Nail design of the week

Remember some time ago I mentioned I purchased a stamping plate with dragons?  Well, on Monday I used it for the first time, and the results were fabulous:

Excuse the chipped nail!  I couldn't get pictures the day I made them

These are the tools I used:

Unglax nail hardener as base coat 

Black Orchid nail polish by Sally Hansen

Messy Mansion stamping plate #MM05

Konad plastic scraper

Konad small stamper

Icy Princess nail polish by essence for stamping

Seche Vite top coat
Naio coconut cuticle oil for the cuticles when everything is finished and dry

The designs are BIG, which is great for my nails, and as you can see, the stamping is very clear and precise.  The one in the pinky does not look good, but that was my fault.  The pinky of the right hand looks awesome.  Fot the thumbs I used the crown and the axes.  The axes look great, but I could not get a really good stamping with the crown.  But overall I am happy with the results.  I think this is the best stamping work I have made since I started.

I hope I can use the backgrounds with other nail designs as accent nail.  They will undoubtedly cover the entire bed of any of my nails, they are so big.

Here is a little vid I made of the Messy Mansion plate.  Enjoy!

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 stamping plate for my collection

Just a few days ago I purchased a nail stamping plate from Messy Mansion:

Picture from the Messy Mansion store

It is great, isn't it?  This is the first plate that I have found that is not what I call "girly", i.e. no butterflies, flowers, kittens, smileys or hearts.  Instead, dragons, knights, axes and castles, along with a crest and a background.  So awesome!!

Messy Mansion also has a website for you to peruse full of nail art goodies.  

I will let you know when the plate arrives, and how well it performs.  I am dying to try it out!

Nail design of the week

I'm afraid this week I revisited the mermaid nail tutorial created by elleandish.  It is so lovely I just can't get enough of it!

This time I followed all the instructions provided, and my nails look like this:

It looks so much better with a softer two-color combination!  I say two-color because, despite the fact that I wanted to use three, one of the blues was barely visible, so I just omitted it.  These are the tools I used:

Unglax nail hardener as base coat 

Fashion Studio by Margaret Astor nail polishes #242 (Aqua Leaf) and #070 (Blue Taffeta)

Mash plate #39

Konad plastic scraper

Konad small stamper

Makeup sponge

Lina Bocardi 45'' Flash Nail Polish #12 for stamping

Quick Dry Top Gloss by Margaret Astor
Naio coconut cuticle oil for the cuticles when everything is finished and dry

It cannot really be seen in the pic but the design smeared again.  I need to get me a Seche Vite top coat, which I hear is fabulous for this kind of stuff.  

This design really gets people's attention.  I will probably end up using it for most of the Summer.  My inner mermaid is so happy with it!

I also painted my toe nails with Come along with me nail polish by H&.  I don't know why, I am liking very much blue colors this season.

Nail design of the week

This week I was going to do this fabulous tutorial by IndigoNova1:

I liked it a lot, but when I put it on my nails the results where not very satisfactory.  The tape left residue on the nail polish, the netting looked awful, and the flowers did not end up in the right place.  

So I finally took off everything and re-did the French manicure I did last week.  So no picture this week, but enjoy IndigoNova1's channel, and all her wonderful designs.

First nail stamping attempt

The Konad order arrived on Tuesday, and yesterday I created my first design.  Here it is:

Left hand

Right hand

I did a French manicure (my first one too!) and then spiced it up a bit with the stamping.  These are the tools I used:

Unglax nail hardener as base coat 

Fashion Studio by Margaret Astor #245 Lotus White for the French tip

Konad plate m57

Konad plastic scraper

Konad small stamper

Konad White Special Nail Polish

Konad Clear Top Coat

First I applied the base coat.  Then I painted the French tip.  When everything was dry I used the flowery lace strip for the nail tips, and added a flower on each nail - the big one for the thumb and the middle finger, the medium for the index and the ring finger, and the small for the pinkie.  Then I finished with the top coat.

When I show it in the lab today my coworkers loved it, they said that I seemed to have lace on my nails, and that it would look great as a manicure for a bride.  I do have a wedding to attend to in July; maybe the bride would like me to do her nails...

I know that it is a very simple design and it is far from perfect, but it made me happy to do my first stamping design.