Hi everyone! It's a beautiful Saturday here in Chicago and I'm inside, typing up a post on my neglected blog. Work has been taking a huge toll on my hands, I should post a picture of how they look after I get done polishing a million little bits of metal lol It's so hard to get them clean! And then I've had breakage so I'm back down to nubs. I actually am enjoying them. My longer length always gets caught on things and I'm constantly stressed over breakage. So, not having to worry about that makes life a bit easier. Anyway, on to the manicure!
I've been a stamping fool lately, can't get enough of it! I picked up the Pueen Cosmetics Encore stamping plates a couple of weeks ago. The images are beautiful and offer almost endless possibilites for stamping...I love them! They are currently available on Pueen's Storenvey site and Amazon for $24.99 per four, double-sided plates set.
I began this manicure with a gradient. I used Lilypad Lacquer's Apple Spritzer (which I snagged off of Llarowe when they had a huge sale a few weeks ago!) and Army of Me by Black Cat Lacquer (also purchased in the same sale). It's my first experience with both of these brands and I wasn't disappointed with either! Apple Spritzer is a delicate light green to gold holographic with a perfect formula. Army of Me shares the perfect formula but is a deep almost-forest green holographic. Both of these polishes are still available on Llarowe for $13 and $12, respectively.
After the gradient dried, I stamped over top with Sinful Colors Black on Black using Pueen's Encore plate SE01A. I couldn't be happier with how this turned out! The colors, the holo sparkle, the black stamping...so perfect!
I hope you all enjoyed this post and thanks for reading!
Howdy everyone! We're halfway through the week, how's everyone feeling? If you're like me, you can't wait for Friday. I actually have the day off Friday and I'm thinking I might go get a massage. I received a gift certificate to a local spa for my birthday from a friend and I'm thinkin' it might be time to cash it in.
I wanted to put up some photos of my nails today. This is a good example of how mistakes can often become happy accidents. I was trying out a new stamping plate and instead of getting the whole design, I only got a partial. At first I was frustrated, but then I decided I like the abstract feel of the partial stamp anyway so I stamped all my nails that way. Here's how it came out:
I started with 2 coats of Peachy Keen by China Glaze (another from my weekend Ulta spree) and stamped over top with Luxe from Orly. Luxe is my favorite gold of all time. It reminds me of the look of gold leaf or foil and the effect is just marvelous. I thought the color combo worked well here, too. It reminds me of that marble with the gold veins running through it. So you can see the original pattern of the stamp was a bunch of stars. I'll give this pattern another try with a thicker polish and see if I can get a clearer outcome in the future, but as far as oopsies go, this turned out alright.
I'll be posting my first manicure for the Nail-aween Challenge tomorrow so be sure to stop by and check it out! Thanks for reading!
Howdy, all! Well, it's finally the end. The 31st day of the 31 Day Nail Challenge has arrived. I'm a little sad that it's over, but mostly I'm just relieved (and a little proud) that I made it all the way through! Today's challenge was to recreate a favorite manicure. I have lots of favorite manicures done by other bloggers. There are so many great ones out there. I knew I wanted to try my hand at stamping some more and I knew I wanted something simple. Let's face it, I'm exhausted after doing all these manis every day! So I chose a sweet stamped manicure from pshiiit.com's blog. I'll include a photo of her's at the end. I'm unable to find the original post for this manicure, every time I try to link back through Pinterest it just takes me to her home page. Here's my version:
I started with one coat of China Glaze in First Mate and then used Wet 'n' Wild's Wild Shine in French White Creme to stamp a swirly heart design on top. This set of stamping plates worked a lot better for me, so I'm finding that not all plates are created equal. I did have some trouble with my top coat on this one. My bottle of Seche Vite needs to be swapped as it's getting kind of gloppy. Here's another view:
And here's the original:
As you can see, my stamp is not exactly the same as her's but I still think it turned out pretty well. I had a lot of fun with this challenge and I'm glad I followed through with the whole month. I'm not in a rush to do it again though lol However, I will be participating in a Halloween Challenge for the month of October. Check back for more info on that soon. Thanks so much for reading!
