Showing posts with label first mate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label first mate. Show all posts

Thursday, October 24, 2013

30 Mani Marathon - Manicure 18: Half Moons

Half Moons.....literally.


This design began with a base coat, and one coat of China Glaze First Mate. Next, I used Zoya Purity to create half-moon shapes on my nail tips. Over the moons, I painted two thin coats of China Glaze Ghoulish Glow glow-in-the-dark polish (the moons really glow!). I covered everything with one coat of Orly Shine On Crazy Diamond, holographic glitter polish. I finished with a coat of Zoya Armor top coat, and let the polish dry overnight.


The next day, I used Sinful Colors Cool Grey and Red Angel stamping plate RA-113 to create the moon crater effect, and Konad white stamping polish with Bundle Monster plate BM14 for the stars. Finally, I sealed everything with a coat of Seche Vite top coat.



Friday, April 12, 2013

French Sequins...

...aka Fail Dots.



This is the second of two 'failed' manicures I attempted last night. Even though I'm not totally happy with this, there are things I do like about it, so I wanted to share it anyway. I'll explain some of why it is a fail for me, along with a bonus picture of the manicure I started with, and then redid in favor of this blue tip design.


I picked this Hard Candy Celebrate Sequins up at Walmart a few nights ago, and had visions of a french tip design with a sparkly holographic base. So after my base coat dried, I applied a coat of Celebrate Sequins to the whole nail. I then used french nail tip design guards to section off the french tip, and added a nice coat of China Glaze First Mate to the tips of the nails, immediately removing the tip guards after painting. I was happy with the way it looked with just the glitter and blue, but I felt the need to add something to break it up a bit...and this is where I failed.


I am not one to do free hand nail art, and I don't have a lot of experience with dotting, I like to stick to glitter and stamping for the most part. The dots are too big, erratically spaced, and smudged due to my lack of patience before adding top coat. Sigh. I should have left it at just the glitter and blue tips, lesson learned!


Below is the manicure I did first, which doesn't look too bad in the photo. The fail here came from the pink I chose for the tips, Orly Fabulous Flamingo. It took three coats to get the color opaque, and by then the tips were just too thick for my liking. I do think I did a better job on the dots here, though.