Snowflake Nails

Hey everyone! I've got another quick holiday look to share with you today!



Tis the season for me gravitating toward not the most traditional holiday colors. I really like how this turned out!!!



The base is Emily de Molly Crystal Crown – a gorgeous white holo with a golden glow.



For the snowflakes I broke out Color Club Blue-ming (the aqua), Essie Go Overboard (the teal) and B Polished Red-y for the Holodays (one of my favorite classic Christmas reds). I used Bundle Monster BM-S216 for all the snowflake images. I then took a dotting tool to add to the snowflakes and tie the colors together!



Anyway, things are winding down here at work, and I'm in twidling thumbs mode. I have one more holiday look I hope to get on the blog before Christmas and I should probably do my actual Christmas nails tonight. Or just pray the look I'm currently rocking lasts through the holiday!

Three Greens Nail Art Challenge

Hi everyone, I'm back with another Crumpet's 52 Week Pick and Mix Challenge. This week I chose the prompt three shades of green and/or yellow (the other prompt was fire and I couldn't quite figure out how to tie the two together, but Serene at Copycat Claws did an amazing job!).

So I didn't just pick out three greens, I picked four, because I just love green. It is my favorite color!



I started out with two thin layers of Color Club Kismet, because, I guess I can't do a manicure with out some holo!!! Kismet is a great super linear holo that is almost lime green leaning yellow green, just lovely.



Then I took three Zoya greens, from top to bottom, Noot, Hunter and Shawn and stamped them using this scale-y design.



It's harder to see the three greens in the light because, um, hello holo, but I think the effect is nice in the shade and in the sun!



The stamping plate I used is Lily Anna 09. I just love my Lily Anna plates, I seriously probably use them for more jobs than anything other plates I own (I own Lily Anna Plates 6-10). I think I want to collect them all because all the looks are so versatile. I might ask for some for my birthday (coming up in early March).

Overall I called these my dragon nails, because I just love the look of the scales and the green was just so dragon-esque!

My original concept for this mani was using Noot as the base and various green holo polishes in a dotticure gradient.



The reason I didn't stick with this one is because I feel the three shades of green holo get lost in each other. I decided to show it off though because look at how amazing Noot looks as a base. I can't believe this was an untried for me. I will definitely be breaking this out again for a nail art project in the future. Just look at how creamy and dark it is. Such a strong color, without being super black, which you can get with a lot of dark creme polishes. Just stunning!

Anyway, that is it for today. Don't forget to check out the other ladies taking part in this challenge!!!


   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Nail stamping with holo polish

There are many different polishes to stamp with. There are polishes made specifically to be stamped with, like Konad, and there are some lucky tries you can get with regular polish you own (I find a lot of Zoya cremes are easy to stamp with). Color Club holographic polishes are also great polishes to stamp with, especially over a creme polish.



For this look I used Color Club Eternal Beauty, a gorgeous purple holographic polish, and stamped it over KBShimmer You're So Shellfish using my Lily Anna 06 plate.



Holos stamped over a creme polish create such a gorgeous effect. Here the polish was a bit bright, so the holo is a little lighter than it could be, but the effect is still gorgeous.



In the photo above, you can really see the purple.



And out in the sun, the stamping really comes out to play!



What are your favorite nail stamping polish combos?

Blue holographic skittle nails

Well friends, I had just about the worst day ever yesterday. Got rear ended on the way to work, and had back-to-back-to-back-to-back meetings at work. I'm currently feeling a little over extended in life, too many commitments making things rather stressful.

But one thing I like to come back to is this blog, because it deals with the things that make me happy – nails! No matter how hectic my life gets with election season, editorial duties etc. I know I can always look down at my nails and smile.

Today I'm sharing with you some blue skittle nail art I did awhile back. It seemed earlier this year I couldn't get my hands on enough blue holo polishes. I finally realized I had a ton when I put them all side by side (to make sure they weren't dupes) and thought they might make interesting skittle nails!



The polishes I used, from thumb to pinky, Colors by Llarowe Chillin' in Paradise, Color Club Over the Moon, Colors by Llarowe Soccer Mom, Colors by Llarowe Surf My Wave and ILNP Summer Stargazing.



Because I loved all the blue and it made me think of the ocean, I added a wave stamp on top to complete the look. For the stamp I used MoYou London Sailor 03 plate!



All of them had a great holo finish. Soccer Mom was a bit more of a scattered holo and dried a little textured (top coat fixed that pretty quick)! The holo in Surf my Wave, Over the Moon and Chillin' in Paradise were all very similar – linear and vibrant. The finish in Summer Stargazing was a different type of holo, scattered and linear at the same time.



I'm not going to lie, I think Color Club Over the Moon and Colors by Llarowe Chillin' in Paradise were VERY close and if you own one, I can say with confidence, I don't think you need the other. They weren't exact dupes, but pretty similar.

So that's it for my post today. I guess you can say this was apt timing for this manicure, because I'm currently feeling a little blue with how much stuff is going on in my life right now. Overwhelmed! How do you guys deal with stress? I typically paint my nails, when I can fit in a manicure! Something about switching off the really thoughtful side of your brain and just concentrating on art, on a tiny canvas is very relaxing! Don't you think?

Sea star nail art

Recently I spent a weekend away visiting my family in Irvine, California, where I grew up. I knew I needed to do some fun nails that show my skills a bit, but also blingy and ocean like because I associate beautiful beaches with Southern California.

So here is the fun nail art I came up with!



After seeing numerous beach themed nail art, some of my own included, I saw somewhere someone who hand painted sea stars on their nails, and I thought "that doesn't look so hard, I could do that!" And so I did!



To create this look, I painted two thin coats of Color Club Over the Moon (which really, could be a one coater, so amazing!) and used a dotting tool to drag Zoya Heidi polish into the shape of a star. Then I used a finer dotting tool to make the white dots, to give the sea stars their typical appearance.



I absolutely loved this manicure, because the blue holo polish was the perfect aquatic color. As you can tell it practically matched the pool where I spent a few hours over that weekend! I was really impressed with out well Color Club Over the Moon held up. It was a dream to work with, and the sea stars were not that difficult to recreate either.

So have you tried to do a beach like manicure yet? What beach like nail art is your favorite?

Review of Dance Legend Strutter with Holo Stamping Fun

I have to say that Dance Legend Strutter is amazing. I unfortunately did not get a shot of this polish without my subtle stamp on top, but it is amazing prismatic bright in-your-face green!



This was a bright green with a subtle holo and it was just this amazing perfect green. I stamped a Color Club Beyond chevron (which is a holo-tastic grey polish), and the results were a rainbow party, but very hard to capture on camera.



See the little waves of holo rainbows? It was a subtle stamping job, but I thought it made my nails pretty original. Below is with no sunlight, so you can better see the stamping job, without all that holo getting in the way.





Overall this Dance Legend Wow Prism polish is absolutely amazing, I wish I had gotten a shot of this alone, but that just encourages me to wear it again. And believe me, I will be pulling this polish out again for sure. I'm super tempted to get more Wow Prisms, but I'm holding off on buying polish for the moment.

Application: Strutter went on perfectly with two thin coats. There was nothing to complain about regarding it's formula, not too thick or watery, did not flood the cuticles either. Upon removal there was also no staining (I used a base coat). Color Club Beyond was also super easy to stamp with, and I'm sure I'll be pulling it out again as a stamping polish!

Where to Purchase: Dance Legend polishes can be purchased through their website. I purchased this polish on Llarowe (was part of my packages that were stuck in USPS purgatory). They retail for $13. Purchasing from the Russia site will take a long while to reach the US from what I've heard. Strutter is not currently in stock at Llarowe, but some of their other Wow Prisms, if that tempts you!