Hamsa Polka-dot Nail Art

Hola everybody!

I hope you're all doing well.

This week has been very draining on me. I think I might be coming down with something, but it's taking its time getting here. It's causing some serious headaches, so I'm sorry if this blog isn't my strongest. I'll try my best, and hopefully my lovely boyfriend/editor will be able to help.

I took some inspiration from a few images on one of my Pinterest boards. See if you can figure it out which one I used, here. I try not to take directly from other people's nail art, rather just draw inspiration and ideas from them. I had a vague idea of what I was doing, I just needed to pick some polishes and a stamp.
I recently picked up some discounted Sinful Colors from the pastel neon matte collection that has been sitting in the "to be used" section of my polish shelf for a little while now. Obviously, I had to use them. I'll leave the details for now, but you can find a list of polishes and tools just below. 

Hamsa Polka-dot Nail Art 

These are the polishes I used:
Under The Inbluence by Sinful Colors
Quick Study by Sinful Colors
Black Stamping Polish by Emily de Molly
Top and Base Coat by Rimmel
Big Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen
Big Matte Top Coat by Sally Hansen

I also used these tools:
Stamping Plate BP-05 by Born Pretty
Medium dotting tool
Large clear stamper
Scraper
Mani Saver
Sandwich bag

Hamsa Polka-dot Nail Art with Quick Study

I started by applying Top and Base Coat. After drying, I applied two generous coats of Quick Study. I say generous because these polishes have a habit of drying too quickly and then I end up pulling the polish off my nails, which is not a good look. Unfortunately, this dose means a longer drying time, but it wasn't too bad.
Once that was finally dry, I grabbed a sandwich bag and placed a drop of Under The Inbluence on it. Taking my medium dotting tool, I dipped it into the polish and began creating a polka-dot design on each nail. I did this by creating a zig-zag pattern with the dots.
Next, I grabbed Stamping plate BP-05 and my other stamping tools. Choosing the design I wanted, I painted over it with Black Stamping Polish, scraped off the excess, picked up the image with my stamper and pressed it onto my middle nail. I placed the image on the lower half of the nail, with it angling to the right. Cleaning the plate with my mani saver and a cotton ball, I repeated this step with my ring finger, but angling the image to the left. As you can see, I didn't place this image quick enough and some of it didn't transfer, but that happens.
I then applied Kwik Dry Top Coat and, once that was dry, finished off with Big Matte Top Coat. 

Hamsa Polka-dot Nail Art with Under The Inbluence & Quick Study

I'm pretty happy with the results of this one. I have always enjoyed a good polka-dot design. These colours are perfect as well; there's nothing better than pastel polka-dots!

I have been trying to use all of my stamping plates; I still have so many with the blue film on them and I haven't bought any in months! The image I used came from one of these plates, which worked out pretty well for me. 

The Hamsa goes well with all the yoga-related designs I've been doing lately. I do realize the last yoga design I did was very similar in the way of stamping placement and that it was also matte. Obviously I liked it though, so why not do it again?
I'll try and be a bit more creative with the next one.

What do you think?

Do you follow me on social media? Check out this page to find me.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gradient Garden Nail Art

Hello hello!

I hope my fellow Aussies are enjoying the long weekend. Usually, I'd be away right now. Sitting by the fire, wine in hand, looking over the dam. But, here I am, bringing you more of my nail creations. I'm okay with that though. It has taken me about 4 hours to get my photos ready for today (lesson learnt, I'll be getting my photos edited in advance from now on). Photoshop was being a pain in the butt, but I finally got it sorted, so here we go.

This week, I have a fun gradient with some stamping. I have no idea what to call it... gradient garden? I think that will do. It includes some of my favorite nail things; gradients (obviously), pastels and stamping! Details on polishes, tools and directions are below. 

Gradient Garden Nail Art

I used these polishes:
Rose Libertine by Rimmel 
Roll In The Green by Rimmel
Lovey Dovey by Rimmel
White Stamping Polish by Born Pretty
As Black As Night stamping polish by Hit The Bottle
Nail Base & Top Coat by Rimmel
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

I also used these tools:
Liquid latex by LuLaa
Cosmetic sponge
Large clear stamper
Scraper
Stamping plate 05 by Born Pretty
Cotton ball
Mani saver

Gradient Garden with Purple

I started with Nail Top & Base coat. Once dry, I applied two coats of Roll In The Grass. After allowing time to dry (at least to the touch), I applied liquid latex around each nail, then continued to let dry. Next, I grabbed a cosmetic sponge and applied one stripe of Roll In The Grass, Lovey Dovey and Rose Libertine across the sponge. I then gently dabbed over each nail, making sure each colour was evenly distributed on the nail whilst not blending them together too much. This took a fair few coats for all five nails, and I needed to reapply the polishes to the sponge a few times. Once I had an even gradient, I removed the liquid latex and allowed the polish to dry. I then gathered my tools and stamping plate 05. Picking my design, I painted White stamping polish across the design, scrapped off the excess and picked up the image with the stamper. I pressed the design onto my index nail, making sure to roll the stamper in order for the stamp to completely cover the nail. Then, using some tape, I removed what had transferred onto my skin (I may have forgotten to use latex this time). Remembering to clean my plate between each use with my mani saver and a cotton ball dipped in acetone, I repeated this on my middle finger. I did the same for my ring and pinky finger, only using As Black As Night stamping polish instead. To finish off the design, I applied a coat of Kwik Dry Top Coat. 

Gradient Garden with Green

I initially intended on continuing with the white stamping, but after doing two, I decided black would look better. Since I had already done the white, I was not starting again and decided it was more fun with the two different colours. If I were to recreate it, I'd stick with black. I feel like it brings out the pastel colours underneath so much better. These colours deserve to shine! I love this green, I'm a little obsessed with it and I probably have about 4 similar ones. Woops.

What do you think?
Would you try this design?

As always, let me know.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ohh Shiny! Sequins & Metallic Nail Art

Hello lovely people.

I know we are currently within the holiday seasons, but as I detest all things Christmas, I won't be doing any kind of festive nail art this year (Here is one from last Christmas). Instead, I am opting for my usual style, what ever the heck I feel like, gosh! (little Napoleon Dynamite reference there). I will be focusing mainly on summer themes. This one how ever, is something I've wanted to do for a while. I have purchased a multitude of these nail sequins and they're just sitting in my nail art box, waiting for the day I'm brave enough to try them out. That time has finally come!  

Ohh Shiny! Nail Art

I used these polishes:

Ready To Take Off by UNT Cosmetics (peel off base coat)
A Mermaid's Tale by Face Of Australia, from the Calypso Bay collection
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

The only products I used were the sequins which happen to have the longest product name ever! They're from Born Pretty store and the 'colour code' is 11.

Ohh Shiny! Nail Art with A Mermaids Tale

For this nail art, I applied a thin coat of Ready To Take Off. I did this so it'd be a hell of a lot easier to remove the sequins. I'm really not sure how these would go with acetone, but I can imagine it would not be fun. Once that was completely dry, I applied two coats of A Mermaids Tale. I then removed a small amount of the sequins from the jar and spread them out on my desk - this makes it a little easier to pick them up. I have a bottle of Kwik Dry Top Coat that's gotten a little gluggy with age, so I used this as a glue. I placed a small dot of polish onto my ring finger, placed a sequin on the polish and pressed it onto the nail using my finger. I continued this using various sizes to fill the nail as much as possible. I then placed a small dot of polish on my index and middle finger, then placed a large sequin on each of them. I finished with my non-gluggy Kwik Dry Top Coat. 

Ohh Shiny! Nail Art with Born Pretty Sequins

This didn't turn out exactly as I had planned it in my head and I know exactly why. Some of these sequins are thicker than I had originally thought. Being that I was applying a flat, non-malleable item onto a rounded surface, there were bound to be some issues. If you look closely at some of the larger ones you'll see they are slightly raised when placed outside the center of my nail. I think if I were to do this again I'd use a lot more of the smaller ones and stick to the center of the nail for the larger ones. 

I do love these colours together, though. The metallic polish being so close to the greeny-blue sequins was pretty exciting. I haven't really used this polish much, due to the streaky nature of it. But for this, I think it totally works. 

What do you think?
Do you like sequins in nail art?
Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by!

Peachy Smoosh Marble & Stamping Nail Art

Hey everyone, 

It is officially summer here in the land of Oz! Not that you'd ever know it was anything other than winter in Victoria, but nonetheless, still summer... which means bright, fun, colourful manis that I am so ready for!
So, as you know, I have all these super cute stamping polishes from Hit The Bottle and I've been a little scared to use them. This week I decided to let loose and just go for it. I didn't just want to do stamping, so I decided to mix in my favorite nail art technique, Smoosh Marble! Here's what I've got for you this week, peachy smoosh marble & stamping.

Peachy Smoosh Marble & Stamping Nail Art

For this fun design I used these polishes:

Big Primer Base Coat by Sally Hansen

Apricot Cockatoo by Essence

Tipsy Grasshopper by Hit The Bottle

Sparkling Cyan-ide by Hit The Bottle

Drunk Tank Pink by Hit The Bottle 

Paint The Town Violet by Hit The Bottle

Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

These products were also used:

BP-98 Stamping Plate by Born Pretty

Liquid Latex by Lulaa

Large clear stamper

Peachy Smoosh Marble Nail Art with Sparkling Cyan-ide

I started with Big Primer base coat. After drying, I applied two coats of Apricot Cockatoo. Whilst that was drying, I applied Lulaa latex around my middle and ring fingers. Taking stamping plate BP-98, I applied small dots of Tipsy Grasshopper, Sparkling Cyan-ide, Drunk Tank Pink and Paint the Town Violet to the design, then scraped it a few times to blend the colours. I then quickly picked up the design with my large stamper and pressed it over my ring finger. I removed the latex from this finger and cleaned up around the nail where necessary. Moving onto my middle finger, I grabbed my stamper and dropped small amounts of Tipsy Grasshopper, Sparkling Cyan-ide, Drunk Tank Pink, Paint the Town Violet and Apricot Cockatoo on to it. I then pressed the stamper over my nail, spreading the polish out. I continued to stamp over the nail until I was satisfied with the colour distribution, then removed the latex and cleaned up. I finished off with Kwik Dry top coat. 

Peachy Smoosh Marble Nail Art with Apricot Cockatoo

I am happy with how this turned out, although I feel the stamp was a little duller than I was hoping for. I may have over done the scraping,  causing less polish to be left on the design. But this smoosh is awesome! I think it looks like a grungy, arty, delightful mess and that's super fun. 

What do you think? 

Don't you just love these bright stamping polishes?

Thanks for stopping by! 

Typical Halloween Nail Art

Howdy y'all!

With Halloween just days away, I thought I should probably join in with the spirit (ha ha, no pun intended) of things and do a typical Halloween nail art design. I am a big fan of all things creepy and dark, but dark colours tend to stain and I was just not ready for that kind of clean up. So, I chose something else I am hoping will be just as fitting. Keep reading to see what polishes and tools I used for my typical Halloween nail art. 

Typical Halloween Nail Art With Black Stamping Polish

I used these nail polishes:
Orange by OXX Cosmetic (K-mart brand)
Black Stamping Polish by Emily de Molly
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen

I also used these products:
Camo Coat by Celestial Cosmetics
Stamping plate Qgirl-002 by La Qin An
Stamping plate BP-122 by Born Pretty
Large clear stamper
Scraper
Mani Saver
Cotton Balls
Paper towel

Just a quick side story - I spent 15 minutes trying to find the actual name of this orange polish, only to learn that the name is not on the bottle but rather on the packaging which I obviously threw out. So, unfortunately I am unable to give you the name from the brand, however, after looking at others colours by OXX, they seem to keep polish names simple, so I think orange is a pretty accurate name to go by for the purpose of this post. 

Typical Halloween Nail Art with Orange

I started off with two coats of Orange for my base. I then applied Camo Coat around each nail for easier clean up and allowed to dry completely. Prior to stamping, I always place two pieces of paper towel slightly underneath the stamping plate. I do this for a number of reasons;
1. So that I don't get polish all over my desk.
2. I can use it to wipe off the scraper to avoid build up.
3. If I'm having trouble picking up a design, I roll my stamper on it to remove the failed images.
Using stamping plate Qgirl-002, I cover my chosen design with Black Stamping Polish. I then scraped off the excess and picked up the image with my stamper, quickly pressing it on to the nail, then lightly pressed my finger over the design to ensure the image transferred correctly. With the help of my mani saver, I dipped a cotton ball into some acetone and used it to clean off the stamping plate. This just makes sure any left over polish doesn't dry on the plate and cause issues if I want to reuse this design, which I did for two nails.
I continued each of these steps until I had a design on each nail. I also used images from stamping plate BP-122 on my ring finger and thumb (not pictured). I decided to use different images because there are quite a few to choose from and I thought it would be more fun to have something different as opposed to all nails being the same, which I feel I do a little too often. Lastly, I removed the Camo Coat and finished with a quick dry top coat. 

Typical Halloween Nail Art

I'm not normally a fan of orange, in fact I would say it is a colour that I hate, but I liked it for this particular design. It definitely reminds me of a giant pumpkin with a face carved into it, and of course pumpkins are a huge part of Halloween. Although I really have no idea why.. I'm assuming it's an American thing. If you know, please tell me!

So there you have it, my typical Halloween nail art. It's nothing too adventurous, but it's still cool and it gave me a chance to use this orange polish that I picked up simply because it was $1 and I wanted to try out this brand. Not at all complaining!

What do you think?
What are you dressing your nails up as for Halloween this year?
Leave me a comment below! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Mint & Orange Nail Art

Hello everyone!

You may have noticed my absence recently. Things have been really busy over the last few weeks. I wasn't even sure I was going to get this one out! But here we are and I'm glad that I have. I've really missed posting & doing nail art. Since this break started I've had one single colour on my nails for far too long! Luckilyy, I recently purchased some amazing holographic polishes, so I got to try those out during this time. 

I have also been having some issues with my nails. Lots of breaking and tearing, which I think is a side effect of my dermatitis, so I have been trying to get that under control and keeping them all even.

Prior to this break, I had done these cute geometric pattern mint and orange nails, which I haven't gotten out yet, and will now be this week's nail design. If you keep reading, you'll see what I used for this design and how I did it. Please enjoy.

Mint and Orange Nail Art Design

To create these lovely mint and orange geometric pattern nails, I used the following items:
South Beach Bling Bikini by Chi Chi Cosmetics
I Feel Good by Chi Chi Cosmetics
Kwik Dry Top Coat by Sally Hansen
Stamping plate BP - 77 by Born Pretty 
Large clear jelly stamper (I don't recall the brand)
Scraper (This came with my stamper, so again I don't recall the brand)
Camo Coat by Celestial Cosmetics

Mint and Orange Nail Art with South Beach Bling Bikini

I started with two coats of I Feel Good and allowed them to dry. This polish is a bit thicker than usual polish so it does take a while to dry (I recommend thinner coats for faster drying time). The best way to know this polish is dry is when it becomes fragrant. Once I was satisfied they were dry, I applied Camo Coat around each nail to allow for easier clean up. I then took stamping plate 77, stamper, scraper and South Beach Bling Bikini, and applied a generous amount of Orange to the stamping plate. Taking my scraper, I dragged it evenly over the design and off the plate. I picked up the image with my stamper and lined it up as best I could with the nail. Unfortunately for me, the bottom of my scraper is scratched, which makes it hard. As the polish turned out a lot lighter than I was expecting, I decided to do a second stamp over the top of the first. I then removed the Camo Coat from that nail and repeated these steps for my middle finger and thumb. As for my index finger, I used a different design from the same plate, using the same steps as my previous nails. And of course, I finished with a coat of Kwik Dry Top Coat.

Mint & Orange Nail Art with I Feel Good

Although I love these Chi Chi flakies, they always seem to jut out, which you can see on my pinky finger above. This is mostly a visual problem, however I do find that they catch on things like clothing a fair bit, which is always annoying and can cause the polish to peel up. I would love to see them do the flakie colours but without the flakes.

Aside from that, I'm pretty pleased with how they look. These colours look so good together and I do love the patterns on this plate. 

What do you think about this simple pastel nail art design? Leave me a comment below. 

P.S. I am looking for a little feedback on what your overall opinion on my posts are, good, bad and/or ugly. You can leave a comment below, or send an email to theaustralnailian@gmail.com. I'd really appreciate it. 

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Hawaiian Neon Splatter Nail Art

Hey everyone!

It's a lovely overcast day here, so let's brighten it up a little!

I recently bought a few of these awesome fluoro/neon colours from ultra3. This is a brand of nail polish I grew up on. It was cheap and readily available at most chemists. I totally forgot about it and honestly thought it didn't exist anymore, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's still around, and still cheap! Happy days!

These colours are so bright and fun. Of course, I had to do a summer theme for these, so I went with this Hawaiian style design. 

Hawaiian Neon Splatter with Fruit Tingle - ultra3

I used the following:

Blanc - Essie
Fruit Tingle - ultra3
Tahiti - ultra3
Citrus - ultra3
Black Stamping polish - Born Pretty
春の歌 17 (According to google translate it's Spring Song) - Stamping plate
A Straw

Hawaiian Neon Splatter with Tahiti - ultra3

To create this look I started with two coats of Blanc and allowed to dry. I applied Camo Coat around each nail and part way up my fingers, as this technique gets extremely messy. Once the Camo Coat was dry, I took a clean straw and dipped it into the bottle of Tahiti. After allowing some of the polish to drip out, I then blew into the straw, causing the polish to splatter over the nail. I made sure to cover my desk with paper towels to catch any excess. I did this for all three colours, making sure to cut the straw after each use to prevent the colours from mixing. Once I was satisfied with all nails, I took a clean up brush dipped in acetone and cleaned up the edges, as a lot of polish tends to pool in these areas. After removing the Camo Coat and allowing the polish to dry, I used Black stamping polish and plate 17 to add the palm trees and flowers, then finished with a quick dry top coat. 

Hawaiian Neon Splatter with Citrus - ultra3

I really enjoyed this one. The straw technique is super fun, totally messy, and always looks awesome! I have done this before with black polish, you can check it out here.
I really like the way that these colours look together with this technique.

The only downside to this technique is that it CAN cause small air bubbles to form in the polish, so that's something to be aware of.

Hawaiian Neon Splatter

What do you think? Have you tried this technique? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by!

Melting Metal Nail Art Design

Hey everyone!

I purchased a stamping polish from an Aussie indie polish company, Emily de Molly, and received another one with it. It's not a colour I would normally go for, but since I have it, I thought I may as well use it. So I did.

Melting Metal with Lady In Black - OPI

This one was fairly simple. I used:
Lady in Black - OPI
Metallic Olive Stamping polish - Emily de Molly
BP 29 Stamping plate - Born Pretty
Camo Coat - Celestial
Kwik Dry Top Coat - Sally Hansen
A large stamper. 

Melting Metal with Olive - Emily de Molly 

To create this look I used two coats of Lady In Black as a base. Once dry,  I applied Camo Coat around each nail. Taking Olive stamping polish, I painted over the design and stamped it onto the nails. I then removed the Camo Coat and applied a quick dry top coat. And that's it! 

Melting Metal 

This is why I love stamping, it's so quick and easy! And there are so many different options and designs.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks for stopping by!

Spring Inspired Gradient & Stamping

Hello lovelies!

We have had some beautiful spring weather the last few days, so I thought this mani would be fairly fitting.

I really love the way they turned out. I think I could wear this design all year long! At the moment I am trying to break out of my comfort zone a little and try new techniques. This one isn't too far from what I usually do, but I'd never tried a vertical gradient before. I tell you what, I really like it. I think it brings a whole new depth to nail art!

For this one I used:
BYS - Isn't She Lovely
BYS - Matte Violet Frosting
BYS - Matte Mint Candy
BYS - Sky's The Limit
Essie - Blanc
Born Pretty - White Stamping Polish
piCture pOlish - D'day Matte Top Coat
Born Pretty Stamping Plate - BP - X05
Celestial - camo coat.

I started with two coats of Blanc for a base. Once dry I applied Camo Coat around the cuticles. While that was drying I applied three coats of Isn't She Lovely to my pinky nail, and Matte Mint Candy to my thumb. I took Isn't She Lovely and Matte Violet Frosting and painted them onto a makeup sponge, applied a thin layer of Blanc over the Matte Violet Frosting to de-saturate it a little, then dabbed it onto my ring finger, making sure Isn't She Lovely was on the left side. I continued to do this until I reached the right opacity, which was quite a bit due to the pale colour of Isn't She Lovely. I let each layer dry for a few seconds before continuing. Once that was complete, I removed the Camo Coat on that finger. I did the same steps for my middle finger, but used Matte Violet Frosting and Sky's The Limit instead. Same again for my ring finger, except with Sky's The Limit and Matte Mint Candy. Once they had all dried I grabbed my BP - X05 stamping plate and White Stamping Polish, and stamped the same design onto each nail. I finished with G'day Matte Top Coat to soften it even more. 

I really enjoyed this design, but it was a little time consuming. Probably the most so far. But I am okay with that because every time I looked at them, they made me smile. What do you think?
Thanks for stopping by!

Rainbow Zebra Print

Howdy Howdy!

Hope everyone is feeling good!

I recently felt the need to create a rainbow gradient design, so I went ahead and did one! 
This is what I ended up with. I really love the way the gradient turned out, although you can barely see the green.

Rainbow Zebra Print

What I used:
Essie - Blanc
Chi Chi- Barbie Boy
Chi chi - Good Vibrations
Chi Chi - Boys Boys Boys
Chi Chi - Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
Born Pretty - White Stamping polish

Born Pretty - Black stamping polish

Born Pretty - Stamping plate 16

Celestial - Camo Coat

Rainbow Gradient

I started with a base coat of Blanc. Whilst drying I used Camo Coat around the nails for easy clean up. I then applied stripes of Barbie Boy, Good Vibrations, Boys Boys Boys & Wake Me Up Before You Go Go to a cosmetic sponge and dabbed them onto the nail. Once I got to the opacity I wanted, I applied a quick dry top coat. After allowing it to dry I used Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, Boys Boys Boys, Good Vibrations & Barbie Boy on stamping plate 16, then scraped and stamped onto my index nail. After cleaning the plate, I used Black stamping polish 
& did the same for all five nails. I did it once more with White stamping polish on my ring finger nail and finished with a quick dry top coat.

Rainbow Zebra Print with White stamping polish. 

This seems super intricate, but that is why we have stamping plates! These things are so easy and useful! I've not done double stamping before, and I found I did not like the white over black. If I re-did this design, I'd go with the white underneath the black... But, some things are just trial and error. Besides, it didn't turn out all bad!

What are your thoughts?
Let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!

Candy Skull Gradient Nail Art

Howdy y'all!

Hope everyone's doing well!

I've got some cute nail art to share with you today. I have this super cute Halloween stamping plate, and I thought "I am not waiting until October to use this!" 
So, I took the least Halloween-ish stamp and here we go!

Candy Skull Gradient Nail Art with Boys, Boys, Boys - Chi Chi

I used Born Pretty stamping plate - 122, Boys, Boys, Boys - Chi Chi (a middle tone blue creme), Good Vibrations - Chi Chi (a purple creme with pink undertones) & Black Stamping Polish - Born Pretty.

Candy Skull Gradient Nail Art with stamping plate

I started with two coats of Boys, boys, boys. Once dry I painted a makeup sponge half with Boys, boys, boys & the other half with Good Vibrations, then dabbed it onto the nails until I achieved the gradient and opacity I wanted. Allowing it to dry, I used the black stamping polish to stamp the candy skull design onto the nail. Finishing with a shiny top coat and we're all done.

Candy Skull Gradient Nail Art

I love stamping designs because you can do so much with them. Here are some links to other stamping designs I've done before 80s retro vinyls nail art, Summer mermaid nails & My first nail stamping.

I love these colours. They feel summery, which I always need in my life, haha. These Chi Chi polishes come in some really awesome shades and I've been using them a lot recently. Keep any eye out for the next one!

What do you think? Do you like this look? Leave a comment and let me know!

Thanks for stopping by!

80's Retro Vinyls Nail Art

Hey hey everybody! 

I hope everyone has been well.

I took a little inspiration from my "brother-in-law" for today's design. He and some really cool Canadians do an awesome podcast about synth wave & 80's styled music. You can check them out here. 

80's Retro Vinyl Nail Art

For this design I used Bundle Monster stamping plate 601, BYS - Cotton Candy (a very soft purple pastel scented polish), BYS - Applause (a very soft pink pastel) & Born Pretty Black Stamping Polish. 

Starting with two coats of Cotton Candy as a base, I used Cotton Candy & Applause to make a gradient (which doesn't show up very well in the photos because they're very similar colours). After applying a top coat and letting it dry I painted the black stamping polish onto the BM - 601 plate, scraped and then stamped on the nail. I used two different design patterns for this one. Once dry I applied a top coat. 

80's Retro Vinyl Nails

As you can see, I had a little smearing from the stamping polish which is always a bit disappointing. There always seems to be one! *sigh*... All in all I think it's a pretty cool design and I'm happy with it. I'm glad I bought this particular plate. 

80's Retro Vinyl Nail Art

80's Retro Vinyl Nails with Stamping Polish

I originally wanted to do this with 80's pop colours, but changed my mind to a more pastel look. I think if I was to do them again it would be with a hot pink or something like that. What colours would you use?


Thanks for stopping by!

My First Stamping Mani! Ft. Essence Holographic.

Hello everyone!

Let's get into it!

Today we have one of my favorite ways to create nail art. Nail stamping! This is my very first time doing stamping, and my very first plate. As soon as I got it, I had to try it out. I did some test stamping on some paper towels first just to see the opaqueness of the colours. After a few tests, I decided to do these.

Holo Flower Print

The plate I used is Born Pretty - 55. As I mentioned earlier, I hadn't done any stamping before this, hence the messy cuticle area and some of the misplaced stamp. I tried not to put them all in the same place on each nail so that they show different sections of the pattern. 
I used OPI - Lady in Black, which is a simple black creme, and Essence - Pink Parrot from the Exit to Explore collection, which I believe is a rich pink scattered holo. (I'm still not sure if this is a scattered holo) 

I love these nails because they look simple enough, but they're also mesmerizing. This pattern is the reason I bought this plate. I think these colours look so perfect together, they complement each other very well.

The process was pretty simple. I painted two coats of Lady in Black. Once dry, I painted Pink Parrot onto the stamping plate along the area I wanted, scraped it off once and rolled my stamper across it. Quickly and carefully I pressed the stamper down on my nail. As I applied pressure, I gently rolled it back and forth to make sure it was evenly on the nail. And as always, I finished with a shiny top coat. 

I love stamping (now that I've done it a few times) because it makes those crazy intricate designs so much easier. I cannot imagine trying to do this with a paint brush. It would look horrible! It's also simple and quick. Which is awesome!

Let's take a closer look.

I feel like this one shows off the holo a little better. You can see different dominating colours on different angles. 

Here you can see some holo in the bottle. 

I don't have a picture of the plate, but here's a link to the Born Pretty store, where you can check it out (I am not in anyway endorsed by them) Born Pretty 55

And that's all for today!

I'm thinking about doing a review on this polish, leave a comment below if you'd like to see that.

Thanks for stopping by!