Sparkling Hearts

Salon Express plate #21, Zoya Lara, and a silver
Sally Hansen Color Quick nail polish pen.

Whee, I'm back with actual nail art! So exciting, even though this is not exactly a groundbreaking design. Still, it's fun and maybe I'm back in the saddle again?

This look started out simply enough. I was sick of looking at my bare nails, so I reached for my Sally Hansen Color Quick polish pen. Unfortunately, I have no idea what this color is called because this is the pen I keep in my purse for emergency manicures. You never know when you're going to need to paint someone's nails!

As a result, this pen looks like it's had a very interesting life! At first I wasn't very fond of these pens, but then I figured out how to use them. It's important to press the button enough times to have a drop of polish visible at the top of the brush. It will ease its way down the brush fibers to apply beautifully. If you don't have that much polish, you'll struggle to get the polish to apply even though the brush looks like it has enough color. Once I figured that out, I was really happy with these pens.

I've had this pen in my purse now for over a year, so I guess that's a good example of how sturdy they are. It's never leaked, either, and the cap stays on wonderfully. I definitely need a few more of these!

So, back to today's nails. Once my nails were painted silver, I realized I wanted a bit more something on them. I decided to go with Zoya's Lara, from the Summer 2012 Beach collection. It's a gorgeous pink creme that applies like a gorgeously. As you can see, it stamps nicely too!

I wasn't sure what sort of design I wanted to use, so I decided to go with the clustered hearts on SE21 from the Salon Express stamping kit. I've had trouble with the larger stamps, so I thought it would be good practice as well as being cute.

Also, instead of stamping the whole image in the center of the nails, I decided to place them more near the tips of my nails. This actually worked pretty nicely, and although I liked the final look, I felt like there was something missing. (I bet you can guess what it was, too, if you've been reading me for very long!)

That's right... I decided to add some glitter! I couldn't find a glitter polish that worked well with Lara's pink tones, so I pulled out my loose glitters. I ended up using a pot of glitter that Melissa from the Daily Nail sent me last halloween. It's a fun hot pink that seems unsure if it's a deep hot pink or an electric purple. Whatever it is, though, I absolutely LOVE it!

To use it, I put a few drops of clear polish onto a palette (the back of my stamping plate in this case), then put a bit of glitter on top. A quick mix and I had custom glitter polish to dab on top of a few hearts! This added just the kick I felt they needed, and I was finally happy with this look!

So what do you think? Does the glitter take it over the top? Is it something you'd wear? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of this one.  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Polishes were provided by the brands for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Another Fail...

Once again, I've got a total failed manicure to share with you today. I was experimenting with the Jessica Heavy Petal collection polishes again, this time going for a pink look. Unfortunately, it was a complete disaster.

I'm not sure what I was going for, but this clearly isn't it. I started with a base coat of Dazed Dahlia, which is such a beautiful deep hot pink. It's vibrant, but not too vibrant in my opinion.

I then wanted some texture to the background before I started stamping. I used Rolling Rose on my striping brush and added some slashy, stripey bits. I expected the Rolling Rose to add just a bit of texture and shimmer, but instead the stripes really showed up against the background! Not ideal, but I kept right on, hoping I could salvage something from this.

I pulled out my Salon Express stamping set to add some interest to my nails. I started with CND's Green Scene and stamped a swirly sun-type design on my ring finger. BLEAH! This just did NOT work. The green is too similar in value to Dazed Dahlia, so the colors meld into each other visually. No bueno!!

At this point, I knew I was basically not going to be able to save this one. I just stamped random designs from the Salon Express plates, mainly to see how they worked. I was happy with the stamps, I just with the overall design worked better!

Finally, I'll show you a closeup of my thumb... I think I went over this with the Jessica Holographic topcoat too, but I'm not sure. The sparkles are pretty, but this is just not a good look.

I apologize for not cleaning this one up, but I knew I was taking this off as soon as I got photos of it. Keep in mind, this is not a failure of the polishes. This is purely user error- I'm the failing part of this experiment!

So, help me out here- what do you do when you try a nail design that just doesn't work? Do you keep adding to it, hoping it'll work out? Do you say to heck with it before you're finished and take it off? Do you just shrug and keep it on? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Til next time!

Polishes were provided by the brand for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

More Adventures In Stamping With the Salon Express Nail Stamping Kit

Ok, just ignore the photo from yesterday where I was trying to get the hang of stamping again. Turns out, all I needed was a polish that stamps well and a bit of practice!

The problem is, I was stamping onto Glitter Gal holographic polish with metallic polish, so it was HORRIBLE to photograph! But two photo sessions and much time in Photoshop later, I have a few shots to show you how well the stamps work.

Keep in mind, I've heavily edited the images to make them viewable. But I haven't touched the nail parts of the photos, and I've got a before shot to show you the difference.

Ok, enough yapping... let's get to the pics!

I should have moisturized, but I was so excited...

This shot actually shows four stamps, although it's hard to tell. The first finger (from left to right) has a flower in Heaven Creamsicle, but it doesn't show from this angle. Trust me, it's pretty.

The middle two fingers are a old franken I made myself. It is GORGEOUS, and even more clear than it seems in this photo. Seriously, I'm LOVING this polish for stamping!

The pinky has a portion of a butterfly, but for the life of me I can't remember which polish I used for it. My memory sucks...

So hard to see... *sighs*

I stamped these fingers first, so I was still getting the hang of it again. Still, you can kind of see what's going on here. The pinky is stamped with NYX NP 47 Le Prive, which is a really gorgeous duochrome, a slate/steely blue polish that shifts to a pale gold. Melissa at The Daily Nail sent me a care package of a bunch of fun gorgeous polishes around Halloween, and this is one of the beauties she included. Love it! I bet it'd be STUNNING over black!

The middle two fingers are stamped with a Maybelline matte metallic gold polish, and although you can't quite see the designs in this shot, the ring finger has what appears to be bamboo, and the middle finger has a portion of a rectangle with cutaway flowers in it. This looks really fun and funky in person, and I can see using the "full nail" designs like this in the future.

Ahhh, here we go. This is a pretty horrible shot, as it (like the others in this post) was taken in low light using available light instead of flash, because I was trying to keep the holographic reflectiveness of the Glitter Gal Purple Holographic from totally obscuring the stamping. With lots of color correction and a bit of Photoshop magic to make my cuticles not look so disgusting, we've got a somewhat presentable photo.

Unlike the original. This is a great example of how I edit my photos. I will always tweak the color balance on my pictures to try and reflect something more resembling what I see, rather than what the camera sees. I have no problem cleaning up the raggedy cuticles I always seem to have, because really, who wants to see that?

But I do NOT retouch the actual nail art part of my photos. That's a point of pride for me, really... I want you to see what I did, not what I wish I'd actually been able to do. When I do make Photoshop mockups, it's always clearly marked, and it always looks like Photoshop instead of my real nails.

I'm not the best nail artist by far, but I do want to present MY work, not some fantasy drawing. So... yea, that was quite a rant... oops. :D

Anyway, the bottom line is that I LOVE THIS STAMPING SET!! Honestly, if you have any interest in getting into stamping, this is the way to get started. Check your local stores for their as Seen On TV products, and you can play too! And again, please share what you've done. I wanna see!

Til next time!

Blah blah was provided by the manufacturer for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.