New Year's Lace

My husband and I are going to a black & white party for New Year's Eve, so I was thinking for a while about what to do. I decided to try this, and if the stamping wasn't happening, I would just do glitter on top of black. But this worked out well!

This is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Black Out" stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Silver Sweep" using the flower/lace pattern from Pueen plate #28.

Happy new year!

Winter Wonderland

Well, it's been a while! For the last couple weeks, I've been so busy with holiday stuff, I've barely had time to sleep, let alone touch up my nails or do a design that wouldn't last more than a few days. So I just did a solid silver and then a solid nude color. But I wanted to do something a little different for Christmas day.

This is Nina Ultra Pro in "Spun Sugar" with stamped designs from BM-416 in Pure Ice "Superstar!" Originally I wanted to do that snowflake/sweater design on both ring fingers, but after two attempts, I still couldn't get it straight on my left hand, so I said, "Ok, forget it," and went for the penguin design on the same plate, instead.

Oh Christmas Tree

Here's one that I planned out and followed through on! The green is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Mint Sprint," and my ring fingers are Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Celeb City," stamped with the pine tree design from Pueen #42.

My band's holiday concerts start this week, so I'm just getting into the spirit..!

Free Bird

I had something all planned out, to the point that I actually wrote myself a note of what colors and designs I wanted to use so I wouldn't forget. And the... I totally changed the plan. So instead, we have Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Uptempo Plum" (one of my favorites!), with a couple bird-related images in "Silver Sweep." On my left hand, I have the bird cage from Bundle Monster BM-407, and on my right I have that feather I liked from BM-419.

Candy Stripes

I have to say off the bat, I'm not 100% sold on this. And the fact that the color ran when I added a top coat doesn't help. That said ... I wanted to do something a little festive for a holiday event I have at work, and after considering a couple options, decided to go with the candy cane look. This is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Cinna-snap," one of my favorite colors. On my ring fingers it's stamped on top of Pure Ice "Superstar!" using the diagonal stripe design from BM-423.

This is a very bad picture, but that's ok because it's a kind of bad manicure.

My husband said he wanted to eat my fingers - what do you think?

Silver Scribbles

I've had my eye on this crazy scribbly design from Pueen plate #47 for a while. Playing off my previous mani, I stamped in Stripe Rite silver (sorry, I don't see an actual color name on the bottle) on top of OPI for Sephora "Just a Little Dangerous," and used OPI for Sephora "It's Bouquet with Me" on my ring fingers.

My husband asked me the other day what's up with doing something different on your ring fingers. I don't know, it's just a thing...

Party Pink

I don't have any kind of special event coming up, I just thought this would look fun, and it does! I used OPI for Sephora "Henna-Thing is Possible," stamped with the swirly/vine design from Bundle Monster plate BM-406 in Pure Ice "Black Out." Then on my ring fingers, I have Finger Paints "Van Gogh's Violet" (which looks more glittery in the bottle than it is on your fingers - this was three coats).

Fun fun fun!

Also wanted to mention, I've been using Seche Vite top coat because I heard it doesn't make stamping streak so much, and so far, so good!

Pinned it and Did it: Gray Feather

I find a lot of inspiration photos on Pinterest and Instagram, but I've never tried to really duplicate one before. I really liked the look of this one, though, and I just got these Bundle Monster plates, so I decided to try it. It was easy enough, and I think it turned out well, except at first glance the pink nails look like I forgot to paint them...

I don't know what colors were used in the original, but I used OPI for Sephora "Dance Til Fawn" for the gray and Nina Ultra Pro "Spun Sugar" for the pink (just picked this up at Sally and I love the color!), and the feather is from plate BM-419. Here's the original next to my version:

Silver Damask

I spent the last week wearing novelty Sally Hansen nail strips: black and white music notes, for my concert band performance last weekend. I got more comments and compliments on that manicure than anything I've ever done, but I was ready to do some stamping again.

I love this color combination! This is Revlon "Black with Envy" stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Silver Sweep" (possibly my favorite polish for stamping now). I used the damask/fleur-de-lis design on Pueen plate #14. I haven't had much luck with this type of design in the past because I'm not too good at getting the design on my nail straight, but actually I did ok on 9 out of 10 nails this time.

Swirly Silver Flowers

I haven't had time to do any nail art or stamping recently! For the last couple weeks, I've needed to just get my nails done and go. But I'm back. I actually wasn't planning on stamping when I painted my nails a couple nights ago with OPI for Sephora "Just a Little Dangerous," but tonight I picked up Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Silver Sweep" and decided to jazz things up a little.

Originally I intended to do something more straight-lined, but then I noticed this swirly, flowery design on Pueen plate #13 and decided to use it. I like the way it turned out!

Hearts

I wanted to do something with two (or more) different heart designs, and decided on the single heart surrounded with swirls on Pueen plate #35 for my ring fingers, and the hearts with swirly dots from plate #45. On a base of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Wined Up," I stamped Wet n Wild "Black Creme."

Now, here was the problem: as I was doing my first hand, I was getting really frustrated that the design wasn't getting picked up. Then I realized I was using an old bottle of Wet n Wild that I found in the back of my nail polish drawer. I have no idea how long it was in there, but as soon as I went back to my new/current bottle, the designs came out beautifully! So for once, my right hand looks better than my left :o)

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)

More Roses and Lace

After changing my mind about five times tonight, I decided to use the other rose and lace design on Pueen plate #27, stamping in Pure Ice "Black Out" on Revlon "Raisin Rage."

We're going to the renaissance faire this weekend, and I think the design and color scheme is kind of renaissance-y...

Flowers and Branches

I realized I hadn't used this Pure Ice nail polish in "Fairy Godmother" yet, so I did a test to see how opaque it was. Turns out it covers pretty much completely in just one coat! (But I did two anyway, just to be safe.) Then I did this flowery/branchy design from Pueen plate 33 (I just now decided that they were branches) in Pure Ice "Black Out," with dots of Wet n Wild "Rain Check" in the centers of the flowers.

There was a tiny bit of streaking after I put on a top coat, but also my scraper wasn't quite scraping as well as it used to, so there were a couple noticeable streaks transferred right from the plate.

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.

Lace and Roses

I've been seeing a lot of people on Instagram and such using these rose and lace designs, so even though it's not my usual style, I decided to try this design from Pueen plate #27. In Wet n Wild "Black Creme" on Sally Hansen InstaDri "Vigorous Violet," it comes across as more sassy than sweet :o)

The only bad thing was that the delicate design got pretty streaky when I put on the top coat. Sorry again for my raggedy cuticles - and I had to go with my right hand because it was the less streaky of the two, plus I got a really badass blood blister on my left ring finger :o/

Pink Polka Dots

I really like the color scheme here; gray + pastels seems very current. This is Sephora by OPI "Dance Til Fawn," with dots of Wet n Wild "Tickled Pink." Tickled Pink has proved not to be so good for stamping, and gets streaky as an all-over color, but it's great for dotting. I almost went with more of a fuchsia for the pink, but I'm glad I ended up going with the pastel.

Star Light, Star Bright

For this manicure I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Marine Scene," stamped with Wet n Wild "Black Creme. On most of my fingers, I stamped the star and dot design from Pueen plate 18, and then added additional dots of Xtreme Wear "Celeb City." On my ring fingers, I used the star pattern on plate 24.

Ugh, the streaking looks so bad in macro!

I didn't expect this polka dot design to look so punk rock, but it kind of does. Also, I totally smudged my right thumb :o(

Silver Vines

My plan was to do this silver vine stamp from Pueen plate 46 on my ring fingers only. Then I thought, it looks nice, I'll go ahead and do my other fingers. You know what... that was a mistake. I'm not good at lining the stamp up straight, so most of them are crooked or off-center, one came out smudged...

Anyway, this is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Celeb City" (it works for stamping!) on Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Wined Up."

Black & Blue

I needed a little inspiration for my nails today, so I perused Instagram to see what other people were doing with their Pueen plates. I kept seeing this design from plate 26 popping up, and a couple times in blue on black, so I decided to try it.

This is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Blue-ming Fast" (bought on clearance for $1.07!) stamped on Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Black Out." Then I added dots of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Celeb City" to jazz it up a little bit more. I'd like to try actually stamping with this silver sometime.

I have to say, I'm really impressed with the Insta-Dri polishes for stamping, they are pretty opaque. I've used them on top of black a couple times now.

Subtle Spirals

My original plan for tonight was to do one of the lacy patterns in black on a pale pink base. I used Sally Hansen Star Opal in "Rose Gold Opal," one of my all-time favorite nail colors, and then started stamping... I haven't had any problems with black before, but I guess doing it on such a pale background, regular black polish didn't end up looking as opaque as it has on darker colors? I also feel like there was something on the plate that was preventing me from picking up the pattern right (and I always clean them with nail polish remover before using, to remove any residue). Moral of the story is, it looked bad.

After trying and failing with with a different lacy pattern, I decided to go for something completely different, and instead stamped this swirly spiral pattern in Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Vigorous Violet." It came out a little lighter and more subtle than I had intended, but I liked it in the end.

Scaley Shells

I wanted to do my nails tonight, so I looked online for some inspiration photos using the Pueen plate sets I have, and kept seeing this image from plate number 13. I had some trouble getting it centered right, but it doesn't look horrendous...

The base is Wet n Wild "Bijou Blue," design is stamped in Wet n Wild "Black Creme," and then I added a dot detail in Wet n Wild "Metallica."

...And pretty much no streaking from the top coat!

Monotone Swirls

After a week without any stamping, I wanted to do something a little subtle. So I went with a base of OPI for Sephora "Under My Trench Coat," and stamped some swirls from Pueen plate 46 in Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Grey Area." Hopefully neutral and something I won't feel like updating right away.

I did get a little bit of streakiness when I added the top coat, but it's not horrible...

The colors are probably more accurate above, but the picture below is clearer, with the flash:

Coffee Table Rings

This circle pattern on Pueen plate 47 reminded me of the rings left on your table when you don't use a coaster.

The end result was a little more subtle than I'd intended. The Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes I've tried have been pretty opaque and good for stamping, but I guess "Vigorous Violet" didn't have quite enough pigment to stand up to Pure Ice in "Kiss Me Here" (which is a weird name for a gray color, btw).

Here is a picture after I added a top coat - it didn't streak too badly:

Leafy Greens

This is not my usual color combination, but my favorite Sally Hanson Insta-Dri nail polishes were on sale at the supermarket today, so I picked up a couple new colors. This is "Mint Sprint" on a background of Pure Ice "Bikini," using the leafy/vine design on Pueen plate 33.

When I first started stamping, I didn't have any problem with my designs streaking when I applied top coat, and I didn't even know that was a thing. It seems like ever since I heard it was a potential issue, my designs have been streaking more - did I jinx myself? I've been taking pictures before I apply top coat now, but actually this one didn't streak too much when I did it.

Funky Flowers

I'd had my eye on this floral pattern on Pueen plate 25 for a while. I was actually planning on doing a different pattern in black on pink, but couldn't get it lined up right, so decided to go with the flowers instead.

I think I would have liked this more in a different color scheme - maybe even a white background with different colors for the flowers. As it is, it strikes me as kind of a 60s psychadelic flower thing. Also, the base color, Wet n Wild "Tickled Pink," turned out pretty streaky.

Subtle Strings

I'm not too happy with this one... I've liked this design on Pueen plate 45 since I first saw it - it sort of looks like strings of beads. But I chose the wrong color to use for the stamp: Revlon "Black with Envy." It was just too sheer. However, I love the base color, Wet n Wild in "Rain Check."

The result is a bit more subtle than I'd like.

So I added a little Wet n Wild "French White Creme" on top, and ... I guess I am happier with the results? Next time I'd like to try something a little more bold and graphic.

CELEBRAT10N

I'm leaving soon for the national conference of an organization I'm part of, and our logo and everything are pink, so I've been planning for a while what I wanted to do with my nails. Originally I was just going to do polka dots, but then I got the stamping plates and decided to go with stars instead!

My toes are Sally Hansen InstaDri in "Presto Pink," and my fingers are Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Black Out" with Presto Pink stars from Pueen plate 44. I know they're going to be a hit!

Blue Jewels?

I had this awesome multicolored stamp all planned, and when I actually went to do it... it just wasn't happening. It's possible these Pueen plates have some kind of residue on them that needs to be cleaned off the first time, but that hadn't occurred to me yet, so I scrapped that idea and went with something else.

Instead, I painted my nails with Pure Ice in "Kiss Me Here" (gray), and used three of the designs on Pueen plate 26 with Wet 'n Wild "Black Creme." On my middle three fingers, I used the one on the right that looks kind of like chandelier beads in varying lengths. For my pinkies, I used the similar one on the left where they're all the same length, because I didn't want to risk having the mostly blank area end up on my nail. And for my thumbs, I used the swirly dot pattern at the top to cover the large area.

I then went back and added dots of Wet 'n Wild "Bijou Blue" on top of some of the larger gem/teardrop shapes. Unfortunately, when I added a top coat, a lot of the designs smudged :o( I think this was mostly because the top coat is kind of old and gloopy now. That's going into the trash :o/

Peacock!

I've wanted to do this ever since I saw a tutorial for a similar look on YouTube. My Pueen plates arrived today, and plate 09 with this peacock design was the first one I pulled out!

This is a base of an OPI for Sephora color (sorry, don't know the name off the top of my head, it's part of a sampler), with stamping in black, and dots of Sally Hansen InstaDry in Pronto Purple in the centers of the feather looking parts.

I am really happy with these Pueen plates! How happy am I? So happy that I shared a picture of my right hand (I am right-handed) because it turned out just as nice as the left! All the problems I seemed to experience with the Konad plates I tried just aren't happening with these. I have two sets (the 2012 and 2013) and love all the patterns on them, so I will be entertained for a while!

Random Flowers

Bad news: my first plan, to use the French tips on Konad plate m19, was just not going to happen.
Good news: I finally ended up just stamping some random flowers over each nail, and it totally worked!

Sorry about the cuticles, that's what happens when I have to mess around so much with nail polish remover, washing my hands, repainting, etc. This is a base of OPI for Sephora "Nonfat Soy Half Caff," one of my all-time favorites! Then I stamped the flowers with Pure Ice in black (not sure of the exact name) and Revlon "Raisin Rage."

I didn't really care so much about how this turned out, because I ordered two sets of Pueen plates which should be coming tomorrow, so I plan on going a little nuts with them!

My First Attempt with Konad!

I've been kind of obsessed with the idea of Konad for some time, so I finally did some research, figured out what kind of supplies I needed, and placed an order. I was so excited to try everything out when it arrived! I only got the stamper and some plates, not the special nail polish.

For this first attempt, I tried a couple things just to test out some of the designs, but eventually decided to go with Sally Hansen InstaDry in "Expresso," and Essie "Fiji" for the stamps, for a kind of subtle look. To jazz things up, I added a tiny dot of red in the center of the flowers with a dotting tool (but kind of regretted it).

Stars (no Stripes)

I didn't get a chance to do this before the actual 4th of July, but I finally was able to break out my dotting tool and do a mildly patriotic manicure.

This is silver dots on Sally Hansen InstaDry in "Blazing Blue." The first two nails I dotted came out kind of weird looking. Then I realized I should be thinking vertically, down the length of the nail, rather than horizontally, across the nail. The rest of them turned out super cute, and I got lots of compliments, so I will be doing this again for sure!