Hello and welcome to spring! It may not officially be sunny with blooming flowers everywhere, (it’s been rainy in my part of California) but I wanted to do some nail art that represented what I’m missing. Although to be honest, with my allergies, I don’t know why I’m so excited to be sneezing and irritated all the time.
This mani was completed inspired by something I saw on Instagram. There’s been a ton of tulip manis floating around on there already, but I just had to do them too. They are my favorite flowers after all. My inspiration came from @teenynails (she used a Moyou London plate), who was inspired by @hanninator (and she used the UberChic plate). I ended up buying the UberChic – Welcome Spring stamping plate because not only did it have tulips, but it had cute bunnies, and it looked like a good plate for overlapping designs. I didn’t do anything close to what their’s look like, but I only got the idea because of them.
What I Used:
- Base Coat: Orly – Bonder
- 1st Color: Painted Polish – Sideshows & Snow Cones
- 2nd Color: Bundle Monster – Purple Prince
- 3rd Color: Bundle Monster – Mistletoe Magic
- 4th Color: Painted Polish – Stamped in Greenery 2.0
- Top Coat: Glisten & Glow – Top Coat
- Bundle Monster Mini Lotus mat
- Bundle Monster Poli-Peel cuticle protector
- Uberchic Welcome Spring stamping plate
- stamper & scraper
- Bundle Monster double sided nail art brush & dotting tool
- acetone nail polish remover
- Twinkled T clean up brush, size #2
I started with three coats of the first color, but I feel like if I had been smarter about application it would’ve only taken two. Ever since I bought it, I have been anxiously waiting to finally get to use this polish. It’s just so fun and light. But the second my boyfriend compared it to the frosting on strawberry Pop-Tarts, I haven’t been able to get that comparison out of my head.
Next, I placed liquid latex around my nails. And then, I practiced my stamping on the mini lotus mat. I knew i wanted to use multiple colors at once so after my first successful attempt, I just went for it. Unfortunately, I was really struggling to pick up the green. Which is really disappointing because it had the word ‘stamp’ in it’s name. (I figured out what was wrong once I was basically done) So, I had to grab a small dotting tool to clean up the green lines a bit. Since they were so thin, I thought I would ruin it more with a nail art brush than with the dotting tool.
At this point, only my left hand was stamped. And I suddenly felt the need to fill in the tulips with some more color. I took the dotting tool, and Sally Hansen Complete Salon – Stellar Style, to fill the pink flowers. And Glisten & Glow – Calming ones Chakra was used to fill the purple flowers. It would have been smart to think of this before starting the stamps. But, what would be the fun in that? After filling in the color for my ring finger, I wasn’t too happy. This is one of those times that I’m glad I stuck to one tester nail.
I still tried on my right hand though. I was hoping I could do some sort of reverse stamping, even though I’ve never done it before. I filled in the color while the image was still on the stamper, then added top coat to my nail, and tried transferring the image. It didn’t work. I have no clue if I moved while placing it, didn’t let the top coat dry enough, or just straight out did it wrong. But, I’ll have to do some research before I try that again. I took it as a sign that filling the color wasn’t a good idea, so I just took off the polish and started painting again. But can you guess what happened? I bumped my finger against something and ruined the base color. And that was the end of my trying.
I’m pretty sure the only thing that worked out perfectly in the end was the green stamping. I decided to try out my non-clear, more squishy stamper, and it worked wonders! Too bad I only thought of it when I just had my thumb nail left. Well I didn’t finish until it was extremely late, and I was tired and cranky, but at least they’re still cute.
Update:
Well, I really struggled to keep my nails in one piece this week. I’m not sure when they started chipping, but once they did, I could not stop messing with them. You can see on my left thumb that I completely picked away at the corner. I also did that to my right hand a bit. The only thing I could do to stop it was fill it with the base color, and hope that the color didn’t chip again. Luckily I stopped picking, but now my nails are weak in all the areas I was picking at. Why do I keep doing this to myself!?
Weekly Nail 