Maroon Paisley

This didn't turn out as neatly as I had wanted, but I still like the effect:

I started out with a base coat of Sally Hansen Double Duty.  Then I applied two coats of Rimmel Caramel Cupcake.  After that, I stamped on the paisley pattern from Bundle Monster's plate BM-315 with Essie Wicked as my color.  I made sure to not stamp on the paint the same on each nail because I wanted the paisley designs to be facing different ways.  It smudged a little when I stamped, but it looks okay, I think.  I then applied a coat of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly and then a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy for the matte effect.

If any of you have any suggestions or comments for me, feel free to leave a comment!  I would love to hear from you!  Suggestions on ways to make this blog more interesting to you would be greatly appreciated!  And any time you have nail art ideas or questions, leave a comment!  =)  

Sea Creature Inspired

There was a sale at Walmart for two Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear polishes for $5!  I bought two polishes that I thought would go great together.  I wanted to do a mermaid design, or something oceany.  It turned out to look a bit like fish scales:

I started out with a base of Sally Hansen Double Duty (I can't compare this to other base coats--except for that Essie one--because I haven't tried any others.  This definitely prevents staining better than using no base coat, though!)  I then painted on two coats of Sally Hansen Jazzy Jade (one of my new polishes.  I don't usually buy shimmery polishes, but this one is only slightly shimmery and I love the aqua color!)  Then I used the diamond pattern on Bundle Monster plate BM-315.  My stamping color is Essie Go Overboard.

After that was dry, I dabbed on a coat of Sally Hansen Sea-ing Stars (my other new polish.)  This is a very pretty, blue tinted glitter polish with teeny and slightly bigger than teeny iridescent glitter.  I dabbed it on to avoid smudging my stamped pattern and because I wanted to make sure I had enough glitter pieces on my nails.  (This one has pretty fine glitter, so you don't really NEED to pat this on.  That's the technique for large glitter.)  I then applied 1.5 mm half pearls onto the wet glitter polish on my ring fingers and thumbs.  I finished off the manicure with two coats of Sally Hansen Dries Instantly.

Stamping Again!

Hi!  Today I had a great time stamping my nails!  The colors that I used worked super well and the images came out very clear:

I used Sally Hansen White On as my base color, the blue that I stamped with is Milani Sail Away and the copper is Essie Penny Talk.  The plates that I used were Bundle Monster BM-314, BM-315, and BM-319.  In the pictures I do not have a top coat on yet because I wanted to let the polish dry for a while longer.  I used Sally Hansen Dries Instantly after, though.

I am very happy with how the images came out.  I would highly recommend these polishes for stamping with.  I really like paisley and I decided to do multicolored paisley.  If I had not accidentally overlapped the copper on the blue, it would look even better.

Stamping is loads of fun, but it takes a lot of practice.  I still haven't mastered it.  A really great blog that got me into nail stamping is The Nailasaurus.  You should check her out!  She is a pro at stamping and nail art in general!