Mid-week quickie: Catrice Blues Brother Vol. II

For this Mid-Week Quickie, I started with a coat of CND Stickey Base Coat. I then applied two coats of Catrice Cosmetics Blues Brother Vol. II, a deep cobalt blue with fine glitter. It photographed better than I thought it would! I then applied a coat of Seche Vite to finish.

It's a good color on its own, but it really pops with a good topcoat.

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One stamping pattern, three different looks

I was really excited about this post because it's the first one on Polishly that shows off one of my favorite things about nail stamping: versatility!

I started off with this pattern from my XL stamping plate A. It's the pattern on the top left corner of the plate.

I wanted the first look I created to be have some sparkle. 

I'd say it was successful ;-)

I used CND Stickey Base Coat and Seche Vite top coat for all three looks in this post.

For the first photoset, I applied two coats of Catrice Cosmetics Jade Is Not My Name, a light green creme. I got this polish on sale (it was just  €1.75, and Catrice polishes are already nearly always under the €3 price point anyway) and I'd had it for almost two months before I used it for the first time with this look. It photographs bluer than it is. To be perfectly honest, I don't like it on its own at all. It might be good for Halloween, but by itself it made my skin look sickly. But I gave it a shot because I figured like the other green shades I had, it would look really good with gold. I was pretty happy with how it turned out!

I stamped the pattern with a generic gold stamping polish. 

The next look was the first one I tried when I got XL stamping plate A last spring, and it's still one of my favorites. 

I applied two coats of Catrice Cosmetics Birdy Reloaded, a sunny yellow with a subtle hint of shimmer. Although I usually really like Catrice polishes because they have a wide range of colors, are really affordable and usually apply well, this shade had a little bit of streakiness to it. It didn't matter in this case though, since you can't tell with the stamping on top.

The pattern was stamped with red creme Konad Special Polish.

For the third and last look, I applied two coats of Essie Smokin' Hot, a dark purple/mauve creme. I stamped it with black shimmer Konad Special polish. 

I wanted to try something different with this look, so I applied Essence Matt topcoat over all nails except my ring finger, which I left glossy both as an accent nail and to show contrast.

The pattern is definitely more subtle here because there's less contrast, but there's still enough to make it wearable. I think it's also a great look for autumn!

A few things to keep in mind if you try this out...

With dark stamping polishes, you might still end up with a little bit of polish around your cuticles right after, even if you tidy up with a brush like I do. You can put tape around the outside of the nail to keep if from getting on the rest of your fingertip, but that won't keep it off the cuticle (at least not without affecting how your nails look). I find that cleaning the polish off your fingers with a cotton swab soaked in acetone is faster than putting tape all around your fingers and then removing it, but that's my preference.

Also, I highly recommend if you try these looks matt to put a coat of Seche Vite on first. Why? Because the thicker formula of Seche Vite helps keep the delicate stamped pattern from smearing. Even after fully dried, other topcoats I've used will smudge the pattern at some point, even if I'm being really careful. Matt topcoats on their own also tend to smudge nail art.

So which one's your favorite? 

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Snakeskin print stamped nails

I admittedly thought about a few potential puns for this one, but I'll spare you the gory details. I did, however, include stamping plate info with this post (including pics!), since it was asked on the Polishly Instagram and I'd been wanting to add it for a while.

As for the nails...this is a great look to try if you're new to nail stamping. As long as you have the basic technique down (I'm working on a tutorial video), it doesn't matter if you're really exact with where you place the stamp on your nail. Since snake prints tend to be pretty random in nature, I think it actually looks a lot better in this case if it's not too perfect.

See what I mean? 

The variation in the patterns and how they're placed?

To create this look, I started with a coat of CND Stickey Base Coat.

I then applied two coats of Essence Cosmetics Colour & Go "Wanna Say Hello", a dark brown creme.

I then stamped on the snakeskin pattern with a generic gold stamping polish.

I finished with a coat of Seche Vite topcoat.

Now, for the stamping plates...

They're available from MagnoNails.de or Amazon. Cheeky apparently manufactures them, although there's no name imprinted on the plate. If you search "XL Stamping Plate" on Amazon, you'll see the ones I've used for this and other full nail stamps.

Don't mind the reflection from my lamp ;-)

This one is plate "D".

I used a combination of these three patterns on my nails.

As you can see, the edges are curved, which is great if you want to just stamp a pattern on your nail tips, but you can also cover a full nail more easily than with Konad full nail patterns.

Above is a closeup of XL Stamping plate B (recognize the pattern from the Meghan Draper Mani?) next to Konad plate M83. You can see it covers a lot more of the nail, which is great for me, since the Konad plates usually don't cover my thumbnail, and my hands and nails aren't very big at all.

I also used a pattern from plate B for the Medici Manicure.

I hope this is helpful info in case any of you would like to recreate these looks at home on your own.

Thanks for visiting!

Mid-week quickie

I've been so busy the last week with the start of school again! The kids in my class have been trickling in for their second and last year with me, and before that I spent two days setting up my classroom. That included A LOT of lifting. Meanwhile after school I've been preparing materials and projects for my class, writing up our monthly newsletter...anyone who thinks teaching Kindergarten is just singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and coloring should probably try it for a day ;-)

But, as much as I do love my job and the kids in my class, all that hasn't left me with much time for a proper manicure.

However, this afternoon I played around with an ANNY polish I got recently.

To create this look, I started with a coat of Essie Protein Base Coat.

I then painted on two coats of ANNY One and Only, a smoky lavender creme. The bottle I'm holding in the photo is one of their minis, which I really like because they're sold individually and not in sets, so you can get a smaller bottle of a color you want to experiment with or that you know you won't use too often, but without committing to buying or storing a full-size bottle.

I added a coat of Catrice A Million Styles in Have an Ice Day (can you tell how much I love that topcoat?) for the ring finger accent nail.

I then applied one coat of Essie To Dry For as a topcoat.

The Essie base and topcoats aren't my favorites, even though I have them. I still love the staying power CND Stickey Base Coat gives me and the shine, protection and quick but thorough drying I get from Seche Vite. But I'm guessing I'll change this polish in another day or two, and the Essie base and top coats should be fine until then.

I'm looking forward to trying more looks with this shade. It's a softer color than it photographs as, not quite as dark. And like all the ANNY polishes I've tried it has a great formula and applies easily.

Thanks for visiting!