I just use acrylic paints and a set of super-cheap fine paintbrushes I've had for endless years, nothing special. I'm still too intimidated by the idea of painting with nail polish to try it. (Anything painted in nail polish is painted with the default brush which came with the polish.)
Um, are acrylics okay? Or is the basecoat strong enough you essentially don't get the acrylic on your skin? Because afaik those paints are quite poisonous.
Well, it's on top of a coat of nail polish and only goes on the nail not the skin, so it shouldn't be a problem. But I'm not sure acrylic paints are poisonous? I spent like two solid years with constantly paint-stained skin, and also I tend to clean my brushes by licking them and have probably ingested quite a lot of paint over the years, and I'm probably not dead yet. You might be thinking of acrylic inks, which are a different thing and which I think are on the list of "things not allowed to be put in SS' face hole". Acrylic paint dilutes with water, acrylic ink dilutes with isopropyl.
I am not 100% sure myself, I brought it up because someone advocated using acrylic point on skin for cosplay tattoos and someone else wrote about how they had friends who suffered nerve damage from having painted for years. I had the post reblogged on my old blog, but sadly I don't have it anymore. I googled "acrylic paint nerve damage" and saw fairly strong warnings, so I am likely not going to try, myself.
Ah yeah, I know water-soluble doesn't necessarily mean safe, I mentioned that because it's a simple-to-say way to distinguish between acrylic ink vs acrylic paint. I have trouble taking health risks seriously even when they're clear and present dangers as opposed to "might possibly cause problems at some future time maybe" so I am definitely not the person to be asking about this sort of thing. If other people say they're dangerous then they probably are (but why would you use acrylics for skin anyway, that shit flakes. use something formulated to work on skin)
It's definitely the case that many artists' acrylics contain toxic pigments. Lead and cadmium compounds are particularly bad, but many are still not good though nowhere near as toxic. Artists' paints in general are not required to be non-toxic.
Pictured: Lime green polish mixed with pearly white, then covered with pearly white + whitening clear + white cosmetic shimmer dust.
Technically a dark green-blue, but you couldn't tell from the picture (and the dots are individual sparkles from a glitter polish pulled out with a dotting tool) Spoiler essence colour & go - deep sea, baby L.A. Girl Glitter Addict - Explosion L.A. Girl Glitter Addict - Nostalgic
Ooh nice! Stripes! The base Black is Catrice, The shiny topcoat is P2, and the matte topcoat is Loreal.
Spoiler i finally bought a matte top coat like seventy million years late today and it's been a frustrating day nail art-wise, but i eventually came up with something i like. it's got this cool velvety texture irl
Spoiler: Baby's first experiment with striping tape Was actually a lot easier than expected. Technically this was my /second/ experiment, because the first time I got impatient and didn't wait until it was all the way dry and smudged it. Hahaha. Spoiler: The rest of the nails Feat. my weirdly lopsided torn-apart nails. Hahaha. These look a lot more sparkly irl. Red- New York Color, Big Apple Creme Red glitter- New York Color, Broadway Burgundy Frost Black- New York Color, Black Lace Creme
Spoiler So these looked a lot better before I went to work and wrecked the tips, but whatever. Did some bronze to go with my renfaire outfit, dried a little thinner than it looked wet but nothing an extra coat or two wouldn't fix.
Okay so I did Kanaya themed nails and here is the first hand sans topcoat, (i am terrified of messing this up) Spoiler: Kanaya nails this pic is kinda all my reference except the space nail Line up of polish (i can name them all if people want :P ) Full hand 1 FUll hand 2 Symbol (also really shit picture aarg) spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace skirt Chainsaw SHipping TRASH (it is a light lavender btw (ie rose sorry not sorry) )
Sparkles and experiments with topcoats! Spoiler Completely awful photo, it's actually teal-- I'll have to get a better picture when I have natural light :P Hard Candy 627 "Crush On Caribbean" under varying amounts of matte and clear topcoats, wanted to see how layering them would go. (Answer: whatever's the top layer trumps all. Might be useful for subtle designs someday.)
I bit all my nails back down to nubs 'cause I got frustrated with how the fuckers kept breaking and ending up as different lengths, and it gave me this major happy jolt of "yes this is how my nails are Supposed To Look". So SS must have short nails forever and ever, it seems. Spoiler: FROG NAILS . Oh, and random tip - if you're like me and have ugly-ass natural nails, try one coat of a sheer nude plus matte topcoat. I feel so pretty! Spoiler: glitter gradient right hand I like glitter gradients. I sort of feel like they are the ultimate True Purpose of glitter. Spoiler: Another picture of all my green polishes I've shown my collection before but I love lining them up SO MUCH: Don't they look so nice like that?? I could play with them for ages. Spoiler OPI Stranger Tides, OPI Thanks a Windmillion, OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid, Essie Navigate Her, Leighton Denny Dash of Lime, Butter London Sozzled, Butter London British Racing Green ILNP Open Fields, ILNP Success, ILNP Gaia, ILNP 1Up, ILNP Princeton, A England Beauty Never Fails, A England Fotheringhay Castle, A England Dragon, A England Tess of the D'Ubervilles, A England Saint George Nails Inc Willow Place, Nails Inc Wild Street, Nails Inc Bruton Mews, Dance Legend Frog Princess, Dance Legend Bereginya, KBShimmer Honeydew List, KBShimmer Cool Hand Cuke, CND Vinylux Moss Barry M Arabian, Barry M Cardamom, Maybelline Lime Me Up, Maybelline Pow Green, Maybelline Moss, Maybelline Green With Envy, Gosh Apple Bloom, Model's Own Grace Green, Revlon Posh, Rimmel Roll in the Grass Fuck I just realised I shoulda worn Frog Princess for my right hand today instead of the glitter gradient. I missed the opportunity to be the frog king! Now I definitely need a lilypad stamping plate so I can wear frogs again and be the frog king properly next time.
LOOK HOW NICE THIS POLISH IS I FORGOT I HAD IT it is "into the night" by girly bits and it looks a little better over black but eh
Spoiler: last weekend's dinosaur/fossil nails Spoiler: black and pink/white with a glitter gradient And this weekend's nails: Spoiler: left hand: galaxy nails with glow-in-the-dark stars Spoiler: right hand: gradient stamping
