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Illusion Stamping Nail Art with MoYou London Illusion 5

Hello!

Today I’ve got one of the new MoYou London Illusion Plates! The stamping world has gone crazy with most recent releases featuring illusion prints of one form or the other. MoYou London jumped on the bandwagon a little late ( Hello B Loves Plates!) but they’ve come out with spanking irresistable designs!

Anyway, as usual, here’s the plate:

This is plate number 5 from the Illusion Collection.

I love everything about this plate, right from the swirly eye-boggling designs to the Pin Up girl – Elle.

Here’s the stuff I used for my design:

Basecoat – Orly Bonder

Glisten & Glow – HK Girl Top Coat

So Lacque Glossy Nail Enamel from Bourjois – 06 Adora-Bleu

White Stamping Polish – Konad White

Liquid Latex for easy cleanup with stamping

FabUrNails XL gold stamper set

A.S.P Manicure Saver Cotton Claw for cleaning the stamping plate

Procedure:

1. Start off with basecoat and paint two thin coats of the blue polish ( Adora-Bleu).

2. Apply two thin coats of liquid latex around your cuticles. This is to protect your skin from the polish while stamping and makes it much easier to clean up. I use two coats because the latex film becomes thick enough to pull off in one clean sweep. One thin coat tends to tear halfway around the nail.This dries super fast (<1 min) so don’t dawdle while painting it on your skin.

3. Using the white stamping polish, pick up the pattern and stamp on the nail. Once you’ve stamped all the nails, use tweezers to pull of the latex barrier.

4. Some minor cleanup can be done with a flat brush.

5. Topcoat to seal your design. That’s it!

The finished look:

In the sun. The colour looks a little bleached cause it was so bright when I clicked these!

Here’s a macro :

That’s it for this post! What did you think of this design? I’m tempted to try something with holographic polish next.

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June 10, 2015
Born Pretty Store Review – Tribal Fish Stamping Plate BP-66

Hi everyone!

I’m back with another review today, this time of one the round plates from Born Pretty Store. Roughly, 75 plates have been released in this series till now, and all of them are pretty good.

The plate I have today is Fish Leaves Nail Art Stamping Template Image Plate BORN PRETTY BP66, item ID: 20039. A new feature with these plates is, they also come with a sleeve. Unfortunately I’ve forgotten to click a halfway decent picture of it, though it’s got the exact pattern as the rectangular plates. You can see the sleeve here.

This is what the plate looks like:

As you can see, this is a buffet style plate, so the design is good enough for pretty much any nail length. The plates come with the standard blue film, which I’ve removed. This has an interesting mix of designs from the art-deco ish pattern, to the ‘Do Not Cross’ police line. My favourite of course are the tribal fish, they’re too cute!Many enthusiasts admire the sporty charm of the replica patek philippe aquanaut, known for its bold lines and versatile style for daily wear.

Here’s what I used to create this manicure:

Sally Hansen –Diamond Strength Basecoat

Glisten & Glow – HK Girl Top Coat

Konad – Black stamping polish

Shop eighty4 Pastel Neons in – Cotton Candy, Candy Mint, Powder Puff & Pale Leaf . I picked up the complete set of these pastel neons, you can get them here.

FabUrNails XL gold stamper set

A.S.P Manicure Saver Cotton Claw for cleaning the stamping plate

I wanted a neon colour for this nail art but not a ‘proper’ neon, so I used pastel neons. Here are the steps :

1 . Apply basecoat on all your nails.

2 . Paint Powder Puff (pastel neon blue) on your index and middle finger. Paint Pale Leaf (pastel neon yelllow) on your pinky and thumb. Paint Candy Mint (pastel neon green) on your index finger.

3. Use Pale Leaf to stamp the leaves & vines on the blue nails. Next use Cotton Candy ( pastel neon pink) to stamp the same leaf design over the blue nails. Switch up the pattern so that it doesn’t completely overlap. Now use black stamping polish to stamp the tribal fish pattern on the blue nails.

4. Stamp the vine pattern on the remaining fingers in black.

5. Topcoat and it’s done!

The finished look ( my right hand looked better than the left, does that happen to you too?):

Trying to hold all the colours!

A closeup of the fish:

So final thought? This etching is excellent on this plate.I didn’t have any trouble picking up the images.Overall, I think it has an interesting mix of images. This plate is available for purchase at Born Pretty Store and you can use my coupon code NPPQ10 to get a 10% discount! See you next post!

June 5, 2015
Born Pretty Store Review – Marc Jacobs ‘Daisy’ Inspired Nail Art using 1.5 mm Gold Studs

Hello!

Today I’ve got some nail studs for review from Born Pretty Store. I decided to try out a Marc Jacobs ‘Daisy’ inspired design.I’ve seen a lot of different interpretations of this beautiful perfume bottle all over the web and it’s been on my list of manicures to try for a long time now. When I saw these studs, I knew they were perfect for this design- not too big and not too small.

These studs are 1.5mm in size and are perfect.The larger ones take some getting used to, so if you’re new to nail embellishments, this is good place to start.These work with regular nail polish as well as gel nails. The wear time on these is really good. I had mine on for 4 days and they did not fade or look ‘tired’ on day 4. It may have also been in part due to the topcoat, but I’ve seen that even good topcoat doesn’t always cover the faults of poor quality studs/rhinestones.

Offering superior quality and elegant styling, every swiss replica watch available ensures a balance of style, precision, and durability suitable for collectors and first-time buyers alike.

They come in a little ziplock bag and as you can see, you get a LOT. I think I’m probably set for life as far as gold studs are concerned! I used my pointy tweezers for picking up these studs and I used topcoat to glue them on to my nail. I don’t have a wax picker pencil yet, so I depend on my tweezers or a dotting tool for picking up studs/rhinestones and glitter placement. I found that a really tiny bead of topcoat was good enough to stick these on the nail. I do have nail glue, but it didn’t seem like it was required to stick these on.

The studs can be purchased here.The item code is 2401.

A closer look at the studs:

Here’s what I used for my design:

Basecoat – Orly Bonder

Glisten & Glow – HK Girl Top Coat ( My #1 Topcoat)

Sally Hansen Gem Crush – 03 Big Money

L’Oreal Paris Color Riche Vernis – 104 Beige Countess

White Stamping Polish – Konad White

For the daisies, I was unsure whether to stamp a design or use a dotting tool. Then, I saw my FabUrNails Fun 13 plate and decided to stamp. It’s the middle image in the second row from the top.I made the sleeve pictured with ordinary card paper and some paper punches. To learn how, click here.

Stamping plate – FabUrNails FUN 13

Stamper and scraper – FabUrNails Gold XL Set

The steps to create this mani are:

1. Apply basecoat on all your nails. This helps your manicure last long. Orly Bonder is a sticky basecoat and I think because of this gives a foundation for your manicure to adhere to. The Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Basecoat is also sticky, the Orly one is stickier.

2. Apply two coats of ‘Beige Countess’ on all your nails except for the ring finger. Paint two coats of ‘Big Money’ on the ring finger to get a good blingy accent nail.

3. Stamp the daisy image using white stamping polish on all the nails except for the accent.

4. Dot some topcoat on the flower centres and use the tweezers to place the studs on top of the flower centres.

5. Wait for 5-10 minutes for everything to dry and finish off with a full coat of topcoat on the entire nail to finish.

Here’s the finished look:

In the shade:

And one more:

That’s it! So what do you think? These gold studs can be purchased from Born Pretty Store ( Item code : 2401) and you can use my coupon NPPQ10 during checkout to take 10% off of your order.

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June 3, 2015
Born Pretty Store Review – Damask Stamping Plate BP-L016

Hello!

I was on a break for a while but I’m back with lots of new things. I recently received my first review pack from Born Pretty Store and I’m really impressed with the quality! I received 2 stamping plates and 2 packs of embellishments. I decided to split my review into 4 parts as it would have become an impossibly long post otherwise.

In this post I will be reviewing one of the rectangular plates from the in-house stamping line from Born Pretty Store. This one (BP-L016) is full of beautiful damask and baroque inspired images. It also has a few images from popular culture – Marylin Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.

The plates come with the standard protective film. A new feature is the sleeves similar to the ones from MoYou London.The plates did not previously come with any packaging so this is a pleasant change as now storage is not a problem.I somehow don’t really like vinyl organizers much, even though they are very good at their job. These have a really pretty aztec / tribal patten. If you want to learn how to make your own sleeve, you can check my tutorial here.When it comes to affordability with elegance, swiss replicas stand out. They are well-known among buyers who want both style and quality without the premium retail cost of authentic models.

Here’s the sleeve and the plate:

As you can see, these plates come with a hard backing so they’re quite sturdy.

Basic info:

Plate Size ( including the backing) : 13cm x 7cm

Full nail images : 1.4cm x 2cm

Smaller images : mostly 1cm x 1cm

Full Price : $5.99 , but you can almost always find them for lesser during a promotion

You can buy this plate here. The item code for this plate is : 19371.

The etching is very good on this plate. I didn’t face any trouble in picking up the images. I used my FabUrNails XL gold stamper set to pick up the images. Instead of just swatching the images, I thought it would be more fun if I created a full manicure. I did 3 for this review, so get ready to be spammed.

Manicure No. 1 – Royal : Purple & Silver

Here’s what I used:

Sally Hansen –Diamond Strength Basecoat

OPI Color Paints – Purple Perspective & Silver Canvas ( from the complete set purchased from ebay)

newU Mirror Metallic – 107 Bronzy Brown for stamping

Glisten & Glow – HK Girl Top Coat (my absolute favourite!)

To get this look:

1. Start off with a basecoat.

2. Paint one coat of silver canvas. It’s quite opaque , so one coat is enough.

3. Paint two coats of purple perspective. I originally wanted only one, but this polish is really streaky, so I had to do two to even out the streaks.

4. Stamp using bronzy brown. This colour is not quite silver and definitely nowhere near bronze, but it’s an interesting in-between colour.

5. Topcoat and you’re done!

The finished result :

And I’ll end this one with a macro :

I know that the color paints collection is really suited to creating abstract nail art and I’ll have my design up pretty soon,but I really loved the way the purple pops over the silver base. It looks very regal and has a really interesting layered effect once the stamping is done on top!

Manicure No. 2 – Woodsy : Chocolate Brown & Gold

Here’s what I used:

Sally Hansen –Diamond Strength Basecoat

Sally Hansen Salon Manicure – No. 270 Boca Mocha

Maybelline Color Show – No. 008 Bold Gold for stamping

Glisten & Glow – HK Girl Top Coat

The steps to create this look are pretty much the same as described earlier.This is the end result :

and another macro:

This polish has been sitting in my untrieds list for a really long time and I’m glad I finally used it! The formula was great, completely opaque on two coats.

Now for my favourite – Classic Pink and Black Baroque Nails!

Manicure No. 3 – Pink Blush : Pink & Black

Pink rates pretty high in my list of favourite colours and I probably have too much pink in my collection. You can never have too many pinks in my opinion.

What you’ll need :

Sally Hansen –Diamond Strength Basecoat

Bourjois So Lacque – No.8 Peach & Love

Konad – Black stamping polish

KBShimmer – Clearly On Top Quick Dry Topcoat

Once again, this is a very simple manicure but I really loved the wallpaper-y look to it!

The finished look:

and a macro to finish just like the others:

On the whole this plate has beautiful designs with a nice mix – a few love themed images, vintage Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe and the gorgeous swirly arabesque/damask/baroque designs. It’s defnitely a nice addition to any collection.

So what do you think? Which is your favourite? Let me know in the comments section below.

Born Pretty Store offers free international shipping and you can use my code NPPQ10 on your next purchase to get a 10% discount on all regular full price items.

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June 2, 2015
KBShimmer Spring Holos and Sheer Lace

Hi there!

It’s been a long week and I’ve been plenty busy. I recently picked up a few of the KBShimmer spring polishes and I didn’t want to do another regular “swatch and review” for 2 reasons – These have been out since February and I think hardcore nail polish addicts/fans/crazies have already stalked every possible online resource to get a dekko at them.The second reason is I don’t think I’m cut out for swatching yet – The same exact handpose with the same exact lighting and the same exact everything- very stressful if you’re the one who has to do everything! Having a fulltime job and a hobby that also feels like a fulltime job is not easy.

Anyway, I decided I would swatch and review these by adding a little simple nail art ( read – stamping, ha ha) so it would give me something to look forward to as well. There are a LOT of pictures in this post; I tried really hard to limit them but I guess I got carried away.

I used a new stamping plate from Born Pretty Store for stamping the lace designs. Ironically, even though Born Pretty Store are really famous in the nail art world, this is my first purchase from the website. It took about a month to reach me and they offer only tracked shipping to India (Even though internationally , they offer free shipping).The tracked service costs $3, which is not much, and you will most definitely get your parcel – which is priceless if you’ve suffered from as many “lost” packages as I have.

I really like this plate. Some of the designs on here are there in other brands as well, but there are still quite a few unique designs on it that make it worth the buy.I am a total sucker for anything lace and this one was in my cart within the blink of an eye.The images are very nicely etched, and the pickup is excellent. The plates come with a regular white plastic backing and a blue protective film. They do not come with a sleeve/case.However, faux leather cases are available for these if you’re interested.

As usual, I used FabUrNails XL gold stamper set for stamping.Here’s a look at the plate :

Even as I write this post, I observed that the design mockup on the born pretty store website for this plate has changed! The product code remains the same, though the images have definitely been changed. Here’s a look at the current listing:

Here’s a better look at the old one (which I have) :

Aaaand I found yet another version of the same plate! (This is so freaky)

Alright, before we get completely sidetracked by the case of the changing designs, let’s get back to business at hand.

I paired the lace prints with the new KBShimmer spring holographic polishes cause these are two of my favourite things – holo polish and lace! Everything is covered with KBShimmer’s ‘Clearly on Top’ topcoat.

Diamond Strength Basecoat – Sally Hansen

Clearly On Top Quick Dry Topcoat – KBShimmer

The 4 spring holographics are :

Blue-d Lines

Ins And Sprouts

Thistle Be The Day

Blush Money

For the lace accent, I used one coat of a sheer baby pink stamped over it with white stamping polish. Here’s what I used:

Sheer Baby Pink – Essence ‘Sweet as Candy‘

White Stamping Polish – Konad White

First up – ‘Blue-d Lines‘. This is a beautiful jewel toned Aquamarine colour. Applies smooth like butter and is opaque in 2 easy coats. If you have a heavy hand, you can probably get away with just one coat. It’s a linear holographic that shines intensely in the sun and even under fluorescent lighting. The distraction factor on all these holos is pretty high,ha ha!

Now for the pic spam!

In the shade:

It looks like a metallic blue in the shade with a slight hint of the holographic effect.

Magic in the sun :

See how insane the holographic effect is!

A close up :

Next up is ‘Ins And Sprouts‘. This is also a jewel toned Peridot shade. Applies smooth and dries fast, has a crazy holographic shine even in the shade! In all the swatches that I saw online, this colour loked more golden than green. It is most defnitely green and not golden. Must have been a trick of lighting that led me to believe it was more gold than green.

Here’s what it looks like in the shade :

It’s a stunning colour! The formula is perfect too with a pretty good drying time. I apologize if I’m repeating myself, but these are really that awesome!

Magical holo craziness in the sun:

See how insanely holographic it is! It’s also definitely green. I think this is the one out of the lot that has the most pronounced holographic effect, which is perfectly fine as it suits it a lot.

The lace is feeling ignored. I love how delicate and feminine the negative space lace is looking!

One final look at Ins and Sprouts:

Now we have my favourite from the collection – ‘Thistle be the day‘. It’s a beautiful Amethyst shade and is SO flattering on my nails! I was really sad when it was time to take it off. Great formula, beautiful colour and an above par drying time- the perfect recipe!

Here it is in the shade :

Sun, Camera and Action!

The holographic effect on this one is also very good. Gosh! they’re all so good, what more can I say?!

Now, for the last one, I decided to switch things up a bit – a black sheer lace accent instead of the white cause I felt black was better than white for this particular shade – ‘Blush Money‘.

Here’s what I used to create the black lace accents:

DIY Black Tint

Fairy Dust – China Glaze

Black stamping polish -Konad

Rhinestones – MoYou London

DIY Black Tint:

Step 1 : Take an empty polish bottle and half fill it with generic clear polish. You can use topcoat too, but I don’t think that would work well for layering, so I’d stick with clear polish.Topcoat is different from regular clear polish. If you apply any polish on top of topcoat, it can peel off – I’ve experienced this in my glory days when I thought I could use topcoat as basecoat!

Step 2 : Add a few drops (around 2-3) of black polish and 2 mixing balls and shake well. Start with a little bit of the black polish as you want to achieve the right opacity for your tint. Too little is not a problem- you can always add more black polish. Too much is annoying cause you’ll have to use up more clear polish to dilute it to the right colour.

That’s it! Your black tint is now ready!

I used 2 coats of the sheer black tint over my basecoat. Then I added one coat of Fairy Dust and then stamped over it with black lace. Topcoat and you’re done.

Blush money is based on the Pantone 2015 colour – Strawberry Ice. It’s a beautiful peach-rose mashup and is slightly different from the other holos in this line. This one has a subtle gold shimmer that runs throughout the polish and is visible on the nail. Also, the holographic effect on this is more scattered than linear. I used 3 very thin coats in the pictures below, and you will definitely need at least 2 coats for this one. The formula is great, just like the other ones and the colour is very pretty too.

Here’s the finished look in the shade :

Looks almost neon doesn’t it?

A closer look at the fairy dusted lace :

A closer look at the scattered holo effect in Blush Money :

Hints of sunlight:

Under the sun :

The last one!

For my final thoughts, I’m really impressed with these KBShimmer holos! I know her crellies are pretty much perfect, but these holos are not far behind. They are very easy to work with. Apply really smooth and need at most 2 coats to become completely opaque. A third coat does not change the colour, you get the same colour regardless of the number of coats you apply.

Here’s all 4 looks :

This entire exercise took about a week and a half as I couldn’t bring myself to remove my polish to swatch the next shade immediately. I wore each of these for roughly 2.5 days each, except for the last one which I had on for 3 days. I didn’t experience an chipping or ‘tiredness’ in my mani. Admittedly, 5 days would’ve been better to test that,but who has the time!

Anyway, If there’s only one polish you want to buy, my recommendation is ‘Thistle be the day’. It’s a perfect pale pinkish purple and it’s safe to wear at work too! If you do wish to purchase the BPS lace plate, you can use my discount code NPPQ10 for 10% off on your purchase.

This has been one hell of a long post! Thanks for sticking around till the end!

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May 7, 2015
“Mind Blowing” Stamping!

Hey there!

So, I’ve been meaning to write this for quite a while now but life got in the way. Today I’m writing about this amazing indie stamping plate company – B Loves Plates! I first came to know of this brand sometime around August last year (they were launched in March 2014) and I was wracking my brains trying to figure out a way to get my hands on them without actually having to visit Poland.

Yes, the creator of these beautiful plates – Anna, is from Gliwice, Poland. For those of you who follow Football, Lukas Podolski – the German footballer is from the same place! Ok! Back to the topic – stamping plates. So Anna opened up her Etsy Store for international customers in February this year and enabled PayPal a short while later, which is how I was able to get my hands on these. She ships the plates via registered post that comes with a tracking number and is actually trackable till your doorstep ( trust me, in India this is a huge deal!) For those of you who live in Poland, she’s got her own website that’s here.

Each plate retails for $15 and shipping till India was a little over $7. She’s released 3 plates so far and there’s a fourth on the way. You do get a discount if you buy all 3 as a set ( $43 for a set of 3).

The reason why I love her plates so much is they are, like the namesake of one of them, truly Mind Blowing! These designs are like something you’ve probably seen in your dreams, except that now you can see them on your nails, and the etching on these is top notch! Not a single failure! The images pickup on the first attempt itself and are flawless!

I picked up two of her plates – “B0.1 Geometry is Perfect” and “B0.3 Mind Blown“. You can take a look here:

See what I meant about these images being crazy(in a good way)!

Some basic info – These plates were mailed in a bubblewrap envelope and were in a plastic sleeve. They do not have a hard plastic backing like MoYou London or Born Pretty Store stamping plates – think FabUrNails style.The edges are rounded and blunt, you will not get cut by them. Images are 1.6 cm by 2 cm which is quite enough for those with long nails. The images are sized so that those with shorter nails can also use the images without it looking like the design has been cropped too small.

I used my FabUrNails squishy stamper to pick up the images. Another thing to keep in mind is the style you use to pick up the image. I first started my stamping journey with the Konad firm stamper, so I got used to rolling the stamper to pick up the image. Even today, I find it a little odd to press down and pick up an image. I’m subconsciously scared that I’ll “squash” the image with too much pressure. Turns out, it is easier to work with these kinds of images by rolling rather than pressing down the stamper.

I created two manicures using these plates. Here’s what I used:

Diamond Strength Basecoat – Sally Hansen

Clearly On Top Quick Dry Topcoat – KBShimmer

Blackout – Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear

White Stamping Polish – Konad

I used B0.1 Geometry is Perfect for my first manicure:

Black & White picture for a Black & White mani!

Here’s another with a pretty rose for a background:

This is what it looks like in colour:

My next manicure features some holographic stamping using Color Club “Harp On It”. This is a fantastic silver holographic that’s opaque enough for stamping. I was gifted this and bought it off Amazon. Unfortunately, they do not ship to India, so good luck finding a polish mule!

I used B0.3 Mind Blown for stamping the swirly optical illusion design and Blackout – Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear for my base colour.

I had to take some pictures indoor with flash cause the sun was not bright enough for the full on 100 Watt Holo effect to come through.

Here’s a daylight shot:

Indoors with flash:

Here’s the last one :

This is what I’m talking about. The image looks like it’s alive! How amazing is that!

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April 19, 2015
Rainbows & Sparkles : Holographic Polish

Hey there!

Today is Sunday! The exclamation is because it’s perfect! It rained here last night and there’s a mellow breeze blowing in my garden with birds chirping. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember that this is a new side to Delhi, which is normally very very polluted and noisy. Anyway, before I digress further, let’s get back on point – Holographic polishes! When did you first get to know of one? When did you get your first holo polish?

As for me, I’m new to the world of nail polish, so I’d have to say that I first came to know of the existence of holographic polish sometime in January last year ( I know! How late was I to the holo bandwagon!). I got my first holo polish through a giveaway hosted by Foxy Paws Polish – a Danish indie brand.

Since then, I’ve remedied the situation and got myself quite a few holo polishes. I know that there are a lot of bloggers out there who think that holographic polishes are overrated. That’s only cause they’ve had them for so long,they cease to appreciate it! I honestly don’t think I’ll ever get tired of them! The plus is, I live in India where we get plenty of sunlight all year round, so If you catch me driving around with my eyes glued to my nails, don’t be surprised.

Today, I’ve used a beautiful coppery holographic polish from KBShimmer. I love KBShimmer! Beautiful range, perfect crellies and not a fault to be found in pretty much any polish they’ve released till date.

Here’s what you’d need to create this look:

Diamond Strength Basecoat – Sally Hansen

Clearly On Top Quick Dry Topcoat – KBShimmer

Run! It’s the Coppers! – KBShimmer

Black stamping polish -Konad

I used the DRK Nails Designer XL 1 for stamping the image. Here’s a look at this beautiful plate!

The possibilities with this plate are limitless! There’s so many elements that we can play with here!

This is what I narrowed down on finally, It’s an Islamic Architecture inspired lattice pattern. These can be seen in many of the old heritage buildings constructed by the Mughals in India (e.g. : The Taj Mahal):

And, here’s the finished look in the shade :

Let the holo craziness begin:

A closer look at the holographic finish is a blurry shot:

I leave you with this last one :

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April 12, 2015
Mix ‘N’ Match – Nails to match my outfit

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I always do my nails first and then scrounge around in my wardrobe to find something that matches. I know it’s not entirely ideal, but I’m the jump first, look later types.

However, today was an exception. I spent a few minutes examining the blouse I’d laid out for today and then tried my hand at matching my nails.

Here’s what I used to create this look:

Diamond Strength Basecoat – Sally Hansen

Clearly On Top Quick Dry Topcoat – KBShimmer

Autumn Spice -Revlon Parfumerie (for stamping)

Never Nude – PiCture POlish

I’m crazy about piCture pOlish, they’re easily one of my favourite brands! They always have something really beautiful up their sleeve and Never Nude is no exception. It’s a collaboration shade created with Willpaintnailsforfood and the base is meant to look like OPI’s My Vampire is Buff. Except that this one comes with an ethereal lavender glass fleck and delicate mini hex glitters in teal and pale purple.

Here’s a swatch in the shade :

Browsing perfectreplica.is reveals a large collection of replicas from multiple luxury watch brands.

I know this pic doesn’t really do it justice, but this is the only one I clicked before I stamped over it!

I used Revlon Parfumerie’s Autumn Spice for stamping for two reasons – It has a similar glass fleck like Never Nude and the colour is exactly what I wanted, a sort of rusty brown with shimmery pink. Plus, there’s the added bonus of the fragrance – this one smells like pumpkin pie!

I used MoYou London’s Suki 8 and FabUrNails XL gold stamper set for stamping the swirly clouds:

This plate is so gorgeous! There’s so many designs that drew me, but I settled on the clouds.

Here is the finished look :

I’m holding my top in the background in the pictures.Here are some more pictures :

One in the shade:

The last one :

On the whole, I’m quite pleased with the result, though I don’t see myself doing this on a regular basis! It’s too nerve wracking! How others do it I have no clue!

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April 7, 2015
Fabergé Egg Inspired Easter Nails

Happy Easter! Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend!

I started out with a pastel easter tribal mani in my head as I had time on my hands but it didn’t work out. So I searched around a bit for inspiration and remembered the famous Fabergé Eggs I had studied in school.

These were bejewelled Easter eggs made by Peter Carl Fabergé for the Tsar Alexander III and later his son Nicholas II. Each egg was made to carry a ‘surprise’. Out of the 50 made, only 43 remain today and quite a few of the ‘surprises’ inside are lost. Needless to say, they are exquisite (even if you’re only looking at a picture of them).

My inspiration for this look is the Tsarevich Fabergé Egg. Here is picture of it along with the surprise that’s inside:

I searched around in my stash for the perfect royal blue polish. I finally settled on using Revlon Royal for this mani.

Now, speaking of Revlon Royal, I have nothing against the colour, application, brush etc. Everything’s a breeze. What’s not, is the “fragrance” of the polish. I use the term fragrance very loosely indeed as the polish let off a smell that’s frankly very unbearable. I’ve read it described as “skunky” on other blogs, but to me it smelt like rotting marigold. I think it has something to do with the pigment they’ve used to colour the polish. Anyway, other than that, the polish is just perfect! It’s a deep indigo jelly, perfect to give that enamel finish.Thankfully, the smell fades away after you’ve put topcoat!

I used piCture pOlish Pharaoh for my accent nail as it’s the perfect white gold with that magical scattered holo effect!

Here’s the rest of the stuff I used need to create this look:

Products Used:

Diamond Strength Basecoat – Sally Hansen

Pharaoh -piCture pOlish

Royal -Revlon

Tortoise Shell (Gold side for stamping) – Revlon Shiny Matte

Black stamping polish -Konad

Clearly On Top Quick Dry Topcoat -KBShimmer

I used the MoYou London Easter Plate (Festive 24) along with the amazing stamper from Faburnails :

Here’s the finished look:

I have a thumb too!

So, what do you think?

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April 6, 2015
Nail That Technique – Pond Manicure

The past few weeks have been hectic and I have a lot of blogging to catch up with! This week’s #Nail That Technique prompt is ‘Pond Manicure’.

The idea behind a Pond manicure is quite simple. You’ve to use sheer or tinted polishes to create a pond/lake like appearance with a design sandwiched between two successive layers.The depth is achieved by layering the polish.The very first design drawn/stamped will become more blurred as successive layers of the sheer polish are added. The polish should be sheer enough to allow your design to peep through from the bottom layers. You can create any design between the layers – stamp a pattern or draw dots or flowers with a toothpick, the choices are endless.

Today I’ll be sharing two designs that I’ve done for this prompt. One of them is a throwback to January this year which is when I tried my hand at a pond manicure for the first time.

Browsing replicamagic.io provides endless options for collectors seeking both modern and vintage-inspired timepieces.

I used all Rica polishes for both manicures and bought mine from Color4nails. You may get them directly from her Etsy store too.

First Up : Pond manicure with stamped flowers:

Here’s what you’ll need:

Step 1 : Start off with one coat of a basecoat of your choice . This is to protect your nails and provide a foundation for your manicure to bond with.

Step 2 : Paint one layer of Rica Squishy Grape

Step 3 : Stamp a single flower using Rica Pink Elephant and a stamping plate of your choice. I’ve used a no brand one that I bought from Ali Express.

Step 4 : Repeat steps 2 and 3. Make sure that your design does not overlap those in the layers below too much. 6 layers is good enough to get a pond like finish.

Step 5 : Apply topcoat to seal your design and prolong it’s life! I’ve used KBShimmer’s Clearly On Top.

Here’s the result:

And, here’s a closeup :

Now for my next pond manicure, here’s what I used:

I wanted to go for an ocean inspired look and used a stamping plate from MoYou London’s Princess collection to stamp a cute Octopus!

I used the new squishy marshmallow stamper from Faburnails and it’s excellent. Doesn’t even require priming.

The steps to achieve the look below are the same as before. This one was clicked in the shade:

and here’s a closer look at all the squiggly octupi (? or octopuses ?) :

Here’s what it looks like in the sun, I’m really loving this combination!

That’s it for this post!

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April 4, 2015