*Nothing to Disclose*

     Happy Thursday Everyone! I hope your spring season has started off better than mine did. The weather in Minnesota was anything but for the official first day of spring. It was grey all day with a consistent mixture of rain and snow, with more snow predicted for this weekend. Needless to say, I'm not happy about that! I'm ready for sandal season! But enough about the weather, let's get to the real reason you're here the nail art. Today I'm sharing a look I created for a nail blogger meet-up I attended last month. I love geometric and art deco nail art looks and finally created one myself. 

     I used Sinful Colors Shock Candy as my main color. Which I recently reviewed in my 2018 Walgreens Exclusive colors post if you want to check that out. The accent nail is a combination of nail art techniques starting with a smoosh manicure and ending with some reverse stamping.  

    For the smoosh manicure I combined Sinful Colors Shock Candy and White Board. White Board was released earlier this summer as part of the limited edition Back to School collection called School Goals. The actual technique I used was to drop small amounts of each color onto my stamping mat so that they overlapped and ran into each other. (Very similar to the Drip marble technique except on a smaller scale.) Then I smooshed my stamper into the polish and dabbed it onto my nails until I liked the way it looked. Here's a video I did a few years back showing the exact process. 

     After that, I added a layer of top coat and let it dry while I moved onto the next step; reverse stamping. 

     I used my nail art mat for this step also and it worked like a dream. The image is from plate UR Beautiful-18 and I used Hit the Bottle A Glint of Gold to stamp with. I filled in parts of the image using Sinful Colors Mixed Signals, Beyond the Nail Wink and Supermoon Lacquer Moon Crystal Power. A layer of Sally Hansen Double duty went on over that and I let everything dry so I could peel it up and apply it to my nail. 

      I like the way the gold stands out from the rest of the manicure. It was a bit easier to see than what my camera shows.The sparkly and shine ended up hiding a few details. The next shot should give you a better idea of what it looked like to me. 

     Sadly Moon Crystal Power kind of got lost in all the other colors on the nail. (It's the lighter pink shade at the edge of the design.) But I will have a review of it coming up shortly so be sure to come back for that. Otherwise, I love how this manicure turned out. I think Id like to try something similar in a full manicure next time. What do you think? Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing! 

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     Hi Everyone, I know Christmas is over but I have one more look to share with you before moving into the New Year. It's my Ugly Christmas Sweater nails from this year's Ugly Sweater party. You might remember my ugly patchwork nails from last year, this year I decided to go a more traditional route. Afterall nothing was going to top the excitement from last years party. And just in case you were wondering, no we haven't set an official date yet. I will you keep you posted if anything changes. Now let's get to the nails!



     For this manicure, I started off with a base of Stiletto on the Run from the Darlings of Defiance collection by Orly. For my accent nail, I used a base of Sinful Colors Black on Black. Once again I used SuperChic Lacquer G-Force X to help the holographic powder adhere to my regular polish. Once again I used the silver Holographic powder from Born Pretty Store.

 

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     I hope you're not getting tired of my Holiday nail art looks yet because I have a few more to share with you before the big day. Today's look might be a bit familiar to you since I've recently used the technique. Anyone remember my stamping with holo powder post? Well in that post I mentioned a nail art look that I had in mind and now I'm finally able to share it with you. 

     I have to be honest here and let you know that I didn't think through each step thoroughly before starting this manicure and it's not exactly what I had in mind so you will probably see this technique again as I work the kinks out. On the other hand, I do like the way this turned out and I've got a few more ideas up my sleeve to try out now so I guess you could say it's a win-win! 

     I call this manicure Holo Powder snowflakes because well, that's just what it is. Snowflakes stamped onto my nails and holo powder burnished over them. Yeah I know, I'm not very creative when naming my manicures or blog posts. It's one of the things I'm working on. 

     

*Nothing to Disclose*

     It's been a rough few years for my blog. I started out with the intention of focusing solely on nail art, then got caught up in the swatching game trying to gain some popularity with readers and hoping it would lead to opportunities to work with different brands. I've lost my focus and motivation on more occasions than I'd like to admit while attempting every new trick I read about making money from blogging. And after 5 years of the ups and downs, I've realized that I just want to do this for me. It's my escape from the everyday stresses of life and I need to keep it that way. So as I mentioned in my Gold polish stamping comparison post I'm taking a step back from the heavy posting schedule that I can no longer maintain. But what I didn't mention is that I'm going to focus more on what I started out trying to do and that's to post more nail art. I'll still have nail polish swatches and reviews for those of you who enjoy reading them because I like doing them. They just won't be the main focus of my blog anymore. So with that in mind let's jump right into today's nail art look. 

      It's been awhile since I've done a leadlight manicure and while this isn't exactly a seasonally appropriate look I knew it's what I wanted the minute I put on Native War Paint's I'm a VIP!. Plus I've never really been one to let the seasons dictate what I wear on my nails. 

     I'm a VIP! was one of the polishes I received in my VIP bag from Polishcon Chicago this year. It's a gorgeous aqua blue with iridescent shimmer. Looking at it on my nails it brought to mind the image of a beautiful sunset reflecting off of tropical waters in some exotic location. Especially when I'd get flashes of pink and purple mixed with gold. Oh, what I'd give to be at the tropical location right now since the temps here have been just above freezing lately and the snow could start falling at any time.

     For my accent nail, I stamped an image from plate UR Beautiful 10 using Hit the Bottle Snowed In. I guess maybe my manicure is seasonally appropriate after all considering they are predicting a ton of snowfall in my area this year. Let's hope I'm not foreshadowing my future here and won't end up actually snowed in! It has happened to me in the past. 

      I filled my floral image in with some homemade jelly polishes that I purchased from Heidi Halpern Kay who is an admin of the Leadlighting/reverse Stamping group I'm in on Facebook. Here are her words on how to get your own if interested. 

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     Hello and welcome back to another blog post. I don't know about you but I am excited to share today's look with everyone. For the last year or so I have been watching youtube videos and seeing pictures posted online of all these gorgeous manicures using the holographic pigment powders. But 99% of them were done using gel polish. I have only worn gel polish once in my life and the removal process was the stuff of nightmares. Granted I attempted it myself and probably did it wrong but it was enough to scare me away from using it again. Well, I no longer have to look longingly at these manicures with envy because I was finally able to get the powders to work for me using regular polish! 

     I know there are a ton of tips out there on how to do this and you're probably wondering what took me so long to join the holo powder party. Trust me I was eager to get there long before this, I just struggled with it and took a step back for a bit. I tried using Orly Bonder on my nails with so-so results. I think I let it dry too long before applying the powder so I will be attempting it again. I also tried using my Sally Hansen miracle gel top coat to see if that would work and it failed miserably. However, it did work great with the multi-chrome flakes I received from Beauty Big Bang.  

     So what was the miracle product that helped me finally find success? G-Force X from Super Chic Lacquer.  I was able to get such great result so easily with this product and would recommend it to anyone who wants to use the holo powders with regular polish. Sadly there was no sun the day I did this manicure and I had to take photos in my light box. This resulted in a duller holo flash than what I actually saw on my nails. Thankfully while I was editing photos at my desk I noticed enough natural light coming in the window to get one shot that worked. So I've added it as a bonus shot at the end of the post. 

    Now on to how I created this look. I started out by painting my nails with Hit the Bottle As Black as Night. I know it's a stamping polish but I wanted to make sure that the color I stamped with completely matched my base color.

     Once that dried I added a layer of G-Force X to one nail and let it dry for about  30 seconds. And stamped my design using UR Beautiful plate 11. After this step, you want to make sure you wait long enough for the stamped image to dry before burnishing in your powder. I got a little excited and didn't allow enough time between steps and the faded image on my middle and pinky fingers are the end results.

      The holo powder I used is from Born Pretty Store item #33256. Use code LAUNX31 to get 10% off your order if decide to pick some up. The macro shot above it before adding a top coat. And the next photo is after adding a layer of the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel top coat.

     I still have the holo flash but the power no longer looks smooth. So any recommendations you have for a better top coat to use are greatly appreciated. And now for that bonus shot I mentioned earlier.

     Some of you might be wondering why I did the manicure the way I did. Why didn't I apply the holo powder before stamping? I'm sure that would have been an easier process. But I wanted to see if the powder would stick to my entire nail or only the places without my stamped image. I have an idea in mind that involves stamping and a few colored powders, almost like the lead-light technique. My hope is to test it out this weekend and if it works I'll have it up on the blog soon. Make sure to come back and check it out! Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

*Nothing to Disclose*

     Well, the temperature has dropped to below zero here on quite a few occasions lately. It was -14 when I woke up yesterday morning. Which means winter is in full effect, my nails and skin are suffering from the extreme cold and Christmas is just around the corner. That means it's time to break out some seasonally inspired manicures! I thought with the severe cold and snow predicted to hit my area over the weekend it was only fitting to share with you the frozen snowflakes manicure I wore this week.