From the Vault and Sneak Peek

So three day weekends are just amazing! You get the first day to unwind and relax, the middle day for fun and activities and the third day to get all the to-dos done! Every weekend should be a three day weekend!

Well yesterday, my to-do day, I spent quite a long time in my nail polish work space. I'll share a little more of that with some sneak peeks later in the post. But for today, I let the day get away from me, I clearly played with polish too long. So today I have a look from the vault. Before my photos were super great, but I was still having so much fun with nail art, here we have my first multi-colored stamping job!



All of these polishes are Zoya! We have a base of Purity, with stamping using Edie, Heidi and Alexa using my Bundle Monster BM-501 plate.



This is a fun, tropical look! When I see this stamp, I think fun sea plant. Some under the water bright coral cousin! So anyway, that is what I was going for with this look and I hope you enjoyed it. I also had a good photo of what it looks like to stamp with multi-colors, but unfortunately, I lost it when I dropped my phone in water on vacation. :( Oh well.

Anyway, so yesterday I was in my lab for a long time. Before my vacation, I was sent a hefty Indigo Bananas package – I get to compare and contrast all the Mega Chrome Holo Flakies for you all! And there are a bunch, just look below!



So I'm thinking of splitting them up into alike colors, and then showing you all in groups like that. So that is why they are split up like they are! So after playing with a few of these and photographing them – I decided to challenge myself. I thought, let's go for it, try to water marble for the first time.



Whomp, whomp. Just keepin' it real and letting you guys know that things don't always work out for me! I'm not surprised it didn't work out the first time. But I knew I had to at least give it a shot. I have an arsenal full of tips for next time too! Yay. So don't expect to see success in this department anytime soon, but it will be something I plan to tinker with every here or there!

Practicing my gradients

I have been trying to perfect the gradient method for awhile. I have attempted it a few times, each time I walk away amazed with how beautiful it looks, but so disappointed with all my errors in application.

If I could just do a smooth perfect gradient I would be happy.



I love love love this color combination. For this gradient I used Essie Go Overboard, Zoya Alexa and Essie The More the Merrier to create a teal to lime green gradient. And just because I was not happy with the final result, I put some China Glaze Fairy Dust to cover up the imperfections.



I'll tell you my number one complaint about gradients, the white undercoat. White pigmented polish is from the devil. I have yet to find a white polish I am pleased with. Some gradients don't require a white undercoat, but I find in order for the colors to be bright and appear as they are in the bottle, the white undercoat is a must.

Unfortunately, white polish is never good in one coat. Usually takes at least two and then maybe a third depending on how chalky and streaky the formula is. And then when clean up is involved, you end up cleaning the edges and showing the white undercoat by accident.



As you can tell I tried to cover that up with a smaller brush, note the darker teal edges, trying to cover up the accidental white undercoat. In an attempt to make the gradient look a little better, I added a stamp to it.



I used my Lily Anna Plate 10 to stamp a coral looking design. It looked ok, but I think I prefer the gradient on its own. I just wish I could apply the gradient perfectly.



So now I plead with you dear readers, what tutorials help you with the perfect gradient? I've watched a million online tutorials and they all show the same thing, and it is never helpful. So do you have tricks for the perfect gradient? Please share them with me!!!