Nail design of the week

Pearls!  I am in love with pearls lately - which is odd, because the pearl is a jewel that has never appealed much to me.  My favorites have always been dark stones like onyx and garnet.  Must be the Summer, and the mermaids...

So, this week's manicure is inspired by mermaids and pearls:

These are the tools I used:
Unglax nail hardener as base coat
Margaret Astor Fashion Studio Lilly of the Valley (#244)

Tweezers

White half pearls in sizes 1.5, 2 and 3 mm
Konad clear top coat
Seche Vite top coat
Naio coconut cuticle oil for the cuticles when everything is finished and dry

I love how well they turned out!  They remind me a bit of my mermaid tail color.  It is a nice alternative to the mermaid scale pattern; after I saw this beautiful mermaid top I figured maybe mermaids like to wear pearls in their nails (oh how I covet a top like that!).  I have lately thought of how would a mermaid have her nails; the best I have imagined is that they are somehow scales matching the color of their tails (lol!).  So maybe some pearls on them is not a far fetched thought...

I have even put some pearls on my toes:

But not color.  I hate painting my toe nails, because my eyesight is not very good, and it's troublesome for me to see if they are OK or not.  Just the base coat, the 3 mm pearls and the top coat to protect them.

I saw this mermaid scale tutorial yesterday and maybe I will try with the pearls next time I do the Mash scale stamping.  What do you think?

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!