In pathology, one of the very first stains anyone does is an H&E, which turns the cells various shades of pink and purple, typically on a pale pink-purple background. For my nails at a neurology conference, I wanted to capture that look, and so created an H&E stain for my nails! Which mostly means a purple-nude base, dry brushing on some pink and purple jelly polish, and then stamping with a darker purple. If I had more time, I would have made these more elaborate (some inclusions and aggregates on imaging…) but alas I did not.
Colors: ~ Nude: Zoya – Rue ~ Purple jelly: Zoya – Katherine ~ Pink jelly: Zoya – Paloma ~ Purple: Zoya – Landon ~ Stamp: Hit the Bottle – For the Love of Science
Hopefully if any neurologists or neuropathologists are looking at my blog (which is admittedly unlikely) they will recognize what I did here. For everyone else, have some purple-pink threads I suppose! This ends science week, hope you enjoyed!
Sorry for missing a few weeks of posting, life has gotten away from me! And sadly it is likely to remain that way for at least a month. I am still here, I am just not making enough time to update the blog. Anyway, I went to a neurology conference, so of course I had to do brain nails! It helps that I only had a tiny amount of time to throw this together (since I had to wake up at 4am for my flight) and that I already own the stamp for the folds of the brain. Easy, but effective.
Colors: ~ Pink: Sayuri – Anthos ~ Red: OPI – Magala Wine ~ Stamp: Hit the Bottle – For the Love of Science
This week is going to be full-on nerdy, so I hope some of you get a kick out of that! Enjoy.
Stained glass nails! I love this stamping plate but I am afraid to over-use it because I don’t want it to get boring or old. But anyway here are some stained glass birds. I didn’t want to go overboard with the shades of red and pink, so I stuck with two of each. I probably could have gotten away with adding a bit more color.
Colors: ~ Sheer nude: Formula X – Marvelous ~ Flakies: Emily de Molly – Cohesion ~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on black ~ Red: Zoya – Sookie ~ Dark red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI) ~ Green: Zoya – Josie ~ Light pink: Zoya – Jordan ~ Pink: Zoya – Tobey ~ Stamp: EDK – Mosaic
I am stuck on using Cohesion as a base for stained glass manicures, and I am not upset about that. It really does look like iridescent glass (and since making stained glass windows has become my father’s primary hobby in retirement, I have some idea what I am talking about). Maybe I should acquire a few more sheer/iridescent polishes if I am going to use this whole stamping plate… Hope you enjoyed!
I LOVE this manicure. It is hard to see due to the static nature of photos, but the silver background is actually magnetic, and this manicure was crazy shifty and shiny in real life! I started with a neutral base, then the silver magnetic, and finally the white stamps and some neutral dots. Easy, and stunning!
Colors: ~ Neutral: KBShimmer – Caught on Tape ~ Silver magnetic: Emily de Molly – Knight in Armour ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ Stamps: MoYou – Fairytale 02
I only used one coat of the magnetic polish to create the depth of this shimmer. I honestly wished I had used a thinner coat, as I think that would have resulted in more concentrated shimmery happiness and a little less free silver/grey speckles. Still awesome! And it was very easy to magnetize.
Another simple snowflake stamping manicure. Apparently last winter when I made most of there manis, I wad really into neutral for winter? I cannot recall why, but I have a LOT of neutral toned winter nail art!
Colors: ~ Nude: Zoya – Rue ~ Red shimmer: ILNP – The Magician ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ Stamps: Nicole Diary – 120
Straightforward, simple, dots and snowflakes. Hope you enjoyed!
This is another mild disaster of a manicure. I was trying to replicate @marinelp91 and ended up using exactly the wrong glitter and making messy white drifts instead of smooth elegant ones! Whoops. If or when I make this again, I need to remember to go for my silver-only glitter, not a mixed glitter!
Colors: ~ Sheer nude: Formula X – Marvelous ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ White/holo glitter: Whim – Frosted Cupcake ~ Holo gliter: Wet n’ Wild – Kaleidoscope
I don’t know how all the other nail artists out there get away with adding a bunch of extra polish to the tips of their nails (even for French manicures), if I do that the polish always seems to crack and separate! Although I wonder how much of that is how I wrap my tips with top coat, since it likes to separate right at that line. Hrm. Food for though. Enjoy!
I wanted to create an abstract christmas tree design, and this is what I ended up with! I think it looks rather cool, but then again I am biased. The swirls were made by mixing three shades of green, although you can hardly tell. Oh well!
Colors: ~ Light green: Zoya – Tilda ~ Green: Zoya – Shawn ~ Dark green: Zoya – Hunter ~ Darkest green: Sinful Colors – Last Chance ~ Nude: OPI – Be There in a Prosecco ~ Gold: Sally Hansen – Go for Gold ~ Neon red: Emily de Molly – LE – 199 ~ Red: Pure Ice – Siren ~ Brown: Zoya – Dea ~ Stamps: Moyra – Ornaments 3
Looking back on this design (which I made last year) I love it even more. I don’t know why, it just somehow came out both elegant and fun, and quite holiday-appropriate without being in anyone’s face about it. Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!
I was disappointed in this manicure when I finished, and showed it to my husband. He is a wonderful person, and so pointed out that the end result looked like a fancy white chocolate (like the ones from Debrand in Indianapolis, which we both love and may have been eating at the time…) and that I should not feel bad. Although this did not completely make me feel better (I know what I wanted to accomplish and this is not it), it did make me smile. So have some fancy white chocolate creation nails!
Colors: ~ Pale nude with glitter: Cadillacquer – Darling, Red Isn’t Your Color ~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black ~ Red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI) ~ Stamps: Born Pretty – Decorations L005
The stamping plate that I used here was sent to me for review from the Born Pretty Store. It is quite pretty and stamped ok, although was not as deeply etched as some of their other plates. I do still like it! You can find it for $4.99 on their website here. Hope you enjoyed!
I had never tried my hand at sweater nails before, mostly because it appears you need to use some type of builder gel and I steer clear of gel polish! But I figured I might as well make use of my textured polish collection and give it a shot. It worked surprisingly well!
Other than the length of time it took to hand-layer each line of textured polish (twice, for added texture) this was a pretty easy manicure. Only two colors, and no pre-set design. I think I may have to do this again, and just resign myself to a longer than usual cleanup thanks to the the difficulty associated with removing textured polish. Hope you enjoyed!
If there was every nail art that embodied this blog, this is probably that nail art. Rainbow gradient cutouts, geometric designs, leaves/florals, and dots. It has it all! I was inspired by @nailsanatomy, who made one of the best freehand manicures I have seen in a LONG time, especially considering I think she (like me) used 100% polish and not acrylic paint! Maybe I am wrong. Either way it is super impressive and I love it, so I did this homage to it :-p
Colors: ~ Nude: CND – Cashmere Wrap ~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ Pink: Zoya – Morgan ~ Yellow: Emily de Molly – LE 196 ~ Blue: Zoya – Ling ~ Stamps: Nicole Diary – 145, Born Pretty – Flower Tango L002
I am aware that “color” day in the 31 day challenge is intended to represent a single color…but I consider rainbow a color. Because rainbows are awesome. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!
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!
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!
I am very proud of this, because the entire design is freehand! It is rare that I am able to (or have the patience to) freehand lines so precisely. Especially using my non-dominant hand. I have no idea why I did this actually, but I like it!
Colors: ~ Purple with blue: Emily de Molly – Open Season ~ Nude: CND – Cashmere Wrap ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
If I had to go back and do this again, instead of using a nude-colored polish I would just leave that part of my nail naked, however, I had no idea what end design I was going for here, so adding more polish it was! Hope you enjoyed!
This could have been better executed. I don’t know why, but curlicues just were not working out for me the day I painted these! Everything is freehand, and in retrospect I wish I had stamped. Oh well. Maybe next time? On the plus side, I forgot how absolutely stunning Birefringence is!
Colors: ~ Blue/purple/green multichrome: ILNP – Birefringence ~ Nude: Zoya – Chantal ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ Silver: A England – Excalibur
I also need to get over my fear of showing my naked nails at some point. I think this would have looked better if I hadn’t used Chantal and just used my plain nail in the middle. I will try this again, and next time I will be brave! And stamp.
Here, have a bonus picture showing off all the shifting colors. Enjoy!
I saw this manicure by @coyarose and I was absolutely blown away by the idea of doing juniper bushes as a winter manicure! I tried to replicate the design and I mayyyy have gone a bit overboard. In multiple ways. I used too much glitter in my background and I added too many branches (and berries). The nails were supposed to be elegant and instead they are just complicated-look! That said, these were very fun to paint and fun to wear :-D. I’ll have to try them again (maybe a bit less…extra…) in the future!
Looking back at her post…she totally meant for these to be cedar bushes and berries. So they should be much smaller. Whoooops. I will bear that in mind next time! Either way these were fun, hope you enjoyed!
Guys this was SUCH a mess. I was inspired by @heipyh, whose manicure is lovely and elegant. I ended up creating this busy disaster and I am so embarrassed! I wasn’t able to make my new (and thus thin and runny) black polish make actual leaves, so I had to go find like 3 separate leaf stamps to use, and then I went WAY overboard with the berries. And couldn’t put them on thin elegant stalks because my black was too runny. These nails are just too busy! facepalm
Colors: ~ Nude shimmer: Picture Polish – Cherish ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black ~ Red: Zoya – Sooki ~ Stamps: Floral BPX – L018, Nicole Diary – 090
I am going to have to do another rendition of this manicure sometime this winter, because the inspiration design is beautiful and I KNOW I can do better than what you see here. I need to get used to adding somewhat LESS dots not MORE dots when I am unhappy. Ugh!
I don’t know when people started calling October “spooky season” instead of just “Halloween season” or you know, October (with the implication of working-towards-Halloween) but I find it odd. I love Halloween and fall and the general existence of October and November, but it doesn’t need a “season” name? Anyway, prepare for the rest of this month to see fall- and halloween- themed nails! This particular design was inspired by @nailart_bygracie, because sometimes cute inspiration is all you need for a lovely fall manicure! Of course I had to go complicate things by adding some more gradients to the orange and trying to make it appear to have depth, but oh well :-p
Colors: ~ Nude: KBShimmer – Caught on Tape ~ Green shimmer: Cult Nails – In a Trance ~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black ~ Dark orange: Essie – Playing Koi ~ Orange: Forumla X – Incandescent ~ Light orange: Wet n’ Wild – Sunny Side Up ~ Pastel orange: KBShimmer – Orange You Glad I Didn’t Say Banana? ~ Green: Zoya – Shawn ~ Gold: Zoya – Ziv ~ Gold holo: FUN Lacquer – Million Dollar Dream ~ Brown: Zoya – Louise
These were fun to make and fun to wear, and I will likely do another set this year of something similar. Yes, these are from LAST fall :-p. Hope you enjoyed!
These nails were painted 24 hours after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who, for the duration of her life, was likely one of my favorite people. Women’s rights (and human rights) are near and dear to my heart, and she fought elegantly, eloquently, and intelligently for everything I believe in. She was an incredible woman and this country was lucky to have her. In honor of her, I painted two sets of nails (the others I posted last week). These were modeled after her sense of fashion: she loved to jazz up the black justice ensemble with a truly spectacular necklace or lace collar. RBG, these are for you.
Colors: ~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black ~ Nude: Zoya – Chantal ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ Stamp: BP – L020
I can only hope that the supreme court will continue to uphold the things that I cherish, and specifically in the current climate that Texan women will again have the right to control their own bodies. Enjoy the nail art.
I actually did this while on vacation, and I think it will stand as the most intricate nail art I have done with minimal supplies, at a place outside of my nail art room! Anyway. The 31 day challenge theme for today calls for “delicate” and I think these count! I somehow made delicate nails with nothing but a dotting tool and a nail art brush. And nude colors (to make my mom happy, although she decided she didn’t want her nails painted after all)!
Colors: ~ Nude: Zoya – Rue ~ Light nude: KBShimmer – Caught on Tape ~ Gold: Salon Perfect – Gold Leaf
I remember I used to adore making intricate circle and dot nails, but they take to long for me to have much time to do them while in the hospital! Hopefully on some easier blocks, but not right now. Hope you enjoyed!
This is one of the prettiest nail arts I have done in a while, I think. This was also for my sister’s wedding. I think she would have preferred that I go with purple over rose gold, but her instructions were “nude, white, purple with a nude base” and purple and nude clash! So she gets rose gold. She didn’t complain (too much). The nude I started with was too boring so I added one of my most insane shimmer holo toppers over it, and I love the effect!
Colors:
~ Nude: OPI – Be There in a Prosecco
~ Holo shimmer: Different Dimension – Intergalactic Dolphin
~ Rose gold: Essie – Penny Talk
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: BP – L049
Again, this week was stamp-heavy in anticipation of the next …month… which will very much NOT be. Anyway, happy Friday and I hope you enjoyed!
Flight Of Whimsy 