Abstract Holo

Portland is such a tease.  I look out the window and think "oh, it's sunny today!  Perfect time for holo!" and while I'm painting my nails it starts raining.  At least it's not cold...

For this manicure I used OPI Race Red and Color Club Harp On It.  The stamping plate I used was Konad m64.  I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to stamp with Race Red - I don't normally think of OPI as a stamping polish.

You can see some of the holo here (lighting from my kitchen) but unfortunately the sun never came back for me to get a better shot. 

Pillow Inspiration

While browsing Apartment Therapy this past weekend I found a throw pillow I just needed to have (this house tour if you're curious).  I tracked down the pillow to its source, Designer Fluff, where I was completely dismayed at how much it cost. Needless to say, you will not find one of these pillows on my couch.

You will, however, find a similar design on my nails. For this manicure I used two coats of OPI My Vampire is Buff, stamped Bundle Monster plate BM-422 on top using Konad Special Polish in Purple, then added gold accents with a dotting tool and Orly Luxe.

Sweater Nails

By far my favorite winter season nails are sweater nails. When I first got into nail art I had to put together my own sweater stamp using a variety of plates - now there are several stamps to choose from! Winstonia, Nail Craze, MoYou London and more all have sweater designs you can purchase. I have the Nail Craze plate and that's what I'm showing you today.

Please excuse my nubs, my nails have had a rough winter so far.

For this manicure I used two coats of OPI  My Vampire is Buff, stamped with Nail Craze plate NC 03 using Konad Special Polish in Royal Purple.

Put a Bird on it

When I see birds on things, I can't help but think of this episode of Portlandia.


Using this episode as inspiration, that's exactly what I did with this manicure: put a bird on it, spruce it up, and make it pretty.

For this manicure I used two coats of Essie Naughty Nautical stamped with MoYou plate Kitty Collection II using Konad Special polish in Black. Naughty Nautical has a good formula, very unlike most of the Essies I have in my collection so I was very pleased with it.

Del Sol Ruby Slipper

On a trip to California this summer I picked up a couple of color changing nail polishes from a Del Sol store I came across in a tourist trap.  This polish, Del Sol Ruby Slipper, was one of them.  I like color changing polishes because they're so fun to wear in the summertime!  They can be a bit of a hazard however.  Wearing color changing polish on your toes can cause you to trip and stumble when you look down at your feet and see a different color polish than you were expecting!  Hehe.

Pictured is three coats of Del Sol Ruby Slipper stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM-314 using Konad Special Polish in Black.  

Indoors, Ruby Slipper is a pale glittery polish.

Outside, Ruby Slipper turns into a red glittery polish.

One more. :)

Green and White

For this post I was inspired by a manicure from The Nailasaurus.  What I really enjoyed about this manicure was the brilliance of using non-stamped accent nails (ring finger and thumb) so I had just to stamp six nails instead of ten.  That was a fantastic time saver, looked cute, and I think I'll be doing this for a lot more manicures moving forward.

For my base I used three coats of Essie Navigate Her.  I then stamped the zig-zag design from Bundle Monster plate BM-201 using Konad Special Polish in White.  On my accent nail I used All That Glitters Spotty Dottie Light.

Let's Go Brewers

Today I'm off to a Milwaukee Brewer's game at Miller Park.  I can't go to a baseball game without doing my nails in the color of the team I'm supporting so luckily BadAss Polish made it really easy for me to have Brewers nails anytime I want with her Brew Crew glitter topping polish.  If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this picture I posted when I was going to a game earlier in the year.

On my nails today is two coats of China Glaze Pelican Gray on my main fingers and three coats of Zoya Snow White on my accent nail.  If I wasn't using a glitter topper I'd have used three coats of Pelican Gray for complete coverage.  On my main fingers I dabbed two coats of BadAss Polish Brew Crew.  Brew Crew is made up of large gold hexagonal glitter pieces, large blue square glitter, medium white hexagonal glitter, small blue hexagonal glitter, and then tiny specks of gold glitter.  On my accent nail I stamped baseballs using Color Club Cold Metal and Konad plate m52 and the word baseball using Konad Special Polish in Black and Konad plate m52.

Go Brewers!

Atelopus varius

Atelopus varius

That's the binomial name of the Costa Rican Variable Harlequin Toad and the inspiration for today's manicure.  It's quite the colorful frog, and its easy to see why it is also known as the clown frog.  Sadly, this frog is now critically endangered thanks to temperature fluctuation, changes in precipitation, stream flow patterns, and the transfer of different pathogenic fungus.  Basically, the climate is changing too fast for these little guys to adapt.

I've based my manicure off of the Costa Rican Variable Harlequin Toad shown on the right.  I liked how the bright purple/pink designs stood out against the rest of the frog's body but thought that might be hard to duplicate on the nails.  If I was going to paint over a black base I would need to lay down something like a white so that the brighter color would starkly contrast.

At first I tried a white onto black splatter but the spray pattern was too varied and clumpy to look anything like the frog's.  The next method I tried was stamping a white pattern down and tracing over it.  This method proved to be the most feasible and reproducible in the long run.

One coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out then stamped with Konad plate m70 and Konad Special Polish in White.  Traced over using a small dotting tool and China Glaze Beach Cruise-R.  It was a lot more work than I was hoping for but I believe the results were worth it.

Circling Hearts

Today I'm showing you my last Valentines Day manicure (check out my other two: Minty Hearts here and A Little Love with a Kiss here).  I'm head over heels in love with how this turned out.  With last year's Pantone color being tangerine, I added several orange pieces of clothes to my wardrobe.  I don't want to be too matchy-matchy so I usually pair my orange pieces up with bright pink ones.  The orange and pink combination seems to work out so well I thought it would be a good combination for my nails as well.

On my nails I'm wearing two coats of Zoya Rory, a shimmery mauve pink, and for my accent nail three coats of Zoya Rica, a sparkling pink/orange coral.  On top of each nail I've stamped Bundle Monster plate BM-317 using Konad Special Polish in White.  What do you think of the combination of pink and orange together?

A Little Love with a Kiss

Good morning!  Today I'm bringing you my second manicure for Valentines Day (check out my first, Minty Hearts, here).  I've always wanted to do this style of manicure: newsprint style with a colorful accent.  One of the new Bundle Monster plates is a romantic lettered plate and I thought it would be perfect for this!  I was right.

For my base I used two coats of Zoya Dove and stamped the text on using Konad Special Polish in Black and Bundle Monster plate BM-311.  On my accent nail I added a pair of lips using Color Club Hot Like Lava and Bundle Monster plate BM02.  Dove is my go-to grey because the formula is superb  the coverage is excellent, and the wear time is fantastic.  As long as my nail bed is undamaged Dove easily lasts five days (or the longest amount of time I've ever been able to go without changing my polish) without chipping or much wear.

Houndstooth Design

I was inspired for this manicure by the coat of one of my coworkers (similar to this one but no fur).  It's nice khaki colored coat covered in a houndstooth design so I've adapted it for my nails.  My quite nubby nails.

I used two coats of China Glaze Kalahari Kiss for my base than stamped the houndstooth image from Bundle Monster plate BM-322 using Konad Special Polish in White.  I have two houndstooth image plates, one is MASH plate 63 and this one; they're two different sizes.  I think the MASH plate is more like a puppystooth than a houndstooth since it's so little compared to the Bundle Monster one.  I'm much more a fan of the larger Bundle Monster plate.  Which size do you prefer?

Snowflakes

The only time there is ever too much snow is when it's outdoors.  Says the person who grew up in Blizzard Alley.  Heh.  Today it's snowflake nails.

To create this look I used four coats of Orly Angel Eyes from the Naughty or Nice Holiday 2012 Collection.  On top of this I used a coat of Seche Vite to distance the glitter from the stamping I was about to do.  In order to create the snowflakes I used Konad Special Polish in White and the following plates: Bundle Monster BM14, BM-319, BM-323 and Konad m59.

Happy Anniversary Delta!

Back in August my sorority chapter celebrated its 20th anniversary.  Whoo!  For the celebrations that day I dressed up my nails in my sorority's colors and mascot.  This November (today to be exact) my sorority celebrates its 29th anniversary.  Whoo!  It's getting old ;)

The sorority colors are royal blue, white, and silver.  The sorority mascot is a dolphin.  So for my festive nails I used two coats of Orly Sweet Peacock stamped with Bundle Monster BM-320 using Konad Special White.

Happy anniversary Alpha Omega Epsilon!

Argyle Dragon

I love stamping. It's a great way to turn a simple cream polish into something special with the help of a few simple tools. I was in a green mood and used A-England's Dragon to take this cream to the next level.

For my base I used two coats of OPI Stranger Tides then stamped a-england Dragon on top using Konad plate m60.  Dragon is very pretty on its own being a scattered holographic dark green with hints of copper strewn in.  It catches the light and draws attention to the nails.  I've only used Dragon for stamping so far, but I think it deserves to have a full manicure of its own.

Week 20: Bows Manicure

Welcome back to Week 20 of the 52 Week Challenge!  This week the challenge was bows and I did a cute little stamping skittles design.

For the base I used two coats of China Glaze For Audrey.  All the stamping was done using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On and images from Konad plates m59 and m71.  This turned out very cute and delicate!  I really enjoyed this look and will have to try it again.

Be sure to check out what others have done for this challenge by visiting their blogs:

LizMarie at I'm Simply Complex • Jenna at I'm Still Thinking... • Caitlin at Addicted 2 Nails • Sarah at PrncessSarah02 • Charlotte at Charlotte's Nails :) • Shally at Polished & Not Quite Put Together • Rachel-Karina at Polished Criminails • Liz at Nothing But Nail Polish • Fun With My Nail Polish • Operation: Nail It! • Lauriestrodes Fun With Nails • Square Polish • Only Always Soccermom  • Hurr Did, Nails Did • Olivia Writes • The Dragon Lady • Kaki at Glitter Obsession • Isa at IsaBella's World • Gypsy at Gypsy's Glitter • Jackie at MeMa's Mani's  • Lissa at Lissa's Nail Blog  •  Marie at Polish, Polish, Polish...  • ChiChi at... •  Esra at Oje Sihirbazi (Wizard of Polish) •  Nails, Actually • Treselaine at Tres Chic Nails • Carol at Nails by Carol

Blue Holo and Dots

I've been trying to use more of my untired polishes lately.  This manicure uses three polishes from my untried collection :)

I started off with three coats of Sinful Colors Cinderella which was disappointingly streaky.  I really just wanted to use Cinderella as a base color but it was so streaky I kept piling on coat after coat.  I wanted to use a light blue as my base because I had KleanColor Holo Blue burning a hole in my untried box. KleanColor Holo Blue (my first KleanColor!) definitely did not disappoint in the stinkiness department - it smelled awful.  Haha.  I've always heard that KleanColors smelled bad but I still wasn't prepared for how terrible it was.  The formula on Holo Blue wasn't bad but it was pretty sheer so I used three coats to get to the level you see on my nails.  Finally, because I couldn't leave a good manicure alone, I stamped the dot design from Konad plate m60 on top using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Brisk Blue.

Pink Lace

Happy Pink Wednesday!  I'm trying to get caught up on my blog so this will just be a quick post today.  I had Valentines Day in mind when I was creating this manicure.

I used two coats of Zoya Zanna as my base, then using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White I stamped the lace image from Konad plate m71 on top.  I always have the worst of luck stamping with my Konad plates.  I'm not sure if the engraving isn't as deep, but I don't get good results for the transfer of an image to the stamper.  I don't have this problem with my M.A.S.H. or Bundle Monster plates.

Week 4: Plaid Manicure

The challenge for Week 4 was plaid and this quickly turned into a hot mess on my nails.  The vision I had for this was more uniform and layered, this is streaky and just...not what I imagined.  Also?  It looks much better from a distance.  Here it is:

I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Hard as Wraps Sheer Lilac Gloss as the base, then using Konad plate M60 stamped Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White followed by Konad Special Polish in Black.

Be sure to check out what others have done for this challenge by visiting their blogs:

LizMarie at I'm Simply Complex • Jenna at I'm Still Thinking... • Caitlin at Addicted 2 Nails • Sarah at PrncessSarah02 • Charlotte at Charlotte's Nails :) • Shally at Polished & Not Quite Put Together • Rachel-Karina at Polished Criminails • Liz at Nothing But Nail Polish • Fun With My Nail Polish • Operation: Nail It! • Lauriestrodes Fun With Nails • Square Polish • Only Always Soccermom  • Hurr Did, Nails Did • Olivia Writes • The Dragon Lady • Kaki at Glitter Obsession • Isa at IsaBella's World • Gypsy at Gypsy's Glitter • Jackie at MeMa's Mani's  • Lissa at Lissa's Nail Blog

Day 21: Inspired by a COLOR

Welcome to the most ambiguous day of the Longest 31 Day Challenge (stretches over two years now!).  I arrived at this design in a very round about way. I had my significant other pick a color (he chose blue), then I started wanting to do a gradient sponging of different blues and maybe stamp something on top.  What I ended up doing was using three coats of Sinful Colors Gorgeous as my base, then stamping Bundle Monster plate BM-212 on top with Konad Special Polish in Black, followed by alternating diagonal rows of dots of Zoya Charla and Zoya Ivanka.

How does this fit with the theme of "Inspired by a Color"?  Let's just say that I was inspired by the aqua-green-teal colors in Gorgeous to add Charla and Ivanka.  I'm glad I was - the colors compliment each other so well and this design turned out much better than I had originally hoped for.

One of the perks of photographing my right hand instead of my left is that I can experiment with my final design on my left before coming up with a design I like.  For example, my pinkie and ring finger on my left hand just have Zoya Charla dots.  My index finger has alternating straight rows of dots, and my middle finger has diagonal rows of dots.  Since everything is in the same color family, the differences aren't noticeable from a distance and don't bother me.

And once more!

Day 16: TRIBAL PRINT

It's Day 16 on the 31 Day Challenge.  I wasn't looking forward to this day.  Tribal print, just like animal print, isn't my thing.  Since I've been taking my time with this challenge I've been able to plan more in advance for the designs I'd like to do each day.  So when I pinned this on Pinterest the other day I knew I would be doing a Norwegian setesdalsgens design.  Norwegian tribal print - perfect!  31 Day Challenge meets Christmas.

Only this?

Source: Never Too Much Glitter via Kristen on Pinterest

This is ridiculously hard for me to freehand.  I tried.  Twice.  So I turned to my trusty friend Google and found this YouTube video by So Long Kitty Nail Art.  Now this is more my style!

This is what I wound up with:

I used Zoya Sooki (I've added an 'e' to the end of Sooki every time I've typed it - does anyone else have this problem?) as the based and then stamped Konad Special Polish in White on top using Bundle Monster plate BM-214, and Konad plates m71 and m59.  I think it looks convincingly sweater-ish.  My reindeer looks decidedly...special. Oh poor reindeer.

Despite this being a stamping based manicure, it still took me at least two hours to complete (an episode of Bones and one-and-a-half episodes of Glee).  Quite the time sink.

And here's a shot of Zoya Sooki by itself.

Can you spot my camera in the reflection on my nails?  Sooki is more red than orange in real life, is more sheer than I'd like, but it perfect for stamping over.

Are sweater tribal print nails something you'd try?