Sunday, September 30, 2018

Purple and Gold Mani using Revlon 'Plum Attraction'

The manicure that I am sharing today was really quick and easy to do:

Purple nails stamped with images from Lina Nail Art Supplies plate 'Make Your Mark - 04'.
Purple and Gold Manicure featuring Revlon 'Plum Attraction'

This look is a basic manicure with a couple of stamped images. For the stamping I used images from Lina Nail Art Supplies stamping plate 'Make Your Mark - 04'.  The ring finger was double stamped with 2 images for added texture.  I used my favourite gold polish for stamping, Sally Hansen Color Foils in 'Liquid Gold'.

Revlon 762 'Plum Attraction', and Sally Hansen Color Foils 'Liquid Gold'
Polishes Used
I wanted to do something simple for this manicure, because I really like the plum base polish I used (Revlon 'Plum Attraction'), and wanted it to show through.

Polishes Used
Revlon 'Plum Attraction' (762)
Sally Hansen Color Foil 'Liquid Gold'

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Blue and Gold manicure using Quo by Orly 'Celestial Star'

Today I have a quick 'remix mani' to share:



Polishes Used
Quo by Orly 'Celestial Star'
Sally Hansen Color Foil 'Yellow Gold'


I kept my ring finger the same from my previous 'Venetian Marble Mani', and painted over the other fingers with a deep blue sparkly polish from Quo by Orly, called 'Celestial Star'. I did a bit of stamping on the thumb (not shown), and middle finger, using an image from Bundle Monster + Magically Polished Collaboration plate BM-XL205. The polish I stamped with was Sally Hansen Color Foil in 'Yellow Gold'.  I also embellished the middle finger by painting a diagonal section in gold over the stamp, and then dotting along the edge with the blue polish.

This was one of those situations when my previous manicure was showing a bit of chipping on a few nails, but I didn't feel like removing my nail polish and starting fresh with a new manicure. Hence the remix mani, where I salvage or touch up any nails that still look fine, and paint over and/or embellish the rest!

I believe that the 'Celestial Star' polish was also untried, so I'm happy that I got to use it. I bought it years ago, along with 2 others from the same collection (the others were called 'Turquoise Moonlight', and 'Night Sky'). From what I can see on line, it looks like they came out around 2011. I noticed the polishes when I was organizing my collection recently. All 3 of them looked like they were thickening and evaporating in the bottles, even though I don't recall ever having used them (I may have years ago, and forgotten perhaps?), and the bottles seemed to be completely closed. I noticed this with a few other glitters, foils, and crackles. It seems that my creme polishes hold up relatively well over the years, but on occasion, some of the special effect polishes will thicken and/or dry out.

In addition to the 3 Quo by Orly polishes I just mentioned, I found 7 others that this appeared to be happening to. I put them aside to do a 'Project Polish' with - a challenge to use them up within a certain time period by putting them into heavy rotation. This may be a little tricky though, since they are all special effect polishes. I'm going to have to get creative to still be able to incorporate nail art while using polishes as my manicure base! I'll try to do a more detailed post later with pictures of the polishes.

Sunday, September 16, 2018

Venetian Marble Mani

Today's manicure is a really fun look I did using a stamped marble image, and three polishes from OPI's Venice Collection from fall/winter 2015. I'm calling it my Venetian Marble Mani.

White, black, and gold manicure with nail stamped images simulating striations in marble. Gold, ring finger accent nail with a light blue accent gem.
Venetian Marble Manicure
Polishes Used
OPI 'My Gondola or Yours?'
OPI 'Baroque... But Still Shopping!'
OPI 'I Cannoli Wear OPI'

For this manicure, I started with a white base of OPI's 'I Cannoli Wear OPI' on all of my nails except for my ring finger. I then used Moyou London nail stamping plate 'Let's Nail Moscow X MYL 01' to stamp the marble striations in black using OPI's 'My Gondola or Yours?'. For my ring finger accent nail, I used OPI's 'Baroque... But Still Shopping!', and finished it off by centering a small light blue gem at the base of the nail.

OPI  Polishes: 'My Gondola or Yours?', 'Baroque... But Still Shopping!', and 'I Cannoli Wear OPI'
Polishes Used

I really like how this one turned out, however if I had to do it again, I would like to try double stamping another marble image with some gold polish on the white and black nails, to simulate gold veining in the marble. I would also like to play around with either top-coating the stamped nails with a white crelly polish to slightly cover the stamped image, or mixing grey and black polish on the plate to get a more mottled uneven effect with the darker lines. I think these changes would add a bit more dimension to the look.

All in all, I'm quite pleased with the look - and I even got a couple of compliments too! 

Saturday, September 15, 2018

Pink, Grey, and Silver Manicure

For today's post, I have an impromptu mani from a few weeks ago.  I wasn't able to get a really great photograph of the manicure itself, but I really like the colour combination I used, so I wanted to share that aspect of the mani. Here's a shot of the polishes:

picture of Revlon 'Flirt', KB Shimmer 'Elle', and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'Silver Sweep'
Polishes Used
Polishes Used
Revlon 'Flirt'
KB Shimmer 'Elle'
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri 'Silver Sweep'

Basically, the manicure was Revlon 'Flirt' on my pinky, middle, and pointer fingers, with KB Shimmer 'Elle' on my thumb and ring finger. On my middle finger, I did a simple stamped motif from one of the images on Moyou London nail stamping plate 'Minimal' - 03. The image was stamped using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri 'Silver Sweep'. I cropped a small portion of one of the better shots I was able to get of the mani, and posted it below.


In the photo, you can just barely see the silver stamped image on the pink base covering my middle finger. You can also see my ring finger, painted with KB shimmer's 'Elle'. 'Flirt' is a very blue-based shade of pink, and it looks so lovely with 'Elle', a grey crelly polish with lots of pink and silver glitters. The small silver stamped accent helped bring the look together even more by complementing the silver glitters in 'Elle'.

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Blue and Gold Mani with Water Marble Decal Accent

Well, hello!  It's been a while, but I'm finally back.  I really can't believe how quickly time flies - one minute you're in the groove of updating your blog, and the next, over 2 years have passed since you last posted! As I explained in my 'Nail Polish Declutter' post, I had been taking a hiatus from nail art. I recently decided to try to get back into it again, so I'm restarting this blog to journal my journey.

Manicure with electric blue and gold nail polish, and purple, grey, teal, and blue, water marble decal accent nail with gold and electric blue dots.
Blue and Gold Mani with Water Marble Decal Accent

The picture above is a quick manicure I did using two Orly polishes from my collection that caught my eye ('Luxe' and 'Sweet Peacock'), and one of the water marble decals I made in my 'Water Marbling Made Easy' post over 3 years ago (yes, it was one of the exact same decals I made that long ago - they really hold up well when carefully stored away between sheets of paper towel!). To jazz up the look, I made a diagonal stripe of gold on the thumbnail, and used a dotting tool to make contrasting dots and rings on some of my nails. Not bad for my first attempt at nail art in what feels like ages!

I actually did this look a few weeks ago, but it took me a while to post it. I'm working with all different equipment from the last time I posted, so it took some time to get all my files, gear and programs together to be able to start blogging again.

Orly 'Luxe' and 'Sweet Peacock'
Polishes Used: Orly polishes 'Luxe' and 'Sweet Peacock'
All in all, I'm happy with the way this look turned out. I'm also really looking forward to posting new looks in the future!