Messy Green-Blue Gradient

Sometime, I just want to throw together a bunch of bright colors and play with stamps. The Make Your Mark plate series by Lina makes that REALLY EASY. So here is another mani using it!

I feel like I’ve been using a lot of vampy metallic bases, or pastel ones. Not so much neon. That changes today. Hello neon!

To make this mani, I started with a light green base, then tried to create a gradient over it using greens and teals. But, the teal was too dark! So I switched to a bright blue. After that was dry, I double stamped using two similar designs from the same plate in white then black.

Colors:
~ Light green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Yellow: Yellow Opaque
~ Neon green: Salon Perfect – Loopy Lime
~ Dark teal: OPI – Stay Off the Lawn!!
~ Blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

That’s all for today! I am too tired to write a longer post, so I’ll just let you enjoy the photos. Happy Friday!

Pink and Gold with Flowers

How about something pink and gold? I figure with the flowers it is suitably summer-y too!

The design was inspired by Nails by Erin but my pink base is an AWFUL polish that takes 3 coats and never dries (I need a better barbie pink) and so I wanted to do more things with those nails. I don’t know if this  counts as over doing it, but I actually liked it!

Using Erin’s nails as a template got me very excited about gold dots. I love adding dots to things. In this case, added too many gold dots to things…specifically my middle finger. Oops. it would have looked better with more white space 😀

Colors:
~ White: LA Girl – White On
~ Pastel pink: Wet n’ Wild – Tickled Pink
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Dark green: Salon Perfect – Escape to Neverland
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Gold: Sally Hansen – Go for Gold

I am quite proud of the roses though! I hope you enjoyed them too.

Bright Patchwork

It isn’t technically winter yet! Also, as of writing this, it has been unseasonably warm in Philly. So…fall themes are still appropriate!

Although, to be fair, I think I’d find a way to use rainbows no matter the season, but since patchwork designs somehow scream “autumn” I don’t feel terrible for postponing posting these until now!

I actually painted these back when I posted the fall-themed patchwork nails (the orange ones) but these were done with stamping decals to compare. Unsurprisingly, I liked the free-handed ones significantly more, but these were so much faster!

Colors:
~ Nude: OPI – Be There in a Prosecco
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Orange: Nubar – Hot Orange
~ Yellow: Love & Beauty – Yellow
~ Green: Salon Perfect – Loopy Lime
~ Blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Purple: Sinful Colors – Dream On
~ Stamp: BM – 607

That’s it for today! Also, despite all my chatter, the rest of this week is not themed in any way (unless “things that have been sited in my painted folder for months” is a theme). Hope you enjoyed!

Flakie Overlay

I think the theme of this week is “things Eva matted.” However, unlike Monday’s post, I am really sad that this mani did not end up glossy!

The design was inspired by @kgrdnr, as many good things are. I mostly just wanted to use Ski Lodge by ILNP because it somehow found its way onto my desk. However, then I decided it wasn’t quite glittery enough, and I added some flakies over top. Voila!

Despite being really simple, I think this came out rather awesome. I have missed working with dark greens (they are not an approved-of color in the hospital or on the interview trail), and holographic + flakie polishes are an awesome combination.

Colors:
~ Dark green creme: Sinful Colors – Last Chance
~ Dark green holo: ILNP – Ski Lodge
~ Green flakies: Lyn B Designs – The Speed of Light, you Know
~ Gold: Salon Perfect – Gold Leaf
~ Matte: KBShimmer – Oh Matte!

Regardless, you can also see why I am sad I matted this! Usually I am all-for matted flakies, but I ended up removing some of the depth in the design and certainly in getting rid of the awesome holo inherent in Ski Lodge. Oops! I’ll likely try a similar design with a different color, and I just need to remember to keep it glossy 🙂

The Rainbow Fish

I love painting nails inspired by children’s books…and I’ve been wanting to try The Rainbow Fish for a while! I just haven’t had the time (until now).

The inspiration came from Adventures in Acetone, although I decided to stay true to the book and use only creme polishes for the scales other than the rainbow silver scales. I do wish, in retrospect, that I had used a lighter pink (even though I don’t actually have a good one)!

The story is about the joy that one person can get from sharing. Its quite a nice message! It also was one of my favorite books growing up (not that I wanted to be taught to share with my sisters) but because the shiny fish scales were just so pretty. This mani is a bit darker than I imagine the fish being, but still pretty and suitably colorful! Who wants to play with silver holo? 🙂

Colors:
~ Light blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Blue: Maybelline – Shocking Seas
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Sia
~ Teal: Salon Perfect – Escape to Neverland
~ Purple: L’oreal – Paparazzi Pleaser
~ Pink: Zoya – Ciara
~ Holo: Color Club – Harp On It
~ Yellow: WOW – #301

These took FOREVER to paint because I had to do one scale at a time, and couldn’t put two wet dots next to each other or they’d run! I still love the end result though 😀 Hope you enjoyed! It looks like I wasn’t the only one to do Rainbow Fish this year!

Neon Print

Gradient time! Gradients are one of my favorite things to do with my nails, since it allows me to use a bunch of colors. And then, typically, cover the gradient with a stamp for added design :-p

When I was putting this together, I thought the colors might actually be too bright (because wow, neon). I was initially planning to cover more of the gradient as a result, but I like the amount showing! I ended up using another Born Pretty Store stamp, but this one works like a charm. I’ve actually even used the super-coverage designs on this plate and they stamped beautifully, which I’ve never had work for me before!

So, when it comes to gradients this hurts my eyes but is awesome, and when it comes to stamping plates this one makes me very happy, both for the etching and for the variety in patterns. Win-win!

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Yellow: Love & Beauty – Yellow
~ Teal: Salon Perfect – Escape to Neverland
~ Blue: Maybelline – Shocking Seas
~ Stamp: BP – L049

Tomorrows post is ALSO with neons, although only one color rather than three. If you like the stamping plate and want to pick it up for yourself, you can find it at the Born Pretty Store for $2.99. Enjoy!

Vampy Roses

I know flowers (other than maybe poinsettias) are not considered a winter design…but I saw these and they just screamed vampy Christmas flowers to me!

The pattern was inspired by nailsandtowelnailsandtowelnailsandtowel, and I just ran with it. Luckily, I had All Sparkly and Gold by OPI just sitting around…I think this might be the first time I’ve used it since I swatched it however many years ago. Sad, but thats what happens when you have too many gold polishes! Also, I had it in my head that it was difficult to remove…and it wasn’t EASY but it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be!

I really like how this design came out. Deep red and gold is one of my favorite color combinations 🙂

Colors
~ Dark red: Confetti – Masquerade Ball
~ Gold glitter: OPI – All Sparkly And Gold
~ Gold holo glitter: Cult Nails – Walk of Shame
~ Nude: Zoya – Chantal
~ Dark green: Zoya – Shawn
~ Green: Salon Perfect – Loopy Lime

Hope you enjoyed! Get ready for MORE winter-y and holiday-y manis next week :-D.