Grey Trimmed Lace

Ok, so this is super boring. Like really really painfully boring. That said, it came out nicely and no one noticed any of the art in the hospital so I’ll cal it a win. It also gave me a chance to use that darn stamp…its been staring at me for years and I never figured out why someone would need some angled lace pattern!

I don’t have much to say about this. Pink. White. Grey. Some lace. I sound like a broken record…I really hope my current stint in the outpatient clinics is more forgiving of manis! I think it will be (I am barely getting graded for this, it is for my own edification).

Colors:

~ Pink: ULTA – Baby Doll

~ Grey: Zoya – Dove

~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White

~ Stamp: BM – 323

I hate posing for bottle photos with anything but Zoya or rectangular bottles. I don’t know why, but the shape fits well in my hand. This awkward straight-edged bottle? Not so much. So, thank you brands like Zoya and Emily de Molly for making easy-to-hold bottles :-p

Thats it for boring pink manis! There is one more subtle mani but at it least it isn’t pink or nude. Oy.

Sunlight

Remember how I mentioned on Monday that I finally had time for bright manis? Well, here is one of them!

Sometime over the last few months I went hunting for the OPI Washington DC collection because there where a whole bunch of polishes that I wanted from it (which is honestly rare). I ended up getting 5 (plus a random red). In retrospect, only two of those 5 were ones I’m actually going to get much use out of! Silly past-Eva.

One of the ones I am really glad I got is this, Never a Dulles Moment. There are a few reasons I like this polish…even though I hate the color yellow. I have fewer yellow polishes in my collection than anything else by a substantial margin…but every now and then one is unique enough that I want it. This polish is a nice darker yellow, almost a mustard color (not quite fugly), and I figured i was time. Anyway, Never a Dulles Moment is a bit finicky…it does not self-level (but it is a yellow, so that’s just what happens with them). That said, it did try very fast. It took three thin coats to be opaque, but dried speedily enough that I didn’t mind.

Colors

~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment

~ Light orange: OPI – Freedom of Peach

~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun

~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black

~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White

~ Stamp: BP – L008

There are only a few reasonable way to wear yellow on your nails (rather than as a highlight color) and since I had already done flames recently…I had to make a gradient with orange and then watermarble. The gradient actually features another of the OPI DC polishes, but it will get its own post in the future. Hope you enjoyed!

Flame

I spent a long time trying to figure out how to use this plate, which was sent to me for review from the Born Pretty Store. Fire-colored gradient with black stamping? Gradient stamping? I tried doing yellow and orange and red…but they didn’t pop against black! So I had the brilliant idea of layering them over GOLD. Because that just sounded like fun.

I ended up using a gold glitter rather than a metallic, so the fire looks a little more granular. I think if I were to do this again, I’d try it with a metallic and see what happens! I do like this quite a bit though.

In the end, each nail got stamped 4 times: twice in gold with the two overlaid designs, once with a yellow-orange blotted mix, and finally with a purple-red mix. Surprisingly, this didn’t take that long! Mostly because the plate was so well-etched that transferring the designs was a piece of cake. Even the solid body of the bird on my thumb!

Colors
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Gold: Sally Hansen – Go for Gold
~ Yellow: WOW – #301
~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Red: Pure Ice – Siren
~ Purple: Zoya – Margo
~ Dark purple: Zoya – Monica
~ Stamp: BP – X012 (Exoticism)

That’s it for today…awesome fire! I’ve honestly had my eyes on this stamp forever because I love flames but I HATE hand-painting them! And this stamp has SO MANY FLAMES. You can pick it up for yourself at the Born Pretty Store on sale for $1.99. Don’t forget to use my 15% off coded, LY5X31!

Silver Leaves and Pink Berries

I really like how this mani came out, but it took forever to plan! I knew I wanted something with white, grey, and pink…and trying to figure out what to use for the stamp vs the background took forever. I think I used all 5 nail demos on my silicone mat! Worth it 😀

The stamping plate I used here was sent for review from the Born Pretty Store, but it is full of fun leaves and flowers…both of which are a pain to free-hand. So, I am really glad this plate works as well as it does! It’ll be VERY useful come fall. The geometric pattern is from an Emily de Molly plate though.

You also cannot tell, but I actually used both a white and a silver to stamp, just to see how the variation looked! It’s most noticeable in the non-sunlight photos.

Colors
~ Grey: Zoya – Dove
~ Silver: A England – Excalibur
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Light pink: ULTA – Baby Doll
~ Pink: Wet n’ Wild – Tickled Pink
~ Stamps: Floral BPX-L018, EDM 03

If you want the floral stamping plate, head over to the Born Pretty store, it is currently on sale for $2.99! Don’t forget to use my code, LY5X31…although I don’t think it can be applied to things already on sale, sorry!

Vines Through the Swamp

Don’t ask me about the title. I thought that as lovely as the base is, it looks like a swamp. And then I got stuck into thinking about Shrek and now “I’m a Believer” is stuck in my head on repeat.

Anyway. This is one of the A England polishes that I picked up a few months ago during the color4nails sale (because I couldn’t resist) and it is LOVELY. Now, at least part of that is because I simply love this type of murky green-brown, but a lot of it has to do with the polish itself! (Actually, I have a post that I’m working on that compares the three green-brown polishes I own. Yes, I own three of them. Because this color is magnificent).

Shown here is two thin coats of Fotheringhay Castle by A England. I almost could have gotten away with one! Adina’s version of this particular color is a deep murky green-gold with scattered fine holo shimmer. The holo is less noticeable than most other A England holos, but the finish is stunning and you can certainly see the shimmer! I’m quite happy with this 😀

Colors:
~ Green: A England – Fotheringhay Castle
~ Gold shimmer: Sally Hansen – Go for Gold
~ Gold metallic: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Light pink: ULTA – Babydoll
~ Pink: Essie – Eternal Optimist

I ended up triple stamping with two Bundle Monster plates: once with a gold shimmer that ended up very faint because the plate was not etched well, once with gold metallic swirls, and then over that using black polish and the same swirls. It came out pretty well for all that stamping madness!

Hope you enjoyed!

Forest Vines

It’s a Monday, which means more nail art! This particular post has it’s origin in a rather weird place: my name.

I decided that, since Zoya makes the best creme polishes, it was about time that I buy the polish closest to my name which happens to be Evvie. Apparently there used to be a polish named Eva (!!!) but it has been discontinued so I won’t ever own the polish that is ACTUALLY my name. But this is close!

Shown here is two thin coats of Evvie a darkened teal-grey. It is not a color I would ever choose normally, because I tend to go for jewel toned dark colors, not greyed-out dark colors! That being said, this polish ended up being really elegant and somewhat subtle. I like it!

The art was inspired by La Paillette Frondeuse. However, once I was done free-handing the vines and flowers on my left hand, I decided I didn’t want to spend all that time replicating it on my Cinderella hand…so I tried to stamp instead! The colors came out a bit different (because stamping) but I actually like it better! Unfortunately, I didn’t decide that until after I had removed the mani so I don’t have as many photos of my right hand as I would like.

Colors
~ Grey: Zoya – Evvie
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Light green: Zoya – Tiana
~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Light blue: Zoya – Blu
~ Pink: Sinful Colors – Pink Forever
~ Light pink: ULTA – Baby Doll
~ White: Wet n’ Wild – French White Creme

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! It’s probably odd that I bought a polish just because it has a name similar to one of my nicknames, but still. It’s fun!

Dust and Shadow

It has been a trend with me recently that I want to buy one polish from a certain brand, but I feel silly ordered just one…so I get the one I wanted and one that I pick at the last minute. And end up loving more than the one I initially thought I wanted! This is the…third? Fourth? time that it has happened to me in in a few months.

Regardless, Shadow on the Moon is stunning. Truly stunning. This is a medium-gray polish filled with coarse holo glitter, small circular holo glitter, and saturated with pink shimmer. I love it! Shown here is two easy coats with top coat. As I mentioned, I almost didn’t buy this polish but I am sooo glad I did…it is subtle and elegant but hopelessly complex. It is absolutely going to make my top 10 polishes of 2017.

I also didn’t want to cover too much of this color, so I decided to just go with stripes. Every time I turn to striping tape I think “oh, this will be easy and pretty” and each time I end with “WHY DID I THINK I’D BE DONE IN LESS THAN 3 HOURS OMFG”. So, there’s that. Also, don’t use pastel almost-jellies over dark colors…it will take 3 passes to cover the underlying color and your nails will be bumpy!

Colors
~ Grey holo: Emily de Molly – Shadow on the Moon
~ Dark grey: Sinful Colors – Muse
~ Light pink: ULTA – Baby Doll

It is hard to tell, but those lighter color stripes are a pale pink! I was trying to match the pink shimmer in the grey polish…but I should have gone a shade or two darker. Oh well. Still looks cool.

Hope you enjoyed!