Neutral Manicure with a Twist

This manicure was designed around two polishes from the Nicole by OPI Carrie Underwood line of nail polishes. The colours were 'Southern Charm', a magnificent pinky-tan neutral shade, and 'Carrie'd Away' a slightly textured gold glitter polish. These polishes were released in early 2014. I think I bought them sometime around last summer, but I'm only getting around to trying them out now!

Polishes Used	Plate Used
Nicole By OPI ‘Southern Charm’
OPI ‘Midnight in Moscow’	Pueen Buffet Leisure Collection:
OPI ‘Chick Flick Cherry’	PUEEN97
Nicole By OPI ‘Carrie’d Away’

Design-wise, I kind of just threw this look together. After painting my nails with the two main polishes, I decided I had to add a little more visual interest to the look, so I added the stamping and colouring on my middle finger, and the dotting on my thumb. 

Overall, I like the finished look. It's not one of my favourite manicures ever, but I do think it turned out OK. Also, I was really impressed by 'Southern Charm'.  This turned out to be an extremely natural looking neutral shade for me, as the colour is quite close to the colour of my natural nail bed. It's so fantastic! 

Pink and Blue Double Stamped Mani

Today's manicure is a reconfiguration of a manicure that I did earlier this year. During the 2015 Crackle Polish Challenge, I did a manicure called the 'Shattered Heart Mani'. It featured a crackle polish decal, glitter, and double stamping over a translucent polish base. Even though the main concept behind the manicure was to showcase the crackle polish decal, the feature that I ended up liking the most was the double stamped design that I used on my thumbnails. I even mentioned in that post that "I may have to do an entire mani like this!". Well, I finally ended up doing it!

Polishes Used	Plates Used
Nfu-Oh NFU JS30 (Royal Blue)	Bundle Monster Secret Garden Collection:
OPI ‘On Pinks & Needles’	BM-721
OPI ‘I Saw… U Saw… We Saw… Warsaw’	Pueen Love Elements Collection:
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri ‘Presto Pink’	PUEEN41

In order to switch things up a bit, I used a blue jelly polish from Nfu-Oh's Jelly Syrup Series as the base, and a dark blue polish ('I Saw...' from OPI's Spring 2013 Euro Centrale Collection) for the first layer of the stamping design. Also, for the first layer of stamping, I used a different stamping plate from the one I used the first time around. The polish and plate that I used for the top layer of stamping were the exact same as the original manicure.

I wanted to do something a little different for my ring finger, so instead of stamping the pink top layer over the blue base, I used an awesome pink matte glitter polish from OPI's Brights 2015 Collection called 'On Pinks and Needles'. The shade of pink of the glitters, and of the stamping polish are almost a perfect match!

I really love how this look turned out! I don't like to repeat looks, but I don't think I'm quite done with this particular style just yet. I would like to try a version with brighter colours, and perhaps experiment a bit more with different combinations of patterns that will work well together! 

Purple Water Marble and Stamping Mani

Today, I have yet another water marble decal mani to share:

Purple Water Marble and Stamping Mani

Polishes Used:
Finger Paints 'Violaceous Vase'
NYC 'Water Street Blue'
China Glaze 'Lotus Begin'
NYC 'Sidewalkers'
NYC 'Prince Street'
NYC 'NY Blues'

Plate Used:
Pueen PUEEN 57

I really love the colour palette of this manicure!  Lotus begin is such a lovely light purple, and the other colours work beautifully with it! It was also really fun to do a multi-coloured stamp for the first time in a while. I used the effect on my middle finger, and I love the way it turned out!

Crackle Polish Challenge #12 - Red Shatter Tip Valentine Mani

2015 Crackle Polish Challenge Manicure #12

Featured crackle application:
Using crackle polish to embellish nail tips

Featured crackle polish:
Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat 'Cherry Smash'

Red Shatter Tip Valentine Mani

Polishes Used:

Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat 'Cherry Smash'

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure 'Strawberry Shields'

China Glaze 'Love Letters'

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'Cherry Red' 

Plates Used:

Moyou London Festive Collection - 20

PUEEN43

Polishes Used

Today I have one final Valentine's day Mani to share for this year. Still keeping with the Crackle Polish Challenge, I used red shatter polish to decorate my nail tips. One thing that I really like about using shatter polish this way, is that you don't have to be as careful when polishing your nail tips as you would normally have to be for a traditional French manicure. Actually, this is the main reason that I don't do a lot of tip designs or French manicures on this blog - I rarely have the patience for that!

I could definitely see myself trying this shatter tip mani again with my white shatter polish, or maybe even trying to layer a different coloured shatter polish over a traditional white French tip.

Bye for now, and Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Crackle Polish Challenge #9 - Negative Space Stamping over Pink on Pink Shatter

2015 Crackle Polish Challenge Manicure #9

Featured crackle application:
Stamping a negative space image over a background of crackle polish so that the objects created by the stamped image end up crackle patterned.

Featured crackle polish:
China Glaze's Crackle Glaze in 'Broken Hearted'

Negative Space Stamping over Pink on Pink Shatter

Polishes Used:

China Glaze Crackle Glaze 'Broken Hearted'

OPI 'Pink Friday'

Konad Special Polish in Black

Plate Used:

PUEEN55

I really like the finished look of this mani. This manicure also gave me some new insight on how to take better advantage of the negative space etched images in my stamping plate collection. I usually don't use those images on my plates, because previously, I never really clued in to the advantages of stamping the background colour polish over most of the foreground colour polish except for the design you want, when usually you could just as easily stamp the design in the foreground colour over the background colour. 

Now, I finally get it! Negative space stamping gives you more possibilities, because it allows you to use a pattern or texture as your base coat, or maybe even a sheer colour, (or anything else that is difficult to stamp over another colour), and have that ultimately be the pattern/texture/colour of the design. For example, if I wanted to get the same look of today's mani, without negative space stamping, I would have to stamp crackled hearts over a black background. To do this, I would have to first make sure that the light pink polish was opaque enough that the black won't show through it, (or use multiple coats of the light pink, which would present even more of a technical challenge), stamp light pink hearts over the black, and then apply the crackle polish individually to each heart. That would be way more time consuming, and might not even work without the right light pink polish!

Another interesting technical thing I did with this mani, was using thin, short strokes when I applied the crackle polish, so the cracks would be finer. This way, the smaller cracks would look more proportional on the small hearts. 

Here's a variation of this manicure that I did on my left hand:

Negative Space Stamping over Pink on Pink Shatter - Variation

Originally, I didn't want to have a lot of contrast in my final design, so instead of using black polish, I tried to stamp a silver polish, China Glaze 'I'd Melt for You', over the pink on pink crackle base. That didn't quite work out, because there was not enough contrast! In order to salvage the design (I really didn't want to have to start all over again) I ended up stamping a heart outline image from plate PUEEN41 over it. By the way, this is what I call a 'peace sign' mani, because the index and middle fingers, the fingers used to make a peace sign, are different than the rest of the nails - now, I'm not sure if anyone else uses this term, but that's how I think about it!

Polishes Used

Crackle Polish Challenge #7 - Shattered Heart Mani

2015 Crackle Polish Challenge Manicure #7

Featured crackle application:
Using crackle polish to make a decal

Featured crackle polish:
Sally Hansen's Crackle Overcoat in 'Fuchsia Shock'

Polishes Used:
Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat in 'Fuchsia Shock'
Sally Hansen 'Big Smoky Topcoat'
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'Rouge Rush'
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri 'Presto Pink'
China Glaze 'Feel the Breeze'

Plate Used:
Pueen Celebration Collection 'Fireworks Festival'
PUEEN41

Today's crackle technique involved making a stamping decal out of dried crackle polish.  To do this, I started by painting a couple coats of my base polish, 'Feel the Breeze', a light pink creme polish, over a stamper. When that was fully dry, I painted a layer of 'Fuchsia Shock' over it, and allowed that to dry.  When the stamper was completely dry, I carefully peeled off the polish, and then cut two heart shapes out of the dried polish.

After painting my nails with the sheer black polish, 'Big Smoky Top Coat', I placed the decals over the slightly wet nails, and then added a layer of topcoat in order to get the decal to adhere to my nail. I finished up with a little stamping, glitter, and rhinestones on my other nails.

On the bottom right corner of the collage, you can see a variation of the decal that I did on my right hand. Not only is the heart decorated with shatter nail polish, but this heart is also cracked into three pieces, and slightly separated to reinforce the shattered heart theme. I really like this variation because it takes advantage of one of the special features of decals - you can manipulate their shape, and placement.

All in all, I really like how this mani turned out. I love how the shards of 'Rouge Rush' glitter echo the 'shattered' theme, as well as how awesome-looking the double stamping on my thumb turned out - I may have to do an entire mani like this! I also think that this use of shatter polish really does add something special to the overall look of the mani.

From the Vault: Light Pink and Black Mani

Here's another manicure I did a while back.

Light Pink and Black Mani

The stamping was done with an image from Pueen plate PUEEN23.  However, I no longer remember which polishes I used. I like how this turned out. The overall look kind of reminds me of a luxurious wallpaper - the print is just so amazing! I've always loved how the images from the Pueen plates are so elegant and beautiful, and this one is no exception!

Pink, White and Silver Mani

This manicure is the end result of one of those times when I knew I had to do my nails, but I had no idea what I wanted to do with them! I ended up taking a look at some of my untried polishes for inspiration. I eventually decided I wanted to use one of my pink untrieds, as well as an OPI 'liquid sand' polish that I had just purchased. So here's what I came up with:

Pink, White and Silver Mani

I used China glaze 'White on White' for the base polish on all fingers except for my ring finger. I also used OPI's Liquid Sand 'It's Frosty Outside' on my ring finger. I used China Glaze's 'Flip Flop Fantasy' (new formula) and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in 'Silver Sweep' to do the stamping and dotting over the white nails.  The stamping plates I used were PUEEN04, and Moyou London's Explorer Collection 22.  I also used one nail art rhinestone for my thumb.

This was my first experience with an OPI Liquid Sand polish. Personally, I'm not a big fan of textured nail polishes, so initially, I had decided to pass on these polishes. But then I saw a picture of a manicure someone did using 'It's Frosty Outside' and thought it looked so sparkly and opulent! That swayed me into buying one to try it out.

Now that I've tried it, I think that in real life, this polish seems a little more dull on the hand than it does in pictures. In pictures, it looks like a layer of crushed sparkly diamonds, but in real life it seems kind of like light gray sandpaper with pieces of silver glitter throughout. From the name, I guess that is what they were going for, and it is actually an interesting look, but it's just not as shiny and blingy as I hoped. I'm tempted to try a layer of topcoat, even though the tag on the bottle says not to.

As for the other (previously) untried polish, Flip Flop Fantasy, I'm very pleased with how bright and fun the color is. In fact, it has inspired a great idea for my next manicure, ensuring that for my next mani I won't be in the same predicament I found myself in when I started this one! Stay tuned...

Pueen Encore SE03B Test Mani

Today I have a test mani to share.  I was playing around with my new Pueen Encore set, and decided to test out plate SE03B.

Pueen Encore SE03B Test Mani - Left Hand

Pueen Encore SE03B Test Mani - Right Hand

The base colour is Sally Hansen's Silver Sweep, and the stamping polish is Rimmel's Black Satin.

I really like this plate, and I'm excited to use the rest of the set too. As always, Pueen has delivered an elegantly designed set of plates, full of beautiful images!  I can see myself using these plates as a quick and easy way to spice up a basic manicure - something to use when you want to take a non-stamped mani to the next level, without all the effort of lining things up, doing decals, using multiple colours, etc. 

Of course, there are elements of these plates that can lend themselves to being used for more advanced stamping techniques, however I find the patterns so beautiful in their own right, that you can have an equally impressive manicure by letting the images speak for themselves. 

Muted Mani Fail!

Today's manicure was so unsuccessful, I can only show you the 2 fingers that came out the best!

Muted Mani

This started as an emergency manicure. My previous 'Tulip Themed' nails started chipping a tiny bit on day 3 of the manicure, and I couldn't stop myself from peeling off the chipped nail polish (a terrible habit, I know!). This left me with a completely jacked up mani that had to be addressed!

I kind of expected my tulip mani to last about a week, since I noticed that all of my other leadlight manicures lasted about that long. So I really hadn't counted on doing my nails so soon after spending all of that time on them just 3 days before.  I was so reluctant to do a new mani that I kept putting it off.   By the time I finally got around to it, it was late and I was really tired. This was definitely not the best time to experience technical stamping difficulties! 

I was trying to stamp Sally Hansen's Color Foil in 'Yellow Gold" over Essie's "Playa del Platinum"  (after the bright colors of the tulip mani, I wanted something calm and muted for my next one). I was using an image from PUEEN11. I was having major problems trying to consistently get the image to pick up perfectly.  Most of my attempts had missing areas, or the edges weren't crisp. I think it was because the Sally Hansen polish dries quite fast, so you have to work quickly. Perhaps it also helps to use more deeply etched image plates with these fast drying polishes. I'm guessing that with deeper etching, you won't have to worry so much about taking away too much polish with your swipes, which might give you that extra little bit of time you need to pick up the image cleanly. I've also noticed that you can't slack as much on technique when you're not using deep images. For example, I find that you can't get away with not cleaning the plate after every transfer! I'm going to have to experiment a bit more with all of these theories on a day when I have more time and patience.

Anyways, my nails didn't end up looking horrible - just not good enough to be memorialized on this blog! And they definitely looked a heck of a lot better than the semi-peeled off mess I had before, so I still rocked the mani for the last 2 days of my work week.

Pink and Green Mani using Leadlight Technique

Today's nail art was time-consuming, but worth the effort.

Some time ago, I watched a YouTube video by Messy Mansion on how to do the leadlight technique, and have been obsessed ever since! This is only my second ever manicure using the technique, so it's not perfect, but I still love how it turned out. I love being able to incorporate multiple colours into my stamping. 

I used the following polishes to achieve this look:

Base of the mani:
NYC French Tip White stamped with Rimmel Black Satin (using Pueen24)
Leadlighting effect:
Nfu Oh Jelly Syrup series polishes NFU JS17 (pistachio green), NFU JS24 (fuchsia), NFU JS34 (forest green), NFU JS36 (olive green), and OPI Be Magentale With Me
Base coat and top coat:
Pro-FX Protein enriched base coat and revitalizer, and Pro-FX Quick dry high gloss top coat.

I also used some fuchsia nail art rhinestones.

The part that took the longest was filling in all of the little dots with a dotting tool.  I doubt that I'll ever do a repeat of this mani, just because of how long it took.  Maybe I'd use this pattern for an accent nail or two, but at this point, I'm not looking forward to colouring hundreds of little dots on all 10 nails ever again! LOL!