Practice Makes Perfect....I Hope!

A few days ago, I did my nails before heading to work because I had worked very late night the evening before. I was wearing a sweater that is gray with black and teal stripes and it gave me inspiration for this mani. Here's what I came up with.....please forgive my vinyl handiwork; it's still a work in progress!

Started with a base of two coats of Zoya Carey, no top coat.

Topped with Girly Bits What a Rush QD TC before stamping and vinyls.

Stamped using Marianne Nails n.95.  Applied nail vinyls from vinyl boutique, then layered on top using Ciate Headliner and Funky Fingers Dark Knight.  Messed up everything horribly; I had only wanted to do the ring finger as an accent but before I knew it, I had stamped it.  To salvage the mani, I did stripes on two of the non stamped nails but didn't really have the time to do something that needed so much time and attention so kind rushed them.  Plus this is my second time using these; hopefully sometime soon, I'll get better at this. They look OK IRL but a disaster in the pix lol!

Marianne Nails n.95

Top coated with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC, not the best application of it as it kinda blobbed and bubbled.

I thought that the nails needed a little extra something something; added gold nail art balls to accent.  These are quite high; I'm usually not a fan of anything on my nail that is raised because it gets caught up in everything, but these didn't bother me at all.  I guess because they are rounded they don't snag on clothing and hair!

These nail art stones were provided for review from Lady Queen Beauty; they are available here.  They are  mixed wheel of five different sizes in gold and silver; lots of selection size wise when you don't know what will look best with your design!

NA0644 Nail Wheel and other nail art related products are currently available as part of their Flash Sale for $0.99!  LadyQueen Beauty has a wide assortment of nail art products and other beauty supplies; for further savings, use code NYLC15 for a 15% discount!

I'm not going to give up on these nail vinyls as I love the look of them; I will master their application (I hope lol!)  If I gave up so easy, there would be no stamping on my nails; there was quite a bit of trial and error back in the day when I first started stamping; I had to practise for days on paper to get an image to transfer fully and even know, it's still a work in progress learning new techniques, applying images where you want them to do, straight, etc. and even now, I mess up on a regular basis!  But practise I did and I hope to get these vinyls sometime soon too with more practise!

Thanks for looking!

**Please note that these nail art balls were offered for review from LadyQueen Beauty.  See disclosure policy for details.

Tone on Tone

Here's an archived post from almost a year ago; it was one of several mani's I did when I went through a brief tone on tone phase!  This one was my favourites; here's what I came up with!

Started with a base two coats of Ciate Chinchilla, no topcoat, with accent of China Glaze 2Nite.

Stamped using the holo, China Glaze 2Nite on the Ciate.  Frankened a stamping polish using a mix of MdU 33 and 42 to try to match Ciate Chinchilla to stamp on the accent.  Image was from MoYou Gothic Collection-11.  This isn't the best pix but shows holo in the stamping well.

MoYou Gothic Collection-11






Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.


Thanks for looking!

It's All About the Base!

One of my favourite bases lately has been a few colours sponged then topped with gold flaky polish for interest.  The look is loosely based on a mani I had seen originally posted by Silvia Nails (IG @esmalterapia4me).  To be honest, when I did these nails and used the gold flaky, I did so from memory thinking that it was gold flakies that had been used, only to look at the pix after the fact and realize it was gold/yellow sponging!  Regardless, I'm still happy that I broke open my gold flaky polish as I've had it a while and had never used it; I like the random interest it adds!  I've done a couple mani's along these lines now; here's one I came up with not too long ago!

Started with a base of Sally Hansen Dark Huemoor**, this is two coats, no top coat.  My apologizes for the blue cuticles; it seemed the harder I tried to clean up a couple of fingers that needed it, the worse it got and I wasn't able to do a great cleanup.  But you can see the three fingers I did minimal cleanup are good; I'll have to try to apply it better next time!  Coverage was good in two coats and there is lots of shine even though no top coat has been applied.  Be careful with application and removal to avoid smurf nails though!  Dark Huemoor is part of the Sally Hansen Luxe Jewels Collection; and is in retail and drugstores now.

After the polish had dried for a few minutes, sponged on Ciate Headliner and OPI Front Lawn.

Added OPI The Man With the Golden Gun.   I have quite a few different gold flaky top coats; OPI The Man With the Golden Gun, Rococo Gold Leaf, and versions by Zoya and Sephora by OPI, but hadn't used any of them until recently.  When I did swatching to see which one I was wanting to use, I found they are all a little different and I happen to like the OPI version the best so its been my go to gold flaky for a few mani's now.  

As I didn't apply quick dry, waited about 20 minutes for the base polishes to dry before stamping. (You can see the thumb wasn't quite dry and squished a little when stamped but it wasn't terribly noticeable!   Then stamped using white Konad special polish using images from Messy Mansion MM14 on all fingers except thumb, which is Wistonia Hunters Life.  Top coated to finish.

Messy Mansion MM14

Wistonia Hunters Life

I did my right hand slightly different, no sponging, just topped with gold flakies and stamping.  I really like the colour combination of the navy, gold and white; will have to keep it in mind for a future mani!



Have a great weekend and thanks for looking!

**polish provided for review; please refer to disclosure policy for more information.