Cute Bird Stamping and Gold Flakies

Base color is Opi My Vampire is Buff

A layer of Opi 185k Gold Top Coat

Plate is BM 607 with Konad Black

Seche Vite as top coat

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

-Samantha

*Use code RA4X31 for 10% off all your Born Pretty Store purchases.
-All photos were taken in my lightbox

Elementary My Dear Dr. Watson

I am pretty sure that by the time they release Sherlock season 4 I will have become an old woman. That being said there was no way that I could pass up the chance to do my nails to show my support.

These are definitely more of a BBC Sherlock than Sir Arther Doyle look. For anyone who has seen the show you should be able to recognize where I drew inspiration from. If you haven't seen the show you have to Netflix it right now. Your life will be changed forever. Benedict Cumberbatch is just...yum. Anyways back to the nails.

Royal guards hat

221 B Baker Street

Sherlock at your service

Moriarty's crown

Tobacco pipe

Polishes use: Duri Rejuvacote, Opi's Love Angel Music Baby and Black Onyx as base colors

Stamped with Konad Black and Sally Hansen Silver Sweep using Mo-You London Tourist 01

Top Coat is Glisten and Glow Hk Girl

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

-Samantha

Frenchie Sea Shell Mani

Without top coat on accent nails

I want to apologize for being a little random with my postings lately. I am working on something new and exciting so it is taking more of my time than I had thought. I'll be sharing it soon, I just have a few more kinks to work out. Now enough blabbing on with the nails.

Without top coat on accent nails

Polishes used: Duri Rejuvacote, Opi's My dogsled is a hybrid, China Glaze Teal the tide turns(accent nails,) Opi's Black Oynx for tips

Stamping plate: Mo-You London Sailor #04 with Konad Black

Top coat:Inm Out the door

Without top coat on accent nails

Top coat on all

Top coat on all

As you can see unfortunately my black smudged. I am continuing to have that problem with my Konad black. I think it is time to find a different black stamping polish.

Hope you all are having a wonderful day!

-Samantha

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

Sponging and Stamping

I have been looking at my Winstonia plate #W111 and trying to decide how I wanted to paint the background for it. I finally decided to do a pastel type watercolor mani. I didn't feel like breaking out the plastic wrap so I just used cut up sponges to layer the colors. I put down a base color of Opi's Alpine snow because I really wanted the colors to pop. I used all China Glaze polishes. They are Lotus begin, What a pansy, At vase value, and Bahamian escape. I just would sponge on one color at a time and then at the end I went back in with the base color of Bahamian escape to even it out. I stamped with Konad's white special polish. As per usual I used my favorite Glisten and Glow HK Girl topcoat.

My base of sponging

Indoor light

Indoor light

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

Stamping with Bundle Monster Plate #BM205

Hello Everybody!

Today I was wanting to do something pastel to celebrate that it finally feels like spring here. My first attempt had me using nail polishes to do the watercolor look but I just couldn't get it to come out how I had envisioned in my mind so I went with acrylic paints instead. I started off with a base of Color Club in Look, Don't Tusk (which is my new favorite base color) before I went in with an assortment of paints. The blue and yellow did get a little overpowered by the pink and purple but overall I am pretty happy with them. Next I went in with Konad stamping polish in black with the Bundle Monster plate in #BM205. The pastel colors to me just screamed floral so I figured why not stamp on some flowers.

Taken in lightbox

Taken in lightbox

Taken in lightbox

Taken in lightbox

Close up of the watercolor. Taken in lightbox

Taken in sunlight

Taken in sunlight

Taken in sunlight

Taken in sunlight

Closeup of actual stamp. Taken in sunlight

Please excuse my clean up. I had a bit of a hard time with the acrylics wanting to come off neatly.