Mani Monday: Sugar, Sugar!

Good day my pretties! 

This awesome Mani Monday, I had a spring in my step and had a hankering for something sweet this morning…not only did I eat some awesome penguin waffles, yes everyone needs a penguin waffle maker in their lives! This sweet start to my Monday had me thinking about a sweet inspired Mani I’ve been meaning to try! A spun sugar mani was on the cards for today! This mani totally reminds me of eating floaty strands of candy floss!

Delicious penguin waffles that made me happy it was a Monday! Yes, I know, you should run out and buy yourself a penguin waffle maker right this very instant and make some delicious penguin waffles and then proceed to dive face first into these ‘lil penguins…of course…don’t forget the syrup!!! Ahh and all is right in the world, even though it’s a Monday!

I used Sally Hansen Instant Strength x1 coat as a base coat, Essence Colour & Go in Break Through x2 coats and Colours Nail Enamel in Creammoss (these polishes are a bargain buy here in SA, I've spoken about them before over here) for the spun sugar technique and Essence Gel Look Topcoat x1 coat.

You will need:

• Your pretty set of hands
• Base coat nail polish
• Two contrasting colours of your choice for the spun sugar technique, I chose purple and turquoise
• Top coat
• Dotting tool / orangewood stick or toothpick
• Piece of sturdy cardboard or old cd

Method
1) Paint base coat onto nails, wait for it dry completely
2) Paint one coat of base coloured polish (I used purple), wait for it to dry completely then apply second coat of base coloured polish, wait for it to dry completely

3) Now place a sizeable dollop of turquoise (or your choice) nail polish on the cardboard or old cd (I used an old plastic cd cover that is usually placed on top of a spindle of cds). You will want to let the nail polish sit for about 10-15 seconds before you apply it onto your nails using the spun sugar technique. While you are waiting, play around with the polish using the dotting tool/orangewood stick/toothpick…you want the nailpolish to get tacky (just very slightly like a caramel or taffy texture) so that when you dip your tool into the pool of polish and pull your tool away the nail polish pulls away on the tool as well, creating thin, long strands of nail polish that you can carefully place over your nail

4) Continue dipping the tool into the polish and pulling it away from polish and creating thin, long strands of polish that kind of resemble thin candy floss strands and drape each strand across your nails, continue this methodically until each nail is filled with a criss cross of “spun sugar’ nail polish strands

5) Continue step 4-5 until all nails are complete as desired

6) As you are executing the spun sugar technique, you will find that at times the strand will lay as a thick strand or leave little dollops on the nails as part of the strand (as you can see on my nails in the first picture). If you do not like this look, then before placing the nail polish strand onto your nail you should try and stretch each strand by getting one end of the strand to stick your nail (or edge of your finger) and gently pull the nail polish strand across the nail making it thinner as you are stretching the strand and then place the strand down onto your nail to stick . While you are doing this make sure to keep the polish strand still attached to the tool – this gets easier as the nail polish sits for longer on the cardboard/cd cover as the longer it sits and dries the easier it will be to achieve the spun sugar look, as the nail polish will be more tacky and easier to manipulate onto your nail

7) Once the spun sugar technique has been done on all nails, your nails will have strands of nail polish on the edges of your nails (like below), make sure to clean up the edges! I use a nail brush dipped in nail polish remover to clean up the edges

8) Admire your nails, you ‘lil nail goddess :)

9) Totally play some old school jams like Sugar Sugar by The Archies singing along Oh, Sugar, Sugar. You are my candy girl and you got me wanting you…la, la, la…how fitting for these sweet treat inspired nails!

On a related sweet note, what’s your favourite sweet treat?

As always, linking up to Mani Monday below, with the fabulous Heather and Heather!  I will also be joining the ladies over at The Nail Files.

Join the fun side of life and link up to Mani Monday and The Nail Files below :)