Pink For Rebecca Collab

Hey y'all! Today on the blog I have a collab mani to share with you. A group of my nailie friends came together in secret to do pink/breast cancer support manis for our friend, Rebekah who walked this past weekend in the Avon Breast Cancer Walk. Rebekah lost her best friend, Annette last year to breast cancer and decided very shortly after that she wanted to do something to honor her. The Avon walk has taken a year for Rebekah to train for, which has been no easy task for her but she's done it! In fact, I just saw her write about it on Facebook - she walked 26.1 miles on Friday! I am in awe of her love for Annette, her diligence and dedication to the walk, and her success in completing what she set out to do. You're an amazing woman and friend, Rebekah! Much love to you. 

There were 39 of us that participated in the collaboration, which was organized by @polished_ink. You should go check out all the others that participated, they're all incredible. Click on the collage photo above to hop over to Instagram where you can see all of our manis! 

Thanks for reading! 

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July Favorites!

Hey y'all! Today on the blog I am going to share all of my favorite nail things from the month of July! Ready? Me too! Lets get started. 

I'll start off with my four favorite manis from the month of July - in order my top favorite is definitely my Harry Potter inspired mani. I did a collab with some nail friends for Harry Potter's birthday. I have a separate post coming about the collab we did so make sure to check back! The other 3 are tied for second place. Haha, yeah, definitely can't chose my second third or fourth faves out of them. I feel like July was a good month for me, I pumped out a lot of manis and felt like my work was definitely getting cleaner and better overall! 

July Mani Faves 

My next favorite thing was favorite technique. July was the month of stamping for me! UberChic Beauty stamping plates and my Creative Shop Stamper have proven themselves incredibly addicting for this aggressive polisher. I couldn't stop this month - many of my manis were stamped and the majority of stamping I did came from images on the UberChic Beauty plates.

The next favorite sort of ties into the last and that's my favorite polish of the month. It relates because its a stamping polish! This month's go to polish that made it into multiple manis was M Polish Berry Best Friends. BBF is a group custom berry pink holo stamping polish that was available only to the members of the M Polish Lovers group on Facebook.  Not a member? No worries - you can find it HERE and request to join. My understanding is that there may be more customs in the future! 

Final favorite this month is my favorite cuticle oil. To be fair, this brand has been my favorite since I started using it BUT the scent is a new one to me in the last couple of months. The brand is Morning Star Nails and the scent is Calm. I really love the earthiness of this scent and love that the scent lingers just a bit on my skin even long after the oil has soaked in. If you haven't tried Morning Star Nails, I highly recommend it! 

That's it for July's favorites! One more month of super intense late summer here and then we can *hopefully* start looking forward to fall! What were your favorite nail items for the month of July? 

Thanks for reading! 

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Random Nail Art Roundup!

Hey y'all! Today on the blog I have a few manis to share with you just for shiggles (thank you Tamara at Dancerspolishedlife for that fun word). These are just some manis I've done recently that don't have much purpose in a post of their own so I thought I'd pile them all together. Quick and easy and fun for y'all to look at! Let's take a peek, shall we? 

Here's a watermarble using Shinespark Polish's 80's neon cremes with white stamping using UberChic Beauty stamping plates - these were so fun and summery. I love how easily the Shinespark neons watermarble! 

And one of my most favorite manis ever using China Glaze Inner Beauty and Lorelei Lacquer Faithless Lover in a jelly sandwich and stamping over it with M Polish Guilded and Dancing in the Streets. I loved how they looked matted but I also have the glossy macro to show you! 

Lastly is a clean and simple dotticure using Orly White Tips and Shinespark Polish Totally Teal. Dotticures are one of my favorite quick and easy nail art designs. I love teal and white together! 

And that's it! See, I told you it was a quick and easy post! I loved these manis but I am sort of backlogged at the moment on posts so while I wanted to write about each of them, I didn't have the time. I still didn't want them to fall through the cracks! 

Which was your favorite? 

Thanks for reading!

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Holo gradient and stamping!

**nothing to disclose**

Hey y'all! Today on the blog I have some more holo nails to share with you. Its summertime in the Northern Hemisphere which means lots and lots of sun, what better time to wear ALL the holos???! 

I actually did these for #PPSANailChallenge that I'm doing for the month of June and the prompt was purple. I did this holo gradient and stamped over it. Keep reading after the break to see a brief explanation of how I did this mani! 

Car photo

Another car photo!

Mandatory Macro

So now that you've seen every angle possible of this mani, you might be wondering how I did it. I started with a dry base coat of Color Club Harp On It and sponged a gradient of Harp On It, Cloud Nine, and Jade Violeta over to create a subtle holo gradient across the nail. Once it was dry, I stamped with MPolish Dancing In The Streets and UberChic 3-02 and topcoated with Seche Vite. I love love love how it turned out. That is possibly the best macro shot I've ever taken. *drool* The holooooooo. 

What's your favorite holo polish? Any that I need? 

Thanks for reading! 

Love, 

Pish 

**Want to see more? Follow me on Instagram for more nail art and swatches!**

Remember Rowan Tribute

**nothing to disclose**

Hey y'all, today on the blog I have a very special tribute mani to share with you. A handful (around 60 total) of my nail friends and I got together to create a remembrance collaboration to celebrate the birth of a beautiful baby girl named Rowan. A dear friend of ours in the nail community lost her baby girl at birth a year ago so we wanted to pull together to honor and celebrate Rowan on her birthday June 12. Sinful Colors Tempest has been deemed "Rowan's purple" by some of us so that's what a majority of the manis started out with. Rowan's mommy says that butterflies were for Rowan as well, so we incorporated butterflies into all of our manis. Let me show you mine:

#rememberrowan

I started with a base of Sinful Colors Tempest on all of my nails and allowed it to dry. Once that was dry, I used my UberChic Beauty plate 3-01 for the leaf and butterfly patterns. I stamped the leaf pattern with M Polish Snowberry and then did the butterflies with reverse stamping and filled them in with various acrylic paints. The glitter gradient on my index and pinkie was done with OPI Pink, Yet Lavender. I used the same glitter for a bit of glitter placement on my middle finger. Once I was finished, I topped everything with Seche Vite fast dry topcoat. 

You can see the other manis created for this collab tribute by searching the hashtag #rememberrowan on Instagram and you can see the original flipagram created by +Carmen Ineedamani HERE. We love you BeautifulDreamer, and we will never, ever forget to remember Rowan. Fly high, sweet baby. 

Thanks for reading. 

Love, 

Pish 

Want to see more? Follow me on Instagram to see more nail art and swatches.

Monthly mani swap!

**nothing to disclose**

Hey y'all! 

Today on the blog, I have my monthly mani swap to share with you. I adore how these turned out! I was paired with @crooked_mani over on Instagram. If you're not following her, you totally should be! 

Originals on the left, recreations on the right. <3

Right away when I was paired with her, I knew that I would choose her neon lead light mani because hello? Isn't is perfection? I love that she chose a bright neon mani to recreate as well. Great minds! Here's a solo shot of mine:

UberChic Beauty stamping plate and Shinespark Polish 90's Kids neon jellies 

I started with a white base of Orly White Tips and stamped over it with Zoya Willa using UberChic plate 3-03. I topcoated with Seche Vite and allowed it to dry to protect my stamping from smearing. Once it was dry, I set in with my jellies and a tiny dotting tool and carefully filled in the image with different colors. I only did the four nails you see here and it took me just over an hour! Worth it! I topcoated again to protect the design. My only regret is that I didn't use a blacker polish for stamping. My go to, holy grail black stamping polish is by Funky Fingers, called Black Knight. I had run out but wanted to get my swap mani done. Next time I do a design like this, I will definitely use the Black Knight.

I so love doing mani swaps and look forward to doing so monthly. Do you like mani swaps? I feel like they better me as a nail artist and push me to do things I wouldn't have normally tried otherwise. 

Thank you for reading! 

Love, 

Pish 

Want to see more? Follow me on Instagram for more nail art and swatches! 

FormulaX Infinite Ombré looks and review!

Hey y'all!

Let's just start off by saying, yes. It's been a bit since I have written. Life got all hectic and crazy so blogging took a backseat to everything else. I'm going to recommit myself to at least 1, hopefully 2 posts a week again so stay tuned! 

Today on the blog I have a review of the FormulaX Infinite Ombré kit. I was provided this kit by Preen.Me as a part of their Preen VIP program. The kit includes a base color called Platinum Prime and four colors that have a jelly-like finish: Boundless Berry, Timeless Teal, Infinite Indigo, and Limitless Lemon. 

Image credit: Google Images

These polishes are highly blend-able, making gradient and ombré looks easier. You can blend them with the brush out of the bottle, with a sponge, or with a nail art brush. I did 3 separate looks with these polishes to show how they work in different applications. Let me show you what I did. 

My first look is a sunset gradient with some handpainted palm trees. For this look I used the base Platinum Prime and two colors Boundless Berry and Limitless Lemon. Once the base was down and dry (one coat), I dabbed a little Boundless Berry towards my cuticle and a little Limitless Lemon towards the tip of my nail. While the polishes were still wet, I blended them messily with a fan brush. I made 3 passes to achieve this look. I gave it a few minutes to dry and then painted on the palm trees with acrylic paint. Once everything was dry, I topcoated with Seche Vite. 

The second look is a sort of stained glass , quatrefoil look using the base and all four colors. Once I had laid down the base - Platinum Prime, I used a latex free makeup sponge to dab all four colors onto my nail. I made 3 passes for complete opacity. I topcoated and allowed everything to dry. Then I went back in with my stamping plate (UberChic Beauty  3-02) and the silver base to stamp the quatrefoil design on all of my nails. I was pleased with how crisply the base stamped! I topcoated with Seche Vite.

The third look is a watermarble using all four colors in the kit over the silver base. This one was my favorite and the most surprising. Since the polishes are meant to easily blend, I expected them to get muddy when I was trying to draw the design. As you can see, they came out very neat and crisp. I started with a dry base of Platinum Prime and dropped the colors into room temp water until I had enough rings. I drew in the flower design with my watermarble tool, dipped my finger, removed the excess polish, and removed my finger. I topcoated with Seche Vite. 

Now for the review portion! I was pleasantly surprised with how these polishes performed. I have been doing gradients and ombres for over a year now, so when I saw this kit, I thought it was a tad gimmicky. Most polishes will blend just the same as these do, even if they're not part of an "ombré" kit. If you've got a silver polish and some colored jelly polishes, you basically already own this kit. Take that with a grain of salt though, as I own over 300 polishes. LOL 

That being said, these polishes all have a beautiful formula and are very vibrant when used over the silver base. They do blend very nicely on the nail and I like how versatile they are to use. If you were considering this set or a set like this, I say go for it, as I can see getting a lot of use out of it if you don't already own something similar. 

Thank you to Preen.me, FormulaX, and Sephora for teaming up and providing these polishes to bloggers and Instagrammers for looks and review. They were fun to play with! 

Want to see more? Follow me on Instagram for more nail art and swatches. 

Gradient and stamping!

Hey y'all! 

Today on the blog, I have a simple mani to share with you. I've been struggling with inspiration but I'm doing my best. Check out these pretty nails I did! Haha. 

Let me show you what I used:

I started with a white base - Zoya Purity for the gradient. Once it was dry, I used Meet Me At The Rink and Hot-Hot-Hot Pants by Color Club in a blue to pink gradient. Once it was mostly dry, I added Revlon Holographic Pearls and stamped with M Polish Fresh Perspective. The image is from UberChic plate number 1-03. I used a quick dry topcoat to seal it in once the stamping was dry. 

What do you think of this mani? How do you overcome your nail art slumps? 

Stamping over a holo base!

**Nothing to disclose**

Hey y'all! 

Today on the blog, I have this super sparkly stamped mani to share with you. Pictures just did this one no justice at all. It was probably one of my favorite manis ever! 

M Polish Sweetclover stamped over KBShimmer Pigment of My Imagination 

Here's a shot of what I used:

Left to right: QTica Natural Nail Growth Stimulator, KBShimmer Pigment of My Imagination, Shinespark Polish Moondust, M Polish Sweetclover, KBShimmer Clearly On Top

I started with a base of KBShimmer Pigment of My Imagination - 2 coats and added a coat of Shinespark Moondust on top. Once that was dry, I stamped with M Polish Sweetclover and topcoated with KBShimmer Clearly On Top. I love how it turned out so much! How about a macro to show the holo, glittery goodness?

What do you think of this look? What is your favorite holo topcoat? 

Want to see more? Find me on INSTAGRAM, YOUTUBE, and TWITTER for more nail art, swatches, and tutorials!

Stamping with M Polish over a pastel jelly sandwich base!

**Nothing to disclose**

Hey y'all! 

Today on the blog, I have some springy/Easter-y stamping for you. I love how delicate this turned out, although my light box washed it out a bit. 

Stamping with M Polish Apricot Delight

I was thrilled with how this turned out. I was inspired by the super talented Ana over at Ana's Manis for this mani. If you're not following her, you should be! She does beautiful work. 

How about a shot of what I used to create this mani? 

Left to right: QTica Natural Nail Growth Stimulator, China Glaze Inner Beauty, Cagedbird Nail Lacquer Faerie Carnival, M Polish Apricot Delight, Zoya Satin topcoat.

And because I had a total DUH moment, I forgot to include the stamping plate in the above photo, so I took a separate shot after the fact: 

BornPretty Store stamping plate #JQ-18

I started with my QTica base coat. That stuff is the bee's knees for real. My nails have never been healthier! I went on to adding one coat of China Glaze Inner Beauty. This polish was a clearance purchase from Sally's Beauty Supply and I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was a jelly. If you've been reading my last 10 or so posts, you know that I am having a major love affair with all of the jelly and crelly polishes!

After my first coat of Inner Beauty was mostly dry, I added a coat of Cagedbird Lacquer Faerie Carnival. I purchased this polish in a destash and fell in love with it. I was so disappointed to find out that this indie brand is no longer in business. :( This polish is a glitter topper that has scattered holographic micro glitter and matte pastel hex glitter in a clear base. SO beautiful for spring manis. Once that layer was dry, I went back with one more layer of Inner Beauty and allowed a few minutes of dry time before moving on to stamping.

Using M Polish Apricot Delight and my BPS stamping plate, I added a lacy floral design to my jelly sandwich. I decided that I didn't want it to be super shiny so I topped it with the Zoya Satin topcoat that I got from Ulta as a free gift when they were running a promotion.

Here's a macro to show the details of the stamping. How delicate is that?

Macro of stamping with M Polish Apricot Delight over China Glaze Inner Beauty and Cagedbird Nail Lacquer Faerie Carnival 

I have been doing Easter manis this week and kind of wanted to do something that wasn't super Easter-y but could still fall into that category. What do you think of the final result?

Want to see more? You can find me on INSTAGRAM for more nail art and polish swatches!

Watermarble and stamping!

***Nothing to disclose***

Hey y'all!

Today on the blog, I have some super fun watermarble nails to show you! I was positively thrilled with the outcome of this mani. I wore it for 3 full days because I loved it so much. 

Watermarble nails using Shinespark Polish's 80's Neon Collection

Here's what I used to create this look:

Back row, left to right: QTica nail growth stimulator, Orly White Tips, Funky Fingers Dark Knight, INM Northern Lights, KBShimmer Clearly On Top. Front row, left to right: Shinespark Polish Pumped Pink, Yuppie Yellow, Psych'd Purple, Bouncin' Blue, and Glam Green. Stamping Plate in the front is Cici&Sisi Plate 03.

Here's a closer look at the image I used to stamp:

Image from Cici&Sisi plate 03.

I started with a base of Orly White Tips after applying my base coat. I allowed it to mostly dry and applied a liquid latex barrier around my finger for the watermarble. I started dropping the polish into the water in the order that I showed them above, made a random design, and dipped my fingers one at a time. I actually wasn't planning on stamping these at first but this watermarble was NOT my best work and I didn't have time to redo an entire mani. I had seen my lovely friend Megatuce stamp over a neon watermarble so I just went with it. I used Funky Fingers Dark Knight to stamp my design and sealed it all in with KBShimmer Clearly On Top. I love it! 

Here's another shot of the finished product:

Neon watermarble with stamping

What do you think of this look? Have you ever stamped over a watermarble design?


Want to see more? Follow me on INSTAGRAM for more nail art and polish swatches!

Double and triple stamping, oh my! Born Pretty Store stamping plate review!

Hey y'all! 

Tonight on the blog I have a review on the plates I used for this mani. I'm really excited with how this one turned out and even more so because I incorporated techniques that I had never tried before. 

So to start off with, this is a shot of what I used, polish wise: 

And this is what the train wreck of a mani station (my dining room table) looked like:

I was so completely floored by how spread out I've gotten with nail art that I had to stop and take a picture. 

Here is a shot of the Born Pretty Store stamping plate I used: 

So let me start with the review. I am IN LOVE with BPS's stamping plates. They are etched so nicely and the image comes out crisp and clean on the first try. For the purposes of this review, I stamped everything in black so it would show well on my Winstonia XL stamper. 

I mean just look at the detail on those images! I am tickled with how nice they came out and this is just a messy, throw away pick up to show them to you all. I didn't have to use stamping polish either, these plates are incredible for the price! I think I paid somewhere around $2 for this plate. 

And just in case you weren't sure that I love them, I took a some macros. 

This nail is actually triple stamped. I did the chevron, a vine, and the birdcage. All images were from the same plate - QA91 by BPS. 

Here's a macro of the stamp by itself:

Just lovely! I can't wait to get my hands on more of their plates. Have you used plates by Born Pretty Store? What did you think of them? 

***this review is not sponsored in any way by Born Pretty Store. I purchased this plate with my own money. Born Pretty Store doesn't even know who I am. Haha!***

Rainbow stamping - mani swap!

A couple of days ago I did a mani swap with the talented @megatuce on Instagram. I saw her rainbow stamping and fell in love! This technique was actually easier than I thought it was going to be. 

Colors used to achieve this look are Dermelect Opulence, Funky Fingers Sand And Stilettos and Alex's Lemonade, Fresh Paint Burning Flame, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, and Sinful Colors Tempest. I topped the rainbow nails with Northern Lights. 

What do you think of this look? 

Fall gradient mani

I was inspired by a friend on Instagram (check out @ineedamani) by her stamping over a holo gradient. I used Literary Lacquers More Like Fire Than Light, Butter London Trustafarian, Butter London Bit Faker and stamped with Sinful Colors Black On Black. I loved this mani!

What do you think of this look?