Under the Sea Coral Nail Art

Hello everyone, thanks for bearing with me for my mini absence from the blog (missed Monday's post). Sorry about that! On the Fourth of July my mom fell and had a compound fracture to the wrist and a dislocated elbow. Spent most of the night in the hospital with no sleep, then back the next day for surgery and then I had a late flight back home.

So by the time I hit the pillow at home on Sunday night at around midnight I was exhausted and I spent the next day at work on deadline operating at about 25 percent my normal energy level. I am just about getting back to normal today, Wednesday, after spending most of yesterday after work laying on the couch too tired to do anything but read and take small cat naps.

And that brings me to today, hump day, where I am finally regaining my energy and have a look to share with you today so let's get to it!



This is the beautiful Smitten Polish Aqua Opal* with some fun under the sea coral stamping over it. First I will talk about my love of Aqua Opal – this polish is a lovely blue jelly polish with green iridescent flakies swimming throughout. On its own, this polish mimics ocean water with the sun streaming through – which is why I had to pair it with the coral stamp.



For the stamping image I used Lily Ana 10 plate I purchased from Messy Mansion. I purchased this plate specifically for this image because the coral image. I just love under the sea images and coral in particular. I love the thought of under water plants and coral is just so vivid and lovely.



Now let's get through with the unpleasant portion of the post – the stamping polish. This is my first experience ever with a Mundo de Unas polish and I'm sorry to say it will be my last. I have been eyeing the MdU polishes in online stamping groups for the longest time and have always wanted to try one. I wanted a coral-esque color so I could create this look so I purchased Mundo de Unas Tulip during a sale.



While the polish worked super well as a stamping polish, it got the image perfectly, it had a scent that was so overpowering and terrible that I made this look and then unfortunately had to remove it the following day. It has an overpowering chemical smell, completely unnatural and it lingered in the room where I painted my nails for more than 24 hours. I thought maybe a top coat would help mask the smell, but it did not. I did these nails before bed and I could barely sleep because of the scent of the MdU polish still lingered on my finger tips.



I know MdU works for some people, and that is great. Unfortunately my nose just couldn't handle it. Doesn't smell healthy to me. So no more MdU for me. I recently got a set of Jolie Polish stamping polishes and they are 5-free and have no scary scent to them thankfully. You'll see more of that later.

But overall, despite the terrible smell, I was super happy to finally put this look together and the base polish is really what makes this look come together in my opinion! Hope you like it!

Have you ever tried MdU polishes? Do they work for you? Are they usually this pungent?

*Polish originally provided for honest review.