I'm Seeing Stars

I've got another Halloween nail design for you! I wanted to do something with a bit sparkle to it for this design, but at the same time I didn't want it to be too complex. I think I hit just the right balance with this one!

Instead of trying to paint stars and keep the glitter in the spots I want it, I went the opposite direction. I started this nail out with a bright, deep orange. Once that was opaque I topped it with a golden-coppery glitter and added a coat of quick-dry topcoat.

I then let things dry for half an hour or so. Once things were dry, I took a piece of masking tape and punched little star holes from it. Those stars are the key to this manicure!

A quick tip: Make sure the sticky side of the tape is facing the opening of the punch instead of toward the die-cutting part. This way you can use tweezers or a dotting tool to remove the star cutouts.

While I was punching my stars, I stuck them to the edge of an Altoids tin to keep them organized and sticky. Once I had them punched, I applied them to the nail in a simple pattern. I tried to leave enough space between them to make sure they would show up as stars in a black background. It also helps with removal to have a piece of the star hanging off your nail.

Once my stars were in place, I topped things with a coat of black nail polish. I used an opaque black so I would only need one coat. Before the polish dried, I peeled the stars off leaving the bright orange sparkly stars behind. I let this dry for a minute or two, but I should have waited longer because I did smear the edges of my stars on one side.

Once your top coat is on, you're done! You could do this with any shapes you want- even round dots from a traditional hole punch would look adorable!

Leave me a comment if you like this one. I'm really enjoying it right now!

Some polishes were provided by the brands for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.

Oh dear... That didn't work out like I hoped it would.

I told you yesterday I'd share the Konadicure I did on top of H&M's Goddess On Stage. I didn't say it would be pretty, unfortunately...

I had the best intentions, as usual. I wanted to brighten up the deep tones of the purple base coat, and I thought that gorgeous new pink holographic polish I won from Scandalously Polished would be perfect for the task. Pink goes with purple, I thought to myself, and I like holographic polishes. This should be GREAT!

I had such high hopes. I pulled out my stamping set and flipped through the plates, trying to decide what look to go for. I'm not a floral person, but my plates have an absolute TON of flowers. I'm starting to figure out ways to use them that I like, though that's a totally different blog post. For this one, though, I settled on the Hot Topic fauxnad plate with the stars. I thought they'd be cute in pink.

I then grabbed my Lumene Natural Code Nail Styler in 11 Make Impact. Instead of going for a straight-across look with the stars, placing them in the same place on each nail, I decided to place them "randomly" on my nails, trying to make everything look cute depending on the amount of space available on the individual nails. This wasn't a bad idea, exactly, but it just didn't look right. Somehow, it didn't look like there was a finished design on my nails. Instead, it looked like I had random crap stamped onto them.

Key word there? Random.

 What to do? I decided maybe dots would help fill in some of the space, and make things look more... I don't know. More like a cohesive design, instead of just random crap on my nails, I guess.

See, I have a problem. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. While I see other people's stamped nails and think they're adorable, I can't help but see every tiny flaw in my own stamped designs. I end up hating almost every stamped design I do.

So I pulled out my new dotting tools and set to work. I applied some big dots first to fill in the negative space, but that didn't help. Instead, I had pale stars surrounded by bright freakin' pink dots. Oh yea, that's attractive.

So I added some smaller dots. I did some randomly, others in small curved trails around the stars. And the more I added, the busier it got, and the uglier it got. I couldn't figure out what else to do with it, so I said to heck with it, added topcoat, and called it a day. Then I went on Twitter and complained that I think Konad just isn't for me. :D

Now, looking at the photos, it doesn't look as bad. But trust me on this one... somehow, the photos don't capture the not-quite-rightness of this one. I was very, very happy to take my polish off and try another manicure. Of course, that one made me cuss too, but in the end I was happy with things...

... but that's a story for another day!

Dressing Up GOSH Black Passion: Decals

Whew! It's been a while since I wrote about my nails! Sorry about that, I've just been so excited by all the Halloween goodies out there! But I haven't forgotten about my nails...

Last time I wrote about my nails, I'd polished them with GOSH's Black Passion, a simply gorgeous charcoal shimmer. However, if you know me, you know I couldn't leave that alone for long. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it, though, so I spent a few minutes digging through my nail art box. Sure enough, I came up with the perfect accent- a set of nail decals that were sent to me by Viva la Nails!

I wanted something simple, something with a bit of color, and something that would show up well against the dark polish. These decals definitely did the rick. They're a set of white hearts and stars that are accented by a rainbow of tiny rhinestones. They also have a variety of sizes so that you're not stuck trying to put a giant sticker on your pinkie nail or a teeny tiny sticker on your thumb. I love that!

Are these adorable or what? Seriously, I absolutely love these! The only problem I ran into is that I'm not terribly good at placing them, so they sort of... well... let's just say I had to work at getting them where I wanted them. I'm pretty sure I'll get better at that with practice, though, so don't let that stop you from getting these.

I also love that these don't all swoop in the same direction, so that you can have both hands look right. I know I'm strange, but that sort of thing can drive me BATTY!

There's one thing I'm unsure of, though. I always feel as if my decals don't look quite right. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, but when I see decals on other people's nails I love them. Do you guys think there's anything I could do differently to improve this look?

Ah well... I shouldn't complain. I still think this is cute as can be, and you should know by now that I'm a total sucker for cute! This mani is fun and simple, and I wore the heck out of it!

Now, the question becomes this: what else could I do to change up Black Passion? Stay tuned, and tomorrow I'll show you a look that even surprised me!

Decals were provided by Viva la Nails for evaluation.