A step by step Zombie accent nail tutorial!
Here’s a quick picture tutorial on how I did my accent nail of the zombie manicure I’m currently rocking to celebrate the return of one of my favorite shows on tv right now; The Walking Dead!
1 – You’ll need 4 colors of acrylic paint for this. Black, White, Magenta and Green.
2 – Some fine nailart brushes and a fountain pen, if you’re careful with your topcoat you can also use a permanent fineliner pen for the black lines. The topcoat will smear this easily though, so please watch out if opting for that version!
3 – A tiny bit of water and I personally use a bit of plastic to mix my acrylic paints on.
4 – Start with a polished nail. I choose Catrice Planet Tokyo out of the current Neo Geisha collection because the idea for this manicure came off a set of shoes called Zombie Stompers by Iron Fist and those are a nice bright green. Wait until your nail is completely dry before working with the paints.
5 – Dab two rows of teeth, don’t be too precise, these are zombie teeth we’re talking about here! And also add two white splotches where the rotting pink flesh around the eyes will be, this will make the pink that we’re painting over it pop. Most colors in acrylic paints are a bit jelly like and the white will help them become opaque.
6 – Once the white is dry, paint the pink over the white splotches, you can be a bit messy if you want, it will only add to the rotting flesh effect.
7 – Once that bit is dry (and acrylic paint dries quite quickly if you don’t paint it on too thick) make two white circles for eyes.
8 – To add to the Zombies sickly green color use a bit of light green for a bit of contrast in the face and also highlights.
9 – After everything has dried the hard part comes. Thin your black acrylic paint and use it with your little fountain pen to add on the black. Again, don’t be too precise, the skin is yucky looking so a dot or line of extra black won’t matter too much. Just make sure the eyes, nostrils and teeth stand out and you already have quite the face. I made sure to add in cheekbones and the little lines over the teeth that you usually find in real skulls as well to add to the image of a creepy little zombie.
On my other nails you can see that I just painted a few stripes with foilglue and once that had dried I dabbed some glitter onto them and used my black acrylic paint to add some cracks and lines to kind of match my zombie’s face. But you don’t have to do that if that’s too much for you and you just want a little pet zombie on your nail.
And we’re done! I hope you’ll try this tutorial for yourself and you’ll show me how you did!
Posted in 2013, Acrylic paint, Black, Catrice, February, Glitter, Green, Links, Magenta, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Opaque, Oumaxi, White | 
7 CommentsMy Re-Cue Nailstickers came!
A few days ago I was lucky enough to win a lovely set of nail stickers through a little give away by a wonderful blogger called Mariëlle who runs Nailpolishheaven.nl. I was quickly sent a link to the Coolnails.nl website and from there I could pick the set I wanted to try out. And I had quite a hard time choosing because there are quite a few designs on there that I liked.
Eventually I picked the second set of designs on the page called “Christal flower 2002″ as it was so versatile and had many different little flowers and such that I could pick from for a few manicures.
I decided to take a few pictures as I was applying my stickers for the first time. By the way, was already wearing a nice coat of Ozotic 513 over one coat of Essence Colour and Change – Unexpected Galaxy which I had topcoated and was fully dry once I started working with these stickers.
- On the first picture you see how the stickers arrived to me, in their little package along with a kind note and a business card for the website they came from.
- Once I had them out of the package I decided to read the instructions on the back and to take out my trusty Tweezerman tweezers to take the stickers carefully off their backing.
- Because the stickers are very thin and do not have a very clear outline it took me a moment to take them off without deforming them, they are very frail and could tear or stretch easily.
- I put the sticker in place and you can see in this picture how I’ve already pressed it down on the left side, the right is not yet stuck to my nail and it looks more opaque like that.
- Once the sticker has been fully pressed down it goes a little see through, which is a beautiful effect I think.
- And voilá, the finished, top coated nails. Aren’t they lovely?
Do you wear nailstickers? If not, why not? I ask this because I normally don’t wear them, I always thought you’d be able to feel them through the topcoat, and I can’t stand it when the surface of my nail feels irregular. But these stickers are so thin that after using my beloved Seche Vite I can’t feel a thing and my nails feel as smooth as ever! I’m a fan!
Posted in 2013, Holographic, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nail Stickers, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Purple, White | 8 CommentsYou are not alone
Bullying is not funny. It is not cool. It is not right. And more importantly, it is not okay.
Most of us are thankfully residents of countries that support tolerance and many of our families have settled in these places simply for that reason. Generations later, it is our responsibility to perpetuate that message of tolerance across our new social platforms, including the internet.
As members of the nail polish community, we all share a love of beauty, color, and lacquer. Other than that, we are remarkably different: from our race to our religion to our hair color and even to our polish application techniques. To look down on anyone because of those differences is completely unacceptable and today I take a stand against that. I refuse to allow other people’s view of “normal” dictate how I behave, believe, and blog.
In solidarity with a multitude of bloggers linked below, my purple manicure represents my proud commitment to the No H8 movement. Today, November 8, I dedicate my post to ending bullying of any kind and to encouraging diversity and imperfection among our colorful community.
My experience with bullying, where do I start… and how do I tell, because honestly, it seems like I’ve stopped remembering it all.
I’ve never been a skinny girl, ever. And I’ve been bullied a lot because of that when I was a child and early teen. But because I felt my parents had gone through a lot already as they lost two children before having me, I decided never to tell them. I wanted to protect them but never had the courage to protect myself. Had I known what I know now, that not telling them and them finding out later hurt them even more, I of course would have told them all about it. But hindsight is always 20/20 right? Nothing I can do about it now and it still hurts them to this day that I kept quiet about it. That being said, I don’t think anyone deals with bullying easily, well maybe the bullies do, but certainly not the victims or their loved ones.
On to the manicure! Today I am wearing a purple nail polish gradient with a Lotus painted on it to show the victims of bullies that they’re not alone and that they too can grow past this moment. You see the ancient wisdom of the Hindus teaches that life has to be lived to evolve. Staying in deep slush if needed, like the lotus does, and using the same slush to evolve better and better, the mud the flower grows from slides off and will stay on the bottom as the lotus rises above it. The deeper the slush, better and stronger the flower.
If you are experiencing bullying of any kind, online or in real life, please know that there are people there to help and that you’re not alone. Hang in there, it will get better eventually, I promise.
StopBullying.gov
Report Cyber Bullying
National Suicide Prevention Hotline - 800.273.TALK (8255)
Eradicate H8
To add your own inlinks cluster, follow this link:http://www.inlinkz.com/script.php?id=209435&nojump=1&key=ILvt%2F7LV2mN4w and pick one of the codes provided to add to the HTML part of your blogpost.
Posted in 2013, Acrylic paint, Awareness, For a good cause, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, November, Purple | 19 CommentsWho will “Wear It Purple” with me on September 7th?
Wear It Purple is an organsation that aims to help gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer youth at risk. Wear It Purple day is when people worldwide are encourage to wear purple on a certain day to raise awareness of GLBTIQ issues and hopefully in the long run to prevent ignorance, bullying and suicides in GLBTIQ youth.
I myself am straight but I think it is very important that everyone should be able to be themselves and live a life where they are not feeling threatened because of their sexuality.
I’ll be wearing purple in my outfit of the day and a purple nails on Friday the 7th of September, will you? You still have 5 more days to plan it.
And if you do wear purple in one way or another, I’d love to see what you did in a comment below. So wear it and share it!
Posted in 2012, For a good cause, Links, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nails of the week, Purple | 3 CommentsNail of the day – Lilo & Stitch nails.
Did you ever have something on your nails that made smile every time you see them? It could be your very first gradient, an amazing holo or a rare indie polish, but I bet you know that feeling, right?
Today I am showing you a manicure that has made me smile all day now for several reasons. First of all because this is my first manicure using acrylic paint instead of ink, and it’s turned out quite well I think. And second of all because it’s of one of my favorite cartoon characters ever, Stitch!
I may be in my thirties but man, I absolutely love the Disney movie Lilo & Stitch and I’m not to afraid to admit that, it’s just such an adorable movie and if it were in any way possible I’d have a Stitch as a pet!
So when I read that Taylor of Nailed to the T was going to do this Disney Nail art contest to celebrate her blog turning 1 year old and her daughter’s birthday who is turning 4 this month, I couldn’t help but participate and try to recreate my favorite cartoon characters on my nails! Happy Blog Birthday Taylor and Happy Birthday to your adorable little A, I hope she likes these nails!
May I VERY proudly present, Lilo, Stitch and her doll Scrump:
Aren’t they adorable?! I’m so in love with these I keep looking at them and smiling!
By the way, for those of you who haven’t tried painting with Acrylic paint on your nails, you should totally give it a shot! It’s easier than it looks! You just have to understand the basics of painting and have a very small brush. As for the painting, you should start with the base and filling it in with the highlights and use the dark colors last . Also Acrylic paint is easy to correct. If you do something wrong and you’re in the beginning stages still you can wipe it off. And if you are in the end stages you can always paint over your mistake. It really is that simple. By the way, I used this set of Oumaxi acrylic paint that I ordered off of eBay a while ago and they’re a dream to work with. Perfect consistency and beautiful colors. I highly recommend these!
The brush I also got off of eBay, I think I used the middle length of this set.
So, what do you think of these? Do you think I may have a shot at winning this contest?
Posted in 2012, Acrylic paint, Essence, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nails, Nails of the week, Oumaxi | 14 CommentsNail of the day – Acrylic ink extravaganza.
Today I’d like to share with you the nails I’ve been rocking for almost week now.
I love them so much that I made a little step by step collage on how I created them, using a nailwheel, 3 colors of nail polish, a little piece of make up sponge (not pictured) a fountain pen and acrylic ink.
- These are the nail polishes I used. Apart from a base and topcoat of course. From left to right are: Essence - Via Airmail!, China Glaze – Beach Cruise-R and China Glaze – Sweet Hook.
- This is the pen and the inks I used for this little step by step.
- First, paint your nail a base color and let it dry.
- Create a gradient on a little make up sponge by putting a stripe of all three colors on it and dabbing it onto the nail like so.
- Once the nail polish has dried you can start drawing on it using acrylic ink and a fountain pen.
- Make the pattern as large or small as you want, I nearly stopped at this point liking this design very much already but deciding to push for more as I have a weakness for full nail designs.
- This is the nail once I was finished drawing with white.
- I’ve added some blue details to it to make it look extra special.
- After all has dried I’ve topcoated my nail and hey presto, you have your very own portable piece of art at your fingertip!
Tomorrow I’ll show you a little video on how it all works, so don’t forget to come check it out!
Posted in 2012, Acrylic, Acrylic paint, Basecoat, Beauty, Blue, China Glaze, Cream, Crème, Essence, Fashion, Lilac, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Opaque, Purple, Topcoat, Trend, White | 8 CommentsTutorial Tuesday – Braided nails.
Today is the day that a group of friends and I are doing “Tutorial Tuesday”
We’re not creating a tutorial though but following one. And I picked one by Lucy who made a beautifully braided nail using three colors.
You can find her tut right here: http://www.lucysstash.com/2012/06/fishtail-nail-art-manicure-with.html
As you can see she used the original nail polish brush to create her stripes, I tried to create the same look using my art deco stripers instead like the ones pictured on the right. It’s important by the way that you use an opaque polish or else the polish beneath will show through and ruin the effect completely.
I started with black and crossed it with white, after that I crossed the white with pink, etc. So the pattern I followed was – Black, pink, white, black pink white until the end of the nail like so:
You’d think it’s quite a bit of work that takes a lot of time, but it looks harder than it is. The hardest and most time consuming thing for me was trying to remember which color came next, because everything else really it’s THAT simple.
The small striper lines cause the polish to dry quickly and because you do 5 fingers (or if you want ten) at a time the next color is already ready to be put on the moment you’re finished with the previous one without streaking the color below into the new layer of polish.
And if you keep going and eventually topcoat it all you end up with something that looks like this, a manicure that from a distance actually will give you that stiletto nail feel, very cool!
Since pink is not my color but the only color besides black and white that I had a striper in I didn’t leave this manicure on for very long but I certainly will be doing this again with another color sometimes that will suit me better. Purple perhaps or shades of blue. We’ll see.
Is this something you’d like to give a try? Or maybe have already tried before? What did you think?
Posted in 2012, Art Deco, Black, China Glaze, LA Girl, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Neon, Pink, White | 5 CommentsNail of the day – You know you make me wanna scream.
The text on the image already says it all. The Facebook group I’m a member of called Adventures in Stamping had a little challenge for this Sunday where we had to use our favorite image.
I chose this one because I’m really into art and Edvard Munch‘s painting the Scream has always been one of my favorites. The utter desperation and fear in the main character is just so intense and heartbreaking it’s a difficult painting to forget. Maybe that’s why the mask became so popular in the Scream movies ;) you just do not forget a villain with a face like that.
So back to the manicure. When I got my image plates a long time ago and I found this image on them I loved it instantly and so I had to use it for the challenge today.
For the base color I used China Glaze’s Sweet Hook, a very soft lilac color that would compliment the darker purple I was stamping over it perfectly. The dark purple is my favorite polish of all time that I rarely use for that reason; another China Glaze called Flying Dragon. There are apparently several versions of it, so I should clarify that this one has multi colored micro glittery bits in it. And I wish I could just have ten bottles of this because it’s just my favorite color ever.
Now, what do your nails look like right now? Tell me in the comments, I’d love to know!
Posted in 2012, Challenge, China Glaze, Cream, Crème, July, Lilac, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Pastel, Pattern, Purple, Stamping, Stamping system, Sunday Stamping Challenge | 11 CommentsMani update – Neon-ized it!
Do you ever have this problem of enjoying the time consuming nailart you’ve done but just are not feeling the colors anymore?
That’s the problem I had with my Monochromatic Manicure. I just needed some color after rocking the black and white for a few days. So what I decided to do is give in to the current neon and gradient craze and sponge some of my neons over this to make it look more summery. Because neons are usually quite sheer it would show the pattern still so I wouldn’t feel like I had wasted my time drawing all kinds of stuff on my nails when I’d only wear the manicure for a few days.
This is what they ended up looking like:
And this is what I used to achieve the effect. Please ignore the condition of my neon yellow, I know it looks miserable but it was in a bag along with a few polishes that broke when I flew back from vacation last year and I haven’t taken the time to clean that one up just yet…
Pictured are:
- China Glaze – Purple Panic
- Essence nail art twins – Gabriella
- Kiko – 336
- China Glaze – In the limelight
- China Glaze – Celtic Sun
- A cut up make up sponge
Have you tried gradient nails yet? If so, what colors did you use?
Posted in 2012, Acrylic, Acrylic paint, Black, Blue, China Glaze, Duri, Essence, Fashion, Fuchsia, Gradient, Green, Hot, July, Kiko, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Neon, O.P.I., Pink, Purple, Rainbow, Rejuvacote, Seche Vite, Sheer, Sponged, Style, Summer, Trend, White, Yellow | 4 CommentsMonochrome Monday
First a little explanation of the word:
mon·o·chrome [ˈmɒnəˌkrəʊm] noun.
1. a. A picture, especially a painting, done in different shades of a single color.
b. The art or technique of executing such a picture.
2. The state of being in a single color.
3. A black-and-white image, as in photography or on television.
Now on to my nails and the inspiration I used. I decided to free hand this challenge. Don’t get me wrong, I love stamping, but I do it all the time and I just wanted to do something unique this time.
A little while ago I decorated some smooth pebbles with a little pen and acrylic ink and a lot of people liked them. My mom keeps the ones I made for her in a little glass bell on her patio table.
From left to right, on the picture on the right, you see Rejuvacote which I always use as a base, next to that is my Seche Vite topcoat. The bigger white bottle is my white acrylic ink. Next to that a beautiful small bottle of BK’s black holo and in the back on the right is Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees. The pen I used is laying in the foreground. It’s just a simple fountain pen that comes without cartridges and that you have to dip in ink to work. The ink I bought at an artist supply store a while ago, along with the other three basic colors yellow magenta and blue, and of course black, that way I can mix almost any color I would like.
After I had painted my nails with Suzi Skis and my ring fingers with the BK holographic polish and they were completely dry I started to draw on my nails like I had on the pebbles, just kind of going with the flow. Not having planned any pattern beforehand I came to this end result and I hope you like it! It did prove to be a bit of a challenge to draw with my left hand onto my right fingernails but I think they came out really well. I’m slightly ambidextrous and did not know it I guess!
I hope you all enjoyed this post and will become inspired to give something like this a go yourself sometime!
Posted in 2012, Acrylic, Acrylic paint, Basecoat, BK, Black, Clear, Cream, Crème, Duri, Grey, Holographic, July, Links, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, O.P.I., Opaque, Rejuvacote, Style, Theme, Topcoat, White | 16 CommentsNails of the day follow up!
I’ve decided to add some stamping to the previous nails using Dashica XL SdP image plate 8.
I am really enjoying this a lot right now. I hope you like it too!
Posted in 2012, Blue, China Glaze, Cream, Crème, Duri, Fashion, Gradient, Links, Manicure, Mattésse Elite, May, Mint, Nail Art, Nail Hardener, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Nicole by O.P.I., Opaque, Petrol, Rejuvacote, Seche Vite, Sponged, Stamping, Stamping system, Stars, Style, Summer, Topcoat, Trend, White | 6 CommentsNail of the day: Mint to teal gradient
Just a very quick drive by posting of my nail of the day which is a gradient I did using China Glaze – For Audrey as a base color and along with that I used Sinful Colors – Why Not, Mattésse Elite – Vig(Thank you again Marissa for sending me that set! They’re stunning!) and Nicole By O.P.I.’s Khloe had a little Lam-Lam to sponge over it leaving me with a nice fresh looking gradient. I hope you like it!
Have you tried gradient nails yet? Or is this not your thing at all?
Posted in 2012, Blue, Cream, Crème, Duri, Fashion, Gradient, Manicure, Mattésse Elite, May, Mint, Nail Art, Nail Hardener, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Nicole by O.P.I., O.P.I., Petrol, Rejuvacote, Seche Vite, Sponged, Style, Summer, Teal, Topcoat, Trend | 4 CommentsGradient Friday!
I’d like to take this moment and share my nails of the week with you, these are gradient nails that I made using O.P.I. polishes and a little make up sponge. It looks complicated but it really is quite simple. If you want I’ll soon do a tutorial to show you exactly how to do this type of nailart that will surely blow many people’s minds this summer. For now I’ll just show you some pictures.
Okay onto the manicures. This, besides the sponge, is what I used for the one pictured on the right.
I used Alpine Snow, a pure white, as a base. It’s important to use a light opaque base when you use light colors to sponge as the sponged colors go on very sheer. Over that I sponged (from the bottom left to the top right) Need Sunglasses, A Roll in the Hague, Red Lights Ahead… Where?. Dim Sum Plum, Funky Dunkey and last but not least I put on a thin coat of DS Shimmer to give it the subtle holographic effect. And really that’s all there is to it! I know I’m making it sound like it’s a piece of cake, but really it is!
Now I enjoyed this manicure so much that when I finally had to take it off later that week due to chipping I whipped up another gradient manicure by just using 5 polishes instead of 7.
This next one I made by using a clean make up sponge and first painting my nails white again with OPI’s Alpine Snow, and letting that dry, before I painted my sponge for the gradient (as you can see in the little picture on the bottom right of that little collage on the left there.) I went from yellow to green to deep blue using Need Sunglasses, Jade Is The New Black and Roadhouse Blues, all colors by O.P.I. I topped them again with OPI DS Shimmer to give them that nice holographic shimmer and after that they were good to go.
I feel there are a lot more gradients in my future and I want to try one with metallics soon.
But for now I leave you with the gradients of a few good friends of mine who all did their own version of a gradient this week for Gradient Friday.
I hope you’ll pay them a visit and check out their work.
And of course let me know what you thought, did you have a favorite, and will you be trying this technique for yourself soon?
Posted in 2012, Blue, Cream, Crème, Duri, Fashion, Fuchsia, Green, Links, May, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails of the week, O.P.I., Orange, Purple, Red, Rejuvacote, Seche Vite, Topcoat, Trend, White, Yellow | 22 CommentsHelp a girl out?
- The competition has ended and alas I did not win, thanks so much for your votes though!-
I don’t like begging for things, but right now I’m going to anyway.
Bundlemonster has organized a nailart contest on Facebook where they are giving away 25 of the newest bundlemonster sets to the nicest nailart.
Today the voting has started and I would love it if you would spare me a vote and if you really like my nailart, spread the news for more votes.
This is my link, and this is the picture I submitted:
You can vote for it once every day, I’ll understand if you don’t do that of course but I’d love it if you tried. ;)
Have you submitted your own art to this contest, I’d love it if you linked below so I can vote for you in return!
Posted in 2012, Acrylic paint, Blaze, Bundlemonster, Contest, Give-Away, Manicure, Multichrome, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Ozotic, Purple, Shimmer, Stamping, Stamping system, White | 7 CommentsGo Grey in May for National Brain Tumor Awareness Month.
Being a member of a few facebook groups dedicated to either Nail Polish or Nail Art I noticed that quite a few of the members started to create manicures to support the Go Grey in May Campaign. I became fascinated and curious and did some research before I decided that I also must “Go Grey this May” to support this great cause and raise awareness.
May is National Brain Tumor Awareness Month in the United States. During the month of May, the Brain Tumor Awareness Organization encourages raising awareness through a variety of campaigns and activities. Each campaign or activity will serve as an education and outreach opportunity, a fundraising opportunity, a fitness event, a healing program/exhibit, a community initiative, a support group project or any combination that suits you and/or your group.
People often ask me what’s on my nails and sometimes even why, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to wear grey, a color that I otherwise rarely wear because it makes my hands look more red than they are due to the cool tint this color naturally has.
For this manicure I put on a nice base of Rejuvacote by Duri, my new favorite nailhardener and basecoat, and two coats of China Glaze – Recycle, a lovely opaque and creamy grey.
Over that I layered two coats of a holographic topcoat I created myself by putting a little bit of Spectraflair pigment into a regular topcoat and I decanted a little bit of China Glaze’s amazing Sexagon into the topcoat as well to make sure the spectraflair had some suspension.
After that was dry I added a nice topcoat, Seche Vite in my case, and there you have it, grey nails with a little bit of a holographic pop that will surely make heads turn on a sunny day.
What do you think, will you be going Grey in May and help spread awareness for this cause?
For more information on the campaign please visit: www.braintumorawareness.org
Posted in 2012, Awareness, China Glaze, Duri, For a good cause, Grey, Holographic, May, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Rejuvacote, Seche Vite, Silver, Spectraflair, Topcoat | 5 CommentsQueensday nailart.
Just a quickie for you today showing off what I am wearing on my nails right now in honor of Koninginnedag. (Click the word to read more about this Dutch National Holiday)
For the base I’ve used OPI A Roll in the Hague as it is of course the most perfect orange for this occasion.
On the tips to halfway down my nail I’ve dabbed some Orange You Unique by the amazing Amy of Nailventurous which I’ve incidentally designed the labels for so go check them out!
When it was dry and topcoated I stamped a black crown over it with black Konad special polish so the golden crown I stamped over it with Passion by China Glaze after that stood out a bit more.
Have a fabulous Queensday everyone who celebrates it!
Did you do something special too for this day?
Alright, I’ve given in! Here’s my Easter manicure!
I didn’t think I would do it, honestly I don’t care much about Easter nail art. All the Easter eggs, bunnies and crosses in pastel shades usually do not do it for me but when my mom asked me if I wasn’t going to do any Easter themed nails I took it as a bit of a challenge to find something I like that does have a bit of an Easter feel to it.
So I came up with these:
Excuse the dry cuticles, I’m working on those, believe me! I know what’s causing them too, you see, I’m just too stubborn or actually too impatient to stop using Acetone free remover, so every time I take off my polish I dry out my cuticles a tad more and I have to use my OPI Avoplex things again to get them a bit more presentable again… A never ending cycle really. You know how it goes I’m sure…
Anyway what I used for this mani is the following:
Orly Nailtrition – The basecoat
China Glaze‘s For Audrey – The base color
Konad‘s Wine Red stamping polish for the dots as I couldn’t find my brown.
A Sponge Bob Stamping plate for the dots (Click here to go to the Ebay page to buy it):
And of course a royal coat of Seche Vite to protect it all and after that I was done. That’s all there is to it really and it makes for a cute, really wearable Easter manicure.
Did you do an Easter manicure as well this year? If so, what did you do?
Posted in 2012, Basecoat, Black, Blue, Brown, China Glaze, Clear, Cream, Crème, Holiday Season, Konad, Mint, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, O.P.I., Opaque, Orly, Seche Vite, Spring, Stamping, Stamping system, Teal, Theme, Topcoat | 7 CommentsSunday stamping challenge.
Hey all, how are you this lovely Sunday? Did you enjoy your weekend?
Just a quick drive by posting today. I belong to a Facebook group where we have a stamping challenge every Sunday.
During the week we’ll vote for a theme and on Sunday we reveal what we made. And this is what I came up with this week.
I’m still not sure how I feel about it because I’ve fallen in love with the base color on its own and had a hard time stamping over it as it was so pretty on its own already. This is my first time wearing Zoya Kieko by the way and I’ve got to say it’s a fabulous color and opaque formula. I’m glad I’ll be getting more Zoya’s soon. The formula of those polishes is fabulous and so far they’ve never disappointed me.
Do any of you ladies belong to a similar forum or group where you do challenges with nailart? And, bonus question, if you have any Zoya polishes, what is your favorite one and why?
Posted in 2012, China Glaze, Cream, Crème, Foil, Metallic, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Pink, Purple, Sunday Stamping Challenge, Zoya | 9 CommentsUnder the Sea themed manicure – Spongebob!
I’m part of a Facebook group called Adventures in Stamping that was created by Debbie of The Crumpet fame. As you’ve probably already guessed by the name; it’s a stamping group where we stamp on Sundays by a theme that was picked by the group at the beginning of the week..
This week the theme was Under the Sea. And because I didn’t want to do the whole Fish and Blue water thing, as I had a feeling those would be picked a lot already, I decided it was time to go with one of my favorite men of all time. Spongebob!
As a basecoat I’ve used Sally Hansen – Triple Strong, my current go to basecoat which has been making my nails a lot stronger than they’ve been for a while now.
When that had dried I painted my nails with Essence color & go – Mellow Yellow, which is the perfect soft yellow for Mr Squarepants there.
After that using image plate Qa2 that I got off of eBay a while ago I stamped the little holes in the sponge with O.P.I. – Over the Taupe.
I used the small end of my double sided stamper to make sure I was able to position everything perfectly.
Then it was time to stamp on the teeth and eyewhites, for that I used Konad’s white stamping polish. Then came the trickiest part, lining up the white shapes I had just stamped with black lines. Believe me, it took me a moment but eventually I got it!
The pupils and the tongue had to be painted in by hand, I used a dotting tool for that.
The red logo, tongue and one of the flowers are Essence Color & Go – Fame Fatal
The black that I used for the pupils is Essence Color & Go – Black is Back
And the orange flowers are O.P.I.’s - Heeeere’s Jack! that comes from their 2008 Halloween mini’s set.
When I got everything in position I used my loyal Seche Vite topcoat and he’s been living on my fingers for a day now. I can’t stop smiling when I see him, I hope you guys are as amused by him as I am!
I hope to be sharing more of our challenges in here, and who knows, if you enjoy stamping I’ll see you at the group on Facebook someday?
Have you tried a cartoon character on your fingernails yet?
And would you wear this guy on your nails?
Posted in 2012, Basecoat, Black, Brown, Cream, eBay, Essence, Flowers, Konad, Links, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Opaque, Orange, Red, Sally Hansen, Seche Vite, Stamping, Stamping system, Theme, Topcoat, White, Yellow | 8 CommentsTime to Christmas it up in here!
This is my current festive manicure, what do you ladies (and possible gentlemen) think of it?
It’s a layer of Sally Hansen’s Triple Strong as a base. Over that I have OPI’s An Affair in Red Square with a little layer of Beyu’s 209 over it for some extra depth. I’ve stamped an all over image with white Konad stamping polish on top of it for some holiday cheer. It’s an image from the BIG SdP K plate. One of the many Dashica Beauty Shop plates that I have. Over that I’ve dabbed some foil glue in the spots where I wanted my rhinestones to be and after putting those on I’ve used Seche Vite topcoat to seal it all. If you have not tried Seche Vite I seriously urge you to try it. It is the best topcoat I’ve tried. It dries gorgeously shiny and fast. And it keeps my manicure going for at least a week if applied correctly.
What do you think? I rarely wear red on my nails so it takes some getting used to for me and I might just switch when it’s Christmas, to something else and more sophisticated like Chanel Graphite. But for now it’s certainly helping me get in the holiday spirit!
Are you wearing any special holiday manicures this year?
Posted in 2011, Basecoat, Chanel, Clear, Crimson, December, Foil, Foil Glue, Holiday Season, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail Hardener, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, O.P.I., Red, Sally Hansen, Seche Vite, Shimmer, Stamping, Stamping system, Topcoat, White, Winter | 7 Comments
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