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!

Red-y Floral

This is the mani that matches the one from last Friday! As you can see, they look remarkably similar. That is actually unintentional…I used a white-to-red gradient (over a light pink base) for this mani, and was hoping for red tips. I ended up with pink tips because my red creme is pink-based. Whoops!

Despite the color similarity, I also really like how this mani came out! I went with a darker stamping color, so the design pops all the way down my nail (not just at the lighter end). I also decided to mix up where the gradient was originating, which ended up looking pretty nifty!

You can also tell here just how well this plate is etched. The color that I used to stamp (Visions of Love by OPI) is not a stamping polish. It is pigmented, but has almost a jelly-like quality to it when used as a base polish. Despite that, it stamped darkly and beautifully, with all the thinner lines picking up perfectly. Score one for the Born Pretty Store!

Colors
~ White: Wet n’ Wild – French White Creme
~ Pink: ULTA – Baby Doll
~ Red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Dark red: OPI – Visions of Love
~ Stamp: BP – L052

Anyway, happy post-Valentines-Day! Hopefully I can lay off the red and pink manis after this. Enjoy!

Fade to Pink Floral

There are basically two versions of this mani…which I wore on opposing hands. I’ll be posting one today (clearly) and the other next week. They are, in fact, different manis…it just turns out when you try to gradient with white and red, it looks like a lot like using different shades of pink!

This is a triple-pink gradient, with a pink holo stamped on top. I honestly thought that Ciara (the darkest pink in the gradient) would not end up being so dark, so the pattern would show more at the tips. Clearly, I was wrong! It still looks cool. I was aiming for a Valentine’s Day color palette…so yah.

The design is from a stamping plate that I was sent to review from the Born Pretty Store…and I have to say I love it. Some of their plates can be hit-or-miss, either in terms of design or etching. This one is perfectly etched, and the designs are all really pretty! everything on this plate is vaguely stylized floral patterns, but they are all large enough that you can fit them in different orientations (see, for example, my pointer vs. middle fingers…same stamp just rotated and it still covers my whole nail). I have to say I’m impressed!

Colors
~ Light pink: ULTA – Baby Doll
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Dark pink: Zoya – Ciara
~ Dark pink holo: A England – Rosebower
~ Stamp: BP – L052

If you want to pick up this stamping plate for yourself, head over to the Born Pretty Store, where you can find it for $2.59. Don’t forget about my discount code, LY5X31! Enjoy!

Icy Penguins

Christmas and winter manis galore! Starting out this week with something more winter-y than Christmas-y, but we’ll get there!

This design was inspired by badgirlnails. I just need to permanently bookmark everything she does. These are adorable!

I was actually brave enough to wear this to the children’s hospital while I was rotating there, and the few people who noticed them loved it. So, score!

Colors
~ Blue: Milani – Cyberspace
~ White: Wet n’ Wild – French White Creme
~ Black: Wet n’ Wild – Black Creme
~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun

Hope you enjoyed!

Patches and Scarecrow

It’s Black Friday! I had plans to go shopping, but they did not pan out…yet somehow I ended up posting late anyway, whoops!

Regardless, have some pretty appropriately fall-themed nail art! I know it isn’t turkeys, but this was the best I could come up with before the actual holiday 😀

The design was inspired by sensationails4u. I ended up using slightly duskier/darker colors for my patches than her, which I think works really well! More fall, less party. Or something. Scarecrow!

Colors
~ Blue: Zoya – Ling
~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Red: OPI – All I Want For Christmas (is OPI)
~ Green: Zoya – Shawn
~ Nude: Zoya – Chantal
~ Black: Wet n’ Wild – Black Creme
~ White: Wet n’ Wild – French White Creme
~ Yellow: WOW – #301
~ Brown: Zoya – Dea
~ Pink: Essie – Eternal Optimist
~ Light brown: KBShimmer – Orange You Glad I Didn’t Say Banana + Zoya – Dea

That is a lot of colors. And yes, I had to custom-mix the light brown because somehow I don’t own one (I should fix that…any favorite light brown creme polishes I should look into?). Hope you enjoyed your Friday!