Monday 14 April 2014

Water Spotted Berry Potter


Hi everyone!

I am super pleased with how today's manicure turned out! I used the water spotting technique to create this design, and this is the first time water spotting actually worked with me! (yeey go me)
A few weeks ago I saw a gorgeous water spotted manicure by The Adorned Claw (here's her blogpost) and she said in her post that she used perfume for this technique. Now, I've tried a bunch of things for water spotting, but perfume wasn't one of them yet!

I had already tried to do it with lots and lots of hair sprays, but that failed miserably every time because the spray that came out of it was too much and just made one big hole in the polish instead of several small ones like it's supposed to.


I loved the manicure Ruth did, so I got inspired to try water spotting once more :) And it worked! I'm so glad she said she used perfume for it, because perfume is so perfect for this technique but I hadn't thought of using it myself.

The polishes I used here are:
Alpine Snow - OPI
Berry Potter and Plumbledore - Catrice

Yes, you read that right: Berry Potter and Plumbledore! This must be the awesomest name for a polish I have come accross ever! When I saw this polish in the store, I immediately grabbed it - I didn't even care about the colour or whatever, I just HAD to have that polish because of the name because I am a biiiiiiiig Harry Potter fan. Do you ever get that, that you really want to buy a polish because of its name?

Berry Potter is a purple polish with some blue-ish shimmer to it - you can see it a tiny bit in some of my pictures, but it's not super apparent here because of the water spotting.



So, I started out by painting two coats of Alpine Snow on my nails and then waited until it had fully dried. I put some scotch tape around me nails to avoid too much of a mess and too much clean-up. I then grabbed a small plastic cup, filled it with water (room temperature) and put in some drops of Berry Potter. 

Then I sprayed on the surface of the polish with some old perfume I never use anymore, and dipped my finger in where I liked the spots it had created. I waited until the polish on the surface had dried, cleaned that up with a toothpick, and pulled my finger out of the water - it's the same you do for water marbling, really.

The only downside to using perfume is that I had to air out my bathroom for two days and my nails smelled like perfume A LOT, but I guess there are worse things in life than having perfume scented nails for a few days :)


I re-did this design one time, because I didn't really like the spots that my first try had created - but since they are so easy and quick to make, it's not too much of a fuss to re-do it luckily!


Do you like these? I absolutely adore them, I'm so glad the technique worked!

And please, if you know any more polishes with amazing and funny names, let me know in the comments! I am really curious! I suppose a lot of indie polishes have amazingly creative nails, especially when a collection is based on some television show or something else from popular culture.

Thanks for reading!

28 comments:

  1. I love this design! The colours work really well together too! I'm so glad using perfume worked! Berry Potter is such a great name for a nail polish too! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Yes, go go perfume! My big pile of free but ugh smelling samples of perfume will come in handy :D

      Delete
  2. very nice manicure! foxy paws has a "how I met your mother" themed series, and i had to grab "but, uhmm..." - a black polish with tiny deep purple glitter! amazing color and amazing name! =)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I must confess I have never seen HIMYM... But I completely get the excitement when there's a polish (or a series!) based on a show you love! I tried googling swatches of But, uhmm... but I couldn't find any - I'm so curious to see that polish now because it sounds gorgeous! Do you have swatches of it on your blog? :)

      Delete
    2. not yet... sorry, there are so many things I haven't posted yet... but I'll send you a picture of it via mail!

      Delete
    3. Oh yes please do! I'm very curious! :)

      Delete
  3. Okay, i don't know why but it really reminds me of blood:D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahahah Ela :D To be honest, I thought that as well when I had just made them, "Oh these look a bit like blood splatter under a microscope." Plus purple is quite close to red :) I'll do these in some different colours soon which will not resemble blood!

      Delete
  4. This looks beyond gorgeous! It looks like stone! I've tried this technique too but with a spray bottle for plants. But the spray is too harsh and big so half of the time it fails..So I'll definitely try hairspray and perfume next time :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I do like the stone resemblance a bit more than Ela's blood resemblance haha :) I hope perfume does the trick for you, good luck!

      Delete
  5. I'm loving these, but I don't think I could deal with the perfume smell haha....or waste my perfume

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Well, I just have an entire box of samples I got from perfume shops and never use because I dislike their smell - I would never use a perfume I love to do this with :) The perfume smell didn't really bother me - the ugh perfume I used actually smells a lot better on my nails then it does when I just spray it on myself haha!

      Delete
  6. I've never tried water spotting, but I love how it has turned out on your nails. <3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I love how it turned out as well ;)

      Delete
  7. Oooh this looks so great, gotta love your creativity Robin!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hehe thank you! Unfortunately I'm not all that creative - I saw a water spotting design on another blog and was just dying to try it out properly! ;)

      Delete
    2. Thank you Jacqui! Reading your pun was the perfect way to start my morning cheerfully :D

      Delete
  8. This manicure looks gorgeous.
    I love the nail polishes combination :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Berry Potter and Plumbledore... that is too good! AND it's a gorgeous polish! The water spotting technique looks amazing, especially on your beautifully long nails :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha yes I know right! The person who came up with that name is my hero :) Thank you Lucy!

      Delete
  10. This is cool! I'll have to ask some friends if they have any old junky perfume because I only have one bottle of perfume which I <3 and as much as I like to try something new on my nails, nice perfume is just too good to waste :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha you're totally right, good perfume shouldn't be wasted! I'm glad I'm just a really big perfume sample hoarder and don't throw away bad smelling perfumes like normal people would do :D

      Delete
  11. I've never heard of this technique before but wow it sounds so fun (and maybe a little difficult). I'm also a massive Harry Potter fan and reading those nail polish names made me laugh and now I wish I owned them too! I would definitely buy a nail polish just based on its name :p xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know right, that name is just amazing! No way I wasn't buying it :D The water spotting technique is really so great and don't worry, it's actually quite easy! The only hard thing if to find the right perfume or spray so the polishes dissolves properly, but doesn't dissolve too much ;)

      Delete

I love hearing from you! Definitely leave a comment with your thoughts, and if you have any questions, ask away! I always reply so check back :)
Please don't leave links in your comment unless they are related to my blog post. If you're new on my blog, I always come and check out yours :)