Blooming Blossoms

I decided that I wanted to make a set of pink gradient-like flowers on a beautiful teal (rather than green) background, and this is where I ended up! I was torn between tulips and cherry blossoms, and so actually went with neither, but ended up with pink in shades of cherry blossom. I don’t understand my brain either! I also have to say, this may be some of the most perfect advanced stamping I have ever done, my colors are IN THE LINES. Go me!

Colors:
~ Bright teal: Emily de Molly – Glee Ridden
~ Light teal: Glitter Gal – No Worries
~ Teal: L’oreal – Not a Cloud in Sight
~ Dark teal: Zoya – Cecilia
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Dark red: OPI – Visions of Love
~ Dark pink: Zoya – Ciara
~ Pink: Zoya – Kelsey
~ Light pink: Zoya – Tobey
~ Pastel pink: Zoya – Jordan
~ Stamp: Moyra – 45 I Fill You

I was also supposed to post this on Wednesday and had different art lined up for today, but real life interfered so here we are. Still floral, just late! Enjoy.

Painted Eggs

Happy Easter! I wanted eggs. Painted colorful eggs. The last time I used this stamp, I had a minimal of 5 colors on EACH EGG and it was far too busy. So this time I decided to just do two colors per egg and pair them across the color wheel, and I like the results much better. It is legible! And only took 1.5 hours instead of 3 hours to paint. I got the idea of sticking to two colors per egg from @polish.maven, and I am glad I went with that. Maybe for next years annual coloring-of-this-stamp I will vary it slightly more?

Colors:

~ Green linear holo: Serum No 5 – Jaded
~ Green scattered holo: ORLY – Sparkling Garbage
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Pink: Zoya – Tobey
~ Orange: Formula X – Incandescent
~ Yellow: Zoya – Darcy
~ Teal: Emily de Molly – Glee Ridden
~ Blue: Makeup Selective – 105
~ Purple: Zoya – Abby
~ Stamps: Whats Up Nails – B017

Happy easter this weekend to those that celebrate! Hopefully I will keep on top of editing my nail art and will have some more posts next week, we shall see. Enjoy!

Rainbow Springtime

I WANT COLORS. And I may have gone overboard with them. Also the pink I used was overwhelming, oops! Still overall fun to create and to wear. Of course the addition of a baby chick and a bunny helped! The design was inspired by @melonnailart, although hers was much cuter than mine ended up being, because she stuck with pastel and I decided I needed more vivid colors.

Colors:

~ Pink: Zoya – Sandy
~ Orange: EdM – LE 197
~ Yellow: Zoya – Darcy
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Purple: L’oreal – Royalty Reinvented
~ Shimmer: Sally Hansen – Platinum
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: Whats up Nails – B017

I am always a bit torn when posting easter nails: I am jewish, and my husband is orthodox (greek) christian. So, I don’t celebrate easter, and he celebrates it on a different day than most people! I usually post during typical easter rather than orthodox easter anyway. Oh well, enjoy!

Pink Tulips on Teal

Every single spring since I purchased this stamping plate, I have made use of the tulip stamp. And every single year it looks slightly wrong. Too dark, too bright, wrong base color, wrong mix of petal colors. Something is off. This time, however, I think I finally nailed it. I love the three-tone teal base (a pastel teal that glows in the dark with a darker teal and white sponged on haphazardly), I love the two shades of cooler toned pinks, and I love that I used a teal-green for the leaves. I am also happy that I studied the stamp more closely and realized that the leaves are not one solid mass, there is negative space in there! The end result is much lighter than my previous attempts. Flower win for me!

Colors:

~ Pastel teal GITD: Serum No 5 – Glowin’ of Eden
~ Teal: Emily de Molly – Glee Ridden
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Maybelline – Onyx Rush
~ Light pink: Zoya – Jordan
~ Pink: Zoya – Sandy
~ Dark teal: Salon Perfect – Escape to Neverland
~ Stamp: Whats up Nails – B017

Of course, as a bonus, the design glows in the dark (the flowers are outlined). I love using GITD polishes in the spring when the sun comes out, even if it means my nails sometimes scare me when I wake up overnight and see something bright in my bed!

Do you guys think there are any other color combinations I should try? Yellow on dark blue? Orange? I don’t know. I am just happy I finally got one right…I have a whole year to put together a color palette that works again!

Pastel Pink Peonies

These are rather subtle nails, but I like them! I am a few months early, as these were inspired last year by blooming peonies in May…and it is February. One of my neighbor’s homes that I pass on my daily dog walk had the fantastically massive blooming peonies in light pink, and I just knew I had to try and capture something similar on my nails! They also look a bit like cherry blossoms? Which it is ALSO too early for. In short: I would like the flowers to bloom so here are some early flowers.

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Light pink: Zoya – Jordan
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Shimmer: POP Polish – Watermelon Bubbleslick
~ Stamps: Nicole Diary – L21

I made this by painting my nails pink, and then dabbing on a darker pink and white to create a semi-textured appearance. After top coat, I stamped the floral design. It looked a little TOO boring, so I added some pink glitter at the end. Could anyone else identify them as peonies? Probably not. Did I know they were peonies? Yep! I do wish I had grabbed a photo with these nails and my neighbor’s flowers, but alas. Enjoy!

Neon Pink Flowers

I finally bought stamping polish! Real stamping polish! And I immediately used it to make a bunch of gradients and then stamp with more gradients. This was a pink-to-yellow base stamped with a light-to-dark blue floral pattern. The variation in the blue is not nearly as obvious as the base gradient, but I still like it! It also took 20 minutes because of how pigmented the stamping polish is and how quickly it dried.

Colors:

~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Pink stamping: Pueen – Sweet Pink
~ Yellow stamping: Pueen – Bright Yellow
~ Blue stamping: Pueen – Baby Blue
~ Dark blue stamping: Pueen – Royal Blue
~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B005

This will, hopefully, kick off a collection of spring-themed manicures. We are in mid-february, it is time to start looking for crocus buds and daffodils. And allergies, of course. Enjoy!

Another Heart Gradient

Happy valentine’s day! I think I paint pretty much these exact nails every year, because they are so classically valentines. That said, I apparently forgot to make a dummy post (basically just a list of the polishes I used) for this! So…in short I actually have no idea what I did. It looks like a light pink/red/dark pink gradient with a stamped pink heart. Simple enough…but I own at least 3 of each color that could conceivably be on these nails. So sorry, I will not be giving colors!

I think today I also need to give a shout-out to my sister, as it is also her birthday. I always felt a tad bit bad for her since she would automatically get heart-themed cards and chocolates on her birthday, rather than twice a year (birthday + valentines) but I think it has worked out ok for her. Happy birthday!

It is also, I think, ash Wednesday? As not a christian I have no idea what that is actually about, but it seems like a lot of things happening at once today. Enjoy these heart nails regardless!

Glitter Hearts

Grey and pink go very well together, so I thought I would use them to make a heart-filled Valentine’s day manicure. I actually quite like the result! The pink/green glitter popped well, and the grey-green background set it off nicely. I don’t quite know where I came up with this particular combination of polishes, but I have a hunch I will use it again!

Colors:

~ Grey: Zoya – Evvie
~ Pink: Born Pretty – Warm Tea Cherry Blossoms
~ Pink/green glitter: POP Polish – Watermellon Bubbleslick
~ Stamp: BM – 317

I always feel like I need to cram every heart stamp I own into a few weeks in early February, because otherwise I am going to ignore them the entire year. I am glad there is at least a holiday that lets me use all these stamps! And that low-key forces me to focus on my collection of pink polishes for a few manicures. Enjoy!

Chaotic Hearts

I have never used this stamp despite owning this plate for years, because I could never figure out what to do with it! It is two designs that when placed next to each other form a heart, and are made up of smaller cutesy hearts. This time, I had an idea. Voila! Now some of them are upside down, but since love sends you for a tailspin at times, that seems appropriate. I even like the dots I added!

Colors:

~ Black/red multichrome: ILNP – Eclipse
~ Pink stamping: Born Pretty – Crimson Cheeks
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Stamp: BM – 620

I don’t know that I will turn this stamp into an annual use thing (like the one I posted Wednesday), but at least I got to use it once! Hope you enjoyed, and happy almost Valentine’s day!

Entwined Hearts

This was incredibly simple, yet effective! Every year this is one of the stamps I reach for on Valentine’s day, and every year I go wayyy over the top and make it hideous. This time, I decided to settle for dark-grey-on-shimmery-pink. The grey instead of black made the design appear slightly softer, and I love this base color (shimmers forever).

Colors:

~ Pink shimmer: Nailed it! – There’s a Nap for That 2.0
~ Grey: Bordeau – 212
~ Stamp: BC – 04

I think I have used this particular stamp every year since I got this stamping plate, in 2017 or so. That may make it my most consistently used stamping plate! I bet my snowflake plate has caught up, but I am still pleased. Enjoy!

Overwhelming Roses

There HAS to be a use for this polish that doesn’t render nail art overwhelmingly extra. But I have not found it yet. This neon pink glitter is SO fun to look at, and yet whenever I try to use it (even for Valentine’s day, the pink holiday!) I end up regretting it. I tried to tone this down by adding a dark red ink (in place of the black jelly polish I wish I owned) and it somewhat worked, at least there is some dimension to this nail art instead of just PINK IN YOUR FACE, but even so. Nope.

Colors:

~ Neon glitter pink: Atomic – Silicate
~ Black: Maybelline – Onyx Rush
~ Red ink: Born Pretty – Watercolor 005
~ Stamps: BP – L067, BP – Valentine’s Day L002

This was fun to wear but so darn difficult to photograph. Cameras don’t like neon polish to begin with, and if you add a ton of glitter to a neon polish, you end up with…a bright shiny blob. So have some blob roses! Sorry. Also sorry for the 3 week absence, I had some nail art lined up but forgot to post it. Whoops!

Gingerbread Fantasy

I really wanted to make some elaborate gingerbread nails, to celebrate one of my favorite snacks over the holidays (and the only holiday treat that I am good at baking…despite being Jewish, even the latkes fall to my husband to make)! I was inspired by @nbnailart to create these absolutely fantastic nails, and I have to say I am pleased with how they came out! They are 100% freehand and took a little over two hours to complete.

Colors:

~ Blue: Makeup Selective – 105
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Maybelline – Onyx Rush
~ Pink: Zoya – Sandy
~ Red: Zoya – Sooki
~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Dark green: Zoya – Hunter
~ Purple: OPI – I Manicure for Beads
~ Light brown: Zoya – Flynn
~ Brown: Zoya – Dea
~ White glitter: Emily de Molly – Pale Landscape

I hope you all had a wonderful (and gingerbread) filled holiday! I can’t promise that there will be any post on Wednesday because I will be driving most of the day tomorrow to get home from my in-laws, but hopefully my New Years post ends up completed shortly! Enjoy!

Gnome Santa

Santa with a big gnome-like nose was all the rage last year, so I had to jump on the bandwagon! It was a very cute design idea. I mostly just made a big-nosed Santa and made the rest up. As usual, I had to drag out my Nabi red holographic polish for his outfit, because it just LOOKS like velvet in a really incredible way.

Colors:
~ Red holo: Nabi – Red
~ Nude: Zoya – Chantal
~ Light pink: Seven7een – 152
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Maybelline – Onyx Rush
~ Gold glitter: Salon Perfect – Gold Leaf
~ Stamps: Nicole Diary – 120

I think I (on average) do one Santa mani a year, and this one fits nicely! Hope you enjoyed. The next few nail art posts will all be Christmas themed, if I can get them edited in time.

Falling Leaves Overlay

Every time I try to make a manicure with a cool design and a multichrome with some negative space, it fails. This is attempt #4 (I think) and each time I want to bang my head into a wall. This took way longer than it should have and STILL does not look great. Oy!

Colors:
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Red/orange multichrome: ILNP – Greatness
~ Dark teal: ILNP – St George
~ Green/gold shimmer: Blush Lacquers – Nerida Singer
~ Stamps: Uber Chic – Lovely Leaves 2

I need to stop trying to make negative space manicures with multichromes, they are just too hard to get even on the nail in this setting. And stop picking designs that need to be colored in if I AM going to use negative space. Live and learn…eventually.

Dripping Roses

I hand-painted these nails with limited supplies while on vacation at the beach. As a result, the colors are not exactly what I would have chosen had I had my whole collection with me, but it came out alright despite that! I am quite proud of my roses.

Colors:

~ Grey flakie: Polished for Days – Grey Opal
~ Pink: Zoya – Tobey
~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie
~ Yellow: Zoya – Darcy
~ Purple: My Mood – Dazzling
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda

I realize it isn’t flower season, but since I do regular nail designs (as well as seasonal nail designs) at all times of the year, I never have enough fully-fall (or winter, spring, or summer) nails to keep it appropriate. So, random flowers! And some more fun random stuff up until closer to Thanksgiving next week. Enjoy!

Leafy Greens

Everyone was all about leaf manicures for a while, and I decided I wanted to do my own take on one. Which meant tone-on-tone stamping designs and of course, dots! The base color here was purchased in Scotland, although I think it is an Italian brand. While I like the colors I picked out in Scotland, the polishes themselves are a bit trickier to use, and come in tiny bottles that did not cost much less than usual bottles much to my chagrin when I looked at how much I spent.

This is 2-3 coats of #333 by Kiko. It is a nice medium-dark green creme (almost a crelly). Unfortunately, the top of the bottle brush is broad and flat and hard to hold to paint nails, which resulted in me flooding 2 of 5 nails despite the tiny size of the brush head. Overall nice color (and many other nice colors) to this brand, but difficult to use and very small. I can understand why rectangular polish bottle tend to have removable cap holders!

Colors:
~ Dark green: Kiko – #333
~ Green stamping: Pueen – Amazon Moss
~ Light green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Pink holo: Cupcake Polish – Berry Good Looking
~ Stamps: Lina – @urbannailart collab

I think I will need more practice with this polish and its sister polishes from Kiko, since most of my unhappiness with this came from the extra clean-up as a result of me not being able to maneuver the brush to my satisfaction based on the broad brush holder/cap. Hopefully I get that figured out!

Double Crazy Gradient

What better way to play with stamping polish then by stamping a gradient in one set of colors, and topping it with a gradient of a different set of colors? Especially if the stamp is absolutely bonkers. Voila!

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Yellow: Pueen – Bright Yellow
~ Pink: Pueen – Neon Pink
~ Purple: Pueen – Charmed Lilac
~ Teal: Pueen – Mermaid Green
~ Red: Pueen – So Red
~ Stamp: B Loves Plates – B03 mind blown

I had held off on buying bona fide stamping polish for years. I have been painting nails with nail art for approximately 13 years at this point (oh wow) and this is the first time I have intentionally purchased a stamping polish set. I have to say, it has been nail-changing. Gradients now take 5 minutes to create (although if I am not careful with my latex barrier they take 30 minutes to clean up due to the degree of pigment in the polish). Stamps that I could not previously use due to poor etching are now usable. Its great. If you are on the fence, I strongly recommend buying dedicated stamping polish, and Pueen makes good ones (these were purchased by me, I just like them)!

Gradient of Dots

When I made this design I did not love it. Too many colors in slightly different intensity families. However, my husband, my friends, and both my sisters really liked it. Go figure!

Colors:

~ Holo: ILNP – Fired Up
~ Pink: Zoya – Tobey
~ Orange: Zoya – Thandie
~ Yellow: Zoya – Darcy
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Teal: My Mood – Happy
~ Purple: My Mood – Dazzling

I think I need to acknowledge that sometimes I will not be happy with what I paint, even if to others it looks great. This goes for both color combinations and overall composition, both of which I think I did not execute well here. Oh well! At least its colorful?

Disco Drama

This did not come out how intended, but I still like it! I wanted a NEON RAINBOW of water marble…but it turns out neons are nearly impossible to watermable with. So I played around with probably 25 polishes to find a combination that worked even a little bit…and even then I got wildly different amounts of each color on each nail. Oh well! Still bright. And of course, finished with a fun pattern.

Colors:
~ Neon pink: Zoya – Kelsey
~ Orange: Emily de Molly – LE 197
~ Neon yellow: Emily de Molly – LE 196
~ Neon green: KBShimmer – Race Against Slime
~ Blue: Makeup Selective – #105
~ Purple: OPI – I Manicure for Beads
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: Hit The Bottle – Material World 01

The design was loosely based off seeing this super colorful manicure by @pblnails but I decided that I would rather have water marble as a base. I think I made the right choice, even if I seriously struggled to get my neons to marble! Enjoy.

Dusty Blue and Pink

I got a new shade of purple-leaning blue (it isn’t quite a periwinkle but neither is it blue, it is both too pink and too grey to be a true blue. Its cool!) and planned to use it as a background for sky…but I ran out of time to do the excellent and exacting freehand manicure that I had in mind. So, instead, I made some minimalist lines based off this design by @so_nailicious. Since I was using a dusty blue-ish, I decided to pair it with a dusty pink-ish. And, of course, a silver. I ended up adding a holo glitter dot to round things off. Simple, but pretty!

The base here is a polish that I picked up in Scotland, by a brand called Kiko. The color is #027. I liked the polish because it was nearly a mini (and thus could travel easily in the future), but on further reflection it cost as much as a full size bottle in the US and that is a bit of a rip-off. Either way, it is a lovely dusty blue that leans pink/purple, with a subtle but visible shimmer running through it. It covered in two coats, although the polish was a bit thick and thus left some uneven density on the nails (which did smooth out with one coat of top coat). Overall, I like the color and the finish, but the small bottle size and the slightly thick pigment is not great.

Colors:
~ Dusty blue: Kiko – #027
~ Dusty pink: Essie – Eternal Optimist
~ Silver holo: Color Club – Harp On It
~ Silver circle: OPI – I Snow You Love Me

I actually got a lot of compliments on this manicure, possibly because it is the most “tame” and “elegant” thing I have worn in the past few months. I do quite like it, although I miss wearing more colors. Ergo, up next, ALL THE COLORS. Enjoy!