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.
What, a St. Patrick’s day manicure?! This was a LOT of fun to create, although my stamped design didn’t fully cover so I had to touch it up, which is why there are so many darker green dots on my shamrocks. And I inverted my pots of gold (they were supposed to be right-side up but I painted them facing me, oops! Rookie mistake that I haven’t made in a LONG time). So now you know why my hand position looks funky in these photos!
Colors: ~ White GITD: Serum No5 – Pure Glow Getter ~ Green GITD: Serum No5 – Glowin’ of Eden ~ Dark green: Sinful Colors – Last Chance ~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black ~ Gold glitter: Cult Nails – Walk of Shame ~ Red: Emily de Molly – LE199 ~ Orange: Emily de Molly – LE197 ~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment ~ Green: Zoya – Tilda ~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy ~ Purple: Zoya – Malia ~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B017
The added bonus: the base colors were glow in the dark! I don’t know why, I just wanted them to be. It was fun to put together although maybe a bit silly, since GITD polish is so much harder to remove! It also turns out that my green GITD polish glows more brightly than my white. I did not know that before.
Hopefully next year neither my stamp nor my actual freehand art (if I try any) gets messed up. It was such a good idea! Oh well. Hope you enjoyed 😀
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!
This manicure took maybe 30 minutes and looks like it was done by 8-years-ago Eva. Which is not great, but also I had no tools and was on vacation. Given all that, I won’t beat myself up too badly. I obviously don’t love it, but given the limitations I was working with, it is not bad. Flowers for everyone.
Colors: ~ Dark purple: Formula X – Ignition ~ Pink: Zoya – Sandy ~ Purple: my sister’s polish, name unknown ~ Green: Zoya – Josie ~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
Olive green and gold ALWAYS go well together. I felt like wearing olive polish and had no specific plans, so this is where I ended up! I didn’t want to use just one triangle stamp, so I found the two that seemed to match (they are from two completely different brands, I am impressed). With just the stamps it still seemed a bit flat, so I grabbed a gold glitter polish and added some glittery overlay to bits of the design. I’m not convinced that overall helped, but I also don’t think it hurt. Honestly I am mostly impressed with the shape and length of my nails in this manicure, go me!
Colors: ~ Olive metallic: Cult Nails – In A Trance ~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold ~ Gold glitter – OPI – All Sparkly and Gold ~ Stamps: Whats Up Nails – B015, BM – XL205
On the plus side, it is going to be a few days of normal nail art, since I think I have run out of snowflakes and snow-themed manicures for the time being. And then, hearts galore! Oy. Hope you enjoyed!
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!
This design was loosely inspired by @nogti_shok with a cute penguin and dripping stars and snowflakes. My version went a bit….overboard. And my nails were too short to pull off the full effect! Still cute.
Colors: ~ Gold: CbL – Frohe Feiertage! ~ Red metallic: Zoya – Isla ~ Red: OPI – All I want for Christmas (is OPI) ~ Dark red: OPI – Visions of Love ~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun ~ Stamps: BP – 185, Nicole Diary – L28, 120, 156
Sorry AGAIN for not posting on a regular schedule. I am busy, but not so busy I cannot post nail art! It just keeps dropping down my priority list. I would say blame the dog, but she is adorable so don’t blame her :-p. Hopefully I can get back into a regular posting groove. I am still painting fun designs on my nails, you just aren’t getting to see them as frequently!
I decided to make a fallen leaf carpet manicure! I realized that while I had done ghosts and trees and pumpkins galore, I had somehow missed doing many manicures featuring leaves. Maybe because I did so many last year? Who knows. Anyway, this is to rectify that oversight! It is made using the dry marble technique, covered with a leaf stamp.
Colors: ~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment ~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie ~ Red: Zoya – Sookie ~ Dark red: OPI – All I want for Christmas (is OPI) ~ Brown: Zoya – Dea ~ Dark brown: Zoya – Louise ~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B005
I think this is pretty much the only leaf manicure I have this year? I just have not been reaching for my leaf stamps as much as previous. I used a lot of pastel leaf designs in the spring, but I really should get myself together and do something fun before the year is out with fall leaf colors. Even if the leaves have mostly fallen from the trees at this point. Enjoy, and happy shopping for nail polish sales today!
I am going to be honest: this manicure does NOT work. The oranges are too bright and the purple is too dark. I made it anyway. It was fun. I probably put more effort into the design (especially coloring every part of every leaf on the stamp, and free-handing the geometric nails) than it was worth, but it was fun to do and fun to wear.
Colors: ~ Purple flakie: Polished for Days – Siren ~ Dusty red: KBShimmer – Chai-huahua ~ Dark orange: Essie – Playing Koi ~ Dark pink: Zoya – Margo ~ Purple holo: A England – Crown of Thistles ~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie ~ Dusty orange: OPI – Freedom of Peach ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ Stamps: UC – Lovely Leaves 2
Clearly I have a ways to go with color theory for opposing colors. I did another purple and orange leaf manicure that came out MUCH better (that I posted last Friday). Hope you enjoyed this slightly failed one anyway!
This took a very long time, between free-handing each leaf with three different colors and then adding all the dots, but it was totally worth it! The design was inspired by @nailsbypuja but I modified her orange accent nails because I like dots far too much. The end result was pretty darn stunning if I do say so myself! I did another purple-and-orange manicure and it flopped dramatically so I am glad this one worked out! It is also the final day of the 31 day challenge, and since she did a tutorial on this manicure (how else would I have figured out the purple/green/blue leaves) it counts!
Colors: ~ Purple metallic: Zoya – Isadora ~ Bright red: Emily de Molly – LE 199 ~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun ~ Yellow: WOW – #301 ~ Light green: OPI – Did it on ’em ~ Neon green: KBShimmer – Race Against Slime ~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy ~ Purple: Zoya – Malia
Even though it took forever, this design makes me want to do more tricolor leaves. The gradient came out surprisingly smooth looking despite my fumbling! And they pop really well against the background :-). Hope you enjoy these as much as I do!
31 Day Challenge day 2: orange! On my two week trip to Greece this past spring I wanted to honor the awesome ancient pottery style…and use a stamp that I had never ever considered touching! Voila. I am rather pleased with how this came out, especially since I had to self-distress the orange/brown base to get the color where I wanted it.
I ended up sneaking a photo in the acropolis museum (which I was not supposed to do) just to highlight my nails against some actual real ancient pottery. It isn’t perfect, but it looks pretty good! Although the lighting was terrible for my skin tone :-p
Colors: ~ Orange: OPI – Freedom of Peach ~ Brown jelly: Born Pretty – Arcadia ~ Purple jelly: Zoya – Katherine ~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black ~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B039
Now you can see why posting the caduceus on Wednesday went with the Greek theme of the week. The theme next week is bright colors, sort of. Basically its time to roll out a bunch of my recent favorite manicure that I have been saving for this month. Enjoy!
This was intended to be a sloppy stamping gradient of red-pink-magenta-purple-plurple, but it ended up looking pink-to-blue in a way. I used farrrr too many colors for how uninteresting this manicure ended up being! I actually did two different orientations of the same stamp, a red-pink-purple first and then a pink-magenta-blurple over it to really cement the colors. After that I used the black stamp and then black circle glitter and gold fleck glitter and gold holo glitter (oh my!). The end result is pretty, but again, not nearly intricate enough for how much time and effort went into it.
Colors: ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ Red: Zoya – Sooki ~ Dark red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas is OPI ~ Pink: Zoya – Zoya – Morgan ~ Magenta: Zoya – Ciara ~ Purple: Zoya – Landon ~ Blurple: Alpha beauty – 68 ~ Black glitter: Emily de Molly – Black the Knight ~ Gold flecks: Emily de Molly – Chasing Gold ~ Gold holo glitter: FUN Lacquer – Million Dollar Dream ~ Stamps: Lina – Make your Mark 02
I will have to try this again with a more interesting variety and range of colors because I think the idea of using this particular stamp twice is a good one…but my color choices leave something to be desired. Oh well! Hope you enjoyed anyway.
I had such high hopes for this manicure. All these pretty colors, lots of different sizes of striping tape….and it was an absolute mess. The tape didn’t stay down AND left a faint red residue at the edges (it was a red glitter tape to be fair), and the colors just DID NOT GO. In the end I wore this for only around a day before replacing it with a much better attempt at rainbows. Half the colors were neon and half were not, some of the nails started very light and others did not, some of the nails went very dark and others did not…the idea had merit and was simply executed poorly. Oops!
Colors: ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ Light purple: Zoya – Abby ~ Purple: Zoya – Malia ~ Dark purple: Zoya – Danielle ~ Light orange: KBShimmer – Papaya Don’t Preach ~ Neon orange/red: Emily de Molly – LE 199 ~ Light green: OPI – Did It On Em ~ Neon green: KBShimmer – Race Against Slime ~ Dark green: Zoya – Hunter ~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy ~ Dark blue: Sinful Colors – Endless Blue ~ Light pink: Zoya – Tobey ~ Pink: Zoya – Kelsey ~ Dark pink: Zoya – Ciara
In short, I will have to try this again using a non-red tape and colors that go together in a more cohesive fashion. Live and learn! Hope you enjoyed.
My birthday is tomorrow! Which means that this is the official RAINBOW WEEK! I have had a tradition for the past few years of painting my nails with crazy awesome rainbows on my birthday, because rainbows are just the best. This week will show three of my rainbow nails in honor of my birthday 🙂 including my birthday nails that I actually wore last year (because heaven forbid I actually edit nails in time to post them within a week of painting them).
Colors: ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black ~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly ~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie ~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment ~ Green: Zoya – Tilda ~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy ~ Purple: Zoya – Malia ~ Gold: Zoya – Ziv ~ Gold holo: FUN Lacquer – Million Dollar Dream ~ Stamp: Nicole Diary – 156
Today’s manicure was approached with the thought: what would Claire Estelle do? She has stopped posting, but back in the day she had the BEST rainbow neons, glitters, and random bits of color. I browsed her IG for a bit (not that I don’t already have most of her posts favorited, because again, rainbows) and settled on this idea! It took some effort but wow was it ever glittery! I started with a pinwheel stamping rainbow (basically going clockwise around from pink through to purple) and gradiented a different orientation of that same pinwheel on each nail. The end result was a somewhat random looking array of rainbow colors. I then added the black stamp, the gold through the line at the middle (both a simple glittery gold and then a chunky gold holo on top), and finally some black dots with gold centers. Voila! Hope you enjoyed…and stay tuned for more rainbows!!!
This was another manicure designed after some of the outrageously beautiful dresses in season 1 of the show Bridgerton. This one is modeled after the epic red and blue gown worn by the actress playing Queen Charlotte. I tried to capture the shiftiness of the blue using a multichrome but it only somewhat worked. Regardless, I like the end result! The inspiration is dramatic!
Much like Monday’s post, I decided to post this now since season 2 was just released, and I will be starting to watch it this week because I am behind. I hope the gowns are just as beautiful! And of course, the queens hairstyles just as magnificent.
Colors: ~ Red metallic: OPI – Cute Little Vixen ~ Blue multichrome: ILNP – Birefringence ~ Gold: Salon Perfect – Gold Leaf ~ Silver: Revlon – Metallic ~ Stamp: BC – 06
The whole design for this manicure is freehand, other than the background gold embroidery pattern on the red section; I hand-added the flowers in silver though! Unfortunately, although the very fine gold pattern is true to what gold embroidery looks like, you almost cannot make it out against the metallic burgundy of the base. Oh well, it was still fun to wear! Hope you enjoyed 🙂
Guys, I am PROUD of this one! I had this negative space stamp for easter eggs. And I had seen other people with the idea of tie dye (aka water marble) negative space eggs. But I decided to do them over a GLOW IN THE DARK white base and decorate a few of the eggs on each nail with the same color! The end result (since the base was white) is pretty tie dye eggs, some with designs, where the eggs themselves glow faintly in the dark and the designs glow brightly! The white I used as the stamp is not GITD and so it blocks out the light. I am happy 😀
Colors: ~ White GITD: Serum No5 – Pure Glow Getter ~ Pink: Zoya – Jordan ~ Orange: Forumla X – Incandescent ~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment ~ Green: KBShimmer – Lime All Right ~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy ~ Purple: Zoya – Abby ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B017
Here again I ran into the issue of the glow is not super bright, but it worked for my purposes! You can kinda tell with the GITD photo. Then again, I only charged using indoor light not daylight. I also am not sure why I wanted both my easter manicures to be GITD? I guess if I am using it on one hand I should just go to both :-p Enjoy!
Time for an easter themed manicure! I bought this stamping plate months ago and have been saving it for use in early spring…and despite that, I almost missed it! But here we have it, a very elaborate easter egg manicure. It took a full hour to hand-paint all the colors on the eggs, but I think it was worth it. The bunny is from a different plate, but it just isn’t easter without a bunny!
I also had the brilliant idea to make my base using a green glow in the dark polish, so that when it was dark out the eggs and rabbit would be outlined. It worked! And it looks pretty darn cool. The polish is Glowin’ of Eden by Serum No 5, and this is three gloopy coats. GITD polishes are always harder to use than regular polish, and honestly this was the easiest of the 4 that I have (mostly because I went with thin coats instead of just trying to do two thicker ones). It does glow, but the glow is not easily identifiable as green. Oh well!
Colors: ~ Green GITD: Serum No5: Glowin’ of Eden ~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ Pink: Zoya – Sandy ~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment ~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy ~ Purple: Zoya – Malia ~ Stamps: Whats Up Nails – B017, BM – 302
Overall a very cute manicure (if I do say so myself) but a mediocre GITD polish. I have worn it again since, and, when charged directly by the sun, it is glow-y. But otherwise it is not that impressive. Then again, I compare all GITD polishes to Dayglow and nothing matches up to that insane brightness!
This ended up pretty cool looking, and was quite fun to do! It was inspired by @nailsandtowel, but honestly also by one of the pixar SparkShorts. If you’ve seen if you’ll know what I am talking about, if not go watch Day & Night, and enjoy it! It is decidedly cute, and I had just shown it to my husband for the first time when I remembered saving this design on IG, and went back and painted it 🙂
Colors: ~ Light blue: Essie – Rock the Boat ~ Dark blue: A England – Tristam ~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment ~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
Cute and accomplished! I really can’t ask more from nail art. Even if I didn’t actually do any art on two of the fingers, hah! Hope you enjoyed!
Holo base with some elegant curling stamps. This one was fun to create and find the right stamping designs for! And of course, added dots for contrast. Because what is a manicure on Flight of Whimsy without at least 15 extraneous dots?
Colors: ~ Gold holo: CbL – Frohe Feiertage! ~ Orange: OPI – Freedom of Peach ~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White ~ Stamps: BC – 04, Whats Up Nails – A010
I know it seems weird to consider something a ‘subtle holo’ but it makes me happy to collect a bunch of nude/pale random holos that I can pretend to wear in gut hospital, even if I am (finally!) in lab! Which means that later this year when I get around to posting the polish I am wearing now, that there will be lots of bright colors and crazy patterns!
Flight Of Whimsy 