The Last Panda Inspired Nail Art

Hey everyone! I'm on my way to beautiful Massachusetts for a beach getaway before fall officially begins! I scheduled out a couple of posts for you so my blog would not be stagnant. :)

I saw this adorable print online and just knew that it had to be translated into some nail art. It is by John Tibbott and can be found here. There is a whole series of these, and I thought about branching out and doing a different animal, like a fox or something, but the panda was just so cute, I had to do it. I like that these prints also have a message - about protecting Earth's animals. Yay!

Well there he is...the last panda. I used Julep Cindy for my base, then stamped the scale pattern using Mash-39 and Konad Special Black, and painted in the bear freehand using Pure Ice SuperStar! and Konad Special Black. This is what Cindy looks like by herself.

Here is a close-up of the nail with my panda. If I paint one on my other hand, he won't be alone anymore. :)

Well, thank you so much for looking - have a great day!

Golden Oldie Thursday - Purple

Hi everyone! I decided to try out something which I haven't done before for the sake of using up and old purple polish from Julep that I haven't really known what to do with. They call this polish a glaze, but I thought it seemed like a jelly and decided to try my hand at a "pond" manicure. I have done a jelly stamp-wich before, but knew that this would take a really long time since you have to do several layers to get the pond effect right. And it did.

This is Julep Candy. I got this polish from my aunt who had gotten it in her Boho Glam box a couple years ago and decided it wasn't for her. I stamped with Konad Special White polish using Mash-41. I did two coats of Candy, stamped, added another coat, stamped again slightly offset from the first one, added another coat, stamped again, and then added one last coat to seal it all in. I actually did this mani over the course of several days because I just didn't have the consecutive hours it would have taken to do this all at once.

I'm not including a swatch of Julep Candy by itself, because it just looked too bad. My poor nails are pretty stained, and it is super sheer. I wouldn't have been able to show what it actually looked like. It had a great consistency and didn't streak at all, which made this manicure a lot easier than it could have been.

Thank you so much for reading my post - have a fantastic day!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tri Polish Tuesday - Red, Yellow, & Blue

For today's Tri Polish, I decided to have another go at water marbling and for once in my life it worked out. Woohoo! I used just three colors for this: Essie Apertif, Nicole by OPI Pros and Confidence, and Zoya Pippa. After I finished my water marble, I added some dots because I just couldn't resist.

What do you all think? I think this is the first time that at least 3 out of the 5 nails look pretty good. I did have to redo the pinky, and I got bubbles on some of the nails, but ah well. I'm sure I'll get better with practice. :D Thank you so much for looking, and have a great day!

An InLinkz Link-up

MoYou Sailor Plates: Obligatory Sea-Themed Nails

Good afternoon! After receiving these plates, I knew I just HAD to do some 'under the sea' nails. I had received butter LONDON Royal Navy a while back as a gift, so it was perfect to use for my base in this manicure. I sponged on butter LONDON Petrol, Big Smoke, and Airy Fairy to add some sparkly underwater magic. :D After that, I stamped images from MoYou London Sailor plates 07 & 10 using Konad Special White polish.

Here is what it looked like prior to my stamping. I love layering these types of color shifting, shimmery polishes over dark bases. It's so pretty!

Take a look at the thumb - I love the way this one turned out!

And here is butter LONDON Royal Navy all by itself. It was a little streaky - it seems like navy polishes always are, but it evened out nicely in three thin coats. It is a perfect true navy.

Thank you so much as always for taking the time to read my little blog! Have an awesome day!

Golden Oldie Thursday - Black Base

Hello! I've decided to jump back on these Golden Oldie Thursday posts because I just have so many old polishes that I haven't shown off on here! It helps me get everything swatched, and also forces me to think outside the box in order to have nail art to fit each prompt. I need that every once in a while, or I get in a rut. Anyway, today I have a positively ANCIENT polish for you. It is a polish from Old Navy that my sister bought when she was probably around 10 years old - she's 25 now. I inherited it after she moved out of my parents' house and didn't take it with her. Katie, you can have it back anytime, just ask! lol

Anyway, this polish is a iridescent topper named Annette. I decided to stamp with it over black (Pure Ice Black Rage) to show off the contrast of colors. Despite being 15 years old, it still has a perfect formula. I used an image from Red Angel plate RA-113 on each nail.

Thanks for looking, and have a great day! I'll have another post for you this weekend with some super cute nail art!

An InLinkz Link-up

Julep Glitter Swatches

Good morning! Today I have two glitter toppers from Julep which I have had for ages and just never got around to posting about. They both totally deserve to be shown off though, so today is the day! This is Julep Max. It is a black and white matte glitter mix. I didn't have one like this in my collection, but there are a lot of similar polishes out there. It painted on very smoothly, this is one coat shown over Julep Lissa.

Next, I have Julep Mila. It is a clear base with tiny multi-colored glitters. It went on very smoothly as well and had more glitter in it than I thought - this is just one coat over Julep Linden, and I'm thinking you could easily get this to opacity in three thin coats.

 

Well there you have it - Max and Mila are two fun glitter toppers that I'm glad to say I have in my collection! :P Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Textured Floral

Today, I have a fun textured sparkly mani with stamping featuring a new plate I got from MoYou London. I used Julep Braiden as my base for this manicure, which I swatched in my last post. I used Konad Special Black to stamp different floral images from MoYou's Explorer plate 03.

These images all stamped beautifully. I added topcoat afterward to see how it would look shiny instead of matte. The answer is: pretty, shiny, sparkles! :D

Hooray! I have been having so much fun with my nail art again lately. I feel awful that I lost it for a bit, but I'm back, people! :)

July Julep It Girl Box

Look at me, actually posting my July swatches in July. Wow, it's amazing what I can get done when I am not over my head with two different challenges going on at once! I love getting things in the mail, especially when it is nailpolish! When this one came, I was so excited to be getting 4 polishes instead of the usual three. I cashed in some Jules for an add-on and got more swatching stickers, too.

I'm starting with the blue polish called Linden, because it just happens to be the first one I wore. It is a perfect pool blue cream. It only took two thin coats, and went on nice and smooth. Sorry for the poor photo quality. It was late, and I had too much caffeine. That means I was shaking like crazy.

Next, we have my least favorite of the bunch, Dawn. I have a rough time with yellows. I wouldn't have bought this color on it's own, but since I couldn't live without Linden and the next polish I'm about to show you, it is now a part of my collection. It's not bad, but yellows just have the worst formula. I will say that this one was not as bad as most, though.

The last polish in this It Girl set is Braiden, another one of the Stardust finish polishes that I adore. Sparkly-matte goodness in a bottle. :)

Last, we have Lissa. This is my add-on. When I saw it, I had to have it. I have such a weakness for teal, and it is a great summer color.It's perfect - this is two coats.

I did some nail art with these colors since they all looked so good together. It turned out pretty good - simple art with dots is always good. :)

Yay! Now that my swatching for the month is out of the way, you will get some nail art!

Paisley Patterned Nails with NYC

Hey everyone! I did some fun nail art recently using a gift box I received as inspiration. I had just gotten these new NYC polishes and thought they would look great in a mani together. Boy do they!

I started out with NYC Mint'ed on Broadway, then added NY Blues using the saran wrap method. I painted on the paisley pattern using Hamptons Peach and Nolita's Lavender along with the other two colors, and added some white accents using Pure Ice SuperStar!. I totally loved this mani while I had it on. Here is what it looked like before I added my paisley. Pardon the messy cuticles. I just started a new job and did a lot of stress-picking. Shame on me!

Here is what NYC Mint'ed on Broadway looks like by itself. It's a lovely teal. I'm actually pretty certain it is almost a dupe of Zoya Wednesday (it's more green than it looks in this photo, I was experimenting with lighting). These polishes went on very nicely, too. That has been my experience with all of the NYC colors that I own, which is awesome considering their low price.

Thank you so much for looking - I'll be back with my Julep It Girl Box for July, and then I have more more new stamps to show off! I'm so excited!! :)