Subtle Swirls and Purple Roses

My sister is getting married in a few months, and asked me (months ago) to start coming up with ideas for how to paint her nails. This happened a year in advance. I love my sister but she’s a bit of a control freak :-p. These were my first (and my personal favorite) attempt at “nude and white but elegant and a bit of purple”. Of course, she also wanted me to demo all my nude bases, so my pinky and ring finger are one color, and my middle and pointer finger are another. They are so close you can hardly tell, but I KNOW THEY ARE DIFFERENT (yes, obviously, everyone needs 5 almost identical slightly shimmery nude polishes).

Colors:
~ Nude holo: Picture Polish – Cherish
~ Nude flakie: Sayuri – Anthos
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Purple: Zoya – Malia
~ Light purple: L’oreal – Royalty Reinvented
~ Pastel purple: Zoya – Abby
~ Green: Zoya – Shawn
~ Light green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Stamp: BM – 314

So, what are your guys thoughts on these nails? The other ones that I have tried for her so far were the Pale Purple Lace nails. Which to you guys prefer? Any suggestions for how to due something purple/nude/lace/floral that I should try? 

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 😀 😀

Pale Purple Lace Mix

My sister wants pastel purple nails “with a hint of pink and white and nude but also with lace and flowers” for her wedding? Well, let me try! If I am being honest I don’t love the white over the super pale purple background, but my sister went somewhat gaga for this manicure (she liked the flowers on my ring finger) so there is that! My mother (who hates most nail art and prefers old-fashioned nude manicures) actually liked this one a surprisingly large amount. 

Colors:
~ Pale purple shimmer: Ethereal Lacquer – Little Oysters
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Light purple: Zoya – Abby
~ Purple: L’oreal – Royalty Reinvented
~ Stamps: BP – L084, MoYou – Frenchy 14, Nicole Diary – L21

Please let me know what you guys think about this manicure, and if I should try and encourage my sister to let me to do something like this for her wedding or something more nude, more lace, or more floral! Hope you enjoyed 🙂

Poinsettia

Unfortunately neither this design nor my photos came out exactly how I wanted. I was aiming to make poinsettia leaves/flowers and I think I achieved my goal, but you can hardly tell! Also all my non-sunlight photos you cannot see the design at all due to how closely it matches the red of the background. So you only get one photo today (it wasn’t worth the effort for me to edit any others if they just looked red). Anyway, I started with a red base and dry-sponged on splotches of other red shades including a glitter. Then I stamped with a darker red. So for very little result this actually took a bit of time.

Colors:
~ Bright red: Zoya – Sooki
~ Brick red: KBShimmer – Chai-huahua
~ Red glitter: Zoya – Aphrodite
~ Red: Revlon – Valentine
~ Dark red: OPI – Visions of Love
~ Stamp: Born Pretty – Texture L002

That’s all I have for today. Fridays post will be better and much more visible, I promise! Maybe I will retry poinsettia flowers this yea brut actually make them visible. We shall see! 

Grey Fade Flower

I was too lazy to actually sponge on a gradient, so I somewhat freehanded the gradient? It was much less messy to clean up but also a lot less smooth. I added some glitter over the top to hide just how step-wise the gradient was! Oops. That said I still like the design a lot 🙂 it helps that it is one of my favorite stamps!

Colors:
~ Light grey: Formula X – Delightful
~ Grey: Zoya – Dove
~ Dark grey: WOW – #333
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Glitter: Different Dimension – Intergalactic Dolphin
~ Stamp: Whats up Nails – B005

I am finishing up posting a combination of cold-feeling and fall-feeling manicures (in preparation for Thanksgiving) before moving into winter. I have SO MANY backlogged snowflake manicures. Be prepared! 

Purple Dividing Flowers

I was feeling very very lazy with this one. So I grabbed some stickers and drew a random line down a diagonal on my nails. And added some gold dots. Thats really it, that’s the manicure. Of course, in my laziness, I totally forgot that it takes like 10 minutes a piece to remove each darn sticker, so I ended up spending more time with removal than I would have spent just free-handing the flowers!

I used a purple base that I was given as a gift just to test it out, called I Manicure for Beads by OPI. Its a pretty enough medium-dark pink-toned purple creme, covered well in two coats. Not much more to say about it!

Colors:
~ Purple creme: OPI – I Manicure for Beads
~ Purple holo: ILNP – Zoe
~ Gold: Zoya – Solange

Anyway, hope you enjoyed today’s easy-to-make and hard-to-remove manicure, for all that it is quite simple! Stay tuned for more purple this week :-p 

Brown n’ Gold Mix

This was inspired by @falguni_nails, but her IG appears to no longer exist! Oops. Regardless, I would seldom use different shades of brown for anything other than tree branches without outside inspiration, so this was fun! I also need to remember that carmel brown might be a stunning color but not with my skin tone. I have lobster hands 😦 but I love the design so whatever. Thats also why these images are darker than usual, no matter how I tried to color correct either my hands or the polish looked wrong, so here we are!

Colors:
~ Brown: Zoya – Flynn
~ Dark brown: Zoya – Louise
~ Rose gold metallic: Essie – Penny Talk
~ Gold metallic: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Gold glitter: ILNP – Juliette

Every bit of this mani is freehanded (this is what I do with my days off…especially when I had a cold last year and didn’t feel like exposing my germ-filled self to the outside world)! Anyway, hope you enjoyed! 

Flower Out

This is a bit of an odd one? Beautiful base, fun stamp, and somehow it ended up looking halfway between etherial and too bulky (due to the black at the tip). I don’t know if I like it! Either way, it is appropriately fall-themed (which reminds me that I should wear this polish a BUNCH this month).

Colors:
|~ Orange pastel multichrome: POP Polish – Slick Days of Summer 
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: BP – L052 

Hope you enjoyed! Today’s post might be simple, but I promise wednesday’s post is nuts and super colorful to make up for it 😀 

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! 

Bright Flowery Teal

I have literally been saving this manicure for year so I can post it! Talk about inspired by a color :-D. The design itself is from @evgeshkammm because lets be honest it would never would have occurred to me to do naked nails by myself (I still hate seeing visible nail line, but it kinda works here?). Ugh, neons are the best! 

Colors:
~ Teal: Emily de Molly – Glee Ridden
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Nude: Sephora X – Marvelous
~ Stamps: BP – L052, L008

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the stamps + freehand + geometric neon naked mani! This is a weird combo that I will likely never attempt again but I enjoyed it at the time! 

Dark Roses on Grey

While I actually rather love how this mani came out, I like the inspiration better and am likely to try again in the future with a different color palette! I saw these nails at @billythebrime_nails and fell in love. Grey. Swirls. Roses. Moody yet awesome. How could I resist? And they fit so well for flower day in the 31 Day Challenge!

If I’m being honest, I liked my own mani better before I added the roses. The variegated grey background with darker grey swirls was elegant and very pretty. However, when I added the roses I realized I had made three mistakes: I used pink-based-reds for the roses (so when I mixed white with red I got pink rather than a deep orange-red…next time I need to aim for orange/red not pink/red), the roses are too small, and my swirls aren’t dark enough! They looked great on their own, but with the roses they just looked a little flat. 

Colors:
~ Light grey: Zoya – Dove
~ Grey: WOW – #333
~ Dark grey: Zoya – Evvie
~ White: LA Girl – White On
~ Light red: Pure Ice – Siren
~ Red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Dark red: OPI – Visions of Love
~ Stamp: Moyra – 50 Ornaments 3

I ended up going over by hand on some of the swirls nearest the roses, to make them appear bolder. It ended up giving my swirls an almost gradient appearance, which I quite like, but again I like Billy’s version better! Surprisingly, these nails took under an hour to do, so I’ll probably try them again sometime, with a few modifications! Hope you enjoyed! 

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.

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!

Elegant Grey Floral

Apparently I have a thing for thinking that grey with silver or white is elegant? I don’t know. I do think these are pretty despite the boring color palette! I actually was surprised to find these in my things I have painted folder, I forgot I ever made them! Oops 😀

Colors:
~ Grey: Zoya – Dove
~ Shimmer white: Revlon – Calla Lily
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Orange silver glitter: ILNP – Fired Up
~ Stamp: MoYou – Porcelain 01

I am really glad I started adding tiny bits of glitter in certain nail designs. I don’t remember who I saw using that idea on IG recently, but it has gotten me back into the habit (especially since I really cannot wear 3D pieces like rhinestones to the hospital at the current moment) and i love it! Anyway, hope you all enjoyed!

Summer Flower Gradient

I painted these in January. It was cold, there was a sleeting icy mess outside, and I decided it was time for some bright sunny colors. If the outside world would not cooperate, I would just have to make them happen myself! And that is how this manicure was born. Of course, its more fitting to post them in spring so here we are!

Colors:
~ Bright orange-yellow: KBShimmer – Orange You Glad I Didn’t Say Banana
~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie
~ Hot pink: Zoya – Morgan
~ Golden shimmer: Ethereal – Rainforest
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: BM – XL158

I have been on a kick of adding highlights with my few not-quite-opaque pastel multichromes, and it makes me very happy. This time I added some Rainforest over the center of the flowers just for a bit of variety! You can’t really see it in the sunlight (for example, the second photo) but indoors it was glittery and added just a little kick that I think helped overall. Hope you enjoyed 😀

Shimmer Flowers

This ended up being oddly delicate? I didn’t mean it to be but its actually rather pretty! Between the pastel grey-green base, the thin black lines, and the scattered gold glitter, I’ll take it!

This mani (by which I mean this base polish) exists because a coworker tipped me off that a local St Louis tchotchke (turns out I’ve never had to spell tchotchke before!) store was selling old Formula X polishes for $1 each. These used to be something like $12 each at Sephora (and I think I bought 4 of them when they were on some kind of sale) and this random odds and ends store had HUNDREDS of these polishes in boxes! So, of course, I pawed through them and ended up buying 12 polishes. For $12. Now, one was a top coat and one was a base coat (I had to test them…) but still. I am so happy!

Anyway. I doubt this polish is really available to purchase anywhere but I am going to review it regardless because it is new to me. This is two thin coats of Quantum by Forumula X. It is a pretty, subtle, pale grey-green and I quite like it! It is a bit more neutral than I usually reach for, but I don’t own anything quite like it and it was easy to wear and to match to things. I have already worn it again and I only bought the polish 3 months ago.

Colors:
~ Grey-green: Factor X – Quantum
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Gold glitter: Salon Perfect – Gold Leaf
~ Gold shimmer: Sephora by OPI – I Found a Pot of Gold
~ Stamp: Lina – Urbannailart

Hope you enjoyed this delicate art! I promise we are coming to the end of flower power posts. I just figured I would dump all my flower manicures online while it was still spring time! 😀

Neon Blossoms

Oh wow these nails ended up bright. Fun, very colorful, but eye-searingly bright. Which I suppose is what happens when I reach for one of the brightest corals in my collection! This design was inspired by @nails4cocktails. I wanted something with bright colors and cherry blossoms, and this caught my eye! Hillarously, I actually did both of her cherry blossom manicures without knowing they were by the same person, within a week of each other :-p

Colors:
~ Blue shimmer: Sinful Colors – Cinderella
~ Pink: L’oreal – Orange You Jealous?
~ Neon pink glitter: Cadillacquer – End of Silence
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: BM – XL158

Hope you enjoyed the further flowers! Sadly the actual cherry blossoms outside are starting to fall off, although my allergies are pleased by this change (for now, until even more flowers show up to set them off again)!

Scattered Roses on a Field of Gold

I told you there would be more flowers, and here they are! To be fair, I really really like how this mani came out (unlike the other two I posted this week). The theme appears to be color-in-flowers-with-jelly-polish. This manicure also gave me an excuse to play with another new polish :-D. I also almost forgot to post this (oops!) but its technically still Friday!

I wanted to see if the new pastel-ish multichromes from Emily de Molly we really worth buying…so I bought one that was different than anything else in my collection. Meet Goddess of Rays, an orange-gold-green-emerald pastel almost foil-like multichrome. I have to say, I was impressed! This covered very well in two coats, was only a tiny bit streaky, had a great shift, and was overall a pleasure to wear and a pleasure to look at!

Colors:
~ Orange/green multichrome: Emily de Molly – Goddess of Rays
~ Pink jelly: Zoya – Paloma
~ Pink creme: Zoya – Veronica
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B005

Initially I just added some black stamps, which I deemed too boring. So I decided to fill in the roses with a pink jelly polish, and add some matching dark pink creme dots as the little buds/berries! Ergo this weeks theme. To be fair, this manicure was shifty and awesome and more eye-catching than spring-like. But it fits! Hope you enjoyed 😀