Artsy Wednesday: Three Colors

It's never too early to start thinking about Halloween, and so I did a fall-ish, Halloweeny manicure to get me in a spooky mood.  I used Sally Hansen Lickety Split Lime as the base, then Slick Slate and Sun Kissed for stamping, using the LeaLC B plate.  I'm pretty pleased with the result!

Check out the other Artsy Wednesday bloggers; they all do some pretty gorgeous work (and we have two new participants, Makeup and Masala and Every Little Polish)!

Lab Muffin

Maria's Nail Art

Valiantly Varnished

Unnaked Nails

Nail & Polish

Beauty Gnome

M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E
Makeup and Masala
Every Little Polish

B&W Nail Art Challenge Day 2: Stamping

I tend to gravitate toward my twirly whirly, fluffy and frilly stamping patterns, so today I aimed to use the harder-edged, more geometric ones off of my LeaLC B plate.  Et Voila!

Sorry for the slightly gloomy pics; it's been threatening rain all day long!
Check out today's B&W Nail Art Challenge looks!

An InLinkz Link-up

10 Day Nail Art Challenge Days 8 and 9: Holiday Watercolor and a Red and Green Manicure

First up, we've got a watercolor manicure.  I used the tutorial here from Nail Art 101: Watercolor Nails Tutorial to create a soft and sweet red, green and gold watercolor.  I do think this turned out a little more springtime than holiday, but hey, that just means I can use the same colors in a few months!

Next, a good ol' green and red manicure (it was supposed to be red, green and white, but I totally forgot to add white! Whoops!).  I stamped some radiant pointsettias onto a nice kelly green background; I wish my camera could accurately capture how lovely the raspberry red of the Kleancolor Red Metallic is for this manicure, it's just gorgeous!

10 Day Holiday Nail Art Challenge Day 3: Gift Wrap

I don't actually own any gift wrap at the moment; I tend to use gift bags because they're so much faster.  So, I drew my inspiration from thin air and decided a nice gilted red would be a lovely giftwrap.

Using the Llarowe LeaLC stamping plate B and Kleancolor Metallic Gold, I stamped a whole bunch of gift-wrappey patterns onto Butter London's Knees Up.  Knees Up is SO gorgeous, and the Kleancolor metallics stamp like a dream!

Jazzing up a manicure with stamping!

Yesterday's manicure was plenty of fun, but I thought it could use a little jazzing up.  I created a Dusk/Dawn look with Salon Express plates SE20 and SE21, putting little setting/rising suns and stars on my nails!  I'm really pleased with how this turned out, I've definitely gotten way better at stamping.  I'll do a full stamping tutorial post someday, but you'll just have to enjoy this pic for today!

Memorial Day Manicure

Click picture for larger

It feels a little frivolous to post a manicure on Memorial Day, but this is a blog for nail polish, so it seems fitting even if it is a little silly.  

A day set aside to honor Americans lost to war is  a pretty somber, serious and needful kind of day.  However, I feel like the atmosphere of the day has become one of enjoyment of our freedoms, spending time with friends and family, a day of gratitude.  That's how I choose to observe Memorial Day.  I'm certainly grateful for my life, and am grateful to know the people I know, live where I live, and to be able to do what I do.  Thank you, to anyone and everyone that has made this country a better place.