Review and Before & After: MoYou London Artist Collection 03

(Nothing to disclose)

Hello!!

Let's take a look at MoYou London Artist Collection 03; I love this plate in its own right, but also because it goes so well with several other plates in their collection (in particular, these are the two I'm thinking of). Here's the video review:

And here are the stills:

MoYou London Artist Collection 03

MoYou London Artist Collection 03

And here is how big the images are next to a standard Konad plate, 'cause, you know, that's just how I roll:

This is one of their XL plates, so the images are huge and you should have no problem covering your nails unless they are really, rally long. :)


This is possibly the most perfect plate on the planet for geometric manicures, which is this month's theme in the Nail Challenge Collaborative!

I started with a base of Julep Natalie a pink-leaning coral that goes a bit more to the orange side in some lights:

Julep Natalie

Julep Natalie

Then, I used the orange-triangle-square glitter looking image, and used a double-stamp technique with it; I stamped first with one color, then changed the position of the image and stamped again in another color. I finished off with a few loose glitters (that my dear friend Aleksandra sent me!) in complementary colors:

Now that's a party for your fingers right there.

Thumb gotta get a groove on...

For my pinky, I first used Sally Hansen I-rush Luck, then Lickety-Split Lime over it; for my ring finger, I used Lightning & then Orange Impulse; for my middle finger I used Pronto Purple and then Lively Lilac on top of it.

And for this manicure, I left my thumb blank; when there is a lot of visual weight on three fingers, I like to leave the index and thumb with just base polish to balance it out with some negative space. :)

I think this many is fun, bright, and just full of awesome. I hope you agree!

Here's the link again to my review of Artist collection 02 and 04, which coordinate beautifully with this plate.

Hugs and loves,
M.

An InLinkz Link-up

NPBC Facebook giveaway!

Hello everyone!

The nail lovelies at The Nail Polish Blogger Connection decided to join forces for another awesome giveaway!

This one has a very short time until a winner will be picked--the giveaway goes through the end of the month, so hurry!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


It's open internationally to anyone who can use the gift certificates. :)

Good luck to everyone, and thanks for supporting our Facebook pages!! :)

M.

Before & After: Blair Foiled

(Nothing to disclose)

Hello!

Today I'm going to show you my first attempt at a new technique, stamping with nail foils. The name is a little deceptive, because you don't actually stamp with them, you stamp and then put them on top. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'm also going to show you another geometric print, since that's the theme this month in the Nail Challenge Collaborative.

First, let's take a look at the base polish I used, Zoya Blair, a rich vampy burgundy shimmer:

Zoya Blair 

Zoya Blair 

Next I stamped upon it with a geometric print from Cheeky Jumbo plate 8, using Barry M Silver Foil. I quickly pressed a bit of silver nail foil over the stamping.

The first nail I did (the ring finger on my left hand), I lifted the foil too quickly, and only a bit here and there transferred. My second try was the pinky of my left hand; on that one I pushed down a bit too hard, and the results were a bit smudgy:

Left hand: mistakes were made.

Then, I did my right hand, and tried to learn from my mistakes. I pressed firmly but gently, and held the foil in place for about 10 seconds before lifting. Sadly, I made a new mistake, although it wasn't a bad one; I put Seche Vite over the top, and it caused the foil to crinkle. The effect was still very pretty, but you can see the difference with the non-crinkled bits on the left hand above:

Right hand: mistakes were still made, but I'm getting better. 

What do you think? Do you like this technique? Would you like to see a tutorial for it?

Hugs,
M.

An InLinkz Link-up

Before & After: Dragon's Fire

(Nothing to disclose)

Hello!

Oh, man, I'm so excited about this polish and this manicure. Flakies, Flakies, Flakies!!

Take a look at this warm, glowing, happy lovely, LynBDesigns Do I Look Like A Frolicker?:

LynBDesigns Do I Look Like A Frolicker?

LynBDesigns Do I Look Like A Frolicker?

LynBDesigns Do I Look Like A Frolicker?

Wow, just wow, wow, wow. Okay, yes, I am a flakie lover, it's true. But seriously, isn't this like a campfire in a bottle?? Or at least pretty darned close?

From the moment I put this on my fingers, I knew I had to try a gradient with it, using a red flakie polish at the tips. If anything can make it look more like fire, that would be it.

So, I did a gradient with Hits Flamenco, a red jelly with gold flakes.

Then, inspired by the fire-look of it, I stamped a fire-breathing dragon from MoYou London's Suki 02 using Sally Hansen Rapid Red and Red-io Active:

The stamping is subtle, because I wanted it to seem like it was coming out of the colors in the gradient, and I didn't want it to be too garish. It showed up well in most lights, but my lightbox was so busy catching all the gorgeous flakes that the dragon receded a little.

I love this, and flakie gradients are now my new thing. The jelly polish and the light diffusion of the flakes makes the gradient so easy to do, and so beautiful to look at!

I think this is a great look for heading out of summer into fall. What do you think?

Hugs,
M.

Monday Blues Before & After: English Would Leaf

Hello!

Ah, it's been a while since I did a Monday Blues, and I miss it! But today I'm going to go about it a little differently...The blue will be everything but my base polish.

So to start, I have a soft, feminine pretty for you today, LynBDesign's England Will Fall, a dusty rose holographic:

LynBDesigns England Would Fall

LynBDesigns England Would Fall

LynBDesigns England Would Fall

LynBDesigns England Would Fall

I wanted to try something a little bit different, a little bit bolder than I usually go. So I sponged a gentle gradient on the tips with Absolutely Absolem, and then stamped over the whole thing with Sally Hansen Co-Bolt Blue, using Cheeky Jumbo plate 2:

The bold and the beautiful

I don't normally go for contrasts like this, but I think the gradient under the stamping really takes away the super bold edge and makes it a little more polished. And, I love that the holo rainbow still shows under the stamping. :)

What do you think? What are your favorite bold color combinations?

Hugs and loves,
M.

An InLinkz Link-up

Review and Before & After: MoYou London Pro 16

(Contains affiliate links)

Hello!

Today I'm gonna show you MoYou London Pro Collection 16, first in video form, of course!

Then with still shots:

MoYou London Pro Collection 16

MoYou London Pro Collection 16 Left side action!

MoYou London Pro Collection 16 right side action!

I love this plate, love love love it! I'm not sure why it kept getting pushed back in my rotation, it's certainly not because I don't adore it. I used it for the first time for this New Year's manicure, and most recently for this subtle romantic manicure.

I pulled it out today because this month's theme in the Nail Challenge Collaborative is 'geometric', and I wanted a reason to use these circles. So for today's manicure, I started with a base of Julep Leah, a bright, summery green that I think is a light kelly-type green, wish a little bit of shimmer:

Julep Leah

Add caption

Then, I went nutso-burgers decorating it! First, I put LynBDesigns Tear-Away Face on the ring finger (such a scary-sounding name for such a pretty polish!). Then, I stamped using Barry M silver foil, using just part of the image from Pro 16 on each nail; I finished by adding dots with Sally Hansen Lively Lilac and Mellow Yellow:

Circles galore, baby!!

Thumb sighting for mah girl

What do you think? If you like circles, I think you'll like this manicure, lol. I love the way the colors work together, and I absolutely adore Tear Away Face...I'm a circle glitter lover, and the colors are beautiful.

How about you? Do you love circle glitters? Or just circles designs?

Hugs and loves, and don't forget to check out the other manis the group designed, below. :)
M.

(Disclosure: this website may be compensated for linking to other sites.) 

An InLinkz Link-up

Tutorial: Lead-lighting over dark polishes

(Nothing to disclose)

Hello!

I had some interest in a tutorial about the interference lead-lighting technique I showed you recently, so I put one together. First I'll walk you through it, and at the end I'll summarize it in a single image for you.

Step 1) Okay. So. First, you're gonna stamp your image over your dark base. You can use any color that shows up over your base; in this case I'm showing you the most extreme version, a black base with silver stamping:

Step one: stamp your design over your dark base

I stamped with Barry M Silver Foil using Cheeky Jumbo plate 04.


2) If you haven't already done so, select the interference polishes you want to use. What I'm calling an 'interference' polish is a polish that shows up over dark colors, but not over light colors. There are a lot of special effect top coats that look very different over other colors, and there are duochrome polishes that do this, too; if you have a polish that you have to put over black or another color, that's the kind I'm talking about.

I'm going to use four polishes; for the first example, I'll show you Glitter Gal Transitions Soft Red and Glitter Gal Transitions Soft Green; notice how they just look pearly white in the bottle:

Glitter Gal Transitions Soft Green and Transitions Soft Red

For my second example I'll show you CND Crimson Sparkle and Sapphire Sparkle:

CND Crimson Sparkle and Sapphire Sparkle

 Step 3) Put a dot of your polish(s) on your nail plate (or other surface):

I use my plate because I'm going to have to clean it anyway. :)

Step 4) With your dotting tool, pick up your polish:

Use your dotting tool to pick up that polish

Step 5) Use the dotting tool to apply the polish where you want it to show on your design:

Apply the polish to whatever part of your design you like.

Step 6) Look at the awesome pretty you just created!

First, let's take a look at how the glitter gals transformed:

Lead-lighting with interference polishes

Notice how the polishes show up green and purple-red where I applied them over the black; where they overlap with the silver stamping, they don't show up at all, so it looks like I painted inside the lines perfectly. :)

Here are CND Crimson Sparkle and Sapphire Sparkle over the black:

Lead-lighting with Interference polishes

These show up slightly differently; they are more glittery, and they have a multi-chrome effect in the sifting light. Just stunning...:)

I've showed this over black, but you don't have to limit yourself just to black; you can use a variety of bases, just play around with different polishes to see what works. You can see the other manicure I did, over a green base, by clicking here.

This is a really simple technique, and depending on the image you use, so hard to mess up. If you choose an image with thick lines like I did, it's very easy to say inside your designated area.


As promised, here is a graphic summarizing the steps for you:

Interference Lead-lighting tutorial

Let me know if you have any questions, and I'd love to see what you do with this technique; link below if you try it out. :)

Hugs and loves,
M.

Review and Before & After: Halloween Nails with Stampaholics ST02

(Nothing to disclose)

Hello!

Fall is here and one of my favorite holidays is right around the corner--that's right, it's almost Halloween time!! To be sure you have time to get your hands on it in time for Halloween, I'm going to review a super spooky plate that will allow you to spookify your nails for whatever Halloween get-together you have on the books. :)

Today I'm gonna show you Stampaholics ST02, one of many cool plates you can find in the Stampaholics store. First let's take a gander at the plate:

Stampaholics ST02

The plate comes packaged in its own little cellophane package, with blue film to protect it. There's a little something for everyone; if you just want something a little fun, say you want a cute look for your child's Halloween party, there's a sweet little trick-or-treating ghost, some bats, a happy witch flying through the air. There's jack-o-lanterns, a haunted house scene, a fun pumpkin with pretty swirls. And if you're a little more twisted, like me, there's a scary body hanging in a graveyard--muah hah haaaahhhaaahhhhh!!

Can you guess what I used?

For the base of my manicure, I chose China Glaze Stoked To Be Soaked, a bright orange creme that I think is a perfect shade for Halloween:

China Glaze Stoked To Be Soaked

Then I stamped the graveyard scene in Konad black; I stamped the tree portion on my ring finger, and the graveyard over the other fingers. I picked up the bat and moon from the top of the haunted house image to put on the top of the middle finger, and then the smallest bat of the bat trio for my pinky:

A walk among the tombscene

Yep, it's a little gory, it's a little gruesome, it's a little scary, but hey! It's Halloween!! You gotta roll like that on Halloween!!

So what do you think? Are you into Halloween? Which image on the plate is your favorite?

Hugs,

M.