Second Chance Mani Do Overs

Have you ever tried a polish and said "meh," dropping it in your stash as unimpressive, only to decide later that it very well may be your Favorite Polish of All Time? I know I have. I hate the idea of having great polish going unused, so I decided to dust off a few of those "meh" shades for polish Do Overs! The rules were that it couldn't be a polish I use regularly for manis or nail art, has to be a polish that I disliked because of the color itself, not formula or some other reason unrelated to the particular shade, and I wore them all for at least a full day. Here's what happened.

I started out with Julep Rochelle. When I first picked it up, I tried it on and thought it was...fine, I guess. It was purple. I have a love/hate relationship with purples-I have dozens, and some of my best loved shades are purple, but I tend to find purple polishes uninspiring in general. Then I kept picking up Sinful Shine Haute Shine and thinking "I already have Rochelle, it's nothing special, and this one looks just like it," so I decided I needed to crack out Rochelle again before buying a dupe. Turns out, I love Rochelle! It's a gorgeous, glowy shimmer that applied beautifully and looks rich and elegant. It's almost chromy, and the shine is fantastic. I have a coat of Sinful Shine topcoat over it here, but it shines on its own as well. This is two easy coats. I did have some tip wear pretty quickly, but this one is still officially back in the rotation.

My next Do Over was Sinful Shine Prosecco. I was so disappointed when I bought this one a few months ago. I had oohed and ahhed over it in a display but didn't buy, and when I went back for it, it wasn't there. It suddenly became a unicorn. I needed it. I obsessed over other bloggers' swatches. I scanned the displays in multiple stores looking for it, only to leave dejected. So when I finally found it on eBay for $7.99, I snatched it up.

You have to understand, I'd just paid eight dollars for a polish that retails less than $2, waited a week to get it, then put it on my nails and hated it. Not just didn't love it, straight up hated everything about it. Super thin formula. Terrible with my skin tone, even though on paper it should have looked great. Between the formula and the finish, couldn't even use it for nail art. Three strikes. I pushed it to the back of my Sinful Colors stash and growled a little every time I looked at it.

My relationship with this polish is now better, but still strained. This was 4 coats, and it took a very long time to dry. I still think it's completely wrong for me, but when I was wearing it, I had to appreciate that gold shimmer. I probably won't wear it alone again, but maybe there's some hope with layering?




The last polish granted a do-over this round was Essie A Cut Above, from their LuxEffects lineup. I've used this polish here and there for nail art, but it never really struck me as a headliner. A Cut Above is kind of basic: shimmery pink hex glitter in different sizes in a clear base. It's my only Essie polish, gifted to me by someone who didn't think it was her style. Since it is a topper (and I don't think it was ever intended to be a standalone), I paired it with Julep Linda, a cool pale grey. I love pink and grey together, especially in the winter for some reason, so I hoped it would bring out the best in it. For the most part, I was right. Linda and A Cut Above seem to play well together. Linda is warmer and more lavender toned when they're teamed up, which looked nice with my skin tone, and A Cut Above's sparkle was more sophisticated on a neutral base. I really like this mani.




That being said, I don't particularly like this polish any more than I did before. Because all of the glitter is the same shade, it falls a touch flat. What really tipped the odds against it was the application. Because I was going for gradiation, I had to do quite a bit of manipulating to get the glitter where I wanted it. I like the finished effect, but it wasn't very cooperative when I was trying to get it. All in all, the re-try didn't improve my opinion of this polish. It's just not exciting enough to be worth the price tag.

Even though two of my three do-overs still struck out, I enjoy retrying polishes I wasn't initially in love with every now and then. My tastes change sometimes, or I notice a new way that this polish could fit into my style. And you never know when a polish will be exactly right for the look you're going for, so pulling out colors I don't wear often reminds me what I have available. What's a polish that didn't win you over right away, but now you love it?

New to Me: Sinful Colors Cream Pink

Hanging out at Big Lots, one of my favorite places to troll for previously unspotted colors, I found Sinful Colors Cream Pink. A quick web search suggests it was originally released around 2011 or 2012, but I hasn't seen it in displays...until I bought it. Then I noticed that it had reemerged in the About Blooming Time collection, as identified by Nouveau Cheap. I was drawn to the gold shimmer, and the minute I put this color on, I knew I needed to photograph it. It. Is. Fabulous.

At first the name threw me off-why it's called Cream Pink when it's clearly a shimmer is beyond me. I was worried that all of that glorious in-bottle shimmer would melt away on the nail. Not a problem. The shimmer is very present, and mesmerizing. It's an instant favorite. On the down side, the formula is a little weird. It's not quite opaque, with VNL at two coats, but it's still a fairly thick consistency, so I had to be careful with the third coat an while it dried to avoid polish wrinkles. It dries to a kind of satin finish. Here I topped with Julep Freedom topcoat. Once you shine it up, Cream Pink is a delightfully squishy shimmery hot pink. Pink lovers must have this.

Not one to leave well enough alone, I added a sparkly gradient of Julep Joelle and China Glaze Fairy Dust. It's so pretty!

Are you a fan of pinks? Has Cream Pink made it into your collection?

Weekend Nails: Sunrise/Sunset Gradients With China Glaze Fairy Dust

A few days ago I picked up Fairy Dust, the much loved holo micro glitter topper from China Glaze. I was eager to try it out, so this weekend I whipped out my sponges and got to work on a couple of sparkle infused gradient manis inspired by the Indiana skyline. The results made me feel optimistic about my progress with gradients, and I absolutely love the subtle sparkle of Fairy Dust!


For this cheerful "sunrise" gradient, I started with one coat of white over my basecoat, topcoated, then sponged a few coats of a trio of Julep Catrina (sunny deep yellow creme), Sinful Colors Boogie Nights (juicy orange based coral), and Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle Sweet Sunrise (shimmer kissed warm pink) an finished off with one coat of Fairy Dust before topcoating again. This mani looked even better in person. I did have a little bit of bumpiness, which I think is because I wasn't very patient with my white base. I'll have to learn to go slow with gradients to really get the flawless results I want. I also love these colors together. Finding the right bridge shade seems to be the key, and the crelly texture of Boogie Nights helped meld everything together. I loved how the pink tips softened the whole look to a rosy glow.


When I was ready for my second go, I kept the same theme, but I used a dusky "sunset" color scheme of soft purples. I added in a second coat of Fairy Dust on just the tips to add extra sparkle to my night sky, but otherwise used the same strategy-white base followed up with two or three spongings of a three color set. This time I used Julep Octavia (deep blue-violet), Sinful Colors Dream On (bright purple crelly) and Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle in Loyal Lavender (pale lavender shimmer). At first I thought it was a funny little coincidence that I chose polishes from the exact same makers as the first gradient, but when I thought about it, it wasn't such a surprise-I just chose polishes with the exact same finishes in a different color scheme. For both of these manis I used Avon ridge filling base coat and Sally Hansen 3D Gel Shine topcoat.


With the exception of my obsessive love for all shades of green polish, I tend to be more partial to warm colors than to cool ones, so I think I liked the first one a little better, but both of these were a huge improvement on most of the gradients I've done in the past.Which of these skyline inspired looks is your favorite? Are you a fan of Fairy Dust?

How To: Easy Polka Dot Gradient Nail Art

It's no secret that I looove gradients, but I haven't quite found my stride yet with technique. Today's nail look was possibly the easiest. Gradient. EVER. It's such a simple technique that I almost didn't blog it, but I absolutely love the outcome, so here it is, complete with instructions on how to turn any polish into a perfect polka dot gradient.

I started with my base polish. This time it was Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Peach of Cake. Pretty, huh? I think I needed something bright and cheerful. This and a Sally Hansen french tip white polish are the only polishes I used. FYI, the photo above is a much better representation of the actual color than the tutorial pics below (yay natural lighting!).


Once I had a nice clean base, I made my next color- still Peach of Cake, but one shade lighter by adding a drop of white. I mixed that and dotted on two lines of dots at the base of the nail.

Then I did it again.

 And one more time.

And I was done! I gave it a few minutes to dry, then topped liberally with Julep Oxygen Performance Topcoat (I used Oxygen Basecoat here, too). One more look at the finished result:

Oooh! Ahhh!

I kid you not, this is so gorgeous. This polish is one that I have a weird love/hate relationship with depending on the lighting and my mood, but I haven't had anything but mad adoration for this mani. You could easily use this technique to create progressively lighter dots with almost any polish, or with a darker color instead of white to create a reversed effect on a light polish. Don't use black to darken the shade-I learned the hard way that it just creates an ugly, muddy version of your polish. Instead, choose a darker version of the same color and mix it in one drop at a time (for example, if your base color was baby pink, add a magenta polish to it for your dots). I did two layers of dots in each shade, but you could adjust that to your nail length and the preferred size and distance between your dots. I used a small/medium dotting tool, but a toothpick or bobby pin would work fine as well.

I already have ideas on other colors that would go well with this easy nail art look, perfect for all skill levels. You gotta try this!

Black Dahlia Lacquer Review: Capital Rose Garden and Twilight Orchid

Quickie post today-I miss you all terribly, but I have been stupid busy, and by the time I get home at night it's already dark, so I've been taking photos when and where I can while meticulously planning to build my very own lightbox for blog photos so I can take my pictures when I feel like it. But you didn't come to hear me whine. (In my Oprah voice) I have swatches!

I spotted a fantastic sale on the Black Dahlia Lacquer Facebook page and decided to give them a try. Black Dahlia is a newer indie polish brand run by a mother and daughter. For their sale, you get a LE free mystery polish in the same size as the polish you buy, so I chose the petite sized Capital Rose Garden from their newest collection. I absolutely love that they have two different size options, 8 ml and 14 ml. When you have as much polish as I do and want to continue until you've bought all the polish, the option to get a less expensive petite size is very attractive...but now I almost wish I hadn't, because I love this polish SO MUCH. It's exactly what I expected from the website photos, a pinkish mauve with mesmerizing holo sparkle, and it applies like a dream-two easy coats here with HK Girl topcoat.

For my mystery polish, I got a blue glitter topper called Twilight Orchid. It's a sparkly blue glitter in a blue tinted base. While it's not something I would probably have picked myself, it's a nice polish that I was pleased to add to my collection. I couldn't resist the urge to try it alone, but this is really more of a topper. This is three heavy coats. It did dry fairly well, even when applied thickly, and was surprisingly smooth. I am not a fan of over the top texture for the most part, so a smooth finish was a plus for me. Lots of sparkle, and the silvery blue gave it a Cinderella type feel. I followed that up with some nail art, a glitter gradient with a thin glitter tip over a plain french tip white polish. The blue base really pops over the white! This will be a great polish for nail art.

Oops, did I say a this would be a quickie? I guess you should know better by now! Have you tried Black Dahlia? Which polish should be my next?

Butterfly Nail Stamping and Lakeside Gradient

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've been feeling quite uninspired. Lots of very simple manis and nail fails searching for the look I want that day. I've continued to post NOTD pics on Facebook and Twitter, but nothing has seemed...blogworthy.

However, the show must go on! The look I have for you today is what I call a "lakeside gradient" because the colors I chose reminded me of the blue green of autumn lake water and cool, wet sand. It's not a bright, summery gradient, but it still reminds me of the beach. Over the top I stamped a simple butterfly image from a Kiss Nails stamping kit. The stamper itself and scraper fell to the bottom of my nail box quickly in favor of my usual Born Pretty Store double sided stamper and an old gift card, but the plates are full of cute designs and work pretty well. The butterflies don't really fit my lakeside theme, but I thought they were pretty, and I do what I want. :)

Aren't these colors something? The blue is Nicole by OPI in Goodbye Shoes from the Carrie Underwood collection, a mellow greyish blue creme. For my sandy gradient accent, I used a base color of Julep Cynthia and gently sponged Goodbye Shoes along the tips. As rich as it is, Goodbye Shoes is a two coater that's thin enough to create a decent gradient, even on a much lighter color. It's all topped with Glisten and Glow HK Girl topcoat.

The stamped butterflies are A England Sleeping Palace, possibly my very favorite polish ever. Oooh! Ahhh!

Hopefully my blogger's block will clear up soon. I've been itching to do something really epic, I just haven't been hit by the right inspiration yet. Ideas welcome! Comment, or send them to me on Twitter at @SecretNailBlog.

I Broke a Nail! 3 Looks for Short Nails

To the outside world, "I broke a nail" ranges from a casual statement of minor annoyance to the laughable cry of a spoiled prima donna. To those of us who love nail art or get our midday pick-me-up from a glance at perfectly polished nails in the season's "it" color, it can feel like an absolute tragedy. When last we spoke, my nails were just about exactly at my target length-long enough for complicated nail art but not too long to get in the way. Then, I had a break. Not as bad as the one I had immediately before starting this blog, but definitely a huge setback, and way too short to continue on with that length on my other nails. They all had to go.

And still to this day I have the same problem I had then: all articles and images for what to do with nubs either says everything looks good on them (not true!) and/or are classifying "short" as several millimeters longer than what I've got. When my nails are chopped off, I don't quite feel like myself. So, in response, here's the blog post I wanted to read and couldn't find every time I've had a break: a recovery plan for when your nails must be chopped.

Step 1: Long nails sometimes get a bit unruly as far as lengths and shapes, so cutting them down is a good opportunity to get them back to a uniform appearance. Since my break left me with a little length, I cut them all to about three millimeters from the fingertip, then filed them down with a glass file to a uniform shape modeled off of actual-short-nailed nail art genius The Nailasaurus. I'd say mine are a touch rounder at the edges than hers, which mirrors my typical squoval leanings. I did leave my thumbnails a bit longer than the others as well, mostly because they look stumpier and tend to grow a little more slowly for me than my other nails.

Step 2 is to baby your nails and cuticles. I've been using Sally Hansen VitaSurge Gel (jury's still out on whether it will help), ridge filling base coat, and tons of cuticle cream and skin serum. Since I'm never really happy with my nails when they're super short, I tend to change polish more often, which is hard on them. The healthier they are, the faster they grow and the better they look getting there, so if you can curb that urge, avoid frequent polish changes.

Step 3 is the hard part. When you're used to doing nail art on longer nails, everything you do on short nails as far as nail art looks wrong. I've discovered, through extensive trial and error, a few simple designs that help ease the transition back to long nails. I used Glisten and Glow HK Girl topcoat with Julep Oxygen Basecoat on all three designs.

Strategy 1: Vertical Stripes
Just like that shirt everyone has that's so ugly, but it makes you look super thin, vertical stripes thin out and lengthen nub nails. Here I used striping tape and straight vinyl decals (a technique I'm still getting the hang of) to block out my lines, then filled with earthy fall colors using a striping brush. As the base color I used OPI for Sephora Frankly I Don't Give A-Dam, a concrete grey, and added stripes of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Peach of Cake (bright peachy orange), Insta Dri Jade Jump (pale jade green), and NYC Color Royal Chic (deep brown).




Strategy 2: Gradient French Tips
Last time I had a major break, I used nude and white for a traditional french tip look. This time, I went with something a little more dramatic, inspired by Lorde's dreadful frostbitten nail art. While it's not my speed for an everyday look, the black and nude gradient overall look was visually interesting. I carefully layered Pahlish Raggedy Man Goodnight over my basecoat with a ripped off piece of makeup sponge to keep it as cloudlike as possible, going over the very tips with the polish brush, then sponged a thin layer of the very sheer Glitter Gal Turbulence to holo-fy the bare part of the nail without edging out the french tip effect.



Strategy 3: Glitter Fixes Everything!
Finally, when all else fails, "throw some glitter at it" seems to be an effective solution to almost any nail art conundrum. A glittery chevron tip adds bling and visually drives the tip of the nail forward, creating the illusion of longer nails. Glitter also doesn't have to have a perfect line to look neat. Here I used Julep Cameron over Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle in Lovely Lavender. Cameron is a Julep Stardust polish, which is a fabulous opaque matte glitter finish. For some contrast you could topcoat just the base color instead of topcoating both like I did here. I used vinyl decals as a buffer to create clean lines for my pointed tips and full nail chevron accents. .



So that's how I've been coping with the loss of my length. I'm still having some issues getting them back into blogging shape (hence the paucity of posts lately), but with a little love, they're recovering. What tricks do you use to mask a break-or do you embrace your shorties?

Weekend Nails: KISS Concert Nails

One of the strange little things most people wouldn't guess about me is that I love 70s and 80s rock, and there's a special place in my heart for KISS. The theatrics! The glitter! The black and white color scheme with jewel toned accents! How could any nail art aficionado not love KISS? This year, KISS is celebrating 40 years by touring with Def Leppard, and last night I was beyond thrilled to attend the psycho circus. Of course, I needed a mani appropriate to the occasion.

This was so much harder than I thought it would be. I used striping tape, which is notoriously uncooperative but highly effective, to pay tribute to the Starchild. The end result was pretty good, and the technique has definite potential for a more conventional nail art look. The Demon and the Spaceman were freehand. It's not so easy to see here, but a light sponging of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Tulle Kit over the silver added Starchild's signature blue glow. Surprisingly, the Cat was the most difficult of the four tribute nails. After test driving several designs thinking it would be simple, I broke the design down to the simplest possible denominator, then dressed it up a little bit with a green gradient tip to honor the Cat's dramatic green eyes.


Finally, my thumb honored the KISS Army logo with a simple orange and yellow sponge gradient. This one was all freehand as well, and was the only one that was easier than I expected it to be. I did have a little more transfer onto the black background than I hoped, but less than I feared, so I guess I broke even. Overall, I'd really like to see cleaner lines. I think experimenting with some new nail art brushes may be my next big advance in getting the clean lines I want in more complex designs-suggestions welcome!




While it didn't come out quite like I wanted, this KISS design was a fun break from my usual girlie fare and garnered plenty of oohs and ahhs at the concert. Have you ever done band art for a concert? Who was it? Share with me on Twitter at @SecretNailBlog. I promise, no judgement on your acrylic tribute to the Beebz.

I also want to mention that $1 from every ticket on this tour went to veteran's charities, including the Wounded Warrior Project, and both bands also accepted Motley Crue's (saw them earlier this summer!) call out for the Ice Bucket Challenge we all keep hearing about during the concert, as well as the two bands pledging to donate a total of $20,000 to the ALS Association. Click the links if either of those causes speaks to you, and click here to see KISS and Def Leppard take the challenge!

My First Leadlight Nail Art

Always late to the party, I saw some leadlight nail art pop up in my Bloglovin' feed and I lost my mind. For those of you who are like me and have to be hit in the face before you notice a trend, leadlighting is when you stamp a design over a white or light background, then use jelly or sheer colors to give a watercolored or stained glass type look to your nail art, like the recent floral (yay florals!) post from ProcrastiNails. I tend to strongly prefer opaques over sheers, leaving the sheer polishes that find a way into my collection to languish. This is a great way to put them to work, and greatly increased my appreciation for sheer polishes.

For this design, I used Sally Hansen XTreme Wear White On underneath and Black Out for my stamping. I used sponging instead of a dotting tool with my sheer polishes for a less defined, hazy gradient. NYC Color Precious Peacock (I was SO disappointed when that one was sheer!), Sinful Colors Purple Diamond, and Wet N' Wild Megalast Retro Mint filled in the design, with Sinful Colors Mint Apple as my main mani color (yes, I bought more Sinful Colors polishes, shut up).

What do you think? I'm still doing some trial and error, and I'm interested in trying the more defined technique like the one in the Messy Mansion leadlight tutorial, but I've been happily sporting this mani for several days- that never happens! I think now I need more stamping plates.

Messin' with the Plie Wand

As a Julep Maven, this month I came into possession of their newest and much hyped product, the Plie Wand. I'm going to say up front that it was through the kindness of an abundance of crowdfunders that I have this product, because I didn't pre-order it. Even after watching the video, reading the blog post, and viewing the Facebook posts about it ranging from rabid enthusiasm to 'yawn,' I was unenthused about what it can do for me. I'm used to painting my nails, and now that my cleanup skills have improved, I don't worry as much about precision polishing. While I can't say I'm overwhelmingly converted to the camp that this is a must have product, I've played with it a little, and it's pretty cool I guess.

First I tried it for painting my toenails, which is the only reason I was particularly interested in the Plie Wand at all. It passed that test. Painting my toes was much more comfortable with the Plie Wand and looked much less like a 3 year old did it. Then I tried it on my fingernails. Julep compared it to spending your whole life writing with a pen the size of the cap, then being handed a whole pen. Mmm, not exactly. It felt more like trying to color with a crayon stretched to the shape of a pencil. Just not quite right. I can see how the bendy stem would be great for people with limited control due to arthritis, Parkinson's, or other conditions that impact hand control, though. Since I have pretty steady hands, it was more a hindrance than a help to me. But then I started striping.

I officially LOVE the Plie Wand for striping, precisely because it is like holding a pen. For painting it was in the way, but for striping it was perfect. Julep markets the Plie Wand as something to use with Julep polishes, includes a regular size precision brush (it has slightly shorter bristles than a regular Julep brush) that can be used with any polish. They sell a striper/dotter add on kit, but I already had a frayed Julep polish brush that I'd cut down into a thin striper. I pulled the overcap off and popped the brush into the Plie cap. It's a nail art dream.

I started to get a little mad when I couldn't get my carefully cultivated striper out of the wand, though. Ack! How did I forget the negative review on the website that the wand eats brushes and you can't get them out?! It didn't give me any trouble before, and now my striper's stuck? So annoying! I yanked with my tweezers. I tugged. I wiggled. I pulled. The inner cap wouldn't budge. Then it hit me that Julep had built in a simple feature to the Plie Wand for exactly this situation.

Instead of a solid cap, the removable magnetic cap that snaps on to the Plie Wand has a hole in the top. I'd noticed it, but didn't give a second thought to why they'd done it. Now I know. I pushed an orangewood stick through the hole, and my cap popped right out. The Plie Wand was restored to favored status for my precision nail art needs.

The colors used for this stamped French tip look were Sally Hansen XTreme Wear White On, Julep Caitlin for the hearts, and Essie A Cut Above for the stripe (I'm learning that there is no imperfection that glitter can't improve).

Oh, I almost forgot- I wouldn't be a very good Maven if I didn't show you my polishes. This month, I went Bombshell. Laree and Saaya were colors I had to have. Laree is a gold shimmer infused pink, while Saaya is a subdued yellowish apricot-more yellow than I expected, which was a minus for me, but I still think I like it. I instantly thought they'd make a beautiful gradient, and I was right! I also stamped these, using Julep Nellie. The downside: my tips chipped almost immediately, and the polish popped off in sheets the next day. I haven't played with them enough to see if this is going to be an issue or if I just laid down a bum base coat that day or something. I put Laree on my daughter sans basecoat, and her manicure actually lasted longer than usual, so the jury is still out. Laree has also replaced my go-to Nan on my toes with no issues. Hopefully it was a fluke, because Laree is a lovely summer pink, and I don't have anything else like Saaya. Mavens, what did you think of this month's collection? Is the Plie Wand a must have or a skip? Any polish problems?

Gradient Practice

I've expressed my love for glitter gradients before, and lit up Twitter with googly eyes over the Nailasaurus gradient tutorial, but my own non-glitter gradient technique hasn't quite found its rhythm yet. This week I practiced my gradients, and while it's still not perfect, I've made a little progress.

I started with a sparkly pink gradient that came out much better than I thought it would. I used two Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in Champagne and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Rose Amore. Rose Amore is the perfect opacity and consistency for gradients, but Champagne wasn't a great match as far as texture, especially since it was an older bottle. The colors worked nicely together, though. Coming off of a massive fail on an ambitious attempt at the coveted nude/midnight blue gradient, the discovery that a dab of Champagne on the ends made a beautiful shifting gradient was a happy accident.




My second gradient didn't come out very well, even when I threw glitter at it- and I thought glitter could salvage anything. For this one I used two new colors (well, one new and one just new to me): Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Quick Sand and NYC In A Minute in Robin's Egg Blue. I've not been crazy about the In A Minute polishes I've tried because of the thin formula, but I figured this would make them fabulous for gradients, which was true. This one just didn't work out well, even with a sparkly ribbon of Julep Joelle to try to smooth out the look.

The last gradient is the one I was the happiest with. This round, I followed the Nailasaurus method faithfully. I gave Robin's Egg Blue another shot with a favorite, Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Lively Lilac. Robin's Egg Blue looked mint green in the store, and I still think it's too greenish for the name, but it's quite nice, which I couldn't tell so much in the other gradient. It is thin, so excuse my smudgy cleanup. I finished it out with a floral stamp (from plate to-12 at the link) using Julep Gayle, which stamps wonderfully.

I still need some practice before I can get the flawless gradients I crave, but we're off to a good start!

Weekend Nails: My First Stamping Adventure

My first stamping kit arrived this week! After 6 weeks of waiting, I had scared myself a little bit-had I waited all this time and ordered all this stamping stuff only to discover that I'm not coordinated enough to stamp? Luckily, after a few practice rounds earlier this week, I can report that I'm happy with my results for my first attempt.

I love the old Sailor Jerry style of tattooing, so I was pleased to find these adorable sparrows on a stamping plate. This color scheme is based on one of my own tattoos, with the gradient nails mix and matched from the other designs on this playful plate.

My ink-spiration

For the other hand, I played with freehand lettering, paying homage to myself and my sweetie with our first initials.

For this design, I used Nicole for OPI Naturally with Julep Maren as a sheer topper, Sally Hansen XTreme Wear in Blue Me Away, and stamped with Sally Hansen XTreme Wear in White On and Black Out. Stamping isn't nearly as difficult as I feared, though you do have to be fast, which I typically am not. I put a quick dry topcoat over my polish before stamping as well, to both prevent smudges and allow me to get away with gently wiping off the design if it didn't come out well. I'm happy with the result, and with practice I'll get better.

Now that you've seen my mani, look at all my stuff!

TEN stamping plates! Six striping tapes! Five pages of stickers and decals! French tip guides! I went nuts. Shipping takes foreeeever, but the Born Pretty Store prices are fantastic, and I'm very happy with the quality of the products. I also got decals this week from Nailed It Decals for a great NOTD design, and picked up a new polish that I think will be a surprise favorite. I officially have more inspiration than I know what to do with!

Weekend Nails: Matte vs. Shiny

I thought this would be another "orphan" post, where the parent image was lost before I could give the inspiration photo credit, but I kid you not, I Love Manicures!!! reposted the image that inspired this, credited to StylishLady.net, six minutes before I started this post. Serendipity!

This Weekend Nails mani was a mixed result. I started with a matte topcoat, then the next day I slid a coat of Wild Shine topcoat over it to de-mattefy it. It cleaned up poorly, so the photos aren't great, but here's what I came up with:

With Matte Topcoat (NYC Matte Me Crazy)

With Shiny Topcoat (Wet n Wild Wild Shine Clear Nail Protector)

For my base design, I used Julep Lacey, Revlon Copper Penny, and Nicole for OPI Lips are Dripping Honey. I love Copper Penny because it's a rich, almost foil type copper gold that covers other colors neatly. I tried a few other golds with this design, and none of them were pigmented enough to hold their own against Lacey, a deep midnight blue. Copper Penny looks the same over other colors as it does on its own, which made it perfect for this design.

Now normally, I love shine. The shiner the better. However, the satiny look of taking a deep, shimmery red, blue, or purple and covering it with a matte coat has been enticing me. Matte over large glitters and metallics is another look that has been popping up a lot lately that I like, so I decided to give it a try, since these colors already in my collection were great matches for the trends. I still think I like the shiny version better on this, mostly because there's so little of Lacey that mattefying it takes away from how interesting the design is. There is enough, however, to show that it mattes quite well.

Overall, both were nice-sophisticated, rich, and interesting. Cleanup was a bear, though, and I think that hurt the aesthetic. What do you think-matte or high shine? Or would you do like I did and go for the twofer by changing topcoat midway through the mani?

Lacquer Legion: Lucky Star-Dust

I had so much trouble coming up with this month's Lacquer Legion design! The prompt was "Lucky," and while I feel quite fortunate in general, translating that to nails in a way that wasn't cliche kept evading me. My original design idea was "Lucky Star," but when my hand painted stars didn't excite me, I decided to take a more interpretive view of the prompt with a design I've dubbed "Lucky Star-Dust," using some amazing colors that I've lucked into.

The base color on this is A England Sleeping Palace, a stunning plum with a soft scattered holo sheen that is reeeaallly difficult to photograph, but I promise, it was worth the wait. If you happen to follow me on Twitter, you may know that finding this color has been somewhat of an odyssey for me. I fell in love with swatches of it, but being a US lover of the brand, I have limited access to A England polishes. There are two distributors that I know of that ship within the US, Beautometry and Llarowe, and both of them have been out of Sleeping Palace for weeks. Then, by sheer luck, I popped over to the Llarowe page, and it was in stock, just in time to arrive for this prompt! Now, I am not a woman of great means, but I had just unexpectedly come into a small amount of "fun money," meaning that not only was Sleeping Palace in stock, but I was in the unique position to be able to spend $10 on a bottle of nail polish guilt free. If that's not lucky, I don't know what is!






The polishes I used for my accent nail have lucky origins as well. I started out with a layer of Glitter Gal Turbulence, my linear holo staple. This is another hard-to-find-in-the-States polish that I was lucky enough to win in the Adventures in Polishland New Year's Eve Manicure Contest (oddly enough, the other polish I won was Dragon, the polish that hooked me on A England). This created a sheer layer of color underneath to make my glitter accent look more solid. Once it had dried, I slathered on two layers of Julep Joelle.




I've said before that Joelle is possibly my favorite polish, and it's the only polish in memory that I've been in real danger of running out of. Joelle is beautiful, and I almost didn't own it. Joelle was part of one of my first Julep Maven boxes. That month I ordered outside of my style profile because I wanted Misti, a stormy blue-grey, and Joelle was just a tagalong. I like Misti, it's nice, but Joelle became my new BFF the second I put it on. It's a holo glitter in a smoky transparent base- it's perfection in a bottle, and I never would have noticed it on my own. Sheer luck.

Once Joelle had (mostly) dried, I went to work on my gradient. I did a makeup sponge gradient with Sleeping Palace and Turbulence. Turbulence is almost like a superfine version of Joelle, and it's so sheer that it made the perfect near-invisible median between my glittery tips and my sparkly plum gradient. Sleeping Palace applies beautifully, but is an unusual formula in that it paints on completely opaque, almost in one coat (I'm wearing two coats in these photos), but in a gradient, it's very sheer and buildable. This let Joelle shine out from underneath and created the exact look I was craving: a purple mist swirling up on a glowing field of glittery stardust. My Lucky backup design became a look I can't stop staring at.

Want to get in on the Lacquer Legion fun? Post your Lucky manicure to social media using the hashtag #LLLucky today, and be sure to check out all of the other inspired looks!