Nordic Stamping

Hi girls! Today I wanted to share with you my latest stamping nailart. I know my nails are super short and ugly right now, but I love blogging too much and I hope you don't mind the shorties for a while. Anyway, let's get to it :)

I recently got the Pueen Buffet plates from a friend and a little before I got the OPI Nordic minis so I thought about using them together for a mani. I've been obsessed with the Buffet plates since my friend got them so it was time I had my own set lol.

I started with a gradient base of Do You Have This Color in Stock-holm? and My Dogsled is a Hybrid, which were the two shades that mainly caught my attention from this set and I was so glad both were included in the mini kit, yay!

Then I left this to dry for a bit before stamping over it with a silver chrome polish fom a local brand and the Pueen 59 plate from the Buffet set.

Overall I'm really happy with this mani, even though it's not very summery (funny how that happens). These two colors from OPI Nordic's collection go so well together and the silver stamping adds something to it.

Thanks for reading!

Watercolor Birds

Hola chicas! Hoy les traigo un nailart estampado que hice con dos de mis placas nuevas: la Moyou London Mother Nature 02 y la Konad Square 01 (que mi hermana me envío desde Santiago). Para empezar apliqué dos capas de un esmalte rosado pálido y luego estampé con un diseño de la placa Konad con esmalte Konad Blanco. Añadí color a este estampado con los OPI Sheer Tints y para finalizar, estampé distintos pajaritos con la placa Mother Nature. Me encanta como ha quedado, es muy primaveral en mi opinión. Espero les haya gustado a ustedes también, gracias por leer! :)

Hi girls! Today I have a stamped nailart to share with you, using some of my newly arrived plates. I was inspired by some manis I found while browsing Pinterest that used stamping under layers of jelly polishes to create a sort of watercolor effect and when from there.

I started with two coats of a very soft pink polish (from a local brand, not the OPI pictured) and left that to dry. Then I stamped using the Konad Square #1 plate using Konad Special White and added some splashes of color with the OPI Sheer Tints mini set. This gave me a base with a subtle effect to finally add my stamped birds from the Moyou London Mother Nature 02 plata, stamped with Konad Special Black.

Overall I'm really happy with how looks. I am super happy the birds on the plate are tiny so they can fit my nubs. Double stamping is such a fun technique, though it can be a bit time-consuming (waiting for all the layers to dry and everything).

Thanks for reading!

Random Nailart Spam #3

Hola chicas! Hoy traigo la tercera versión del potpurrí de nailarts que he hecho en las últimas semanas. Debajo de cada foto dejaré los detalles, espero les gusten, gracias por leer!

Heeeey guys, how are you doing? Today I bring you another edition of nailarts I didn't have enough pictures of to make a full post. Today's edition is mostly stamping, so on we go!

For this one I used NCLA Cookies and gold as my base, then stamped using Esteé Lauder Midnight Metal and the Pueen Buffet 59 plate. The accent is Colors by Llarowe Delirious.

Here I used ILNP Princeton, a minty blue/green soft holographic shade, as my base and stamped over it with Gals GA37 with Mundo de Uñas Purple.

 This one was for a nailart contest that I sadly didn't win, but I liked it so I thought I'd share it with you too. Base for the nailart was Model's Own Purple Blue and hand painted my little fox with Zoya Arizona, Finger Paints Papier Maché and a couple accents with Colorama Black. The sparkly accents are donde with Model's Own Southern Lights.
Finally, here's a mani I did with one of my favorite collections, the OPI Euro Centrale. The gradient was done with OPI You're Such a Budapest and Can't Find my Czechbook. The accent on mi pinkie is 3 coats of OY-Another Polish Joke and finally for the decal I used My Vampire is Buff as a base and did the decal with BM-401 plate and colored in with the other 3 colors. This was my first ever succesful decal, yay!

And that's it, hope you liked them. I think my personal favorite is the last one :) Thanks for reading and see you soon!

Nailart Inspired by a Pen

Hoy les traigo un nailart inspirado por otro de mis hobbies, las estilográficas y el arte. Hace años que uso y colecciono plumas estilográficas y a través de los años que he usado esmaltes a veces por pura coincidencia mis uñas y plumas combinan. Entonces se me ocurrió combinarlos deliberadamente y eso es lo que les presento hoy, un nailart inspirado por una pluma. Como base usé una combinación de Essence Off to Miami y OPI Houston we Have a Purple, para los conejitos Finger Paints Papier Maché y para las flores y detalles esmaltes holográficos de Pupa. Espero les guste, gracias por leer!

Today I want to share with you an idea that's been going around my mind for quite a long time. Other than nail polish, my other hobby is collecting and using fountain pens (and blogging about it too). My fountain pen hobby is older than my nail polish addiction, and over the years I've noticed that sometimes, by chance, my nail polish choices matches my pens in current rotation and this gave me the idea of doing a series of nail arts inspired by them.

This nailart was inspired by a Sailor Calligraphy Brush Pen that my boyfriend got me last year. It is a red plastic body adorned with white bunnies and cherry blossom in metallic colors and gold accents. It's based on the maki-e style that is very popular in Japan and looks very elegant. You can see why I was inmediatly drawn to this pen to recreate, it's just stunning.

My first difficulty was finding a matching base color. Although my collection is extensive, it is very lacking in the red/coral department so I had to get creative to achieve a similar color to the body of the pen. So I started with two coats of Essence Off To Miami! a very bright orangey-coral creme and used one coat of OPI Houston We Have a Purple to tone down the color and make it cooler (since it's a jelly it works well for this purpose).

On my pinky and thumb nails I applied two coats of China Glaze I'm Not Lion as an accent.

Once my base dried I hand-drew the bunnies with Finger Paints Papier Maché using a large dotting tool and a fine striping brush. Then I dabbed in a gold glitter polish (Love & Beauty Gold Rush) in the empty spaces.

Finally I added in my flowers using a silver and a pink holographic polish, for the metallic effect. I used Pupa Holographic Silver and Strawberry with accents of Orly Luxe (my cherry blossoms need some work lol). I also used Pupa Holographic Strawberry to add accent to the bunnies ears and painted the eyes with a dotting tool.

I'm supper happy with how this nailart came out, even if my flowers need some work. Those bunnies are way too cute.

Do you have any hobbies beside nail polish? I'd love to hear about them in the comments :) Thanks for reading!

Pueen Encore Leadlight

Hola niñas! Hoy les traigo una mani que hice con la técnica "leadlight" la que consiste en estampar una imagen sobre una base blanca y pintar por encima con esmaltes translúcidos o "jellies" lo que da un efecto acuarelado. Para mi mani de hoy usé de base OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls y estampé varios diseños de la placa Pueen Encore SE04B con esmalte para estampar negro de Konad. Después de que secara un poco procedí a pintar por encima con los distintos tonos de los OPI Sheer Tints (en retrospectiva recomendaría usar topcoat entre el estampado y el color, para que no se les corra el estampado como a mí). Para terminar a las flores les agregué un puntito en el centro con OPI Hot & Spicy.

Hi girls! How are you doing? I hope summer is treating you well :) Here it's winter and I'm still unemployed, so I'm using my time to try new things. I've been doing Blogilates since March and I just signed up for a 5k run (my local version of The Color Run). I've been training daily with an app that has a Couch-to-5k program and so far so good! I'm not a runner by any means, not even an active person, so this is a great challenge for me. I'll let you know how it goes!

Anyway, today I wanted to share with you my latest mani that I did on our weekly get-together with my nail polish buddy Ann. She had just gotten her Pueen Encore stamping plates and set of OPI Sheer Tints and we couldn't help but try the leadlight technique right away.

The "leadlight technique" is basically coloring over a stamped image with sheer or jelly polishes. So I started with a white base, two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and then stamped over it with Pueen Encore SE04B plate and Konad Black.

I loved how the plate offered different options for small and large nails, depending on what you wanted to achieve, and that I got a different image for each nail but still with a cohesive style. The plated I used was well etched so stamping was a breeze with my usual squishy-firm XL stamper.

Then I filled in the flowers with the shades that came in the Sheer Tints collection. These are like very sheer jellies, which makes them perfect for this techique. I also liked the colors, they reminded me a lot of watercolors (my favorite painting medium). To finish it off I added some dots with OPI Hot & Spicy.

In retrospective, I should have added some topcoat between the stamping and the coloring, as you can see I have some smearing, but I have this problem too with watercolors, so I'll live with it lol.

Also, yes, my nails are super short now. I had a random break during a car trip and had to nub down. Why is it that I always break a nail when I'm not remotely near my nail repairing kit? Seriously, I passed my fingers through my hair and I felt them get caught up and boom, mayor break. I hope you don't mind the shorties for a while.

Have you tried a new technique lately? Would love to hear about them to add to my never ending list of manis to try :) Thanks for reading!

Purple Peacock Nails

Hola niñas! Hoy les traigo un nailart simplecito con este nuevo OPI que mi madre me compró en DBS :D Se llama Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI? y es de la colección Holland de 2012. Es un morado medio tirando para oscuro con tono cálido y un precioso shimmer dorado/rosado que desgraciadamente es invisible en la uña. Luego estampé sobre el una imagen de la placa Nailz Craze NC02, como la imagen era muy grande para usarla en una sola uña hice una especie de mosaico poniendo una parte en cada uña. El dorado que usé para estampar es Color Show Bold Gold.

Hey girls! Today I bring you a very quick nailart I did with a recent acquisition. This is my first time using a large stamping image across all my nails and it was quite fun... on my right hand. My left turned out... not so well, let's say! But you live and you learn and I loved this one while it lasted.

I started with two coats of OPI Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI which is a medium warm toned purple with a beautiful pink/gold shimmer that -sadly- was almost unnoticeable on the nail. The formula was good and self-leveling but the invisible shimmer bothered me, if I see it in the bottle, I want it on my nails.

Then I stamped over my base using Maybelline Color Show Bold Gold (currently my favorite gold for stamping) and using the Nailz Craze NC02 stamping plate. I stretched the peacock feather through all my nails, which made for an interesting effect.

Above you can see how my nails looked in their normal position. Overall, I really liked this mani, but I wish the shimmer in the OPI color was more pronounced. Do you have a tip for fixing invisible shimmer? Please let me know.

Thanks for reading!

OPI Jinx

Hola niñas, como están? Espero que muy bien. Hoy les traigo OPI Jinx que compré reciencito en DBS cuando me junté con unas amigas esmaltoadictas de mi ciudad. Jinx es un esmalte texturado color naranja/mandarina cargado con destellos dorados que a veces brillan naranjo también.

Hey girls! How are you doing? I hope all is well with you. Here I'm getting nervous because the date of my final presentation is around the corner, eeek! One part of me wants it to be over and be officially a Graphic Designer already but the other part dreads the actual presentation lol. What mani should I do for the big day?

Anyway, for today I have OPI Jinx to share with you. My local makeup store finally heard my pleas and they brought the whole line of OPI polishes, including some Liquid Sands. Jinx caught my eye right away, even though I'm not a big fan of orange (I only have another in my collection, Zoya Arizona).

OPI Jinx is a beautiful coral/tangerine sparkly textured polish. The sparkly is mostly gold, but it also flashes orange. It goes on as a bright orange but as it dries it turns into a softer, coral-y, shade. It was very easy to apply and opaque in two coats. It also dries very quickly and to a beautiful matte sparkly finish.

I love this kind of sparkly texture, it's so fn watching the glitter glint in different shades as I move my fingers. The texture is not too horribly distracting and it doesn't bother me in my everyday activities. For this mani I used the Essence Peel Off Basecoat, so the wearing wasn't vert good, but it was very easy to remove, so it's good for me.

Overall, I'm really happy with this bright, cheerful Liquid Sand polish. It makes for a very easy and quick mani. Are you a fan of textured polishes?

Thanks for reading! :)

OPI Movin' Out and Stamping

Hey guys! How are you doing? Did the first month of 2014 treat you well? I hope so :) I'm doing well, just a bit disconnected from the blogs because it's summer break here and summer always means bad things to my nails.

Anyway, today's mani is this sort of challenge/twinsie mani I did with my blogging friend Chester from Chester's Drawers :) To celebrate her acquisition of OPI Movin' Out we set a challenge to use this polish in a stamped mani,  the theme being "floral". So here's my take

OPI Movin' Out is a super sheer polish, with a slightly mauve base but filled with red-to-green pigment, which make this polish stand out so much. Originally released with the Holiday on Broadway collection back in 2003, this polish has achieved HTF status now.

As a base for my mani I used China Glaze Purrfect Plum. Then I stamped over it with Konad Special White using the BM221 plate (my original intention was to use my newly received Create Your Own plates, but none of the images was "floral" enough in my opinion, so I went with an old favorite).

Then I added one generous coat of OPI Movin' Out, using the sheerness to my advantage to turn the white stamping into light pink.

In real life the color shift from gold to green is more visible and prominent than in my pics but two things happened: a) in summer I don't get direct sunlight in the spot I usually takes pics of manis and b) my softbox was apparently tossed out with the rest of the boxes from when we were going to move, so I need to make me a new one :(

Anyways I hope you ejoyed my mani and don't forget to stop by Chester's blog to see her take on our theme :) Thanks for reading!

Oldies but Goodies

Hola chicas! Hoy traigo un nailart bien sencillito hecho solamente con una herramienta: cinta adhesiva, o scotch (específicamente el de 3M que viene en un empaque verde). Simplemente apliqué una base de OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui y, cuando estuvo bien seco (pero "seco seco" jajaja) enmascaré unas partes con scotch y pinté dos capitas de Orly Ingenue. Bueno, bonito y barato. Espero les guste! :)

Hi guys! How have you been? I hope Spring (or Fall) is treating you well. Today I bring you a very simple tape mani with two of my favorite nail polishes of all time, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui (from the Hong Kong collection from a few years back) and Orly Ingenue (from 2012's Holiday collection). So let's get to it~

To start, I applied 2 easy coats of OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui over OPI Natural Nail Base Coat. This is probably my favorite blue ever, and I own a lot of blue nail polishes. It's also the first polish I ever ordered online, so it has a special place in my heart.

In order for tape manis to work properly you need your base color to be really dry before moving on to applying the second color. I leave the color as is for a day and, on the second day, apply the tape to be extra sure.

So, I masked out the sides of my base with scotch tape, so it'd form a triangle through the middle of my nail, and then applied Orly Ingenue in two thickish coats (I only left it dry for a few seconds before applying my second coat, was just building opacity). Then I removed the tape right away as I've found that removing the tape as soon as possible gives the best results for neater lines.

The I topped it off with OPI's Top Coat and some Essence quick-drying drops and I was good to go!

I hoped you liked this mani, thanks for staying with me. Have you tried tape manis? What is your favorite design with tape?

Oldie but Goodie

Hi everyone! How are you all doing? Today I'm sharing a very summery mani featuring one of my favorite nail polishes ever, top 20 material for me. It might not be because it's super interesting, but it has a special place in my heart as it was one of the first nail polishes I ever owned.

Today I'm showing you two coats of OPI Flower to Flower with one dabbed coat of Lynnderella Connect the Dots.

I don't know what is it with summer that makes me want to bust out all my pink colors. This week is OPI's Flower to Flower from the Summer Flutter collection (Summer 2010). Flower to Flower is a bubblegum pink with some pretty silver shimmer (it looks like a shimmery version of OPI Strawberry Margarita)

To spice it up a bit I took out my Connect the Dots by Lynnderella, which I had not used much since "the drama". Connect the Dots is a mix of black and white glitter in several sizes and shapes in a clear base.

I've had this combo on the back of my head for a while. For some reason I thought Connect the Dots would look really cool over pink. And it does! I love the look :)

Glitters look awesome under macro, don't they?

I don't tend to consciously follow seasons with my nail polish (since it's sunny most of the year here I can rock holos even on winter), but you'll probably be seeing more bright manis from me. I just love happy colors for summer.

What's your favorite summer shade?

PS: Please excuse my tipwear, I had been wearing this mani for a day when I took pics. Also, ack, macro is not gentle with my cutes *sad*

Soft french with OPI NYC

Hi guys! Last week I had a presentation an needed a subtle mani for the ocassion. Since I had just got my first sheer polishes, from the OPI NYC Ballet collection, I decided to try pairing them up in a french mani.

For the base I used two coats of Are You Callin' me a Lyre? and for the tips Don't Touch my Tutu. As everyone is aware of now, these are very sheer jellies. They are really easy to work with and leveled quite  well, and look so shiny and yummy. I don't know how many coats it'd have taken for full opacity, my guess is... a lot.

I usually run away from french manis because they strike me as tacky, but I was really pleased with the result. It is very subtle and soft, so much at first no one noticed I had anything on my nails (as if my nails would look this pretty naked LOL). Overall it was a nice change from my usual loud and bright manis.

What do you think of this take on the french mani? Have you tried any of the OPI NYC Ballet shades?

Thanks for reading!