Neon Rainbow Webs

My birthday is tomorrow! Which means that this is the official RAINBOW WEEK! I have had a tradition for the past few years of painting my nails with crazy awesome rainbows on my birthday, because rainbows are just the best. This week will show three of my rainbow nails in honor of my birthday 🙂 including my birthday nails that I actually wore last year (because heaven forbid I actually edit nails in time to post them within a week of painting them).

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Purple: Zoya – Malia
~ Gold: Zoya – Ziv
~ Gold holo: FUN Lacquer – Million Dollar Dream
~ Stamp: Nicole Diary – 156

Today’s manicure was approached with the thought: what would Claire Estelle do? She has stopped posting, but back in the day she had the BEST rainbow neons, glitters, and random bits of color. I browsed her IG for a bit (not that I don’t already have most of her posts favorited, because again, rainbows) and settled on this idea! It took some effort but wow was it ever glittery! I started with a pinwheel stamping rainbow (basically going clockwise around from pink through to purple) and gradiented a different orientation of that same pinwheel on each nail. The end result was a somewhat random looking array of rainbow colors. I then added the black stamp, the gold through the line at the middle (both a simple glittery gold and then a chunky gold holo on top), and finally some black dots with gold centers. Voila! Hope you enjoyed…and stay tuned for more rainbows!!!

Stained Glass Lilies

I have been wanting to do a stained glass manicure forever, but I was lacking many things: inspiring images, appropriate jelly polishes, and an appropriate base. I now have ALL (well, most) of these and decided to make a go at it! I realized that Cohesion, which I bought as a topper, would work GREAT over a subtle nude base as a “clear” shimmer stained glass window. I also realized that the recent white glitter collection by Emily de Molly is embedded in perfect jewel tone jellies, which are a pain to get out because there is SO MUCH GLITTER but work great for lead lighting, And finally, I bought a hot neon orange-red jelly polish while in Greece, that pairs wonderful with my existing pink jelly polish. What does this mean? Stained glass flowers!

Colors:s
~ Nude: Formula X – Marvelous
~ Flakies: Emily de Molly – Cohesion
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Green jelly: Emily de Molly – Green Light
~ Pink jelly: Zoya – Paloma
~ Neon orange jelly: Azade – S220
~ Stamp: EDK – Mosaic

These are, in my opinion, probably the best stained glass nail art I have ever done. Now, that is not exactly a high bar…but still! I cannot wait to use more of the images on this plate, and maybe to get myself some better jelly polishes (mostly a real yellow and a green) to play with. Enjoy!

Flamingo Sunset

While in Greece in April, one of the polishes I found was a particular pastel neon coral, an orange-learning pink. I took one look at it and decided it looked like a flamingo (well, my first thought was “shrimp!” and my second thought was flamingo) and that it needed to come home with me. So, obviously, I used it in a flamingo-themed coral-pink manicure.

This is two thin coats of #152 by Studio Seven7een, a Greek brand. It covered beautifully and cleaned up beautifully, and fits right in with all the pastel corals that I have accidentally bought in the last year (…this is the third. Oops). The bottle is a bit funny shaped, but I like the color and the application, so that is fine. This brand appears to make mostly nudes/pinks/reds and the occasional purple, but they do know what they are doing with their consistency!

Colors:
~ Pastel coral: SEVEN7EEN – #152
~ Coral: L’oreal – Orange you Jealous?
~ Neon pink: WOW – #371
~ Holo glitter: China Glaze – Fairy Dust
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamps: Moyra – 106 Picturesque

This gradient involves 2 foreign polishes! WOW is an Israeli brand. I love the overall neon coral sunset look, the fronds, the branches, and of course the flamingo on my pointer! I thought about adding more, but it was already a little…crowded. Overall, despite being a simple gradient and some stamps (ok, a lot of stamps) this came out quite pretty! And fits well with how awfully hot it has gotten. Hope you enjoyed!

Punchy Flowers

I knew I wanted to use this base polish, and I had no plans other than that. So what do you do when you are handed a silvery-pink super sparkly shimmer? Add flowers! It is spring time after all.

The base color here is three thin coats of Binky Bunnies by Leesha’s Lacquer. The maker of Leesha’s Lacquer has three rabbits, and when rabbits are very happy they do this adorable vertical jump called a binky. I can see why a bunny might be happy if they have a silvery-white polish swimming with pink glitter, holo glitter, shimmer, and some amount of this newfangled reflective glitter named after them! Honestly, this polish reminds me of a harder-to-remove Rosewater by ILNP. It is stunning, but I don’t really see the reflective glitter even under direct light? It makes it harder to apply the polish, gives it texture, and makes it much harder to remove…but I don’t know that I feel it adds much to the overall depth of the polish. I could just be bitter about glitter removal, but I don’t understand the current furore over reflective glitters.

Colors:
~ Silver/pink shimmer: Leesha’s Lacquer – Binky Bunnies
~ Teal jelly: Zoya – Frida
~ Teal creme: Zoya – Wednesday
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: Lina – Urbannailart collab

I also have a confession: this is not my polish! I bought it from Polish Pickup for a friend of mine, who actually owns a bunny! She is also the source of my random bunny facts, and occasionally lets me pet her super soft fluffy rabbit, although he is an absolute jerk and also likes to eat my shoes. I hope you too learned something about rabbits today, and enjoyed the nail art!

Olives

I hate olives. They taste awful and salty, and they poison all food that they touch with their saltiness. They are more-or-less the only food that I not only will not eat, but also will not eat around (they spread their nasty flavor). Now, this is a problem since I married a Greek and he LOVES olives. Regardless, on our trip to Greece last month I learned the story about how Athena gave a gift of olive trees to the Greek people to have Athens named after her, beating out Poseidon’s gift of water (because he gave a salt water spring rather than a freshwater spring). In light of that, I figured I could stomach one olive-based manicure because Athena is a badass.

Colors:
~ Dark grey: Bordeau – #212
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Nude: L’oreal – Boho Babe
~ Light grey: Formula X – Delightful
~ Light green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Dark green: Zoya – Shawn
~ Stamp: Nicole Diary – L21

The other fun thing about this manicure is that it features Greek polish! I have made it a goal of mine to find and buy local polish whenever I travel internationally; nail polish is a fairly cheap hobby and I find it fun. Some of my favorite neons are from Israel. I had also read online about this magical store called Hondos Center that has, in addition to regular makeup things, HEAPS of nail polish. Drawers and drawers of nail polish. Many are from Italy and France, but I found a few Greek brands with the help of the women who worked there! Once they saw my nails and figured out what I was looking for, it was off to the nail polish races. I was in heaven. I ended up buying (only) 9 polishes on two trips to the same store (oops), a mix of neons, jewel tones, and this particular find: a very dark buttery grey creme. I have been searching for a nearly-black grey for months without success. This one was PERFECT. This is two thin coats of #212 by Bordeau. I would assume that it was french given the name, but the back states “papadopoulou ariadni” who I’m guessing is a very Greek designer. I have no idea, I can find no records of this brand online, but the polish applies beautiful, dries quickly, and holds up well. Hope you enjoyed! And if you live in some place (besides Australia, since many of my favorite brands are Aussie) let me know some awesome local polish brands!

Dear Deer

I absolutely love this manicure! I had been wanting to use this scene from one of my favorite stamping plates for a while, but I couldn’t figure out what to do with it. This works so well though! A land-to-sky gradient with jelly-filled purple mountains. Cute AND appropriate 🙂

Colors:
~ Neon pastel green: KBShimmer – Lime All Right
~ Neon teal: Emily de Molly – Glee Ridden
~ Periwinkle: L’oreal – Royalty Reinvented
~ Purple jelly: Zoya – Katherine
~ Pink Jelly: Zoya – Paloma
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: Maniology x Clairestelle8 – M035

Honestly I can’t tell which animal I like best: the deer or the squirrel! It is a comically oversized squirrel, but that just means that it is MUCH CLOSER (perhaps close enough for my puppy to catch it :-p). I hope you enjoyed this as much as I do!

London Sunfall

Welp, this didn’t work quite how I planned. I was inspired by the demo art on this stamping plate’s website to try and double stamp this design with black-on-white, but this part of my plate just isn’t etched well enough for this to work! Instead the black looked grey (although the peek-a-boo white did look nice). Next time, just black. That said, I love the designs, and my gradient was rather pretty! You also cannot really tell that I colored the moon in with a yellow jelly. Whoops!

Colors:
~ Orange: KBShimmer – Papaya Don’t Preach
~ Pink: Zoya – Morgan
~ Purple: Zoya – Margo
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Yellow Jelly – Esmalta da Kelly – Yellow Soap Bubble
~ Holo glitter: China Glaze – Fairy Dust
~ Stamp: Maniology x Clairestelle8 – M035

In real life, the gradient was actually pretty, but in these photos it looks like a bit of a mess (and regardless, the pale orange at the tips of my nails did not survive the stamping process). Next time, I will do better!

Cardinal Flowers

I don’t think I have ever used this stamp pattern before, which is a shame because it is quite pretty! I decided this base polish was just too pretty to cover completely, so I used a stamp with a lot of see-through space. Once I was done, I (of course) added a few gold dots. Voila! Sparkles.

Colors:
~ Purple shimmer flakie: Polished for Days – Fireflies
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Rose gold: Essie – Penny Talk
~ Stamp: BP – L003

Simple yet effective. I am so glad I have gathered up a cohort of stamps that work well on their own over a particularly pretty base color! Makes picking what to wear much easier. Hope you enjoyed!

Danbury in Purple

So, I became low-key obsessed with Bridgerton on Netflix last year during season 1. It was fun, lively, had actual good romance and banter, and AMAZING costumes. As such I did a few different designs modeled after some of my favorite characters and dresses! I decided to post these designs now since season 2 came out recently (although I am embarrassed to say that I haven’t watched it yet, I was on vacation!).

It will not be a surprise that my favorite character from season 1 was Lady Danbury, she is just such a badass lady in a man’s world and I love it. So I did a take on this dress of hers: <>. It is hard to see the lace details at the side and bust, but honestly other than the color and fabric of this dress it was quite subtle!

Colors:
~ Purple multichrome: ILNP – Undenied
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamps: MoYou – Frenchy 14, BP – L084

This was fun to do, if a bit challenging to make the pattern stand out. Stay tuned for Wednesday, when you get to see my take on one of the queen’s dresses! Hope you enjoyed…and let see what dress (if any) I decide to copy based on the second season!

Elaborate Eggs

Time for an easter themed manicure! I bought this stamping plate months ago and have been saving it for use in early spring…and despite that, I almost missed it! But here we have it, a very elaborate easter egg manicure. It took a full hour to hand-paint all the colors on the eggs, but I think it was worth it. The bunny is from a different plate, but it just isn’t easter without a bunny!

I also had the brilliant idea to make my base using a green glow in the dark polish, so that when it was dark out the eggs and rabbit would be outlined. It worked! And it looks pretty darn cool. The polish is Glowin’ of Eden by Serum No 5, and this is three gloopy coats. GITD polishes are always harder to use than regular polish, and honestly this was the easiest of the 4 that I have (mostly because I went with thin coats instead of just trying to do two thicker ones). It does glow, but the glow is not easily identifiable as green. Oh well!

Colors:
~ Green GITD: Serum No5: Glowin’ of Eden
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Pink: Zoya – Sandy
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Purple: Zoya – Malia
~ Stamps: Whats Up Nails – B017, BM – 302

Overall a very cute manicure (if I do say so myself) but a mediocre GITD polish. I have worn it again since, and, when charged directly by the sun, it is glow-y. But otherwise it is not that impressive. Then again, I compare all GITD polishes to Dayglow and nothing matches up to that insane brightness!

Hope you enjoyed anyway 🙂

Neon Butterfly Flight

This was inspired by @urbannailart and even came with a video! Honestly, I recreated her background pretty close to perfectly and I loved the look! I will need to do this dirty stamping gradient again in the future. It helps that the whole thing is neon too :-). I didn’t have the ability to stamp a full butterfly pattern with polish (I could only do the outline in black), so I went back and painted over the black stamp with teal and purple jelly polish. It isn’t quite the same pop of color, but overall I think it does a good job honoring the inspiration! My butterfly was a bit smaller than the original, so I went and added some swirls over the colored sections. Voila!

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Hot pink: Zoya – Kelsey
~ Hot yellow: Emily de Molly – LE 196
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Teal jelly: Zoya – Frida
~ Purple jelly: Zoya – Katherine
~ Red glitter jelly: Zoya – Aphrodite
~ Stamps: Moyra – 60 Cuts, Nicole Diary – 090, BM – 314

I am glad it is spring and headed towards summer, I always feel weird posting bright designs and neons in the winter, but I feel like that is what I gravitate towards if given free reign over my collection! Anyway, hope you enjoyed!

Shattered Lace

As part of an IG challenge, there was a prompt of “double applied stamps”. I figured that just meant two stamps…but NO it turns out you can PICK UP A DESIGN INSIDE ANOTHER DESIGN. My mind was blown. I had to try it. Of course, it was also close to valentines day so I went with hot pink and lace? I don’t know. The end result is actually pretty ugly, but I am going to try this again (not near a holiday) with a better set of stamps and colors. Basically, you apply your first stamp (black lace in my case) and then using the same stamper with the design on it, you use a different color over an almost negative-space stamp. What is then left of the stamper is the first designs superimposed over the second design but only where the second design is! So cool.

Colors:
~ Hot pink: Atomic – Silicate
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Stamps: BP – L084, BM – 208

I feel like it is getting rarer and rarer that I learn an honestly new nail art technique…mild variations, sure. But this? This is cool. Now I need to find more negative-space style designs to try it out on! Hope you enjoyed the idea, even if the execution could use some work!

Holo Rainbow Bubble Warp

I don’t have ANY IDEA what I did here. Or why. I wanted to go with some of my old swoopy color change nails, but I forgot how I did them (the next one I do will be better, and I will be doing this again!) so I made all the lines mostly vertical. But uneven. The end result was a very messy rainbow. So I added a black warped grid…that was almost invisible. And then added black dots. And white dots. And for once, the dots actually saved the manicure! It still looks crazy, but it looks INTENTIONALLY crazy. Down the rainbow rabbit hole! Or into Willy Wonka’s canal I suppose.

I wanted to test a new-to-me polish, a yellow linear holo called Funshine Smoothie by ILNP. I almost never wear yellow as a base color, but it pops really well in gradients and other designs, so I am actually running out of my core yellow polishes! Anyway, this is three thin coats of Funshine Smoothie. It wasn’t quite opaque in 2 coats, but it went on perfectly (and removed perfectly a few days later) so three coats was just fine! It is a very pretty bright linear holo…for a yellow :-p

Colors:
~ Purple holo: A England – Crown of Thistles
~ Pink holo: Cupcake Polish – Berry Good Looking
~ Orange holo: Emily de Molly – Scorched Earth
~ Yellow holo: ILNP – Funshine Smoothie
~ Green holo: A England – Dragon
~ Teal holo: Powder Perfect – There be Mermaids!
~ Blue holo: Color Club – Over the Moon
~ Stamp: Nicole Diary – L28

I remember Berry Good Looking being a bright purple with magenta undertones that somehow leaned vibrant blue. The polish I have now is a bright magenta-pink. It is still insanely intense and pretty, but is not the same color as the polish I remember buying? How weird!

Eclipsed Lace

This went so wrong! I wanted to create a lines-over-lace look and for some reason went for black polish over a black-to-red multichrome. You couldn’t see the design at all. So I went and added red glitter? The whole thing is a mess. Oy.

The base here (which you cannot see) is ILNP Eclipse, three thin coats. This polish is just as beautiful as everyone has made it out to be and I am so glad I bought it! It actually came with a really wonky twisted brush, so I reached out to ILNP and they sent me a new one 🙂 I honestly put this back in my untried pile so I will wear it again soon in such a way that the base color is visible.

Colors:
~ Red-to-black multichrome: ILNP – Eclipse
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Loose Red Glitter
~ Stamps: BC – 10

When this manicure caught the light JUST right you could see the whole design and it was pretty. It was also not worth it. Win some, lose some!

Melting Clocks

This nail art is what would occur if Salivador Dali had a nightmare. I tried for this melting clock manicure…and I ended up with an awful disaster. I was not looking at my inspiration picture closely enough, and spent too long trying to determine how she made her marble background (I still have no idea and I REALLY want to know, they are so perfect! Share your secrets!). The end result is comedically horrible.

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Neon green: KBShimmer – Lime All Right
~ Teal: Zoya – Cecilia
~ Teal gliter: LA Girl – Teal Dimension
~ Gold glitter: Ethereal – Rainforest

If anyone knows how this artist (or any others like her) create such smooth beautiful marble nails, let me know! Clearly my attempts at recreation are cringe-worthy. Maybe next time.

Purple Moonrise

I really wanted to add a howling wolf to this manicure and I just could not figure out how or where! Next time. This design was inspired by @iamdeliasnails who was in turn initially inspired by @teenynails. I love the nail art community. I made a bright pink to light purple gradient, and stamped over the tips with purple and then black polish. Voila! Fairly easy and yet quite pretty.

Colors:
~ Light purple: Essie – Full Steam Ahead
~ Light pink: Zoya – Tobey
~ Bright pink: Zoya – Kelsey
~ Bright purple: Zoya – Landon
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps: Moyra – 106 Picturesque

Does anyone have any advice on how to incorporate a wolf stamp and not make it look ridiculous next time I do something like this? If I did it in white (or light purple) it would stand out too much, but the whole thing is already black! If I did the trees in grey the wolf could be black, but that would be difficult to accomplish and still difficult to see most likely. Ugh.

Hazy Crazy

This was my attempt at a very loose dry brush gradient. I don’t know why I made it and it didn’t quite work, but I still like the end result even if I wouldn’t do it again! I basically started with white, used a dry brush to apply yellow to my cuticle, orange just above it and overlapping it, then red, then purple. The yellow kinda got lost in the end.

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Orange: Zoya- Thandie
~ Red: Zoya – Sooki
~ Purple: OPI – I Manicure for Beads
~ Stamp: B Loves Plates – 03 Mind Blown

I said on Monday that it was time for some bright colors, and this seems like a fitting start! Friday (assuming I get it done in time) will be more glittery. Hope you enjoyed!

Fan Flowers

There was no overall plan with this manicure, I just had a color pallet to use and went for it! I don’t know if I like the overall scheme over blue (rather than nude or light orange) but it is what it is! I love the yellow/orange/pink/purple pallet, but looking back at this I wish I had done it over a more neutral color. Maybe next time!

Colors:
~ Pastel blue: Zoya – Blue
~ Blue shimmer: Sinful Colors – Cinderella
~ Yellow: KBShimmer – Orange You Glad I Didn’t Say Banana?
~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie
~ Pink: Zoya – Morgan
~ Magenta: Zoya – Margo
~ Purple: Zoya – Danielle
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: Moyra – 45 I Fill You

I want to say it is getting close to spring (we are most of the way to March and its been in the 60s the past two days) but honestly it is supposed to snow and then freezing rain later this week (oh joy) so I can’t say that. I just like flowers? Anyway, hope you enjoyed!

Potions

I wanted these to look like lab experiments, but with the neon green color and red dots, they look more like magic potions! I am quite pleased regardless :-D. I feel like I only ever use this base with the science-themed stamping plate, and I am 100% ok with that combination continuing. I added some bright green dots (bubbles of potion?) to the outside of my potion bottles and this manicure is just fun to wear!

Colors:
~ Green glitter: Cadillacquer – I am the Danger
~ Green: KBShimmer – Race Against Slime
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamps: Hit The Bottle – For the Love of Science

My only complaint is that since I do not have a real black stamping polish, you could see some of the glitters through my black polish with the stamping. It wasn’t a big deal and I am still very happy with how this came out (seriously, this neon green is amazing) but maybe I should actually invest in a real black stamping polish? Who knows! Hope you enjoyed!

Dark Flowers and Branches

I saw this manicure by @ruthsnailart and I really just wanted to re-create it. I so rarely see a dark shimmer base with dark flowers that really pops (the orange glitter dots) and somehow feels somber despite being floral. I made me think of rain. I also think that at this point 50% of the nails I recreate are from Ruth.

Colors:
~ Grey metallic: Essie – For the Twill of it
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Brown: Zoya – Dea
~ Purple: L’oreal – Paparazzi Pleaser
~ Green: Zoya – Shawn
~ Orange glitter: OPI – DS Indulgence

Hope you enjoyed the dark dreary flowers on this cold winter day! Or at least enjoyed the nails if not the day. Happy Friday!