Simple Sunday 4/30/17- Musical Mani ft. Born Pretty and MoYou London Rockstar

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Today's Simple Sunday features some adorable musical images! I fell in love with one of the new Born Pretty Store releases that features some super cute music themes, so I figured now was a good time to play with it!

Mani Re-do: Jungle Animals with Bundle Monster "Fuzzy and Ferocious"

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Today's prompt at the #clairestelle8challenge over on Instagram is "re-do and old mani". This was an interesting prompt for me, because it's probably not something I would ever choose to do on my own. I decided to re-do one of my very first (actually my second) attempts at reverse stamping. Click this link if you'd like to see the original, but I'm warning you, it ain't pretty. You may need to scrub your eyes with bleach after viewing these nail fails. (I'm redoing the second mani on this link, not the first one.) I'm happy to say, however, that since that post almost a year ago I have learned so much and grown so much as a nail artist.

What I didn't know at that time, is that Sinful Colors "Call Me" is a terrible polish to try to stamp over. It eats whatever color you put on top of it. I also was in dire need of some lotion. ;)

So, I decided to re-do the mani with some of the same colors and themes, but more like how I would approach it now.

I really liked the monkey and flower images, so I decided to use those and then do some tropical foliage as a frame.

My base purple color is Sinful Colors "Lie-lac", which I applied two coats of even though it was looking pretty awesome at one coat and I probably could have left it there. I also decided to try stamping with the Sinful Colors/Kandee Johnson "Mint Chip" polish, and was pretty pleased with how it stamped.

26 Great Nail Art Ideas: Work-Appropriate Nail Art

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Today's post is for the Crumpet's Nail Art/26 Great Nail Art Ideas Challenge, and the prompt is "Work Appropriate Nail Art." I debated a little bit about what I thought this meant; after all, I'm a stay-at-home Mom so really anything is appropriate for my job, but I thought I'd go with something classic for this look. I figured, what's more classic with red? Although all jobs will have different rules about fingernails, most wouldn't complain about a classic red polish.

I decided to pair my red with some black for a grown-up look, and stick with classic designs like lace and florals.

I started off with two coats of this Essie polish "Altitude Attitude", which was part of a Christmas collection and is in the mini size. I was pretty satisfied with the formula of this polish and I am liking how this color pops with the black stamping over it. For my ring finger I decided to go with a shimmery black instead of straight black; I used two coats of the Revlon polish.

My floral image on the ring finger comes from this newer Born Pretty Store plate; it's from their newest release. I find myself reaching for fillable florals a *lot*, so I figured it would come in handy.

My lace image comes from this MoYou London "Trend Hunter" collection plate. Now, you may notice that this is the smaller image plate, and my nails are getting a little bit longer right now. These images are currently too small for my middle finger nail, though they will still cover the pointer/pinky fingers, and possibly the ring finger. That's part of the reason I decided to do a french tip-esque look for this mani; you don't want full coverage anyway. however, I still could get away with using these smaller plates on longer nails by stamping the image twice to cover any missed portions. I've done this before with the lacy images and it's really hard to see where the two parts come together. It doesn't always work, but it does with most types of images.

And the finishing touch for this mani was the bands from this classic MoYou London "Frenchy" collection plate. I love this plate; it's really useful, but once again I find it difficult to use. It took me several tries to get good pick-up with these images and they are difficult to apply to the nail without messing up; just fair warning. I would still recommend it, with the advisory that it takes some extra patience.

I hope you enjoyed this look! After a week straight of wearing this mani during my vacation,  I was so ready for a change and I'm happy to have a fresh coat of polish on! Be sure to check out the other challenge entries in the link-up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Obligitory "back from vacation" post :D

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I just got back yesterday from a week-long vacation to celebrate my husband's and my 10-year wedding anniversary... which isn't technically until August but this was when my parents could come down and take care of our kids so he could whisk me away to a romantic getaway to our favorite place.... Disney World of course, because we have the tastes of small children. ;)

I did a lot of manis in advance to post while I was gone but I haven't been very active on social media for the last week because I was busy doing this...

(Seven Dwarves Mine Train)

And meeting him...

And having our marriage sprinkled with a little bit of magic...

...and having my man stolen by Daisy Duck.

We had an awesome trip but now I'm fresh out of pre-prepared posts so I'm a little off my regular schedule, but I'll be back with more nail art on Friday. Thanks for hanging in there with me and I hope you are having a wonderful week!

Simple Sunday: Carousel (ft. MoYou London Circus)

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I'm here today with a Simple Sunday post that is actually quite simple this time. :) It's been a while since I've pulled out the lovely "Pinksicle" polish from the Kandee Johnson/Sinful Colors collection, so I decided to play with that a little bit and just add some simple stamping over it.

I kind of feel like that carousel horse on my ring finger it hard to recognize.... Maybe it's just me, though.

So Pinksicle is one of those polishes that, if you really want to, you CAN build up to opacity in approximately eleventy billion coats. I didn't feel like doing that today, so instead I used a very pale pink for a base and swiped a coat of Pinksicle over the top of it.

My images come from this MoYou London "Circus" collection plate. I love all the delicate carousel images on this plate- I think they are lovely and adorable. I'm still not 100% sold on that horse head profile, though- I thought it would be so lovely and delicate, but maybe it's a bit too detailed because to me it's hard to recognize.

30 DOC/Clairestelle8: Earth Day

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Today I am double-dipping it on my post because two of the challenges I am participating in happen to have the same prompt, which is "Earth Day". I kind of wanted to do a mani about recycling for this prompt, but I didn't have images of traditional recyclable materials, so I decided to go with more unusual items that you may not have known can be recycled.

For example, eyeglasses, computers, and tennis shoes. I actually looked up an article and did research for this mani, ha ha, and I found this awesome list of unusual items that you probably didn't know could be recycled. I like how it also gives contact information for organizations that will help you recycle these items.



For this mani, I started off with a base of "Mint Sorbet", since obviously I was going for a "green" theme and this polish is fairly easy to work with. I put on two coats of that. My "unused" polish for the 30-Days of Color challenge is the Kandee Johnson "Licorice" polish, which I decided to use for stamping on my nails because  I wanted the message on my ring finger to be the darkest, most prominent stamping on the design.

Nail Crazies Unite- Pastel Floral

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This Week's prompt in the Nail Crazies Unite group is "Pastel Florals". I thought it would be fun to try layering my flowers over lace this time, since I figured white would enhance the "pastel" look. I feel like these turned out more "muted" than "pastel", but oh well.

I still like them. ;)

Funny thing, I picked OPI's "You're Such a Budapest" for my base because I though it would be a lovely pastel shade to start with, but I think with the white stamped over it it ended up looking a lot like denim and lace.

My lace images come from this MoYou London plate from the "Trend Hunter" collection. I think this is quickly becoming a favorite in my collection- lace is a pretty versatile theme  and I love the variety on this plate.

My flowers came from this Born Pretty Store plate. I used the Morining Glories on this plate for a really similar look back in January this year. I actually bought this plate because I fell in love with the terrariums on it, but go figure; I haven't actually used them yet. ;p

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to check out the other pastel floral manis in the link-up below!

Fast food mani ft. MoYou London Cookbook

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Here's a random, quirky mani for you inspired by the MoYou London "fast food" plate in the Cookbook collection.

I paired some of the images with a Born Pretty plate that features lots of different adorable drinks.

I started off with a white base, then stamped over that with BMC "Rose Garden" to create a striped background for my food items.

My cute little burgers and fries come from this MoYou London plate, along with the larger hamburger image.

I thought this Born Pretty plate would pair perfectly with it, since obviously you need a drink to go with your meal. ;) I really love this plate and have been wanting to break it out lately and haven't seen an opportunity, so I jumped at this one.

Finally, here's a shot of the plate I used for my stripes- it's MoYou London's Holy shapes 17. This is definitely a go-to plate for me to find basic dots, stripes, and grids and I find myself reaching for it often.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed this somewhat silly mani. :)

Simple Sunday- Easter Lilies

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I'm popping in with a super quick Simple Sunday, since it's Easter and I'm celebrating the holiday with my parents. I wanted to do a classic white Easter lily on my nails today, so I pulled out one of my favorite floral plates:

The image comes from this Bundle Monster plate from last year's Blogger collaboration release.

I hope everyone is having a lovely Easter Sunday!

Basilica de la Sagrada Familia ft. MoYou London Scandi, Explorer

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Today for the #clairestelle8challenge on Instagram, the prompt is "Easter", and I feel like I've done a lot of pastel, spring, floral and rabbit themed manis lately so I really wanted to take this prompt in a different direction. Flipping through my plates on my Pinterest board, I noticed this church image and used it as a jumping off point to do a mani based off of a beautiful cathedral. Because to me, Easter is about church.

I'll admit, at first I wasn't sure which church this image was supposed to be, so I did what most people do when in doubt, and turned to google. It didn't take too long to discover the inspiration for this image:



This photo of Basilica of the Sagrada Familia is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Here's a look at the MoYou London "Scandi" plate that I used for the church image:

I decided to take elements of this beautiful basilica to put on my other nails; the middle nail is inspired by some of the lovely stained glass elements that can be found inside the building. I followed the yellow/green color scheme that I noticed in some of the windows. My image comes from a Bundle Monster plate, from the "Shangri la" collection:

To play up the "stained glass" look on this nail, I first painted a coat of Sinful colors "Green Ocean" over the entire stamped image, then I filled in some of the details.

It's hard to really see the flakies of the Green Ocean polish in the first picture, but you can see the effect better here:

Finally, for my pointer/pinky fingers I wanted to represent some of the columns and the detail work carved into the exterior and interior surfaces. I used another MoYou London plate, from the Explorer collection, to represent this:

Always Be Batman (ft. MoYou London Rebel, Scandi)

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Today's post is for the Crumpet's Nail Tarts/26 Great Nail Art ideas challenge group on Facebook. The prompt is "pastel to bold gradient with something on top." Now, doesn't that just make your mind immediately leap to Batman? No? 

Ok, so this wasn't my first idea but as I was thinking randomly about how I'd like to do a Batman mani and I remembered this prompt, a wild idea popped into my head that these would be perfect for the hero that Gotham deserves.

I'm not sure if the majority of my nails here qualify for "pastel to bold gradient", but the ring finger definitely does! Pastel yellow to the boldest of blue, "Endless Blue" by Sinful Colors. I decided to do a slightly different gradient for my other fingers; my original plan was to do the same gradient on all and do some decals with the building images, but upon further inspection of that particular stamp I decided it wouldn't work because the buildings cover the whole nail. 

My "batman" image comes from this MoYou London "Rebel" collection plate, and is the main inspiration for this mani. I had been debating about this plate for a while, but I finally broke down and bought it and I have to say I have been using the heck out of it. Guess I like it more than I thought. ;)

My city buildings come from this MoYou London "Scandi" plate- another very versatile and cute plate! 

And there you have it- a quite simple to do Batman mani.  Be sure to check out some more gradient manis in the link-up below!

30 DOC: Spring in the Garden ft. Bundle Monster Kawaii Emoji

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Today's post is for the 30 Days of Color challenge, and I am a little proud of myself because to go along with one of my untried polishes, I also did an "untried" technique for this mani, which was nail vinyls. I know, I'm probably the very last person to try these out for the first time, but everyone has to start somewhere.

I decided to go with a garden theme for my mani, because what's more "spring" then working with lovely flowers in the garden?


I also am showing a smoosh technique on my pointer/pinky fingers for the first time- I've attempted it before but it didn't quite work out. I used the LA colors purple and "Strawberry Milk" for the smoosh effect, and just dotted them onto my stamper head and then smooshed them onto my nails.

For my middle finger, I applied 2 coats of "Snow Me White" followed by a quick-drying topcoat. My first attempt at the vinyls didn't work out, but my second did so I'm pretty pleased about that because I didn't have time to wait another two hours to start that nail over and wait for it to dry completely. I used "Mint Sugar" over the vinyl, which is a textured polish and totally the reason I broke down and bought vinyls in the first place- you can't stamp with texture. ;) I felt like it needed more color, so I used a toothpick to dot on some purple. It's supposed to look like one of those plaster of Paris garden mosaic stones... not sure if it's coming through or not, though.

For my ring finger, I made a decal with those adorable hats from the Bundle Monster "Kawaii Emoji" vacation themed plate.

My flowers come from this Born Pretty Store plate. They reminded me of the Rhododendrons that blossom in Seattle in the spring and I wanted to represent that a little bit.

I hope you enjoyed this nail look! Do you enjoy planting flowers in the spring time? Which one is your favorite?

Be sure to check out some more "spring" looks in the link-up below!

Clairstelle8: Chocolate ft. Bundle Monster Kawaii Emoji

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Today's post is another fill for the #Clairestelle8challenge over in instagram, and this time the prompt is "chocolate". I struggled with coming up with a theme for this a little bit, but I finally settled on chocolate cupcakes.

I thought it would also be fun to do little splashes of melted chocolate, since we all know it can get a little bit messy, especially in the warmer weather!

I started off with 3 coats of Sinful Colors "Unicorn". I also decided to use the Revlon Parfumerie "Chocolate Truffle" polish (for the darkest stamping) to make my mani also *smell* like chocolate!

My full-nail cupcake image comes from this Bundle Monster "Kawaii Emoji" plate. So many cute sweets!

My little chocolate splashes were taken from this MoYou London "Artist" collection plate. I love this plate- I never have a problem with the pick-up, even with those large open images.

Finally, I used this MoYou London "Rebel" collection plate for the "I love cupcakes" image on my middle finger. I decided to make the chocolate splashes lighter on this nail so that my stamping would stand out over it, so I used a different brown to stamp them in.

Simple Sunday 4/9/17- Spring Daffodils

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It's time for another Simple Sunday post, which for a change this week is actually fairly simple because it only requires stamping on one nail. I was inspired by this daffodil image because daffodils are, to me, the quintessential spring flower.

 See? Mostly just polish, very little stamping. ;)

The main featured polish here is from the Sinful Colors "Stoned Crystal Shimmer" collection which was released this spring. The green, "Super Cooper", is more difficult to find than the others but I was lucky enough to spot it at my local Albertsons.

For my middle finger, I started with a gold polish for a base and then sponged on a gold flakie polish to get a more saturated look. I did use liquid latex to protect my skin, because glitter is no fun to remove from your fingers!

My daffodil image comes from this gorgeous Bundle Monster plate. This was part of the blogger collaboration release last year- I loved all the flower images that are so perfect for reverse stamping! If you'd like to see a couple of other examples of these flowers being filled in, you can check out this mani where I used the roses, or here for the bluebells.