Green Plaid Manicure

I decided to do a green plaid manicure as a warm-up to St Patrick's Day. Here's what I came up with:

For the plaid nails, I used Zoya 'Ireland' as the base, and I double-stamped plaid images from my UberChic Beauty stamping plate, 'Pretty in Plaid 2'. For the stamping, I used Zoya 'Hunter', and then Sally Hansen Color Foil 'Liquid Gold'. I did a sparkly hunter green accent nail on my ring finger, using Morgan Taylor 'Mistress of Mayhem', from their Fall 2020 'Disney Villains' collection. I also did a gold accent nail on my middle finger, using Rimmel 'Dazzle'.

To finish off the mani, I put on a layer of glossy topcoat - but then I decided it would look better matte! I then carefully applied a mattifying topcoat, trying to avoid putting it over the gold stamping,  so that the gold would still be super shiny.

All in all, I'm really happy with how this mani turned out. I purchased the 'Pretty in Plaid 2' plate relatively recently, and ever since, I've been wanting to do more plaid manicures. I'm glad that I was able to incorporate some plaid into this one!

Zoya 'Carmen'

 This gorgeous polish is Zoya's 'Carmen':

Zoya's website describes Carmen like this: "a bright, clean medium true red in a glossy creme finish. You can't go wrong with this classic red." The polish has a slightly translucent, crelly(ish) formula. My lighting in the photo above makes this swatch look a lot brighter, and more of a 'poppy red' than it actually is. It really is a true, neutral red as the website describes. My thumbnail in the label shot photo below is a much closer representation of how this shade looks in real life.

Fun Fact: You'll notice in the label shot picture that Carmen has the distinction of being colour ZP001 - polish number one in Zoya's numbering system. I couldn't find an official source for this info, but the rumours on line suggest that this was possibly Zoya's first polish, or perhaps we can speculate that it was at least released in it's initial launch? Anyhow, as someone who loves the odd bit of polish history, I found this interesting!

Zoya 'Mae'

For today's manicure, I did a swatch of Zoya's 'Mae':

Zoya's website describes the polish as a "warm magenta pink with a micronized metallic pearl finish, reminiscent of vibrant Mediterranian flowers". I love how fun and girly this polish is! This is a great 'Monday Morning' polish, that helps bring a little cheer to the start of the work-week! Now that many people are working from home, I guess every polish is now 'work-appropriate' - so why not go for colours that bring a smile to your face! 😄

 

Jelly Polishes for Leadlight Manicures

I started writing this post on January 29 2015, and it has been in my Draft folder ever since! I wanted to go through my entire collection and compile a large list of my jelly polishes and take pictures so that I could catalogue them for easy retrieval when needed. I realize now that I'm probably never going to get around to doing that! With my previous post on the Essie 'Glazed Days' Collection, I thought I would finally just publish this post, even though it is not a comprehensive list, as the information may still be useful, since some of these polishes are still available.

Today's post is all about polishes that can be used for Leadlight manicures. 'Leadlighting' is a nail stamping technique where coloured, translucent polishes (jellies, and tints) are painted over stamped outlines, usually in a dark colour, over a white or light coloured base. It allows for the creation of multi-coloured images on the nail. The pros of leadlighting are that compared to the decal method, the other popular method of creating multicoloured stamped images, it is much quicker, because the colours are applied directly to the nail, as opposed to a stamper.

I first learned this technique from a you-tube video posted by Messy Mansion in spring 2014. Back then, I only had a few jelly polishes in my collection.  I immediately started researching and store-hunting for a variety of jellies that I could use for this technique. Today, I want to share some of what I have found.

1) Create your own
A lot of people have shared that you can create jelly polishes by adding clear nail polish to other polishes already in your collection. They can be mixed as required by combining a few drops of each on a piece of saran wrap, plastic, or whatever un-needed flat surface you have handy. This way you do not have to mix up an entire bottle of jelly polish, if you only need a little bit for some nail art. I have never personally tried this technique, but I have seen it successfully done in manicure tutorials on-line.

2) OPI Sheer tints
This collection came out in spring or summer 2014, just as the leadlight technique was really catching on in the nail art community.  They are lightly pigmented, so although they work beautifully for the technique, the colours you get tend to be pastel shades.  You might be able to build the colour intensity with multiple coats, but, you may end up with a lumpy surface. The colours are 'I'm Never Aberrassed', 'Be Magentale with Me', 'Don't Violet Me Down', and 'I Can Teal You Like Me'.

3) NFU OH Jelly Syrup Series
I'm not sure exactly when, but a quick internet search leads me to believe that it was sometime in either late 2010 or early 2011, that Nfu Oh came out with an entire collection of jelly polishes, containing a whopping 45 shades of jelly awesomeness! From my experience with the polishes from this series that I have in my collection, these polishes are very pigmented, and are fantastic for use in the leadlight technique.

4) China Glaze Summer 2013 Sunsational Collection
This collection included 6 jelly polishes: 'You Drive Me Coconuts', 'Heat Index', 'Shell-O', 'Keepin' it Teal', 'Isle See You Later', and 'Are You Jelly?'. These are gorgeous, bright, fun shades. They are not perfectly translucent, as they have a translucent white base, but I've found that they still work well for leadlight manicures.

5) OPI Color Paints collection (Summer 2015)
I did a comprehensive review of these polishes in an earlier post. Click here to view it.

6) Essie Silk Watercolor collection (Summer 2015)
This was a collection of 8 jelly polishes and a white base. The colours were:
'Highest Bidder' - Crimson
'Blush Stroke' - Scarlet
'Love Sheen' - Rose
'Art New-Beau' - Orange
'Muse, Myself' - Citrus
'Pen & Inky' - Teal
'Point of Blue' - Blue
'No Shrinking Violet' - Violet
'White Page' - White base polish

7) Some examples of random Jelly Polishes sorted by colour:
Red:  Essie Jelly Apple Burgundy: China Glaze 'Ravishing, Dahling'
Orange: OPI Big Hair...Big Nails, OPI 'Y'all Come Back Ya Hear?'
Yellow: Deborah Lippmann 'Yellow Brick Road'
Turquoise: Zoya 'Frida'
Blue: China Glaze 'Ride the Waves', and 'Splish Splash'
Purple: Zoya 'Katherine', and China Glaze 'Creative Fantasy'
Pink: Misa 'Bed of Roses'
White: OPI 'Don't Touch My Tutu', and 'Funny Bunny'

8) Essie Glazed Days Collection, Summer 2019
I did a comprehensive review of these polishes in an earlier post. Click here to view it.

Zoya 'Alegra'

Today's post features a manicure using Zoya's 'Alegra':

This polish first came out in Zoya's Summer 2010 'Sparkle' Collection, however, I got it during Zoya's last black Friday sale as part of the 'Fa La La La La' Holiday Quad Gift Set. It came with 3 other polishes: 'Dakota', 'Sarah', and 'Veronica'.

In real life, the polish was a bit more sparkly, and a bit more pink-leaning than it appears in the photo.

Zoya's website describes it as "a fuchsia pink sparkling metallic".

The colour, and the formula were great, and I think the shade complemented my skin tone rather well - I find this to be true for most jewel tones. Overall, I really enjoyed wearing this polish!

Zoya 'Amy'

Today's manicure feature's Zoya 'Amy':

On Zoya's website, they describe 'Amy' as "a full-coverage, red orange foil metallic".  It originally came out in Zoya's Summer 2013 'Irresistable' collection which featured 6 metallic foil polishes.

'Amy' is absolutely mesmerizing. It's glowy, shimmery, sparkly...  it's everything! I've been doing a lot of simple manicures lately, with no nail art or embellishments, but even so, I haven't been bored because of colours like this. Colours so lively and eye-catching that they can truly shine - even on their own. Needless to say, I loved wearing this polish!

Zoya 'Cole'

Today I have a simple manicure to share. This is Zoya's 'Cole':

This is a warm, peach pastel shade which is perfect for springtime. I really like how soft and pretty  this colour looks. I really enjoyed wearing it!  I also think it would look nice with a little bit of gold stamping as an accent. 

Adjacent Color Scheme Skittles Mani (Blueprint only)

Today I have the blueprint of a manicure to share, but not the manicure itself.  Sadly, I didn't get to take a picture of the actual manicure, however I did get a picture of the polishes that I used.

What happened? Well, I did my manicure, and then took a picture of the polishes that I used so that I could put the polishes away. I was planning to take a picture of my manicure later, after I had done some clean up on my cuticles. Unfortunately, I never got around to taking the picture! I figured I'd put the polish picture up anyways because one of the main reasons for this blog has always been to keep track of my various manicure ideas and looks, as well as to share the results. Unfortunately, I don't have the results for this post, but it was still a pretty good idea that turned out well, so I figure that it's worth noting.

Anyways, it was a skittles mani created with the following polishes (in the same order from thumb to pinky):

The polishes I used were: OPI 'Ski Teal we Drop', Zoya 'Meg', Zoya 'Elphie' (PixieDust), Zoya 'Ryan' and Zoya 'Waverly' (PixieDust). I quite liked how the colours looked together, and I remember being really taken with how lovely the textured polishes, Elphie and Waverly, looked. I only wear textured polishes occasionally, so it was a nice change for me.

Crackle Polish Challenge #8 - Teal and Gold Crackle Sandwich

2015 Crackle Polish Challenge Manicure #8

Featured crackle application:
Using crackle polish and jelly polish to make a 'crackle sandwich'

Featured crackle polish:
Sally Hansen's Crackle Overcoat in 'Antiqued Gold'

Teal and Gold Crackle Sandwich

Polishes Used:
Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat 'Antiqued Gold'
Sally Hansen Color Foil 'Liquid Gold'
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure 'Mermaid's Tale'
Zoya 'Frida'

Polishes Used

Plate Used:
Konad M70

This 'Crackle Sandwich' was created by sandwiching a staircase shaped application of 'Antiqued Gold' in between 2 layers of 'Frida'. The ring finger accent nail was done with a base coat of 'Mermaid's Tale' stamped with the scribble image from Konad M70, using 'Liquid Gold'.

I really love this manicure! So far, based on the results of this challenge, I'm pretty sold on the idea of keeping all of my metallic crackle polishes handy for nail art.  I've been especially impressed with both of the gold crackles that I've used, this one, and the Nicole by OPI shatter from this post.

I think this sandwich technique really updates the crackle look by toning it down a bit, but still letting the texture shine through.This is something that I can definitely see myself trying again!

Verdigris Mani

Today’s manicure was inspired by ‘rusting’ copper. If you've ever found an old penny that had been exposed to a winter’s worth of melted snow and rock salt, perhaps on the ground or on the floor of a car, you may have noticed the pretty shade of light blue-green patina that forms on its surface.  This is called verdigris, and it’s one of nature’s more beautiful forms of destruction! I've always loved the combination of copper and light blue because of this phenomenon.  Here’s the manicure I created based on it:

Verdigris Manicure

To create this look, I used Revlon Brilliant Strength in ‘Captivate’ as the copper base coat, Color Club ‘Blue-Ming’ as the verdigris, and Konad Special Polish in White as an accent. To create the ‘splotch’ effect on my nails, I used a full nail image from Bunny Nails' (Halloween-themed) plate HD-C, and the crest on my ring finger was done with a decal image from Messy Mansion plate MM18, ‘Shabby Chic’.

Polishes Used:
Revlon 'Captivate' and Color Club 'Blue-Ming'

This is my favourite verdigris manicure to date. Around 3 years ago, I tried to do a similar mani using China Glaze’s Crackle Glaze in ‘Crushed Candy’, a blue crackle polish, and Zoya’s ‘Penny’. I actually went back and found the picture to do a comparison.  Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I took a picture while it was fresh, so the one I found has major chipping and wear. Also, this was well before I had started stamping, and learned very many nail art techniques. 

Verdigris Manicure Comparison: Original vs Current Versions

Back then, I remember being thrilled about the manicure, which is why I wore it so long, and took a picture! Over the years, I've always remembered it as one of my favourite looks from the past.  I’m so happy to be able to improve upon it with some of the techniques I've learned over the last few years (but mainly in the last 10 months or so since I started stamping).  Who knows, as I continue practicing and picking up more skills and techniques, maybe I’ll have to revisit this mani in a few years time to showcase even more improvements!