Nail design of the week

It's been sometime since I wanted to try one of those nail polishes that leave your nails rough and  bumpy, and not shiny and sleek as they usually do.  I stumbled upon an O.P.I. stand and they had some of the nail polishes from the Liquid Sand  line, and I bought one.

These are the tools I used:

Mussvital nail hardener as base coat 

Wharf! Wharf! Wharf! nail polish by O.P.I. (one coat)

Naio coconut cuticle oil for the cuticles when everything is finished and dry

I absolutely love them!  My mother says that it looks like the manicure has been ruined, but I like it precisely for that.  A perfectly done nail is beautiful, but the moment it has an imperfection then the hard work is lost.  

It's been some days since I made them, and they are still perfect, apart from the obvious wear on the tips, since you cannot use a top coat with these polishes.  But I have had them scratched, hit, bumped, and the polish does not look any less great than the first day.  I also like to touch them and find that they have texture.  I would love a dark grey or black polish of this line - it would look like asphalt!

Showing some new things

Even though I made my own H2O crystal necklaces, I found one on eBay with a beautiful bead that I could not resist to buy.  Here are some pics of it:

Isn't it amazing the difference that it makes to photograph a necklace on a dummy, instead of on a table?  I had totally forgot that I had that dummy, and since I had it out I took pictures too of Elena's locket, the H2O locket and The Illusionist locket.

I have had this necklace for some time, but I forgot to put up the pics.  

But today, I got the Messy Mansion stamping plate:

It's amazing!  The details are incredible, and the central stampings are big enough to cover all my nail surfaces, including my wide thumbs!  I cannot wait to try it!

A new hobby: Nail Art!

It is impossible to not peruse YouTube nail art videos and not get amazed at the nail design you can find there.  How creative are some people!

I began researching how to do nail art without having to be an artist with a mini brush (which I am definitely not!), and found out about nail stamping.  My interest for mermaids got me to this video, which I absolutely loved:

So obviously the first thing I did was to search for that stamping plate at the Mash Nails website.  When I found it and saw it was available I searched for tutorials on nail stamping (I highly recommend this one), and after I learnt a thing or two I placed my orders both at Mash and Konad.

Being unable to wait for them to arrive, I decided to try some simple nail design to keep me busy.  I visited a drugstore and bought a new set of nail files and 6 nail polishes from the new Margaret Astor collection, Fashion Studio.  I had at home some nail rhinestones - a long time ago I visited a local dollar store and they had some miniature glass bottles filled with them.  I bought the bottles to use in my miniature making and forgot about the rhinestones.  I never thought I would give them some use, and it was lucky I did not throw them out!

So, I chose one of the blue shades (#256, Electric Ocean).  I love this particular shade.  It reminds me of the skin color of Mistique, from the X-Men movies. You need two coats of this one.  Then I took the blue rhinestones and placed them on the side of my nails; 3 of them, in order big, small, big.  Then I applied the top coat.  How do you like the result?

Left hand

Right hand

If you notice, the pinky of the left hand looks a bit crowded, so in the right hand I put the rhinestones small, big, small, to give the nail a better look.  I like how they turned out.  I was so happy I forgot to clean my cuticles after finishing, but the natural light was fading and I wanted to take the pics.  Excuse the mess!

After having finished, it ocurred to me that maybe red rhinestones would have been better for contrast (as Mistique's hair is red), but I had in mind the mermaid-y look when I was working.  

I can't wait for the orders to arrive and start practicing the stamping!