Behind the Cover: Aquarium Nails

A few months ago, I found myself daydreaming (as I often do) and this time, it was about a nail design that would feature a landscape- like a safari or even an underwater scene- but it would have dimension to it. The subjects of the scene (plants, animals, fish, etc.) would appear to be inside of the nail, as opposed to simply on top of it.

I’ve seen this kind of “snow globe” effect used before, and I thought of how cool it would be to utilize this technique to help bring a scene alive!

Lucky for me, I happen to be friends with the stamping Queen herself. So Debbie, creator of the Clear Jelly Stamper and mastermind behind its large array of amazing stamping plates, teamed up with me to help bring my daydream to life! Together we created two new stamping plates- a jungle/safari plate as well as an underwater/sea life plate. For this issue’s cover, we made use of our underwater plate and let ourselves get swept away with the ocean… Also, luckily I know an adorable girl who was willing to be transformed into a mermaid!

Find the stamping plates and gel polishes used in this issue’s cover at www.clearjellystamper.com and kokoandclaire.com.

Sometimes I wonder how we get anything done between laughing so much. We all have to work, but luckily I get to work with such wonderful people.

Meet Debbie, owner and creator of Clear Jelly Stamper, and Baylee, one of my salon’s talented nail technicians and this issue’s cover model!

I thought about attaching this 3D aquarium nail scene to one of Baylee’s nails for this shoot- making it more of an extreme nail art cover. But, in the end, I decided against it- even after I had already painted this underwater scene. Trial and error is all a part of the process!

Definitely a team effort to ready Baylee for this shoot.

I chose to do very dramatic makeup on Baylee, focusing on green and blue tones to get that underwater look of a mermaid.

Baylee has an AMAZING head of hair! It really holds curls. After I curled her hair, I pulled it up off her face to make it look as if it was being swept to the side by water. Then, I simply braided her hair down that one side while still keeping it full and messy, as if water was moving it around.

If I wasn’t a nail tech, I would have seriously considered doing hair and makeup! Of course, I’m not complaining. And I’m certainly out of my area of experience doing hair and makeup, but I’m doing it anyway, because it’s too much fun! Especially being able to learn as I go.

While I did Baylee’s hair and makeup, Debbie worked to finish the nail design.

Using her Clear Jelly Stamper, Debbie stamped a nautical design for our mermaid.

Here, Debbie and I put our underwater stamping plate to good use! We decided to use the “snow globe” effect (or in this case, aquarium effect!) on one feature nail. Baylee’s middle finger has the layers of clear builder gel with our sea life stamps in between.

Even though Baylee isn’t a professional model and we are not a pro makeup and hair team, we…

Reason one: to suggest that she- the mermaid- is caught in netting.

Reason two… because it looks so cool!

Even though Baylee isn’t a professional model and we are not a pro makeup and hair team, we were able to play the part together for an afternoon. The result was great and the experience, even greater!