Pinterest find: Sharpie® nail art

I have a slight addiction to Pinterest, but it's rare that I actually attempt to duplicate something I've seen pinned. However, I've decided to branch out a bit and try new things. A friend of mine pinned a tutorial for Sharpie® nail art, and I just had to give it a go.

It seemed pretty simple:
-Apply a base coat of your choice. Allow it to dry completely - this is very important.
-Use a sharpie marker to draw designs onto your nails. The tutorial I found is specifically for the gold and silver sharpies, but I used a regular black one and it didn't give me any issues.
-If you make a mistake, don't worry! You can take the sharpie off with rubbing alcohol and not ruin the underlying base coat.
-Allow the sharpie to dry, and apply a top coat to protect your nails.

I started off with clean, unpainted nails.

It just so happens that one of the things I got for Christmas is this amazing color of nail polish that I am in love with. It's Boy oh Boy by Jordana, and it's almost like a robin's egg blue.

Hello, gorgeous. I only wish the color showed up better, but I'm working with a cell phone camera and hence cannot be picky.

The dog in the background is Angel. She's sleeping, I promise, nothing to be alarmed about.

I applied my usual two coats, getting nail polish everywhere in the process. I cleaned up my messy fingers as best I could and waited (impatiently) for the polish to dry. I had no issues with this brand of polish - it applied easily, didn't bubble or separate, and the color is amazing.

I had the idea to try to make tiger-like stripes along the tips of my nails. In my attempt, I learned two things:
-I can't really make tiger-like stripes.
-Because I have to keep my nails so short, I don't have much room for doing an elaborate tip. It took up about 1/3 of my nail and just looked weird.

But never fear! There's that magical rubbing alcohol trick that will fix my problem!

Except not.

I don't know if it was my method of applying the alcohol (I tried a paper towel and a cotton ball), the fact that I used a regular sharpie instead of the special gold/silver ones, or just simply that my nail was being defiant. Either way, it didn't work. No issue, though. I simply painted another coat over, which didn't effect the color of the polish and covered up the weird stripes very easily.

Why yes, that is Parenthood paused in the background.

In the end, I opted for a more simple design: allover polka dots with a little bit of definition at the tips. Though my polka dotting skills may need work (you should see my left hand - seriously), the pin worked out well and applying a top coat did not effect my sharpie design.

Overall, I loved trying this out! Though waiting for the base coat to dry seemed to take forever, I'm glad I waited to ensure that I wouldn't be damaging the polish when I used the sharpie. Also, using the sharpie gave so much more control than trying to paint a design (even polka dots) using either a regular nail polish wand or even a polish pen. The best part? I get to move the original pin from my "Beauty" board over to my blossoming "Did it!" board!