Hello and welcome!  I’m currently preparing for a vacation, so this week I’m focusing on simple yet adorable.  

Months ago, I purchased a travel emoji stamping plate from Maniology, with no exact plans on when I’d get to use it.  But when I saw this Instagram post from @vics_nails, I just knew that I had to recreate it at some point.  And since now I’m about to leave the country for two weeks, it’s the perfect time for a travel theme.  I’m just going to do a little less detailed version.

What I Used:

• Base Coat:  Glisten & Glow – Base Coat
• 1st Color:  Night Owl Lacquer – You Heard About Pluto?
• 2nd Color:  Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear – Black out
• Top Coat:  Glisten & Glow – Top Coat
• Maniology Poli-Peel cuticle protector
• Maniology mini lotus mat
• Maniology BM-XL321 stamping plate
• clear silicone stamper & scraper
• acetone nail polish remover
• Maniology dual ended pencil stamper & clean up brush

I started with two coats of Night Owl Lacquer – You Heard About Pluto? (which, I absolutely love for a name)  And it looks just gorgeous in person.  There’s a redish shimmer that’s not being picked up in my photos.  But, I figured the darker brown speckles are a good way to cheat at getting the look of multiple browns.

Then, I applied liquid latex around all of my nails, because I had no time for any serious clean up.  And I simply stamped the images with black polish.  I went for the single designs on my ring and thumb finger nails, and the variety on the rest of my nails.  There are no repeated images because I didn’t want to clean the plate over and over again.  But I like the variety.

Two coats of Night Owl Lacquer – You Heard About Pluto?

Liquid latex all around my nails

The stamps applied

The overall design was so quick to do.  Setting up, and putting it all away took about as much time as it did for the stamping.  And since I had no real clean up because of the liquid latex, this was the best nail art to do in a rush.  I also doubled up on top coat again.  Now I’m off to clean and pack (with no worries of chipping)!

Final look – left hand

Final look – right hand

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Update:

I didn’t realize until Monday that I forgot one last step:  matte top coat!  So after work, I applied a layer of Essie – Matte About You.  It really made the images pop, and made it look much more like what @vics_nails did.  Unfortunately, I feel like the matte layer made the polish more brittle.  So even though there weren’t any official chips, I felt some lifting on the corners of a few of my nails.  It was a good thing I took these off a day earlier than normal because we all know that no nail is safe once I start picking.

My right hand mattified

My left hand mattified