Black, White, and Red Outline Mani with Tutorial!

The inspiration for today's manicure comes from MaagsDinwiddie. She did hers for Valentine's Day, and it certainly would be beautiful for that! I should try to remember that for next year.
For my manicure, I switched the color combos as I wanted to use a red stamping I have that I haven't used often.

I used to do video tutorials and post them on YouTube and Instagram. I enjoyed doing them, but my setup wasn't the greatest plus they take a ton of time! It takes longer to do your mani plus the video editing. However, picture tutorials don't take as much time so I've decided to do them. I'm not sure that I will do them for every mani, but I'm excited to expand my content!

Anyway, here are the steps for this mani.

1. Apply base coat to clean nails. I use Glisten & Glow base coat for all my nails.

2. Apply white polish. I'm using Funky Fingers Gesso.

3. Apply a latex barrier around your nails. I just purchase a big tub on Amazon and pour it into a clean, empty nail polish bottle. I don't always use liquid latex for stamping, but it's definitely needed when stamping with a red polish!

4. Stamp on your image. I'm using Girly Bits Fire Engine Red and a plate I bought from eBay.

5. Remove the liquid latex, and cleanup any extra polish.

6. Add the black outline. I used black acrylic paint for easier control.

To finish: I left this mani dry for quite a while. Red and black polishes tend to smear for me when applying top coat. I used Seche Vite and gently floated it on so as to not smear my stamping (which I actually kind of did on my pinkie).

Yellow Leopard Print Nail Art

I love how today's mani turned out! It was super easy, but still totally cool. Skittle style manis are my favorite to do. They have been for years, and I think will be for a while to come. They are a great way to combine a little nail art and a few polishes into a cute design.

This yellow leopard print skittle mani was a recreation of this one by Colores de Carol.

For my mani, I used Glisten & Glow Little Black Dress and Today is Your Day plus Zoya Alicia.

Simple Striped Nail Art

I really love all the polishes from the Glisten & Glow Mother Earth collection. I enjoyed using them all for a water marble, but I also want to use each one on its own. So for today's mani, I'm featuring Mother Sky.

Mother Sky is a pastel blue creme. The formula was great which is awesome since pastels can be finicky. It applied beautifully in two coats.

I paired Mother Sky with Rosewater from ILNP. Rosewater is such a pretty, unique color. It's a silver holographic polish with flashes of pink. It's part of the Color Kissed Ultra Holos which means you can wear by itself as I did here or layered over another color. I needed 2-3 coats to make it opaque.

Picture Polish Florence

Today’s swatch is Picture Polish Florence.

I saw a few swatches on it on YouTube and really liked it a lot. Since I studied abroad in Florence many moons ago, the name as special meaning as well to me. I won't buy a polish just for the name (I have to like the color too!), but it may push me to get if I'm waffling.

The formula is really good, and Florence applied in 2 coats with no cleanup needed. The base is a peachy orange (reminiscent of the terra-cotta roofs in Florence) with silver holographic micro flakies.

Photo courtesy of me!
View of Florence from just outside the city

the Duomo (cathedral) of Florence

Radial Gradient: First Attempt!

I've been sticking to mostly easy nail art lately, but I am trying to more advanced stuff! I used to do more complicated nail art.

For today's mani, I did my first attempt at a radial gradient mani. For a radial gradient, the color blends from the outside in instead of in stripes. I have small nails so doing 3 colors was a bit difficult as I had a hard time getting all 3 to show. Next time, I'll try with 2.

For the gradient, I used Zoya Malia (purple), China Glaze DJ Blue My Mind (blue), and Fresh Paint Honeydew (mint green). On top, I stamped using a black polish and stamping plate Qgirl-035.

On my right hand, I decided to skip the stamping and add China Glaze Fairy Dust on top. I think I prefer the mani with fairy dust, but which do you like better?

Glisten & Glow Mother Earth Collection Watermarble

Glisten & Glow recently released a new collection called Mother Earth. The collection consists of 4 light creme polishes that stamp and water marble as well. The 4 colors are Mother Moon (grey), Mother Sky (blue), Mother Sea (mint), and Mother Flora (lilac). I really like the formula of Glisten & Glow's creme polishes, and these dusty light colors are some of my favorite so I decided to purchase the whole collection.

Since I haven't done a water marble in ages and this collection water marbles well, I decided that's what I was going to do with them!

The first photo shows the marble with glossy top coat, but I decided to test it with matte top coat as well.

Which do you prefer?

Painted Polish Barefoot at the Boardwalk

This week's swatch is Painted Polish Barefoot at the Boardwalk

I can’t find much information about this polish, but it’s definitely not available any more. Too bad because it’s so pretty! 

It’s a crelly with different hex glitters. The formula was really nice, and I found that I didn’t have to futz with the glitters like you do sometimes with crellies.

In this last photo, you can see a comparison of coats. On the left is 3 coats on my left hand then 2 coats on my right hand. I personally like 3 coats better, but you could get away with 2.

Cupcake Polish Track Me Down Floral Nail Art

Cupcake Polish Track Me Down is a gorgeous black holographic polish. It applies perfectly in one coat. Unfortunely, it is discontinued now so you'll have to look for it in destashes.

However, you could do this nail art look with any black holographic. It's a super easy look, and I used a dotting tool for it.

Zoya Ryan Mixed Metal Nail Art

Today I have a simple nail art design.

For the base, I chose Zoya Ryan. It is a super dark navy blue that applies in one coat! I was able to clean up around the cuticle area easily with no staining. I'm currently wearing it so I'm not sure about removal. 

On my ring and pinkie nails, I stamped using Barry M Gold and Silver Foil. Those polishes are discontinued, but any gold or silver polishes will work. The design is from Bundle Monster Plate BM-314.

Northern Star Polish Family Secrets | March 2018 Polish Pickup

Have you heard of The Polish Pickup yet? I just heard about it at the end of February, and I think they are revolutionizing the indie polish world.

Each month there is a new theme that is voted upon by group members (be sure to join the Facebook group Polish Pickup Pack). The first Friday of the month, the shop opens where you can get polishes (as well as nail care, wax, and misc items) that are custom made for each theme. The items are only available for a short time and exclusive to The Polish Pickup. Shipping is a flat $3 in the United States per order which is awesome! The polishes are created by indie brands, and there's a variety of finishes.

I picked up my first polish for the March theme, Books.
Northern Star Polish created this beautiful polish inspired by Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews. It's such a classic, and one of the first adult books I read. I was in middle school when I discovered VC Andrews, and I've read every book she wrote and all the the one published under her name as well. So of course I had to grab this polish!

Family Secrets is a pinkish red holographic polish with blue flakes. In the sun, the flakes disappear a bit as the holographic effect comes out. 

The color isn't super unique though the flakies do add a bit something extra. The formula was really nice. It went on well in 2 coats, and I had to do very little clean up. Even with the flakies, the polish was super easy to remove.