Silver Fishnet Stamping and Glequins

Stamping is not one of my strongest nail art skills, so I try to practice when I have the time (and patience). But sometimes I think that just a plain stamped mani needs a little extra something, and that's how today's nail were born!

I started with two coats of Glitter Wonderland by Color Club, a sparkly purple. Then I used Konad Special Polish in Silver to stamp a fishnet design onto each nail. I wanted a little extra oomph, so I added some silver holographic glequins to my ring fingers. For those of you who don't know, a glequin is a glitter-sequin type thing, and I got mine from the Born Pretty Store.

I think the glequins give this mani the extra sparkle it needed!

American Flag Nails

Happy 4th of July to everyone in the USA! In honor of this most patriotic holiday, I have some appropriately festive nail art.

My inspiration for today's nail was the American flag! To break it down, I'll start with my red-and-white striped nails. I started with a base of ORLY Au Champagne, a shimmery white. I used three coats to even everything out. I let that dry completely, then I used some striping tape and a thick coat of Milani One Coat Glitter in Red Sparkle. One thing I have to note is that I have two versions of Red Sparkle - one with gold glitter and one without. The latter is older than the gold glitter version, and it's the version I used here. I added a coat of Seche Vite to smooth things out.

Now for the star nails, I started with a base of ORLY Stone Cold, a beautiful shimmery blue. I let that dry, then I used Konad Special Polish in White and a Bundle Monster plate to stamp the star designs onto my nails. My stamping skills (while improving) are not the best, so I fixed any mistakes using White and a nail art brush. I let that dry, then I added a coat of Seche Vite.

I'm really excited that these came out so well! The stamping isn't 100% perfect, but you can only see the imperfections from close up.

Everyone at my internship loved my nails. Now we're having a good ol' American barbecue to celebrate Independence Day! Hopefully swimming doesn't ruin my nail art.

I hope you all have a great 4th of July!

Throwback Thursday: Strawberry Fields Forever

Welcome to another Throwback Thursday! Sorry this is so late - I've been very busy lately with my summer internship at Good Housekeeping. But anyway, here's the manicure:

I was inspired by the name of this polish for this manicure. The pink I used is Strawberry Fields by China Glaze, so I decided strawberry accent nails would be appropriate! The accent is Tree Hugger by China Glaze, and I used Therese is Red Hot by Brucci for the stamping with my Konad stamper. I topped the accent nails with a coat of High Fashion by Milani to complement the gold flecks in the pink of my other nails. I think it's pretty cute, and I'm a big fan of the Beatles so I'm happy.

Throwback Thursday: Mint Flowers

I recently discovered a bunch of old nail photos on my computer, so I'm starting a new thing on Tooth and Nails: Throwback Thursday! Every Thursday I'll post an old photo. The photography might not be the best, and the nail art might be a bit messy, but I think they're worth sharing :) Let me know what you guys think!

The first Throwback Thursday will be one of my rare Konad manicures.

I used a base of Sinful Colors Mint Apple, then I used Konad Special Polish in White to stamp on the floral pattern. The pattern comes from one of the Konad image plates, but I can't remember which one.

That concludes my first Throwback Thursday! Hope you enjoyed it :)

Snowflake Glitter Gradient

Sorry for the delay in posting, but I've been quite busy the past few days. Today, I arrived in Sheffield, England! I'll be spending a semester abroad at Sheffield Hallam University, so it's been a really crazy week of preparation and travel for me. I'm really tired since I didn't sleep on the plane (essentially pulling an all-nighter), but I'm excited and really glad to be relaxing in my new apartment right now. Obviously, since I'm abroad, I won't have my full collection of nail polish with me for the next few months. I have a decent amount with me, so I hope to post as often as possible :)

Anyway, on to the polish.

I haven't really seen any snow so far this winter (until this morning when I arrived in England), so I elected to put some on my nails instead!

I started with a base of China Glaze Blue Bells Ring, a pretty blue with a silver shimmer/frost. Then I used a snowflake design from a Bundle Monster plate (I forget which one!) and used Konad Special Polish in White to stamp a snowflake onto each nail. I wanted to place them a bit randomly, but the snowflakes were rather large. Then I used a makeup sponge to add a gradient of China Glaze Glistening Snow. To make the gradient a bit smoother, I used China Glaze Fairy Dust, which is essentially just a less dense version of Glistening Snow. Yay holo glitter!

I'm really proud of how well the stamping came out! I'm usually not too good at it.

And that's all for today :)

Day 7: Black and White

I'm so glad it's finally the weekend! It was a rough week at Carnegie Mellon since it's midterms. I had a ton of work to do. But I'm all done for the week :)

Day 7 of the challenge is black and white! I figured it was a good excuse to do some stamping, but it was a bit of a fail :(

I always have trouble scraping the polish off the plate properly, so I couldn't get the full image! And then I put on topcoat too soon and smeared it. Ugh! So frustrating.

I started with two coats of White on White by China Glaze. I used Konad Special Polish in Black to stamp on an image from Konad plate m73.

I think it looks okay from a distance! Strangely enough, a lot of people thought this mani was really cool even though I thought it was a mess.

Oh well. Practice makes perfect!

The next day's theme is metallic; stay tuned.