40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Christmas

Well, it is all about timing for this look.  I was not sure where to go for this challenge, but along came my inspiration on Instagram!  Copycat Claws does some amazing things and her festive Bundle Monster stamping review was perfect to get the ball rolling for me.  Please see her original post here.  Thanks Serene!  Since I already had the tools this is what I did:

For this look, I started with my usual base coat followed by one coat of Snow White.  I started to follow Serene's lead with the dry brush method, but that wasn't working too well for me and I didn't have the patience for it.  So, using the polishes below:

I used my Uber Mat to put the green, red, gold and white colors as concentrated dots in an empty nail guide.  Once the dots were down, I used my stamper to smoosh them together.  I let the polish dry a little on the stamper before putting it on my nails.  This method gives a more random color scheme which I needed because dry brushing the colors on individually was too hard for my organized brain.  Once that was dry, it was time to stamp.  I used BM-S217 and randomly selected images to place on my nails.  I wanted them all to be different and that is so easy to do with this type of plate!  I also used the metal template stamping guides from Bundle Monster to help isolate the images before applying them to my nails.  They are super helpful!

Once the stamps were dry, I added some Seche Vite for shine and protection.  I got this done just in time for a holiday party at work.  They were a hit.  :)

Happy Holidays to you and your family!  Thanks for stopping by.

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Grey + Color

This prompt for the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas Challenge was a hard one for me.  Luckily, I had the help of my niece and nephew to help pick out the colors to use!  My pattern is "swirls" this week.

I used my brand new Uber Mat and plate 6-01 that my hubby got me from Uber Chic Beauty for my birthday.  I need more practice on this technique but what wonderful products they are!

Here is what the kiddos picked out.  My nephew picked the pink color and my niece picked out the grey.  Their stipulation was that there had to be mostly grey in the look.

This came out super cute!  The weather is changing here and my house is very cool so the polish wasn't working as well as I had hoped, but in the end, my trusty Seche Vite smoothed everything out.  I am in the process of creating a new "nail room" so the polish will be in a better place to maintain an even temperature.  I can't wait to share those results with you.  :)

I know I am posting this more than super late, but I didn't want to forget about it and I had to show the kiddos some love.  Thanks for stopping by!

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Black & White

I'm so late in getting this done this week, but it is done and I pretty much love it!  My prompt this week was stripes:

This is so simple but I really love how it turned out.  I am always leery of the striping tape...

I used my usual base coat to protect and strengthen my nails and added 2 coats of Spirit to each nail.  Once that was dry, I topped it off with a layer of Seche Vite to harden the polish so I didn't smudge anything with the tape when creating the stripes.

I used a piece of masking tape for the larger portion.  I always try to remove some of the stickiness from that tape to help make sure there is no evidence of the taping.  I used the thin striping tape for the other lines.  Working on one nail at a time, I only needed one coat of Smoke & Ashes.  What a beautiful black with some green shimmer in it!  I removed the tape while the polish was still wet to aid in getting crisp lines.

I might be late in posting for this week, but I hope you like it as much as I do.  Thanks for stopping by.  :)

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Orange, Purple and Green

Orange, purple & green are totally classic Halloween colors - and I love them together.  For this week's 40 Great Nail Art Ideas prompt, I have "stamped".   Here is a look at what I did:

Picking the colors for this was pretty easy.  I just wanted bright, distinct colors.

Do you know how many Halloween themed stamps there are?  It is really challenging to pick them out!  Since I just received the new Bundle Monster Seasonal plates, I chose to use some of the jack-o-lantern faces on plate BM-S204.

I also wanted to try to make decals.  I don't have an Uber Mat (yet) so I chose to try to use a silicone baking sheet.  It worked fairly well, but there is staining.  LOL!  So, all of the designs you see in the polish I hand created on the mat.  I was so in love with the ring finger, I just couldn't bring myself to stamp over it.

I had to have a kitty cat stamp!  I just got a new kitty so she needed to be represented somehow.  :)

Happy Halloween!  Thanks for stopping by.

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Teal

Hi Friends!  Participating in a group challenge is really a lot of fun and this one is set up phenomenally!  For the color prompts (which is what I am doing) we all have a different pattern to do so we aren't all the same.  How clever is Miss Debbie Crumpet?!  My pattern this week is SQUARES.

I will be honest here and let you know that I really struggle with the difference between "teal" and "turquoise". HA!  I just noticed the cat hair on my pinkie.  I just can't get away from it!  Here is what I used:

I put 2 coats of Garter Toss on top of my usual base coat.  This is a very pale shade, but I didn't want to use white this time.

I added 2 coats of Mint Dream to all of my nails.  Using an image from RA-103, I stamped with MDU Fiji and Black on all of my nails.  I had a hard time keeping the image straight on my nails!  I tend to use a squishy stamper head to compensate for the curve of my nail, but I found a very firm head worked better to maintain the image quality.

 I then added 2 more coats of Mint Dream to a couple of my nails.  For my accent nails, I added 2 coats of I Saw A Comet.  What a wonderful glitter topper!  A layer of Seche Vite to even it all out and give some shine wraps this up!

My nails are a bunch of nubbins these days - I have had a lot of mishaps causing breakage so it makes me trim them all down.  I like things nice and even.  LOL!  Thank you for stopping by!

Plenty of Purple

Have I ever mentioned how much I am drawn to purple?  I simply love the versatility of it.  My nail polish collection is drowning in pink and purple!  How is it that there are so many different shades?  I have combined a bunch of purples for this mani!

I'm not even sure why I turned to purple for this look.  I guess I just wanted to show it some love.  You know I love a gradient look too!  Had I not been circling the nail art forums so many years ago, I wouldn't have known the beauty.  I love this community so much and everything it teaches me.  :)

I started with my usual base coat to protect my nails and then started with 2 coats of In A Lily Bit.  Once that was completely dry, I started the gradient.  I use a make-up sponge for my technique.  I put a stripe of each color on the sponge and lightly add it to each nail.  Once each layer is dry, I go back over it until I am happy with the color.

I can't even begin to express how much I love Winterberry!  It has the deepest color with such a hint of shimmer.  A lot of people like to do gradients with only 2 colors, which are absolutely stunning.  I, somehow, typically gravitate towards three colors.  For my accent nail, I applied 2 coats of Stevie to my ring finger.  In my opinion, Zoya makes the best textured polishes.  They can be worn with a top coat (which is my preference).

Once the polish is dry, I put a layer of Seche Vite on to even out the color and to prepare for stamping.  I used BM-711 for this image.  I love the fine lines and MDU Copper was a perfect accent.  Another layer of Seche Vite finished this pretty manicure off.

I also, for the first time ever, stamped my big toe while I did a matching pedicure.  It is the first time I have been able to bend that far over since having 2 major back surgeries two years ago.  That was fun!  Not to fret, I won't ever post a picture of my feet on here.  Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Fresh

Hello Friends!

It's been a long while since I last posted but today I have a summer ready manicure that was super easy and really adorable!

I started with a white base coat and then added the colors below in one-stroke fashion to my desired color density.

I was very inspired by The Nailasaurus for this look.  You can see her original post here.  To do this look, all you need is a few colors that you want to blend together.  I dropped a few drops of color on a piece of tin foil and then used a spare brush to mix some acetone into the drops of color.  Once it was thinned out a bit (watery), I did only one stroke across the nail in the horizontal direction then a vertical one.

I tried to do each nail a bit different so the strokes wouldn't be the same.  This was really fun to do and super quick!  Once the colors looked good to me, I ended with a layer of Seche Vite for a super shine.

Thanks for stopping by!

Purple Pleasure

The hubby was in charge of color this week.  He wanted purple (over my pink choice) and I had already committed to trying a radial gradient.  Here is what we ended up with.

This was really fun to work on and I love how it came out (for a first go at the radial gradient technique)!  I know there is room for improvement on my placement and probably color variation.  I used quite a few polishes for this one:

I am in love with using latex on my fingers to help with clean up these days, so once I put down my usual base coat, I slathered on some liquid latex (in my fancy neon blue color) on all of my fingers.  The tricky part is not letting your fingers touch because the latex likes to stick to itself!  So, once that was on and dry, I added a layer of a white base coat to help get the color to pop.

I used a make-up sponge and put the polishes in a bullseye pattern with lightest in the middle and just tried to center it on the nail.  After about 3 or 4 passes, I was pretty happy with it.  There was a lot of indecision on a stamping color this time too but I love what I picked.

I used an image from Pueen 47.  Surprisingly, the MDU Violet was kind of runny and was hard to get a clear image from but you can barely tell!  Thank goodness.  LOL!  the MDU Purple is a perfect accent nail!  Hubby was really skeptical, but once I had my nails all cleaned up, he was on board!

Cranberries In The Sand

I wanted to do something with a neutral color and red.  That is all I had to work with for this design.

I ended up with cranberries lounging on the beach.  LOL  That is all I can think of when looking at this.

Wocka Wocka! is just divine!  The color is irresistible and it paired wonderfully with On Taupe of the World.  I used a make-up sponge to apply these two colors over a base of the ULTA nude.  I did this on ALL of my nails then added the glitter only on the accent nail - with a make-up sponge to get the glitter spread out without the weight of the clear base.

2
One thing I learned on this manicure is that Seche Vite will spread the red color!  I lost a couple of fingers on my non-swatching hand learning how to really "float" the top coat on.  Once I had that down, it was much better!

Blue Hibiscus

This has been one of my favorites so far this spring!  I chose a Blue-Teal gradient with stamping for a Spring pick-me-up mani.

I started with a white base over my typical base coat.  Then, using a make-up sponge, I added several layers of the colors below to get the desired look.

I used the China Glaze at the very end to get a little bit of shimmer over the Color Club to be on the same level as the Sinful Shine.  Once the color saturation was where I wanted it, I used Pueen 72 and my wonderful MDU stamping polish to add some hibiscus images.  I wanted to vary it up so I added them in all different locations on my nails.

I loved this so much that I wore the heck out of it!

Happy Spring!!