Springy Steampunk Manicure

Hello my sweeties! Happy Friday! Anything exciting going on for you this weekend? I’ve planned a thrilling weekend of binge watching Season 3 of House of Cards. SO excited about that!! Do you watch that show? If not, you NEED to – it’s amazeballs! And sometimes it kind of makes you want to detach from society and live in the woods… in a good way? Anyways, here comes the manicure of the day!

I saw a post from Love Varnish with this amazing manicure combining the fanbrush technique and stamping, and I just adored it! I knew I needed to try it at some point. So when I was brainstorming for my next manicure, I remembered Deborah’s post and decided to do my own version!

My version of the fanbrush stamped manicure

I decided that I wanted to use a monochromatic base in different shades with a contrasting bright stamping polish. So I chose blues and pinks, and it totally screams spring colors! I had a difficult time picking out the stamping image and I was debating between this, a crosshatch geometric image, and a floral image. I actually wish that I had chosen a floral image with slightly more coverage because the pink is so pretty that I want more of it! But I had yet to use that steampunk plate from Messy Mansion, which is why I chose it.

Springy steampunk manicure

And a closeup:

Closeup of my springy steampunk manicure

Products used:

• Base color: China Glaze Secret Peri-Winkle… I haven’t worn this much, but I love it every time it goes on my nails! It’s a perfect pastel periwinkle, and the formula is great!
• Using a fanbrush, I dragged KBShimmer Low & Be Bold across each nail… Low & Be Bold is one of my favorite blue polishes ever. It’s a perfect bright almost neon cobalt blue.
• Stamping plate: Messy Mansion MM43
• Stamping polish: Rica Pinky Promise… This is a perfect bright pastel pink that leans toward Barbie pink. I love Rica’s stamping polishes so much! Right now, she has some pastels, black & white, and metallics. I hope she puts out a million more because the formula is perfection! Plus, you can wear it on its own too (which can’t be said for most polishes that are marketed primarily as stamping polishes).

What do you think? What kind of image would you have chosen to put over this fanbrush base? Have you tried Rica’s stamping polishes? You could spend the weekend stamping to your heart’s delight while bingeing on House of Cards!

Catch 22 Manicure: November’s NCC #2

Another Monday, another manicure for the Nail Challenge Collaborative! Continuing with this month’s book theme, I recreated the cover of another favorite book of mine – Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.

My Catch-22 manicure

I am admittedly not the best when it comes to intricate freehand nail art, so the little guy looks a bit silly. But I still like how this came out!

If you haven’t read Catch-22, it’s another one I’d highly recommend! It’s full of contradictions – it’s full of levity but surprisingly deep, and it’s dark but hilarious. My whole family loves this book too. My mom even once had a cat she named after the main character, Yossarian.

Here’s the book cover I tried to recreate:

Catch-22

Polishes I used:

• Base color: OPI Alpine Snow
• Blue: KBShimmer’s Low & Be Bold… such an amazing vivid blue polish! It does have a slight jelly formula, so it needs an extra coat when worn on its own. But it’s stunning!
• Freehanded the little man with more OPI Alpine Snow & then filled him in with Zoya’s Sooki… Sooki is a great primary red with a perfect formula!
• Topped it all off with some good Glisten & Glow HK Girl

So what do you think? Are you enjoying the book-themed manis this month? What’s your favorite book?

Check out some more manis by my talented NCC ladies:

 

Mad Hatter Manicure: August NCC #4

My last NCC manicure for the Tea Party theme is here! I’ve been excited to show you guys this one. I was stumped for this 4th look after doing my lace, flowers, and Lilly designs. But then inspiration hit! I thought about tea parties and a little movie worked its way from deep in my memory… Alice in Wonderland and her crazy tea party with the Mad Hatter!

So here is my Mad Hatter-inspired manicure:

Very busy, but so was my inspiration! Thinking of the Mad Hatter, colorful bold patterns come to mind, so I picked some fun colors and stamps and went to town!

I actually really love this manicure. I wouldn’t wear it to work or anything, but I think coordinating patterns and bold colors looks great!

I taped off half my nail, then painted or stamped the exposed portion, top coated it with a quick dry polish, then taped off the already completed half while stamping the other. Whew, that was wordy!

I also was able to use my Mundo de Unas stamping polishes for the first time! Sylvia makes some really opaque stamping polishes, but unfortunately she’s no longer shipping internationally (she’s in Mexico).

Stuff I used:

• All nails started with a base of Polish My Life Stripped (amazing white creme)
• Index finger: Zoya Charisma on the top half (bright purple) stamped with MDU Mexican Pink using Cheeky plate, CH10 (designed after the Cheshire Cat!)
  • Bottom half stamped with Konad Black using Gals plate, GA13
• Middle finger: bottom half painted with China Glaze In The Lime Light (a goooorgeous neon lime green with a bit of shimmer)
  • Top half stamped with Zoya Charisma using Gals plate, GA15
• Ring finger: bottom half stamped with KBShimmer Low and Be Bold (an amaaazing jellyish vivid cobalt blue) using Cheeky plate, CH6
  • Top half stamped with Konad Black using Gals plate, GA1
• Pinky: Top half painted with KBShimmer Low and Be Bold
  • Bottom half stamped with MDU Neon Green using Cheeky plate, CH16

So that’s it for the August Nail Challenge Collaborative! How did you like the tea party theme? I really liked it. Which was your favorite look? I loved my neon stripes & flower and this mad hatter mani.

Check out the other manis:

 

PS: Whovians out there – did you see the premiere? Do you like Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor? I am devastated because I can’t see the premiere tonight (I have a great concert to go to) AND I don’t have BBC America. I plan on fixing that ASAP, so hopefully I’ll be able to watch the premiere just a bit late. No spoilers, please 😉