Nail Challenge Collaborative: Purple #4 (Purple and Silver)

Hi everyone! I am squeaking in at the last minute, but I have my last Purple mani for January to share with you today. :)

I received these fun stickers to try from Lady Queen store, so I knew I wanted to incorporate them somehow.

I started with a base of Zoya Haven, and I used two of the decals to start off with. I liked how it looked so much, I didn't want to do much else, so I just added a touch of a silver glitter gradient using an unnamed silver glitter I got for Christmas. Even though this mani was super simple, I loved these colors together and felt like it came out really elegant!

I think Haven is such a gorgeous color all on its own, it really doesn't need much to dress it up. I am glad for the Purple theme this month giving me a chance to pull out all my purples that I had forgotten about! These stickers were super easy to use too. I used nail art tweezers to place them, then filed off the excess using an extra rough nail file. I didn't even topcoat over these and they stayed for a few days until I took off the mani. You can see my tip wear, I took the photos after wearing this mani for 3 days.

If you like these decals, check out the shop at LadyQueen.com to see what other great nail art items they have! I have another product to show you soon :)

Thanks for reading! Check back next month to see what I come up with for February's theme - Typography. :)

<3 Kelly

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Nail Challenge Collaborative: Purple #3 (Leadlighting)

Hi everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. I got a lot done, but found some time for relaxing too. We didn't get any snow at all here in Dayton, but I might as well have been snowed in for how much I left the house haha.

Today, I want to show you my next mani for the NCC's Purple month! This time, I did some fun leadlighting nail art. After I had to get rid of all my Mentality glazes, I tried to find some other polishes in my stash that were sheer enough for leadlighting, and I have to say, this was kind of a fail. But, live and learn right? :)

I started with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White and stamped over it using my super squishy marshmallow stamper from Born Pretty Store, and my Konad Black. I totally forgot my liquid latex this time - oops!

I picked up these Sinful Colors "Opalescent" polishes last year or the year before. They are marketed as a sheerer polishes, so I was hoping these would work for leadlighting. They ended up being a touch too pigmented for this sort of nail art, but I still like it. I intended for the purple to be more of the focus, but the blue and green sort of pull your eye too, but I think it still works for the purple theme!

I used my dotting tool and Sinful Colors in: Flight to See, Prized Plume, and Sheer Flight to fill in the flowers. I didn't love the white popping through, so I grabbed another Sinful Colors in Flutter to lightly color those spots in.

I used HK Girl topcoat to seal it all in, but I felt the shininess made it even harder to see the black outlines peeking through, so I matted it using Butter London's matte topcoat.

Overall, I really liked how these nails came out! I am still on a hunt for a full collection of glazes that I can use for leadlighting. I found a few colors from Rica that work great, but I need MORE colors lol! :) Ever since I got all these new stamps that are so open and leave so much room for coloring in, I've been obsessed!

If you do decide to try out that super squishy stamper, or anything else on Born Pretty Store's website, feel free to use my code to get an additional 10% off your entire order. :)

Anyway, be sure to check out the rest of the ladies looks for Week 3!
Thanks for looking! <3
Kelly

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Nail Challenge Collaborative: Purple #2 (Animals)

Hi everyone! I hope your week has started out all right. I'm already ready for the weekend lol :) Today I'm back with my next purple mani for the Nail Challenge Collaborative. Again, I used this one as a chance to try out my new Bundle Monster plates! 

I started with a base color of Trust Fund Beauty Elegantly Wasted, and did a little subtle gradient using Sinful Colors Purple Diamond.

I stamped over the gradient using Konad Black and BM-S164. Obviously, I didn't let it dry enough before I topcoated it! Argh! I was in a hurry. I used KB Shimmer Clearly On Top, which usually doesn't smudge my stamping, but this time it did. Oh well! I still really like how it turned out. :)

I love these plates so much! There are so many cute designs. I can't wait until I get my clear stamper in the mail so I can really play around more with placement. I have a hard time with those large designs, getting the image where I want it, so I'm so excited to try it with the clear stamper.

Thanks for looking! And check out the other bloggers' designs for Week 2!

<3
Kelly

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Nail Challenge Collaborative: Purple #1 (Cats!)

Hi everyone! I'm a bit late sharing my NCC manis with you this month! I have had most of them done, but just haven't gotten around to editing and posting. I wish I could tell you I had a good excuse, but really after Christmas I just have wanted to be so lazy! :D

This month's theme is purple, which really left it open to a lot of interpretation. I really wanted to try out my new Bundle Monster plates, so here is what I came up with for my first purple look!

I started with a base of Jindie Nails Purple Universary. I LOVE this polish, and I forgot how much I loved it. So happy to pull it out again for this challenge. :) It's a glorious purple jelly with all different sizes of circle glitters and tiny silver microglitters.

I sealed that in with a coat of HK Girl topcoat, then once that was dry, I stamped using Sinful Colors Snow Me White and BM-S161 and BM-S162. These plates are from the Fuzzy and Fericious collection, and I was so excited to try them out! I'm obviously a crazy cat lady, so this set was right up my alley. There are lots of other animals on there too, though. I thought they stamped great!

I did screw up the placement on my ring finger, so I tried to quickly swipe it off with a cotton swab and some acetone. I thought once I stamped over it, it wouldn't be noticeable, but oh well. I still really like how these came out! I even got a compliment from the Verizon guy when I was getting my new phone lol.

Be sure to check out the other ladies' looks for Week 1! And thanks for stopping by <3
Kelly

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More late nail art! Christmas sweaters & NYE

Hey everyone! The other day I posted some belated Christmas ornaments. While on the subject of better late than never nail art, I decided to show you two more. I posted quick edits of both of these for the holidays, but I've got some better pics to show you today along with details about each look.

First up are the nails I wore for Christmas...and actually quite a while after because I liked them so much!

I started with base colors of Azature Red Diamond and Zoya Logan. Then I stamped using my new squishy stamper from Bundle Monster (I love it so much!) and Sinful Snow Me White. I also got some new plates from Bundle Monster, and for this look, I chose BM-S215. I used KB Shimmer Clearly On Top to seal it all in. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite topcoats!

Shortly after Christmas, I filed my nails down because it was getting hard to type at work! Then, I did this last minute New Year's Eve nail art. It isn't my favorite I've done, but I needed something for the holiday and I wanted to try another new plate! This one is BM-S212.

I wanted to kill two birds with one stone, and make this my final Negative Space mani for the NCC as well. So, I did a simple french tip using Zoya Trixie, and stamped using Sinful Black on Black. For the accent, I sponged on some more Trixie, Essie Butler Please, Zoya Sooki, and Zoya Logan. I intended to go with a fireworks look using BM-S211, but my nail ended up being too small lol, so you can only see the one swirl. Oh well! It was still a fun look.

After all that was done, it still was missing something. It was New Year's Eve after all, so I figured it needed some sparkle! I topped it off with China Glaze Fairy Dust because you can never go wrong with Fairy Dust. Again, I used KB Shimmer Clearly on Top.

And, here's a look at my thumb that showed just slightly more of the stamp!

I love doing holiday nail art, it makes me feel much more festive. Now that I'm all caught up, I guess I'm going to move on to Valentine's Day next!

I really enjoyed doing these looks, I hope you liked them too! Thanks for looking <3
Kelly

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Christmas Ornaments...a bit late!

I know, I know - it's after New Year's. Nobody wants to see Christmas ornaments lol. But I really loved how these turned out and I didn't get a chance to post them with all the craziness of the holidays going on. So, I'm posting them now! 

I used the reverse-stamping technique...I think...I'm losing touch with what all these things are called haha. I stamped onto a Ziploc bag I had painted clear top coat on and then I colored it in and peeled it off once it was dry. It was like a DIY decal. Whatever you call that technique! :)

I started with a base of Zoya Hunter on all the nails. I stamped onto the Ziploc using Konad Black and BM-H03. Then I filled in the ornaments using a bunch of polishes I can't remember off the top of my head lol. I know I used Shimmer Polish Berniece and Lindsey, some of the Julie G Gumdrops polishes, Jindie Nails Silent Night, Pahlish Cinnamon Twist. Actually I think that's all of them - go me! ;) Once I peeled off the decals and stuck them on, I sealed it all in with HK Girl.

Like I said, I do LOVE how these turned out. My only thing I would have done differently was to use a base that wasn't quite SO dark. It was hard to see the detail in the ornaments unless I had super bright lighting or the flash on. Which bothered me because these took forever to do lol! I wanted to use a Christmas tree green though, which is why I went with Hunter. I just think they would have popped a bit more on a lighter background. I still love them though! :)

I can't wait to try this technique with other designs. It made it really easy to do lots of different colors without having to wait for each one to dry on the stamper, which is how I've done this sort of thing in the past. I could work on all 5 designs at once right there on the Ziploc bag, and get done in a fraction of the time. :)

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this design! I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday! :)

<3 Kelly