Beige Menagerie

I just bought a gorgeous new nude from OPI's Euro Centrale collection and wanted to try it out with something a bit lighter on my nails after last week's mani.

I started with 3 coats of OPI My Vampire is Buff. The formula is very streaky and could maybe have used a 4th coat to even it out, but the nude color is a gorgeous very light cream leaning a little peachy.

I normally don't like too many different designs on my nails, but I have so many nail art supplies I want to use that I decided to use a few of them today. To my index and middle fingers I added some 3d nail art stickers. My ring finger I did with a small dotting tool and Quo by Orly First Class. I used the same color to do a line of dots at the tip of my thumb. On my pinky I added two coats of Essence space queen, which is small opalescent glitter in a clear base. 

It's a bit hard to see in the pictures, but you can see if you look closely at my pinky above that I also wrapped my tips with First Class, which adds a gorgeous bit of copper mystery to the ends. I topped the whole mani with OPI rapid dry.

I'm loving the combination of the nude with the copper and the sparkle! 

See you again soon!

Holo Birthday to Me

What kind of nail blogger would I be if I didn't put on a fresh manicure for my birthday? I knew I wanted something dramatic and sparkly!

I started a base of Essence Date in the Moonlight. It's a gorgeous dark navy with blue shimmer and it was opaque in only 2 coats. The shimmer is quite subtle in most lights. 

Then I sponged on Nails inc Electric Lane Holographic Top Coat at the base of my nails. I used a round makeup sponged dipped in a small amount of electric lane and sponged on 2 or 3 layers and dabbed a little extra with the polish brush right at the cuticle. Below you can see how the sponging changes the texture of the polish before top coat. 

Left: With top coat Middle, Right: After sponging, before top coat

I put tape around the edges of my nails to save myself cleaning up glitter off my fingers forever. Below you can see the scattered holo of the sponging. In some lights it looks light it may even have a slight linear holo effect if you put it on thick enough. 

Of course, I finished the manicure with a coat of OPI Rapid Dry. 

Words cannot express how happy I am with this mani! I don't even think the pictures do its sparkly goodness justice. 

See you again soon!

My Cosmic Valentine

I've been really busy with school over the past few days, so I didn't get to post this manicure on Valentine's day when I put it on.
I'm not really a candy hearts and pink flowers kinda girl, so I went with a bit of a different homage to Valentine's.
I used 3 coats of OPI's Vanilla-zuela for the base; 4 coats on the accent nails (thumb and ring). It's very sheer and the layers pull easily. It would take at least 4 coats to wear this on its own.

I stamped the accent nails with A England Bridal Veil and BM plate 221, some flowers in tribute to V-day. Maybe because of the shimmer in Bridal Veil the stamping looks almost grey in some places in real life. I topped it with a coat of Essie Matte About You. 

On the rest of my nails I water marbled with Bridal Veil, Essence Fame Fatal (my little pop of red for V-day) and a taupey-beige by NYX, slightly more brown than Vanilla-zuela. 

I had a terrible time getting my water marbling to turn out the way I wanted, particularly on my left hand, which luckily, you don't see. You do see a bit of the extra polish in the water getting stuck to the tip of my index finger below. I do love the shimmer of Bridal Veil in the water marble though.

Finished the water marbled nails with a coat of my favorite OPI rapid dry top coat. The beige didn't show up all that well in the marbling; it got kinda of overtaken by sheer black shimmer. I might leave it out next time if I didn't have a beige accent nail. 

I'm calling it My Cosmic Valentine, because when I look at my hands, it makes me think of what space would look like from Jupiter's big red spot. Anyone else or is that just the science nerd in me?

See you again soon!

Blue Zebra Stamping

I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do today when I started doing my nails. I was pretty sure that I wanted to use grey and China Glaze Deviantly Daring. I started by testing bases. I started with a coat of Essence Grey-t to be Here. It's a gorgeous light grey with pink shimmer, but it went on very sheer so I wasn't sure I wanted to find out how many coats it would take to become opaque. Then I decided to try China Glaze Recycle. After one coat I could see it was darker than I wanted, so I finally decided to do 1 coat of the Essence over 1 coat of the China Glaze. 

Left to right: 1 coat Grey-t to be Here, 1 coat China Glaze Recycle, 1 coat GtbH over 1 coat recycle

You can't really tell in the picture below, but the grey base was a bit patchier than I would have liked and probably could have used a second coat of GtbH. Then once I started stamping with Deviantly Daring I didn't like the contrast, or lack thereof. You can see on my pinky the shades were too close in depth for my liking. So I did something I almost never do ... I took it all off and started over.

I used only Essence for the base this time and it was a perfect light grey with subtle pink shimmer and opaque enough after 3 coats. I also used a coat of OPI rapid dry top coat. 

3 coats Essence Grey-t to be Here

I used the same Bundle Monster plate for stamping, BM-223, but I chose a full nail image instead. Truth be told, I have just been waiting for an opportunity to stamp some zebra on my nails.

You can see I smudged the stamp a bit on my thumb, but the image was surprisingly easy to work with. If you're anything like me, some days the stamping goes exactly how you want and some days you can't get it to look good to save your life. Today was a good stamping day! And only my second try at using a full nail image. So if you're new to stamping, don't assume you are bad at it just because your stamps are being difficult that day.

Something I discovered as I was stamping this image was that I had to clean the plate about every 2-3 nails or polish would get built up in the sides of the image and the zebra stripes would get thinner and messier with each stamp. 

I would also recommend using an orange stick or anything with a thin flat edge to push the leftover stamp bits that stick onto your finger down into the crease between your nail and finger to make a clean break before you try to clean up, so that you don't end up peeling parts of the image off your nail. Then apply your favourite top coat. I used OPI rapid dry and be careful to apply it thick enough and not drag your brush over the same area too many times so you don't smudge your stamping.

I'm pretty excited about how this mani turned out, because I do love a good animal print. 

See you again soon!

Sparkling Sorbet

Maybe I should have saved this manicure for summer, since it makes me feel like my nails are covered in melted ice cream and dipped in sprinkles, but I couldn't wait to use another polish from A England.

I started with a coat of Nfu Oh Aqua Base to help cover the staining from a previous mani. For a base colour I used 2 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet and 2 coats of OPI Pink-ing of You on my ring finger. The Sally Hansen was a bit thick for my liking, which could be because I've had it a while, but it was opaque in 2 coats. The OPI could have used a 3rd coat, but with the glitter over top I didn't bother. 

I "sponged" A England She Walks in Beauty on the tips. I say "sponged" because when I'm working with glitter in a clear base, I don't actually sponge it on, but instead I just brush it on in a thin coat starting halfway down my nail. Then I do a second coat a third of the way down and then dab a little extra glitter right at the tip. 

Then I painted a stripe of She Walks in Beauty down the side of my ring finger. I topped it all off with a coat of OPI Rapid Dry and a couple pink rhinestones. 

I took a lot of pictures trying to capture the gorgeous sparkle of this mani. I still don't think any of them truly do it justice. She Walks in Beauty is a clear base packed with gold micro glitter that has flashes of green and almost a foil finish. It also contains pale pink small and medium hex glitter. It could probably be a one coater if you put on a thicker coat. 

Indoors, no flash

Sunlight

Under fluorescent lamp

I did a different accent nail on each hand. I couldn't decide which one I liked better, but I think this one without the rhinestones and with a coat of Essie's Matte About You is growing on me. Which do you prefer?

By incandescent lamp that shows off the pink glitter. 

See you again soon!