30 Days of Colour: Gradient stamping nail art with Picture polish Moscow, Pirouette and Grace "Chrysanthemums"

Introduction

It's a last day of spring and my last entry for May 30 Days of Colour challenge. I chose nail design with gradient and stamping using my second favorite brand picture polish. I have to admit that gradient part was a fail. I attempted vertical gradient, but difference between Grace and Pirouette was too subtle, while Moscow was much darker, so I changed it to random gradient, by adding a bit of Moscow on each finger. Stamping part was really easy, but I also added some extra leaves by hand. This combo of sparkling Picture polishes and Cream stamping looked wonderful, unfortunately my photos do not show it in full beauty. This definitely was one of my  favorite May manis and I absolutely love how it looks on super close macros.

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Chrysanthemums".

Emily de Molly Third edition and stamping nail art "Silver and black splatter" BM416

Introduction

Today I want to show simple splatter stamping on top of the gorgeous Emily de Molly polish called Third edition, which I swatched some time ago. Stamping images comes from Bundle Monster plate BM - 416 and since my nails were small compare to image I tried to rotate and shift it to get different splatters on all nails. Silver flaky background makes this nails look interesting even on super close macro pictures, it's really nice to see tiny flakes, glitters and sparkles mixed with stamping.

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Silver and black splatter"

June Macro challenge !!!

Introduction

Extra special post today about Facebook group which me and wonderful Sumeet from Tales of coffee lacquer and beauty started together some time ago. This is not just another nail related group, because it's dedicated to our mutual passion, which fueled our friendship - macro photography. The group is called Macro nails and polish and we created it so that any macro lover can browse and share beautiful macros of nails, nail polish and nail art supplies. We have a wonderful group of ladies there, who can answer different question about macro photography. Also starting from June there will be a macro challenge and you are more than welcome to join it. Use tags #macronails #junemacrochallenge‬ and spread the word !!! We all are looking forward to new members, as our desire for new macros is not so easy to satisfy ;)

30 Days of Colour: Emily de Molly Ariel's realm nail art with Hehe stamping "Green neurons"

Introduction

May 30 days of Colour challenge is almost over and for today's entry we are supposed to show nail art done with favorite brand/technique. I chose both. My favorite brand is Australian indie polish Emily de Molly. And my favorite nail art technique is definitely stamping, which I love to combine with other techniques to achieve desired look. This particular nail art is inspired by my profession. I'm a neuroscientist and I always though that neurons are incredibly beautiful, and unavoidably they have huge potential for interesting nail art. This simple look actually has combination of stamping (green neurons), dotting (red spines) and a bit of free hand (neuronal bodies). You can find original picture of a neuron at the end of my post. I love how this turned out and want to make more designs inspired by neuroscience. Let me know what you think about it and if you do nails inspired by your profession how do they look?

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Green neurons"

30 Days of Colour: Water marble decals and free hand flowers "Daffodils"

Introduction

Today is Indie/free hand day in 30 Days of Colour challenge and since most of my polish comes from indie brands anyway, I had to include some free hand drawing to make it interesting. My sister asked if I can make nails with Daffodils and this was a good opportunity to try it. Daffodils are not so easy to draw for someone with intermediate free hand skills,  so I cheated and painted them only on accent nail. For other nails I made water marble decals using on of my favorite indie brands Picture polish. This time I took pictures not only of dried marble, but also of decals which I cut from it (figure 6). As usually, I could not stop taking macro pictures of water marble, so below you will find way too many of them.

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Daffodils".

30 Days of Colour: Color blocking with vinyls, pastel creams and holos "Holo undies"

Introduction

Two days later, but I want to post my cream/color blocking mani for 30 Days of Color challenge. I had an idea to make double color blocking and use some vinyls, which I bought at Emily de Molly website, it was way to ambitious for my level of this technique. The polish combo of paste creams and holos works together marvelous, but whole mani would look much better with gradient technique, rather than blocking. Needless to say it took ages to dry and looks very thick. I could not decide which bottle to hold, so I made a group bottle pictures instead :) My favorite is spiral on the thumb, that's why I plan to repeat this mani using gradients and spirals.

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Holo undies".

Water marble decals with neon Indie polish "The brighter - the better"

Introduction

Neon water marbles are one of the hottest trends currently and I was really sad because of my no buy I could not get any new polish, to try it. Not for long though, just until I realized that neon matte collection which I bought during winter could be good for marbling. And my intuition was right, they marbled perfectly (Figure 1 and 2)!!! I used 1 coat of yellow  Don't forget the sunscreen as a background and made water marble decals for all fingers except ring finger. I tried this technique before with Picture polish and loved how clean it's compared to regular water marble. This time I took photo of dried marble to show you (Figure 2, last two pictures), is not it cool?  For my ring finger I used regular dip in method and it also worked fine, but I noticed that marble got more stretched and a bit less vivid, which was not surprising since you push on the marble to get it on your nail. Making water marble decals also allows to achieve perfect positioning and saves a lot of polish. I love this bright final look and how neon green and pink became warmer due to the yellow background.

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "The brighter - the better".

HPB Presents: Too fancy lacquer Mon cheri and stamping nail art "Floral lace"

Introduction

Today I have my last very simple post for HPB may flowers. This delicate floral stamping was done after I swatched Mon cheri. This combination of colors is a bit strange, but I think it works because Mon cheri is cold red-coral polish. This stamping pattern looks nice and airy even on short nails and of course holographic sparkle adds a touch of sophistication to this otherwise very simple look.

Results

 Figure 1. Nail art "Floral lace".

30 Days of Colour: Stamping inspired by baby clothes "Happy octopus" with Lakodom and Moyou London Sailor 08

Introduction

This nail art was inspired by cute baby clothes of my 8 month old son Andy. I though it's gonna be fairly simple to do, but I was wrong. Main problem was that I decided to make it on my right hand, so I had to align stripes with non-dominant left hand. Another problem was to place decal of small octopus, which I had to enhance using hand drawing on the stamper. As a solution for ring finger I made double decal with stripes and octopus , that too I misplaced first time. After finishing and taking some glossy pictures it was obvious that matte look will be better, that's why I decided to make this look my belated entry for 30 Days of Colour matte/stamping. And finally, base color is Lakodom, and I really admire collages made by Polina, so I decided to show my inspiration for these nails with "Lakodom style" collage.

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Happy octopus".

HPB Presents: dance legend Roz with Bundle Monster stamping plate 617 "Pink leaves"

Introduction

Today I have another old mani which I made after swatching Roz. This stamping was done with pastel pink MdU to complement pink color shift of Roz and I applied green shimmer top coat Lady liberty to highlight green color shift. I'm not sure if green shimmer was necessary it's nicely visible only on macro shots and at certain angles. But I think that floral pastel pink stamping fits Roz very well. Especially I like those tiny circles on stamping image which look a bit like morning dew and give freshness.

Results

 Figure 1. Nail art "Pink leaves"

HPB presents: Nail art and tutorial with radial gradient and stamping "Tea roses"

Introduction

Today I'm posting my third nail design with May flowers for HPB and it also counts as stamping entry for 30 day of Colour challenge. This look was inspired by tea-roses which I had for Mother's day and it's my first attempt at radial gradient. I really enjoyed creating this gradient and stamping as it has my favorite colors all together. Even though final look turned out more orange than actual roses, I love it and would not change anything. It was also first time when I used cuticle protector called Crystalline nail veil, which I bought from Color4nails. I was every impressed with this product, it was easy to apply and clean up after gradient and stamping was super easy. It inspired me to create small tutorial on this look (figure 6)., let me know if you are going to try and recreate it.

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Tea roses".

HPB Presents: Double stamping topped with Enchanted polish Djinn in the bottle "Sunny afternoon flowers"

Introduction

This nail art with double stamping was done in three stages and I posted two of them before: reciprocal gradient with Pia and Pinking out of the window and wood-like stamping with metallic brown. Final stage was to stamp white flowers and coat it all with holographic topper Djinn in the bottle. I loved look at every stage, but was fully satisfied only after application of Djinn. Every layer works so good with the previous one and at the beginning I had no idea what would be the final look. It was improvisation at every stage and result is just wonderful. Did you ever started mani without clear idea how you will finish it?

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Sunny afternoon flowers".

HPB Presents: Enchanted polish 2 AM summer night and stamping nail art "Night garden"

Introduction

This month is dedicated to May flowers in Hobby polish bloggers FB group (HPB). It just happened that I accumulated several beautiful floral manicures and I decided to share some of them during HPB floral week (May 15-22). This is my first entry, simple stamping which looks really good, because background polish 2 AM summer night (swatched here) is so reach and vampy. I used QA plate which was my long term obsession and was pleased with results.

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Night garden".

30 Days of Colour: Picture polish Escapade and Chillax watermarble "Malachite nails"

Introduction

I was really looking forward for Holo/watermarble day in 30 Days of Colour challenge, because I did not use this technique since December and was excited to try making decals from watermarble. This idea of drying watermarble and cutting it into deals is just super smart (link to video tutorial at the end of my blog) and it makes this awesome type of nail art so much easier. Also for a long time I wanted to use my teal Picture polishes Escapade and Chillax to make malachite nails, and this was a perfect way to do it. Both polishes spread in water really well, they mixed a bit, but it was perfect for the look which I wanted. But of course I was too excited to let it dry and started to pick up marble too early (after couple hours), as a result portion of it got stuck together. However, I put it back into the water and waited overnight, it dried perfectly and I made decals for three nails. I used only two of them, because they looked awesome together. There was one coat of Escapade before I applied decals, just to ensure perfect coverage and two coats on fingers without decals. These nails are dream come true for me!!!

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Malachite nails".

Femme Fatale Snow White inspired collection Mirror, mirror on the wall... swatch

Introduction

I'm a bit sad because it's my last swatch of polish from Snow White inspired collection release by Femme Fatale cosmetics. Last, but not least and really outstanding glitter called Mirror, mirror on the wall... When I was placing my order I almost skipped this one, well it would have been a bad  mistake, because it has very unique composition. Silver base with strong pink shimmer and holographic glitters of different sizes which sparkles with and without sunlight. No wonder this polish was the first one to go out of stock, if you have a chance do not hesitate, just grab it. For this polish I took some pictures inside and some outside that's why you will be able to see the difference in the color between them.

Results

Figure 1. Mirror, mirror on the wall... swatch

Tribal stamping nail art with Enchanted polish Freeze machine "Triangle gradient"

Introduction

I hope you are not tired of thermal polish, because today I have stamping combined with glitter gradient and thermal polish. If you follow my blog you might recognize two previous swatches as a base for this tribal stamping (Termo trio 1 and Freeze machine). I simply love this final version with stamping, all elements just works perfectly together and due to the thermal sensitivity you have several different looks in one mani.  My favorite is medium cold version with purple background and dark blue tips. I can say that my love for thermal polish gets dipper every time I use one.

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Triangle gradient"

Femme Fatale Snow White inspired collection Who Is Fairest Of Them All? swatch

Introduction

Today my post is entry for 30 Days of Colour challenge Glitter/ Animal print. I'm gonna show only glitter part, because my polish of choice was to delicate for any king of animal print. In fact, this polish with long name Who Is Fairest Of Them All? might be the most ethereal in my collection. Tiny silver and holographic glitters, blue shimmer and thermo sensitive base which changes from almost clear (warm) to bright pink (cold) - this mix results in wonderful fairy tale on your nails.

Results

Figure 1. Who Is Fairest Of Them All? swatch.

Stamping nail art Silver fantasy with Dance legend Steel panther

Introduction

This stamping was done after I swatched Steel panther, but I never had time to share it. Stamping image comes from Emily de Molly plate and I absolutely love it, because it looks good in many combinations of colors and stamps perfectly. If you have shorter nails, you also can choose which portion of it to use and achieve different looks. Silver holographic flakes under stamping sparkle in the sunlight and look fantastic on macro shots. I'm not sure, but something is going on with colors today. Stamping polish Fantasy is purple/violet, if you see this stamping as blue, it's not accurate :( and please let me know about it.

Results

Figure 1. Nail art "Silver fantasy".