Red, Black and Gold Glitter Mani

Now that the summer is over and I've been spending less time in the garden, I managed to get some nail art done! 

The inspiration for this mani all started with me wanting really bright red nails.  After scouring my collection for the brightest reds, I finally settled on Essie's 'Fifth Avenue'.  I then came across Pure Ice 'Studette', a gold glitter polish with small amounts of red glitter mixed in.  I decided to pair the two by making a gold glitter decal in a fun shape, and applying it over the red polish on my ring finger to accent the nail... I really just wanted to do a simple look after not having done a lot of nail art for a couple months!

I decided to go with a thin gold glitter triangle that stretched from the tip to the base of the nail. I executed the design perfectly, and was in awe at the stunning accent! Unfortunately, I would only be able to enjoy the design for a few minutes - while it was drying, I accidentally smudged my nail while reaching for something!  I was so disappointed! I decided to try to salvage what I could, and to take the opportunity to push the design further. 

Luckily, the decal itself wasn't ruined, just the red portion on one side of the decal was smudged. I carefully removed the red polish from that side, and masked the (now dry) unblemished portion of the nail. Then I added a black polish, 'Never Have Too Mani Friends!' from the original OPI 'Hello Kitty' collection. It worked, and looked even better than the original design! I'm glad I didn't give up! Inspired by the new improved accent, I then went on to add more black and gold accents to the rest of the nails to tie everything together. In the end, I am so pleased with how the final look turned out!

The final look reminds me of the face cards in a deck of cards - it's all of the bold geometric shapes and the combination of red, black and gold. This mani would be a great look for a poker tournament! If I wanted to run with the playing card theme, a matte topcoat, and maybe a club, diamond, heart or spade nail stamp on the thumb instead of the gold and black circle would have been a nice touch... Wow, looks like once those creative juices start flowing, they never want to stop - here I am still designing the mani, after it's already complete! 😂  

Above, I have a collage of the polishes used, and below, I have a collage with some additional shots of the manicure.

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...