New Year's Eve Nail Stamping

Hey all!

It is rare that everything turns out the way I envision it in my head.  This week the stars aligned (no pun intended) and it actually happened.

This picture does this manicure no justice.


Manicure
1 coat Perfect Formula Gel Coat
2 coats Dazzle Dry Midnight Express
Kleancolor Metallic Pink stamped stars (I used KD3 from eBay, but any star pattern will do)
1 coat Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps Hard as Nails clear
1 coat Dazzle Dry Top Coat

First,  Midnight Express is fast becoming a favorite black.  This is two coats, but it was opaque in one.

Then there was Kleancolor Metallic Pink.  This nail polish is beautifully pigmented.  The vibrancy of color does not come out in the picture above.  It is so Rock Star chic I can't stand it.
One warning...this polish stinks to high heaven so use in a ventilated area and enjoy!

Happy New Year to all,

Bevy of Nails

A Week In Review - Nail Stamping Plus

Hey all!

Heads up, this one is pic heavy...

After Christmas I decided to change it up a little bit.  How?  Without nail stamping!  Yeah, that didn't work out.

Wednesday
Sometime last year I went for my first Shellac manicure.  It was great but I got bored after a week and soaked off the color (Shellac Masquerade).  I did love the color though, and went on a mission to get the regular nail polish for my collection.  While not all Shellac colors are available in regular nail polish, I did find Masquerade at www.head2toebeauty.com.  If it's not the same color it's enough to make me happy.

Manicure
1 coat Dazzle Dry Base Coat
2 coats CND Masquerade
1 coat Sally Hansen Insta-dri Top Coat

I got so many bubbles it was ridiculous because my top coat was drying out.  I have been using others so much I had to throw it out...and I had to take off this manicure.

Wednesday...a little later
I recently got Zoya Aurora and remembered seeing someone post this on the Zoya Facebook page.  I knew I wanted to try it and it took me this long to commit.

Manicure
1 coat Elmer's Glue as a base coat
2 coats Zoya Aurora

Stamped with Kleancolor Black with BM 201
1coat Dazzle Dry Top Coat

This mani didn't last for me.  I was trying out the Elmer's Glue again as a base coat for glitter and I got my first chip Thursday at 3 pm.  I'm sorry, I can't live like that. So...

Thursday

Manicure
1 coat Dazzle Dry Base Coat
2 coats Nails Inc The Strand (magnetized on second coat)
1 coat Dazzle Dry Top Coat

I can never go wrong with the Nails Inc magnetic nail polishes.  I got this one from the Black Friday Sephora sale online.  I think it was $7.  Love! Love! Love!  And it lasted until I changed my manicure today.

This was a very colorful week filled with success and disappointment.  But it was fun to change things up a lot more than I usually do.

Wishing you amazing manicures,

Bevy of Nails

To Christmas or Not To Christmas Nail Stamping

Hey all!

Happy Holidays to all.  For this week I had silver and red snowflakes in my head...then I put them on my nails and wasn't feeling them at all.

Here's how they looked:

Cute, but it just didn't fit my mood.

I used Zoya Valentina for this one, then stamped with Sally Hansen Silver Sweep.

I still wanted to say within holiday colors, but there has been a manicure I've wanted to try for a while that doesn't fit the holidays but is lovely nonetheless.

Here it is (don't know what this says about my mood)

Manicure:
1 coat Perfect Formula Gel Coat
2 coats Zoya Envy
Stamped with A England Dragon and Bundle Monster BM-215
1 coat Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps Hard as Nails clear
1 coat Dazzle Dry Top Coat

This is a very dark green,  I promise.  I had a hard time getting my cell phone camera to translate green but it's green...really it is.

I originally saw this at least 8 months ago from http://the-polished-perfectionist.blogspot.in.

Here it is in the sunlight.

I hope you can see how awesome this is.  Inside it is subtle enough for me to be comfortable wearing this to work.  Love! Love! Love!

Wishing you amazing manicures,

Bevy of Nails

Dazzle Dry Update

Hey all!

So, for the past three weeks I have used Dazzle Dry nail polish as the base color for my stamping manicures.  I've used Dazzle Dry primarily because it dries so fast there's much less wait time between painting and stamping.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Dazzle Dry, it purports to last as long as a gel polish, dry rock hard in 5 minutes when you use all of their products, and doesn't contain nitrocellulose (which is supposed to be the ingredient that causes nails to yellow).  Sounds too good to be true, right?

Well, I can't attest to how long it lasts; I am color-fickle and need to change my color at least once a week.  I can, however, say that it does dry incredibly fast.  I'm not talking touch dry fast...I'm talking all layers of nail polish are dry so if I hit my nail against something there is no dent in the polish.

But the thing that I really wasn't all that concerned about turned into the biggest surprise.  Nail polish addicts like myself have resigned ourselves to slight discoloration on our nails.  It's the manicure way of life.  We slather on base coat to keep staining to a minimum, but sacrifice pink-looking nails for beauty in multiple colors.

It was only by chance that I noticed the difference in the portion of my nail that has grown out over the past 3 weeks.  You can really see a line of demarcation on my ring finger between pink and slightly dingy yellow. 


I am using a different nail polish brand this week and wanted to share this picture with you before I painted my nails.

Dazzle Dry collections (www.dazzledry.com) are still growing and don't have all the colors I would want yet and it is bit expensive to ship (around $11).  These nail polishes are $9 a bottle and I totally think they're worth it.

The website is not great for checking colors so here are a couple of swatches. Not to mention my last three posts are with Dazzle Dry colors as well. Forgive the blurriness but I think you get a good idea as to color.

Bleu Rose (duochrome) with Nails Inc Camden Crackle

Casablanca stampled with Julep Michelle

As an aside, even if you don't buy any of their colors their Top Coat is the best I've found to use with any nail polish.

Wishing you amazing manicures,

Bevy of Nails

Julep Maven Mystery Box #3

Hey all!

I just wanted to share what came in my Julep New Year's Mystery Box.


Samples...

The Best Pedi Creme ever...

The Nail Polish!

From top to bottom: Sandra, Mystery Glitter Polish, Melissa, Gwyneth, Matte Top Coat, Brandt

...and Glitter.

Whether this was as advertised (at least $100 work of product), I am pretty happy with this one with only one dupe.

Wishing you amazing manicures,

Bevy of Nails

Christmas Twinklers Konadicure

Hey all!

This week's post is down and dirty because life got in the way of my manicure time.

I was not sure what I wanted to do with my nails this week.  I had a plan but wasn't feeling it, so I went trolling on the Internet for ideas.  I saw a simple but classy holiday manicure I couldn't wait to get on my nails.  The original was posted by steffels.blogspot.com.  I couldn't find the actual post, but there's lots of great ideas there too.

Here's what it looks like:

Not my neatest work, but I still love it!

Manicure:
1 coat Perfect Formula Gel Coat
2 coats Dazzle Dry Midnight Express
Stamped Konad m79 with Konad Special White
Twinkling Lights in Julep Emilie and Zoya Sooki (with dotting tool)
1 coat Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps Hard as Nails
1 coat Dazzle Dry Top Coat

Hope your day went better than mine and give these a try...they've already cheered me up a bit.

Wishing you amazing manicures,

Bevy of Nails

Dazzling Snowflakes Nail Stamping Tutorial

Hey all!

Head up, this is pic and video heavy.

This week is the beginning of holiday manicures for me.  Exciting! This is my favorite time of year.  So here's to the beginning:

Manicure:
1 coat Perfect Formula Gel Coat
2 coats Dazzle Dry Bedazzled
1 coat Julep Vivien
Stamped with Kleancolor Black using BM323
1 coat Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps Hard as Nails clear
1 coat Dazzle Dry Top Coat

First up: Dazzle Dry Bedazzled

Verdict?
Bright and pretty.  It was hard getting an accuate picture of this color.  It's a very bright gold and the formula on this was pretty good.  It can run a little thin (youcan see some VNL on my middle finger), but overall had great coverage. You can buy this on www.dazzledry.com and I think that there is a coupon code for Robin Moses fans if you check her Facebook page here.

Then came Julep Vivien...

Verdict?
This nail polish makes me feel like I have gold coins on my nails.  It was a little difficult getting them to spread evenly over my whole nail, but I worked with it and am happy with the results. You can buy this on www.julep.com, and if you Google julep promotion codes there should be some available.

...and then stamping!

I hope you enjoy this video tutorial and please share any holiday manicure ideas?  I'm always looking for new things to try.

Wishing you amazing manicures,

Bevy of Nails

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

French Tips Nail Stamping (fail!)

Hey all!

Since I'd grown out my nails a bit to try a Robin Moses French manicure, I figured I would take the chance to try out the French tips nail images that come in Bundle Monster and Mash sets. You know, the ones I put in my organizer and promptly ignored?

Turns out I was right to ignore most of them.  Here's a video of my french tip frustration.

Verdict?
Bundle Monster - These tips are so wide that I won't use them unless I have artificial nails. Something I don't see happening since I enjoy my nails being shorter.  I have seen some nail geniuses use these in new ways (horizontal or diagonal on the nail).

Mash -  These tips are much more "normal" so I think they are more manageable.  I don't know how often I'll use them though, but it is nice to have the option.

Hope this video helps.

Wishing you amazing manicures,

Bevy of Nails

Hot House Flowers Nail Stamping

Hey all!

This week I was going for having a painting on every nail.  Here's what I came up with:

Manicure:
1 coat Perfect Formula Gel Coat
2 coats Dazzle Dry Lavender Parade
Stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-dri Co-Bolt Blue using BM 225
1 coat Sally Hansen Hard and Wraps Hard as Nails clear
1 coat Dazzle Dry Top Coat

I initially got this idea from going through pictures on the Bundle Monster Facebook  page.  I suggest going through these, because there are so many great ideas out there. Arte con las unas was the one who submitted it.

Dazzle Dry had a sale for Cyber Monday so I went a little crazy, but what's a gal to do when it's 15% off and free shipping and handling?  I've said it before and I'll say it again, "She's supposed to shop!"

For this design I chose Lavender Parade.

Verdict?
There's good and bad.  The good?  This color is lovely and feminine, dries in 6 minutes and was on sale.  The bad?  This may not really be a bad once I get used to the formula, but some of these dry so quickly that the side, side, middle and smooth method of applying nail polish isn't the best with this one.  If you click on the picture you can see that there is a spot on my middle finger that doesn't have any color.  That's because the brush picked it up when I was evening my coat and I didn't realize it until too late.

Normally these colors dry matte and some people like that look, but I love the shine I get with Dazzle Dry top coat.  I got quite a few of these polishes and will be uploading a video about french tip designs that includes some swatches of  my new colors.

I hope you enjoyed this one and there are some Holiday Nail Stamping Tutorials to come.  What are you planning for your holiday manicures?

Wishing you amazing manicures,

Bevy of Nails