Archives

Shadow Stamping with Digital Nails – Lying

Mar3

Nothing to Disclose

Hello again, Readers!  I promised two posts this week and I like to live up to my promises!

Today I’m going to show you something that combines two of my favorite things, stamping and Digital Nails nail polish.  I don’t think it’s any secret whatsoever about my love and devotion to all things Digital Nails!

Digital Nails – Lying (transition)

Let’s talk about Lying and shadow stamping for a minute.  As you can see, Lying is a thermal polish and what that means, in case you were unaware or are new to indie polish, is that it changes color with the temperature.  Shadow stamping is a technique that involves stamping over a thermal polish in a color that is as close to the darker of the two colors as possible so that it “disappears” when it is in that color state and “appears” when the lighter color is present.

Digital Nails – Lying (transition)

Digital Nails – Lying (transition)

On Lying the darker color is the “cold” color and is a greyish-purple.  I love this color on me.  In order to achieve my shadow stamping I had to franken a polish to be as close as I could to the “cold” color of Lying.  I used polishes that I knew stamped well alone to mix up a new color that I used to stamp for this mani.

Digital Nails – Lying (cold)

As you can see, I got -pretty- close.  It’s not perfect but when you’re not looking at it close up you can’t see the stamping when it is in the cold state!

Digital Nails – Lying (cold)

Digital Nails – Lying (cold)

Lying is a beautiful turquoise color when it is in the warm state:

Digital Nails – Lying (warm)

In both states there is a lovely blue iridescent microglitter that is in the creamy base that just adds depth and interest.  It was pretty shy for these pics but it is a lovely addition to the thermal polish! Lying is available in the Digital Nails shop and I will add links below.    I used Vivid Lacquer – VL041 for the image that I stamped onto my nails.

Digital Nails – Lying (warm)

Digital Nails – Lying (warm)

I’m beyond in love with this polish and this whole mani.  I need more thermals in my life!  Sound off in the comments and tell me some of your favorite thermals I would love to know!

Digital Nails:

Shop – Facebook – Instagram

Vivid Lacquer:

Shop – Facebook – Instagram

Nail Art Inspired by “Tiny”

Feb28

Nothing to Disclose

Hello all my fantabulous readers!  Sorry I’m a little behind this week.  It’s been a strange one so far to be sure.  For your troubles I’ll have at least two posts this week!

Today I’m going to share a nail art look that was inspired by a friend of mine.  Tiny (this is obviously a nickname) is the daughter of two of my very best friends and is 7 years old.  Recently, Tiny has been wanting to chat online and naturally her parents want to make sure that she’s chatting with safe people so they asked if I would chat with her.  I’m like “Are you kidding, I love kids!”  Tiny is pretty spectacular and she -loves- all things glittery, girly, pink, and loves it when I share my nail art with her.

The other day I asked her for her suggestions on what I should do next and she responded with this sketch:

Tiny’s Nail Art idea Sketch

I said, “CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!”  While I did not recreate it exactly I was heavily inspired by her color choices and design.  For this I turned to the trusty Washed Out 2.0 collection from Bohemian Polish.  I use these so much for nail art it’s not even funny:

Bohemian Polish – Terrapin, Birdie Hop, Long Gone, and Octopus

First I started by painting a base coat of Long Gone and adding a pattern of small white polka dots and then the fun began.

Nail Art inspired by Tiny

Rather than the straight lines that Tiny drew, I thought the whole sketch reminded me of confetti and streamers, so I wanted to make sure I had some curves and curls in there as well.

Nail Art inspired by Tiny

Using Terrapin, Octopus, and Birdie Hop I did some random streamers and curls over the top of the dotted base using a small nail art brush.

Nail Art inspired by Tiny

I was really pleased with how festive, cheerful, and happy this mani came out!  Best part?  Tiny loved it too!

You might see more nail art inspired by Tiny because she gives me lots of ideas and is a very creative little girl.  I’m delighted to be friends with her!

Bohemian Polish

Shop – Facebook – Instagram

 

 

Nautical Nail Art

Feb25

Nothing to Disclose

Hello all my lovely readers!  Today I’m gonna show you most recent manicure.  I decided on a nautical theme, not sure why I just really wanted to give it a go as I haven’t before.  Mermaids and unicorns I’ve done to death but I wanted to do something a little different.

As usual my focus remains on indies so I used all indie polishes (except the white, I really need to get a good indie white and black.  I think that will be my next goal.  I already know I’ll probably get the ones from Digital Nails but if you wonderful folk have any other suggestions I’m all ears).

For this mani I pulled out some gorgeous creme polishes and one really amazing gold flakie topper.  I used Literary Lacquers – Bluestocking Romance and OPNL – Universal Loner were part of the Creme a la Mode box which I have reviewed before.  They are really perfect for nail art.  The gold flakie topper I chose to go with them is Indigo Bananas – A Star to Sail By.

Literary Lacquers – Bluestocking Romance, OPNL – Universal Loner, and Indigo Bananas – A Star to Sail By

First I started by painting my base colors.  I used Bluestocking Romance on my forefinger and pinky finger and I used Universal Loner on my thumb and middle finger.  I painted my ring finger with A Star to Sail By (keep in mind it is a topper so I needed to use four coats to reach an acceptable opacity, it is possible though!)

Nautical Nail Art featuring: Literary Lacquers – Bluestocking Romance, OPNL – Universal Loner, and Indigo Bananas – A Star to Sail By

Once I had the base down I added a crisp white stripe to the nails painted with Bluestocking Romance using some nail vinyls to make sure that it was straight and clean.  I hand-painted an anchor on my ring finger, I know that freehand nail art intimidates a lot of folks but this one is a really simple design that I think anyone can do!  I’m no impressive nail artist and if I can do it then certainly anyone can.  Once I had the white accents added I decided it needed some metallic studs.  I used a teardrop shaped gold metallic stud on my middle finger and thumb and then I added teensie red metallic studs to each of the white stripes on my forefinger and pinky.

Nautical Nail Art featuring: Literary Lacquers – Bluestocking Romance, OPNL – Universal Loner, and Indigo Bananas – A Star to Sail By

While I do not think that Bluestocking Romance or Universal Loner have been discontinued you will want to check Literary Lacquers new pop-up sales model to find out if and when it will be restocked.  OPNL usually also works on a pre-order model and releases certain polishes at certain times.  A Star to Sail By is still available at the Indigo Bananas shop!  I will include social media and shop links for all three brands below:

Indigo Bananas

Facebook – Instagram – Shop

Literary Lacquers

Facebook – Instagram – Shop

Octopus Party Nail Lacquer

Facebook – Instagram – Shop

Stamping Nail Art

Feb20

Nothing to Disclose

Hello all my lovely readers.  I promised I was back and here I am again!  Today I’m going to show you a pretty mani that has me staring at my nails whenever I think no one is looking!

I started off with a base coat of Indigo Bananas – Immortal Game.  How I never reviewed this for you guys before I do not know!  So let’s start with that.  I’ve actually had this awhile but it is still available on her site.  If you don’t have any Indigo Bananas nail polishes…I urge you to go and change that.  I haven’t been disappointed yet.

Immortal Game is a turquoise crelly polish filled with glassfleck and a color shifting shimmer.  Honestly, it’s a fantastic stand-alone polish even without nail art…but I can’t control myself sometimes.  I digress!  Back to this polish.  The color-shifting shimmer was extremely shy when I tried to photograph it.  I did get one picture where you can see a little bit of the yummy shimmer.  It’s -much- more prominent in person.

Indigo Bananas – Immortal Game

The application on it was fantastic.  Even though it is packed with glassfleck and shimmer it went on smoothly. First coat is a touch sheer but it was opaque in two coats so I have no complaints with that.  Pictures show two coats plus topcoat.

Indigo Bananas – Immortal Game

So then, I said to myself let’s stamp this.  But then I saw my bottle of Cult Nails – Seduction sitting on my desk (I was testing it out with different things) and I thought…why not add flakies…flakies make every mani better!  So I started by adding a thin coat of Seduction over top of Immortal Game.  Now this darkened the base a bit because Seduction is a flakie topper in a indigo tinted base.  Seduction could not be used alone it’s far too sheer for that, but, it makes an amazing effect topper and is packed with iridescent color shifting flakies.

Indigo Bananas – Immortal Game topped with Cult Nails – Seduction

Then, because as I mentioned I can’t stop (can’t stop won’t stop!) I stamped a pretty lacy image from Moyra Ornaments 03 over top in a magenta creme.  The stamping is subtle particularly with all the glassfleck and flakie action but I’m really pleased with the result.  Because I used a flakie topcoat I used a matte topcoat so that they really pop (matte all the flakies!).

I hope you like this as much as I did.  Unfortunately Cult Nails is no longer in business, but I will include links below for Indigo Bananas.  As usual you can find me on Facebook and Instagram and I love hearing from my readers!

Indigo Bananas Website – Indigo Bananas Facebook – Indigo Bananas Instagram