Snowflowers

I picked something a little more elaborate than planned for my triumphant return to nail art ;o) Tomorrow is my holiday party at work, so I chose this flower design from my new Pueen plate #75, which reminded me of snow flakes. The base is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Blue Me Away," and the design is stamped in Wet n Wild "French White." On my ring fingers is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Breezy Blue," topped with "Sea-ly String" glitter.

How long did it take me to figure out the "Sea-ly String" pun? Way too long.

Gradient and Waves

I did this gradient/ombre of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Mint Sorbet" with "Jazzy Jade" tips last night, but it was just begging to be stamped on. I wanted something "wave" looking, so I added this wavy spiral design from Pueen plate #13 in Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Silver Sweep." Love it!

Flakey

I can't decide if these look more like snowflakes or flowers. I guess they should be flowers, since it's still August... This is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in "Jaded" (which requires three coats to look reasonable), stamped with Xtreme Wear in "Jazzy Jade," using that poinsettia-looking design from Pueen plate #49.

Green Lotus

Besides some of these stamps being crooked, I'm pretty happy with this one! I used two of my favorite colors at the moment, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Jazzy Jade" and "Mint Sorbet." This is a flower type design from Pueen plate #51 - this is probably the first time I used the "stamping buffet" plates to do the exact same design on each nail.

Origami Jam

A friend at work was selling Jamberry nail wraps as a fundraiser for her daughter's soccer team. I loved a lot of the designs, but decided to go with a couple that looked like things I couldn't just do myself with stamping. I loved these origami-looking birds on a white background. For my first ever attempt with Jamberry wraps, I decided to do them on my ring fingers only, with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Bubblegum Pink" on my other nails.

Well, I don't know if the problem was the wraps or user error, but they never seemed to stick right, and came off in the shower the next day. So I painted those nails with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "White On," and stamped the origami bird from BM-405 a few times in "Blue Me Away!," "Mint Sorbet," and "Bubblegum Pink."

Mint Lace

Another minty manicure! These Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polishes in "Mint Sorbet" and "White On" came in another of those kits I picked up on sale. The white actually stamps pretty well! I used the flowery lace design from Pueen plate #28.

Seafoam and Chevron

A new Target opened by my house, and I went today for the grand opening. I got a white and seafoam scarf, as well as this seafoam polish, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in "Jaded." I have to say, I was a little disappointed, as it took 3+ coats to really cover completely. On my ring fingers, I added the small chevron design from Pueen plate #03 in Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Silver Sweep."

Dream it. Be it!

Well, it's conference time again, and that means another fun pink mani! This year, I am going to the second of two conferences, so I already know the chevron theme is used heavily, hence my stamp from plate BM-423. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Love Train" for a base, and stamped with "Silver Sweep." On my ring fingers I jazzed it up with Nails Inc. London in "Chelsea Square," a pink glitter. I'm ready to go!

Glitter Ombre

I semi-followed the instructions again on another Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear kit. I used "Breezy Blue" as a base ("Blue Me Away!" on my ring fingers), and then created an ombre effect in "Sea-ly String." The instructions just say "apply the glitter polish on the tips," but obviously it doesn't work that way. I did one coat over the whole nail, one coat from the tip to about halfway, and one coat on just the tips. It worked pretty well, except the tips got so thick, I kept dinging and denting them.

Following the Rules

I picked up three of these Sally Hansen "Get the Look" kits at Target this weekend. I didn't necessarily want "the look," they were just a good deal for three full-size Xtreme Wear polishes. However, I decided to try following the instructions from this pack for a "Side Swipe French Mani."

I started with the metallic "Pink Satin" over all my nails. Then I used a piece of tape to create a straight line diagonally across each nail, and painted "Lacey Lilac" over the tips. I finished up with "Confetti Punch" just at the very tips, so it overlapped both the other colors. I guess they turned out ok, but I wasn't super excited about it overall.

Teardrops

In kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision, I painted and stamped my nails while on a phone call for work today. I used two colors of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri: "Brisk Blue" for the base, and "Blue-Away" on top, stamped with the teardrop design from Pueen plate #58. Kind of sloppy, but not bad for a teleconference mani!

Flutter by...

Simple mani tonight... I used Pure Ice "Fairy Godmother," and then stamped just on my ring fingers with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Pronto Purple," using the butterfly/flower design from Pueen plate #39. Pronto Purple is one of my favorite nail colors (and I'm super bummed it doesn't seem to be in stores anymore), but it is kind of a lousy stamping polish :o(

It's a Girl

I'm throwing my friend a baby shower tomorrow, and it's a girl, so we're doing everything pink. (I hate reinforcing traditional gender roles, especially before the kid's even born, but it's a cute theme.)

This was one of my more involved manis. I started with a base of Wet n Wild "Tickled Pink," and then used a sponge to create a gradient with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Love Train" on the tips. I almost left it like that because it looked so nice, but I went ahead with my original plan and used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Slick Slate" to stamp a design from Pueen plate #59. The gray tones down the pink nicely.

Gradient Dots

Inspired by a few "dotticure" pictures I pinned on Pinterest, I decided to try a kind of gradient version. On top of a base of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Brisk Blue," I dotted Pure Ice "Black Out," "Kiss Me Here" (gray - that name makes no sense), and "Superstar" (white).

It turned out neat, but I'm not 100% happy with it. It took me a couple nails to figure out a pattern, and on the dark base, the white really sticks out, as compared with the black and gray.

Next I'd like to try a gradient base with a single color of dots on top!

Metallic Honeycomb

I had picked out the colors I wanted to use - Maybelline Color Show "Blue Blowout" with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Silver Sweep" stamped on top - but I didn't know which design I wanted to stamp, only that I wanted something geometric. I ended up using part of Pueen plate #54. I know it's circles, not hexagons, but it kind of reminds me of a honeycomb type design.

Swirls on Jade

I wore this Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Jazzy Jade" by itself last week, and liked it so much that I'm wearing it again this week. This time, I stamped some random swirly designs from Pueen plate #65 using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Silver Sweep." It's my first time using this plate, and I really like the design!

I love the little stars scattered throughout!

Blue Skies

I was going to just paint my nails with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Blue-Away" and leave it at that, but it was like they were calling out for fluffy white clouds! So I grabbed my Wet n Wild "French White Creme" and a dotting tool and went to town.

This was the first time I tried this technique and I love how they turned out!

Concert Nails

I painted my nails for my concert band performance tomorrow. On a base of OPI "Russian Navy," I stamped the music note design from BM-411 using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Silver Sweep."

Party Fingers!

I was going to a fancy party and since I was wearing a simple black dress, I thought I'd jazz things up with some fancy nails. Unfortunately, I don't remember the specifics for this mani! But, this is a background of two different Sally Hansen blues, stamped in black with a Pueen design. I love how they turned out! ...Unfortunately, they started chipping almost immediately!

Bright Butterflies

I was so excited about the spring weather, I wanted to do something with the allover butterfly design on Pueen plate #39. I did a base of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Love Train," which has a nice purple undertone. Then I stamped with Sally Hansen Instra-Dri in "Brisk Blue," which may have been kind of a crazy choice, but I was in the mood for something bright. Then I went one step further and used a dotting tool to add some details in Wet n Wild "Frosted Fuchsia," which was probably the craziest idea yet, but oh well...

Gray Butterflies

I have a busy week coming up at work, so I wanted to do something that wouldn't look bad when it starts to chip, haha! So I went with my much-loved Nina Ultra Pro "Spun Sugar," and stamped my ring fingers and thumbs with the butterfly design on Konad plate m20 using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Grey Area."

I bought this and a couple other Konad plates when I first started stamping, and have barely touched them since, so it was nice to pull this one back out.

A Blue Streak

I tried two new polishes tonight. On a base of metallic Maybelline Color Show "Blue Blowout," I stamped Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Blue-Away." I love this lighter color and would like to try it on top of a darker background so it can pop more, but overall I like the way this looks like subtle lace. This is the circle design on Pueen plate #24.

Spring Thistles

I thought I'd try another gradient mani, this time with just two colors. I used Pure Ice in "Fairy Godmother" (purple) and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Love Train" (pink with lavender undertones). The first nail I did turned out like a beautiful sunset. Then the rest of them looked like a bad faux textured wall :o( But it didn't matter so much, since I was covering the whole thing with this thistle-like design from Pueen plate #51 (in Pure Ice "Black Out"), which I've been waiting to use.

The overall effect is kind of crazy (looks like something from the 80s), so we'll see how long this actually lasts...

Sophisticated Silver

Inspired by Am1e's recent "Sophisticated Saturday" post, I decided to use this design from Pueen plate #28. The base is Sephora by OPI "Frankly, I Don't Give A-dam," and I stamped with my new Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Gone Gray," which in the bottle looked like a very dark metallic gray. In real life, it's just... silver, and isn't as "one coat" as most of the other Insta-Dri colors. It's nice, it just wasn't the look I was expecting.

Silver Hibiscus

I guess I just can't get enough of this Pueen plate #72. My mom gave me a bottle of OPI "Russian Navy," which looks purple in the bottle, but yeah, it's more like navy on. And I'd been wanting to do these flowers in silver (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Silver Sweep"). So here we go!

Hibiscus Inspiration

Inspired by Soguesswhat11's latest "fauxtorial," I used a couple of the flowers on Pueen plate #72 to do this design. All the colors are Sally Hansen Insta-Dri: the base is "Petal Pusher," flowers are "Presto Pink," and vines are "Mint Sprint." I like the gold on pink she does in her design, but I have cut all goldtone out of my life at this point, can't backtrack now!

Vine Buffet

I wanted to do something a little lighter today, so I did a nude base of Nina Ultra Pro in "Spun Sugar," and stamped with Wet n Wild in "White Creme." I used the vine design on Pueen plate #55 from the new Stamping Buffet.

I'm totally digging the larger designs! Once again, no two nails are alike, but they all match.

"Buffet" of Hearts and Stars

When I saw the new Pueen "Stamping Buffet" collection, I fell in love! But then it sold out and wasn't available to purchase for a couple weeks. The minute it was back in stock, I ordered mine!

For my first try with the "all over" style of plates, I went with the hearts, stars, and spirals on plate #63. I love how every finger is different, but they all go together.

I used Sephora by OPI in "Frankly, I Don't Give A-dam," and stamped with Sally Hansen InstaDri in "Vigorous Violet." The InstaDri polishes are usually really good for stamping, but I always forget that this particular color is a little more sheer, so it came out a little lighter than I'd like.

Valentine's Mani

After weighing all my heart design options, I decided to go with something simple for V-Day. I put down a base of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Wined Up," then stamped just a couple fingers with the same polish in "Silver Sweep."

On my ring fingers I used a heart + swirl design from Pueen plate #35. On my thumbs, I used a similar-looking small heart from plate #43. That might have been a bad choice, though. On my left thumb, it's centered and just looks small; on the right, it's off-center which is totally bugging me!

Blue Waves

I've been wanting to try a gradient manicure for a long time, and finally picked up a pack of foam wedge makeup sponges last week. At this point, my nail polish collection is big enough that I have similar colors that will look good together in a gradient. I actually think this may have been a bit too subtle. I used (lightest to darkest): Pure Ice "Bikini," Maybelline Color Show "Turquoise Paradise," and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Blue-ming Fast." I put down a base coat of the medium color first, but in hindsight I probably should have used the lightest color as a base.

Then I stamped on the chevron design from BM-423 using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Blazing Blue." As usual, I had a hard time keeping the stamp lined up straight; weirdly, I got the stamp straighter on my right hand than my left! The stamp makes the gradient even more subtle, but the overall effect is kind of like waves on water.

I'll definitely be trying gradients again!

More Bird Stuff

Wasn't going to stamp tonight, but then I decided to add a little something. Of course, I have a hard time lining up images, so it might have been better to just leave them plain.

This is Sephora by OPI in "Frankly, I Don't Give A-dam" (no clue when this came out, I found it on sale at a Big Lot's recently), stamped with Wet n Wild in "Black Creme." The bird is from BM-401, and the feather (which you have seen many times before) is on BM-419.

Pinned it and Did it: Gray Vines

Here's another Pinterest-inspired mani! I found this one actually while browsing Instagram, and loved it! However, I have some events coming up and didn't want to go quite as dramatic as using black on the light background, so I stamped in gray (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Slick Slate") on a base of Nails Inc. "Porchester Square." The stamp design is the same, from Pueen plate #33.

Lacy Underwear?!

After my snowflake Christmas mani, I thought I'd do another white and nude design. This is Pure Ice "Superstar" stamped on OPI for Sephora "Nonfat Soy Half Caff."

Without flash

With flash

I was originally going to use one of the flower-on-lace patterns from Pueen plate #27, but the images kept coming out kind of smudgy looking, so I ended up using the large rose design on plate #22, which came out a little better. However, when I asked my husband what he thought, he said it looked like lacy underwear!