Adventures In Stamping: zebra mani

Hello my beauties! Happy Sunday! I wanted to post this earlier but it's still in time for this Sunday's challenge. I haven't done the challenges for two weeks because my nails broke and I didn't have the appropriate plates. But I really wanted to get back in the game. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's this facebook group where we have a theme every week and we stamp accordingly. There's also a lot of talking there about stamping, nail art and nail polish in general. So you must join in because it's an awesome community! Ok, on to the nails!

This week's theme was black and white. Well, I realized it's not easy to do a black and white mani! White is not forgiving at all if you do any mistakes and black is a very messy color. I wanted to do a houndstooth pattern but I don't have a plate and there was no way of me finding the Konad plate in town although I tried. So I went with the less original zebra. There will sure be a lot of zebras this Sunday on the group. 

My base color is Farmec 50 and the stamping color is China Glaze Liquid Leather. I'm so happy to have found a good black for stamping! The plate is m69 from Born Pretty. Sadly, my top coat totally smudged it. These photos are all before top coat. I'm beginning to think that I need to get Seche Vite for nail art. The other top coats all drive me crazy with smudging. I also have some new plates on the way and I'm very excited! There will sure be a stamping galore when those arrive!

The red adventure part one: Sleek Geisha's Seal

Hello my beauties! Another beautiful spring day is a good opportunity for me to show you some reds. I have two posts in store for you. But first I want to apologize again for not commenting on blogs and not replying to your comments. I'm really behind, again and I have to catch up. It gets old, I know, but what can I do. 

The first red that I will show you today is one by Sleek MakeUp. I've had this polish since December and I've used it as underwear for my China Glaze Ring in the Red mani that I posted about here. When I first bought it I expected it to be more blue-toned, but I was disappointed to see it's not. It actually pulls very orange on me. 

Sleek Geisha's Seal, indoors, artificial light

This picture makes it look even more orange than in reality, but it still looks awful on me. I hate how my hands look when I have such a polish on. I wore this immediately after I nubbinized my nails, so you imagined how bummed I was about my nubs with such a color on. I really don't know what I was thinking. 

The formula on this is a little thick. I remember I had trouble applying it the first time so I added a few drops of Seche Restore. It's very opaque but it looked patchy after one coat so I did two. Drying time is average, I guess. Here's a picture of it in direct light that is a little more accurate. 

I'm sure this doesn't look this orange on somebody else, but on my cool skin tone it just turns horrible. So to make it better I tried a little stamping using my m60 plate and China Glaze Liquid Leather. I did like how it turned out and I wore this combo for around 2 days. Not bad considering the color. 

I think I'm gonna give this away because I really don't see myself wearing it again. I'm ok with this brand just not with the color. Maybe I will try others in the future. 

Brown and Pink with Flowers

Good Morning,

I almost forgot to show you this stamping nailart design right after I swatched China Glaze Foie Gras. (If you missed it look here) It's nothing to brag about and it has lots of flaws but everything can't be perfect... right?  Hope you like it *-*

Used Cheeky XL plate K,  pink dots are Revlon Bubble.  I added the extra dots above the flowers and on the sides of the flowers using my dotting tools.

I love brown and pink as a combo, I think they go well together.

 

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Until next time please have a great nail polish day. (✿◠‿◠)

Sunday is for stamping

Hello my lovelies! I hope your Monday is as beautiful as mine. It's really starting to feel like spring and I love it! Today is also Marisa's birthday so I wish her a happy birthday and all the best! I know she will be reading this soon! So yesterday I was sick and spent almost the whole day in bed. But it was also stamping day on Adventures in Stamping and I couldn't miss this week's theme. So with a runny nose and aching sinuses I came up with the following manicure. 

This week's theme was "plate ending in 4" and again I had to struggle to find a decent image on a given plate. This week's trouble maker was plate m64. I decided to use this image because it was working the best from the ones I liked on the plate (I'm not a big fan of the plaid design). The color combo is something I've seen a few days ago and don't remember where. Before that I had no idea that green and gold go this well together. 

The base color is Gabrini 339 (individual swatches and review coming soon) and the stamping polish is Golden Rose Nail Art 108. I first read on Emerald Sparkled that these stripers were good for stamping. I have a lot of silvers so I only got the gold one. The price is right and the stamping is great, but I would love if the quantity was larger (they only have 7.5 ml). 

I really like how this came out. It's a really edgy design and a lot of people noticed it today on my nails. I got a lot of compliments. Here's a shot of my left (dominant) hand, although it doesn't know how to pose very well. 

So what do you think? Do you like my little geometrical nail art? 

Dragon of the Green Hills

I'm still wearing Green Hills from ANNY. The wear is exceptional, no chips or even tipwear after four days, that's how I like it! I can't get over how great this colour is and it turns out to be a perfect canvas for something even greater. The scale-like pattern is from Bundle Monster plate 215 and I couldn't think of a better polish to use for those scales than a england's Dragon. This could easily be my favourite stamped manicure ever! Dark, green, prismatic sparkles.. :L 

My nails reminded me a bit of this little dragon iguana we spotted during our trip to Curaçao last summer. Isn't he cute?

Thanks for watching and enjoy your weekend!

A fresh start

Hello loves! It's a new week and I hope you're not too upset that it's Monday. Today I started a new rotation at school and hopefully a better period in my life. The last semester really sucked. I'm very glad it's over now and looking forward to this one because I have high hopes for it. I can't wait to do something I like and remember why I chose medicine in the first place. Today's manicure is one that I did this weekend, inspired by spring and my new blog theme. I was thinking to post this on the first of March, as a welcome to spring, but I couldn't wait to show you. I really like this one a lot! 

This week's Adventures In Stamping challenge was "using 3 colors". So I got inspired by spring to do this. It also coincides with the theme of the Nail Art Stamping Contest Spring 2012 on Enamel Girl's blog so it will be my entry there also. I'm not skilled enough to win this by judging, but I sure wanna be entered in the awesome draw. You should check this contest out and enter! 

To create this I've used Essie Navigate Her from the spring collection (individual swatches and review coming soon). I then sponged a bit of China Glaze Lemon Fizz on some areas of the nail. Finally I stamped with OPI Don't Mess with OPI and plate m61 from Born Pretty. 

I took some shots of my left (dominant) hand too. I usually don't do that but this time it came out pretty good. Unfortunately I'm not very used to posing with this hand so it feels pretty unnatural holding the bottle. I did my best. 

I also want to welcome my new followers! I'm past the 100 mark now and I have to thank all of you for supporting me and looking at my posts. I really appreciate each and every one of you! Thank you so much! 

Another adventure in stamping

Hello my dears! It's Friday again. My week was off so I'm kinda sad that it's Friday because that means my week of vacation is over. But I still have a great weekend ahead so it's not that bad. As you have seen, I've changed the look of the blog and made it a little more springy. I'm in desperate need for spring to come soon because this was a very long and hard winter. With the help of my sister (who I thank), I also have a matching header. What do you think?

Today's manicure is a stamping I did for last week's challenge on the Facebook group Adventures In Stamping. The challenge was "plate ending in 3". Here's what I came up with.

I only have one plate ending in 3, namely the m73 from Born Pretty. Since I've used my favorite design on that plate for the blue challenge (showed here), I wanted to use a different image. The other ones don't work that well though and I really had a hard time doing a decent manicure. I had a great image in my mind with a multicolored manicure using one of the designs, but it didn't come out great at all. Then I went and bought a Konad stamper and scraper and things started working better. 

The base color is Essie Cocktail Bling and the stamping color is China Glaze Awaken, a dark silver/charcoal from the Romantique collection. This collection is made entirely out of foils and they all stamp very well. The image I chose, from m73 of course, is a french tip made out of hearts. I had to stamp about 3 times on every nail to get the full nail design. I don't care much for stamping that doesn't cover the whole nail. 

I think, in the end, this came out pretty well. I made some mistakes while stamping, but did my best to correct them. The Konad stamper and scraper are definitely better than the Born Pretty ones. So if you have trouble with your stamping, consider upgrading your tools! 

P.S. I now have a tumblr too. If you wanna follow me the link is: lacquerbuzz.tumblr.com. If you are on tumblr leave me a link so I can follow. I also have all the links to the places where you can find me (facebook, twitter, google+ etc) in the left sidebar of the blog, so definitely check them out!

Beware of the Cat

When my new Konad plates arrived I immediately fell in love with the cute little bird on plate m83. For this mani I applied two coats of Eyeko - Rain Polish and stamped not one, but two birds on my ring finger nail with Konad Special Nail Polish in Black. It looked cute, but I felt something was missing so I added a naughty cat face (for the cat and the line I used a small paint brush and black acrylic paint). Yes, now it's complete. I have a little story on my nails! :)

I'm not only excited about this mani, but also about my new camera! Of course I have to get used to it(s weight), but it takes much better pictures than my compact camera, without a doubt. I'm hooked. ♥ 

Thanks for watching!

Pink & Bows

Yesterday my husband and I celebrated eight years together! The perfect occasion to bake my sweet and supportive man a cake. With a bow and tiny hearts. ♥ 

After I was done decorating the cake I had no energy left to do my nails, so I did them this morning. I applied three coats of Barry M - Bright Pink, a beautiful yummy candy pink (apparently my camera hates photographing pink, Bright Pink looks less blue-toned irl). Then I added one of the bows from image plate M59 with Konad Special Nail Polish in White and a light pink rhinestone. I was thinking about adding little hearts, but I'm glad I didn't.. I like it simple these days. ^_^

Thanks for watching! 

Fun Sunday: Adventures In Stamping

Hi. I'm back! So for this week's Fun Sunday it's all about nails! Some of you might have heard that there's a group on Facebook called Adventures In Stamping and some of you might even be in it. For those who don't know about it, it's an awesome community of ladies that are into stamping nail art and every week has a theme or a challenge. Everybody posts their themed mani on Sunday and then we can enjoy all the great photos and comment on them. If you are into stamping and are interested, you can check it out here.

This week's theme was an all-blue stamping manicure. It's my first week in this group and what better way to start it than having my favorite color as a theme. I used Essie Coat Azure as a base color and did the stamping with my trusty China Glaze First Mate. Seriously this polish is amazing! It's so pigmented and great for stamping. I used my Born Pretty plate m73 for this design. 

 I'm really happy with how this turned out. It looks much better in person and I don't know why it didn't photograph properly. One thing I've learned since I've started this blog is that nail art is so much harder to photograph than plain colored nails. Maybe some of you reading this have some tips to share. Please comment below! 

This was the first time I was able to do a full stamping mani without messing it up. It's still not perfect, but it looks pretty good to me. I also managed to stamp twice on my wide thumb nail without doing a big mess. I have to thank this amazing group on Facebook because I've learned so much from them. It's also a big motivation to have a theme and do a design every week. I'm so glad I joined! I wish you all a very fun and awesome Sunday! 

Color Club - Get A Clue: Stamped & Mattified

After swatching and wearing all those prismatic nail polishes I was in the mood for something different. The base colour I used for this mani is Color Club - Get A Clue, a beautiful light pink creme. My camera makes pinks like these look more blue-toned than they actually are, this is a true pink. I needed three coats for a smooth and even surface. I added some subtle stamping with bundle monster plate BM-201 and Millennium from China Glaze. To make my nails look (and feel) even softer I applied a layer of matte top coat from Essence. I love mattified metallic stamping!

Thanks for watching! :)

Going In Circles

I'm happy it's the weekend!  I did several things to my nails.  First, I put on 3 coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Eel Skin. Second, one coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Glass Slipper.  I can see myself putting it on every creme I own.  And, third did a stamping with Chanel Vendetta using XL Plate B.  

Why does macro have to show every little flaw. Lol!  I promise it looks better irl

Glass Slipper killed my lemming for Illasmaqua Raindrops and CND Sugar Sparkle.  (Hugs bottle)

 Eel Skin a nice creme

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Until next time please have a great nail polish day. (✿◠‿◠)

Orly Snowcone and snowflakes

Hi everybody! It's a beautiful and sunny Saturday over here and last night we finally got proper snow! We didn't have snow for Christmas and it snowed like one time the whole winter, so this is the first time that everything got covered in the puffy white stuff. To celebrate this I'm showing you a snowy manicure today. 

In other news, I've been struggling with dry hands and cuticles for the whole week. I haven't been able to photograph manicures and that's why I've only worn polishes that I have previously shown you. Even now, I can't do any photos unless I put lotion on my hands first. And the moisture goes away in 10-15 minutes after that. If you have any suggestions on what I should do, please share, as lotions and hand creams just don't cut it anymore. I've also noticed that my nails are peeling and chipping more than usual, so I've reduced them to nubs again and I'm trying out a new base coat with vitamin A. Ok, enough blabber, let's get to the nails now!

As a base, I've used Orly Snowcone. This polish has been on my wishlist for a very long time and I finally got it last month from ebay. It's a gorgeous cornflower blue creme. It's pretty opaque, but the formula is still pretty streaky, so you will need 2 coats to get it even. It dries a little darker than in the bottle, but my shots aren't 100% accurate. Imagine the color being a little lighter and dustier than this. Here's some photos of it alone. 

I decided to stamp some snowflakes over it because it's the perfect base for such a mani. I've used the M59 plate from Born Pretty store for the flakes (these are similar to the ones on the Konad M59 plate). On the middle finger I stamped the snowman from the M37 plate available here (also similar to the one on Konad plate M12). The polish I've used for stamping is an unknown brand stamping polish from a local store. 

On my thumb, I stamped the other snowflake (the larger one) from the same M59 plate. Here's a photo from a weird angle that shows my thumb. 

I'm really pleased with how this turned out. What I've noticed with stamping manicures is that they are very hard to photograph. My camera always flips and doesn't want to focus properly, making some parts blurry. I hope I will learn how to photograph these better in the future. So what do you think about my mani?