Black Jelly and Gold Mani - Using Moyou London Artist Plate 11

Today's manicure was designed using Moyou London Artist Collection Plate 11, and is the 6th official instalment of my Moyou London Artist Collection Design Series:

Black Jelly and Gold Mani

The polishes that I used were:

OPI 'Wonderous Star' on my ring finger;
Nfu Oh's NFU JS01 from the Jelly Syrup Series as the base coat on all of my other fingers;
and Sally Hansen's Color Foil in 'Yellow Gold' as the stamping polish over the black jelly base coat.

I came up with the idea for this colour scheme by playing off of the one I used in my last post, 'White and Silver Cherub Mani'. I kind of did the inverse of those colours - a sheer black instead of the sheer white base I used last time, and gold instead of the silver that I used (I don't know if gold and silver are technically inverses, but I'm sure you catch my drift!).

I'm really liking how the 'Wonderous Star' glitter accent nail works with the rest of the mani.  The gold glitters in the polish are light, and more yellow toned rather than brassy so it works well with the Sally Hansen 'Yellow Gold' polish. Also, the little black glitters help tie in the Nfu Oh black jelly base polish. 

Moyou London Artist Plate 11

This plate is one of the most beautiful ones that I own, but now that I've actually used it, I realize that one of my favorite elements on the plate, the skull-painted face of the lady, is pretty much impossible for me to use on my finger nails. My nails are usually short to medium length, so I most likely won't be able to fit the entire face on one of them. I think that even with a longer nail, a lot of the image would still be too wide for me to use. Perhaps I can get creative and find a way to juxtapose the image on two adjacent nails or something...  I'll have to play with it some more to see what I can come up with.

White and Silver Cherub Mani - Slightly Modified

Just wanted to do a quick post to show a small change that I did to the Cherub mani that I had on:

White and Silver Cherub Mani - Slightly Modified

Previously, I had a glittered nail polish (Essie's 'Hors d'Oeuvres') on my pinky. I simply changed the accent nail to a different stamped image from the same Moyou London Artist Collection 10 plate that I used for the other fingers. I just wanted to pare the look down a little bit to make it softer.

Once again, the nail polishes used were: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in 'Silver Sweep', Konad Special Polish in 'White', and OPI 'Don't Touch My Tutu'.

White and Silver Cherub Mani - Using Moyou London Artist Plate 10

Today's manicure is one that I have really been looking forward to creating for quite some time. Moyou London's Artist collection 10 plate is exceedingly gorgeous, and it presents so many design possibilities. The instant I saw the plate, I knew I had to have it. I purchased the plate 7 months ago, and even though I was so excited to have it, it is only now that I am only getting around to using it for a proper mani! Without further ado, here is the finished manicure:

White and Silver Cherub Mani

I used the following polishes for this mani:
Konad Special Polish in White for the stamping,
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in 'Silver Sweep' for the french tips,
Essie 'Hors D'oeuvres' for the accent pinky nail,
and OPI 'Don't Touch My Tutu' as the base colour on all of my other fingers.

For this manicure, I used only 2 stamping plates: BM-419 for the silver french tips, and of course, Moyou London Artist Collection 10.

White and Silver Cherub Manicure (Left Thumb)

White and Silver Cherub Manicure (Right Thumb)

I absolutely love how this turned out! I usually don't like to repeat manicures, however I'm already thinking of slight variations I can make if I ever do try this again. I may try another version with no accent nail, for a slightly more demure look. And of course, it would also look fabulous with a classic white french tip.

I'm equally excited to work with the next plate in my Moyou London Artist Collection Design Challenge: Moyou London Artist Plate 11. This is another plate that was pretty much love at first sight for me, but sadly, it still has its protective blue coating on, while sitting in my plate storage box! Stay tuned to see what I come up with!

Pink Tribal Mani - Using Moyou London Artist Plate 09

One thing that I've started becoming more aware of, is the importance of editing design choices. Because I'm still sort of new at stamping, I'm still really enthusiastic about it. I've noticed that sometimes I go a little stamping crazy when designing manicures.  I'm starting to see the importance of using restraint. Just because you can stamp every finger, it doesn't mean you have to! That's where I was coming from when I created this instalment of the Moyou London Artist Plate challenge:

Pink Tribal Mani

The polishes I used for this manicure were:
Sinful Colors 'Boom Boom' and 'Cream Soda'; Konad Special Polish in Black; and Sally Hansen 'Silver Sweep'.

I used the decal technique to place the stamp on the accent finger. I'm a little annoyed that the decal on my left hand is slightly off centre. The nail was slightly tacky when I laid down the decal, so it stuck to the nail right away. As a result, I didn't get a chance to reposition it. 

It's funny, but the dots of peach on the completely fuchsia nails were a total afterthought - but I think they look so good! While I was colouring in my decal, I put a few too many drops of peach polish on the corner of the stamping plate that I was using as a palette. I'm not a big fan of waste, so I tried to figure out a way to use up the extra polish. That's when I got the idea of adding the dots.  I really like how it ties the whole manicure together. 

Mickey Manicure

I decided to do a cute Mickey-themed manicure for the weekend.  I really wanted to change my previous mani, but I also wanted to save the next instalment of the Moyou Artist plate series for Sunday night, so that it is still fresh for Monday. So here's the finished manicure:

Mickey Manicure

In order to achieve this look, I used the following polishes:
OPI 'You're So Vanilla', Konad Special Polish in both Black and White, Essie 'Jelly Apple', Rimmel 'Black Satin', and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in 'Silver Sweep'. 

For the stamping, I used plates 06 and 10 from the Moyou London Pro Collection, and Shany plates SH214, and SH219. I also used some 4mm metallic red heart-shaped nail art studs, that I purchased from Bundle Monster's website.

Mickey Manicure - Thumb

I really love this look! It's so fun, and perfect for the weekend. The stamping is pretty basic, however I still struggle with trying to line up images that don't cover the entire nail, like the ones on my ring and middle fingers.  They aren't perfectly centred, but luckily it's not that noticeable. 

Also, it looks like my thumbnail has outgrown the full nail image I used. In retrospect, I could have switched the images on my ring finger and pinky, since the nail on my ring finger is a little shorter - however, I'm not really bothered by it. The heart shaped stud does a good job of taking the focus away from the extra space.

Anyways, I just wanted to do a quick post to show today's mani.  Stay tuned for my upcoming manicure based Moyou London Artist collection 09...

Green on Green Mani

Today I have an impromptu manicure to share. I got bored of my previous mani, and decided to change my polish. However, I didn't want to continue with the Moyou London Artist collection challenge in the middle of the week, because those manicures tend to take a long time to do - and if I'm going to spend that kind of time doing my nails, I prefer to do it on a weekend! So I decided to do a basic stamping manicure (only 2 colours).  In my last post, I mentioned how much I loved the combination of colours I used on my pinky fingers, and that I'd love to do a whole manicure with that combo some day in the future.  Well, that day has arrived! Here is the finished mani:

Green on Green Mani

I used Moyou London's Fashionista Collection 10 for the hound's-tooth pattern on my thumbs and ring fingers.  I used Messy Mansion plate MM16 'William Morris and Friends' for my index and middle fingers, and I recycled my pinky from my last manicure where I used Moyou London Artist Collection 5. The polishes I used were Essie 'Sew Psyched', and Maybelline Color Show 'Walk in the Park'.

Green on Green Mani

This manicure is kind of a hodge-podge of different patterns. I was trying to use different designs that I thought would work well with the colour combo. I chose the Messy Mansion plate images because they have a very woodsy feel to them, so I thought they would look great with the deep forest green. I chose the hound's-tooth image, because I've been really drawn to that pattern lately, and I just couldn't wait any longer to try out this plate! It also was a contrasting image that I thought would stand out as an accent. 

Polishes Used

I really love how the stamping turned out on this manicure, but I think altogether, the look is a little busy. If I had to do it again, I would probably stamp all of my nails with the image on my middle finger. It's so ornate and beautiful. Unfortunately, I think it gets a little lost when put beside all the other patterns that are going on.

Birth of Venus Mani - Using Moyou London Artist Plate 05

Today's manicure was inspired from Sandro Botticelli's classic painting 'Nascita di Venere' or 'The Birth of Venus'.  This is the 3rd instalment of my design series using my Moyou London Artist Plates. Today's plate was Moyou London's Artist Plate 05, which is also inspired from the painting. I pulled colors and motifs from the original painting, and incorporated 5 images from different parts of the Moyou Plate. Here is the finished manicure:

Birth of Venus Mani

The pinky represents the tree canopy in the upper right quadrant of the painting, while the ring finger represents the robe that the handmaid is waiting to cover Venus with. The clamshell on the middle finger represents Venus' mode of transportation in the painting, and fittingly, it is stamped over wave images. The index finger represents the blowing winds and falling flowers to the left of Venus, and of course we have Venus' face on the thumb.

Here are the plates and polishes I used:
Plates:
Moyou artist collection plate 05, Moyou London Kitty Collection Plate 02 (flower image on index finger), Moyou London Sailor Collection Plate 01 (Clamshell image on middle finger).

Polishes:
Not including base and top coat, I used 12 different polishes to achieve this look. Here they are listed  by the finger on which the polish is one of the base or main colours:
Pinky: Maybelline New York Color Show 'Walk in the Park', and Essie 'Sew Psyched'
Ring Finger: Sally Hansen Color Foil 'Rose Copper', DRK Nails 'Metallic Brown' Stamping Polish
Middle finger: Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'Breezy Blue', Revlon 'Urban', and Rimmel 'Black Satin'
Index Finger: Essie 'Rock the Boat', and NYC 'French Tip White'
Thumb: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure 'Almost Almond', OPI 'Y'all Come Back Ya Hear?', and NFU Oh Jelly Syrup Series NFU JS16.

Birth of Venus Mani

This manicure was very time-consuming. I used a lot of different materials and techniques to achieve the look, and I also had a lot of failed attempts and revisions of my original plan.

One of the techniques that I used was the decal method. This was done on the middle finger, where I made a stamped decal of a clamshell.This is the first time I've incorporated this technique into a manicure. All in all, it worked well, except for on my left hand where I had a slight problem when placing the decal over my freshly top-coated nail (which also had a stamped background image underneath). I ended up having to lift and reposition the decal, which caused the background to get a little smudged on that finger. Next time, I'm going to wait until the polish is completely dry before I place the decal.

I also want to point out that I really like the combination of 'Sew Psyched' with 'Walk in the Park' on my pinky.  I would love to do another manicure featuring these two colours - they look so good together!

Navy, Taupe, and Gold Mani - Using Moyou London Artist Plate 04

This is my second attempt at designing a manicure using Moyou London's Artist collection plate 04:

Navy, Taupe, and Gold Mani - Left

This time around, I wanted to try to incorporate multiple images from the plate, since I only used one image during my first attempt. The final manicure looks a little busy, but I like it! Just before I did this manicure I had to cut my nails even shorter than they already were, due to a few chipped nails. I was really disappointed about having to do that, because it's so hard for me to grow my nails out. However, one positive thing about cutting them is that with shorter nails, I find that you can get away with a lot more patterns and colours. With less surface area, the 'busy-ness' doesn't seem as overwhelming!

Navy, Taupe, and Gold Mani - Right

The polishes I used for this manicure were: OPI 'Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh', Sally Hansen's Color Foil in 'Liquid Gold', and Pure Ice nail polish in 'Party Hard'. Honestly, every time I use 'Liquid Gold' for stamping, I fall a little more in love with it! I think it looks so stunning when stamped - like intricately cut gold foil. I also really like the way that the dark blue base colour on my thumbs and ring fingers serves as a great background to showcase the gold stamping - it really helps it stand out.

Now that I'm finished with this plate, I'm really excited about moving on to the next plate in my Moyou London Artist Collection Design Series. Artist Collection 05 is gorgeous, and presents so many possibilities! Stay tuned...

Orange and Gold Mani - Using Moyou London Artist Plate 04

Today's manicure was supposed to be the second in my design series using the Moyou London Artist Collection plates. My goal was to create a manicure featuring Artist Collection plate 04. However, I've decided that I want to try another manicure with this plate, as this one doesn't fully capture the essence of the plate. I had such a horrendous experience creating this mani - but before I get into it, here's the picture:

Orange and Gold Mani

The polishes I used were OPI's 'Where Did Suzy's Man-go?', Sinful Colors' 'Energetic Red', and I reused my gold glitter accent finger from my last manicure, and ended up adding the same polish to my middle finger to cover a messed up nail. The glitter was OPI's 'All Sparkly and Gold'.

I started this manicure late at night, and I was super tired (that always seems to be the start of my manicure disaster stories!).  I had just finished applying the second coat of my base colour, and decided to lie down and watch TV for a bit while it dried. So now, I'm going to fast forward to the part where I woke up hours later with smudged nail polish, imprinted with bed sheet cross-hatching!

Now, just so you know, I hate removing nail polish. I find it to be such a hassle that I try to avoid doing it if I can get away with it. So instead of removing the messed up polish, I decided to try to salvage the mani by touching up with another coat. After that dried, I tried stamping with my original stamping colour choice - a nice coral polish. However, that didn't work out because the polish wasn't pigmented enough to show up well over the mango colour.  I switched to 'energetic red' on the remaining nails, however I wound up with a few misapplied stamps due to me trying to cut corners to speed up the process (my patience was running very thin at that point!).

After all of these mishaps, I decided to try to use nail polish remover to take off only the top layer of polish, and leave a fresh base coat to start stamping on. It worked, so then I had to stamp my nails all over again. This time, I tried a different pattern idea for my middle fingers, but it didn't look very nice when completed (hence the glitter cover-up).

After I finished stamping and applying top coat, instead of waiting for my nails to dry completely, I started to put away the stamping materials I used. That's how I ended up with the little smudged area on my index finger.  Now by this point I was completely over the manicure, and was not the least bit interested in redoing the nail to fix the smudge!

In the end, I was kind of relieved to have at least a semi-decent mani to show for all of that trouble, however I don't want to move on to the next plate in the series without doing a proper job with this one. For my next post, I hope to have a beautiful mani to share using this same plate.

Burgundy, Taupe, and Gold Mani - Using Moyou London Artist Plate 02

I've decided that I want to go through each of the Moyou London Artist plates that I own, and design my next several manicures based on them.  There are so many beautiful plates in the collection that I was so excited about when I first bought them, but still haven't gotten around to using yet!  It's such a shame that these gorgeous plates are sitting in my storage box, unused. So, in order to rectify this situation, I'm doing a design series.

Now, I've already used a couple plates from the Artist collection and posted those manicures. (Artist 01 was used in the Mondrian Inspired Mani, and one of the pictures in the Color Foils Review used Artist 03). So the first untried plate was Moyou Artist Collection 02. Here's what I came up with:

Burgundy, Taupe, and Gold Mani

In keeping with the theme of using stuff that I previously never got around to using, most of the polishes that I used for this manicure were also previously untried. It's really satisfying to knock a few of those off the list, too! I used two OPI polishes for this manicure, 'Visions of Love', and 'All Sparkly and Gold' (both from the Mariah Carey Holiday Collection). I also used Revlon 'Elegant' (#380), and Sally Hansen Color Foil in 'Liquid Gold'. 'Liquid Gold' is the only one of these polishes that has graced my nail beds before. 

Polishes Used

I love 'All Sparkly and Gold'. It really does live up to its name, and it was very easy to apply. It had great coverage after only the first coat! I really liked 'Visions of Love', as well. It's a very lovely shade, and I was really impressed with how well it stamped. When I first painted it over the image plate it looked sort of translucent, so I was worried the stamp wouldn't show up very well. It turned out not to be a problem, as the polish is highly pigmented, so the colour does shine through.

I only had mini bottles of these 2 polishes, as they were both part of the OPI Mariah Carey 4 Piece Mini Holiday Collection. After this manicure, I was so taken with both shades that I immediately went on-line and ordered full size bottles of both. Revlon 'Elegant' is a great neutral colour that I can see myself using a lot as the base for nail art designs.

Burgundy, Taupe, and Gold Mani

This look really reads as an autumn manicure to me, because of the deep reddish brown, and the gold. So it was kind of appropriate since I did it on Labour Day, the 'unofficial end of summer'.  I wasn't going for the whole autumnal vibe, it just happened - but it also just happened to work, so I'm happy!