The Lacquer Legion: Adoration

Sometimes I struggle with nail art inspiration, but coming up with my look for this month's theme from The Lacquer Legion was actually pretty easy! I just thought about everything I truly adore in the nail art world—polish brand, type, and color, as well as my favorite nail art technique—and combined it all into one manicure.

Gradients will always be my first nail art love. One of The Nailasarus's beautiful gradient manicures was the first nail art I really fell hard for and felt like I just had to try myself, and from that point on, I was hooked. As I've experimented with gradients more during the last year, I've found that I especially love them when they're done with holographic polishes: something about all that sparkle transitioning from one color to the other just really works for me. Add in my favorite colors (purple and black) and my favorite polish brands (piCture pOlish and a england), and you've got a gradient I just can't help but adore!

To get this look, I started with a base of piCture pOlish Hussy and then sponged on a gradient using Hussy and a england Bridal Veil with a makeup wedge. It was actually my husband's idea to do the gradient vertically and alternate the color order on each nail, and I really love the effect. It's almost like the gradient runs in both directions at once, which is pretty genius, I think. Thanks, honey!

I would happily wear gradients on my nails all the time, but I know this blog would get pretty boring if I did! However, I do want to sincerely thank the Lacquer Legion ladies for coming up with a great prompt this month that gave me the perfect excuse to put together all the things I love.

See you next month, Lacquer Legion!

Adventures in Stamping Post #2: Things Are Looking Rosy

My mailbox was literally stuffed with nail goodies last weekend (don't you love it when all your incoming packages arrive on the same day? It's like Christmas!), so I decided to use a little bit of everything I received to create this rosy manicure.

I started with a base of a-england Her Rose Adagio on the three fingers I wanted to stamp, and then used a-england Briar Rose and the MoYou Fairytale Collection plate 02 (out of stock right now, unfortunately!) to create the stripes on my pointer, middle, and pinky fingers. And since I'm making a special effort to work on my stamping these days, here's my confession: I originally planned to stamp my thumb, too—with the unicorn image from that plate—but it didn't go well at all. I didn't have the time to try again, so I just painted over the bad stamp job with Briar Rose and left it at that. In the end, think I like the balance of having two darker accent nails here anyway, so it all worked out for the best. Once again, I focused on using polishes that I knew would work and only stamping a few nails to increase my chances of success.

I was so excited to receive my packet of little silver unicorns from She Sells Seashells (unicorns are my favorite!) that I had to use them immediately, too. I added these to my ring fingers while the final coat of Briar Rose was still tacky, and then I sealed them in with topcoat. I did gently bend the unicorns, as She Sells Seashells suggests, but my ring fingernails are so curved that the little horns insisted on sticking out and poking me. I ended up using about three thick layers of topcoat to solve this, which was a little annoying, but didn't affect the look at all—and the unicorns stayed put nicely for the four days I wore them. I'll probably put them on a different finger and/or do a better job of bending them to the shape of my nail before I apply any polish next time.

As wonderful as a-england polishes and unicorns are, however, the most exciting thing about this manicure for me is that I used my new camera to take the pictures! I'm definitely still learning the ropes and figuring out what works best with this new setup, as you can probably tell from the slightly soft focus here, but overall I'm really pleased with how these pictures turned out and I hope my photography skills will continue to improve. By far the BEST thing about the new camera is the custom white balance setting! These pictures needed no color correction whatsoever to look true to life, which is going to save me so much time and headache when processing my images.

Thanks for looking!

Adventures in Stamping Post #1: New Year, New Strategies

One of my major nail art goals for the new year is to get better at stamping. I adore how a well done stamping job looks, and I've accumulated some amazing image plates since I started getting into nail art, but the truth is, I'm pretty terrible at the actual stamping. I don't know what it is—my long, curvy nail beds, or a technique issue, or (most likely) a little bit of both—but I can't tell you how many times I've psyched myself up to do a stamping manicure, only to have it end in a frustrated tirade and nails that have to be completely redone. It makes me a little nuts!

I'm determined to beat this, however, so I've come up with some steps/guidelines for myself to get more practice with stamping and find what works best for me. And since I know other people also struggle with stamping sometimes, I thought I'd share my process here and go into some more detail than usual about what is/isn't working for me. I hope that in a few months, I'll be writing a post about my improved stamping skills!

Anyway, here are the strategies I'll be using to practice my skills while trying to preserve my sanity:

1. Use polishes that I know are stamping-friendly.
2. Only stamp a few nails at one time.
3. Try new stamps/tools.
4. Study and experiment with new stamping techniques.
5. Don't give up!

These all probably seem like common sense on some level, but it always helps me to have a game plan written down! I know it definitely helped me when planning the purple & teal manicure I'm sharing here today.

For this look, I focused on strategies 1 and 2. First, I chose a stamping polish that I knew would work well: a-england Lady of the Lake. Holos and metallic polishes just seem to work best for me—even better than the actual Konad stamping polishes I have, for whatever reason—so I went right for the holos when I started this manicure. (I think the holographic particles just sit well in the grooves of the stamping plate, and they seem less prone to smearing or squashing when you're doing the actual stamping? I'm not sure why—if anyone knows the scientific reason, I'd love to hear it!)

After choosing my stamping polish and getting the base color & stamping plate ready to go (Serum No. 5 A Cup of Teal and Vivid Lacquer's VL022 plate, respectively), I gave myself permission to only stamp two nails on each hand. Even further, I made a deal with myself and decided if I could at least get two nails stamped on the hand I'd be photographing, I could live with that! This seemed to take some of the pressure off (because at most, I'd just be redoing two nails if things went haywire), and all the stamps on both hands turned out really well the first time. I was so excited that I immediately tracked down my husband and made him admire my work!

Once the stamping and victory dancing were both out of the way, I applied two coats of Lady of the Lake on my remaining three nails. I also added one coat of ILNP A Nice Chianti to my pinky and thumb to warm the whole look up a bit and add some depth.

Overall, I'm really pleased with how this looked turned out and how well my stamping strategies served me. Expect to see more stamping manicures here in the near future! If you have any additional tips or tricks I should be considering, I'd love to hear them. Thanks for looking!

a-england Christmas Gradient

For my one truly Christmasy manicure this year, I went to some of my favorite polishes to create what I think is a really classy holiday gradient that I ended up loving a lot.

This is a-england Saint George and Rose Bower on the tips of my nails done in a gradient with Bridal Veil. I wore this to an evening holiday event so I wanted something festive but not too over the top, and I think this fit the bill perfectly. I'd wear a-england polishes in various gradients every single day if I could! They just blend so beautifully and create a flawless look every single time.

Because the darker color was at my cuticles for this manicure instead of on the tips, I tried a slightly different technique for the gradient. I started by just painting the tips of my nails with Saint George and Rose Bower (just freehanding it with the brush from the bottle, nothing fancy), and then doing the same with Bridal Veil, but starting at my cuticles and stopping about halfway up the nail. And then from that point, I used the usual makeup sponge method to dab more of the two colors onto each nail to cover up the harsh, unblended line and create the actual gradient. I had no idea whether this was going to work when I started, but I think it went really well and I'll definitely be doing it again! I love the look of the color emerging out of the black from the cuticle.

Since my Christmas tree was right there next to me as I worked on this manicure, I grabbed an ornament off a nearby branch and experimented with a more "artistic" shot for my last photo, just for fun. :)

Sadly, I chipped this manicure like nobody's business while I was cleaning house in preparation for holiday visitors; otherwise, I'd definitely still be wearing it! Next time I'll show you what I ended up wearing for actual holidays (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) themselves.

Have a safe and happy holiday, everyone!

Rosy Gradient

Since the Christmas holiday is fast approaching, I've decided this will be red week on the blog! I've got a few great red-based manicures to show you, starting with this one:

I know red and black may not scream holiday colors to everyone, but I really love them. I think this gradient of a-england Rose Bower and Bridal Veil would be perfect for a holiday cocktail party or other classy Christmas event.

The gradient itself was super easy: I just started with a base of Rose Bower and sponged on Bridal Veil (both amazing polishes, by the way) with a makeup wedge. Holographic polishes are a great choice for gradients because they tend to blend well with each other and make for a nice transition between colors without too much fuss.

Also, while I'm at it, Rose Bower is a really perfect holiday red, in my opinion—so shimmery and rich. It would make a great base for all kinds of holiday nail art!

Swatch: A-England Saint George

Today I have swatches of what turned out to be probably my absolute favorite nail polish that I've tried to date. It's been in my collection for a while, but I (foolishly!) didn't get around trying it until recently, and I'm kicking myself for that now because it's just. so. GORGEOUS.

This is a-england Saint George, a deep, jewel-toned green, and I pretty much want to have it on my fingers all the time now. I know that most nail bloggers are very aware of a-england polishes, and a quick search reveals that this one has been swatched all over the place already, but I just couldn't resist posting my own pictures of it here.

The polish itself went on beautifully—two very easy coats, and it stayed right where I put it. (I could have easily gone with just one coat, but I like at least two coats on my nails because they're on the thin side.) The holographic elements are also beautiful: I couldn't stop staring at my own nails, especially in full-spectrum light.

The other cool thing about a-england polishes is that they're all inspired by amazing stories: check out Sam's amazing write-up over on Fashion Polish if you're interested in reading about what inspired Saint George and the other shades in this line. She did a much better job with it than I ever could!