Blue Tone on Tone!

It seems like a hot minute since I've shared a blue mani as my feed has been filled with fall nails, so I needed to remedy that stat!  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of Essie Out of the Blue, two coats, no top coat.

Topped with ILNP Flashing Lights; this is a magnetic polish but I used it here as a topper.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using image from SdP 34 using MoYou London Stamping Polish Beach House .

Topped with a final coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

I did these nails in August 2024; it was the best my nails looked in a long, long time.  Unfortunately it didn't last long as I got a nail infection shortly after this and have been sporting shorties again.  I know they will heal but not the best for this nail polish loving lady waiting for the nail to grow out.

Thanks for looking!

Taking It Easy!

I love so much about this mani; it is a good representation of what I'm wearing on my nails nowadays.  I just don't have time like I did before to search for images, maybe make a few stamper decals and add dots or little stamped accent touches here and there.  Don't get me wrong; sometimes I still do them like that, but they are getting less and less.  Now, I'm more into layering with a couple of polishes for some interest and then some simple, yet interesting, stamping.  Like here.  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of Essie Hyperlinked, no top coat.

Topped with Glam Polish Crescent City, no top coat.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped with an image from Infinity Nails 157 using MoYou London stamping polish Beach House.

Finished with a final coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

 I hope to get time again to do some more interesting manis but in the meanwhile, I'm OK with these!  I did these a month ago and shortly thereafter, noticed my one nail wasn't growing that well so cut it back and I'm back with nude nails for the unforeseen future; it's a good thing I have a lot of mani's in draft still to share!  I'm not too happy about it as it was just growing out in this mani but it must be done.

Thanks for looking!

Distressed Purple

I love when stamping and the base polish go so well together!

Started with a base of two coats of Kathleen & Co. Ghost Manor (PPU September 2021), no top coat.  Stunning!

Topped with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Maniology MXM031

Stamped using Maniology MXM031 using Painted Polish Blanc Slate, Painted Polish Stamped in Periwinkle, Painted Polish Thirty and Flirty and a MoYou pink.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Topcoat dulled the stamping a bit; I suspect it was the base polish bleeding through to the stamping polish, but still really pretty!

Thanks for looking!

Nails Circa 2016!

I've been keeping my nails fairly short lately so when I seen this mani in archives, I'm like, who's nails are these??!!  I don't think I've seen my nails this length for some time and not sure when they'll be back, although, one thing is for sure, the longer length certainly adds for nail art!  Anyway, this mani is over three years old; done on January 20, 2016!  Man, time flies....here's what I came up with!

Noodles Polish Christmas Cheer.

Started with a base of two coats of Noodles Polish Christmas Cheer, no top coat.  

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped with MoYou Gold Espresso using an image from ZZ Abstractos 2.

ZZ Abstractos 2.

Finished with a final coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

I can't believe I wore my nails this long!  They don't even seem like they should belong to me but I know they do lol.  I think I like my shorties better as I'm not a fan of how my nails look with the curve that happens when they get longer plus they are certainly a lot easier to type with lol!  The only benefit really is the added nail art canvas!

Thanks for looking!

Those Who Can't Water Marble, Stamp!

I love the look of water marbled nails; I see the awesome water marbling and have bought all the polishes that are suppose to yield good results, I've tried tap water same temperature as polishes, distilled water same room temperatures as polishes and watched countless youtube videos but still can't seem to grasp it!  My very first attempt was somewhat successful and every attempt after wards has been a fail.  I do hope to one day sit down and see if I can get better results but in the meanwhile, I thought these stamped nails imitating water marbling turned out pretty darn good if I don't say so myself!   I'll stick to stamping until I can water marble better! Here's what I came up with!

Started with two coats of Fiendish Fancies The White F.17-03, no top coat.  As soon as I seen this at Indie Expo Canada I said to Laura, the owner of Fiendish Fancies, that this will be the perfect base for nail art and it was one of my very first mani's after IEC 2018! All nails have the same number of coats and as you can see in the middle and ring, they are opaque but I'm surmising the way the light hit the index and pinky, they don't seem as opaque.  What I love about this polish is the hint of white shimmer and the silver holo glitter that combined with the sheer consistency of it make it so pretty!  It's too bad my pictures don't pick it up better.  

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top before stamping.

Did a stamped gradient using Moyra SP 19, MoYou Pink! and Moyra SP 01 with an image from Kelly Negri KN17.  I was happy that all three colours gradiented well even on my shorties!  This is why I still do my nails even though they are short!

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

Hopefully soon you'll see some successful water marbling mani's, in the meanwhile, I will stamp on!

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Indie Love; Day 4

For Day 4 of Digit-al Dozen indie love theme, I'm sharing a few indie products; indie stamping plates and indie stamping polishes.  Nails are blue again as I'm only sharing blue mani's for the month of April for Autism Awareness month.  Here's what I came up with!

This was my first foray using the gradient image on Lina Make Your Mark 03.  Not very successful but I always share the good with the bad.  This is a gradient using MoYou Beach House and MoYou Deep Ocean.  This is a big fail to me; to be honest, I can't even say I've mastered (or even gotten better) at the stamping gradient as any gradients I've done since this (and this is almost a year old), I've just done the more traditional way using a sponge.  I would love that this would work better for me, or even with the fan brush as it would make gradients so much faster, but I honestly have never tried it since.  

Topped with a layer of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

I was thoroughly disgusted with my gradient attempt but as I had already invested my time in doing it, I thought I had better see if I could save it.  So stamped on top of it using another image from Lina Make Your Mark 03 using FunkyFingers Gesso.

This too was a fail as somehow I ended stamping something on my ring finger.  Gaaaa!  So needed to cover THAT up, so stamped using yet another image from Lina Make Your Mark 03 using MoYou Deep Ocean.

While this finally didn't make the nails an utter fail, I thought the nails STILL needed something more.  So stamped for the fourth and final time using an image from Marianne nails n.62 using Moyra SP 05.  I think this is also the first time that I've done a quadruple layered stamped mani (other than when I've stamped single images randomly on nails; then I've probably done 20 or more stamps but this is actually layer on top of layer on top of layer on top of layer. Whew!) 

Topped with a final coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.  I do have to say that I really like how this ended up, it was just quite a bit of work getting there.  Just goes to show that with a bit of work, you can save a nail fail lol!

Here's the other ladies Day 4 mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Autism Awareness Day!

April 2nd is Autism Awareness Day; here is the mani I did for it!  

Started with a base of two coats of FingerPaints Blissfully Blue, no top coat.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

I made stamper decals using images from Dixie Plates Awareness plate.  Unfortunately, the Autism Awareness ribbon was too large for my nails; I first stamped using the UberChic Luxe stamper, then immediately transferred the image to a clear stamper head.  This took a few tries as some of the lines are so fine and they dried pretty quickly even when I used MdU stamping polish.  All images on this mani are from the Dixie Plates Awareness plate; I isolated and stamped images for the ring and pinky.  I used MdU 2 and 73, Moyra Sp 02, 05 and 22, MoYou Deep Ocean and CND Bicycle Yellow.  

Dixie Plates Awareness

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

April is Autism Awareness Month; I'm going to try to do my part and do a few blue mani's throughout the month in support of the cause which is near and dear to me....just in case you start seeing a lot of blue posted in the future!

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Stamping; Day 5

This might be one of the hardest mani's I've ever done which is why I saved it to share for the Digit-al Dozen stamping challenge theme.  This is triple stamping, with having to line up 2 different stamped images after doing the base stamping and while it's not perfect, I don't think it turned out that badly. Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of Zoya Presley and Picture Polish Bardot, no top coat.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

I thought I had taken pix during the stamping progression, but I guess I was concentrating too much to get the stamping done as it is triple layered stamping.  Part of the problem was that while I loved the base colours, finding stamping polishes that went well with both of them was a challenge.  The other problem was that it would have been easier to line up everything if all the stamping was exactly the same on each finger but I switched up the images a bit and then had to find exactly the same way I switched them up on stamped image 2 and 3 and that was a bit of a challenge (hopefully that makes sense lol).  Ultimately, I decided upon this scheme which kinda made it very old, traditional looking but I still liked it.  Initially, stamped the base of the roses with Mdu 63.  Then stamped the petal outlines using MdU 76.  Lastly, and this was the hardest for me to line up, stamped the leaves using MoYou Fresh Basil.

UberChic 12-03

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

Here's the other ladies Day 5 mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

In the end, I think this was worth the effort and I like the multi dimensional or layering look of it.  I think I'll try it again sometime for sure!

Thanks for looking!