Checkered Nail Art with the NEW Polished by KPT Basics Series Thermals

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Hello everyone! I've been doing so much swatching lately, it was time for some nail art.  I've been wanting to experiment with color-changing art for awhile, so I was pleasantly surprised when the new Polished by KPT Basics Series Collection arrived on my doorstep! These go on sale tomorrow (so be ready!). Details are at the end of this post.

The Basic Series Collection contains five, spring-colored, warm-sensitive thermals that feature core color changes only (no glitter, holo, duochrome, or other effects). Katherine created the series as a dynamic base for traditional nail art. What a genius idea! Below are the five shades in the collection. [KPT image below] Each is a vibrant spring shade that transitions to a soft pastel version when warm.

Instead of doing traditional nail art with just a thermal base, I took it a little further and went all thermal! This nail art was admittedly time consuming, but easy. I did it in three steps. (1) Sketched out my checks quickly with plain white polish. (2) Used a small, flat nail art brush to fill in the checks randomly with all five colors. I only had to do this once, because I was mostly "dabbing", so the color was opaque in a single pass. (3) Painted on the lines with silver acrylic paint. I did this pretty quickly. The metallic paint reflects light anyway, so it didn't have to be perfect. The colors you're seeing in the second pic are a good medium between cold and warm. In the last pic, the colors are cool.

Normally I am freezing cold and have trouble capturing warm-sensitive thermals on my icy hands. But for some reason, I was extra hot the day I did this and the warm shades were the default on me. Here they are after purposely warming my hands up. They turn a soft, milky pastel.

And here they are after dipping my hand in cool water.  They get so much more vibrant.

It would be so fun to stamp over a solid thermal creme base so only the background would change. I wish I'd thought of it, but wouldn't it be neat to do a gradient sunset in the background? I'll do some swatches of each shade at some point. In the meantime, check out Katherine's post on Tumblr here. It includes swatches and complete descriptions of each polish.

The Polished by KPT Basic Series Collection will be available Saturday, February 7, 2015 at 12PM PST at www.polishedbykpt.com. Stay current on all Polished by KPT news on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram too!

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