Adding Accents

Hi Everyone!

After a couple of days of wear, I just couldn't resist adding a bit of stamping to my glitter gradient. Although rather impractical, since it was my day off from work, I decided to play around with adding some dimension in the form of tiny bullion beads and pearls. I may have gotten a bit carried away, but it was definitely worth it...

Lacy Pink

Hello Lovelies!

I recently purchased a handful of beautiful Major Dijit stamping plates through a group buy on Facebook. As with all group buys, they took a while to finally arrive and I couldn't wait to play with them as soon as they were in my greedy little paws. The Major Dijit plates are chock full of lacy patterns and settling on which one to try first was the most taxing portion of creating the manicure. I chose to pair it with a bright pink by Dazzle Dry from their Summer 2015 Over the Rainbow collection. It is just slightly ironic that with Summer almost over, I'm finally digging into the Summer shades. Maybe a bit of wishful thinking, hoping that the sunshine lasts just a bit longer?

Red Velvet Damask

Hello Lovelies!

I'm back with one more post featuring a lacquer from the Glam Polish Coven collection. It was largely inspired by this manicure created by Debbie of @ladyandthe_stamp on Instagram. She mattified one of the beautiful Coven shades and I instantly knew I wanted to try to do that as well. To be honest, I would not have even thought to mattify these shades since the flakies loose all their holo goodness, but the gorgeous velvet look and feel really made up for it.

Jewel Tones

Hi Lacquer Lovers!

Today I've got another manicure to show you with a few of the Glam Polish beauties from the Coven collection which will be released tomorrow! The three of them, red to plum to purple, made such a lovely gradient that I felt the need to combine them in a manicure. I finally even found the time to play around with making decals. Although making ten of them was more time consuming than I remembered, it was definitely worth it in the end...

Silver Lining

Hi there fellow polish addicts!

Today I would like to show you a manicure that I created with another Glam Polish shade which will be releasing today. The pretty blue had me thinking nautical thoughts all week, but as soon as I got it on my nails the skies seemed to beckon. Certainly not a sky blue, but it still made such a pretty backdrop for a few clouds...

Up in Flames!

Good Morning Lovelies!

I feel as though it's been ages since I've done something "edgier" on my nails, but with Glam Polish lacquer names such as Devil in Disguise and Burning Love, I truly could not resist the temptation of having flames at my fingertips...

Glam Polish Burning Love with UberChic stamping

Hi Lovelies!

I'm sorry that I've been MIA for a while. Between work, family visiting from out of town and having to re-landscape our yard to appease my home owner's association, I have not had time to sit down and create a proper manicure. Luckily I got some gorgeous soon to be released Glam Polish beauties in the mail that forced me, in the best way possible, to finally make time.

I didn't have anything specific in mind when I started the manicure, but I've been wanting to play around with my new UberChic stamping plates and this swirly image drew my eye...

Forever After Floral

Hello Hello!

Today I have another manicure with a few of the soon to be released Glam Polish beauties. I've been dreaming of doing a floral such as this for a while and these polishes lent themselves perfectly to the task. So bright and fun with just the right amount of sparkle...

Glam Polish Love Always Finds a Way

Hi Lovelies!

Today I would like to show you a manicure inspired by a crystal pineapple necklace which I brought home as a souvenir from my trip to Hawaii last year. The color matched so well that I thought it would be fun to take it one step further in the matchy-matchy department...

Psychedelic Stamping

Hi Lovelies!

How is your week starting out? I didn't get as much done this weekend as I had hoped, but I can't say that I'm sorry for taking some time to just be lazy and relax. However since I was so lazy, today I would like to share with you another manicure out of the archives. I'm having so much fun going through old photos and remembering the manis. I created this manicure while playing around with the Glam Polish Hairspray collection in early 2015. It was one of my favorite collections and looking back at the manis I created with it makes me want to play all over again...

Subtle Stamping

Hi Everyone!

It has been a crazy week for me and although it is the weekend and time to relax for a lot of people, it is my weekend to work because I guess 'there ain't no rest for the wicked'. Ha! To make up for lack of time to paint my nails, I thought I'd show you another mani out of the archive. I've only got a few more to show you and then I will be all caught up. Gasp!

This mani is one that I wore last year for Hanukkah. The stamping turned out more subtle than I had anticipated and I remember being indecisive about whether I liked it or not. I'm still a bit torn, but definitely leaning toward liking it. Is there such a thing as too subtle?

Stamped Roses

Hi Lovelies!

Have you ever sat down to create a manicure having one thing in mind and ended up creating something entirely different? Such is the case of this rosy manicure. When Polished by KPT Rouge-Lette In Love was released in the Fall of 2014, I thought it would make the perfect base for some brick stamping. That manicure didn't turn out how I envisioned and hence it never made a debut on the blog. Last week, however, I got the urge to recreate that manicure, although obviously with some adjustments. As you can see, at the last minute I had a change of heart and bricks turned into roses...

Colour Me Orange

Hi Everyone!

A few weeks ago I purchased some Colour Alike polishes for stamping. Out of the 13 polishes that I got, I ended up buying just one metallic beauty whose swatches caught my eye. Let me tell you, I'm now kicking myself for not getting the rest of their metallic stamping polishes because this beauty stamps like a dream! I am certain I will purchase them sometime soon, but for now I will have to pacify myself with this pretty named B. a Scary Pumpkin...

Feathers!

Hello Everyone!

Today I have a feathery manicure to share with you. On a recent visit to a local drugstore, a little L.A. Colors beauty caught my eye and I was really itching to try it out. What can I say, I'm a sucker for flakie shimmer and not ashamed to admit it. It just calls to me. I paired it with some simple stamping for this look...

Guilty Hello!

Hi Everyone! (Or anyone still out there? :))

Long time no see! Is that even appropriate to say to people I have never actually seen before? In any case, I recently realized that (last 4th of July mani not including), it has been a year since I have last actually blogged. What is even more sad is that I can count the number of manicures I have done during that year on just my two little hands. And in that count, I'm including just polished nails that didn't involve any nail art. Pathetic, right? Friends and family that used to comment on the oddity of seeing my nail unpainted now did a complete 180 and mockingly stare when spotting color.

It is not that I didn't miss creating nail art, it is just that I had a lot going on at the time. I got busy, started working night shift and just sort of shut down when it came to doing my nails. If I couldn't do it all; swatch, review, create nail art, blog and keep up with social media, I wasn't going to do anything at all. Somehow in a weird and bizarre way it made sense back then then, even though it doesn't so much now. I think I was so used to blogging about every mani that I created (whether I ended up actually wearing it or not), that in the back of my mind it seemed logical that if I didn't have time to photograph and blog about a manicure, I would put off creating it. Recently a friend gently (or rather not so gently) pointed out that I should be able to make time for myself at least once a week and create a manicure, even if it is just for myself and not something I blog about. So simple, right? Since I can't really argue with that logic, that is exactly what I hope to do...

UberChic Collection 2 Stamping Plates Reivew

Hi Everyone! Today I'll be sharing with you my long overdue review of the UberChic Collection 2 stamping plates. Long overdue is something I'll be saying a lot in the coming posts as I try to wrap my head around and make time for blogging again. Hopefully as they say though, it is better late than never. These plates were kindly sent to me by Brittany, the creator of these gorgeous designs. It didn't take long for me to fall head over heals for these gorgeous large yet very delicate patterns...

Delicate Stamping

Hi Everyone! Happy Friday! Today I would like to show you a manicure that I wore for a solid week after swatching the Glam Polish beauties which I posted about earlier this week. If the manicure hadn't started growing out and driving me nuts, I would have happily continued to wear it. It is rather 'simple' as far as some of my manicures go, but somehow it didn't seem to call for added embellishments. Sweet and delicate was just what I needed...

Wish Upon a Star

Hi Everyone! Today I would like to show you a manicure that I created shortly before my blogging break. I had been playing around with UberChic plates and preparing my review of them (which is still in the works) when I came up with this. One of the images that I really loved is this skyline with stars. I can see it used in may different ways and right now I imagine it over a sunset gradient with black stamping. At the time that I wore this, it was still winter and somehow the black night sky was more my mood than a warm spring/summer sunset...

Anchored on a Breeze

Hello Lovelies! I've got a bit of nail art for you today, once again playing with the new UberChic stamping plates and featuring one of the beautiful Polished by KPT thermals from the Basic Series. The Basic Series thermals make the perfect base for stamping and lend themselves beautifully to creating nail art...

Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate Review

Hi Everyone! I'm feeling sleepless in Seattle right now with lots of stuff on my mind that I would rather not think about, so I decided to write this post as a distraction. So far I am managing to keep up with my New Year's resolution of little by little showing you my stamping plate collection. Today I would like to show you Born Pretty stamping plates. Born Pretty Store has long been know to sell a variety of stamping plates from other lines, but it wasn't until late last year that they released their own branded plates. And speaking of random plates from Born Pretty Store, it seems so long ago now, but it was a promo offer of a free stamping plate from the Born Pretty Store that started my stamping addiction. Oh how time flies! Check out my first attempt at stamping here!

Born Pretty Store originally released 25 plates, then added another 10 around Thanksgiving and just a few days ago released another 20 for a total of 55 BP plates available right now. I've got the first 35 to show you today and more are on the way for a future post. With the success that they are having over these stamping plates, I expect to see more releases in the future!

Now on to the plates themselves. They measure 5.6 cm in diameter, which is the most common size for stamping plates. Each of the stamping plates comes with the standard blue protective film which must be removed prior to use. That is a 'tip' that I learned early on and as evidenced by that 1st stamping attempt linked above. Still rolling my eyes on that one. These plates come with a plastic backing to avoid sharp edges and include the Born Pretty name and website.