Guilded Planets

Hello Readers!

Today I have a manicure that has been in the back of my head for a while, begging me to try it, but I have been so busy doing a million other manicures that I haven't actually gotten around to trying it, until tonight. This mani was inspired by one I saw on pinterest, which was from More Nail Polish.
Here's my take on it:

I used LA Colors "Wired" for my base coat, and then applied a layer of Sinful Colors "Bangin Blue", which is a gorgeous blue jelly polish with flakies. For my accent nail, I used ORLY "Don't Lasso Me Around" with a coat of LA Colors "Dizzy" over it, which is a gold glitter. I like to layer it over a gold polish just to add a little more bling to it. 

Here's another shot, with the Sinful Colors jelly polish:

My stamping plate came from Bundle Monster's Create Your Own 2014 collection. 

I hope you enjoyed this mani, and until next time, Happy Polishing!

-The Midnight Stamper

Simple Sunday 8/27

Hello Readers!

I am here today with another Simple Sunday Manicure, this time featuring a new limited edition Sinful Colors polish, "Shell Out".

I noticed this with a display of six or eight (can't remember exactly) limited edition colors that all have an iridescent shine to them. They are $2.99 each, so a dollar more than the normal Sinful Colors Polishes. There are a lot of really pretty colors in this line, but this one is my favorite. It's hard to capture on camera, but it has a very subtle green shimmer in it when the light hits it that is so lovely. 

You can kind of see it here:

For my stamping today I used a Bundle Monster plate from the Secret Garden Collection, Hedgehog Hunny Hideout.

The image on the left side has been begging me to use it since I got this collection; it is so pretty and perfect for filling in with reverse stamping! I filled it in with Sinful Colors "Pink Smart" and "Innocent" (a spring green) first, then filled the rest in with more "Shell Out". 

Finally, I used a nail charm from a wheel I purchased off of Ali Express. I like buying the nail charm wheels because they give you a good variety of accents for just a couple of dollars. They seem to come and go frequently on the website so different ones are always up there. This particular charm set I wasn't as impressed with as some of the other ones. I like how it looks on camera, but it has a little bit too high of a profile for my liking and most of the charms in the set were plastic. 

I hope you enjoyed this mani, and until next time, Happy Polishing!

-The Midnight Stamper

ABC Challenge: Q is for Quixote, Don

Hello Readers!

I'm here today with my entry for the ABC Nail Art Challenge for the letter Q! I'm pretty curious to see what everyone else does for Q, because it is not the easiest letter to come up with something for! I did consider doing "quill", and doing something with a feather motif or hedgehog, but in the end I decided to go with "Quixote," as in the famous Don Quixote.

Originally I planned on doing a sunset gradient and using a stamp that features a landscape scene with windmills and a rider on a horse, but I didn't like how it turned out (I will post my nail fail at the bottom) and I noticed a really cute windmill image on a plate I was using for the horse, so I came up with a new plan and did this:

I thought it would be fun to do the letter stamp to represent the pages of a book, and of course we have the windmill and the horse. I decided to stamp the horse over Wet N Wild "Sparked" for a little pop of color against all the white nail backgrounds I had going on.

I used two different plates from the Bundle Monster Create Your Own 2 series:

Alright, so I said I'd show you what I did originally:

I just felt like the windmills were a little bit too delicate for the dark gradient I did, and I also wasn't crazy about the color combo of the gradient.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my letter "Q". Be sure to check out the other manis for this letter as well!
Happy polishing,
-The Midnight Stamper

An InLinkz Link-up

Tropical Summer Mani

Hello Readers!

Today I ventured back into the world of water slide nail decals. Last time I attempted using these I didn't realize you are supposed to remove the clear protective film BEFORE you soak them in water. Yeah, don't do that... it make the decal stick to the film. I thought you were supposed to keep it on and then slide it from the clear film. Nope. So once I figured out what I was doing wrong, I was anxious to try it again, and this time I was much more successful. Yay!

So I started with a base color of Sinful Colors "Innocent". For my accent nail, I used Revlon Gel Envy in "High Stakes" (one coater!) followed by a single coat of Sinful Colors "Green Ocean", which is a jelly polish with little flakies. I really love the way these two polishes pair together! 

Here's a shot of the base color:

After my polish was dry, I added a top coat before attempting to do the water decals. They were actually pretty easy to use when you do it right *cough cough*. I liked that I had a few seconds to move them around on my nail before they were stuck, and I also like the opacity of them. I kind of feel like they are more work than just doing a single layer of stamping, but they are also more opague than a single layer of stamping and if the decal has detailed color on it I can see why I might want to use them again. The only thing I wasn't too crazy about was trying to get the protective layer off the decals before dipping them in the water while also trying not to smudge my nail polish. Maybe next time  I will remove the plastic BEFORE painting my nails. 

For my middle finger, I used a Bundle Monster plate from the "Hangloose" collection:

This is BM-S40, "Sand + Sea". I used the bottom left image. When I first took a look at this plate I noticed the little submarine- I still need to use that for a Beatles inspired mani! Anyway, I was just going to put the seahorse charm from the Hangloose collection on top, but I thought it was a little small so I added the starfish. 

I hope you enjoyed this mani, and happy polishing!

-The Midnight Stamper

Creamsicle Summer Mani

Hello Readers!

Today I have a summer inspired mani, because I am trying to squeeze every last drop out of this dwindling summer season. I love summer images; they are just so festive and fun. I am going to miss them when the summer season ends, but I'm also excited for fall themes.

Anyway, this mani was inspired by a bundle monster plate from the "Hangloose" collection, which has this adorable popsicle image.

I decided to use the popsicles as an accent nail, and do a kind of "creamsicle" theme on the other nails using a stamping image that is meant to me dripping nail polish, but makes a perfect drip pattern for any kind of theme. My stamping plate came from ebay, and I definitely noticed a difference in quality from the name brand plates I own. I had a lot of trouble stamping the images, though it could also be that this particular image has a lot of open space, which makes it trickier anyway. 

My base polish is Sinful Colors "Beaches and Cream", which is turning out to be one of my most-used polishes for nail art. Having a light cream color comes in handy so often! My orange polish is Sally Hansen's "Electra-cute". 

Here is the stamping plate I used for my popsicle image:

This is probably the sixth time I've used this plate in a manicure. I am such a sucker for cutesy images! 

I hope you enjoyed this mani, and until next time, happy polishing!

-The Midnight Stamper

Simple Sunday 8/20/2016

Hello Readers! I'm back again with another Simple Sunday Manicure- this time using a plate from Bundle Monster's "Secret Garden" Collection.

Today's mani is a very simple one, though admittedly it didn't begin that way. 

I've been wanting to use this plate for a while to do a Monet inspired look, because I kind of feel like this plate was designed to be like the Gardens at Giverny. These gardens even have a famous green bridge that goes over the pond with the water lilies.. it just seems meant to be. Unfortunately, that manicure was not meant to be. The lines on the water lilies are so fine and tiny, I was having a really hard time getting them to actually show up even with reverse stamping. So I scrapped my Monet nails and went with the pretty dandelion design from the same plate.  

My base color for this mani is Sinful Colors "Pink Smart", and I stamped with a Bundle Monster stamping polish, "Freedom Ring". Then I added some little flat back pearls to my cuticle area.

I hope you enjoyed this Simple Sunday. Happy Polishing!

-The Midnight Stamper

P is for Parrot in Paradise

Hello Readers!

It's time for another installment of the ABC Nail Art Challenge! After a bit of deliberation- there always seems to be so many possibilities for each letter- I decided to go with "parrots" for the letter P. I almost did peacocks, but I guess I will have to save that one for another day. I feel like I kind of have to get as many summery manicures in before the end of summer, and peacocks aren't as summery as parrots. ;)

I used a Bundle Monster plate from the Fuzzy and Ferocious Collection to reverse stamp a fun toucan (which is not technically a parrot, but oh well).

I used Sinful Colors "Rock the Bow" for the grayish blue background on my middle three nails, and Essie "Going Guru" for the light green on my thumb and pinky, as well as the reverse stamping for those tropical leaves. 

I was originally going to do the macaw from this stamping plate, but I ended up liking how the toucan turned out better than the macaw. (I put the macaw on my Cinderella hand). 

Here's my toucan plate: "Pretty Birds", from the Fuzzy and Ferocious collection by Bundle Monster. I just love this whole collection, but this plate is pretty awesome with the eagle (for fourth of July or other patriotic holidays) and I am looking forward to using the owl in the fall. 

This plate is also Bundle Monster, from the Hangloose collection. I used the leaves in the upper right hand corner for all my foliage on this mani. I love how the edges of the leaves are left outlined, which made it easy to put just a little of the leaves on my nails to make it look like we are seeing the toucan through the leaves in the jungle. 

Thanks for stopping in today, and be sure to check out the other ladies who participated in this challenge! Happy Polishing,

-The Midnight Stamper

An InLinkz Link-up

A Chalkboard on my Nails

Hello Readers!

Today I have another back-to-school mani, since tomorrow my oldest baby is starting Kindergarten! Wow,  I can't believe this day has finally arrived. I wanted to put something special on my nails to celebrate his big day, because my kids love looking at my nails, especially if it's a little wacky. ;) I was telling him about why an apple is a symbol for school, and he was like, "I know, I know Mom- you already told me that!" Whoops. I think I might be more nervous for tomorrow than he is.

Anyway, my mani is inspired by chalkboards, apples, and those black-and-white composition books.
I used the apples from the Bundle Monster "Farm to Nail" plate that I used for my "O is for Old MacDonald" mani for the ABC challenge last week.

 It's kind of a small area on the plate, so I did my best to make it fit over my whole nail, but you can see that it didn't quite cover it- there's an empty spot off to the side. I was going to try to do a decal so I could stamp it twice on my silicone mat and make the area bigger, but I guess I've been using my Wet N Wild "black creme" polish a little too much because the bottle was almost empty so I was having some difficulty getting enough polish out to stamp with, and by the time I did it was too dry to get it to stamp onto my silicone mat. Still, those apple images are super cute!

For my ring finger, I used a sponge to dab on white polish over black. I think it turned out more like a dusty chalkboard than the composition book I was going for, but I'm ok with that because it still fits the theme. I added a fimo clay apple charm on top and sealed it in with polish.

For my other fingers, I used another Bundle Monster plate, from the Holiday Collection:

Finally, I topped off my chalkboard nails with a matte topcoat by ORLY, which I've had forever and never actually used before. But, I figured a chalkboard look needs a matte topcoat. I did notice that it smeared my stamping just a tiny bit, though it's kind of hard to tell in the pictures. I used a glossy topcoat on my middle finger. 

I hope you enjoyed this mani, and happy polishing!

-The Midnight Stamper

Simple Sunday Mani: Golden Pineapple

Hi Readers!

I'm back again with another Simple Sunday Mani, this time using some of Bundle Monster's adorable nail charms from the "Hangloose" collection.

Walgreens was having a 2/$3 sale on their Sinful Colors polishes this week, so I picked up a few new pinks since I don't really have a lot of pink in my collection. I decided to use one of my new pinks for this Sunday's mani, so I have on Sinful Colors "24/7" as my base. 

As I was trying to decide what to do for this Sunday, I knew I wanted to use the pineapple and I figured I'd do some simple stamping to go along with it, but I wasn't sure what color I wanted to use. I originally thought I'd use a more coral-leaning color. This style of mani would really work with almost any color, which I think is one of the fun things about it. 

I thought I would do a simple polka dot and a stripe, but when I pulled out my plates these images called to me and I decided it would be much more interesting with these instead. ;) 

My flowery image comes from BM-710, from Bundle Monster's "Secret Garden" Collection. 

Thank you for visiting me today, and Happy Polishing!

-The Midnight Stamper

ABC Nail Art Challenge: O is for Old MacDonald

Hello Readers!

It's time for another entry in the ABC Nail Art Challenge, and this week's letter is "O". Because this week is the county fair in my area, I decided to go with that theme and do "Old Macdonald" for the letter O.

Here are the polishes I used:

Pinky- Sally Hansen "tan-acious", stamped over with Milani "Morning Coffee"
Ring- NYC "Skyline blue", Sinful Colors "Beaches and Cream", Sally Hansen "Tan-acious", and LA Colors "feverish"
Middle- NYC "Skyline Blue", Wet N Wild "Do Pass Go", LA Colors "Feverish", Sinful Colors "Beaches and Cream"
Pointer- LA Colors "Feverish", stamped over with Wet N Wild "Black Creme"

My thumb matches my pinky. ;)

After I knew I wanted to go with a farm theme, I debated for a while about what to do with my other fingers... the ones I wouldn't be doing reverse stamping on. I thought about going with blue to represent blue skies, and considered doing yellow with black stamping to represent straw, but in the end I decided to do a woodgrain on my thumb and pinky and something to represent the side of a barn (using this stamping plate) on my pointer.

And finally, the plate I used for my chicken and "farm" images:

This is Bundle Monster's plate BM-S169, "From Farm to Nail", from the Fuzzy and Ferocious 2 collection. This is such a cute plate with so many possibilities. I love that it has apples and carrots on it, and the little windmills are super adorable! 

Well, thanks for looking, and Happy Polishing!

-The Midnight Stamper

Check out what the other ladies did for the letter O:

An InLinkz Link-up

Anniversary mani

Hello Readers!

Since today is my 9th wedding anniversary, I decided to make a celebratory mani. For such a simple manicure, this ended up being a massive struggle, but somehow I ended up liking the end result, for the most part.

Part of the reason I struggled so much is because it turns out that Sinful Colors "Angelick" from the Kylie Jenner collection (which I used as my base) is kind of a slow-drying polish, and it requires 3 coats to become opaque. I ended up ruining my pinky about 3 times just from smudging it on my other fingers while I was trying to stamp my other nails. Because yes, I am impatient. 

Then I had some trouble with the image I was using, because it is such a delicate image. I had trouble actually getting it onto my nails before the nail polish dried on my stamper.  

The rhinestones on my middle finger are actually salvaged from an earring had in my jewelry box for the last 15 years and never wore. I used wire cutters to cut off the post and voila! A nail charm. It has a little bend to it so I was trying to curve it so it would kind of go along my cuticle... it didn't curve so easily but I kind of like it anyway. 

So there it is: through much toil and frustration I ended up with something kind of nice. Is that a metaphor for marriage or something? Nah, marriage is better than "kind of nice", especially on your anniversary. ;)

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this, and happy polishing!

-The Midnight Stamper

Back to School Mani with Fimo Slices

Hi Readers!

In honor of the upcoming school year, which is starting this week in our area, I decided to try a back-to-school mani inspired by those cute little fimo clay cane slices. I thought an apple would be the perfect theme for a school mani, so I built the rest of my design around that.

My Polishes:

-base green: Colormates "Groovy Green"

-base red: ORLY "Red Gloss Glitter"

-cream polish: Sinful Colors "Beaches and Cream"

-stamping green: Wet N Wild "Do Pass Go"

-stamping black: Wet N Wild "Black Creme"

For my stamping plates, I used one from Bundle Monster's Holiday collection for the school-themed stamp:

The triangle pattern comes from an awesome Born Pretty plate with lots of basic designs:

I also used silver striping tape to separate the sections on my accent nail and just add a little bit of detail. 

I hope you enjoyed this mani, and Happy Polishing!

-The Midnight Stamper

Lighthouse Mani

Hello Readers!

Today I have for you a nautical themed manicure using the cute Bundle Monster plates from the "Hangloose" collection, as well as some of the charms that come with the collection box.

Here are the polishes I used:
-Base polish: LA Colors "Fresh"
-Stamping polish: Wet  N Wild "Black Creme"
-reverse stamping colors: Wet N Wild "Red Red", Sinful Colors "Kool as a Kukumber" (light green) Wet N Wild "Do Pass Go" (dark green), Sally Hansen "White On", Milani "Morning Coffee" (for tree trunks) and Sinful Colors "Yolo Yellow" (for the lighthouse light)

I used reverse stamping for just the lighthouse image, and I did have a little trouble with the red smearing probably because it wasn't totally dry before I tried painting over the back with the white. Next time, more dabbing, less swiping.

I wasn't sure how I would like using the larger charms on my nails, but I have to say I really loved it. They have a little texture to them that was fun to play with while I had them on. I just attached them with regular top coat and then applied an extra layer of topcoat over them to lock them down, and I had no problems with them staying on. After loving them so much, I just may have gone onto eBay and bought a bunch of random nail charms to use in the future.

I got my image from plate #BM-S401, which is a super adorable plate from the "Hangloose" collection by Bundle Monster. There are just so many possibilities for this plate it was hard to choose an image, but I really love lighthouses so I decided to go with it, and I picked up the little anchor and steering wheel pattern from the left side of the plate for my middle finger.  

I hope you enjoyed this mani, and Happy Polishing!

-The Midnight Stamper

Simple Sunday Mani 8/5/2016

Hello Readers!

I am here with you today for another Simple Sunday Manicure, where I prep my nails for my weekly tradition of attending church!

Today I have painted my nails with Sinful Colors "Rich in Heart," and stamped over it with Bundle Monster's actual, official nail stamping polish "Nation's Treasure". This is actually the first time I have used polish specifically designed for nail stamping, and I have to say it definitely shows up a lot better than the gold polishes I have tried to stamp with before. To finish it off, I added a little gold teardrop shaped stud. 

I found the Sinful Colors "Rich in Heart" polish at Walgreens last week with the fall football-themed Sinful Colors promotion. They don't usually carry it at my Walgreens, so I grabbed it and I am totally in love with it. It is a super dark browninsh red with red shimmer in it. It kind of comes across as a burgandy. I'm guessing they put it with the football collection because it does kind of resemble the color of a football, only darker and shinier.   

For my stamping image, I used Bundle Monster plate BM-S163, from the Fuzzy and Ferocious Series 2, "Woodland Creatures". 

I just stamped that cute little deer image onto my ring finger.

I hope you enjoyed this Simple Sunday Mani this week!

Happy Polishing,

-Midnight Stamper

ABC Nail Art Challenge: N is for "Nope"

Hi Readers!

I was so excited to do the letter "N" for the ABC Nail Art Challenge, because I knew exactly what I wanted to do for it.

I recently acquired the bundle monster "Fuzzy and Ferocious" nail stamping plate collection, and this particular image has been calling for me to use it.

Grumpy cat! And it even says "Nope" right under him. 

Here are the polishes I used:

-Sinful Colors "lavender" for the deep blue-purple shade on my thumb, index, and pinky

-Sinful Colors "Lie-lac" for the light purple under my stamping

-Wet N Wild "black creme" for my stamping polish

-Sinful Colors "beaches and Cream" for grumpy cat himself, and Wet N Wild "The Gold and the Beautiful" for to color in a few of the triangles

-LA Colors "splat" is the black and white glitter polish

Here is the stamping plate I used for these images:

I honestly love all the images on this plate. It is so much fun! In fact, the collection is just full of awesome animal images. 

Thanks for checking out my mani and happy polishing!

-The Midnight Stamper

An InLinkz Link-up

Summery Purple Hibiscus manicure

Hello Readers!

Today I have a purple summery mani using bundle monster's "Hangloose" collection, which is such a fun one for summer nails!

I actually struggled a lot with this mani, because I ordered the hangloose gift set that included the plates, some nail charms, stamping polishes, and water decal transfers.

I've never attempted to use water transfer decals before... and I may never try again. The jury is still out on that one. I wasn't actually successful at using them, and after several failed attempts I gave it up and just did some simple reverse stamping for my accent nail.

Here are the polishes I used:
-light purple: Sinful Colors "Lie-lac"
-Medium purple (stamping): Sinful Colors "tempest"
-Light green: Essie "Going Guru"
-Dark Purple: JLB #7

I also used the following plates:

Bundle monster plate BM-S407, "Tribal Waters" from the Hangloose collection, for the tone-on-tone stamping, and

Bundle monster plate BM-S406, "Fresh Scallops," also from the Hangloose collection for the center image. 

ABC Nail Art Challenge: M is for Music

Hello Readers!

I am finally jumping on the bandwagon- quite late, I might add- because I have been seeing all these beautiful and fun manicures for the ABC Nail Art Challenge! I'm so excited to be trying this out because it is such a fun challenge full of lots of great inspiration.

I was originally going to do "Mermaid" for M, but I don't have the plates to do it yet (I've never actually done mermaid nails before, so I will probably still do them very soon.) I considered doing "melting", "meow", and "monkey", but finally decided to try out this really fun bundle  monster plate and do "music".

So this plate is from bundle monster's "Musik City" collection, plate BM-S320. So many fun images! I had a hard time choosing what to use, but in the end this is what I came up with.

Here are the polishes I used:

-Sally Hansen Xtremewear "White On" 

-LA Colors "Carnival" (the pink and black glitter)

-Essie "Belugaria" (the black textured polish)

-Wet N Wild "Fuschia Shock Creme" (pink stamping)

-Wet N Wild "Black Creme" (black stamping)

I started with the glitter polish as my color palette inspiration for this mani. I bought it at the dollar store ages ago and still haven't put it on my nails, and I figured pink and black would be a good color combo for a music-themed mani, since they kind of give that edgy punky look. 

From there, I thought Essie's "Belugaria" would be a fun touch, since it is textured it would go great with the theme. Also, I just kind of wanted to see what it would be like to just paint a whole nail with it. I wasn't sure I would like it, but I really think it works in this context.  I found out the hard way not to try to put a topcoat on it, though! It destroys the texture. 

I have to say, that LA Colors glitter polish does not have good glitter saturation. You definitely need to sponge this one on, or it would take you about 6 coats to get this same level of coverage. 

Wet N Wild stamped really well, as usual. I had to re-do my stamping a couple of times because the lines are so thin my stamping dried out before I could get it on my nails. Still, I just love the keyboard image on this plate. 

I hope you enjoyed this mani. Happy Polishing!

-The Midnight Stamper

An InLinkz Link-up