Blocking Pink Blooms

You guys I have no idea where I was going with this. I wanted to make a green gradient, so I did. Then I wanted to add some geometric black lines, so I did. I decided that wasn’t good enough, so I decided to add some complicated flowers, so I did. This is the end result. The black lines did not come out as dark as I wanted so I went over quite a few of them myself (which is why they are a bit irregular) but it also allowed me to make some go on top of and others underneath the flowers! The end result is very strange, but for some reason my husband loved it?

The base beneath all this nonsense is a new-to-me neon green polish called Race Against Slime by KBShimmer. It is a very nice very bright green! This is two coats. It was slightly thick (as one expects from a neon) and dried down semi-matte, so it will need a shiny top coat. Overall though, decent application and excellent saturation!

Colors:
~ Neon green: KBShimmer – Race Against Slime
~ Pastel green: Maybelline – Green with Envy
~ Green: Zoya – Shawn
~ Dark green: Sinful Colors – Last Chance
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Light pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Dark pink: Zoya – Kelsey
~ Stamps: Nicole Diary – L21

All the flowers are from a stamping plate that I THINK I have shown before, but on the off chance that I have not, here is the link. Lots of leaves and flowers and it picks up quite nicely! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this neon pink/green confusion of a manicure! And happy inauguration day 😀 😀

Elaborate Purple Curls

These nails took FOREVER and if I am honest I don’t love them. I wish I had picked a lighter range of colors rather than the full span of purples. Oops! As it stands about half of them look too much like each other, and the whole design is much darker than I intended it to be. Next time (if there is a next time) I will use a lighter color palette!

Colors:
~ Pastel purple: Zoya – Abby
~ Light purple: Zoya – Malia
~ Purple: OPI – I Manicure for Beads
~ Bright purple: Zoya – Margo
~ Dark purple: Zoya – Landon
~ Darkest purple: Zoya – Lael
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamps: Whats up Nails – A010

Moral of the story: if you are going to spend >1.5 hours coloring in tiny lines, make sure your colors work well together! Hope you enjoyed despite that. 

Abstract Succulents

Guys I don’t know. I wanted some teal-on-teal action, and for some reason I gravitated towards this stamp. I like what the nails ended up looking like, but I cannot decide if I think they are more succulnet-like or alien-head-like! So I went with the plants :-p

Colors:
~ Nabi – Ocean Blue
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Teal: Zoya – Wednesday
~ Stamp: MoYou – Frenchy 14 

Even staring at these again to edit and color correct them, I have no idea what I was thinking here! Oh well, it was fun anyway. Hope you enjoyed! 

Leaves on Woodgrain

I wanted to do a woodgrain manicure, but that was too simple! So I went and added some bright leaves. The base was a medium brown with lighter brown dry-brushed on. The stamp was two shades of darker brown. The leaves were advanced stamped (ooooh, aaaah) to make it more colorful, and to make them stand out. I like the end result and it is very appropriately autumn, but with the advanced stamping it took quite a bit longer! 

Colors:
~ Light brown: Zoya – Chantal
~ Brown: Zoya – Flynn
~ Dark brown: Zoya – Dea
~ Darkest brown: Zoya – Louise
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment 
~ Stamps: BM – 608, UC – Lovely Leaves 2

I am so happy, the leaves on the trees in front of my house have finally started to change colors and it is pretty! I think last fall I was too caught up in life to notice things like the leaves changing. Anyway, hope you all enjoyed! 

Butterflies on Pink

In retrospect I have no idea why I went with a bright pink base for this manicure, I think something a bit more subtle might have looked better! That said, this ended up colorful and fun. I also ended up using most of my bright yellows, greens, and oranges all in one place, so that was fun? I wanted to post this in 2020, and since we have entered October I figured this was my last chance! Time to start on fall manis next week 😀

Colors:
~ Pink: Zoya – Jordan
~ Shimmer: Different Dimension – Intergalactic Dolphin
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Pastel yellow: Maybelline – Citrus Collide
~ Neon yellow: Love & Beauty – Yellow
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Pastel orange: Forumla X – Incandescent 
~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie
~ Dark orange: Essie – Playing Koi 
~ Pastel green: OPI – Did It On ‘Em
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Stamps: Nicole Diary – L21

This manicure features a set of stamps from a plate sent to me for review from Born Pretty, the Nicole Diary stamping plate L21. It has a lot of fantastic leaves and flowers, and seems to be right up the alley of what everyone else is doing (lots of leaves). You can find it here for $6.99. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the last of summer manicure!

Crinkled Porcelain

This mani was easy in the sense that it is entirely stamped patterns. But coloring them in? Obsessing over my 45 shades of blue? That was more challenging! I am so happy with how it came out 🙂 Although this isn’t really “fashion” the way I think the 31 day challenge intended, porcelain things are certainly fashionable so I am counting it!

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Grey: Zoya – Dove
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Pastel blue: Zoya – Blu
~ Light blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Sia
~ Darkest blue: Zoya – Ryan
~ Stamps: MoYou – Porcelain 01 

We are almost at the end of the 31 day challenge…and I have to say I have NO IDEA how I used to post daily! I know I had more time when I was in medical school and graduate school than I do as an actual doctor, but still! Wow. Daily would be really tiring. Anyway, hope you enjoyed! 

Fishing at Sunrise

Rainbow day is my favorite day in the 31 day challenge! This time I pulled some nail art from the vault and went with a weird combination of stamping gradient and advanced stamping (kinda). This particular design was inspired by Sylvia Lopic Nails. By far the hardest part of this mani was getting my yellow polish to gradient. It just isn’t pigmented enough!

Colors:
~ Purple: Zoya – Malia
~ Hot pink: WOW – 371
~ Pink: Zoya – Kelsey 
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Green: Zoya – Josie 
~ Stamp: BM – XL204

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed! This was fun to make and fun to wear. I want to play with this plate again sometime soon; I do love easy panoramas! 

White Petals

I don’t know what the aim was with this one? I wanted to do sort of a purple-and-white wallpaper look with leaves? But they ended up looking more like flower petals? and I decided it was too one-dimensional so I added some shimmery purple-grey dots in the smaller leaf buds? Again, I made this up as I went and the end result is a bit odd. If I am being truly honest on review of this: I hate the design and this may be my least favorite nail art I’ve done in the last year. Yuck. So you only get one (ugly) picture today).

Colors:
~ Light purple: Zoya – Abby
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Dark grey: Sinful Colors – Muse
~ Grey-purple shimmer: Essie – For the Twill of it
~ Stamp: Lina – @urbannailart collab

Sorry it was awful! Friday’s is also bad although at least I tried? This ended up being rather a fail week…in preparation to start the 31 day challenge and all the upcoming pretties associated with that next week!

Shimmering Purple Leaves

I feel like IG has been full of pretty leaf manicures. I don’t know why and to be honest I didn’t get it at first, but the simple delicacy eventually won me over and I had to make my own. Of course, green is boring and pink is (oddly) overdone, so I went for purple! Ta-da. I do love the way the glitter fits with the shimmery pink highlights in the base color. Ok lets be honest I just really love shimmer polishes :-p

Colors:
~ Pastel purple shimmer: Ethereal Lacquer – Little Oysters
~ Purple: L’oreal – Royalty Reinvented
~ Silver/pink holo glitter: ILNP – Rosewater
~ Grey: Zoya – Evvie
~ Stamp: UC – Lovely Leaves 2

The surprise with this manicure was using a grey stamping polish rather than a black one. I almost always reach for black/white or silver/gold (they stamp well); I didn’t want this to be super bold (especially since this plate works so well) so I actually used a grey! Surprise! Hope you enjoyed 🙂

Tribal Red

Ok, I really do not like this manicure. What I had in mind was something cool…and what resulted after I messed it up and got frustrated was something decidedly less cool. At least the colors are ok? It is hard to go wrong with red and gold, but this was certainly not my best work!

Colors:
~ Red glitter: Zoya – India
~ Red creme: Zoya – Sookie
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Stamp: MoYou – Pro 02

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! This week is going to be a bit…slow in terms of nail art. I am just throwing random older bits together 😀

Bright Rainbow Arabesques

You guys. THIS MANICURE. It took FOREVER. I want to do it AGAIN. It took me two days to make all the decals that I ended up using on my nails and they are so colorful I almost died. I made these for my birthday last year, and they were absolutely appropriate! It was of course only fitting that I post them in honor of my birthday this year.

I intended to make a mock design of each of three patterns and pick one to use for all my nails, but coloring them in took ages so I just used all three patterns! The one on my pinky I liked least, which is why I kept the smallest piece of it. The one on my middle and pointer I thought went well together, so I used that design as the basis for my thumb and ring finger, which were done the day I actually completed the mani rather than the afternoon before. Phew!

Colors:
~ Pink: Zoya – Kelsey
~ Red: Zoya – Sookie
~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Green: Zoya – Josie
~ Teal: Zoya – Cecilia
~ Blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Indigo: Zoya – Danielle
~ Purple: Zoya – Landon
~ Dark pink: Zoya – Ciara
~ Silver holo: ILNP – Fired Up
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamps: Moyra – 45 I Fill You

Moral of the story: advanced stamping rainbow swirls of happiness that use 10 colors take a LONG TIME. :-D. Hope you enjoyed, and happy almost-birthday to me!

Spiky Floral Tips

The idea here was good. The execution was good. The colors? Not a great combo. Oops! I wanted some sunrise/flowers in a french tip design with neutral colors all around. I ended up with a bit of a color mess! I don’t know why I keep matching mint with nude, the colors just never come out as sharply as I want them to. This is maybe the 4th manicure with a similar color combination in the span of two months! Yikes.

Colors:
~ Pale mint holo: Cadillacquer – Memory Palace
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Nude: CND – Cashmere Wrap
~ Gold glitter: ILNP – Fame
~ Grey: Formula X – Delightful
~ Stamp: BM – 616

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Its June, so honestly I should start posting my backlog of neon manicures, but I just haven’t had time to give them the editing they so sorely need! Hopefully next week?

Rowdy Roses

Technically, I painted these around Valentine’s day. However, roses are good any time, so they are being posted now! In retrospect, I wish I had not made the backgrounds holographic, I think the art would have popped more against a creme background. Live and learn! Besides, I like making my backgrounds more sparkly than would otherwise be indicated :-p

Colors:
~ White holo: Emily de Molly – Crystal Crown
~ Red creme: Pure Ice – Siren
~ Red holo: A England – Rosebower
~ Green: Zoya – Josie
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamps: BP – L067, UC – Lovely Leaves 2

On a separate topic: things are going sideways in the US. At the moment, the city that I live in has a curfew, and honestly all but one of the 4 cities I have lived in at any point in my life are doing the same. The systemic racism and violence is (finally) being called out, which is (sadly) provoking violence. To all my readers in the USA: stay safe, stay strong, and do what you can to support your community. To my international readers: yes, all of this is exactly as terrible as it looks. If you feel so motivated, please encourage your leadership to sanction the USA; sadly I don’t think Trump listens to anything except his pride and his wallet, so if his income can be hurt we might actually see some change.

Perfectly Pinked

Ok, I really like this one. I don’t know how the colors work together or why this design caught my eye, but here we are! Honestly I think a real gold rather than a rose gold would have gone better with all the pinks…but you can hardly tell. Girly and glittery to the rescue!

Colors:
~ Rose gold: ILNP – Juliette
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Light pink: Zoya – Jordan
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Dark coral: Essie – Sunday Funday
~ Stamp: MoYou – Frenchy 14

Really the moral of this manicure is if you add enough glitter and colorful distraction, everything looks good. Again, this manicure should not work. I like it anyway :-D. Hope you enjoyed, and happy Friday!

Chinoise Bridge

This was honestly a great idea and a very poor execution. The biggest issue I have with stamping is positioning the stamp on my nails. This got much MUCH easier with the advent of clear stamper heads (I look back at my first few years of blogging and am both horrified and impressed with the tools we had and how we made them work). That said, unlike a regular single color stamped image which can be easily wiped off with a bit of acetone, an advanced stamping design cannot. It lives forever. Which is to say I had a LOT of trouble positioning the stamps for this manicure and it shows!

Colors:
~ Red metallic: Zoya – Isla
~ Red creme: Pure Ice – Siren
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Stamp: MoYou – Porcelain 01

Please don’t judge my stamping position too harshly, I did try! Anyway, hope you enjoyed all the red and gold, and how much my nails look like elegant slightly lopsided bridges :-p Happy friday!

Neutral Bubbles on Teal

I wanted to make a mix of neutral colored bubbles, but I couldn’t decide what color to put them over! For some reason I decided a pale teal would do the trick, and here we are. In retrospect I wish I had gone with black (or one of my neutral creme polishes that I didn’t use for the bubbles) but too late! The end result is honestly rather weird, but this took hours (coloring in all the bubbles) so I am posting it anyway!

Colors:
~ Teal: Glitter Gal – No Worries
~ Pastel nude creme: OPI – Be There in a Prosecco
~ Nude with gold shimmer: Essence – I Nude It
~ Nude holo: Picture Polish – Cherish
~ Nude shimmer: ULTA – Freshwater Pearl
~ Taupe creme: KBShimmer – Caught on Tape
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: Whats up Nails – B015

Moral of the story: If you are going to spend a very long time doing reverse stamping, make sure you have a PLAN or all your hard work is going to end up looking rather half-assed!

Pressed Leaves on Papaya

This manicure is a combination of many pretty things, that when put together, makes a surprisingly ugly end result. A nice gradient, some pretty glitter, a fun leaf stamp…and it did not work! Anyway, here are the individual pieces.

The base color is a new-to-me polish, three thin coats of Papaya Don’t Preach by KBShimmer. I wanted a pastel neon orange, and what I ended up with was a light neon orange…which is very pretty, I will absolutely use, and is not what I was going for! Oops. Darn comparison photos, it looked lighter in swatches (lets be honest, that is true of most neons, cameras just cannot handle them). As neons do, this dried semi-gloss, photos here are with top coat. It has a nice even glide to it and is quite a fun color! It is just too dark for what I had in mind.

Colors:
~ Orange: KBShimmer – Papaya Don’t Preach
~ Pink: Zoya – Ciara
~ Purple: Zoya – Landon
~ Glitter: China Glaze – Fairy Dust
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps: BP – Texture L002

I am also, FINALLY, the proud owner of Fairy Floss by China Glaze. I have wanted this scattered holo top coat for years but never wanted to pay full price for it. Well, I found it on sale for $5 and decided it was coming home with me this time. It makes gradients better, and I needed it! Ahhh, wonderful glitter :-). So, different pieces…odd end result. Hope you can enjoy somewhat!

Planets in Orbit

Space!! Space is the best. I don’t remember why in retrospect I made all the various space things purple instead of varying the color scheme, but the end result is more uniform than I had remembered! Regardless, this was quite fun to wear 🙂

Colors:
~ Black holo: Zoya – Storm
~ Purple: Zoya – Landon
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps: BM – XL213

Nothing much else to offer today. Hope you are all finding something fun to do (perhaps nail painting?) in this time of staying inside and away from friends. Regardless, I hope you are all staying entertained and good luck avoiding virus exposure!

Dangling Sky

I just saw this one stamp and knew I needed to use it. I do not regret that decision. This whole design was based around being able to use the stamp that you can see on my ring finger and thumb. With that in mind I REALLY should have chose a photo that shows my full thumb! Oops

Colors:
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Blake
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Purple: Zoya – Landon
~ Stamps: Nicole Diary – 090, BM – XL213

I was still (as mentioned on Wednesday) in a purple phase at this point. But honestly its such a cool color! And it pairs well with just about everything! Also, stars and moons…and just general awesomeness in the sky 🙂 Hope you all enjoyed!

Orange Conifer

I love so much about this manicure. The color, the funky plants, how much it shimmered…half of these photos were just snapped randomly but had such a cool color mix that I had to post them! I don’t know why I haven’t worn this polish again since I bought it a few months ago, but now I know what I am putting on next!

Just look at the shifty awesome-ness!

The base here is the other “pastel multichrome” that I bought to play with from POP Polish. This is three thin coats of Slick Days of Summer. Much like the pink Watermelon Bubbleslick, Summer isn’t exactly a perfect multichrome, which is to say the polish isn’t smooth like a metallic, rather it is a collection of tiny flakes which you can see based on how they scatter light. Other than that…it is pretty much perfect. It is a bright red/orange through orange to apple green multichrome, and you can honestly see all of the colors just on regular glances. None of this contort-your-hand-backwards nonsense!

I then went ahead and did some advance stamping. I decided to color-match to the orange, and just grabbed some polishes in the color family I wanted. Then I found the PERFECT stamp. Its halfway between a pine cone (hence conifer) and a flower! I die.

Colors:
~ Orange multichrome: POP Polish – Slick Days of Summer
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Light green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Dark green: Zoya – Shawn
~ Light peach: OPI – Freedom to Peach
~ Peach: OPI – Yank my Doodle
~ Dark orange: Essie – Playing Koi
~ Stamp: Moyra – 45 I Fill You

Also this stamping plate is made of amazing images. I want to color them all in…but it takes hours!! That said, I have a full week of next week (omg) so maybe I will actually get around to it. Who knows? Hope you enjoyed!