Scorpion in the Sand ft. MoYou London Hipster

Hello Readers!


Today I have a mani for this month's #clairestelle8challenge. This month is a little special, as the challenge is being sponsored by Picture Polish and there are only four prompts instead of eight. The first prompt is a mani inspired by "where you live".  For me, that means the desert!

I started this mani with the Sinful Colors "Beaches and Cream" on my ring/middle fingers. I'm running low on this- I might have to buy another bottle soon which would be a first for me; I've never actually run out of a polish before  besides black and white.

For my pointer/pinky fingers, I thought I would do a gradient but when I actually started sponging it on it was way too light and I realized that the negative space image made it not really matter, so I just did thick stripes with the nail polish brush instead. Easy, since I didn't have to really worry about straight lines.

My cute little scorpion friend comes from the Bundle Monster "Fuzzy and Ferocious" plate, BM-S168. So scorpions are not so warm and fuzzy in real life... ha ha but how could you resist that image? And very appropriate for the region I was in.

My cactus images and the flecks on my middle nail came from this MoYou London "Hipster 16" plate; one of the newer cactus-themed ones. This plate is stinking cute. This particular image was tricky to work with, as you would expect since it's negative space, so I did have to fill it in in a few spots.

The middle nail is just an example of some double stamping- it is two different images that are on the above plate stamped over each other in different colors. The black design is from a different plate- a Born Pretty plate with southwest designs.

Crumpets Nail Tarts: Pink, Gold, and Lilac

Hello Readers!


Sometimes, I do a mani I'm excited about and when it's done, I take a step back and think... "meh". Other times, I am surprised when it turns out better than I'd hoped for. This is one of the latter!

Actually, the latter often happens when I take my inspiration from the talented ladies who create nail art for MoYou London's promotional page/instagram, which is what happened here. I had the rough idea for this mani in my mind, though I wasn't actually looking at the picture when I was planning this mani, just what I kind of remembered about it:

...which was the use of the new Hipster plates, the tiny triangle images, and the dip-dyed look plus gold. I kind of did my own thing with those elements, and ended up with a more feminine and soft version.

So the prompt for this mani was "lilac, pink, and gold." I had to add a little bit of green for the cactus, so hopefully nobody minds. ;)

After painting my nails, the next step was to create the dip-dyed effect, which I did with the aid of this MoYou London plate, "Holy Shapes 05". I used the right triangle image to create the line on my nails, then went over it with my nail polish straight out of the bottle to make it fully opaque.

The next step was to stamp the little triangles.
My tiny triangles came from this MoYou London "Hipster 16" plate, with all the cute cactus images.

Finally, I placed the decal I made from this MoYou London plate, "Hipster 18." So many choices on this plate, but I decided to go with a small potted variety. I used my lint roller to isolate the image so I would have just the one cactus for my decal.

I hope you enjoyed this mani today! Be sure to check out some more pink/lilac/gold manis in the link-up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Challenge Collaborative: Green Cacti ft. MoYou London Hipster

Hello Readers!



Today's post is my second entry for the monthly Nail Challenge Collaborative challenge. The prompt this month is "green", and though I seriously considered doing a watermelon-themed mani for this week, in the end cacti won out because I still hadn't tried out one of the MoYou London "Hipster" plates that I got for Mother's Day.

I loosely based this mani off of an art print I saw online when I was looking for inspiration:

Print by Anna Deegan. You can see it for sale here.

I really liked the idea of colorful cacti on a neutral background. I didn't exactly use the same colors as the print, but that was the dawn of my inspiration.

For my base color, I used the JLB "Taupe" color, which is a two-to-three coater. I find the JLB polishes at Ross in sets of six for about six dollars a set, making them a $1 polish, so it really isn't bad for that price.

The decal on my ring finger was from this MoYou London "Hipster 16" plate, which was a recent addition to the Hipster collection that I had to have because.... cacti! The texture image stamped in the lilac color on my pointer/pinky fingers is also from this plate. In retrospect, I kind of wish I had also stamped it before placing the decals on my middle/ring fingers.

My large potted cactus comes from the other new MoYou London Hipster plate. Lots of potted options for all your cactus needs on this plate; yet I can't help feeling like I almost don't really need it since I have all the potted cacti images on the other new Hipster plate. Oh well.

To get the green zizags on my pointer/pinky, I used the stair step image from MoYou London's "Holy Shapes 05" plate. I use this plate for color blocking all the time!


Be sure to check out more "green" themed manis from the Nail Challenge Collaborative group in the link-up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Free Comic Book Day mani.... with glitter!

Hello Readers!


I think this week in May must be the highest concentration of nearly insignificant holidays in the whole year- we had Star Wars day on Thursday, Cinco De Mayo yesterday, and today is National Free Comic Book Day, where you can march down to your local comic book store for a free sample. I don't think I've ever actually done this. However, it does also happen to be a #clairestelle8challenge day on instagram, and the prompt is "glitter". I had a new Born Pretty plate that I have really been wanting to play with, so I had this wild hair to combine comics with glitter.

Also with a new technique... glitter blocking! I'm not sure if I made this up or not, I just haven't seen it before.

30 DOC/Clairestelle8: Earth Day

Hello Readers!


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: Anti-Valentines

Hello Readers!

Today's post is for Nail Crazies Unite, and the prompt is "Anti-Valentines", which is kind of a funny one and I had to think about it a little bit  before I arrived on what I wanted to do. I was actually browsing the internet for Anti-Valentine's themes when I stumbles across grumpy cat, and remembered that I have a grumpy cat plate (which I have actually used before in a grumpy cat mani last year), and he would be perfect for a little bit of Valentine's Day Bah-humbug spirit.

So although I wasn't feeling this mani when I put it on, it ended up being quite fitting for my mood the next day as I was awoken in the middle of the night by a dreadful "drip...drip....drip" sound and now there's a clean-up crew in my house, sawing giant hole in my bedroom ceiling to repair damage caused by a leaky pipe leading to the upstairs bathroom. So you could say I'm definitely feeling in a "grumpy cat" mood today. Related: I am exhausted.

I started off with Sinful Colors "gogo girl", which is a really lovely crelly-pink polish. I added some light pink with a dry-brush technique before adding some stamping in black and my reverse-stamped grumpy cat. 

The large broken heart image comes from the MoYou London Geek collection plate, one of the ones that features random emojis. I've used this plate quite a bit, so if you want to see the varied looks it can be used for, check out my *mostly* alphabetical plate index. 

The smaller hearts are from MoYou London Hipster-13. I thought they were such a perfect match for the larger broken heart image. 

Finally, good 'ole grumpy cat is from a Bundle Monster plate, from the Fuzzy and Ferocious collection (plate #BM-S162). 

Be sure to check out some more grouchy, anti-valentine manis in the link-up! I can't wait to see what the other ladies come up with!

Pizza nails with MoYou London Hipster and Cookbook

Hello Readers!

Who doesn't like pizza? When I saw the MoYou London Cookbook plate featuring "vegan" images, pizza was actually the first thing I thought of. Probably because mushrooms are one of my favorite pizza toppings. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to go all-out-quirky and put some pizza along with pizza ingredients onto my fingernails.

And I think it's funny.

Here's a quick look at the polishes I used for this:

My purple onions are stamped with the "wild violets" polish, which turned out to be a great purple stamping polish to work with!

This mani is easier than it looks, since only one of the nails actually uses reverse stamping/decals- all the rest are just basic stamping.

26 Great Nail Art Ideas: New Year New You

Hello Readers!

Today over at Crumpet's Nail Tarts we are invited to explore an interesting theme: New Year New You. I like that this prompt really makes you think! Every year I like to go along with Ali Edward's one little word prompt and choose a word to focus on throughout the year. Actually I think I forgot to do it last year, ha ha, but this year I am excited to get back into it.

This year's word for me- or phrase, really- is "Radiate love". This comes from some soul-searching I've been doing over the last few months that involved me going back and reading some of the extensive journaling I did back in my high school/early college days. Reading about how happy and fulfilled I was when I was focusing on uplifting other people and feeling and projecting love to people around me made me realize how much I wanted to reconnect with that person I used to be.

So my mani is based on my intention for this year- to focus on spreading love to others around me.
I chose colors that are happy to me and that are some of my favorites. I wanted the mani to feel light and happy.

So I started with two coats of white for a base and stamped in gold and a mint blue color. I decided to do a gradient type stamping technique for the hearts by putting both gold and blue onto my stamping plate and then scraping. Though the colors don't really fade into each other, I'm pleased with it.

I really wanted a sunburst-type pattern for the background on my middle nails to represent a motion coming from within and going out into the world. I found my sunburst on this Bundle Monster blogger collab plate.

The adorable little hands forming a heart come from this MoYou London Hipster plate. Loving this plate!

My little hearts come from a different Bundle Monster Blogger Collab plate, this super versatile one by elleandish.

Finally, I thought the little speech bubbles from this Born Pretty plate would represent my desire to make an effort to try to brighten the day of strangers and look for ways to show kindness in smaller and simple ways. 

I can't wait to see how others interpret this challenge! Be sure to check them out in the link-up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Pantone Color of the Year ft. MoYou London Hipster

Hello Readers!

Every since I got the MoYou London Hipster plate with the tiny  Pantone card on it, I have been looking forward to making a mani based on the color of the year when it came out. Joyce from "What's on my nails today" already beat me to it, and I was really inspired by the lovely cream color that she paired the color of the year with, so I may have borrowed that idea from her. ;)

This year's color is "Greenery", a bright spring green that it intended to represent growth and new life. I had a couple of different ideas for what I wanted to do for my accent nail for this mani, and I was having a hard time deciding which one, when I realized, "I have two hands! Why not do both?" So here are my two variations on a theme:

Version #1 pulls in some of the colors Pantone suggests pairing with the main color. I'm always inspired by the suggested color schemes over on that website, so I decided to pull some of those in and try out a fun color-me-in stamping design. 

Version #2 (on my Cindy hand) sticks to more of a pure interpretation of the color. I wanted to use leaves because the bright green is inspired by bright green spring leaves. 

I thought the Sinful Colors "Innocent" was the closest match to the Pantone Greenery color that I had in my collection. Two coats of that polish was plenty! 

The Pantone card can be found on this MoYou London plate from the Hipster collection. I did make a decal with this, and colored the green over the top of the decal instead of on the back. It was just easier for me than trying to color it in after I had stamped it onto my nail. 

The tiny triangles on my pointer/pinky fingers come from this very useful MoYou London Holy Shapes plate. I used my Bundle Monster stamping guides to make isolating the triangle 100x easier. 

The leaves on cindy come from this MoYou London plate from the Tropical collection. 

And finally, the accent nail on my main hand was from this lovely Bundle Monster plate, I believe from the shangri-la collection. I haven't done a lot of these types of images before, and I have to say it was very fun and satisfying to fill this in! 

So, which version do you like better? Are you a fan of this year's Pantone color? 

New Year's Eve Nails

Hello Readers!

Instead of doing fireworks for this year's New Year's Eve mani, I decided to go with a black and white them and an emoji to represent the occasion and add some color. While I love how the design worked out, unfortunately I had a little technical difficulty that didn't come out until it was too late to re-do them, so here they are anyway:

I chose the kissy face emoji to represent the midnight kiss for good luck, but I think I overcompensated the fact that I was putting him on a dark background by putting on too much yellow polish and unfortunately... it leaked! Ha ha I don't think I've had this particular problem before, but I can't re-do it now so let's pretend he is so overcome with holiday cheer he just can't contain himself.

Here's a quick look at my color palette for this mani:

I decided to use Konstellation for a bit of a variation on a basic black. I love this satin, micro-shimmery polish! I used a matte topcoat to seal those nails since I wanted to preserve the matte finish of the polish. 

Let's kick off the plate show-and-tell with this *actually* New Year's themed plate from Bundle Monster's Winter Holiday collection. Oh my gosh I love this plate- it so full of cute. I just used it as collage-style full nail images, but these images would also be easy to isolate and a lot of them would be useful for more than just new years- the balloons, clock, party hats, etc. 

I took my numbers for the "17" from this font plate from MoYou London. I used my nail guides to make isolating out the numbers I wanted super easy. 

My kissy face comes from this MoYou London plate from the "geek" collection. I made a decal on my stamper head, and then added color to the little heart after stamping it onto my finger since the heart stamps solid. I haven't really attempted that technique before, but it was surprisingly easy to do. 

I also used this plate from MoYou London's hipster collection, to stamp the bow background behind my emoji. I figured bow ties were a classic New Year's look.

So are you all excited for the New Year? Do you have any big plans for 2017? Any big plans for tonight? I'd love to hear about them! We are having a couple of friends over for board games to ring in the New Year tonight, so I am excited for that and always excited for a fresh start! 

Challenge Your Nail Art: Trees

Hello Readers!

Today's prompt for Challenge Your Nail Art is trees, and since it didn't specify what type of tree, I decided to base my mani around my favorite type of trees to see this time of year: palm trees. I love the way Christmas lights look when they are spiraled around the tall, skinny trunk of the palm trees in our area. Originally I added some tiny lights to my palm tree, but I don't think it's really visible in the final result.

Orignially, I made a decal stamped with a black outline. I felt like it was a little lost against the dark blue (Revlon Gel Envy "High Stakes"), so I stamped over it with a white outline. Unfortunately you can see that I didn't line it up perfectly, but... oh well.

For this mani I used a Bundle Monster plates from the "Hangloose" collection for the palm tree and fronds:

My triangles come from this MoYou London plate from the "Hipster" collection, which has a ton of fun triangle designs:

I love this plate a lot.  Lastly, I used my trusty MoYou London Holy Shapes plate to create the parallel lines above my palm tree:

This plate is a workhorse. It comes in handy so often!