Flip Flop #7: Sugar Spun

Ugh, what a day! Well, I had a good day, until the journey home. I had to get a bus and four trains, which I was okay with, I've come to terms with the fact that the rail networks in the South East are such utter shite that you can't get anywhere on less than three trains. BUT every single one of my four trains home was delayed, and by just enough for me to miss my connection. Lots of time standing on train platforms in the freezing cold. And none of the trains had the heating on, because, you know, you only pay a small fortune for train tickets, so why should they spend money making your journey comfortable? I am freezing. I've been home an hour and a half with the heating on and wearing multiple dressing gowns and I'm still so cold :( The thought of having to get more trains tomorrow makes me want to weep.

I'm feeling rather sorry for myself, in case you couldn't tell.

But on to other matters. The choices for today's manicure were sugar spun or pattern. After the success of my first sugar spun manicure, I was feeling pretty confident about doing this again. Well...a little smug to be honest.

Oh how misplaced my confidence was.

It was so much harder this time! I guess the polish you use makes a huge difference - which does mean that if you've had a go of this before and not had much luck, it's definitely worth having a go with a different polish! 

Here's what I ended up with anyway. I think it looks quite good in the end, but I wasn't getting the really long thin strands like I did last time that I could just whizz back and fore across the nail. I could only get strands long enough to go across my nail once!

I used Barry M Black and Gold Foil, and then added a couple of studs to finish the look off.

Erm...I'm gonna level with you.  I'm not going to post over the weekend.  I'm off home, and I'm not taking my laptop with me because I can't be arsed carrying it.  I was going to schedule all the posts (the manicure's are actually all done and photographed!) but after my DISASTER with the trains, it's 10pm and I haven't packed...  So...sorry.  But it does mean you get extra posts on Monday :p

New Technique: Sugar Spun Manicure

Ok, so this wasn't a total disaster!  Yay :)  I really did think it was going to be...especially when 10 minutes in my polish just wasn't doing the strandy thing.

But anyway, here's the finished manicure!  Quite a cute manicure for Valentine's Day maybe?

I used Barry M Matt White, did my strandy business with OPI Flick Chick Cherry, and then added the heart with Barry M Bright Pink.

I did my ring finger first (I figured if it was horribly difficult I could just leave it at a ring finger accent), and you can see I hadn't quite waited long enough.  When I started it was just about making strands long enough to cover half the width of my nail, if I was super quick.  When I moved on to the next nail I was getting really long, fine strands.  Like thinner than hair.  This is what you want!  I just whizzed it back and fore across my nails :)  It honestly took about 20 minutes to get to that consistency though.  I don't know if that would've been affected by the fact that it's an old polish and full of all those nasty chemicals they don't use any more.

My thumb does not feature in this photo because...er...it didn't quite work out.  This is what happens if you leave the polish too long.

It looks like I had a horrible accident whilst chopping the vegetables for tea.

Anyhoo, you can now head over to my Facebook page to vote for which new technique you'd like me to have a go at next week!

If you have any suggestions for techniques, please leave me a comment and I'll add it to my list :)

Have you had a go at the sugar spun technique?  Or are you like me and shy away from trying new (and messy) things?