Multiple Multichrome Weave

I love this combination of polishes, and these are fun stamps. So how can I lose? I really just wanted to try this combination of a “pastel” multichrome over a darker pigmented multichrome again. And the result was (as expected) too pretty to cover all the way up. Its a bit hard to tell what is going on in this manicure due to the number of colors at play, but even if it is confusing I love it!

Colors:
~ Red-gold multichrome: ILNP – Greatness
~ Pink-yellow multichrome: POP Polish – Slick Days of Summer
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Blake
~ Gold: Sally Hansen – Go for Gold
~ Stamps: Lina – @urbannailart collar, Whats Up Nails – A010

I should try combining multichromes more often, just for the fun of watching my nails shift colors in real time. It doesn’t make for the most interesting photos, but it makes me happy! I hope you guys enjoyed it as well.

Nearly Rainbow Splotches

I wore a rainbow splotch dress to a wedding. It is a very pretty dress, but instead of trying to match one or two (or even three) colors on the dress, I decided to match ALL OF THEM. That made for a very strange design, but honestly these nails kinda looked like the dress. I just picked out my polishes, and went to work dabbing color on my nails. At the end I also added a stamp in blue to try and tie the whole thing together, I don’t think I succeeded. Knowing the dress I wore I would call these a success…however as stand-alone nail art they are frankly awful to look at. Sorry!

Colors:
~ Pink: Essie – The Girls are Out
~ Red: KBShimmer – Chai-huahua
~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Yellow: KBShimmer – Orange You Glad I didn’t Say Banana?
~ Green shimmer: Zoya – Ivanka
~ Light blue: Makeup Selective – 105
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Sia
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

Sometimes less is more, and although I tend to go for more color and more details in one nail art design, I think this is a case of where I absolutely went overboard! When I try to match this dress again I will pick one or two colors in addition to blue. Yikes!

Purple Overlay

This was good in theory but poor in execution. Frequently, when I have a very pretty polish that I want to use geometric patterns with, I will reach for the plate EDM03, because it is made up of fantastic designs with a fair amount of negative space, and is great for laying over itself. I have used combinations from this plate >10 times. However, this time, it didn’t work. I think if I had used a white stamp instead of a light purple, the overall look would have been cleaner. Instead, I am left with a stunning purple glittery base, with rather messy silver holo and pastel purple stamps over it.

Colors:
~ Dark purple with shimmer: ILNP – Ava
~ Silver holo: Color Club – Harp on It
~ Purple: Zoya – Abby
~ Stamp: EdM – 03

Posting on this blog for the next 2 months is likely to be just a spotty as it has been for the past month or so, I am traveling a lot during the weeks and weekends, so while I am keeping my nails painted, I have not had enough time to edit the posts and put everything together! Things should get back to normal later this summer, but sorry for the intermittent silences! Hope you enjoyed all this glitter and purple today.

H&E Neurons

In pathology, one of the very first stains anyone does is an H&E, which turns the cells various shades of pink and purple, typically on a pale pink-purple background. For my nails at a neurology conference, I wanted to capture that look, and so created an H&E stain for my nails! Which mostly means a purple-nude base, dry brushing on some pink and purple jelly polish, and then stamping with a darker purple. If I had more time, I would have made these more elaborate (some inclusions and aggregates on imaging…) but alas I did not.

Colors:
~ Nude: Zoya – Rue
~ Purple jelly: Zoya – Katherine
~ Pink jelly: Zoya – Paloma
~ Purple: Zoya – Landon
~ Stamp: Hit the Bottle – For the Love of Science

Hopefully if any neurologists or neuropathologists are looking at my blog (which is admittedly unlikely) they will recognize what I did here. For everyone else, have some purple-pink threads I suppose! This ends science week, hope you enjoyed!

Fun Helix

What is more cool that the DNA helix of life? A helix on an awesome bright gradient background! This was a challenge to double stamp because of all the tiny fine lines that needed to (hah) line up, but I think it worked ok! The base gradient came out great, so I am happy either way.

Colors:
~ Pink: Zoya – Morgan
~ Blue: Zoya – Sia
~ Red shimmer: ILNP – The Magician
~ Silver: A England – Excalibur
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: Hit the Bottle – For the Love of Science

I am really happy that the images on this plate pick up so well, I don’t know what I would do if I bought this really awesome stamping plate only to find out it didn’t work well! Hope you enjoyed science day #2!

Brain

Sorry for missing a few weeks of posting, life has gotten away from me! And sadly it is likely to remain that way for at least a month. I am still here, I am just not making enough time to update the blog. Anyway, I went to a neurology conference, so of course I had to do brain nails! It helps that I only had a tiny amount of time to throw this together (since I had to wake up at 4am for my flight) and that I already own the stamp for the folds of the brain. Easy, but effective.

Colors:
~ Pink: Sayuri – Anthos
~ Red: OPI – Magala Wine
~ Stamp: Hit the Bottle – For the Love of Science

This week is going to be full-on nerdy, so I hope some of you get a kick out of that! Enjoy.

Spring Easter Gradient

I had very high hopes for this manicure, and honestly they fell a bit short. The colors did not quite come together how I intended (in particular the yellow got swallowed up) and it looks a bit more heavy-handed than pastel! Oh well, still pretty. And definitely still Easter themed.

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Yellow: KBShimmer – Orange you Glad I didn’t say Banana?
~ Blue: Essie – Rock the Boat
~ Purple: Zoya – Malia
~ Holo glitter: China Glaze – Fairy Dust
~ Stamp: Whats up Nails – B017

I suppose I did no green/spring things for Easter posts this year. I will have to rectify that for next year. Anyway, since it is also Passover and Ramadan, regardless of what you are celebrating I hope you get some special food and have a great weekend! Enjoy.

Pastel Dyed Eggs

Years ago, before my husband and I were actually married, we would go to his family’s home for Easter and dye eggs (we still go for Easter, there is just less egg dying now). I had always assumed, as a Jew, that eggs were to be intricately and delicately painted with designs. It turns out, you randomly splash on rainbow colors that you create by dissolving a tab that looks like tums in water? And you get 12 colors half of which are nearly-identical shades of pink/red? Anyway. I wanted to create a more dreamy pastel version of those eggs, and decided my nails were the perfect canvas.

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Pink: Zoya – Sandy
~ Yellow: Revlon – Electric
~ Teal: Emily de Molly – Glee Ridden
~ Purple: Nails Inc – Regents Place
~ White glitter: Emily de Molly – Pale Landscape
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: Whats up Nails – B017

I started with a white base, and did a square gradient (if that is a thing) of 4 colors that somehow blended to make a rainbow. I rotated the gradient on each nail for interest, and then added some beautiful white glitter. I had not tried Pale Landscape before, and I am very glad I bought it! Its so delicate. I then added the egg stamp, and voila! Perfect pastel easter eggs. Without odd dissolving tabs and water.

Ridiculous Orange Neons

Why. Why did I think this was a good idea. Why did I think these colors would go together (and pink 6 neons and one normal polish). Why did I spend so long on my accent nails. THE WORLD WILL NEVER KNOW. I don’t hate the end result, but for how long I put into this, it should look better. I think it was a combination of my not-quite-perfect color choices, and the clown-like addition on my other three nails. I wanted something easy and geometric, and I made a clown bib. Womp womp.

Colors:
~ Pastel yellow: Maybelline – Citrus Collide
~ Neon yellow: KBShimmer – Orange You Glad I Didn’t Say Banana?
~ Pastel orange: Zoya – Cole
~ Neon orange: KBShimmer – Papaya Don’t Preach
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Hot pink: WOW – #371
~ Neon red: Emily de Molly – LE 199
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamps: Moyra – 45 I Fill You, 60 Cuts

Even stranger, because these are neon colors, and orange neons at that, my hands look weird and grey. I tried to do a bit of color correction, but honestly I think its a lost cause. I live and learn! Hope you enjoyed anyway.

Green Hazy Forest

I wanted to create a magical-appearing forest atmosphere. To do so, I started with a magnetic green base, and then layered on tree stamps in light grey, grey, and black. I think my nails are a tad too long for this design to actually look good, but it was kinda cool and I love the magnets background (even if you can’t tell it is there very well in static pictures)!

Colors:
~ Green magnetic: Masura – Emerald Cat
~ Grey: Zoya – Dove
~ Dark grey: Zoya – Evvie
~ Black: Maybelline – Onyx Rush
~ Stamps: Moyra – Picturesque 106

I don’t want start recording how-to videos, or videos of my fingernails in motion…but for magnetic finishes I am ALMOST tempted to. The real beautiful of this just cannot be captured in a static photo. Then again, I don’t have the editing time or disk space to save lots of videos, so this will have to do! Enjoy!

Red Target

I think these look both cool and creepy. I wanted to make something that looked like a laser sight surrounded by shattered glass or metal, and I think I achieved that! Whenever I do something like this I am tempted to use a complicated base color with glitter and shimmer and shift…and this time I talked myself into a simple holo. I love the end result so I think I did it right!

Colors:
~ Black holo: ILNP – Black Magic
~ Grey: Zoya – Dove
~ Black: Maybelline – Onyx Rush
~ Red: Zoya – Sooki
~ Red holo: A England – Rosebower
~ Stamp: BPX Geometry – L020

I day I will actually invest in a full set of stamping polishes, so I can stop guessing blindly as to which of my creme polishes are opaque enough to let me stamp without the base poking through. I got luck with this, seeing the glitter of Black Magic through Dove did not ruin the overall look. Maybe next time.

Rainbow Quilt

I wanted to see what would happen if I created a colorful quilt by laying all my jelly polishes over each other. Voila! It is pink-weighted because I don’t actually have a green or a blue, only a teal (oops, I should work on that), and my yellow is quite weak. But it is very pretty!

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Maybelline – Onyx Rush
~ Holo: China Glaze – Fairy Dust
~ Pink jelly: Zoya – Paloma
~ Orange jelly: Azade – S220
~ Yellow jelly: Esmalta da Kelly – Yellow Soap Bubbles
~ Teal jelly: Zoya – Frida
~ Purple jelly: Zoya – Katerine
~ Stamp: Hit the Bottle – Material World 01

Of course, to preserve the crisp black lines of the underlying stamp, I started with a layer of clear holo glitter. It worked like a charm! This was easy (if a bit time-consuming) and it makes me very happy to look at! Hope you enjoyed!

Elaborate Exchange

This manicure was FUN. Fun to design, fun to paint, and fun to wear. I really like adding 3D gems to my nails just because it gives me something to run my fingers over, even though they fall off all the time! Regardless, I think I have the right pink and blue for this design, and the overall look was excellent. I was inspired by @na_ko91 although her pattern was far more geometric. I decided to go vaguely south-east asian with my pattern, and I am happy!

Colors:
~ Hot pink: Zoya – Morgan
~ Blue: Zoya – Sia
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Stamp: Hit the Bottle – Material World 01

I feel the need to do a neon rainbow manicure gradient, or something else equally vivid, after the BRIGHTNESS of this manicure. So much fun! Hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did.

Blue Flame

This design was inspired by @nailsandtowel, I can never claim credit for coming up with a design featuring a blue so dark it was nearly black over a mystical flakie background. But I loved it enough that I had to recreate it! I thought about using my flame stamping plate to make the fire, but it wasn’t fine enough, so I just freehanded the flames. I like some nails better than others. I also decided to go a bit nuts with the glitters on my two plain nails. More glitter for everyone!

Colors:
~ Flakies: Emily de Molly – Cohesion
~ Holo: Different Dimension – Intergalactic Dolphin
~ Blue: Zoya – Ryan

I continually feel that since I am back in the lab, I should have more time to spare to paint my nails. However, I still have clinical duties, and now have a dog and a house to take care of….so I only find time to paint my nails once a week. And it is usually stamping. I really should be doing more freehand nail art and impressive designs, but I just don’t. Even this manicure, half of my nails are just blue! Maybe someday soon I will work myself up to a full freehand design. Enjoy anyway!

Pretty Pattern

High Degree is probably one of my favorite polishes, but it is so complicated that I struggle to come up with nail art designs that feature it without either smothering it or making it hideous. I think this is the second every design where I have used this polish and am actually happy with the result. My last fail was so bad I almost didn’t post it, and changed my nails 24 hours later. But this? Yes. I think I need to stick with black and white with this complex polish, rather than follow my heart and use oranges and pinks :-p

Colors:
~ Magenta with orange glitter: Emily de Molly – High Degree
~ Black: Maybelline – Onyx Rush
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: EdM – 03

It is also especially difficult to photograph, because of the neon tones in the magenta polish. I love it anyway! Hope you enjoyed.

ShamRock Around

A second St. Patrick’s day manicure? This is unheard of! I think I have bought more green polishes in the past 12 months than any other color, and it shows. Half these polishes are new. I think I can consider my green polish collection complete now. Hopefully.

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Light green: Formula X – Quantum
~ Green holo: A England – Dragon
~ Dark green: Zoya – Hunter
~ Stamps: BP – L049, MoYou Pro – 02

My only real complaint about this manicure is that I messed up my ring finger accent nail. I was trying to double stamp green-over-gold but I didn’t line the stamps up the way I wanted, so I went back and colored in the lines. The end looked cool but messy, since I applied the colors after the stamp and the line work isn’t perfect. Hope you enjoyed anyway!

End of the Rainbow

What, a St. Patrick’s day manicure?! This was a LOT of fun to create, although my stamped design didn’t fully cover so I had to touch it up, which is why there are so many darker green dots on my shamrocks. And I inverted my pots of gold (they were supposed to be right-side up but I painted them facing me, oops! Rookie mistake that I haven’t made in a LONG time). So now you know why my hand position looks funky in these photos!

Colors:
~ White GITD: Serum No5 – Pure Glow Getter
~ Green GITD: Serum No5 – Glowin’ of Eden
~ Dark green: Sinful Colors – Last Chance
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Gold glitter: Cult Nails – Walk of Shame
~ Red: Emily de Molly – LE199
~ Orange: Emily de Molly – LE197
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Purple: Zoya – Malia
~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B017

The added bonus: the base colors were glow in the dark! I don’t know why, I just wanted them to be. It was fun to put together although maybe a bit silly, since GITD polish is so much harder to remove! It also turns out that my green GITD polish glows more brightly than my white. I did not know that before.

Hopefully next year neither my stamp nor my actual freehand art (if I try any) gets messed up. It was such a good idea! Oh well. Hope you enjoyed 😀

Paisley Parade

This is just plain cute. I wanted to use a delicate paisley stamp, and since Valentine’s Day was around the corner at the time I painted these, I figured I would use a Valentine’s-appropriate base. The stamping is a little stark in contrast to the pastel base polish, and maybe would have looked better with a dark grey, but overall not bad! Next time, grey, and maybe paint a rim around the nail?

Colors:
~ White with glitters: Emily de Molly – Sakura
~ Black: Maybelline – Onyx Rush
~ Stamp: Hit the Bottle – Material World 01

I am so excited that flowers are starting to bloom; it means the baby ducklings in the park are soon to come! Every spring I wait with bated breath for the first eggs to appear, and then the tiny fluffy yellow ducklings. Soon! Hope you enjoyed these pastel nails.

Candy Colored Wiggles

This is a weird manicure. I wanted to use a super colorful flakie base, and then just grabbed some candy colored creme polishes and made weird squiggles out of them. I don’t know why (thats a lie: I wore this to match a very colorful dress to a wedding. It was a weird choice). They look rather intentional? But they were not. Moral of the story: at least have some very basic idea of what you want to do before you start painting your nails! These weren’t even fast because I had to go back and correct my squiggles along the way.

Colors:
~ Blue and rainbow flakies: Ever After: Playing with Fire
~ Pink: Zoya – Sandy
~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Blue: Makeup Selective – 105

This manicure has a sister design (which is to say, what I was wearing on my other hand to the wedding to match the same dress) that looks, if possible, even sillier. I’ll show it eventually. Hope you enjoyed!

Stained Glass Cardinals

Stained glass nails! I love this stamping plate but I am afraid to over-use it because I don’t want it to get boring or old. But anyway here are some stained glass birds. I didn’t want to go overboard with the shades of red and pink, so I stuck with two of each. I probably could have gotten away with adding a bit more color.

Colors:
~ Sheer nude: Formula X – Marvelous
~ Flakies: Emily de Molly – Cohesion
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on black
~ Red: Zoya – Sookie
~ Dark red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Green: Zoya – Josie
~ Light pink: Zoya – Jordan
~ Pink: Zoya – Tobey
~ Stamp: EDK – Mosaic

I am stuck on using Cohesion as a base for stained glass manicures, and I am not upset about that. It really does look like iridescent glass (and since making stained glass windows has become my father’s primary hobby in retirement, I have some idea what I am talking about). Maybe I should acquire a few more sheer/iridescent polishes if I am going to use this whole stamping plate… Hope you enjoyed!