Yellow Zebra Nails- Stamp over a Saran wrap method base

Hello everyone!

Ever since I saw a picture of a yellow zebra called Zoe, I've wanted to make yellow zebra nails. The challenge in Adventures In Stamping, about a month ago, was "Stamping over a Saran wrap method base". So the base is the pastel yellow and gold saran wrap mani I showed you in the latest blog post. And I stamped with Konad White and these four stamping plates:

Stamping plates used:

a) Cheeky Jumbo Plate 9 "Wild at Heart"- zebra face with left eye
b) A Chinese plate (Sorry, but I don't know how to write the letters) The seller calls it "QA Series 2012 Anniversary Edition" -zebra face with right eye
c) Pueen 10 from the Sumptuous Gallery set- thick stripes
d) Konad m 57- bending stripes

And here are the nail polish bottles:

Nail polish used:

H&M: Want a lemon - yellow
H&M: Run Baby Run - gold
Konad: White - white stamping polish

The photo I saw of Zoe shows a zebra with blue eyes, and yellow stripes instead of black stripes. But the color looks more orange than the color on my nails. Now I've seen other photos of her where the color of the stripes look more like a golden retriever's. Zoe is not an albino, but has a disorder called amelanosis. Because zebras with this coloring look different from their herd, they are in danger when they live in the wild. Zoe is kept in an animal sanctuary in Hawaii.

I liked the yellow zebra nails very much, and they matched one of my T- shirts. But the gold doesn't show well, so next time I stamp over a saran wrap base, I think I'll choose colors that are more different.


Lani

Yellow and gold saran wrap louboutin nails

Hello everyone!

I started with pastel yellow, and used a small brush to paint the underside of my nails with a gold nail polish. Then I used the saran wrap technique to add a little gold nail polish over the yellow base, and added a coat of Seche Vite. This was supposed to be the base for my "Baby Prince Nails", so that's why I made louboutin nails. But I tested the baby blue stamping on the other hand, and it didn't turn out so well... I liked it like this, though.

Yes, I turned the photo. Yes I noticed the water in the bottle, but I like the picture better like this :-)

Saran wrap method:

I've had the saran wrap method on my "to do list" ever since I first saw a Saran nails tutorial on the blog Nailed It. (I hope I'm not hurting anyone's feelings by linking to her. I saw in the comments on that page that a similar tutorial had been made prior to that, but the link didn't work, so I don't know who to credit.) After that, I have seen saran wrap used in different ways; either by adding color, or by removing the second color, using wrinkly plastic wrap (also called saran wrap) as a tool.

This is how I did it:

I started with dry yellow nails, put some gold nail polish on my palette, dipped the saran wrap in the gold, dabbed on the palette until the saran wrap had the desired amount of gold polish, and dabbed on the nail.

Saran/ plastic wrap:

Nail polish used:

H&M: Want a lemon - yellow
H&M: Run Baby Run - gold

This was a very quick way of dressing up a manicure, and it makes me sad that I waited so long before I tried it. The reason why I did it now, was a A.I.S. challenge: "stamping over a saran wrap method base". I'll show you in the next post.

Lani

H&M Want a lemon + new wide H&M brush

Hello everyone!

This is the first time I'm showing you a pastel yellow creme nail polish. For some reason I thought my skin was too pale for colors like this. But after seeing many beautiful yellows on Marias Nail Art and Polish Blog, I wanted to try one. I love the color. It's H&M Want a lemon. And as I always like to mention Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) do not test on animals, and can be found on the animal organizations' cruelty- free lists :-)

The first coat was streaky, but as I got used to the new wide brush, it was easier and easier to apply the polish. This is 3 coats and one coat of Seche Vite.

Here you can see the old and the new brush:

Left: Old H&M brush. Right: New H&M brush

I bought this polish a few weeks ago, and was surprised that they had changed the brush. It looks like the bottles with the new brush have a narrow cap, and come in a little plastic box. The old bottles have a cap in the same size as the bottle, and come in a plastic bag.

H&M Want a lemon

I also bought the gorgeous IKB blue called Serenity now, and a kind of pastel grey- green called Chill out. They also have the wide brush.

H&M Want a lemon

This yellow was the base for the yellow zebra saran wrap mani that you might have seen on A.I.S. one and a half week ago. Hopefully I'll show it here on the blog too, soon.


Lani

Shadow Stamping - Red with white flowers & black shadow

Hello everyone!

Shadow Stamping

"Shadow stamping" was the challenge in the group Adventures In Stamping (A.I.S.) on Sunday two weeks ago. I had not even heard about it, but thankfully we were given a link to a very helpful YouTube tuorial. I'm very bad at lining up the images, so I didn't get the shadows where I wanted them to be. So I must admit that this was very difficult. I don't know why I always believe that everything is so easy before i start... The photo above is the one I shared in A.I.S. two weeks ago. It was taken in the middle of the process; after redoing the index finger nail, but before redoing the middle finger nail, and before I cheated and painted some shadows on the pinkie and the middle finger nail...

Shadow Stamping

Shadow Stamping

Shadow Stamping

I was very proud of the shadow stamping on the thumb, but of course I managed to smear the flower when I applied the top coat.

Shadow Stamping

Used:

IsaDora: #600 Clear Base/ Top coat (used as fast drying base coat)
Pretty Serious: Hell on Wheels (red)
Stamping plates: Bundle Monster BM-318 and BM- 313
Stamping polish: Konad SP Black and Konad SP White
Seche Vite (fast drying top coat)
H&M: Black (striper from a set, to paint extra shadows)

Used for shadow stamping

I love the design on the Pretty Serious box, so here are two more photos of it:

Shadow Stamping

Shadow Stamping

I feel very lucky, because I won both the red polish and the stamping plates. In the Chit Chat Nails Bundle Monster Giveaway last fall, I won a 30$ gift code, and chose 5 nail art wheels and the 2012 stamping plate collection from the Bundle Monster web site. And as I told you in the last blog post, I won the gorgeous red Pretty Serious nail polish in the Norway Nails 1000 Facebook Likes Giveaway this summer. And the stamper and scraper I used was a gift from KKCenterHk! :-)

Shadow Stamping

I like the effect, so I think I will try this technique again. I just have to learn how to line up the image. Next time I'll try to make a dot on the stamper. That's supposed to make it easier to stamp straight.

Lani

Pretty Serious: Hell On Wheels- from my Norway Nails Mystery Grab Bag!

Hello everyone!

This classic red nail polish is Pretty Serious: Hell On Wheels. It's from the Australian brand Pretty Serious Cosmetics' latest collection; Hit the Road. I love brands that are vegan and don't test on animals! :-) Remember the Norway Nails 1000 Facebook Likes Giveaway? I was one of the winners. I won a mystery grab bag!!!! :-) And this is one of the beauties Wenche from Norway Nails sent me.

Norway Nails is an online shop, situated by the beautiful fjords of Norway (Europe), selling hard to find nail polish and some nail art supplies. She shipps to European countries, so what I mean with HTF is that it's hard to find for Europeans. It's easy to order, you can pay with PayPal, she wraps your order as if it was a gift, and sends the orders quickly. And if you can't find what you're looking for, you can ask her, because she also offers personal shopper services.

I expected the polish to have a cream finish, but when I tried it, I wondered if it was a crelly. My first crelly. So I tried to find out. This is what Pretty Serious writes;

Our perfect red creme has the shine and smoothness of a highly pigmented jelly. It is our tribute to Hell on Wheels herself - Christine.

(I didn't think about the movie Christine until now... Have you seen it? It's about a rather scary car called Christine)

I was very pleased with the quality of this nail polish. I also like the bottle with the contrasting matte cap, and the beautiful box it came in. Look:

This is what I call art:

The ingredients list is on the side you can't see. To read it, click here. Pretty Serious nail polish is Big 3 Free and vegan :-)

I used two coats, but on the photo below, you can see what one coat looks like. This is one coat, no clean- up, no top coat:

As you see, this polish is very shiny. And I'm sorry, but I don't remember if the two pictures below and the one with the lavender flower, were taken before or after a coat of Seche Vite.

This is a kind of red that is surprisingly easy to wear together with other colors. I hope it's not wrong to call it a blue toned red. It was difficult to make the camera show the true color. It was actually much easier when I added some nail art. I'll show you in a few days. It's not orange or pink at all. I would call it a classic red. It looks very similar to my acrylic paint called Crimson Red.

I think this red color can work for most skin tones. I love it! I know I look more white than usual on some of the photos, but that's probably partly because of the camera and partly because I had been ill, and therefore not been out in the sun.

This nail polish can be bought from Norway Nails here if you are in Europe. It looks like Pretty Serious has world wide shipping. So if you live in other parts of the world, you can buy it here.

Thank you Wenche for choosing this nail polish for me! :-)


Lani