Hello and welcome! Can you guess where I’m going this weekend? I went with a very literal mani, and it surprised me how well it turned out.
I actually started out not knowing what I wanted to do this week. There were just too many options. But when my boyfriend suggested that I go with a theme that would match what I was doing for the weekend, I knew exactly what to do. My Bundle Monster jungle animals stamping plate was actually one of the first I ever bought. It’s a little sentimental and a lot adorable. Then I just had to pick out colors. I went through my swatches and pulled about 20 polishes, with lots of greens and browns. But I just couldn’t narrow it down. So my boyfriend stepped in again, and quickly looked up the zoo’s logo. And I loved the idea of matching to the logo. Of course, that made me completely change the color scheme though.
What I Used:
- Base Coat: Orly – Bonder
- 1st Color: OPI – Alpine Snow
- 2nd Color: Glisten & Glow – Today is Your Day
- 3rd Color: Stached Polish – Prototype
- 4th Color: KL Polish – Caramello
- 5th Color: Bundle Monster – purple prince
- 6th Color: Bundle Monster – bam! white
- Top Coat (after gradient): Cuticula – Sour Patch Candy Timeless Top Coat
- Top Coat: Glisten & Glow – Top Coat
- Bundle Monster Poli-Peel cuticle protector
- Bundle Monster mini lotus mat
- Bundle Monster stamping plate
- clear silicone stamper & scraper
- lint roller sheet
- Twinkled T clean up brush, size #2
- acetone nail polish remover
I started with base coat, and then applied liquid latex around every nail so that I could jump straight into gradients. I know some people use a white base before gradients, but I felt like these polishes were opaque enough tot not bother. It did end up taking about 2-3 coats (depending on the nail), but I think that’s fine. The gradient went white, yellow, yellowish orange, and caramel. And I followed the logo by putting the light yellow on the bottom corner, and the caramel color on the other end. I’m not sure I really needed the white, but at least it didn’t hurt. Then, since I leave the base color on for a day before adding the design, I added the Cuticula top coat. It just helped all the colors blend together.
For the stamping, I thought it would be easy. It was just going to be a purple stamp, and a white stamp of the animal over it. But unfortunately, nothing is ever as easy as I want it to be. I tried stamping my middle finger first with an elephant. And I quickly realized that if I wanted any background foliage to show up I would have to be creative. The stamp was just a little too big for my nail. So I had to stamp one small section at a time. I still tried to keep the center open though, for the animal to be fully visible. When I finally got to stamping the animals, I had to carefully remove everything around them. The white wasn’t very noticeable at first so I debated stamping another color on top. But, I stuck with it.
And since my favorite nail ended up being my thumb with the only hippo, I thought I’d share it with you all.
After adding the final top coat I smudged some of the designs. My tiger and elephants just didn’t want to stay clear apparently. But it’s been slowly growing on me more and more and now I love it. The color combination is something I never would have thought of. And it just works so well together, how could you not love it?
Have a great week everyone!
Update:
Well the zoo was an absolute blast! I tried taking clever photos with my nails and their corresponding animals in the background, but sadly my camera’s auto focus just couldn’t handle it. Other than that, that was probably the most exciting part of the week. My nails only had wear at the tips. But just before taking off the polish, I noticed that I was trying to pick at the more visibly worn out ones. So this nail change definitely came at the right time.
Weekly Nail 