Hello and welcome!  I was putting off adding any posts until I felt the house was all moved in and put together.  But I’ve finally come to the realization that it will probably never feel “done”. 

So for the next few weeks, I’ll be catching up on the posts for what I did since the start of the new year.  And for the second week of the year, my goal was to be quick and easy.  That’s when I found these gorgeous, french tip-like nails on Pinterest (but sadly couldn’t find who made them).  For some reason I assumed that I could recreate the design easily.  You’ll see that it wasn’t quite as easy as I hoped.

What I Used:

• Base Coat:  Cuticula – Frooty Pebbles Silk Base Coat
• 1st Color:  Essie – Sugar Daddy
• 2nd Color:  Starrily – Northern Lights
• Top Coat:  Cuticula – Sour Patch Candy Timeless Top Coat
• Maniology M037 stamping plate
• silicone stamper & scraper
• lint roller sheet
• Maniology dual ended pencil stamper & clean up brush
• acetone nail polish remover

I started with a “whitening” base coat because when choosing this design, I annoyingly forgot that my nails were still stained from the Christmas red.  Even after two thick coats of Essie – Sugar Daddy, you could see the uneven coloring of my natural nails.

But I just kept going because I’d made my design choice, and I didn’t have time to go back.  I then applied the iridescent flakes with Starrily – Northern Lights.  And that’s where it ended for the day.  It took much longer than I expected for my nails to dry, so I ran out of time to do any sort of design.

Two coats of Essie – Sugar Daddy

Starrily iridescent flakes on top

And at first I was going to keep it like that.  But after a day and a half I was hating it.  It was just too simple, and my nails were too stained for it to look completely natural.  So Saturday morning, I stamped on this half circle, snowflake/star design.  I didn’t mean for it to be a modified french tip, but that’s exactly how it turned out.

I think this design is the perfect example of not giving up on your nails until you’re happy with them.  It may have taken me a while to figure out what to do, but in the end I loved it.  It was such a surprise, not only because I hadn’t planned on it, but because it’s completely different than what I normally wear.

Final look – left hand

Final look – right hand

Hope everyone had a great start to the new year!

Update:

I’ll be honest, I don’t exactly remember what happened to cause the chipping on some of my nails.  But I’m sure it had something to do with moving.  I feel like my thumbs always chip though, and then there’s that darn middle finger.  You’ll see that I’ve been struggling with it for weeks, and (spoiler) I haven’t had any luck keeping it safe.

My middle finger just did not survive

My right hand was okay