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.

Coral Polish Comparison Showdown

I don't know about you but warmer weather always gets me longing for a good coral manicure. And being that coral is one of my absolute favorite nail polish colors, you better believe I have a bounty of it!



And boy do I have a ton of coral polishes! There are all different types of corals. Pink leaning, red leaning, orange leaning. For the purposes of this post, I decided to compare all my cremes and holos that were in the coral family.

Let's start with the creme's first. I'll start with the pinker leaning polishes to start off with!







From thumb to pinkie we have:

Essie Wife Goes On: This is a gorgeous pink leaning coral, but truly more of a watermelon color. A great summer color! This is two coats.

Essie Come Here: This was my favorite of these five polishes. My favorite type of coral is a more red orange leaning coral that is still bright. This is two coats.

OPI Live.Love.Carnival: This is a lighter, pinker coral than Come Here. This is a great bright color, but a bit to pink for my liking. This is two coats.

Essie Sunday Funday: This polish is almost practically a dupe for Live.Love.Carnival if it didn't have these fine silver flakies, which doesn't really make it a true creme I know. This was three coats the formula was pretty watery.

KBShimmer You're So Coral: Honestly, this polish shouldn't even be in the comparison. This polish is a lovely orange/peach leaning coral, but it's more neon than anything, and unfortunately I just couldn't capture it's beauty in this post!  This is two coats.

Now on to the darker cremes.







From thumb to pinkie:

OPI Aloha from OPI: This was my newest addition to my coral collection, and the real reason this post came to life. I had to see how my new polish compared to my collection. While I love the color of this one, a bright perfect darker coral, the formula was not great, it took three coats for this opacity.

Zoya Heidi: This polish is an oranger leaning coral, but still a big favorite of mine. This is two coats.

Zoya Rocha: Almost a dupe with Heidi, except it has a very hidden shimmer and is a smidge darker, that you can only detect in certain lighting. This is two coats.

OPI Red Lights Ahead, Where?: My all time favorite coral, and it still holds true. More of a red orange coral, bright and pigmented. I just love this polish and it has yet to be dethroned as my favorite coral creme. This is two coats.

Essie Hip-Anema: This polish is less of a coral and more of a tomato red-orange. Still bright and well pigmented, and very good for stamping! This is two coats.

Now on to the indie holos! Some of these are a stretch for coral, but I picked all my polishes in the pink/orange/reddish coral family. We'll start with the lighter/pinker colors.



From thumb to pinkie:

Different Dimension Coral Rose: This is truly in the lighter pink coral category and was my first coral holo polish. I do like it, but I favor a more bright and vibrant, less pink holo! This polish took three coats for this opacity.

Colors by Llarowe Nice Melons!: This is less of a coral and more of an orange peach holo. This polish was very bright, but had the weakest holo glow of the lot of holos I feature in this post. This was opaque in two coats. 

KBShimmer Whole Lava Lovin': This polish is a bright pink holo that leans more cherry to me. Though it looks very similar to the next two polishes, it is a tad lighter, just didn't really photograph that way. It is happy and bright and fun, this is two coats. 

Colors by Llarowe Lucy, I'm Home!:This is a bright pink coral holo that is just lovely. When I originally purchased this, I thought my search for the perfect coral holo was over, that was until I discovered the world of orange-red holos (my more preferred coral family color). This is two coats.

Fair Maiden Polish Total Eclipse of the Heart: This polish is a tad darker than the previous two, but is the brightest polish of the group, but leans a darker more raspberry pink holo polish with stronger violet undertones. This is two coats.

Now on to the orange/red holos!



Smitten Polish The Second Lobster: This polish was an oops mini batch from Smitten, and I just had to get it since I love The First Lobster so much. It basically is a lighter less bright version of The First Lobster (middle finger). This also had a thinner formula and required three coats for opacity.

KBShimmer Rust No One: This polish leans just a tad more orange and darker than The Second Lobster, but is a really gorgeous orange leaning coral in my eyes. I just love this polish. This is two coats.

Smitten Polish The First Lobster: I think this polish still holds the title of my favorite coral polish, though some wouldn't classify it as such. But this is one of my absolute all time favorites, it is bright and the perfect amount of red-orange holo. This is two coats.

Elevation Polish Yeti Hides in the Mini Apple: This polish popped up this year and quickly stole my heart. I thought it was a real contender to maybe dethrone The First Lobster in my heart at my top coral holo, but this is a more cherry holo. Still gorgeous and amazing in its own right. The formula was perfection, almost a one coater. This polish also had a golden shimmer and flakies inside, setting it apart from the other classic holo finishes featured here.

Bear Pawlish Bathory: Bear Pawlish is a newer to me brand that I haven't had a ton of time to play with. I threw it into this post, because I orignally purchased this polish because I thought it might be in this family of color. It's not, instead is a gorgeous smoky raspberry, a perfect fall holo in my opinion. I have nothing in my collection like it. This is two coats.

So which polishes win here? Well everyone's taste here differs. For me, I would have to say my two favorite cremes are Essie Come Here and OPI Red Lights Ahead Where? And for the holo category I would have to say Smitten Polish The First Lobster and Elevation Polish Yeti Hides in the Mini Apple.

But there is a shade of coral here for everyone to love. How do you like your corals, more light than dark? More orange leaning or pink leaning?

Have any coral recommendations for me to check out?! None of these are actual dupes of each other, they are just close, which is why I feel justified in owning them all! :-) Hope you enjoyed this post, it was a lot of work to put together!!!

KBShimmer Mint-al Vacation with coral stamping

I've been trying to achieve this coral stamping look for awhile. I've literally been collecting coral stamps so I can perfect this look.



To create this look, I used two coats of KBShimmer Mint-al Vacation as the base. Mint-al Vacation was a little on the thick side, but definitely not difficult to work with.



To stamp, I broke out my MoYou London Sailor 08 plate, which I may or may not have bought specifically for the coral. But it has a bunch of super cute fish on it too!

I need to make a fun skittle look with these sea creatures soon!



I used KBShimmer You're So Shellfish to stamp this look. To me, I think I needed something a little brighter. You're So Shellfish is actually a bright polish, but sometimes when you stamp, polishes show up a little sheerer than they look on the nail.



Where to purchase: You can purchase KBShimmer polishes at the KBShimmer website. Mint-al Vacation and other KBShimmer holos retail for $8.75 and You're So Shellfish and their cremes retail for $7.50. MoYou London plates retail for 4.99 pounds (sorry its late and I can't figure out the symbol for that). I consider MoYou London Plates among the best in quality, if you haven't purchased from them, you really shoul!