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.

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.

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 12: STRIPES

Welcome back to the longest 31 Day Challenge in the history of all 31 Day Challenges! Ha. My apologies for not getting back on this challenge faster.  Day 12 of the challenge is stripes and for this design I went for a straight-forward solid color of polish plus stripe stamp.

I used Zoya Pasha as my base color, then stamped Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Black Out on top using Konad plate m60.

Mint Apple adorned with Argyle

I recently picked up Sinful Colors Mint Apple.  It's a sheer turquoise duochrome color with silver flecks...or are they gold?  Either way it's amazing.  Beautiful color and at $1.99 (or less on sale!) at Walgreens it's quite the steal.  Still sheer at one coat, solidly opaque at two coats.

It's lovely on its own but I couldn't resist dressing it up with the argyle shape on Konad plate m60 using Konad Special Polish in white.  You can see there is a couple of spots (ring finger, pointer finger) where I dragged the white polish while applying the top coat but it's not noticeable from a distance.

I don't have many colors I would call a favorite, but this is definitely a new favorite of mine.

More Paisley

Painted my nails to match my shirt today.

The base is Sinful Colors Savage with Konad white stamped over it, design from plate m-60.

Blue and Silver

Did my nails for a Brewer's game tonight.  I don't have any Brewer's gear so I did blue nails with a silver design (I don't have yellow nail polish).

The base coat is Zoya's Robyn, the silver is Avon's Glisten with Konad plate M60.

I messed up when I bought my first Konad kit - I didn't buy the special nail polish.  I thought you could use any old nail polish to do the stamping with.  Nope!  After a night of trying and trying to get something to stick to the Konad stamper I read posts on the internet that said in order for non-Konad polish to work it must be thick and typically metallics are this way.  So I dug out my decades old Avon polish (of which I have several metallics) and lo and behold - it worked!  I did go out and buy the Konad polish in black and white

PS - does anyone know how to keep nail polish from sticking so much to the skin surrounding the nail?  Q-tips seem to big and bulky to get the job done.