Sunday Stamping: Over a saran wrap method base

Hello!  Today’s challenge was truly a challenge for me.  The base color for stamping was to be created with the saran wrap method of nail art.  I’ve seen this before, but never actually done it.  The result is a fairly dense marbling.

I started with butter London Bumster, then marbled with Cult Nails Quench.  The stamp is with Konad White and plate Mash 46.

If you’d like to try this method, I used the tutorial here: Get Marble Nails with Plastic Wrap.  I tried my pinky and ring fingers first, following the instructions to paint the entire nail with the second color.  I found that the saran wrap wasn’t pulling up enough of the color, so for the middle and index fingers, I randomly dotted the nail with the second color before using the saran wrap.  As you can see, a lot more of the yellow is showing through on the middle and index fingers.  I like the marbling effect best on those two fingers.

I definitely plan on using this method again.  It’s a fairly quick and easy way to get marbling.  I had difficulty choosing a stamp design, but I think this turned out nice.

Have a great rest of the day!

Hibiscus Flowers

Happy Monday!  Today’s manicure is white hibiscus flowers over a black background.  I love it for it’s simplicity.

 

The base color is China Glaze Liquid Leather, with Mash 43 in Konad White.

Have a great day!

 

Stripes and more stripes!

Hello, everyone!  Today I have some more stripes to show you.  I painted my nails white and was planning on trying to freehand some flowers, but for some reason, I just couldn’t get stripes out of my mind.

Here’s the final result.

The base color is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  The blue is China Glaze Electric Beat and the turquoise is China Glaze For Audrey.  Finally the black is China Glaze Liquid Leather.

For this, I taped off my tips with scotch tape, laid down striping tape and painted the color stripes.  I started with my little finger, which, as you can see has both the blue and turquoise.  I had meant to do that on every nail, but it proved to be very difficult.  I ended up having to redo that nail with a striping brush.  So, I decided just to alternate colors on each nail.

Then, when my nails were completely dry, I taped off the colored stripes, put down  striping tape on my tips (making sure they didn’t line up with the other stripes on purpose) and then painted with the black.  Removed the tape and voila!  Mucho stripes.

I really love how this turned out.  Below is a picture of the design before I put on  the black, which looks good, too.

Which do you like better?  The white, or the black?

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Sunday Stamping: French manicure with stamp

Happy Sunday, everyone!  Today’s challenge was to do a french manicure with some sort of stamp.  Now, the traditional french manicure is soft pink with white tips, but for the challenge, we’re free to use whatever color we want.  I opted for pink with black tips and a white design.

The base color is Sinful Colors Dream On.  For the tips, I used OPI Black Onyx.  The stamp is BM01 in Konad white.

Here’s what it looked like pre-stamp:

Dream On is actually more fuchsia than the pictures show.  Unfortunately, my camera couldn’t seem to pick up on that, showing my nails as more pink.  Either way, I think it’s pretty!

I hope you’re having a great weekend!

Sunday Stamping: Inspired by the 70s

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there.  My own dad passed away last year.  I miss him and wish he were here.  He never got to see any of my stamping, although I tried explaining it over the phone.  As an engineer, he liked to know about tools, and the idea of using plates, a scraper and a stamper to effect a design on one’s nails was interesting to him.  I think he was also trying to be involved in my hobbies when he asked me a million questions.  I definitely miss him.

I think he’d really like what I came up with for today’s design.  The theme is ‘inspired by the 70s’.  The 70s had a whole range of colors and designs to choose from.  I chose a tan, green, maroon and gold color scheme, with a swirly design.

The base color is OPI Did You ‘Ear About Van Gogh?.  The stripes are Zoya Dree and Rescue Beauty Lounge Bruised.  The plate is Mash-40 stamped with Illamasqua Swinger (this polish stamps really well).

I’m not sure how 70s this is, but it’s pretty, so I’m happy!

Here’s how it looked before the stamping:

This is the first stamping I’ve done in a few months, and I think I did well.  What do you think?  Is this the 70s?

Barielle Nail Art: Stripes

Hi everyone.  Yes, it’s been over two months since I posted.  I tried for a while to be more structured in my posting, but I’ve come to the conclusion that the structured life doesn’t quite work for me.  Not anymore.  There’s just too many variables that need to be accounted for and I can never get far enough ahead to account for everything that can come up.  Chief among them is my health.  I’ve got an auto-immune and an autonomic disease, which sends my body into a tizzy at any time, usually with no warning.  Plans get thrown out the window in obedience to the symptom (or symptoms) of the day.  So, in honor of the unpredictability of my circumstance, I’m going to post when I can, and not worry about it when I can’t.

In the meantime, since my last post, I’ve received over 100 likes on my Facebook page and more subscribers here!  Welcome to all.  I’ve also decided to redesign my blog to place more emphasis on the pictures (with WordPress, it’s easy enough to do), so I hope you like the new format.

Today, I’ve got some nail art I did when I was swatching Barielle.

The left color is Barielle Swizzle Stix, the right is Barielle U-Concrete Me, with Barielle Berry Blue in the middle.  This turned out nice, I think.  The colors complement each other.

I hope you enjoyed this post.  I’m looking for suggestions on what to post next, so let me know in the comments what you’d like to see and I’ll try to do it!

Barielle Swatch Series: Slate of Affairs, Swizzle Stix and Berry Blue

I didn’t post yesterday because my dog has a skin allergy and I had to take him to the vet.  It threw my whole day out of whack and now I’m playing catch up.  He’ll be fine as long as he stops chewing on himself!  Baths with medicated shampoo, Benadryl, an antibiotic and extra flea prevention (in case he’s allergic to flea bites) was prescribed.  I’ll certainly be busy ministering to him over the next two weeks.

My new motto: if it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Or: life happens.

On to today’s post.  This is the rest of my Barielle polishes.  My camera skewed everything more blue than they really are, so I tried to color correct as much as I could without ruining the pictures.  I’ll let you know with each picture how close I got to the real color.

First up is Barielle Slate of Affairs.

Barielle Slate of Affairs is a gray toned purple creme.  There is a slight iridescence that shows up in direct bright light, but is not seen otherwise.  This picture is the best I could do with my camera and editing software.  I got the purple fairly close, but lost the gray tone in the process.  My skin looks a little redder, too.  However, this is better than my original picture that made it seem just plain old blue.

The color is  very rich.  It also has a good formula, slightly thin but not runny.  It is self-leveling.  This is three coats.  

Next is Barielle Swizzle Stix.

Barielle Swizzle Stix is light turquoise creme.  This picture did not need color correcting.  This is simply a rich, beautiful color.  The formula is the same as Slate of Affairs.  This is three coats for full coverage.  

Finally, I’ve got Barielle Berry Blue to show you.

Barielle Berry Blue is a mesmerizing deep midnight blue creme with a touch of purple, like really dark blueberries.  This picture is slightly color-corrected to bring out the purple aspect of the color.  The formula is thicker and more saturated than the other polishes, but it still self-levels.  This is two coats.  It’s really a gorgeous polish.  

I hope you forgive the color-correcting.  I don’t know enough about cameras to get a more accurate color.  Learning more about cameras is on my to-do list!

Did you like any of these?  Tell me in the comments below!

Have a great day!

Sunday Stamping: Spring Flowers

Hello!  I feel like a new woman.  After several days of feeling like crap, I finally feel back among the land of the living.  It’s a great feeling!

Today’s challenge for my stamping group is ‘spring flowers’.  I have so many flower stamps and lots of colors to choose from.  It took quite a bit of looking through plates and polishes before settling on the design.  Let’s face it, planning a pretty design is half the fun!

This is China Glaze Electric Beat with BM16 in Konad White and dots in Zoya Pippa.  I love how cheery it looks.

Have a great rest of the day!

Barielle Swatch Series: U-Concrete Me, Date Night

Yesterday was what I call a lost day.  Exhaustion, brain fog and leg pain kept me in bed.  When I wasn’t sleeping, I played mini golf on my phone with random people.  Thanks to MBratton682 for many good games yesterday!  Today I’m a little better, although my eyes keep on telling me to go back to sleep (keeping my eyelids open is giving me a headache).  I’m determined to get at least a few things done and then I’ll take a nap.

One of the things to get done is today’s post.  I swatched another brand that’s been lurking in one of my polish boxes for months.  I reviewed Barielle’s A Bouquet for Ava a while ago, and today and Monday I will review the rest of my Barielles.

Let’s start with Barielle U-Concrete Me.

Barielle U-Concrete Me

Barielle U-Concrete Me is a medium toned gray creme.  The formula is very thin, but not runny, and it does self-level.  This is three coats.  I really liked the color on me.  

Next is Barielle Date Night.

Barielle Date Night

Barielle Date Night is a dark emerald green with a bit of frost.  Unfortunately the formula on this was not as nice as U-Concrete Me.  While thin, it doesn’t self-level.  Brush strokes are visible, which is not my favorite look.  Too bad, because I do like the color.  This is three coats.  

Enjoy the rest of your Friday!

Stamping: Blue with White Flowers

It snowed again here in NH.  We got almost a foot of snow.  It’s definitely pretty when it’s coming down.  The world seems hushed somehow.  But overall I am sick of snow, sick of the winter.  If it snowed and immediately melted, I’d be fine with it. Especially if it stayed above freezing.

Okay, enough complaining.  Here’s a stamping I did a few weeks ago when I got my first Konad stamping polishes.  I posted about Konad Black a few weeks ago.  Below is the first design I did with Konad White, and I love it!  I highly recommend Konad stamping polishes for clear well-defined images.

This is Orly Skinny Dip with Mash 42 in Konad White.  This turned out real pretty.  It’s definitely one of my faves.

Have a great Wednesday!