Let's watch paint dry!

Hey guys! 

Yesterday I got a brand new set of nail stamping plates, so I got inspired to make a little video of me stamping my nails.  I've been meaning to do this for quite a while, because every time I post a stamped mani I get questions about how it works.  I do have a page up top called "Nail Stamping Info" that I add and remove and then add back occasionally.  But it's always better to see it in action.

I mentioned before that I prefer to do stamping on a well-cured mani, so I painted my nails last night in preparation for stamping this morning.  But honestly, a lot of the time I do stamping to get an extra day or two of wear out of a mani that's starting to look a bit rugged.  Win!

Before I started I took a picture of all my supplies.  It looks like a lot, but I keep it all in a little kit so it's easy for me to get out when I want to do my nails.

Starting from the top left and working down and to the right, I've got:  pure acetone polish remover; a food carton lid with two cotton balls (the triple size ones); some scrap paper with my stamping plate on top; a small bottle of regular polish remover; nail polish for stamping - this one is Wet n' Wild Black Crème; my stamper; an old "credit" card; two pointy Q-tips; and a brush I use for clean up, but didn't use this time.

All of this is on a mat to protect my table, however,  I usually just do this by the bathroom sink.  My sinks are granite, so if any polish spills happen it's easy to quickly wipe them off.

Here's a picture of my stamping plate:

The plates are so shiny, you can see my camera and hand reflected on the surface!

For this mani, I stamped with black, but you don't have to use black.  Any strongly pigmented polish will work, and chrome-finish polishes work well also.  I used black in hopes it would show up better on camera.

And here's the finished mani:

For this one I used Essie Chinchilly (two coats) topped with CND Copper Shimmer (one coat).  Stamping was done with Wet n' Wild Black Crème, then topped with INM Out the Door.

You can see how quickly you can stamp your nails.  If I take out the explaining bits, I did five fingers in about 2 minutes.  Start to finish - and that includes cleaning up around the cuticles and adding top coat - I spend barely 10 minutes each time I stamp my nails.  The hardest part, for realz, is deciding which stamp I want to use!!  I've got over a hundred plates now . . .

Jungle January: the Mani Edition

The other night when I couldn't sleep, I was thinking about stamping my nails for Jungle January.  And then I started thinking about all the animal print stampings I've already done, so I went through my old posts and pulled some pictures.  It was fun to look at these again, so I thought I'd share them.

I've got various iterations of leopard - the real kind:

and the fantasy kind:

Same for crodile:

I've got a giraffe:

A snake:

And even some butterflies!

{If you'd like to see more nail stamping, click on "Bundle Monster" or "Konad" in the category cloud!}

Feast or Famine

It's a little weird that I've been posting every day for the last several days, after posting only intermittently for a few months.   What can I say?  My blogging philosophy is that if I don't feel like posting, I don't!  It's a hobby - I try not to get stressed out about it!

I stamped my nails for the first time in a long while the other night, and I liked it so much I decided to share.  I really like this "tribal print" motif on Bundle Monster plate 315 - I've been seeing a lot of fabrics with a similar look lately.  My base polish is Misa Great Grape from the summer 2013 "Fresh and Fruity" collection.  This is the same polish I was wearing in the video I posted a few days ago.  On top of that I stamped with Essie No More Film, a very deep blue-violet from last summer's resort collection.  It's dark, but less stark than black would be and so pigmented that it's great for stamping.

I love this stamp!  I think it would look fantastic over a gradient nail - kind of like all the ikat fabrics that are all over the place lately!

Turquoise Crocodile

Me likey.

It's Complicated

This is one of the most labor-intensive manis I've ever done.  But I think the result is worth the work!

I started out with two coats of China Glaze Cheers to You, from the holiday 2010 collection:  the shimmery, silvery counterpart to Midnight Kiss.  Once that was dry, I sponged the tips with Zoya Danii, then applied China Glaze Fast Forward topcoat.  Finally, after waiting about ten minutes, I stamped on the "shattered glass" design from Bundle Monster plate BM208 with Wet N' Wild Black Creme.  One more coat of Fast Forward, and then all I had to do was sit back and admire my nails for a while!

(colors are more accurate in this picture)

Yesterday's Nails

I really like this stamping I did yesterday.  I think this plate has a lot of potential - it's like the "saran wrap" technique, but without the mess!

Purple Polkas

Do polka dots have anything to do with the polka dance?  Which came first?

Anyhooo . . . I did this stamping a while ago to cover up the tip wear I was getting on my mani.  I thought this one was pretty cute!

But the next time I use this stamp, I'd like to try it with two very different colors - like black and white - to give it a more Op Art feel.

Rayures

I totally stole this from nailXchange.  You can see her awesome mani here.

Unpredictable is one of the polishes from China Glaze's fall Bohemian collection.  I wish I had the photographic skills to capture the color shifts on this polish - it's truly exquisite, changing from deep turquoise to emerald to golden green.  Adding in the black stripes only makes it better, in my opinion!

Houndstooth for Fall

Gah, I think this is one of my favorite manis I've done in a long time!  I can't stop looking at it!

Incredibly, this is the first time I've used this plate!  Now I'm daydreaming of other color combos . . .

NOTD

Shortly after they were released this summer, I got three of the Sephora + Pantone Universe Jewel Lacquers.  So far I've tried two of them, and so far I'm not too impressed. 

Parachute Purple, shown above, is a deep blue-purple with blue shimmer.  It's an OK color, nothing earth-shaking.  My camera wanted to show more of the blue, but it actually leans more purple.  The shimmer is pretty subtle, although when you can see it, it's quite pretty.  My problem so far with these polishes is that the brush makes it very difficult to get a good application.  It's one of those flat, wide brushes that I always have trouble with, and the ends are just ever-so-slightly splayed to make it even more difficult. 

The other thing I didn't like about this polish is that even after a healthy coat of Seche Vite (known for the high gloss finish it gives), the finish was a little dull.  On top of all that, I got tip wear after half a day, although I really didn't do much other than type a little and put away some dishes.  I didn't even wash them, just took them out of the dishwasher!

I put on Parachute Purple last night, but by this morning I was already bored, so I spiced it up with some stamping.   I'm not sure what this image is meant to be, but I think it's kind of cute!  Here's another picture (albeit a little creepy) that shows the shimmer and truer colors (as well as the tip wear):

Have any of you nail mavens tried these polishes?  I keep searching for swatches and reviews online, but there's not much to be found.

Copper Clouds

A few days ago, I rediscovered CND Copper Chrome in my polish stash, and decided I wanted to use it for a stamping.  I looked around to see what color and image would go well with it, and settled on Essie Who Is the Boss and this stylized cloud pattern:

After I finished, I felt that the CND wasn't as great a stamping polish as I'd thought it would be, but couldn't remember if I'd used it before.  So I did a little search on the blog, and it turns out I have used it before - with this very same blue polish!  (Although not with a stamp.)  So I guess these two colors are made for each other!

Subtle Stamping

Here's a recent stamping I really like.  I love how the copper mesh pattern adds subtle texture to the pale pink polish:

We're having a nice respite of cooler weather here the last few days, and it's making my mind turn toward fall polishes.  But I'm pretty sure this isn't the end of summer yet!

Meh Leopard

Yesterday I put on China Glaze TMI, one of the few polishes from the much-coveted OMG Collection I own.  But after the holographic insanity that is Layla, it was leaving me feeling a little flat.

So this morning I decided to stamp it:

Just not crazy about this one.  The black I used, Sinful Colors* Black on Black, isn't as opaque as I want it to be.  I think I'll have to break down and buy the Konad black stamping polish.  I used a dotting tool to add silver highlights to some of the spots, but my execution wasn't fantastic since I was hurrying.

*I really didn't even want to use this, because of the whole Sinful Colors content-stealing debacle, but I hadn't realized it is the only black I have, so I was stuck with it.

So, meh.  Good thing I was planning on changing colors tonight anyway.

Sponging for Dummies

Here's another stamping from the new Bundle Monster set.  This one reminded me a lot of the sponging technique, which I still haven't been able to master.

I had a really hard time lining this one up at the bottom edge of my nails, so some of the dark areas are abruptly straight near my cuticles.  Also, clean-up was a bear with this very dark blue-violet polish.  Next time I'll prepare my skin with a little something slippery beforehand!

Here's what the image looks like on the plate, for comparison's sake:

 

I used the image at 3:00.  I guess you can tell I had a hard time getting it centered too!  I'm looking forward to trying this one with a metallic color over a creme.

Kablam!

I got the third Bundle Monster stamping plate set the other day, and I decided to do my first stamping from it with Niecey-poo's favorite image from this set!

Achooo!

Somehow I ended up with a cold, so I'm laying low today.  But I did have enough energy to do a little stamping on my nails:

I've been wanting to try out this stamp for a long time - not really sure why I haven't used it before.  I really like it!  I just picked up two of the colors from Essie's new Mirror Metallics collection (Penny Talk and Nothing Else Metals, a lilac chrome), and like most chrome finish polishes, they're great for stamping.

Against this red-violet, Penny Talk isn't showing up as copper as it really is, but I do like this combination.

You guys will probably be seeing a lot more stamping around here soon.  In a couple weeks, my niece will be arriving to spend the summer with us again!  Since I'm not likely to get a whole lot of sewing or knitting done during that time, I think stamping will be my art form of choice!

Long time, no stamp.

Let's fix that, shall we?

I wanted to get another day or two of wear from the polish I put on the other day, Zoya Farah.  So this morning I stamped it with Essie No More Film and Bundle Monster plate BM204.  I really like the brocade look of this image, and I think the blue-violet of the Essie looks great against the yellow-beige of the Zoya.

It's been quite a while since I stamped my nails, but I might just have to start it up again!

Hallmark Card

Last night I decided to do a little stamping on my current mani, and then I jazzed it up a little with some silver glitter.  The end result reminded me of those greeting cards that have little bits of glitter highlights!

The base color is Essie Nice is Nice from last spring, and the stamp is Bundle Monster BM210 using Essie Jamaica Me Crazy.  And the glitter is Milani Art of Silver Nail Art.

I wan't too crazy about it last night when I did it, but now in the daylight, I'm kind of digging it!

Can't help myself!

Just did my first nail stamping of 2012!  Yay!

Zoya Kennedy
Bundle Monster plate 215
China Glaze Millennium

I am really in love with Kennedy; I find it to be a very unique beige-pink.  And with silver:  even better! I wish I had some fabric just like this.  Wouldn't it make a fabulous blouse?

Crocodile Fail

This has been in my mind for a while and I finally got around to doing it today:

It's a little too subtle though.  This is Zoya Codie from the Smoke and Mirrors collection, topped with China Glaze Matte Magic and then stamped with the crocodile image from the BM224 plate using CND Super Shiney topcoat.  You can see it a little better here:

But I was really hoping it would be more dramatic.  Oh well, can't win 'em all!