Queen Charlotte Regal Garb

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.

BRIDGERTON GOLDA ROSHEUVEL as QUEEN CHARLOTTE in episode 108 of BRIDGERTON Cr. LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX © 2020

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 🙂

Neon Butterfly Flight

This was inspired by @urbannailart and even came with a video! Honestly, I recreated her background pretty close to perfectly and I loved the look! I will need to do this dirty stamping gradient again in the future. It helps that the whole thing is neon too :-). I didn’t have the ability to stamp a full butterfly pattern with polish (I could only do the outline in black), so I went back and painted over the black stamp with teal and purple jelly polish. It isn’t quite the same pop of color, but overall I think it does a good job honoring the inspiration! My butterfly was a bit smaller than the original, so I went and added some swirls over the colored sections. Voila!

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Hot pink: Zoya – Kelsey
~ Hot yellow: Emily de Molly – LE 196
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Teal jelly: Zoya – Frida
~ Purple jelly: Zoya – Katherine
~ Red glitter jelly: Zoya – Aphrodite
~ Stamps: Moyra – 60 Cuts, Nicole Diary – 090, BM – 314

I am glad it is spring and headed towards summer, I always feel weird posting bright designs and neons in the winter, but I feel like that is what I gravitate towards if given free reign over my collection! Anyway, hope you enjoyed!

Eclipsed Lace

This went so wrong! I wanted to create a lines-over-lace look and for some reason went for black polish over a black-to-red multichrome. You couldn’t see the design at all. So I went and added red glitter? The whole thing is a mess. Oy.

The base here (which you cannot see) is ILNP Eclipse, three thin coats. This polish is just as beautiful as everyone has made it out to be and I am so glad I bought it! It actually came with a really wonky twisted brush, so I reached out to ILNP and they sent me a new one 🙂 I honestly put this back in my untried pile so I will wear it again soon in such a way that the base color is visible.

Colors:
~ Red-to-black multichrome: ILNP – Eclipse
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Loose Red Glitter
~ Stamps: BC – 10

When this manicure caught the light JUST right you could see the whole design and it was pretty. It was also not worth it. Win some, lose some!

Green Nodes

I didn’t mean to make this look like nodes! Somehow whenever I use this particular green polish I always end up creating something vaguely technology adjacent. The last few times it has been for computer chip designs. Apparently it is now just a set connection in my head! Regardless, this manicure came out rather awesome and I love the colors and the end result! Even if I had to make a stamping gradient and then hand-blend my node dots to match the stamping gradient.

Colors:
~ Green: Zoya – Veruschka
~ Neon orange: KBShimmer – Papaya don’t Preach
~ Neon yellow: Emily de Molly – LE 196
~ Red glitter: KBShimmer – Ruby
~ Stamp: Moyra – 32 Nature

I ended up going to play laser tag while wearing these nails, and the bright colors were super glowing in the dark light! I almost never do anything in spaces where there is black light (so I don’t get to see many of my neon manicures glow) but this was super cool.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Sorry about the lack of post on Monday, it was a very bad and exhausting day, and I just didn’t throw anything together in time. Hopefully I am better at staying on top of my life and that won’t happen again for a least a little bit.

Hazy Crazy

This was my attempt at a very loose dry brush gradient. I don’t know why I made it and it didn’t quite work, but I still like the end result even if I wouldn’t do it again! I basically started with white, used a dry brush to apply yellow to my cuticle, orange just above it and overlapping it, then red, then purple. The yellow kinda got lost in the end.

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Orange: Zoya- Thandie
~ Red: Zoya – Sooki
~ Purple: OPI – I Manicure for Beads
~ Stamp: B Loves Plates – 03 Mind Blown

I said on Monday that it was time for some bright colors, and this seems like a fitting start! Friday (assuming I get it done in time) will be more glittery. Hope you enjoyed!

Roses on Red

This manicure was intended for a baby shower. It ended up being a tad neon and very glittery (honestly I should have known) and stood out more than I expected. I got this polish because I WANTED neon red-pink glitter, but now that I have it, I have no idea what to do with it! When is it appropriate to wear something THIS in your face?

The base is three thin coats of a bright neon red with bright pink shimmer by a brand called Atomic (really quite fitting), the polish is called Silicate. The polish is overall very pretty and wears well, although as it turns out I have a lot of near-dupes in my collection! But for neon red-pinks it is great. I was hoping for a true red, and what I ended up with is honestly more of a pink.

Colors:
~ Red shimmer: Atomic – Silicate
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: Moyra – 32 Nature

This manicure did end up being a bit much, but so be it. I need to figure out more places to wear neon pink-red glitter polishes, because I accidentally own three of them at this point. I don’t even like pink that much! Whoops. Hope you enjoyed!

Geometric Christmas Sweater

I have a secret: this design is from an easter plate, and was supposed to be for an easter egg. I have repurposed it and it tickles me. I added some dark gold glitter dots and stripes for a bit more interest, but otherwise this is just a moderately complicated stamp! I do wish there were more Hanukkah stamps though. Or even things I could PRETEND were Hanukkah stamps. Hooray for another year of hand-painted candles.

Colors:
~ Grey: Formula X – Marvelous
~ Red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Green: Zoya – Shawn
~ Gold: ILNP – Sparks May Fly
~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B017

I have finished editing the rest of the designs for this week, and honestly, I feel like I need to up my Christmas game again. The ones I have painted this year will be posted next year, and at least I have a santa in the mix! I suppose this is what happens when I off-post by a full year. Anyway, hope you enjoyed!

Minimalist Christmas

This design is a trick! I started with a glow in the dark almost-white base, and stamped over it with a white polish, a single snowflake on each nail that can only be seen in the dark (or at least that was the intent. Hidden snowflake!). I then stamped a geometric pattern in black and highlighted little bits of the black with gold. That was intended to be the finished product, but it looked boring, so I went in with red and green glitter as well and made it more festive.

The base is two coats of the white glow-in-the-dark polish Pure Glow Getter by Serum No 5. The polish, like most GITD polishes, goes on thick and slightly gritty, and is likely not appropriate for beginner nail artists (sadly). That said, it has a reasonable level of glow (especially when charged by the sun, indoor light was less effective as usual), and the design that I put over it, including the secret snowflake, really popped!

These nails kept surprising me when I was falling asleep 🙂 I can’t decide if I would want to do a fully hidden design again, or if that took away a bit from the fun since no one but me (and my husband I suppose) knew that the snowflakes were there.

Colors:
~ White GITD: Serum No5 – Pure Glow Getter
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Gold: Salon Perfect – Gold Leaf
~ Red: Emily de Molly – LE 28
~ Green: Zoya – Ivanka
~ Stamp: Nicole Diary – 120

In retrospect looking at the polishes I used with this manicure, I hope Zoya regrets making a bright sparkly green and naming it Ivanka, but who knows. It is a pretty color regardless! Hope you enjoyed!

Red Winterberry

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!

Icicles on Brick

I finally did a semi-successful brick manicure! I have tried this a few times before and never been happy with the results. This one used a variegated grey base (that you can barely see), three shades of red for stamping, and then of course some white and silver freehanded icicles.

Colors:
~ Grey: Cirque – Hatch
~ Bright red: Pure Ice – Siren
~ Brick red: KBShimmer – Chia-huahua
~ Dark red: OPI – Visions of Love
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Holo: Different Dimension – Diamond
~ Stamp: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

The weather has been just downright weird this week. The high was in the 20s on Tuesday but today the high is almost 70. Overnight it got below freezing. The midwest is a strange strange place! No icicles yet though :-p Hope you enjoyed!

Dying Leaves

Ok so this was fun. I wanted to make my nails look like a bed of dead leaves (ok that sounds bad) or bark without leaves on it, and I decided to have fun with brown and nude marble-spotting to do so! It actually looked really cool. Of course, the fall vibe is not complete without some red and orange leaves, so I added those as well. Voila!

Colors:
~ Dark brown: Zoya – Louise
~ Brown: Zoya – Flynn
~ Nude spotting: Baroness X – Sand Ahoy!
~ Dark orange: Essie – Playing Koi
~ Brick red: KBShimmer – Chia-huahua
~ Dark pink: OPI – Magala Wine
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamps: Nicole Diary – L21, UC – Lovely Leaves 2

I’m going to be honest: all of the halloween and fall nails that you guys have seen up to this point were painted a year ago. This year I did a bunch of halloween nails (that, true to form, you will see next year) but no fall nails yet! That means, however, that most of what is going to be posted between now and maybe Thanksgiving are going to be just random nail art that I have lying around. Sorry, no more theme! I do have a bunch of back-logged winter holiday nails to look forward to though :-p

Halloween Vortex Drip

This is a weird complicated manicure. I was (yet again) out of Halloween nail ideas, but I was playing with one of my cell-producing polishes and decided I would just force that to become a manicure. I started making decals (one for each nail) with yellow, orange, red, green, and purple (due to their halloween nature), and adding the nude cell polish and a black creme. The end results were widely varied with regards to density of color, ease of flow, and number of cells, and looked super random on my nails. I was going to stamp over them, but decided that a drip design to make it look like a halloween-colored vortex was the better solution. I have no idea what I was thinking (it was maybe 3am) and the end result is super weird, but it was fun!

Colors:
~ Red: Zoya – Sooki
~ Orange: Forumla X – Incandescent
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Purple: OPI – I Manicure for Beads
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Nude spot: Baroness X – Sand Ahoy!

I don’t know that I will ever do something quite as abstract as this. No one had any idea what I was attempting and overall my nails mostly looked like slime! But I guess that is part of the fun of Halloween…do weird stuff! Anyway, hope you enjoyed!

BRAINSSSSS

This was created for Halloween, because zombies. However, while I was putting this together I decided I actually wanted to make it somewhat realistic (in terms of color) so it took a lot longer than expected and I love it! It helps that I am both a neurologist and a neuroscientist, and that brains are kind of my thing. I usually don’t work with gross tissue (aka hold a brain in my hand) but I can still enjoy it!

The base polish is a new-to-me polish from Polish Pickup a while ago that I had been saving for this exact manicure called Not Such A Fungi by BKL. This is another polish that arrived together with the lovely science stamping plate of happiness, and as soon as I saw the color and the brain gyrus/sulcus stamp I knew I was going to create this manicure. The polish is a pale orange that leans nude, and is made more subtle by a healthy dose of red-to-green shifting shimmer. It took 3 coats to cover my free edge, but the end result is quite pretty and worth it. It lasted for 6 days with no tip wear, so clearly the chemistry of this polish agrees with me!

Colors:
~ Orange shimmer: BKL – Not Such A Fungi
~ Brown jelly: Born Pretty – Arcadia
~ Dark red: OPI – Visions of Love
~ Stamp: Hit the Bottle – For the Love of Science

I ended up deciding that the orange polish with dark red stamping, while realistic, was not realistic ENOUGH so I added meninges (the thin membranes around the brain that help hold some of the fluid in place) using an orange-brown jelly polish. It took a lot longer as a result, but it also looks (to me) far more realistic so I think it was worth it. I don’t know that anyone else noticed! Anyway, hope you all enjoyed!

Shredded Red

I really wanted to make something cool with this. Different shades of grey ripping over a red landscape with some gold highlights. Sounded great in my head (and honestly looked surprisingly good on my thumb) but I ran out of nail real estate on my other fingers! I should have gone horizontal not vertical. Whoops. In the end I rather hate this manicure although it took quite a while to complete.

Colors:
~ Red: Emily de Molly – LE 28
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Light grey: Formula X – Delightful
~ Grey: Zoya – Dove
~ Dark grey: WOW – #333
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Gold: Sally Hansen – Liquid Gold

I guess it rather looks like scratches, what with the red background? So I figured it was Halloween-adjcent and you guys get to see it now. Maybe someone can be inspired to make something prettier (or creepier) out of it?

Itinerant Traveler

I had been staring at this design on the stamping plate for SO LONG and I just had to use it. I had to. The biggest struggle was how to make the dragons stand out. The stamping plate has the dragons as part of the design, but I didn’t want them to be just black. So, I stamped over the black with multichrome (and then went back in and added more multichrome by hand because shifty dragons just make sense)!

I started with a bright green base. What you see here are two coats of OPI’s Did It On ‘Em. I hate the name, but the color is a beautiful pale grass green (a yellow-leaning bright pale green). I had been looking for a replacement for Essie The More The Merrier, and I think I have found it! Its a nice polish.

To make the base more grass-like, I dry-brushed on two more shades of green. When that was dry and top coated, I added my stamping decals, and then finished off with the multichrome dragons. I initially painted the blue sky directly on the nail after the stamp was finished, but I decided that was farrrrr to much effort and just turned it into part of the stamping decal after the first two nails 😀

Colors:
~ Pale green: OPI – Did It On ‘Em
~ Green: Zoya – Josie
~ Dark green: Zoya – Shawn
~ Blue: KBShimmer – I’d Rather be with Blue
~ Light grey: Zoya – Dove
~ Grey: WOW – #333
~ Dark grey: Zoya – Evvie
~ Pale grey with black flecks: Cirque – Hatch
~ Red: KBShimmer – Chai-huahua
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Brown: Zoya – Dea
~ Gold: Salon Perfect – Gold Leaf
~ Blue multichrome: ILNP – Birefringence
~ Stamp: Maniology – M035

Thats all for today, and fits the 31 day challenge of book, mostly because I love fantasy novels! I don’t have a specific one here, but there are so many who cares :-p. Hope you enjoyed!

Under the Sea

No, this is not a Little Mermaid reference, although it should be! This is instead a red-tinged ocean manicure :-D. And since today’s theme in the 31 day challenge was ‘inspired by a song’ I figured it fit! Unfortunately the stamping plate that has the fish is somewhat under-etched…so I stamped 2-3 times over each fish design which is why the edges are rather fuzzy. That said, I love clear stampers!

Colors:
~ Royal blue (base): Zoya – Ibiza
~ Blue with red shimmer: Illyrian – Narrow Sea
~ Green: Essie – the More the Merrier
~ Pastel blue: Zoya – Blu
~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Darker blue: Maybelline – Shocking Seas
~ Light teal: L’oreal – Not a Cloud in Sight
~ Teal: Zoya – Rocky
~ Stamps: hehe – 012, UC – Lovely Leaves 2

I really love the overall color pallet and look of this design, although I do wish my fish stamps worked better. I might need more stamps (ha!). Anyway, hope you enjoyed! It is so weird to think that we are entering the final few days of the 31 day challenge for this year!

Orange Butterflies

This manicure is simple, but fun. I cannot even count how many times I have done butterfly (or dragonfly) wings. It’s a lot! This particular design got me bonus points in the hospital though, because I was on pediatrics at the time and they made a small child not only smile, but talk to us (“butterflies!”) when she had previously refused. So, win one for nail art! It also goes well for the animal theme of the 31 day challenge.

Colors:
~ Light orange: Formula X – Incandescent
~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Red: Zoya – Sooki
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White

Bug nails are pretty much the only animal patterns that I like, I don’t particularly care for zebra nails and I actively dislike leopard print things. So, I have done butterflies multiple times, dragonflies, bees, and ladybugs. I don’t like buts in real life, but apparently I do on my nails! Hope you enjoyed 🙂

Plum Trees in the Snow

Happy first day of the 2021 31 Day Challenge! Today’s challenge is Red, and I actually made TWO designs and posted my favorite. This was actually loosely inspired by a scene from a Chinese period drama (the whole show is like 65 episodes long and an hour each episode, but Netflix has a shortened version that is 6 hours long and pretty darn awesome). Anyway. Red trees in the snow! These are completely freehand and I am rather pleased with myself. I think the most impressive part is the shadow of the trees in the background, which I made by dry-brushing on three different shades of grey using a fan brush. It was pretty quick and came out incredible! I then added the white snow ground, the black trees, and of course the red (and gold) leaves.

Colors:
~White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Light grey: Formula X – Delightful
~ Grey: Zoya – Dove
~ Dark grey: WOW – #333
~ Darkest grey: Zoya – Evvie
~ Neon red: Emily de Molly – LE 199
~ Red: Pure Ice – Siren
~ Dark red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Gold: Zoya – Ziv

For the rest of this month you guys will be treated to a compilation of mostly freehand nail art, including some of my favorite from the past 12 months that I saved specifically to use in the 31 Day Challenge. Stay tuned!

007 Barrel

I saw this stamp and it reminded me immediately of the gun barrel sequence that opens some of the older James Bond 007 movies. So that is what I did with it! Red, gold, and black. Maybe not the most exciting, but I think I got the feeling across!

Colors:
~ Red holo: KBShimmer – Ruby
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B039

In the end I do like the black/gold shadow effect that I got here, but I am not sold on this being overall the best color combination for this stamp! I’ll have to try it over a gradient of some type next time around. Everything is better with a gradient!

The Desert

This one was a lot of fun to make. Honestly, I just love painting scenes, and this was no different! I started with a nude base, painted on the yellow, orange, nude, red, and then freehanded the sand gradient. I think I left too much space for the sky, so I decided to add wispy clouds. Overall, I am quite happy with how this came out! The design was inspired by @ruthsnailart.

Colors:
~ Nude: Zoya – Chantal
~ Dark yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Orange: OPI – Yank my Doodle
~ Red: KBShimmer – Chai-huahua (with a bit of Zoya Margo)
~ Dark brown: Zoya – Louise
~ Brown: Zoya – Dea
~ Light brown: Zoya – Flynn
~ Neon yellow: Love & Beauty – Yellow (over Serum No 5 – Dayglow)
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White

I did try to make the sun glow by using Dayglow over a bright yellow, but sadly I didn’t use it over a large enough area (or pile it on deep enough, I didn’t want a huge bump on my nail!). So no glowing sun. That said, I think this is considered a success! I think this is one of the last intense freehand scene I have painted in the past year? You guys will see another one during the #31daychallenge (yes, I plan those manicures ahead so I don’t get stuck playing catch-up), so stay tuned! But since all of my recent best manicures will go up in September for the, the next few weeks are going to be the sad rejects. Sorry!