Day 168) Nail art with colored sand

Nails with texture are hot.
There are nail polishes that contain texture within themselves, for example Liquid Sand by OPI

But there are also brands like PUPA which have a nail art kit for texture; Pupa - Crazy Crystals.
This kit contains:
- Lasting color nail polish
- Crazy Crystals
- Mini brush
- Tray

Both the textured nail polish and the texture kit are rather expensive.
At least too expensive for me...for I only use it ones or twice.
I like to think outside the box and look for cheaper alternatives.
And...I think I've found it!

At the local drug store, but I think you have better luck at a craft or toy store, I found this kit:

Grafix - Sand Bracelets







 

This kit contains:

- Plastic bracelets which can be filled

- Colored sand

- Mini funnel

 

Of course I'm not interested in the bracelets, but I do have interest in the colored sand. Especially for the price of €1,49 (1,99 USD).

For today's nail art I've used the colored sand from this bracelet kit.
I only did two nails, for I don't like the removing of this textured nails (and my middle finger nail broke aaarggggghhhhh).
The other nails I painted purple; Essence Colour & Go - Oh my glitter!

The sand nail art is pretty simple too.
I used a striper brush and basecoat to make stripes on the nails (one by one and alternately starting from different sides of the nail, like a tigerprint).
Then I applied the sand, shaked some excess off and gave it a blow.
...Next stripe, sand, shake it off, blow...
...Next...and so on

The colors are bright and you can see the sand texture very well. Of course this is easily damaged because of the texture. So, if you want it to last, you'll have to apply a topcoat:

The sand texture is less visible and the colors are less bright, but it does look more like the liquid sand nail polishes.
To give it a little extra, I added some tiger stripes to the sand nails. I used a black striper for this:

I'm very pleased with this sand. I think it's a great, cheap alternative to the more expensive liquid sand and textured kits!