Neutral Bubbles on Teal

I wanted to make a mix of neutral colored bubbles, but I couldn’t decide what color to put them over! For some reason I decided a pale teal would do the trick, and here we are. In retrospect I wish I had gone with black (or one of my neutral creme polishes that I didn’t use for the bubbles) but too late! The end result is honestly rather weird, but this took hours (coloring in all the bubbles) so I am posting it anyway!

Colors:
~ Teal: Glitter Gal – No Worries
~ Pastel nude creme: OPI – Be There in a Prosecco
~ Nude with gold shimmer: Essence – I Nude It
~ Nude holo: Picture Polish – Cherish
~ Nude shimmer: ULTA – Freshwater Pearl
~ Taupe creme: KBShimmer – Caught on Tape
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: Whats up Nails – B015

Moral of the story: If you are going to spend a very long time doing reverse stamping, make sure you have a PLAN or all your hard work is going to end up looking rather half-assed!

Sunset Skittle

This was just me testing out stamping plate designs for nails to wear to a wedding! You will see what I picked (spoiler: I picked the wrong design) in a while :-p Looking back I honestly enjoy what was on my thumb the most, both because the design is elegant and because I really liked the underlying gradient. I picked something more…floral…and regretted it!

Colors:
~ Orange: OPI – Freedom of Peach
~ Dark orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Purple: Zoya – Landon
~ Dark purple: Zoya – Lael
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps Moyra – 45 I Fill You, BM – S10, Whats Up Nails – B005, B025, UC – Lovely Leaves 2

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! If any of you are looking for some television to watch I strongly recommend the series Firefly! I don’t know why I decided I have the right to give out television recommendations but there you go.

Pointed Periwinkle Gradient

This was just for fun! I had a full afternoon off (that never happens!) and decided that meant I had enough time to play with stamping tape. I used a three-color gradient and then a two-color over it (my darker purple was not transferring enough hue so I used a darker blue and then covered it with the purple again). Then I decided I wanted more design so I stamped a diamond at the bottom. I quite liked these!

Colors:
~ Light periwinkle: Nails Inc – Regents Place
~ Periwinkle: Zoya – Danielle
~ Blue: OPI – Yoga-ta Get This Blue!
~ Stamp: EdM – 03

I feel like I go through cycles with colors. Sometimes I will end up using reds for a whole month, then purples. I try to remind myself to vary it, but I end up stuck in a color-loving rut! These, clearly, happened in a purple-centric time for me. Friday’s nails did too :-p stay tuned! Hope you enjoyed 🙂

Expanding Mauve Blooms

What to do with a mauve base? Use grey? Purple? Gold or silver? I never know! For whatever reason I used a purple topper on this, and the end result is thus a lot more purple than mauve. Not half bad, despite the color shift!

Colors:
~ Mauve: ILNP – Long Walks
~ Purple: Zoya – Monica
~ Gold glitter: OPI – Ski Slope Sweetie
~ Stamp: BM – XL158

I actually really like this stamp, which is why I thought it might be able to overcome my dislike of pointed/rounded nails…but I was wrong. I need to get over myself and just cut my nails short when I lose a corner of a nail. This nail shape looks awful! I think this is the last rounded-nail manicure I have, I haven’t broken my nails this badly in a while. Hope you enjoyed despite the nail shape!

Strips of Nude Lace

Day 2 of lace-for-valentine’s! This time around I felt the need to jazz up nude nails just a tiny bit, so you get some rose gold. I made the stamps by applying the rose gold just over the edge of the design and the white everywhere else. The end result was unbalanced, so me being me, I added some rose gold dots into the white spaces. I actually don’t hate this, for all that it is nude and boring!

Colors:
~ Nude: OPI – Be There in a Prosecco
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Rose gold: Essie – Penny Talk
~ Stamp: MoYou – Frenchy 14

Stay tuned for…more lace! And nude colors. And boring possibly-elegant things. It amazes me that I have done so many nude manicures over the last year when I gravitate so strongly towards rainbows and jewel tones! Anyway, hope you enjoyed :-p

Glowing Thai Patterns

It has been a while since I posted a glow-in-the-dark manicure! I actually painted this one some time ago, and it has been sitting in my unedited folder, oops! But here we are all the same. Instead of starting with a white base (as I usually would) I started with a glow in the dark polish (that has a yellow base to it, as far as I know Dayglow was the first true glow in the dark polish on the market, at this time there are many different ones including some with white bases but this is all I have!) that I did a stamping gradient over. I couldn’t make up my mind if I wanted to do yellow to red or yellow to blue…so I did both? And then that didn’t seem to be enough so I also added swirls 😀

The glow to this polish has remained incredibly strong despite being >5 years old. Most of my older thermal polishes have lost their color shift, and my solar-reactive polishes don’t shift at all anymore…but this polish still glows! Score 1 for Serum No 5.

Colors:
~ 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: BM – XL158, 314

That’s it for today! I recommended that all nail polish folks have at least one glow in the dark polish – it is a lot of fun to freak my husband out with my glowing nails in bed :-D. Hope you enjoyed!

Negating the Flowers

I never do negative space. NEVER. But I saw these nails by UrbanNailArt and I knew that I had to recreate them. Unfortunately, I don’t have even close to the same stamps for either the flowers or the gold, so I winged it! I wish the lines of my flowers were a little thicker and those of my vines were a bit thinner, but overall I’m pretty happy! The gold is Born Pretty Store gold powder (serious I am obsessed with stamping with this stuff) over black, but you can’t see the black! I think in the end the flowers looked like poinsettias, and red and gold are seasonally-appropriate; regardless these were fun to do and fun to wear!

Colors:
~ Red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamps: UC – Lovely Leaves 2, BP – L067, BP – 19

Hope you enjoyed! Be prepared to see a LOT more stamps involving this gold powder (which can be found here for $1.47 for a 0.1g pot) including this Friday’s post. I may be a tiny bit obsessed with it 😀

Dark Indian Corn

I made two styles of indian corn, this is the darker version! You saw the lighter version a week ago. I started with a yellow base and dry-brushed on a lighter shade of yellow. Then I stamped with white, and vaguely colored in some corn bits with grey and red. Then I stamped again in brown. Sadly my brown stamp was not nearly as opaque as I would have liked!

Colors:
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Momen
~ Light yellow: Maybelline – Citrus Collide
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Red: OPI – Vision of Love
~ Grey: WOW – #333
~ Brown: Zoya – Flynn
~ Dark brown: Zoya – Dea
~ Stamp: Moyra – 32 Nature

The husk is hand-painted, but it doesn’t make up for the fact that neither the white nor the brown were dark enough to work. Maybe if I had actually colored in the corn kernels on the stamper this would have worked better, but as it stands it just looks messy. Oh well, other corn for the win! What are your thoughts?

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!

Light Indian Corn

I made two styles of indian corn and this is the lighter one! The other one will likely be posted in the next two weeks. This one was made using a light brown base, over which I stamped the corn image in white. When that was dry, I then smushed a bunch of colors (yellow, light yellow, red, and grey) onto the stamping plate and stamped over the white with the colors. The end result is less identifiably corn, but still cool! However, it looked too pastel, so I used a yellow jelly polish over the top to deepen the colors.

Colors:
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Momen
~ Light yellow: Maybelline – Citrus Collide
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Red: OPI – Vision of Love
~ Grey: WOW – #333
~ Brown: Zoya – Flynn
~ Dark brown: Zoya – Dea
~ Pale nude: Sephora X – Marvelous
~ Yellow jelly: Esmalta da Kelly – Yellow Soap Bubble
~ Stamp: Moyra – 32 Nature

Of course, one cannot just have kernels, so I added some hand-painted husks. Overall this was quite fun to make and wear, and I enjoyed comparing the two manicures! You guys will have to let me know (after you see the other one) which one you prefer! Hope you enjoyed 🙂

Fall-themed Roses

I went to a wedding where the bridesmaids were all dressed in different fall colors, and it was stunning! My assigned color was red, but the colors ranged from coral and orange through a deep plum. Of course, I painted my nails to match :-). Oddly enough, the only roses in the actual bouquets (which I helped make) were orange! Go figure.

Colors:
~ Red holo: A England – Rosebower
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Light orange: Maybelline – Bleached in Peach
~ Orange: OPI – Freedom of Peach
~ Dark orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Light purple: Zoya – Malia
~ Purple: Zoya – Landon
~ Dark purple: Zoya – Lael
~ Red: OPI – All I want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Dark red: OPI – Visions of Love
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Dark green: Zoya – Shawn
~ Stamp: BM – 209

Hope you enjoyed! It feels like I should be moving on to winter manicures…its been below 40 for the past few days even though Thanksgiving hasn’t happened yet!

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 🙂

Fall Bloom

There isn’t much better than fall-themed flowers! This was chosen after I modeled a few other possible designs over this pretty gradient. In retrospect, although I like the end product, I wish I had picked a different stamp that let through more of the underlying colors! Because fall gradients are the best gradients 🙂

Colors:
~ Orange: OPI – Freedom of Peach
~ Dark orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Purple: Zoya – Landon
~ Dark purple: Zoya – Lael
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B005

I feel like I probably overuse floral stamping, but I can’t really find it in myself to be upset about this. Flowers are pretty! Gradients are awesome! Combining them is fun! Anyway, that’s all for today, hope you enjoyed and happy Friday!

Yellorange Rise Marble

Yellow and orange? Check. Topographical map stamp? Check. Water marble? Sure why not! In summary I have no idea where I was going with this nail art but it ended up somewhere at least! The base is a yellow-orange thermal but it was weirdly warm and I could not get the darn thing to stay orange long enough to get a photo! Oh well :-p

Colors:
~ Yellow/orange glitter thermal: POP Polish – Leaves of Gold
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Orange: OPI – Freedom of Peach
~ Dark orange: Essie – Playing Koi
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: BPX geometry – L020

Short and sweet, mostly because this is more strange than pretty. Hopefully I will have some better nail art for you later this week! Hope you enjoyed!

Sunfire Squish Marble

I don’t know you guys. This entire manicure is only two colors (yellow and red) but it was SO PAINFUL. Long story short, do not try to apply decals that you made on a mat using a stamper!! The decals ended up so bent (particularly my pointer and middle finger where I applied using the stamper) that I had to add dots! I do like the dots, but I kinda wish I ended up with the pure stamping marble. To translate: if you create a flat stamping decal on a mat, do not then try to bend it onto a stamping head, and then try to bend it in the opposite direction onto your nails. None of that will work and you will be left with a broken mess!

Colors:
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Red: Zoya – Sooki

Also, this rather looks like funky bacterial agar? Which is cute if you are really into plasmids or some such, but also looks creepy once you think of it! Oh science, you have changed my perspective, sometimes for the creepy :-P. This is only going up now because I figured red and yellow are fall colors, and if I didn’t post it soon I was going to lose my nerve! These nails are a disaster.

Yellow and Purple Meshwork

This was just a simple yellow-orange-red-purple gradient, with a dark purple holo stamped over it! I have been waiting for the right time to use this particular image, and I quite like how it came out. It also is suitably fall-themed so I have saved it for now 😀

Colors:
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Red: Pure Ice – Siren
~ Purple: Zoya – Lael
~ Purple holo: A England – Let Me In
~ Gold: Zoya – Faye
~ Stamp: Moyra – 54 Matrix

Ugh I miss gradients. Although, I always hate when my nails are curved! Square (or squoval I suppose) or bust. None of this oval nonsense! Hope you enjoyed, stay tuned for MORE autumn nail art this Friday! Although it isn’t orange/red because I can, occasionally, vary my pallet :-p

Autumn Canopy

More fall! This was one basically just an excuse to make a whole bunch of dots. And we all know how much I love dots! The design was inspired by Snacks on Rotation although mine are much darker since I don’t have a gradient leaf stamp!

Colors:
~ Brown holo: Darling Diva – Brown Diamond
~ Brown: Zoya – Louise
~ Dark red: OPI – Visions of Love
~ Red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Dark orange: Essie – Playing Koi
~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Red shimmer: ILNP – The Magician
~ Stamp: EdM – 07

Hope you enjoyed! Happy fall weather, and pumpkin spice everything if you are into that!

Shining Leaves

It’s fall! The 31 Day Challenge has ended, so it is certainly October. More than that, the weather in St Louis just went from the 90s (it was TERRIBLE) to daily highs in the 70s! Hurray!

In honor of the newfound cold and frosty world (ok, there has not yet even been close to a frost, but still, not sweating in tank tops because it is chilly out makes me very happy), I am going to finally start posting Fall manicures! Beginning with this one. Basically, I just double stamped silver, then a smooth of red and orange polishes. Voila!

Colors:
~ Grey flakie: Polished for Days – Grey Opal
~ Dark red: OPI – Visions of Love
~ Red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Dark orange: Essie – Playing Koi
~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Silver: Nails Inc – South Kensington
~ Stamp: BP – 19

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! And I hope this weather lasts, because it is the only time of the year that anyone will voluntarily find me outside!

Dry Marble Firemaze

So, this was a LOT of fun. I know the prompt is water marble, and this is a dry marble, but it was incredibly fun to put together and the two water marbles that I made for today both came out rather poorly, so you get this instead! After, what is the 31 Day Challenge about if not weird pretty new things?

I started with a yellow base, and dry marbled the rest of the colors using a fan brush. I think this might be the first (or second) time I have ever even touched my fan brush. The red and dark orange got overwhelming (fanning on colors was so fun!) so I added some additional yellow at the end. After all that, I added a maze stamp. Voila!

Colors:
~ Pastel yellow: Maybelline – Citrus Collide
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Orange: OPI – Freedom of Peach
~ Dark orange: Essie – Playing Koi
~ Red: Pure Ice – Siren
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: BM – 609

I think this is the first year I haven’t posted a real water marble for water marble day, but you guys will just have to forgive my dry marble replacement :-p. Next Monday’s (assuming I get it put together) will be excellent so be excited!

Scales of Many Colors

Personally, this is one of my favorite designs this year for the 31 Day Challenge. Today is animal day, and I figure a mermaid is an animal! And of course, what could be better than a pastel rainbow mermaid 🙂

Loosely inspired by @nails4cocktails, and I kinda love it! It came out much more vibrant than I expected, I tried to do a pastel gradient set to start but the colors just never got dark enough. But then the gradients were done and they were too bright! So I added back the pastels as part of the advanced stamping and voila! It works 😀

Colors:
~ White: LA Girl – White On
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Light pink: Wet n’ Wild – Tickled Pink
~ Pastel orange: Maybelline – Bleached in Peach
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Pastel yellow: Maybelline – Citrus Collide
~ Green-yellow: Essie – The More the Merrier
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Pastel green: Zoya – Tiana
~ Pastel mint: Glitter Gal – No Worries
~ Blue: Zoya – Rocky
~ Pastel blue: Zoya – Blu
~ Light blurple: Nails Inc – Regents Place
~ Purple: Zoya – Malia
~ Pastel purple: Sally Hansen – Lacey Lilac
~ Stamp: hehe – 024

This took a LOT of colors, and for once they are not all Zoya polishes despite being all cremes! Unfortunately, my Maybelline pastel polishes are running on empty, so someone needs to release an excellent pastel rainbow set at some point. And yes, I know we are about to get fall/winter collections and that they will not be pastel, but I can hope!