Game Night Mani

Hello all! Today I have for you a game-night inspired mani, created for an upcoming session of good 'ole Dungeons and Dragons with some friends.

When I saw the 20-sided dice on this design, well, it was honestly one of the selling points for me to buy the bundlemonster 2014 CYO collection. I paired it with the octopus image from the CYO 2013 collection. I don't actually own the entire CYO 2013 collection; just the one plate because I loved it.

Here are the polishes I used on my nails:

Thumb, pointer, pinky: 3 coats LA Colors "Citron", stamped over with Sinful Colors "Navy I Do"

Middle, Ring: 2 coats LA Colors "Wander", followed by 1 coat Sinful Colors "Hottie", stamped over with Sinful Colors "Navy I Do."

I'm so impressed by how well "Navy I Do" stamps. This is the second mani I've used it to stamp with and I'm really loving it.

Here are the plates I used:

BM-602, "Pop Art Gamer", from Bundlemonster's Create Your Own 2014 collection. I've actually gotten quite a bit of use out of this plate- I used the "pow" image to create a 4th of july mani along with the top burst image. 

The typography image I used today picked up on my stamper really well; I didn't have any issues with the plate.

The octopus image on this plate is just so awesome. I had to try scraping the image from a few different directions to get it to stamp perfectly, but that's to be expected of an image with so much open space and once I tried scraping it from bottom to top I didn't have any problems.

Thanks so much for checking out my mani! Go out and create awesome things.

-Midnight Stamper

Pioneer Day

In Utah, we celebrate an extra holiday on July 24 called Pioneer Day. It celebrates the founding of our state, and is basically like an extra 4th of July complete with fireworks, parades, and festivities.

I did this manicure in honor of pioneer day.

For my base color, I used Sinful Colors "Navy I do" and "Beaches and Cream". I stamped the fireworks from Bundlemonster's Occasions Collection, plate # BM-S211, "OOH! AAH!", which is a really cute plate full of different full nail firework images.

I stamped these images with ORLY's "Don't Lasso Me Around", from the Wonder Woman Collection. I stamped the lady with the umbrella from a Born Pretty stamping plate, BP-L021, also in Sinful Colors "Navy I Do."

 Last, I added a few gold circle glitters from LA Colors "Dizzy" using a toothpick.

Watermelon Nails

I love watermelon nails, especially in the summertime. They just feel so bright and happy.

For this mani, I used two stamping plates: one from Bundlemonster (BMS-408, "Summer's Bounty" from the "Hangloose" collection) and one for Born Pretty (BPL-008). I really like both of these plates- the Born pretty plate is such a great one for basic patterns, and Summer's Bounty has some super cute summer images that are perfect for advanced stamping!

I used NYC Fuchsia Shock Cream for the pink base, LA colors Fresh for the blue, and Wet N Wild Leaf Me Be for the green. By the way, that particular Wet N Wild polish doesn't have the best formula, but I tolerate it because I have a hard time finding that particular shade of green, and it really comes in handy in a lot of designs. I stamped over the green with Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy in High Stakes, which stamped beautifully.  

This was my first ever attempt at nail stamping. I had tried nail art before, but always became frustrated because I ended up adding too many layers, getting all goopy, and smudging my design because it never fully dried.

So, because of all that, I am so in love with stamping. The polish goes on in such a nice, thin layer that it dries super quickly and super thin, and the process is so much faster than trying- and failing- to paint things freehand. 

My first attempt didn't turn out perfectly, but I love it anyway.

The images are from Bundlemonster's CYO 2014 collection, plate BM-605 (Dreamcatcher). 

I used LA colors petunia for the base color, and stamped over it with Sinful Colors Easygoing. For the accent, I simply reversed the polishes, used a different background image and stamped the dreamcatcher in black (wet n wild black on black). I was pretty pleased at how well the LA Colors polish stamped, since it is such a cheap polish.