I'm getting an idea... Tutorial Tuesdays, anyone?)


I used striping tape to make the thin lines. If you're wondering what striping tape looks like, it looks like this:

I bought my striping tape from eBay (the name of the seller escapes me right now) and they're pretty cheap. If you're ordering from a seller from China, it's like a dollar or so for about eight to ten rolls, but shipping can take anywhere from one to four weeks. I ordered mine from a US seller; it's about $3 (with free shipping) but it came in less than a week. I got eight rolls.

Here is the end result of my OWWWP tape mani:

Don't you just hate it when the color doesn't translate well on camera? Folly (the bright pink) is less red and a more darker pink in person. It pretty much looks like a neon. It's very shiny though, which explains the crazy glare.

I tried taking a picture outside in sunlight just to see if the camera will pick up the color better, and here is how it looks like:

It still looks pretty much the same to me. Gahhh I hate when I can't capture the true color!

I really enjoyed doing this mani, even though it's a bit time-consuming and painstaking to place the tape just right. I do have a tip, and that's to remove the tape as soon as you can, because if you take too long to remove it, the polish will start to get stringy and stick to the tape. Also, make sure the base coat is completely dry to avoid it getting pulled by the tape.

I hope you enjoyed today's post, and I hope to see you again on the next OWWWP post!

*I bought these polishes with my own money. Orly can be found at beauty supply stores, Sally Beauty, and you can check their website and enter your zip code to find a salon near you. Sinful Colors can be found at most drugstores and at Target and Walmart.*

*Disclaimer: Due to variations in screen displays and resolutions, polishes may appear different to each reader. I try my best to capture colors as accurately as I can, and if I can't, then I try to describe the color/s to the best of my ability.*

On Wednesdays We Wear Pink: Watermarble

Hi everyone! I have a new theme going on for the blog! It's called On Wednesdays We Wear Pink, and I'm going to use pink polishes to either swatch or do nail art with. I think you all know the reference ;) and if you don't, well, you're missing out! Haha. It's from the movie Mean Girls, which is one of the most quotable movies, hands down. If I remember correctly, this quote was said by Karen (Amanda Syfried.) 

Anyway, I decided to take another stab at watermarbling for the inaugural post of OWWWP. Either I'm brave or just stupid, not really sure, haha. For those of you that don't know what watermarbling is, it's a technique where you put some water in a small bowl, place some drops of polishes til they form a bulls-eye effect, then use a toothpick or any thin stick to drag the polishes and form shapes. You then dip your finger (painted with a base, preferably white to make the colors pop) into a portion with the design you like, then drag the remaining polish away from your finger, lift your finger and ta-dah! You should have apretty little design on your finger. It all sounds so easy at first until you actually start doing it! You can search for tutorials on YouTube, and they all make it look so easy! It all takes practice and patience, and soon you'll get the hang of it.

For this watermarble attempt, I used Julep Joy (a dusty pinkish mauve,) Orly Two-Hour Lunch (crelly bubblegum pink) and Revlon ColorStay Rich Raspberry (purplish magenta creme.)

I can't really do a full flower pattern, so I only get about halfway around the circle. I did the pattern by dragging from the outermost circle to the center. You can achieve different designs by dragging the polish in different directions.

I tape around my fingers to minimize the mess. I still have to do cleanup around the cuticles and the skin around the sides, though.

And the finished product:

I'm pretty satisfied with the way this turned out. I still managed to have tiny air bubbles, but for the most part, it looks decent enough. This is probably my most successful watermarble to date!

Here are more pics, just because I want to showcase them in different hand poses :P

Watermarbling is trying at first, but once you get the hang of things, it's a really cool way to do your nails! While I may not be the expert in this technique, I do have some tips that I've learned from other people, and from my experience:

-Use filtered water. People have always stressed this, and it's true. There's just something about tap water that prevents the polishes from spreading well.
-Also, check the temperature of the water. If it's too cold, the polish won't spread. If it's too warm, it still won't work. It just has to be room temperature. You'll know it is if the polish spreads. Although, you should really:
-Test each polishes beforehand. One polish from a brand might spread well, while another polish from the same brand might not. So test your polishes individually to see if they work. Your water might be the right temperature, but if the polish won't spread no matter what you do, then choose another one to work with.
-Some people skip the tape around the fingers, but I find that it helps lessen the cleanup significantly.
-Be patient. Sometimes it won't work right the first time. Just be patient and don't get discouraged. You'll find what works and what doesn't; all you have to do is keep trying.

And that's all for the first On Wednesdays We Wear Pink post! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope you'll join me again next time! :)


*Disclaimer: Due to variations in screen displays and resolutions, polishes may appear different to each reader. I try my best to capture colors as accurately as I can, and if I can't, then I try to describe the color/s to the best of my ability.*