Golden Coral Gradient Nails

I don't really have any excuses about how long it's been since I've posted here. I'm not quite sure what happened! I've been distracted with other things for the last month, but I have still been doing nail art when I can; for some reason, sitting down to actually focus and write a blog post is the part of the process that's been eluding me. Can I blame it on the sunshine and my backlog of novels that I've been devouring?

Anyway! On to the nail art. Today I have some simple but very summery gradient nails to share. I ended up with this look recently when an initial nail art plan didn't pan out and I needed to come up with a plan B to cover the mistakes I'd already made. I never would have thought I'd end up liking a peachy-orange & gold design so much, since I usually don't like orange or gold, but I really fell in love with this as I wore it.

Born Pretty Store Stamp & Glitter Review and Nail Art

*press samples*

Born Pretty Store is an amazing nail art resource and one of my favorite online shops, so I'm really excited to be able to review some of their products for you today. I couldn't remotely fit everything into one post, so expect to see another Born Pretty review post from me soon!

Now that I have my stamping mojo well in hand, I was especially interested to review some of Born Pretty Store's stamping plates. You can never have too many good sources for plates, right? BPS has also started offering plates with larger, full-nail images, which is very exciting for those of us with longer/wider nails.

And since Born Pretty Store is the place to go for all kinds of nail art supplies, I wanted to highlight that in my review by adding another element to what would otherwise be a typical stamping manicure.

Purple Snowflake Stamping

Snowflakes are a staple of winter/holiday nail art. I think just about everyone loves snowflakes—even me, and I hate snow! When I was thinking about my own contribution to the huge collection of snowflake nail art I've seen online, however, I decided that I wanted to put a new spin on this classic holiday look.

Teal the Stars Come Out

This manicure happened because I'm still obsessed with my new Pahlish polishes and I couldn't get this purple & teal color combo out of my brain. Simple as that!

Purrfectly Grey

I know, I know... that title is the oldest cat pun in the book—I'm so uncreative today! I hope everyone will forgive me, though: things at work have been really busy for me lately, so I haven't had much time to work on super intricate nail art (OR come up with clever post titles). But I did manage to do this happy little kitty manicure recently that I wanted to share, dumb title notwithstanding!

Teal the Stags Come Home

This is one of those manicures where I just had no clue what I was going to do until I started doing it. And even then, it was all pretty much just winging it from one nail to the next!

I started with a base of Julep Misti on all my nails and then sponged the gradient onto my pointer, middle and ring fingers with Misti and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Jungle Gem. Then I added Formula X for Sephora Blast Off to my thumb and pinky. I was almost prepared to stop there, but the overall look still seemed incomplete, so I added little black studs from the Born Pretty Store to my pointer and middle fingers and the stag silhouette nail tattoo (from Big Ruby) to my ring finger.

There's not much rhyme or reason here, but I like how it all came together! I think these teal shades pair really well with the black.

What do you think—too random, or just right? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

Thanks for looking!

Sweet, Sprinkled Skittle

I don't often find myself gravitating toward super girly pinks and pastels, but as soon as I saw piCture pOlish Frosting online, I knew I had to have it. It just looked so sweet and delicious! However, because this color palette isn't my usual thing, I struggled a bit with how to incorporate the polish into a manicure once it arrived. After pulling out lots of polishes and playing with them for a bit, I finally settled on a good ol' skittle mani to highlight the beautiful, creamy base and colorful glitters in Frosting.

My pointer and middle fingers are two coats of Frosting (and a few coats of topcoat to make everything super smooth). It went on really well and I got exactly one heart glitter per hand, which is what I wanted. My ring finger is a gradient of Julep Nellie and China Glaze Spontaneous (applied with a makeup sponge), and my thumb and pinky are Spontaneous stamped with Zoya Marley and plate 03 from the MoYou Fairytale Collection.

Please excuse the slightly botched stamping job on the corner of my thumbnail—the section of the plate I was using wasn't quite big enough, so I patched it as best I could. (My patching skills still need work, ahem. Adding that to the list of stamping stuff I need to improve!)

As is usually the case whenever I do a skittle mani, I have a favorite nail from the group: this time it's the gradient. I just love how perfectly the two colors transition from one to the other!

Here's a closeup of Frosting, just for fun—don't you wish you had a cupcake or cookie that looked like that on top? I know I do!

I'd love to hear what you think of this look—please hit me up in the comments!

Thanks for looking!

Adventures in Stamping Post #3: Robots in Love

I have to start this post by saying that I'm incredibly proud of the manicure I have to show you today. I got brave and stepped way, WAY outside my comfort zone for this one, and I'm so pleased with the result!

These cute little robots are from the MoYou Sci Fi Collection Plate 02, which I used to make my own decals. I did a lot of research and watched tons of YouTube videos before attempting this, but in the end, the methods I used are #1 and #2 (as demonstrated by Lucy's Stash in her amazing video tutorials). And I'll be honest: it wasn't as easy for me as she makes it look! I went through a lot of stamping attempts that didn't turn out quite right, and I had a heck of a time getting the finished decals to adhere smoothly to my nails. (Thankfully, my pictures don't really show most of the little air bubbles I accidentally trapped under the decals!). It ended up taking me an entire evening to make six successful decals (three for each hand), but I think it was more than worth it! I wore this manicure for several days and couldn't stop looking at my nails the entire time.

The polishes I used are as follows:

• Zoya Rue for the base
• essence black stamping polish for the stamped outlines
• Zoya Trixie, Zoya Purity, and a-england Rose Bower for the detail on the decals (all painted in with a small detail brush)
• Julep Joelle for the glitter on the accent nails

As I mentioned, putting this manicure together was a really big challenge for me, especially given my overall struggles with stamping. I made sure to go slow and give myself lots of chances to fail/learn from my mistakes, which I think made all the difference for me. I also just had to accept that there would be a few imperfections in the finished look and let go of my frustration over them! So if you're inclined to try making your own decals, my main recommendations are to set aside plenty of time, and don't be afraid to make adjustments and try new things as you go. For example, I learned after applying the first decal that I needed to put down a base of my slowest-drying topcoat first, to give myself plenty of time to get them stuck in the right place before the topcoat dried!

I'm also counting this as a Valentine's Day manicure, because these robots just look so sweet together and I'm convinced they're in love. :)

Anyway, I'd love to hear what you think about making your own decals—hit me up in the comments! Have you tried this before? What worked/didn't work for you? If you haven't tried it, what would you be interested in hearing about/seeing before you do?

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!

Black & Gold New Year's Eve Nails

New Year's Eve is one of those holidays that really reveals my old lady tendencies: I'm just not that into it! If I can have some friends over and eat/drink/visit with them in the comfort of my own home, then it can be pretty great, but I've never been one to seek out a party to ring in the new year. Too much of a homebody, I suppose!

That said, I decided to get into the NYE spirit anyway and do some black and gold par-tay nails just for the fun of it. My husband & cat will be very impressed, I'm sure.

The black is Julep Cleopatra and the gold on my ring finger is Sephora + Pantone Universe Latte. The glitter topper is SUPER BLACK Dirty Money (one of my very favorite glitter toppers, though I think it's discontinued, sigh!). Finally, just to get the party vibe going a bit more, I added "VIP" charms by Hex Nail Jewelry to my thumbs—because of course I'm the VIP of my stay-at-home celebration.

Have a safe & happy new year, everyone!

Christmas Candy Gram

I've been wearing this manicure for a few days now, and I can't decide what it reminds me of more: mint candies & other delicious holiday goodies, or an over-the-top holiday sweater. Either way, I think this is definitely a Christmasy look through and through!

I started with a base of tenoverten Carmine on all my nails (except the ring finger—that got a base coat of Zoya Trixie). Then I stamped the snowflake-y pattern from MoYou's Artist Collection Plate 04 on my index and middle finger with Trixie, and used striping tape and Carmine to do the stripes on my ring finger. Finally, I painted/dabbed on a generous coat of ILNP Candy Gram on my thumb and pinky.

This manicure marked my first attempts using my new MoYou stamping plates, and I'm really loving them so far! MoYou is the hot new name in nail stamping right now, and I can definitely see why. The plates are very high quality and full of gorgeous images that transfer really well. I'm kind of a terrible stamper—my New Year's resolution is going to be improving my stamping skills, in fact!—but even I had a pleasant experience using these plates. Check them out if you have the chance!

Thanks for looking!

A Taste of Gold

For the second day of my red-themed week, I'd like the show you the manicure I wore to my big office holiday party this year.

This is piCture pOlish Vampire with Julep Gianna applied on the tips. This manicure was SO simple, but amazingly well received! I had people commenting on it left and right. Someone even told me she was getting married on Christmas Day and wanted to recreate this look for her wedding, which is just about the best compliment ever, I think.

This is two coats of Vampire and I just dabbed/placed the gold with the brush from the bottle. A generous coat of topcoat helped smooth out everything.

I also have to add a note about Vampire here: what an amazing polish! It was incredibly easy to work with and really just went on perfectly. It also wore very well and looked beautiful for days. I really need to get more bottles of piCture pOlish in my collection!

Glitter Giveaway!

Today is a special day at Amateur Manicure: I'm sponsoring/hosting my first giveaway! I love entering all the amazing giveaways in the nail blogosphere and I've always thought it would be especially fun to run one, so after studying up a bit on how these things usually go, I think I'm finally ready to try it. What can I say: it seemed like the perfect way for me to celebrate my first year (well, partial year) of nail blogging—and also say thanks to all of you who've been following along with me so far. :)

Anyway, on to the the stuff!

I love going super glitzy with my nails this time of year, so that probably explains how I ended up with a bunchy of sliver and gold glitter in the lineup for this giveaway. I just have glitter on the brain! One winner will receive all of the following:

• The New Black Glimmer Twins 2-Piece Nail Polish Set in both Golden Ticket and Revolver 
• Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Midnight Glitz
• One $15 gift certificate to Llarowe

Please enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. You must be a follower of Amateur Manicure to win. Because there are so many restrictions on shipping nail polish and I'd like to stay compliant with all laws, this giveaway is only open to continental US residents. (I have plans for another, less region-restricted giveaway soon!) Contest ends January 3, 2013. Prizes are provided and shipped by Amateur Manicure. The winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize before a new winner is selected. More detailed terms and conditions are listed in the widget. Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Little Glitter Goes A Long Way

Today's mani uses a technique I've admired for a while, but just never got around to trying until now: a reverse glitter gradient.

There are tons of tutorials for this look—I watched this one from Lucy's Stash before I did mine, but I think following just about any of them would work. I used Sephora by OPI Beauty Junkie for my base and Finger Paints Hue Left A Message? for the glitter gradient. It was very quick & easy—the technique is super forgiving! And I got lots of compliments on this look, which is always nice (and a great incentive for wearing a mani like this again soon).

Thanks for looking!

Formula X for Sephora: Hyped and Blast Off

I've been eyeing the new Formula X for Sephora line with great interest lately, so I finally decided to take the plunge and pick up a couple bottles. Today I have swatches of Hyped and Blast Off to show you.

First up is Hyped, part of the Formula X Electrics line. This is a bright magenta with some very subtle blue shimmer.

I was surprised to see so many negative reviews for this line on Sephora's site—I thought the application was very good, and I didn't have any chipping for the few days I wore it. My only complaint is that the color itself is much brighter than what I really prefer, so I grew tired of it a little faster than normal. But that's all on me!

These pictures don't show it as well as they could, but the slight blue shimmer in this polish makes the color really interesting and very different from anything else I've seen.

I also picked up Blast Off, part of the Formula X Xplosives Top Coats line. This is an all black confetti glitter topper that I REALLY liked. The glitters are all different shapes and sizes, and it went on super easily—just painted right on, with hardly any dabbing or placement. I did fish around for a couple of the largest black glitters, but that was really it.

I'm in LOVE with the splattered black paint effect of this. I see myself using it a lot when I'm in the mood to ad a little something to a plain color with minimal effort. My only caveat for this one is that it almost stayed on TOO well: I felt like I needed a sandblaster to get it off! Those glitters were very committed to staying put. That might be a good thing, though, if you want something that's not going to go anywhere for several days.

What do you think—have you tried the Formula X for Sephora line yet? What colors look most intriguing to you?

Thanks for reading!

Seattle Seahawks Nail Art

We're big Seattle Seahawks fans in my house, so when they played their big Monday night game recently, I decided to do some crazy Seahawks-themed nail art to celebrate (and to match my jersey!).

As you can see, I couldn't decide exactly what kind of look I really wanted, so I did a little bit of everything. I started with a base of Nars Galathee on my thumb, middle finger, and pinky, and then a base of Sephora by OPI It's Totally Karma on the other two fingers. Then I used striping tape on my middle and ring fingers before adding a coat of OPI I Saw...You Saw...We Saw...Warsaw and peeling the tape off. I applied the blue hex glitters (from the Born Pretty Store) to my pinky using a toothpick and clear nail polish, and a coat of ILNP Matthew Peri finished off my pointer finger. Finally, I applied the Seahawks helmet waterslide decal from Nail Country Decals to my thumb and finished everything off with a couple coats of topcoat.

After wearing this mani for a full week (butter LONDON P.D. Quick Topcoat does not mess around!), I decided that the design on my ring finger—the navy blue with the bright green stripes—is probably my favorite. The two colors together in a pinstripe just look really sharp, I think. What about you—which nail do you like best out of this random assortment?

Anyway, thanks for reading! Go Seahawks!!

31DC2013 Day 1: Red Nails

It's September once again, which means many of the big names in nail blogging are all participating in the 31 Day Challenge. If you're not familiar with the challenge, it's designed to stretch nail art skills and creativity: every day for 31 days, you create nail art based on a particular theme (various colors, patterns, and even media types are all on the list).

After seeing my favorite bloggers' results for the first few days of the challenge, I decided that I needed to get in on this fun, too! However, since I'm still new to nail art and my schedule also gets pretty crazy this time of year, I'm going to spread the challenge out over a couple of months instead. I know that eliminates what is probably the most challenging part of the challenge—having the dedication and inspiration to do something new every single day—but, baby steps, right? I'll still be working on my skills, which is the most important thing to me right now.

Anyway, on to the manicure!

Day one of the challenge was red nails, and I came up with this red glitter gradient that photographed kind of terribly but was quite rich and pretty in real life:

My camera completely flattened out the depth of this manicure, so you'll have to trust me that the glitter gradient at the tips looked much nicer in reality. I used NARS Jungle Red for the base color here (which I wasn't thrilled with, by the way—three coats and I still had issues with streakiness!), and then carefully applied I Love Nail Polish Bella to the tips in increasingly shorter layers to create a gradient effect.

If you're curious about what else the 31 Day Challenge has in store, there are some great little graphics over at Chalkboard Nails that show the full list!