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- Pastel Floral

Hello Readers!


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

Hello Readers!


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

Hello Readers!

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

Hello Readers!


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)

Hello Readers!

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

Hello Readers!

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!