Literary Nails: Shutter by Courtney Alameda

So it's been over a year since my last bookish nail art, but I finally have one ready, YAS!

This bookish nail art was inspired by...

Shutter by Courtney Alameda








Ta-da! I think they turned out pretty decent looking ;) I decided to go for a matte top coat because I felt like that would go with the cover the best.

And if you would like to know how I achieved this, here is a little bit of my process...

Unt Peel Off Base Coat
Sinful Colors Rise & Shine (drug store)
Sinful Colors Snow Me White (drug store)
Serum No. 5 Pure Glow Getter (glows in the dark!)
Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat (drug store)



I started off with 2 coats of the shimmery teal on 4 nails (stained my nails green btw, *sigh* lol) and 1 coat of regular white on my accent nail because I didn't know how opaque the glow in the dark white polish would be. P.S. Serum No. 5 glow in the dark polishes are the BEST! They are very glowy!

Sinful Colors Glow in the Dark (drug store)
Sinful Colors Why Not (drug store)
Simply Peel Liquid Latex Barrier
+ Makeup sponge



Next I did a little bit of a subtle teal-blue gradient on all but my white nail using a makeup sponge and a liquid latex barrier to make cleanup easier.

Simply Peel Liquid Latex Barrier
Sinful Colors Glow in the Dark (drug store)
Serum No. 5 Atomic Peach (glows in the dark!)
Serum No. 5 Lights Out (glows in the dark!)
+ Plastic wrap



Then I added a little bit more color and texture using, that's right, plastic wrap! I just dabbed a little bit of the above mentioned colors as I saw fit. And I also used more Simply Peel around my cuticle 'cause MESSES! Yep, accent nail is still white. We'll get to that one in a little bit.

Sinful Colors Black on Black (drug store)
Sinful Colors Clear Coat [NOT top coat] (drug store)



Next, because I cannot draw straight lines freehand to save my life, I made decals using striping tape! Striping and nail vinyls are the best!



So I just painted these decals that looked like film strips on a silicone mat, but you can easily use a sandwich bag to achieve this, let it dry then covered them with clear polish and bam! Homemade nail decals! Then I simply cut them to size, added a clear coat to my nail to adhere the decals, and gently placed and pressed the decals onto my nails. Then you just add a topcoat to blend everything together and no one will ever know you cheated and used decals instead of painting the films straight onto your nails ;)

Sinful Colors Black on Black (drug store)
Sinful Colors Cinderella (drug store)
+ Dotting tool



And we finally get to the accent nail that has been neglected all this time! It's your time, bright one! So this one proved to be the most difficult because I initially wanted to draw the whole ghost head onto my nail... but yeah right! As I mentioned before, I cannot draw freehand, especially not something as intricate and amazing as the freaking ghost head on the cover of the book! Oh, but I tried, trust me. I made a couple decals of the head, but they didn't turn out very good, so I settled for painting... the mouth, I guess? Lol. To achieve that I used the sugar spun nail art technique which I first saw on the nail art blog PiggieLove. This is actually my second time doing this technique! The first time I did it was a long time ago when I first saw this post.

Anyway, for this technique you basically place a bit of nail polish on a sandwich bag (or silicone mat in my case) and wait for it dry a little, just until it gets thick and goopy and stringy. Then you just pick up the polish with something, like a dotting tool or even a tooth pick, then you just string it over your nail back and forth until you get the desired effect! It's very easy but messy, so I used Simply Peel again. (Oh, and that light blue I used to go around the edges of the white peeking through. I just used a tiny brush for that.)

And bam! You are done with your Shutter nail art! Just add a quick dry top coat to everything.



Here they are with a glossy top coat (I added the matte top coat later):

And because all I basically wear on my nails now is holographic polish, here they are in holo! Hey, even homicidal ghosts have the right to look fabulous ;)

And here are the top coats I used:



Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
Sally Hansen Big Matte Top Coat
INM Northern Lights (can be found at Sally's!)



So, which do you like better? Glossy, matte, or holo? Look, I'm all for the holo. I put holo on everything. But personally I think I like them more matte :)

Alright kids, that is all. If you have any bookish nail art suggestions leave them below 'cause right now I have no idea what I'll be doing next. Also, if you have not read Shutter, get to it! It was so great! I love creepy books! You know what I love even more? Creepy books with equally creepy and amazing covers! My review of that should go up in the next week or two. And if you have read it, let me know what you thought!