Pueen Stamping with Clockwork

Today I am featuring some of my new stamping plates I got from Pueen! They are gorgeous and I love the full plate designs which let you really customize your images. I paired this plate together with my polish Clockwork, which is available right now in my etsy shop.

I painted my nails with Orly Buried Alive first, then topped most of my nails with my Sonoma Nail Art color Clockwork. On my ring finger I stamped Orly Glitz over the nail with Pueen Plate 57. I topped it all with Seche Vite. 

Isn't this color pretty!? I am not sure why I haven't tried it before. The colors in this collection (inspired by Dark Shadows) were super vampy and fun. I bought this at a big discount at Sally Beauty Supply.

Here is the full plate image from the Pueen Palte 57. There are so many ways you could wear this, I just love it. I think I will have to do a Yellow Brick Road mani verrrrry soon! Happy Monday!

Run Lola Run aka Lola Rennt

One of my favorite films is 1998's Run Lola Run (originally "Lola Rennt") starring Franke Potente. At the center of this movie, a woman is trying to save her boyfriend and each scenario ends badly, until she finally finds success. Lola, the hero, runs almost non-stop through the film, but instead of being monotonous, the film is filled with tension and energy. The film style is innovative, the acting is intense, and the soundtrack is elementally entwined in the telling of the story. If you haven't seen it, you should. And please, please, PLEASE watch it in German with subtitles. The English overdub is particularly annoying.

I am developing a set of Powerful Women decals, and I tried this one featuring Lola.

I started with a base of OPI Big Apple Red, then painted on patches of my glitter topper Sonoma Nail Art "Red Flag Warning" (check it out in my etsy shop here). Then I added stamping from Pueen 52 (from the new stamping buffet set) with Konad Black polish. On my ring finger I painted Sinful Colors Snow Me White, and then added my Lola water slide decal. After I top coated it, I added thinned down red and blue polishes to color her hair and tank top. I hand painted the black french tip with Wet 'n Wild Ebony Hates Chris.

This is before I added the stamping and black french tip. I kind of like it this way too. The glitter gives it a fun sense of urgency.

I will soon have some fun news related to the Powerful Women decals I am putting together, so keep checking back for an announcement!

Beast Mode Nails

These are the nails I did for the Superbowl on Sunday, and I did them right before we were headed out to watch the game at our favorite watering hole. My husband was chomping at the bit for me to get done already, so we could score good seats to watch the game. And so I am sharing these with a caveat: I didn't have time to moisturize and make sure all of my cleanup/lines looked good. I was kind of horrified to look at close up pictures of this mani. SO DRY! With that in mind...

I deconstructed the Seahawks logo. You can see part of the beak on my index finger, and the eyes on my middle and pinkie fingers. On my ring finger is The Beast from Disney's Beauty and The Beast. For those unfamiliar with the Seahawks, one of the players, Marshawn Lynch, is nicknamed 'Beast Mode' for his amazing skills as a running back. So these are my Beast Mode Nails!

The base colors I used were Zoya Dove, Orly Fresh, OPI Ogre The Top Blue, and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. All of the artwork is done with acrylic paints, then topped with Seche Vite. And obviously no moisturizer. What have we learned from this, kids?! Always moisturize your cuticles!

I think it was totally worth it to keep my husband waiting while I finished these. Can you imagine what would have happened if I hadn't?! LOL

Go SEAHAWKS!

Here is a manicure I did to show off 12th Man team spirit for the Superbowl bound Seattle Seahawks! Yes, I live in 49er country, but I am from Washington State.

I used Orly Fresh and OPI Ogre The Top Blue for the base colors, then topped most of the nails with my Sonoma Nail Art glitter 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. There are bottles of this color available in my etsy store right now! On my ring finger, I used acrylic paint to freehand a Seahawks logo.

GO HAWKS!

Oh YEAH, It's My Birthday Nails

As my young niece Molly yelled at her 3rd birthday party, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEE!" Today I am wearing nails to celebrate my 41st birthday. I thought about something with balloons, or cupcakes, or stars, but they didn't seem right. So instead, I grabbed my Konad Coraline stamping plates and did THIS:

I love the pose of this image. It's got ATTITUDE. and if you are painting nail art on your nails with goofy characters, you gotta have attitude. I painted my nails with Love and Beauty Glow In The Dark polish in Neon Pink (the color is rather chameleon like... soft pink in indoor light, neon pink outdoors), then used the decal technique to create the image on my ring finger.

First I stamped this image from Konad Coraline plate CO4 using Wet N Wild Ebony Hates Chris. Then I let the image dry on the stamper for 5 minutes, before coloring it in with thinned down acrylic paints. After that paint had set, I coated the image with Sally Hansen No Chip Acrylic Top Coat and let it dry for about 30 minutes. I then gently peeled it from the stamper and applied it to my nail, pressing it down to conform to my nail. Then I top coated with Seche Vite. Coraline looks like she is saying, "Oh snap, girlfriend."

And yes, these nails DO glow in the dark, however my camera sucks at taking pictures of glow in the dark stuff, so this was the best I could get. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEE!

Reinventing the Half Moon Manicure

Ok, so I am not really reinventing the Half Moon mani, but I did try something I have never done before and I did it using only nail polish, no acrylic paints, which is usually what I would reach for with something like this.

I present the Apple Half Moon Manicure! Yes, it is very simple but I like the way it turned out. I used Essie Adore-A-Ball as my base color, then added a tiny half moon of Sinful Colors Innocent, a beautiful apple green colored polish. I modeled this after the Sebastopol Gravenstein Apple, which has lovely red, green, yellow, and white stripes along its skin. Using my nail art brush and tiny amounts of various other nail polishes, I added the stripes. I think I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White, OPI Big Hair Big Nails, and Orly Fresh for the stripes. 

Next I mixed a tiny bit of Wet N Wild Ebony Hates Chris with the Sinful Color Innocent green shade. Again using my tiny nail art brush, I carefully applied it to the top of the apple to give the impression of shading where the stem sits. Then I mixed Wet N Wild Ebony Hates Chris together with OPI San Tan-tonio to make the stem. I added highlights to the top of the apple using Sinful Colors Snow Me White mixed with Innocent, and also a tiny bit of pure Snow Me White. I topped it with Seche Vite quick drying top coat. 

I think this is a fun, unexpected way to wear a half moon manicure. I was inspired to try this reinvention manicure by The Lacquer Legion. Each month there will be a new theme for a nail challenge. This one was really fun! Be sure to check out The Lacquer Legion on facebook.

Have a great day!

Grimace Nails

This is a manicure I did for a challenge in a stamping group. It uses 3 (well, actually 4) different shades of purple polish. And since I love hand painting art, I added a fun little character. Who is more purple than Grimace? Well, maybe a certain dinosaur, but we don't need to bring him up, do we?!

Here are my Grimace Nails! What the heck is Grimace anyway?! Scary giant triangle who likes milkshakes. Thanks for the heebie jeebies, McDonalds!

First I painted my nails with OPI Rumples Wiggin'. Then I used a gradient technique (see the Nailasaurus for a great tutorial on this technique) to add two more shades of purple (Essie DJ Play That Song, and Lime Crime Lavendairy). My base color was not quite dry, so I kind of messed up my index finger. Oops.

Then I used Nailz Craze plate NC02 to add the fun swirlies. I stamped with OPI Funky Dunkey. So if you are counting along at home, that is the 4th purple. And I used acrylic paints to hand paint the Grimace on my ring finger. 

I hope to do a lot more stamping as I have an event coming up soon that I can't wait to share with you! I've got to get my skills back up! 

And this is my 140th post, so that means another donation to Women's Recovery Services. Every twenty posts, I like to make a donation to help my community. Women's Recovery Services helps women get back on their feet after dealing with addiction. I encourage you to find ways to give back with your blog!

See you again soon!