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!

Love Above

This mani is a bit of nail art, some swatching, and a small amount of comparison. When Zoya did their New Years sale, I bought 4 new polishes that I intended to replace some terrible polishes that I own, and to fill a few gaps. This is the first of them!

What you see here are three thin coats of Jordan. I bought this polish to replaced Tickled Pink by Wet n’ Wild which takes 4 coats and is incredibly thick. I wanted to compare the two, so I put Tickled Pink on my ring finger, and Jordan on all the others. I cannot tell the difference! Which is to say that the swatches of Jordan online are accurate. I was hoping Jordan would be a two-coater, but for a pastel 3 isn’t terrible. This is just a nice pastel pink creme. No frills.

Colors:
~ Pastel pink: Zoya – Jordan
~ Pastel pink: Wet n’ Wild – Tickled pink (ring finger only)
~ Pink: Zoya – Ciara
~ Dark pink: OPI – Vision of Love
~ Dark pink holo: A England – Let Me In
~ Stamp: B Loves Plates (from the tiny heart next to the plate name)

I then added a gradient, and stamped a tiny pink heart near my cuticle. Super easy, but quite pretty! I do wish I had started the gradient a biiit close to my free edge, but it still looks nice! It was a really quite fitting manicure to wear right before Valentine’s day…so I hope you guys all have a great (and chocolate-filled) tomorrow!

Holo and Hearts

How about a not-quite-traditional valentine’s day mani, for all that I think I’ve used this particular stamp at least once a year, and typically ON valentines day!

The base color here is Zoya Payton, a purple scattered holo. The base is a bit more pink-leaning, and hilariously (or not) enough it is an almost perfect dupe for TWO other polishes in my collection. I love jewel tone purples, its a problem! That said, Payton covered very well in two thicker coats and my others take three coats. However, if you happen to on LA Girl Purple Effect…you don’t need Payton. Oops!

I decided that Payton alone was not enough, so I dry marbled on a bit of LA Girl Purple Effect (which is why I know they are basically perfect dupes) and Milani Hi-Res. It was still a bit subtle…so I decided to stamp with a silver holo instead of just a silver like I had planned!

Colors:
~ Purple holo: Zoya – Payton
~ Light purple holo: Milani – Hi-Res
~ Other purple holo: LA Girl – Purple Effect
~ Silver holo: Color Club – Harp on It
~ Stamp: BC – 04

The end effect was dizzying, and you can barely see the pattern of the stamp over all the purple holo! It was still fun to wear, but I need to remember to use a creme to stamp over glitters, not another glitter! Stay tuned for more quasi-valentine’s day manis this week 🙂

Blue and Purple Path

Yes, there is a gradient from blue-to-purple and a black stamp. There is ALSO a reversed stamp (purple-to-blue) under the black one made of swirls, it just does’t show up well!

I couldn’t decide if this looked more like cobblestones (which was the intention) or funky corn. I have seen images on line with other bloggers using the stamp as corn and it looks amazing, so I might stick with that in the future! Although it means I will have to paint my nails yellow (wwwww).

Colors:
~ Purple metallic: Zoya – Rea
~ Blue holo: Color Club – Over the Moon
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamps: Moyra – 32 Nature

That’s it for this week! Hopefully I can get my act together and put together something a little more interested for next week (or at least aim for a theme that isn’t “stamped”). I did 3-4 valentines-themed manicures so that’s what will hopefully get posted! Hope you enjoyed 🙂

Working Machines

I have a degree in engineering from undergrad, and I have always loved putting little bits of electronics on my nails! There was no particular inspiration for this manicure, I just saw the image on the Matrix plate and decided I wanted to go for it 🙂

I also decided that the dark greenish-grey of Yuna would make a perfect base, especially with the scattered golden glitter! I think I was right. This mani is a bit busy but I kinda love it.

Colors:
~ Dark teal: Zoya – Yuna
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Stamps: BM – 415, Moyra – 54 Matrix

Again, a fast easy manicure! I swear I will have time to edit some of my more intricate nail art soon. I’m currently still in relax-from-step-3-but-freak-out-about-buying-a-house mode. It is a very complicated mode. Hope you enjoyed!

Silver Swirls on Burgundy

Simple mani today! One of my most opaque polishes (I do love A England) and two complimentary stamps. This whole manicure took 20 minutes and most of that was waiting for the burgundy polish to dry!

Honestly, I feel like I should start using white or black polish to stamp (or at least a creme finish) because in half the lights things like silver and gold look black! Oh well. It is shiny, and that makes me happy!

Colors:
~ Burgundy: A England – Let Me In
~ Silver: Nails Inc – South Kensington
~ Stamps: JQ – L20, Moyra – 50 Ornaments 3

Not much else to say today. I have officially started what I think will end up being the most boring and paper-work intensive month of my 4-year residency. If history holds true, I will paint my nails a LOT (I started painting my nails 6 or so years ago on a very similar rotation), so that at least is something to look forward to! Hope you enjoyed 🙂

Gently Swirled

This mani is a mess. I wanted to make something subtle and swirly, and decided to give Sandy a second shot. The first time I used this polish it took 4 coats and was still barely opaque…and since it has a lot of glitter and flakies, it was quite thick. This mani ALSO took 4 coats and honestly I give up. Sandy is moving to my “pretend this is a topper” section in my nail art room.

It also doesn’t help that on my easier-to-image left hand I decided to plan out where each part of my swirly stamp was going to go…and on my right hand I just winged it. The right hand looked much better in the end! But I took very few photos because the photos of my left always come out better. Silly me.

Colors:
~ Grey shimmer: KBShimmer – Sandy
~ White: LA Girl – White On
~ Stamp: Moyra – 50 Ornaments 3

In the end, this mani was a bit of a bust. It fulfilled its purpose, which was to be subtle, but I didn’t love it. Ah well, on to next week!

Pink Bricks in a Teal Wall

I don’t know where I was going with this mani, or why it makes me think of Pink Floyd, but here we are! Not another neon brick in the wall. Of course, in this particular scenario the bricks are truly pink and the grout is teal.

This mani was a bit of a mess. I started with a teal base, and then stamped a pink gradient over it. However, the pink did not come out as brightly as I wanted (in retrospect I should have used white first) so I stamped the same gradient again to brighten the color. Which worked…but since I used a different part of the stamp and frequently a different orientation on each nail, getting the same gradient was really difficult! I then decided it wasn’t pink enough so I added some Magician free-handed over the pink. So now there is also glitter.

Colors:
~ Teal: Emily de Molly – Glee Ridden
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Dark pink: Stamping polish
~ Pink shimmer topper: ILNP – The Magician
~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B015

In the end I wish I had just used striping tape. Generally that would take longer, but with how much time I spent on these I doubt it! I also messed up my thumb, I decided to add bright pink dots for no apparent reason. So you don’t get to see much of my poor weird-looking thumb.

Today is also a sad day, because my husband and I finally put in an offer for a (wonderful) house, and someone out-competed us (buy paying in cash, which is remarkable). I am sad! It had a perfect little nail art room and everything.

Abstraction in Gold

This mani only worked because my nails are currently short enough that I could turn the stamp sideways and use different parts on each nail! I Initially wanted to do gold on some pastel background, but decided that dark red would look better. It totally does. I also almost got in trouble at the hospital for wearing nail art too visibly! Oops!

Regardless, this nail art was incredibly easy and surprisingly striking. It took a total of 30 minutes (and most of that was waiting for the red base to dry). Success!

Colors:
~ Red: Zoya – India
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Stamp: BM – XL204

That’s it for today! Simple stamps. Wednesday’s post is a lot more involved…stamping and gradients oh my!

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!

Marching Copper Trees

To be fair, when I painted these (well, stamped them) it was a few weeks out from Christmas. I always thought this particular stamp looked rather like christmas trees if you only used half of it! Otherwise it looks like stylized stalactites and stalagmites.

Of course, any manicure using an awesome mutlichrome and a rose gold stamping polish is going to look pretty good. This was easy to make pretty!

Colors:
~ Red-gold multichrome: ILNP – Greatness
~ Rose gold: Essie – Penny Talk
~ Stamp: BM – XL158

Short, sweet, and straightforward! If it helps, the reason this post is so short is that I am taking Step 3 of the medical board exam tomorrow. And Friday. Because of course it is a two day test *grumble grumble* but after this Friday I am free again!

Dragon Scales

Dragons scales using Dragon! Because I had to. This also ended up rather chrome-y because I went for a silver metallic base. I kinda like it! The end effect a was a bit like nail foils.

This week is going to be a random mishmash of nail art that doesn’t fit well with anything else. At this point (in real time) I am working towards Valentine’s nail art because I know that I won’t get any edited if I wait for February! So these have nothing to do with really, anything, but they were shiny 🙂

Colors:
~ Silver: Nails Inc – South Kensington
~ Teal: A England – St George
~ Green: A England – Dragon
~ Moss: A England – Fotheringhay Castle
~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B025

Hope you enjoyed! More utter randomness on Wednesday!

Bolded Chevron

Honestly, my nails were too long (that never happens!) for the nail art I was trying to create here! So I improvised a bit. I think the original might be better! It also kinda looks like one chevron (the black one) was bolded in my version, so voila, title!

The design was inspired by Penelope Luz, but her version is beautifully minimalist. Mine has more color. And glitter.

Colors:
~ Nude holo: Picture Polish – Cherish
~ Silver holo: Color Club – Harp On It
~ Silver holo with orange shimmer: ILNP – Fired Up
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Stamp: Moyra 60 – Cuts

I don’t know, just go with it! Designs get more colorful (as usual) next week 🙂

Teal and Silver Mishmash

Sorry that the posts this week have been late/only a few photos, I’ve been sick! My husband it a pediatrician which means the kiddos give him lots of bugs. This time they gave him a respiratory virus and he had the courtesy to pass it on to me first time I’ve been sent home early from the hospital!

Anyway, on to nail art! This design was loosely inspired by @gabbysnailart. I love the colors but I personally wanted more glitter. Of course, the glitter is a LOT harder to remove than creme polish, but it is so sparkly! I don’t know what I thought I was doing stamping with Rosewater and then trying to color over the stamp, but here we are!

Colors:
~ Teal: Emily de Molly – Glee Ridden
~ Silvery-pink holo: ILNP – Rosewater
~ Coarse holo glitter: FUN Lacquer – 24 Karat Diamond
~ Stamps: Whats Up Nails – B015, Moyra – 60 Cuts

Hope you enjoyed (despite the late post)! If I’m lucky today will be the last day I feel terrible and my posts will get longer.

Purple Spotlights

This was quite a simple manicure but because it involves double stamping I like it. I also had one of my current favorite songs running through my head when I was painting these, “we are spotlights, we can see in the dark” from What About Us by P!nk. Her songs actually make me stop and think (and frequently be sad about the state of the world) but those are my favorite songs!

Anyway, this was just a pretty purple base, a silver stamp, and the same stamp in dark purple. If I had spaced it out further maybe it would have been purple rays of light? But I wanted to see more of the pretty light purple base so here we are!

 Colors:
~ Light purple: Painted Polish – Just One Look
~ Purple: Zoya – Danielle
~ Silver: A England – Excalibur Renaissance
~ Stamp: BM – 301

Hope you enjoyed! Assuming I manage to get things edited in time, Wednesday’s post will be quite pretty (and sparkly).

Icy Winds

I wanted something that looked like icy wind blowing, so I ended up with this! Just the stamp over the (admittedly awesome) base wasn’t interesting enough, so me being me, I added some dots. I kinda love it!

It also ended up accidentally being incredibly timely, as we are supposed to have a “massive” (about 1ft) snow storm in the next 48 hours and they are making beds at the hospital for the doctors to sleep there if we need to. Luckily, I live walking distance away. I cannot imaging having to sleep in the hospital (if I am not on overnight call)!

Colors:
~ Purple/grey shimmer: Emily de Molly – Shadow on the Moon
~ Silver: A England – Excalibur Renaissance
~ Purple: Sinful Colors – Muse
~ Stamp: BP – 21

That’s it for today! Icy winds on my nails and outside 🙂 Hope you enjoyed!

Highly Contrasted

So, being honest, I don’t love this mani. I was a little pressed for time and wanted to both stamp something cool, and use the colors that the nail polish base was designed after. Since the polish is called You Look Like Seafood in honor of Tamatoa from Moana, that meant fuchsia and gold. And unfortunately, this is where I ended up!

This is three thin coats of You Look Like Seafood! by Dreamland polish. I love love  LOVE this nail polish…the blue base, the pink shimmer, the flakies, the whole thing is stunning. I also really only needed two coats, I added the third just for a bit more depth. That said, I hate the brush on the polish! There was no way NOT to flood my pinky as the brush was both wide and not curved. 😦

Colors:
~ Blue multi-glitter: Dreamland – You Look Like Seafood!
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Pink: OPI – Cute Little Vixen
~ Stamp: Moyra – 60 Cuts

This was also the first time I played with the Moyra Cuts plate, I have used it many times since but I was still working with how to stamp large swatches here! Luckily my polishes were quite opaque :-p. Hope you enjoyed this more than I did!

Green on Golden Gateways

This was INTENDED to be my New Years manicure, but I decided it made more sense to post my Top 10 early and these late! But, they are sparkly, shifty, and weirdly colored (which I think will end up being a theme this week).

I am not sure why I decided that Walrus went well with Chance, but I was fiddling with colors and I ended up here. Orange with green is not my typical go-to but I kinda like how it turned out! I also really like this stamp 😀

Colors:
~ Gold/Copper multichrome: Enchanted Polish – I am the Walrus
~ Green: Sinful Colors – Last Chance
~ Stamp: Moyra – Ornaments

That’s it for today! Wednesday is going to be more weird glittery shifty things that kinda don’t go with their corresponding stamp color. *shrug* happy New Year?

Top 10 Nail Art of 2018

With the help of my ever-tolerant husband, I have picked out my top 10 posts of this year (well, 11 really). They are, surprisingly, not the most loved on instagram, but IG users have some weird preferences! Without further ado, here we go:

May 21st: Aloha (which uses one of my top 10 polishes of the year, Traverse the Skies by Emily de Molly)

June 20th: Down the Incline, because multichrome gradients are amazing

July 30th: Ocean Surf, because this might be the first 3D manicure I made that actually looked awesome. Also, beach!

August 3rd: Messy Green Blue Gradient…I felt like I needed at least one gradient stamped with some combination of designs from Make Your Mark 02, since I did a whole bunch of them! Among the lot, I think this was my overall favorite.

September 3rd: Mountain Sunset. This begins the set from the 31 Day Challenge this year, where most of my favorite manis tend to live!

September 5th: Porcelain Roses, which have the dubious honor of having taken the longest of any nail art done in 2018 (that actually looked good) at ~4 hours. But they are SO DARN PRETTY!

September 10th: Peek-a-Rainbow, which I think wins the ‘most ridiculously rainbow’ award for the year, and also has the pleasure of being the nails I was actually wearing for my birthday.

September 14th: Gnarly Blossoms. Probably the second most time consuming manicure, and possibly my overall personal favorite. Yet again features Traverse the Skies because apparently my intricate floral nails must exist on a blurple shimmery background 😀

September 28th: Cascading Rainbow Dots, which is possibly my most original nail art of the year? Inspired by an awesome teacup. Almost equally rainbow-y to my rainbow nails two up.

October 1st: Holland, which was a direct copy from someone else’s design but is such a pretty reverse stamp scenery piece that I had to include it!

Sadly, I didn’t post any designs that I loved after the 31 Day Challenge, although I have a few saved up that I should get around to putting up shortly (if I can get my act together)!

And finally my honorable mention, because this was super easy (its just advanced stamping) but it came out so beautifully…March 21st: Trailing Flowers

Did I miss any of your particular favorites? I had an initial list of 16 that I wanted to post so there are 5 manis floating on my blog this year that almost made the cut!

Candystripped

You guys, I am terrible! I am sorry it has been a week since my last post…I just didn’t have time to put together any of this since then! I was at my in-laws for Christmas and then my sister (and her adorable puppy) came to visit me, and there wasn’t time for photo editing! I am wearing the same design on my nails that I placed a week ago. A WEEK. And it is chipped and awful. Sorry nails!

Anyway, this design was supposed to be candy canes, and was intended to go up last Wednesday just after Christmas. I failed. But I am going to post it anyway!

The base color here is three thin coats of Aphrodite by Zoya, which is a pretty orange-leaning bright red with glitter, but unfortunately is not QUITE opaque. I will likely end up using this as a jelly rather than a glitter crelly due to the three coat problem! But I love how bright it is. I bought Aphrodite (and like 15 other polishes) during black friday/cyber monday deals.

Colors:
~ Red glitter: Zoya – Aphrodite
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: Born Pretty – Halloween L004

Sorry for the late post, and I hope you enjoyed anyway! Happy new years!!! (I swear I also had a real new years post but of course it isn’t edited yet. C’est la vie!)