And here’s my last Christmassy manicure. If you’ll excuse the chips and wear, I’d be grateful - didn’t get to take a picture till 10 days in!
This was China Glaze Glittering Garland with Andrea Fulerton striping polish in white stamped over with a Bundle monster plate snowflake. This needed more glitter.
Filed under konad, nail art, nails, Nails of the Day!, notd
I painted my nails especially for my birthday. These were OPI The one that got away stamped with Orly Luxe using Konad M57 – leopard print, and then a coat of China Glaze Golden Enchantment – a gold holographic glitter. And again, everything is topped with a big old layer of Seche Vite, the shiny glossy topcoat of the gods.
Clearly my tastes are not so refined. I’ve used all these polishes/stamps before so nothing was a surprise except that it appears I can’t keep a patch of nail polished on my middle finger of my left hand – it just keeps chipping off there. Very weird. Again, I couldn’t find my SD card and I wanted to get a photo before I ruined them, hence the stamping excess all over my fingers. I love how well Luxe stamps.
As for what I did for my birthday, well, I dressed as Bookaboo for my nephew’s 3rd birthday party.
Bookaboo:
Me:
I thought I looked excellent, but I was the only person visibly dressed up in the car on the way there and got some really funny looks!
Then we went to see Matilda the Musical, which was absolutely EXCELLENT. You should totally go. If, y’know, you live in SE England… otherwise it might be a bit of a trek. (Boringly, I changed my outfit) The music is written by Tim Minchin who is basically my favourite comedian ever. I just crack up, although I would suggest not YouTubing him if you have a nervous disposition.
Afterwards, we quickly stopped in to get a takeaway from MEATLiquor as I just can’t get enough of their burgers and deep fried pickles. OMG, so good. You should go, if you haven’t already. Seriously.
I get asked quite often how I get the patterns or little pictures on my nails, and it’s by konadding, or stamping nail art. Konad is the brand name of the manufacturers of all the stuff you’ll need. You can buy the things you’ll need from ebay or amazon - I’m linking you to a marketplace seller there who I’ve bought supplies off, and got good service, but there are others. I recommend getting a starter kit, like the one linked, just because it’s easier and works out quite cost effectively. Here’s what you’ll need, in addition to your normal base coat, colour and top coat:
So, first start with your nails shaped and with a protective base coat of your choice. (warning! naked nails!)
Then, paint your nails in a colour of your choice. Colour choices are quite important – the polish you stamp with doesn’t need to be a special Konad polish (although they’re quite good) but it does need to be quite thick and densely pigmented, and then you’ll want to choose a base colour that goes well with it. Today I chose Essie’s Mint Candy Apple.
At this point, it’s up to you whether you would like to put a top coat on or not – I normally do because I use Seche Vite (aka the best top coat ever) which dries my polish quickly and is SO shiny. Basically, you need to wait for your nails to be 100% totally dry, because when you stamp them, you’ll squish any damp polish with the stamper.
Next, take your image plate and your polish and pop a blob of polish on the image you have picked. By now, I’ve made sure everything I’m using is on either an old flannel, or a couple of sheets of kitchen roll, or a cotton wool pad, all with a bit of acetone to dissolve any excess.
(Ok, so that probably didn’t need a picture)
Then, and this is where you need to start working quickly, take your scraper at a 45 degree angle, and scrape the excess polish off, onto the acetone-y flannel.
Then, transfer the image to the stamper. I do this by rolling from right to left, but other people get good results by stamping straight down too.
Check your image has transferred properly.
Then, roll it onto your nail in the same way you picked up the image. Surprisingly, I don’t have a picture of that because I am not an octopus. Clean everything every few nails with acetone – none of this moisturising nail varnish remover, it can leave residue. Put a layer of top coat on your nails to protect the image.
That’s it! See, it wasn’t so hard! Actually, this post makes it seem tricky but at the beginning of the month I was able to do approximately 30 sets of nails in an hour and a half. That’s 3 minutes a person! Let me know if you try it out – I’d love to see your attempts!
