Graduation Nails

Hello!

This weeks nail design features a starry french tip design  from Konad image plate m44. These nails were done to match the outfit I wore to my brothers 5th grade graduation. Congrats little bro!

Materials:
Base Color: Seche Rose
Tip Color: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Nail Color in Lacey Lilac (Stamped with Konad image plate m19)
Stamping: Star tip design from Konad image plate m44 stamped in white Konad Special Polish
Konad image plate m3 and Konad Special Polish in white for stars on thumb and ring finger
Top Coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

I used to think french manicures were boring, but Konad brings new life to what would be an otherwise dull manicure. If you like french manicures, do yourself a favor and buy image plate m19. It makes stamping tips so much easier. My nails are longer than  the length of the french tip images on m19, so I had to double stamp to cover the entire tip. I noticed that it left a dark line where the two stamps overlapped. But since I was stamping over it with the stars, it didn't matter.
Seche rose is awesome! After a bit of trial and error, it seems I have finally found the perfect base color for my french manicures. Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle in Bold Buff is a good one too, and i used that for my pedicure, which was done to match my mani. I'll snap a picture tomorrow if I remember.
Out of both Bundle Monster image plate sets, and the MASH set, I think the MASH set has the better sized french tip images. The image fit across my entire big toe no problem! Another plus? A couple of the plates are exact dupes for actual Konad plates, including the one I used for this mani. The french tip designs in the 2nd set of Bundle Monster plates were a little smaller, but a definite improvement from the first set of Bundle Monster french tip designs. Those were tiny...still haven't tried them out of fear that they would be a total disaster. I suck at double stamping.

More Later,

SmokE

Lisa Frank Inspired Leopard Nails

Happy Thursday!

As I mentioned in my last post, Thursday is nail day. This Thursday brings a fun, Lisa Frank inspired manicure. While surfing the web for nail art inspiration, I came across a video tutorial on You Tube by sayanythingbr00ke for Rainbow Leopard Nails. It does indeed remind me of a Lisa Frank trapper keeper I had in junior high school, similar to the picture below:

 

This manicure is colorful, fun, funky, and perfect for summer! I will warn you that this manicure is potentially time consuming, especially depending on the types of nail polishes you choose to use and their drying time. But its well worth the effort in the end.

Items Used:
Base Coat: Sally Hansen Double Duty Strengthening Base & Top Coat
Green Color: China Glaze  'Paper Chasing'
Purple Color: China Glaze 'Harmony'
Blue Color:China Glaze 'Sky-High Top'
Pink Color: Sinful Colors 'Cream Pink'
China Glaze 'Fairy Dust'
Seche Vite Top Coat
Konad Image Plate m57 Stamped with Konad Special Polish in Black
Top Coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat

After striping with alternating colors, I topped off with China Glaze 'Fairy Dust' for added shimmer. I'm holding the bottle in the picture because its my favorite glitter polish so far. The glitter is fine, and not difficult to remove, in comparison to other glitter polishes I've used. Make sure polish is completely dry before stamping. I fudged about 2 nails and had to re-do them because I stamped too soon. The polish took a little longer to dry than I'm used to, even with the Seche Vite. I thought it might be because some of the layers of color overlapped, leaving the polish a little thicker in spots than others. But then I thought that it could be the 95 degree heat messing with the polish. Either way, it took me about 2 hours to finish this manicure. But to me, it was worth the effort. I cant stop looking at my hands!
What do you think?

-SmokE

Argyle Nails

I think this is my favorite mani to date. My husband wears argyle all the time, so when I saw Konad image plate m60, I couldn't resist. And even though he's not usually interested in my manicures, he couldn't help but notice this one! After all, It looks exactly like his favorite argyle sweater.

Base Coat: Sally Hansen Double Duty Strengthening Base and Top Coat
Nail Color: China Glaze in 'Sea Spray'
Konad Image Plate m60 Stamped with Konad black special polish
Top coat: Seche Vite Top Coat

This is day 2 of this mani, and you can see the ugly chip at the side of my thumb nail. There's also some tip wear on the other nails, but I'm not surprised. My job is very rough on my hands and nails. Usually I'm pretty lucky if I can go 2 work days in a row without a single chip. Actually, I don't think that's ever happened :(. But it's holding up pretty well considering all it's been through over the last 2 days.
Thursday is usually my day of self pampering, and I cant wait to do my nails again. I'm super excited to try out my new Bundle Monster image plates. There are a lot of full nail and french tip designs in this set, and they're all larger than the ones in the first set. I am in LOVE with these image plates, and I don't know which one I want to use first. So stay tuned for that :)

Today, I get to indulge my passion for the macabre thanks to '1000 ways to die' becoming available on Netflix. I never got a chance to watch it while it aired on SPIKE, so its cool to be able to just sit and watch all of them. I'm waiting to see a nail polish related death....

SmokE

Opi Black Shatter with Milani Blue Flash

Hey there!

For the past few weeks, my brand new bottle of OPI Black Shatter polish has been sitting untouched. I'm a bit of a Konad junkie, and have been going Konad crazy since April. So I thought it was about time to try something new:

    OPI Black Shatter over Milani Blue Flash  (Natural Light)

          (Artificial Light)

                                                                                                                                                                         
I LOVE this look! It screams edgy, and looks incredibly unique. I think the brighter the polish under the black shatter, the better. And from this trial, it would probably look awesome over anything glittery. I am dreading removal though. Blue Flash is a pretty dense glitter polish. Will definitely be needing foil :(
Black Shatter dried pretty quickly, with a matte finish. I didn't like the matte look, so i used Sally Hansen Insta- Dri Anti Chip Top Coat over it.
Milani Blue Flash is supposed to be a one coat glitter polish, but I had to use 2 coats for full and even coverage. It dried pretty quickly also, and had a rough grainy finish. Not surprising, considering how dense the glitter is. A coat of Seche Vite Top Coat smoothed it out some, providing a smoother surface for the shatter polish to do it's work. Polish used under shatter polish MUST be completely dry for best results, so I always use a coat of Seche Vite just to make sure.

Hopefully I can wear this Mani for at least 5 days, or until my new Bundle Monster plates arrive...whatever comes first :)


Toodles,
 SmokE