Crumpets Nail Tarts: Mix-tape and Mixed-tape mani

Hello Readers!


Today's post is for the Crumpet's Nail Tarts challenge group, and the prompt is "mixed tape".  Truthfully, I wasn't sure if she meant cassette tapes or striping tape, so I decided to go for both.

I used striping tape on my pinky/pointer fingers to make those neon stripes by first painting my nails with a neon polish, then adding striping tape and going over it with the "Faraway Galaxy" polish.

I used a lot of different polishes on this mani, but I feel like the star of the show is the Salon Perfect "Faraway Galaxy." The fact that it is a one-coat glitter polish makes it possible to do techniques like striping tape with it. You can get this at Wal-Mart for $3.99. The other Salon Perfect in this mani, however, isn't great for actually painting your nails with because it always comes off in one big piece for me. But it is a great neon green, so I used it for dry-brushing here along with the other bright polishes in today's palette.

There are two plates used in this mani- the cassette tape image comes from this Bundle Monster plate from the Time Machine collection (probably my favorite Bundle Monster collection.)

I also used this MoYou London plate, from the Rockstar collection, for the music image.

Be sure to check out some more mixed-tape... or perhaps mix-tape... manis in the link-up below!

Challenge Your Nail Art: Christmas- "Peace on Earth"

Hello Readers!


Today's prompt is the final prompt for the December challenge for the Challenge Your Nail Art group on Facebook. So, appropriately, we are doing Christmas nails! My inspiration for this mani comes from a dupe of a MoYou London plate, which is ironically part of the Greek Mythology collection, but to me it seemed perfect for a Christmas design.

For this mani, I started with a base of 2 coats of Essie "Saltwater Happy." Then I stamped over that with "Mercury Baseline" and a music note pattern to give myself a little bit of a background to work with. I thought the music notes would go nicely with the image of the angel playing the trumpet.

My music notes come from this MoYou London plate from the Rockstar collection. I love all the different music patterns on this plate! I was drawn to the plate because I am a musician, but I find myself using the music images in more nail art than just straight music themed manis. (This one, for example.)

So, as I mentioned, the mani images for this mani are from a MoYou London dupe that I got off of Aliexpress. The original plate is from the Greek Mythology collection. 

Something funny I've noticed about the dupes is they are a heck of a lot easier to photograph than the real deal. My guess is it's because real MoYou plates are more deeply etched so the etched part doesn't show up as brightly? Or maybe the coloring on them is just different? Anyway, this particular dupe has some major differences when it comes to the nitty gritty details, especially the muses faces. The real deal has beautifully detailed eyes, and the eyes don't quite make it up to that standard on the dupe.

I mostly bought the dupe for the globe and swan images, but I realized that the muses and their musical instruments would make great angels for a Christmas look. I decided to use the trumputer to represent the Angels singing in the classic nativity scene, and the globe to represent "joy to the world- and peace on earth".

I think my favorite part of the whole manicure is the thumb. I love that girl with the globe! I decided to leave this image on my stamper head while I was making the decal instead of making it on my silicone mat as I do with most decals, because I've noticed that images that have large areas to fill in are prone to warping when you peel them off the silicone mat, especially if you are just a little impatient- as I am- and try to peel them off -just- a little bit too early.

Nail Crazies Unite: Holiday Movie

Hello Readers!

Today I am so excited to share my holiday movie inspired nails for the Nail Crazies Unite group on Facebook! I decided to go with one of my favorite holiday movies, "Elf".

"The fastest way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!" I used a lot of different plates in this mani, because mixing and matching is what I like to do over here!

First off, let's have a look at the polishes:

Sunlit grass, two coats, for thumb-middle-ring, and one coat of Snow Me White followed by one of Fresh Linen for pointer-pinky.

So let's start of on the plates for pointer-pinky, the music notes with holly sprigs. I wanted to give the feeling of sheet of Christmas music because it is a major theme in the movie. For the music pattern I used a plate from the MoYou London Rockstar collection, and then placed a decal made from a Bundle Monster holiday collection plate:

Of course, I had to add a little elf in, and my elf comes from a dupe of a MoYou London plate from the fairytale collection:

This plate has a few images I can see being fun for Christmas- the elves of course, but I think the scissors would be fun for a wrapping presents themed manicure, and the buttons for a snowman theme.

For my thumb I made a decal from another Bundle Monster holiday plate. I am kicking myself a little bit for forgetting to keep it on the stamper head instead of making the decal on my silicone mat, which is why the word "list" is backwards.

I'm planning on using the Christmas lights image in another mani this December! 

So finally, the middle, which was a combination of freehand and using this MoYou London holy shapes plate as a guide:

I painted my fingernail yellow, then added green about 2/3 of the way down. Next I stamped a thin solid stripe in black and stamped a bigger square over it. I went over those guides with black again for opacity, and added a little gold stamping above it to represent the stitching on the elf character's coat. Then I added a little gold outline inside the square for a belt buckle. It represents the main character's elf costume:

So *whew* that's it! I hope you enjoyed this mani, I thought it turned out really cute! Check out some more holiday movie themed manis in the link up!

An InLinkz Link-up

Simple Sunday 10/30/2016, featuring Moyou London Rockstar

Hello Readers!

For today's Simple Sunday, I decided to try out a couple of untried things and go for a really easy mani with some simple stamping.

I was super excited to find a few OPI polishes at the Dollar Tree last week, and I haven't gotten the chance to try them out yet. So I decided to use one of my finds, "Love is Hot and Coal", for my base and stamp over it with BMC "Freedom Ring." The OPI polish is actually a very dark brown, though it reads as almost a black. It was a little streaky on the first coat, but on the second coat it was fine. It was, however, a little bit on the runny side. I imagine that's why it was at the Dollar Tree.

I used a MoYou London plate from the Rockstar Collection that has all kinds of classical music themes on it. I really loved the heart made up of the treble and bass clef signs, so I stamped that onto my middle finger. I've never seen an image like that before, and I think it is a really cool idea. I also stamped the violin, which is very near and dear to my heart as I played violin for many years, as well as the upright bass. 

I get a kick out of the composer faces- who look to be Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach- on this plate. Someday maybe I'll get around to painting these!