Brazilian Florals + a mini update

Good morning!

I'm back!  Albeit briefly as I am on holidays next week but for now I'll ease back into blogging.  I've missed it :)

How bout a little update?

On June 28th, the man and I got hitched:

It was a beautiful and insanely hot day.  It went perfectly, but that's because I didn't care if things went wrong.  If they did, I wasn't aware of them because I was just focused on enjoying my day :)

Now that things are winding down, I'm trying to focus on my unfinished grad thesis.  And trying to get back into nail art.  I went months where they were either bare or just plainly painted, but lately I feel like I
got my mojo back ;)

That being said, here's a 'from the vault' mani that I did eons ago.  And because of that I can't really remember which polish I used.

For the base on my index and middle finger, I want to say I used OPI Did you Ear about Van Gogh? but I'm not 100% sure.  The leafy stamp is from the Pueen Buffet set, using OPI AmazON, AmazOFF from their Brazilian collection, which is also the base on my ring and pinki finger.

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I used OPI Which is Witch? for the reverse glitter gradient.  Such beautiful glitter, my bottle is showing some serious use!

As for the flowers on my index and ring finger.. I really can't even guess which polishes I used :/  I should really start keeping a log of each mani in a notebook, it would make life a little bit easier :)

Nude & Gold Stamping

Hi there!

I'm a terrible blogger!  I haven't yet found the balance between working full time, planning my wedding and painting my nails.. sometimes something just has to give, and sadly in this case it's been my favourite hobby.  Boo.

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How cute is this combo though?  Gold and nude just look so good together!

I started with OPI My Vampire is Buff and using Essie Good as Gold and an image from Pueen-33 I stamped over my base.

Then I added some small square studs to my ring finger, and used OPI Honey Ryder as a pinkie and thumb accent :)

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Grey and Yellow Skittlette

Good morning!

Here's a quickie post showing this cute mani that I wore a couple of weeks ago.

This mani started with a base of Essie Power Clutch, then using the dry brush method I added Essie Chinchilly and China Glaze Elephant Walk to create a neat marbled effect.

Then using Color Club Dressed for the Parade mixed with Konad White I stamped the zig zag pattern from BM 423 on my pointer and middle fingers.

On my ring finger is an image from Mash 37.

I mixed the white and yellow polishes on the plate itself, I covered the image with half yellow and half white and scraped a bunch of times quickly to mix the colours and make the yellow opaque so it showed up on the dark base.  I followed a tutorial but I can't find it anymore.. if anyone knows who's tutorial that was please share!

Then on my pinky I used one coat of Maybelline Color Show Street Art - Green Graffiti.  I love these matte glitters :)

Have a great Monday everyone!

Potential Wedding Nails #3

Good morning!

I hope everyone's had a good week!  I just started a new job, then got sick on my second day there, and therefore haven't had any energy to blog, let alone turn on my computer!

Here is another installment of my potential wedding day mani!  I liked this in theory but I think it might be TOO bold?  I don't know.  The nails would really match my shoes though :P

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I used the gorgeous Revlon Royal as my base, then using Essie Nothing Else Metals I stamped the feather from the EDM04 plate.

What are your thoughts on this one?  Too bold?  Just bold enough?

Have a good Friday everyone!

Potential Wedding Nails #2

Good morning!

Here's another mani I put together as my potential wedding nails.  These are a bit softer than my first attempt but still have the added touch of colour that I want!

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I started out with one of my favourite nudes - Orly Decades of Dysfunction then using my new Emily de Molly EDM04 plate I created a stamping gradient.

For the stamping, from cuticle to tip, I used: Sally Hansen Insta Dri Grape Escape, Sally Hansen Insta Dry Emerald Express and Orly Royal Navy.

I would like for the purple to be a little bit more plum, and the blue a little darker but I think this is a pretty good contender.  Not in your face but totally suits the peacock theme :)

 Any suggestions for a good opaque plum polish that I could use for stamping?

I hope you're all having a great week!

Blue Swirls Stamping

Hi guys!

I was recently out of town visiting my guy who is away due to work, hence my lack of posts!  But I'm back now and will get back into the swing of things :)

Here's a little something from the vault:

It took me a while to post this mani simply because I don't like that accent nail.  Accent pinky?  Just doesn't work for me, I don't know what I was thinking, lol.

The base is Sinful Color What's Your Name on all but my pinky, which is Sally Hansen Satin Glam Teal Tulle.

I stamped using W203 from the awesome Winstonia 2nd generation plates using the same colours used as my base.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Potential wedding nails?

Hi loves!

I hope you're all having a good week so far!

So most of you know I'm getting married this summer.. and we chose to base our colours around peacock feathers since I love jewel tones :)  I've been brain storming mani ideas, and after seeing a post in the Adventures in Stamping Facebook group I knew I had to recreate it and see if it could be a wedding day mani contender :)

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I first started with a base of Orly Dayglow, then using a sponge I crated a gradient with Zoya Savita, Orly Royal Navy and Zoya Veruschuka.  The purple of Savita shows up way better IRL, my camera kind of turned it blue.  Boo.

I added some sparkle on my ring finger because, why not?  I added Sally Hansen Twinkle Toes-ty, which is an awesome rose gold holo glitter that I just picked up while grocery shopping :P

I then stamped the peacock feathers using Essie Penny Talk and Pueen09.  I really like this stamp but I find the feathers a little too big for my baby sized nails so I'm hoping THIS one will be better :)

What are your thoughts on these?  I really don't want the typical nude wedding nails.  The only thing I would do differently is stamp in silver but.. I've still got 4 months to play around and figure that out :)

Another Late Valentine's Mani

Good morning!

This wasn't a mani I was really planning on posting but I'm at my parents house for the week and haven't really painted my nails and so need to rely on older manis :P

I was on my water marbling kick when I came up with this look.  My index and pinky were done using A England Excaliber, China Glaze Hey Sailor and OPI Black Onyx.

These looked so cool but I had SUCH a hard time marbling with the silver.. it dried way too fast.

For the middle and ring finger I started with a base of China Glaze Hey Sailor then stamped an image from Pueen 35 and Konad Special polish.

I actually really liked this mani, but I only realized way too late that there was cat hair on my nails when I took a picture of it, lol.  I tried to edit them out but my editing skills aren't really existent :P

I hope you're all having a good week! :)

Late Valentine's Mani

Hi all.

Yep.. seems to be the theme this year, I pose 'themed' manis AFTER the holiday is over.  They were pretty though so I'm not going to stop myself from posting :)

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These nails started out with a base of Deborah Lippman Since I Fell For You, a really pretty shimmery red, perfect for Valentine's.

Then using Rickis Frosty Lavender I stamped the heart image from what I think was a Pueen plate (I need to start writing things down). 

I love stamping with holos.. such a pretty look :)

Happy Monday!

Stamping over Zoya Odette

Hi everyone :)

I've been feeling a little off my nail game lately but finally, finally felt like I was just "on" with this next look.  I really love this mani :)

I started out with a base of Zoya Odette, which I got in my ipsy bag last week!

Then using Essie Nothing Else Metals and BM 422 I stamped the hexagons.   Then using Konad Special Black Polish I stamped the "Love" image from BM 412.

Stamping is so funny.  I love my squishy stamper, but it wouldn't for the life of me pick up the "love" image.. neither did my purple squishy (that I only have thanks to an amazing surprise package from Serene and am SO THANKFUL!) so I tried the hard rubber stamp and it worked beautifully.  Something to do with the etching I guess!

I hope you're all having a great week :)

Valentine's Day Stamping

This is a bit early but I figured I'd get a head start :)  There are so many awesome valentine's/love themed plates out there - I had a hard time choosing what to use.  I think my mani came out pretty cute though!

I first started with a base of Orly Ma Cherie on my middle finger and pinkie.  This is such a gorgeous squishy, juicy red.  I then stamped the hearts from plate Pueen-41 with Konad White, and added a second coat of Ma Cherie on top to created a stamping sandwich.

On my index and ring fingers I added two coats of Revlon Cherries in the Snow and stamped with Color Club I Believe in Amour and used an image from BM-H17 on my index and Winstonia-207 on my ring finger.

I then stamped the image on my pinkie using BM-H17 also and the "Love" image from BM-H16.  The holographic dots were done using Gosh Holographic Hero :)

What do you guys think of Valentine's themed nails?  Too much? :P

Have a great weekend guys!

Soft + Advanced Stamping

Hi all!  I hope everyone's Monday went well :)  I had to shovel a whole lot of snow today.. bleh.

This is a mani I did over the weekend - I was supposed to go to a birthday dinner so I started basing my mani on that. 

I started with a base of OPI Skulls and Glossbones then using the cupcake image from BM-H20 tried my hand at advanced stamping, which is basically leaving the image on your stamp, filling in where you want then while your polish on your nail is still pretty tacky, stamping it!

This was my first try.. and it turned out only OK, but ended up working awesomely on my other hand :)
 

Then I had full intention of doing some double stamping and adding more birthday themed images to my nails but after stamping an image from Pueen-26 with Color Club - Take Me to Your Chateau, I really couldn't bring myself to doing it. 

It's such a soft, pretty look! I absolutely love how this turned out.

I actually debated removing the cupcake image since the birthday dinner outing didn't end up happening.  And I find it doesn't really go with the rest of the nails but eh.. by the time I got around to change it the rest of the polish was cracking so I just removed it all :)

Double Stamping over OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OP!?

Hi all!  Happy Saturday :)

Just a quickie today - I decided to try some double stamping this week, something I'd never done before.  And it turned out to be so fun!

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This look started with a base of OPI Dutch Ya Just Love OPI? stamped with BM-414 (fingerprint) with China Glaze Dress me Up then stamped again with BM-301 and Sally Hansen Insta Dri In a Blink Blue.

Have a great weekend!

Mix 'n Match tape mani

Happy hump day!

Last week I was in the tape mani kind of mood.. These moods don't come all too often, and after being done with this mani I realized why.  They take too. damn. long.  I was so sick of painting my nails after this haha.

I started off with Orly Reflection on my ring finger and OPI Eurso Euro on the rest.

Side note - I can't find ANY information on Reflection - if it's from a specific collection or just regular stock, I can't even find swatches of it.  It's so weird!  Does anyone have any information on it?  It's super pretty.. I don't think I have anything like it in my stash.

 

Once my base was really dry I taped it off and either added A England Excalibur (the silver polish) or OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and waited for those to dry so I could stamp the roses using Pueen-22 and Konad Black and waited for that to dry.

Then I taped off various parts of my nails again and added OPI Vesper to all but my middle finger to which I added Orly Reflection on the tip.

In the end I really did like this look, but due to the time and effort required.. I don't think it's something I will do on a regular basis :P  The tips were pretty thick that the nails on my dominant hand started chipping pretty much the next day.  Boo.

Something Bright

Happy Saturday!  

After all of the typical red/green/gold/white holiday manicures I was craving something bright and cheerful, so naturally I reached for pink.  Totally not 'holiday' nor is it dark and vampy winter shade, just what I needed!

This mani started with OPI Kiss me on the Tulips on my pinky and index finger.  On top of that, I layerd OPI Polka.com and Orly Spazmatic.

My middle and ring finger have the gorgeous OPI Fly, and using the distressed method I added Kiss me on the Tulips.

I then stamped an image from Pueen-15 using Konad black polish.

I initially just wanted the ring and middle fingers to be stamped but after accidentally stamping my index finger and liking the look I just went with it and stamped them all instead of re-doing that one nail.

I felt like this was such a refreshing mani - I kept it on for days!

Have a great weekend, and as always, thanks for reading :)