Microchipped Nails

Have you ever had a mani turn out a million times better than you had pictured in your head?? This is one of those times for me. A while back I saw that Sammy had this awesome stamping design that she called circuit nails. Once I got in my new Mo-You London plates I knew I was going to have to use the design that looked like microchips. I wanted a shiny green background and black polish on top to make it look as authentic as possible. I used Color Club's Kismet as my base and stamped with Konad black.

Polishes used: Duri rejuvacote base coat and Color Club Kismet
Stamp: Mo-You London Sci-Fi 06 with Konad black
Top Coat: Glisten and Glow HK Girl Topcoat

This may actually be my favorite nail look to date. I can tell I am going to have a hard time taking these bad boys off.

Summertime Gradient

I have been really loving the colors from the China Glaze City Flourish Collection. I have used all of them in several manis lately. Today I really wanted to try another gradient. I just knew that Grass is Lime Greener and At Vase Value would be magical together. I was not disappointed. I did lay down a base color of white. I can not remember which one I used but it most likely was Opi's Alpine Snow.

I went in with my makeup sponge and amazingly enough I only had to go over twice to get the opacity that I wanted. After looking at my nails I decided that they needed something else so I broke out the stamping plates.

I didn't want anything that would really take the focus away from the colors. I went with a very simple palm tree in black as accent nails.

Colors used: China Glaze At Vase Value and Grass is Lime Greener
Stamping plate: Winstonia plate in W106 with Konad Black Stamping Polish
Top coat: Glisten and Glow HK Girl Topcoat

I just love how bright this is. I actually got asked by a woman while I was out shopping if these were stickers. I was so proud to say that I did them myself.

Mani Spam

I have a few photos of some manis I have done recently that I didn't think really warranted a blog posting on their own but I still wanted to share them. First up I have a floral design I did a couple days ago. I had originally painted my nails with Opi's You're Such a Budapest. I honestly wish I had just left it as it was. It is one of my favorite purples. The formula is a bitch though. I used several colors of acrylic paints to do the actual design.

Next up I have a paisley design. My base color is Opi's Mod About You. Another gorgeous color with a pain in butt formula. You have to float the brush over your nail to avoid brush strokes in the polish. The stamping image is from Bundle Monster Plate BM315. As per usual I stamped with Konad Black stamping polish.

Lastly I have this Parisian theme mani. After two thin coats of Opi's Alpine Snow I went in with the first stamping plate Cheeky plate Ch6. I used Color Club's Modern Pink to do the stamping. I do wish I had used the pink as a base color and stamped with white instead. Maybe I will redo this and swap the colors around. Once it was dry I used China Glaze's Manhunt with Winstonia plate W114 to add the Eiffel tower. Now I can admit that I kept having so much trouble trying to get the tower where I wanted it. I redid both of my ring fingers at least three times each. I still wasn't 100% happy with my left hand but as it was 3 am I decided to throw in the towel. I love the combo of the pink and blue. I will definitely being using those colors together again in the near future.

*All of the manis have a coat of Glisten and Glow HK Girl Topcoat

Trippy Sun Stamping Tutorial

I have been trying to do more gradients given that I am not as skilled with them as I want to be. Practice makes perfect they say. I broke out my favorite plate again. Winstonia plate W111. I have used this plate several times. My post here uses the same plate just a different image. I did lay down a base color of white. I really wanted my neons to pop. I used two thin coats of Wet n Wild french cream white. I pulled out makeup sponge to do my gradient. I will do more detailed steps on each photo. The colors i used are both Orly polishes, Orange Punch and Glowstick. Technically they don't need a white base coat but they would require more coats to get true to color when doing a gradient. This is my first step by step pictorial so please go easy on me. I am learning. Enjoy!

Lay down several swipes of each color and overlap them slightly to blend

I prefer to roll them over my nails. You may have to do several times

Use a white stamping polish to pick up the image

Try to center the image on your nails then clean up the polish on your skin

Seal with a good top coat and you are done

Stand back and enjoy your neon goodness