Nearly Rainbow Splotches

I wore a rainbow splotch dress to a wedding. It is a very pretty dress, but instead of trying to match one or two (or even three) colors on the dress, I decided to match ALL OF THEM. That made for a very strange design, but honestly these nails kinda looked like the dress. I just picked out my polishes, and went to work dabbing color on my nails. At the end I also added a stamp in blue to try and tie the whole thing together, I don’t think I succeeded. Knowing the dress I wore I would call these a success…however as stand-alone nail art they are frankly awful to look at. Sorry!

Colors:
~ Pink: Essie – The Girls are Out
~ Red: KBShimmer – Chai-huahua
~ Orange: ULTA – Sun of a Gun
~ Yellow: KBShimmer – Orange You Glad I didn’t Say Banana?
~ Green shimmer: Zoya – Ivanka
~ Light blue: Makeup Selective – 105
~ Dark blue: Zoya – Sia
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: Lina – Make Your Mark 02

Sometimes less is more, and although I tend to go for more color and more details in one nail art design, I think this is a case of where I absolutely went overboard! When I try to match this dress again I will pick one or two colors in addition to blue. Yikes!

Spring Easter Gradient

I had very high hopes for this manicure, and honestly they fell a bit short. The colors did not quite come together how I intended (in particular the yellow got swallowed up) and it looks a bit more heavy-handed than pastel! Oh well, still pretty. And definitely still Easter themed.

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Yellow: KBShimmer – Orange you Glad I didn’t say Banana?
~ Blue: Essie – Rock the Boat
~ Purple: Zoya – Malia
~ Holo glitter: China Glaze – Fairy Dust
~ Stamp: Whats up Nails – B017

I suppose I did no green/spring things for Easter posts this year. I will have to rectify that for next year. Anyway, since it is also Passover and Ramadan, regardless of what you are celebrating I hope you get some special food and have a great weekend! Enjoy.

Pastel Dyed Eggs

Years ago, before my husband and I were actually married, we would go to his family’s home for Easter and dye eggs (we still go for Easter, there is just less egg dying now). I had always assumed, as a Jew, that eggs were to be intricately and delicately painted with designs. It turns out, you randomly splash on rainbow colors that you create by dissolving a tab that looks like tums in water? And you get 12 colors half of which are nearly-identical shades of pink/red? Anyway. I wanted to create a more dreamy pastel version of those eggs, and decided my nails were the perfect canvas.

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Pink: Zoya – Sandy
~ Yellow: Revlon – Electric
~ Teal: Emily de Molly – Glee Ridden
~ Purple: Nails Inc – Regents Place
~ White glitter: Emily de Molly – Pale Landscape
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Stamp: Whats up Nails – B017

I started with a white base, and did a square gradient (if that is a thing) of 4 colors that somehow blended to make a rainbow. I rotated the gradient on each nail for interest, and then added some beautiful white glitter. I had not tried Pale Landscape before, and I am very glad I bought it! Its so delicate. I then added the egg stamp, and voila! Perfect pastel easter eggs. Without odd dissolving tabs and water.

Rainbow Quilt

I wanted to see what would happen if I created a colorful quilt by laying all my jelly polishes over each other. Voila! It is pink-weighted because I don’t actually have a green or a blue, only a teal (oops, I should work on that), and my yellow is quite weak. But it is very pretty!

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Maybelline – Onyx Rush
~ Holo: China Glaze – Fairy Dust
~ Pink jelly: Zoya – Paloma
~ Orange jelly: Azade – S220
~ Yellow jelly: Esmalta da Kelly – Yellow Soap Bubbles
~ Teal jelly: Zoya – Frida
~ Purple jelly: Zoya – Katerine
~ Stamp: Hit the Bottle – Material World 01

Of course, to preserve the crisp black lines of the underlying stamp, I started with a layer of clear holo glitter. It worked like a charm! This was easy (if a bit time-consuming) and it makes me very happy to look at! Hope you enjoyed!

Pretty Pattern

High Degree is probably one of my favorite polishes, but it is so complicated that I struggle to come up with nail art designs that feature it without either smothering it or making it hideous. I think this is the second every design where I have used this polish and am actually happy with the result. My last fail was so bad I almost didn’t post it, and changed my nails 24 hours later. But this? Yes. I think I need to stick with black and white with this complex polish, rather than follow my heart and use oranges and pinks :-p

Colors:
~ Magenta with orange glitter: Emily de Molly – High Degree
~ Black: Maybelline – Onyx Rush
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: EdM – 03

It is also especially difficult to photograph, because of the neon tones in the magenta polish. I love it anyway! Hope you enjoyed.

ShamRock Around

A second St. Patrick’s day manicure? This is unheard of! I think I have bought more green polishes in the past 12 months than any other color, and it shows. Half these polishes are new. I think I can consider my green polish collection complete now. Hopefully.

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Gold: Essie – Good as Gold
~ Light green: Formula X – Quantum
~ Green holo: A England – Dragon
~ Dark green: Zoya – Hunter
~ Stamps: BP – L049, MoYou Pro – 02

My only real complaint about this manicure is that I messed up my ring finger accent nail. I was trying to double stamp green-over-gold but I didn’t line the stamps up the way I wanted, so I went back and colored in the lines. The end looked cool but messy, since I applied the colors after the stamp and the line work isn’t perfect. Hope you enjoyed anyway!

End of the Rainbow

What, a St. Patrick’s day manicure?! This was a LOT of fun to create, although my stamped design didn’t fully cover so I had to touch it up, which is why there are so many darker green dots on my shamrocks. And I inverted my pots of gold (they were supposed to be right-side up but I painted them facing me, oops! Rookie mistake that I haven’t made in a LONG time). So now you know why my hand position looks funky in these photos!

Colors:
~ White GITD: Serum No5 – Pure Glow Getter
~ Green GITD: Serum No5 – Glowin’ of Eden
~ Dark green: Sinful Colors – Last Chance
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Gold glitter: Cult Nails – Walk of Shame
~ Red: Emily de Molly – LE199
~ Orange: Emily de Molly – LE197
~ Yellow: OPI – Never a Dulles Moment
~ Green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Blue: Zoya – Yummy
~ Purple: Zoya – Malia
~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B017

The added bonus: the base colors were glow in the dark! I don’t know why, I just wanted them to be. It was fun to put together although maybe a bit silly, since GITD polish is so much harder to remove! It also turns out that my green GITD polish glows more brightly than my white. I did not know that before.

Hopefully next year neither my stamp nor my actual freehand art (if I try any) gets messed up. It was such a good idea! Oh well. Hope you enjoyed 😀

Paisley Parade

This is just plain cute. I wanted to use a delicate paisley stamp, and since Valentine’s Day was around the corner at the time I painted these, I figured I would use a Valentine’s-appropriate base. The stamping is a little stark in contrast to the pastel base polish, and maybe would have looked better with a dark grey, but overall not bad! Next time, grey, and maybe paint a rim around the nail?

Colors:
~ White with glitters: Emily de Molly – Sakura
~ Black: Maybelline – Onyx Rush
~ Stamp: Hit the Bottle – Material World 01

I am so excited that flowers are starting to bloom; it means the baby ducklings in the park are soon to come! Every spring I wait with bated breath for the first eggs to appear, and then the tiny fluffy yellow ducklings. Soon! Hope you enjoyed these pastel nails.

Stained Glass Cardinals

Stained glass nails! I love this stamping plate but I am afraid to over-use it because I don’t want it to get boring or old. But anyway here are some stained glass birds. I didn’t want to go overboard with the shades of red and pink, so I stuck with two of each. I probably could have gotten away with adding a bit more color.

Colors:
~ Sheer nude: Formula X – Marvelous
~ Flakies: Emily de Molly – Cohesion
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on black
~ Red: Zoya – Sookie
~ Dark red: OPI – All I Want for Christmas (is OPI)
~ Green: Zoya – Josie
~ Light pink: Zoya – Jordan
~ Pink: Zoya – Tobey
~ Stamp: EDK – Mosaic

I am stuck on using Cohesion as a base for stained glass manicures, and I am not upset about that. It really does look like iridescent glass (and since making stained glass windows has become my father’s primary hobby in retirement, I have some idea what I am talking about). Maybe I should acquire a few more sheer/iridescent polishes if I am going to use this whole stamping plate… Hope you enjoyed!

Daffodil in Orange

I get tired of seeing yellow daffodils everywhere, but my neighbor has some fancy ones with ruffly centers that are orange-on-white. So this is dedicated to my adventurous neighbor and her pretty colored flowers!

Colors:
~ Orange: Emily de Molly – LE 197
~ Grey/blue glitter: Different Dimension – Come One, Come All
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Green: Zoya – Hunter
~ Stamps: Nicole Diary – 145, BP – L067

I forgot while I was painting this that I have not actually used this neon orange polish before. It was an LE from Emily de Molly numbered 197. I just really wanted a neon orange that went on smooth and didn’t lean red (the only neon orange I had before was a mini polish that is almost red and takes 4 coats). This covered well in two, although it dried with the typical semi-rubbery neon finish. I love it! It paired really well with the grey-blue flakie glitter polish that I used on my accent nails. Overall, absolutely a good manicure. Hope you enjoyed as much as I did!

Simply Stunning Leaves

I don’t think I have ever made a bad manicure with this stamp. Its just pretty and well balanced. So I put a pretty and well balanced base under it and called it a day! I had already spent 2+ hours working on the art on my opposite hand so I was not interested in spending a long time thinking about what to do here.

The base color which looks so stunning here is two coats of Theres a Nap for That by Nailed It! from Polish Pickup. I missed this polish the first time around, which is why I love the July throwback that they do yearly where everyone votes to decide which favorites are returning. I cannot get enough of neutrals with crazy shimmer, and this one certainly delivers! It is subdued enough to wear in the hospital, while bright enough to keep me happy. And it goes on easy. Win all around!

Colors:
~ Grey with pink shimmer: Nailed It! – Theres a Nap for That 2.0
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Pink: Zoya – Sandy
~ Stamp: Lina – @urbannailart collab

I think this nail art was just an overall win, between the polish, the stamp, and the dots (always dots!). I am also excited that it is starting to get warm (I see daffodils outside!) which means it is time to grab all my floral stamps and get to work. Unfortunately, it means that global warming wins this year, and we had no good snows. I miss sledding! Hope you enjoyed.

Orange Neon Stars

You know those art toys growing up, where you would put the pencil in the hole of a snowflake-shaped plastic thing and drag it all over the page twisting it as you went? This reminds me of those. They were always fun and the design ended up pretty no matter what you did, because geometric stuff is cool.

Colors:
~ Orange glitter: Cadillacquer – End of Silence
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Purple: Zoya – Margo
~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B039

Unfortunately, the stamp I used was so busy that the underlying neon orange jelly with white glitters was pretty much lost, so it was not worth the hassle that resulted of trying to remove a glitter polish. Overall pretty, but much more effort than needed!

Glowing Lace Flowers

Pretty but not quite simple (it is hard to call lace manicures simple, even if it is a stamp) and with bonus purple dots for contrast. I really enjoyed wearing this manicure and got a fair few compliments on it! Turns out this color combination stands out.

This polish base is incredible. It was one of the Polish Pickup polishes that I missed the first time around (mostly because I didn’t want to pay for shipping for just one polish, and the polishes have to be pretty incredible for me to be willing to add to my 600+ polish collection at this point) and I am glad I was able to snag it when it returned for throwback month last year! I have to say it is even prettier in person than it was online. The teal glow is UNREAL. It isn’t available anymore, but if you ever run across this polish, get it.

Colors:
~ Purple with teal shimmer: BKL – Doomicorn
~ Purple holo: A England – Crown of Thistles
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: BC – 10

I also have to admit that editing these photos was painful, because purple does not play nice with cameras to start with, and when you add a glow-y neon-y teal on top of that, you get some fun weird hand colors. It was worth it though! Hope you enjoyed.

Vivid Flowers

This was FUN. I was inspired by @len4ik_nails to create some brightly colored orange and pink flowers on a green base. My only regret at the end is that I didn’t use more of the neon shimmery green leaves! Talk about a bright manicure… I am also glad that the inspiration post stopped me from putting the flowers on ALL my nails, that would have been overwhelming. I like my lines instead.

Colors:
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Orange: KBShimmer – Papaya Don’t Preach
~ Bright orange: Emily de Molly – LE197
~ Pink: Revlon – Bubbly
~ Bright pink: Zoya – Kelsey
~ Neon green shimmer: JReine – Radioactive Nom Nom
~ Green: Sinful Colors – Exotic Green
~ Stamp: BM – Xl158

I do think this looked better on her slightly shorter nails, especially with the two nails being plain (I can never let myself do that…). Hope you enjoyed! Happy late February/almost spring!

Strung On Hearts

This was one of my Valentine’s manicures from last year! I still don’t love pink, so I decided to use a purple with pink glitters and PAIR it with pink instead. It also gave me an excuse to swatch this beautiful purple glitter shimmer :-). Overall I think this came out quite pretty!

The base is two thin coats of Ava by ILNP, a dark purple scattered holographic polish that is swimming with pink/gold/green shifting shimmers. I am currently not into chunky glitters so this polish is perfect! Interesting without being a PITA to remove. It also helps that my name is Eva and I like accumulating polishes that sound like my name (…or in this case, names people have called me that are not my name).

Colors:
~ Purple shimmer: ILNP – Ava
~ Pink: Born Pretty – Crimson Cheeks
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps: Nicole Diary – K28, Valentine’s Day BP – L002

And with that, I end my Valentine’s nail art! Also, hilariously, I found out that my husband (who I have been with for 12 years) though that Valentine’s day was the 13th not the 14th. Because “a 13 sort of looks like a heart”. Men. Anyway, enjoy!

Love Forever

Love forever! Lots of love! Hearts everywhere! Ugh. This is so saccharine. I do like the gradient, but I could do without all the hearts! I also don’t know why I did two nails the same and the others different? I need to pick ahead of time if I am mixing-and-matching or not, it just looks awkward like this! This also did not come out as well in photos as it did in person, because the color of my hands just got weird next to all the neon pink.

Colors:
~ Light pink: Zoya – Jordan
~ Pink: Zoya – Sandy
~ Hot pink: Zoya – Morgan
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Shimmer: Different Dimension – Intergalactic Dolphin

I also did not write down what stamps I used for this, sorry! I don’t think anyone is going to want to recreate it anyway, but if someone wants to let me know and I’ll go find the stamping plates. Enjoy anyway!

Geometric Stamps

Another very simple manicure of a pretty stamp over a pretty base. I was pressed for time and wanted something that would look good without being overly dramatic. This still ended up a bit more dramatic than I intended (in retrospect a grey or light pink stamping color would have meshed better) but oh well!

Colors:
~ Pink holo: ILNP – Rosewater
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamp: Whats Up Nails – B015

Unfortunately, I was only able to photograph this manicure at sunset, so the colors are not great in the sunlight photo. Oops! Winter nail art can be tricky to get in the sun!

Snowflakes Adrift

Simple but pretty! I always love putting dark purple-grey over true grey. I don’t know that I have used Muse by itself in 5 years, but I use it for stamping all the time! Unfortunately, the sun did not cooperate while I was wearing this manicure, so I only have an indoor light photo rather than a sunlight photo. Hopefully the sun returns!

Colors:
~ Grey glitter: Emily de Molly – Shadow on the Moon
~ Dark purple-grey: Sinful Colors – Muse
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps: MoYou Fairytale – 02, Nicole Diary – 120

Cracks in the Ice

I LOVE this manicure. It is hard to see due to the static nature of photos, but the silver background is actually magnetic, and this manicure was crazy shifty and shiny in real life! I started with a neutral base, then the silver magnetic, and finally the white stamps and some neutral dots. Easy, and stunning!

Colors:
~ Neutral: KBShimmer – Caught on Tape
~ Silver magnetic: Emily de Molly – Knight in Armour
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Stamps: MoYou – Fairytale 02

I only used one coat of the magnetic polish to create the depth of this shimmer. I honestly wished I had used a thinner coat, as I think that would have resulted in more concentrated shimmery happiness and a little less free silver/grey speckles. Still awesome! And it was very easy to magnetize.

Snowy Pinecones

This is entirely freehand. I started with a medium brown, did a loose gradient to darker brown down the middle of the nail for depth (hah, you can’t even tell), and then free-handed on white scales followed by black scales. As a result of all of the above, these nails took hours. I still love them! If I have to have a nail shape I dislike, I might as well do something cool with it.

Colors:
~ Brown: Zoya – Dea
~ Dark brown: Zoya – Louise
~ White: Sinful Colors – Snow me White
~ Black: Sinful Colors – Black on Black
~ Light green: Zoya – Tilda
~ Green: Zoya – Shawn

Maybe at some point I should paint some snowy gumballs…..we have a gumball tree in our front yard, and while I HATE cleaning up the fallen spiky balls (or when my dog eats them), they are pretty with a thin layer of snow over them! Hope you enjoyed.