Zen Nails

I was surfing the net and a number of things inspired me to do these Zen nails.  When drawing it out I had the idea to write out the words "Zen in the Art of Nails" like the old book title, "Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig.  Nail art, like many of my previous hobbies, has a distinct way to bring peace to my life...even in times of chaos.  The tiny canvases that are my nails force me to focus and be very deliberate in my actions.  Even the disasters of nail art are an enjoyable experience:)

 The black unfinished circle is a symbol I found all over the internet as the symbol for zen.

Sorry, I'm so zen right now that I'm not even gonna post polish pics along with this so I'll list them!

OPI Planks a Lot
SC Snow Me White
WnW Ebony Hates Chris
SC Nirvana

On the ring finger, I used the pebble design from BM plate 211 and dotted the image with Nirvana and Ebony Hates Chris for a multicolor look to the stones.

Hope you like:)

Vivid Lacquer Polishes and Plates

Vivid Lacquer is a indie polish maker for me.  I added her on Facebook and saw that she was sending mini polishes out for bloggers to review for free.  Score!  After some back and forth, she sent me the polishes below to review!  

What strikes me about her polishes is the color combinations.

 Daisy is a milky white base with tiny green glitter, yellow hex glitters, and white diamond glitters.
It applies smoothly and covers completely in two coats. The pic below also has a top coat.

Don't Forget the Rum is a smoky grey base with rose and pink hex glitters, small white and black glitters, white and black bar glitters,  and black and white square glitters.  Below is three coats plus a top coat.  I only did three because I wanted a little better variety of glitter.  I can't wait to sport this polish for Fall!

Moonlit Cheshire is violet base with silver and black micro glitters, fuchsia hex glitters, and silver shard glitters.   It applies evenly and every brush stroke is full of glitter.  Below is two coats of Moonlit Cheshire plus a top coat. 


Out of all of the polishes sent, Moonlit Cheshire is my favorite. 

Vivid Lacquer glitter polishes are very unique and they are chalk full of glitter goodness.  On top of that, I see no bleeding, no curling, and no separation or settling.  Very good quality!




In addition, Vivid Lacquer also has designed her own nail stamping plates.  I purchsed VL 001 and VL002 from her Etsy store.  From her Facebook page Vivid Lacquer has announced that she will soon have a 3rd plate up for sale.  I also tested a couple of full nail art images from each plate.  The designs stamp on easily and clearly.  Love these images!  Tetris?  Jolly Roger print?  Honey combs?  Awesome and something you don't see every day!

* Vivid Lacquer sent me the mini polishes for review purposes at no cost.  I have not been and will not be compensated in any way for my review and my opinions of these polishes are my own. 

Fun with Argyle and Paisley Nail Art Stamps

Two of my favorite stamps are an argyle print and a paisley print from Konad Image Plate M60.  I love and use both of these images on tons of designs!

The first set of nails I did using the following polishes:

Wet N Wild Pink-base color
Insta-Dri's Lickety Split Lime
Insta-Dri's Brisk Blue
Konad White Stamping Polish
Xtremewear's Real Teal
Wet N Wild Black

For the second set of nails I used Xtremewear's Real Teal as my base color and Wet N Wild Black for my stamps.

Halloween French Tips

Despite having short nails, I still love french tips so I broke out several stamping plates for some Halloween nails

Polished Used:

Wet N Wild Black

Konad White Stamping Polish

Sinful Color's Sugar Sugar

Insta-Dri's Whirlwind White

After putting on a clear basecoat, I used Konad's French tip M19 plate to stamp on french tips using Wet N' Wild's Black.  Then using Bundle Monster plate BM 13, I stamped on the spider web image on each nail but in different places, even over the french tip on some nails.   Last, using the spider image on Konad image plate M28, I stamped spiders on each thumb nail and filled in the design with black.  I then put a dot of white polish on the back of the spider and let it dry.  I covered the white dot with red polish to make the spider look black widow-ish.  Last, I applied a clear topcoat.  Fun, easy nails for Halloween.



Flamenco Inspired French Tip Nails

I had just received my Konad French Tip plate M19 and needed a design.  I absolutely love french tips even for my extremely short nails.   This design pretty much came out of nothing.  The only thing I actually planned to do was to have black french tips.  Using Essie's Licorice, I applied the french tip stamp to each nail.

From the french tips, I decided to apply a rose image from an image plate.  I think I was watching "Dancing with the Stars" or something because once I decided to add the rose image it came together and I had a theme!  I am not entirely sure which plate I used so if you want to know, please contact me and I will take a look at my images plates to ascertain which brand and plate was used.  I did apply the rose image in different places on each nail.  The rose image was so large that I could really only fit one on each nail.   I then freehanded two leaves for each rose with a nail art brush in Sally Hansen's Lickety Split Lime.  Last I applied a topcoat in Wet N Wild Fast Dry's Party of Five glitter.   I really like the uncolored nail background in this design.

Note to self: do more natural nail background in nail art!

Fun with Bundle Monster's Snake Skin Stamp

I love nail art stamping and one of my favorite stamps thus far has been the snake skin stamp from plate BM 215.  You could do the design in tons of color combinations and never get bored with it!  So far I've done two sets of nails with the snake skin stamp.  

First, as soon as I got the stamp in I tried these nails:

After applying base coat, I used Sally Hansen's Insta-Dry Pronto Purple as a base color.  Then I used Sally Hansen's Xtremewear Lacey Lilac in the snake skin stamp and applied it over each nails.  To add a little more sparkle, I then covered each nail with irredescent glitter from Sally Girl. 

My next set of nails that I did with the snake skin stamp came out SEXY!  But then, I think anything I do using China Glaze's For Audrey is sexy, lol! 

After applying a clear basecoat, I used Sinful Color's Secret Admirer as my base color.  I love this color because its black but sparkly!   I then applied China Glaze's For Audrey to the snake skin impression and stamped it on to my nail.  I love how this design and color scheme turned out!  I can't believe how it pops on the darker base color.  I then applied a topcoat to seal in the stamp. 

Can't get enough of stamping!

Scented Polish and some cute Rose nail art!

Had a lazy Saturday but we did venture to Walmart where I finally bought some of Revlon's scented polish.  I chose Revlon's Mon Cherry.  It says to use two coats but I was able to get great, solid coverage with one coat.  It does smell like cherries!

So, while I love this color by itself, this is a nail art blog and I am a nail art fanatic so I broke out the stamping and rhinestones again.  While playing with a clear 3D rhinestone and four black teardrop rhinestones I formed a sort of rose look.  I searched through my stamping plates and found the scrolling design on Bundle Monster plate 201 and stamped it on to my thumb nails in Konad White stamping polish.  I then put a clear topcoat to seal the stamp and placed my rhinestone design on each thumb.   I really think that doing this on every nail would be a bit of overkill but Im sure it would look cute if you want to try!  I added green teardrop rhinestones to act as leaves for the roses.  Last I added one more layer of topcoat in hopes to seal the rhinestones to the nail.  We'll see how well they hold up!  Hope you like them:)

Paisley Fun

I cannot get enough of this stamp from Bundle Monster. Of course, Konad has a very nice paisley stamp but this one, to me, offers more versatility.

Base coat, color base of Julep's Drew, Konad stamping polish in white, and a mixture of Sinful Colors Love Nails and Sally Hansen InstaDri Brisk Blue for dots. Smidge of irredescent glitter polish on each blue dot and clear top coat.