Star Spangled Swirl

Ok, so this was a fun one. I made a drip marble out of red, white, blue, and silver, and then added star stamping! The silver had separated a bit in the bottle and also made a few cells (!!!). I finally, as of last month, own a bottle of white cell polish, but somehow I haven’t gotten around to using it yet! Bad Eva. Of course, these are what I wore last year (as well as the design you will see on Friday) so maybe I will actually get my act together and use real white cell-making polish this year!

Colors:
~ Red: Zoya – Sooki
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Blue: Zoya – Tart
~ Silver: Revlon – Metallic
~ Stamp: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

Hope you enjoyed! I am not proud of what America has become at the moment on multiple fronts (response to the pandemic, response to racism, response to people just being asked to show courtesy and wear a mask…to name a few) but I am glad that we are no longer under British rule, so 4th of July it is! Also, fireworks.

Light Jade

This was a bit of an odd one to make! I used one of Born Pretty’s “blooming” polishes (in green) to make the base color. I expected this to work like a normal jelly polish and I was quite wrong. The blooming polish is very very thin, changes color depending on what you do to it, and apparently eats through white polish!

I started with a white polish base. I added the blooming ink wash polish in little dabs and strokes (you can pretty much see what I did). I then top coated and added a white stamps…which was promptly devoured! So I went back and stamped in gold which did not get eaten by the green. I don’t know why the green ate the white, and I don’t know how I ended up with a blue tone on my pointer finger. These are the mysteries of the blooming polish! Also, the green color, while pretty, really is more of a jade blue-toned-green with a hint of brown than a true green.

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Green jelly: Born Pretty – Blooming, Constant Jade
~ Gold: Sally Hansen – Go for Gold
~ Stamps: Lina – Make Your Mark 02, BPX – L020

I do actually really like these inks, but I need to remember they wash off with water and soap, not acetone! My cuticles also stayed green for days as a result of trying acetone first and fixing the color into my nail beds. Oops! Anyway, if you want to play around with any of these polishes, you can find them for $2.99 each at this link. Enjoy!

Menorah and Circles

I wore these for Hanukkah LAST year because I never manage to get my nails together in a timely fashion! Anyway, I was testing some new blue polish (which is to say I was playing with polishes I bought on black friday) and decided that dark blue would be a perfect base for a menorah. Unfortunately, none of the swatch photos of my background polish came out in focus! In fact, I only had maybe two in focus pictures out of the whole set. Silly camera!

The background of this manicure was two thin coats of Ryan by Zoya, a beautiful deep dark blue. It was almost a one-coater. What makes this better is that the polish stayed on without cracking and with minimal tip wear for 5 days! I think at this point I am just hooked on Zoya blues…I own almost all of them. Since the whole point of the timing of this manicure was Hanukkah, I freehanded some menorahs. However, once I painted my menorahs, I was at a loss. I didn’t have the time (or the patience) to paint a menorah on every nail…and then I decided to just go with weird sketchy circles. Don’t ask me why. But honestly, it came out pretty cool looking! I had been wondering why these circles even existed on that stamping plate, and now I know 😀

Colors:
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Ryan
~ Blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Light blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Gold holo: Sparkly Vernis – Gilded Lemon Drops
~ Stamps: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

So, happy Hanukkah even if it is a bit (a lot) delayed to the point of being the following year! Hope you enjoyed, and have fun not setting things other than candles on fire :-p Also Merry Christmas because, yes, I decided to be different and post Hanukkah nails on Christmas Day 😀

Crackled Orange

Orange and glittery! Totally fall-appropriate. Other than that, not really :-p. This was easy to create and attention-grabbing (100% due to glitter content). Putting manicures like this together also always makes me glad that I have a large collection of stamping plates. It makes things neater and quicker!

Colors:
~ Orange glitter: OPI – DS Indulgence
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Stamps: Moyra – Ornaments 3, Lina – Make Your Mark 02

Not much else to say about this one. I wanted some glitter, so voila, glitter! I also only use this polish maybe once a year, sometimes around the Halloween/Thanksgiving time period. I should probably stop buying strangely colored glitter polish if I am only going to wear it once a year! Hope you all enjoyed, and happy Friday!

Twisted Red Mesh

This was inspired by @nailsandtowel. However, I used see-through flakes, and the original nail artist used more opaque flakes. In retrospect, I wish I had done the same! I own a few, I just felt like using loose flakes and that was a mistake.

Colors:
~ Red: OPI – All I Want For Christmas (is OPI)
~ Glitter: Born Pretty – Aqua Flakies
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

In the end I was less happy with this than I expected to be, and it is all down to flakie choice! The art was otherwise fun and my nails were actually long enough to try and mimic the inspiration. Oh well, next time! Hope you enjoyed 🙂

Optical Halloween Illusion

Happy almost-Halloween! I actually have a better halloween manicure than this…but I didn’t get a chance to transfer the photos to my computer so you guys will just have to wait till next year :-p. Meanwhile, enjoy orange glitter and adorable zombies! At least it finally gave me a chance to use the darn zombie stamp.

Colors:
~ Orange glitter: A England – Gloriana
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Stamps: Lina – Make Your Mark 2, B Loves Plates – 03 Mind Blown, BP – Halloween L004

Of course, there is a funky dripping skull on my thumb, but none of the photos which included my thumb were in focus! So you’ll just have to trust me. Bwhahaha! Anyway, hope you enjoyed!

Abstract Minimalism

You guys, I don’t know what this is. Born Pretty Store sent me an un-asked for plate to review…and it is a mix of weird abstract flowers/animals, funky cats, and nude people?! I can’t wear naked people on my nails to work! Artistic it might be but appropriate it is NOT. So, I grabbed the only three images on the plate that I could even imagine what to do with, and googled “minimalist rose”. The very first hit is the rose on my middle finger – I think Born Pretty did the same thing and just turned it into a stamp! Anyway. All the google images were white-on-black so I just decided to reverse that idea and leave it alone. This plate was, at least, very well stamped. Even the tiny dots transferred perfectly onto my pointer finger!

Of course, I can’t make a mix-and-match with only three images. So I used two of the scribble images from a different plate (my ring finger and thumb) in an attempt to tie this all together. All in all I do not love this manicure. My style tends towards the orange and colorful. However, it gave me a chance to use this black glitter…I don’t think I have touched this polish in 3 years! And it still works perfectly. Score one for Sinful Colors 🙂

Colors:
~ Black glitter: Sinful Colors – Secret Admirer
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps: Born Pretty – Artist L004, Lina – Make Your Mark 02

If you want to see what you can do with some artistic minimalism/naked people, Artist L004 is available at the Born Pretty Store for $3.99. Good luck?

Nude and White Splatter

This one is…interesting? I don’t honestly know where I was going with it, but I wanted rose-gold-on-nude and some splotches of white. I guess I achieved that? Regardless, it was somewhere between subtle and fun, which works! The stamps are from two different plates but they worked pretty well together.

Colors:
~ Nude shimmer: Picture Polish – Cherish
~ Rose gold: Essie – Penny Talk
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps: EdM – 03, Lina – Make Your Mark 02

Short and sweet! Hope you enjoyed 🙂

Abstract Rainbow Stripes

What to say about this manicure. It is weird. I don’t usually do a gradient from yellow…most gradients go over white! I also don’t usually alternate nails quite as markedly as this. However, since I wanted the whole thing to glow in the dark like crazy, I was stuck using Dayglow as a base which dictated how the rest of the manicure looked!

Dayglow is one of those polishes that I forget I own until I see someone else’s cool glow in the dark manicure. And then I decided that I absolutely need to do one. There was no particular inspiration for this manicure…I just wanted some combination of glow in the dark and rainbows! Honestly, I think it looks pretty cool if rather odd.

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Glow-in-the-dark: Serum No 5: Dayglow
~ Red: Zoya – Sooki
~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Green: Zoya – Josie
~ Blue: Zoya – Sia
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamps: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

That’s all for today! I feel like a bright rainbow is suitably summer-like for todays 100 degree and 99% humidity, but then again I wore this back in the winter *shrug*. Hope you enjoyed!

Love for Purple

In case you can’t tell, the theme this year was “slightly unusual Valentine’s day art”, so I ended up with a lot of “love” and a lot of purple :-p. The fun thing here is the purple-on-purple background stamp (you can see it best on my ring finger) and THEN the purple to white gradient stamping. Basically lots of stamps!

The base color here is Lael by Zoya, a very dark blue-leaning purple cream. As with most Zoya creams, Lael is opaque in two thin coats, and is predictably a dream to work with. I should at some point do a comparison of all my dark purple Zoya cremes (I think I own 3 very similar ones at this point) but this is the darkest in my collection! My other darkest purple Zoya Monica, looks greyed-out in comparison to the intense dark purple of Lael.

Colors:
~ Dark purple: Zoya – Lael
~ Purple: Zoya – Landon
~ Light purple: Zoya – Malia
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps: Moyra – 32 Nature, Lina – Make Your Mark 02, BP – L002

There is one more Valentines manicure in the wings for Monday (which only makes sense since my husband and I are celebrating on Sunday…at the moment I am on a day shift and he is on a nights shift so we hardly see each other!). Hope you enjoyed!

Swirls on Blue Stone

I got a new polish! Well, new to me at least. This polish has been out for years but it wasn’t cheap enough to be worth it to me until black friday. Anyway, Have some shiny silver flowery swirls over blue!

The new polish is Dream by Zoya. Now, I own a LOT of dark blue holo polishes. Probably 5 or so. If I am being honest, this polish is not all that unique in my collection of other dark teal-leaning blue holos…EXCEPT that it paints like a dream! I actually compared it to Downpour by ILNP (which I wore concurrently on my other hand) and the Zoya was much easier and more opaque (it did lack that deep metallic luster of the ILNP, but still). This is a nice jewel-toned teal-leaning dark blue holo. The holo is in shards, and unlike Blaze (the wine-red of similar finish) Dream still appears holographic with top coat. I love it!

I have been meaning to combine the weird stone patterns from Make Your Mark 02 with something swirly. Its a quite fun mix! Also, these were painted before it got quite so cold out (as I write this it is 13 degrees fahrenheit) so currently my nails are tiny nibs. My nails always break so much in the winter!

Colors:
~ Blue holo: Zoya – Dream
~ Light blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Silver: A England – Excalibur (Renaissance)
~ Stamps: Lina – Make Your Mark 02, BP – X43

That’s it for today! New polish, long nails, and some sparkles. Today is also (hopefully) the last day of my boarding exam, and assuming I passed, one of the last major exams I have to take before I am fully licensed!

Red and Green Strokes

One day closer to gift-day (aka Christmas) and one more red/green manicure!

I started with red glitter, then double stamped with a white-to-green and green-to-white gradient (I don’t know why) and when that just looked messy I stamped with dark red. Despite the completely unplanned and frequently ugly nature of this manicure as it developed, I actually quite like the end result!

Colors:
~ Red glitter: KBShimmer – Ruby
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Dark red: OPI – Visions of Love
~ Stamps: Lina – Make Your Mark 02, BM – XL205

I think that is all for today. If you haven’t yet, please go vote for flightofwhimsy at the Nail Art Canada holiday contest! Hope you enjoyed!

Feminine Circuitry

I was at a loss for what to call thing or even think about this mani…I don’t personally like it, which is a bit annoying since I know just how long it’s going to take to remove all that glitter! Anyway, my husband said it looked like a motherboard for women, so here we are

Colors:
~ White/pink/black glitter: Emily de Molly – Sakura
~ Nude sheer: Sephora X – Marvelous
~ Grey holo: A England – Fated Prince
~ Stamp: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

I used three coats of Sakura, which I still love. But I decided that was a little stark for the hospital, so I added a coat of a nude-clear before top coating. I also messed around with 4 different colors of stamp before choosing a deep grey holo…and I still don’t like. I should have picked a different stamp! Anyway, only two photos because I ran out of time. Oops!

Pink Pastiche

Is this really pastiche? Not so much. A lot of my nail art apes that of other artists that I’ve seen and liked…this was sort of a general “I like things that are somewhat pastel and look like watercolor and flowers” and I tried to make it happen!

It turns out, of course, that I also like things that glitter. The end result of this mani was actually pretty fun, but I just kept adding more things! Lines and more lines and dots…In the end I wish I had used a lighter silver holo base for my accent nail, but I love the pink shine to Rosewater!

Colors:
~ Silver pink holo: ILNP – Rosewater
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Pastel pink: Wet n’ Wild – Tickled Pink
~ Pink: Sinful Colors – Pink Forever
~ Neon pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Neon coral: L’oreal – Orange you Jealous?
~ Stamps: What’s Up Nails – B015, Lina Make Your Mark – 02

That’s it for now! Hope you enjoyed this oddly pink interlude!

Floating Feathers

As it stands, this is my least favorite mani that I have pre-set for this month. I was trying to go for something cute and whimsical…but it honestly just came out boring. Sorry!

I did stick to the black/white/grey theme at least, unlike in previous years when I added color pops. Maybe that is why I don’t like it though, color is my jam!

Colors:
~ Grey holo: Emily de Molly – Crystal Crown
~ White: LA Girl – White On
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

Anyway, this post is a bit lackluster but next weeks is much better, stay tuned for gradient day on Monday! Happy weekend 🙂

Serpentine

This manicure makes me happy and sad, which is unusual for something as simple as nail art! But looking at these, as much as I hate my nail length, I like how they ended up!

Once they were done, they reminded me of a stone so I went looking for something appropriate on the internet. Apparently, serpentine is a deep green stone with flecks of color and beige-gold veins. Perfect! I wish I could say I was TRYING to make a pretty rock, but I was mostly just having fun with flakies and stamps.

I wasn’t initially going to post these because I broke three nails (omg so sad) and my nails are painfully short and slightly misshapen as a result. However, I liked how the design came out, so I am posting them anyway! Maybe those of you with short nails will find inspiration.

Colors:
~ Dark green holo: ILNP – Ski Lodge
~ Rainbow flakies: piCture pOlish – Festival
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Stamp: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

That’s it for today! Hope the middle of the week isn’t terrible for anyone else (I am on call today so I left at 6:30am and likely won’t be home until 11pm), but oh well!

Messy Green-Blue Gradient

Sometime, I just want to throw together a bunch of bright colors and play with stamps. The Make Your Mark plate series by Lina makes that REALLY EASY. So here is another mani using it!

I feel like I’ve been using a lot of vampy metallic bases, or pastel ones. Not so much neon. That changes today. Hello neon!

To make this mani, I started with a light green base, then tried to create a gradient over it using greens and teals. But, the teal was too dark! So I switched to a bright blue. After that was dry, I double stamped using two similar designs from the same plate in white then black.

Colors:
~ Light green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Yellow: Yellow Opaque
~ Neon green: Salon Perfect – Loopy Lime
~ Dark teal: OPI – Stay Off the Lawn!!
~ Blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

That’s all for today! I am too tired to write a longer post, so I’ll just let you enjoy the photos. Happy Friday!

Scratching Purple

Yet ANOTHER purple mani! I need to clean them out of my done folder, so here we are.

This particular design started with a purple base, added gold splatter stamp, then a black stamp that kinda looks like scratches? I like it. I wanted to use a light purple sunburst pattern, but the purple wasn’t as good at covering the vibrant gold as it needed to be!

Colors:
~ Purple: OPI – Ink
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

I love layering the Make Your Mark plate! Easily one of my new favorite plates. The nails always look messy, but its an intentional kinda mess. 😀 Hope you enjoyed!

Purple Splatter

So, when I said a week ago that that purple was my last new polish I lied. Technically I painted these nails before the others, but I had forgotten to post them! So here, have some more purple and fun splatter stamps.

What you see here are two thin coats of Isadora by Zoya, a purple metallic with pink shimmer. When I went through and did the polish comparisons I thought it was similar to the lovely Giada…but different enough that I obviously needed to keep them both 😀 I love deep purple metallics.

I ended up double stamping over Isadora using two images from the Make Your Mark 02 plate. These images just seem infinitely combinable! I used my most pigmented purple holo first and then a pale pink….before I added top coat you could easily see the outline of the purple holo but once I added the top coat it kinda melted into the background!

At angles I could still pick out where the holo polish was…and then I noticed that the overlaying pink had turned bright purple! So I guess Berry Good Looking bleeds color (I think I knew that and had just forgotten) but in this setting it looked really cool!

Colors:
~ Purple metallic: Zoya – Isadora
~ Purple holographic: Cupcake Polish – Berry Good Looking
~ Pink: Sinful Colors – Pink Forever
~ Stamps: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

So, that’s that! Happy Friday and I hope you enjoyed todays playing with purples!

Vibrant Mess

I saw this mani by @chrisslypaws and I just KNEW I had to duplicate it! It was one of the first things I made with the Make Your Mark 02 plate. Its neon and gradient-y and awesome!

I think I really just like designs that are messy but with purpose. After all the experimenting with ways to mix 5 different colors together (for my swatch tests and subsequent nail art) I ended up just thinking that messy pseudo-modern art is really fun for nails 🙂

This mani was really quite easy, given that its a two-color gradient over white with a black stamp. I also forgot how gratifying a two-color gradient can be, since I usually reach for a minimum of 3 colors (and usually more like 5 because I like color). It was fun!

Colors:
~ Hot pink: Zoya – Kelsey
~ Blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Neon blue: Sinful Colors – Endless Blue
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

That said, I can’t tell if my plate isn’t etched as deeply as it should be? I need to play around with it some more because the black just isn’t as black as I’d like. However, I love the mani anyway! Hope you enjoyed 😀