Blue & Gray

A friend of mine at work today had gray nail polish, and it inspired me to do mine in Pure Ice "Kiss Me Here." Then I wanted to stamp with a design I hadn't used before, and this criss-cross flower one from Pueen plate #23 caught my eye. Love this bright blue Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Blue Me Away!" for stamping :o)

Fish Scales

Something I've been liking to do lately is paint my nails a solid color for a couple days, and then when it starts showing signs of wear, stamp over it. That's what I did with this mani, which started with just Sinful Colors "Sail La Vie," which got lots of compliments on its own.

Then I used Wet n Wild "Black Creme" to stamp this scale pattern from Pueen plate #86, and finished it off with dots of silver Stripe Rite. I got even more compliments on it this way!

Blue on Blue Flowers

I love how these turned out! I haven't used this one much since I got it, so I started with a base of Maybelline Color Show in "Turquoise Paradise." Then I stamped on a variety of flowers from Pueen plate #72 using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Navy Fleet." Love the variety of shapes and flowers, all from one plate!

Blue Scrolls

Look who's back! I got some great nail polish for Christmas that's really long-wearing and I didn't want to bother stamping over it, but I've been home sick for a couple days and was getting bored. This is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Navy Fleet" (a new one I picked up recently, and honestly I think it looks more like a dark teal than navy), stamped in "Silver Sweep" with one of the flower designs on Pueen plate # 97.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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!

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.

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...

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.

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!

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!

Silver Circles

I wanted to do some silver stamping, so I decided on this circle design from Pueen plate #04 in Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Celeb City" on Insta-Dri in "Blazing Blue." I didn't realize I was running low on Blazing Blue, it was getting a little skimpy as I brushed it on.

The circles came out kind of wonky, and the top coat caused the blue to streak on some of my nails, but I still like the way it turned out. My original plan was to go back and add light blue dots in the centers of some of the circles, but I liked it with just the silver so I stopped :o)

Raindrops

I was inspired by this pin on Pinterest to do a multi-colored, multi-sized polka-dot thing. I went with a base of Wet n Wild "Bijou Blue," and then my plan was to use Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Celeb City" in place of the white in the inspiration photo, and then Pure Ice "Bikini" as the third color.
I think I misjudged the size of the dots, though. Even though I chose different sized dotting tools, the dots meant to overlap ended up being the same size. Just as well, because those two colors are pretty similar right next to each other. So there's no stacking of dots. But that's ok, I like the way this turned out, anyway. The color combo and bit of sparkle looks like drops of rain.