Wednesday 11 July 2012

DIY ~ custom nail varnishes

Last week it was my wonderful friend Bekki's (of Ghost of Dragon's Past) birthday. As well as getting her a few shop bought things I wanted to make her something unique, which applied solely to her. The other day I saw an awesome tutorial on The Beauty Department for making your own glittery nail varnish, so armed with a mass of glittery stuff I got to it! I thought I'd show you guys what I did since the results were slightly difference than the one from the tutorial.

1. First, I bought clear nail polishes. I was planning on giving two to Bekki so I bought 3 so I could use one for experimenting and as a general back up in case anything went horrendously wrong. As an extra I made sure I liked the shape of the bottle (in case I wanted to put custom labels on, which was the original plan).

2. I literally ransacked my house for all the glitter and loose eye shadows I could find (which took a while since everything is in boxes due prepping the house for moving). I found a nice variety of chunky glitter as well as some squared shaped glitter and my collection of Dazzle Me pigments.

3. I then made a funnel out of paper and tape and also wrote a vague plan for the colour schemes I wanted for both nail varnishes and thought up names - which helped with deciding on colours. Having done that I sorted through my glitters and pigments picking out ones that would work for my themes. After that it was just a case of adding different glitters bit by bit (and thank god I had a spare because the first time I put WAY too much in to start with). I tried the varnish out on my nail after each step and once I was happy with how it looked I stopped - which was hard, because I love glitter.
Here's the stuff I used for "Duke Jnr" (which is the name of her character from our recent play): dark grey chunky glitter, black, lilac, purple, light purple/green duochrome glitter as well as Models Own loose sparkle eye shadow in black green.
And I used a sample of Portland Black Lipstick Co's Purple Glitz and Collection 2000's Dazzle Me! in Magical for "Dragon's Spirit".
 This is what both of them looked like:
I have to say I'm pretty happy with both of them but I really love "Dragon's Spirit". I resisted putting any chunky glitter in and just stuck with fine, irredescent pigments and it turned out so subtle and pretty. I'd love to see what it looks like properly layered and over black. Might have to make my own version of it.

Whilst I was mixing the varnishes I got the boyfriend (who is useful for both photos and handy little jobs) to make boxes for both of them and I decorated them:
 What do you think? Have you ever tried making your own nail polish?

19 comments:

  1. This is such an awesome idea, I hope she loves them x

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    1. :) thank you. I think she did, well I hope she did.

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  2. This is such a great gift! I definitely want to try making my own glitter polish after reading this =)
    xx

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    1. If you do try it let me know! I'd love to see them.

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  3. These look SO good! I love the second one! I'm definitly going to have a go at this a the weekend :) xx

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    1. :) thank you! I'd love to see how yours turn out!

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  4. Brilliant idea! the picture with the spoon made me think this is what a glitter crazed meth heads 'lab' would look like! I am not a meth head, just to point out... I merely have imagery from books/films.
    What an amazing friend you are to give her something so unique!

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    1. Awh thank you! That's really kind of you!
      Haha! Yeah, it does look a bit mad scientist :P I like your description the most.

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  5. Ehehe yay!
    They really are amazing. I love them so much. Thank you!!!

    I shall most definitely be wearing them at some point this week. Yaaay! =DD

    But seriously, awesome. Best. Gift. Ever. =] xxx

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    1. :D heh heh, cool! Take a photo so I can see what they look like!

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  6. thats so clever! such a good idea

    chlo @chlowitty blogs

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  7. This is a good idea!

    Chelle x
    http://chellesbeauty.blogspot.co.uk/

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  8. How did you stop the glitter sinking to the bottom? I tried it and it all sunk!

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    1. I didn't. I just had to shake it whenever I wanted to use it.
      I found it wasn't too much of an issue because the brush touches the glitter at the bottom so it gets picked up anyway.

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    2. Oh okay thank you :) my brush doesn't quite reach the glitter at the bottom

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  9. This is actually really cool. I wanted to know though, if the glitter had "run down" and bled into the nail polish afterwards? I'm thinking about doing this, but with a tight budget, I don't want to spend on nail polish and glitter if they don't really work....

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    1. Do you mean if the colour of the glitter bled out?
      If so, I've found it happened with some and not with others. Most of the glitters I used were fine, but it's difficult to tell which ones will do it or not. I wish I could help more.
      Let me know how it goes if you decide to do it.

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I really love to read what people have to say, so leave a comment, I'll definitely read it and always try to reply to questions!

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