The peacock experiment

I wanted to do a peacock mani SO badly. I'd seen a lot of designs and I had all the colors so I decided to go for it. I knew I was not about to hand paint something that detailed on every single nail so I did it as an accent on my ring finger. I'm really happy with how it turned out and it's something I'd like to perfect later, but I think I need some different sized brushes. I was working with dotting tools and one brush. This might be something I'd like to try on somebody else so I have both hands to work with.

It's been awhile!

I went on a little bit of a hiatus for the past couple of weeks while I was house-sitting, at the Ohio State Fair (seeing my new boyfriend Blake Shelton, omg) and seeing Poison and Motley Crue (which was an AMAZING show) and doing some running around. I'm back now though and even though I wasn't posting, I didn't forget to take pictures of anything that I did on my nails so now there's going to be a post flood!

So I've been getting the hang of this Konad thing. One of my favorite stamps is the little bow so it shows up on a lot of my manis. I also got a pretty nice polish haul for the end of summer and wanted to play with as many of those as I could. This one features my new Essie polishes, Nice is Nice (a great creme lilac) and Mint Candy Apple (a minty creme)

Now, I'd been having a problem with my nails that I couldn't figure out for like a week, it was ridiculous. If I did a light colored polish (which had been mostly blues) I would get these dark blue streaks around the tips and I thought it was my top coats smearing when they dried or something. I tried different top coats, no top coat, but whatever I did, I still got these streaks. I was going crazy until I realized what it was. I had just gotten my hair done and the for some reason, the color was transferring to my hands, nails and all over my neck. My hair is a blue-black base color with thin highlights of bright blue. My neck was blue when I pulled my hair up, I had blue stains between my fingers, my brush bristles turned bright blue, but it wasn't transferring to my clothes or my pillow cases, so I guess it wasn't too bad but was it ever irritating. I rarely wear my hair up unless I haven't washed it in a day and eventually it stopped transferring... just in time for me to have to get it redone on Monday. So my new manis are going to be dark colors while I ride out the staining period.

Bonus! I did my toes with my Konad stamps as well! 

I also bought Essie's Matte About You so I wanted to test it out. I was obviously on a blue kick so I went with OPI Ogre the Top Blue and made it matte, added some zebra stripes and silver glitter accents.

First Konad Experience!

My Konad and Bundlemonster plates FINALLY came! I watched a few youtube tutorials and looked at a few designs to see what I wanted to do and I was all set to do something complex and intricate... but then I fell back to my favorite safety net, leopard print. For those who don't know, I'm a huge leopard print freak. In fact, my next tattoo is going to be a quarter sleeve of leopard prints on my right shoulder. I was excited to get stamping but quickly learned a few things.

Some polishes do not stamp well at all. I thought it was just me but after several trials, some of my polishes just aren't meant for stamping. That's fine, because a lot of them work just fine but a few were just not gonna happen. Also, I learned to work quickly but with a steady hand. Since you have to scrape the polish, it makes the polish still inside the design very thin and will dry quickly. I have to press pretty hard to get the whole stamp evenly. I was also really concerned about excess polish getting on the stamper and would try to re-scrape but it would always dry before I could stamp the image so I learned to just stamp it as is, clean it up on the stamper (it won't dry as quickly on there) and then stamp my nail. I also have pretty long nails and they're not flat so I have to be very precise about where and how I stamp on the actual nail. I wound up liking how the whole mani came out though.

I started by doing a white base but realized that I'd just done a white-based leopard mani so I started over. I wanted a brighter color so I went with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Grass Slipper. I love the brush in CSM and the finish is great. I tend to use creme polishes over any other finish and this is a great bright green creme.

Because of how long my nails are, I had to stamp the leopard print on each nail twice, horizontally instead of vertically like the stamp is shown on the plate. I thought this was going to be a huge mess and an ugly disaster, but for my first time? I thought it was pretty good. I originally put white dots in the 'holes' in the print, but it wound up looking like snakeskin and actually showed up pretty dumb. I love that there's a clear 'animal print' feel about this.

My peacock tattoo on my foot decided to make an appearance :) My other 'animal print' love is peacock feathers. I'll probably be doing an peacock mani in the fall. I'm pretty devoted to brights for the summer. 

I'm thinking that the leopard Konad plate will be my go-to if I hit a nail rut. It's simple, yet fun.

Now I'm waiting on a haul of Essie, OPI, China Glaze and Orly polishes. I can't wait for them to get here! I also got some great dotting tools and I'm eager to try Essie's Matte About You. I have a few of the OPI matte shades and originally hated the matte finish, but I've seen a few blogs where it's used and it actually turns out really nicely. I'll be trying my hand at matte-ifying a few mani's in the near future. Enjoy!

Neon Leopard

I LOVE leopard print. My laptop is leopard, my garter at my wedding was pink and black leopard, my couch pillows are leopard, you get the point! I'm actually working on getting a quarter sleeve leopard print tattoo soon. I can't wait! I never tried leopard print nails before and thought it would be way too hard but I surprised myself! I practiced with a few pictures online, but I don't have any brown polishes so I decided to go for the neon leopard to match my computer. This was also my first successful use of white polish on anything that isn't a french manicure. Usually I have TERRIBLE luck with white. Either it's too thin, not the bright white shade that I'm looking for or it's so thick that it never dries and always gets smudged or scraped. I found another gem in the Sally Hansen collection (I'm starting to sense a trend here. I might be hooked on Sally Hansen next...) with the InstaDry Whirlwind White. It's the exact white that I want and the brush is awesome. It's a wide flat brush, as opposed to the more rounded shape that most polishes come with. I can usually get my whole nail done in one stroke. It's also a perfect base for neons or thin polishes that need a little bit extra behind them to make them really pop.

Here's my first leopard manicure. I originally did every other nail to avoid it being too loud, but I didn't like how it looked and went back to fill the rest in later. I also should probably add that most of my pictures are taken pre-clean up to get them while they're still fresh. Don't worry, I clean all that extra off!

What I used:
Sally Hansen InstaDry Whirlwind White
Stripe Rite Neons (Pink, green, yellow, orange and purple) and Black

Inspiration for this nail design and the how to came from The Polished Medic. I've been following her blog for awhile and LOVE the way she does her nails. I also love to see long, natural nails being done in more colors than just red and french-tipped :)

After doing my own mani, I decided to give my kitty her weekly mani as well. She wears Soft Claws to cover her front claws since I don't declaw my kitties and this week, we were matching once I put on her pink and blue caps. We had also just finished listening to some Lady Gaga so I felt compelled to snap a picture of my own little monster. Allow me to introduce, Peppers!

Peppers, put your paws up!

Poolside Polka Dots

I was being a bit of a nail polish snob for awhile and using exclusively OPI polishes until I started poking around in my sister's polish collection one day. She had a big mix of color, a lot of which can be found at the drugstore. After testing some out, I actually found my new favorite color and it was NOT an OPI! I've been obsessed with Sally Hansen Extreme Wear in Mint Sorbet. It's a great color for spring and summer (especially on toes, it really stands out against a suntan) and pairs pretty easily with a lot of color for designs. I'm (im)patiently waiting on my shipments of Konad and BundleMonster stamps and will probably be using this color for my first stamping experiments. My only complaint about Mint Sorbet was that I wish it were a teeny tiny bit more green. When I wear it, I tend to see a little bit more of a blue tone, but that might just be me.

 No flash,  Mint Sorbet and Blue Me Away, the other color that I used in this design

With flash

What I used:
Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Blue Me Away!
Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet

I painted every other nail in each color ( I believe 2 coats each- both colors are the perfect consistency and don't require too many coats and don't get lumpy like a lot of creme polishes) This was also before I had my dotting tool and I had to make do with what I had. I had to very carefully clean off the brush before using the flat bottom part of the brush to make my dots. I actually liked that method since they came out in near perfect circles and the consistency of the color made it so I didn't have to go over them multiple times. Finish with a top coat and you're done!

Stained Glass

 This was my first nail adventure that I thought to photograph. It's taken with my phone, so I apologize for the quality, but I didn't expect to be publishing them! I wanted a bright look that was more than just a solid color one day and just started experimenting with color. You don't have to do these exact colors (I thought of doing different blues or pastels, for instance) but try to keep them all the same finish so the end result flows nicely together.

What I used:

OPI That's Hot! Pink
OPI A Grape Fit
OPI The 'It' Color (by far, my favorite yellow)
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Grass Slipper
OPI Dating A Royal
Stripe Rite Black

This is actually a lot easier than it looks and application doesn't have to be perfect because you're filling in where the colors meet with the black line. Simply paint shapes in each color on the nail, as carefully as you can (but once again, any goofs can be covered by the black polish) and outline the area where the colors meet in black or any thin stripe of an accent polish that you choose. I wish I'd taken pictures of the steps so I can show how easy this really is. Your end result will look like a stained glass window, but I like to think of it as a paint by number :) Get creative- you don't have to put the same pattern on every nail and the same colors don't have to always be touching. Have fun!