Hello and welcome! I’m continuing the theme from last week of using things I don’t normally turn to.
So just like last week, I dug up some vinyls that I bought forever ago & have not used yet. Which doesn’t make any sense, because I absolutely love elephants and was more than excited to use these. As you can probably tell, I eventually added chevrons just like @kt_tk1 because they really are just a lovely combination (and my first attempt failed). And then I made sure to grab some very spring-like colors.
What I Used:
- Base Coat: Glisten & Glow – Base Coat
- 1st Color: Sally Hansen – Stellar Style
- 2nd Color: OPI – Alpine Snow
- 3rd Color: KL Polish – Miss Kensington
- 4th Color: Maniology – Lilac Clouds
- 5th Color: China Glaze – In a Lily Bit
- 6th Color: Superchic Lacquer – Cotton Headed Ninny-Muggins
- Top Coat: Essie – Speed Setter Top Coat
- Maniology Mini Lotus mat
- Live Love Polish Your Moroccan My Heart chevron vinyls
- Twinkled T Elephant vinyls
- Maniology double sided dotting tool & nail art brush
- Twinkled T clean up brush, size #2
- nail polish remover
As always, I started with base coat, and then applied three thin coats of Sally Hansen – Stellar Style. The formula for this polish is not great, but I just can’t help but love it. It’s just my ideal light pink. Although, I recently bought two polishes kind of similar to this, in the hopes that I’ll find a better formula to love.
Next, I wanted to use a Moroccan tile pattern vinyl (I can’t think of the pattern’s official name). And in order to avoid my lifting mistake from last week, and to have plenty of time to fill the tiles with color, I decided to make a decal. I applied top coat on the mat, stuck on the vinyl, and colored in the tiles. Sounds great, right? Except starting with top coat was a mistake, I was supposed to end with it. So when I went to lift the vinyls, everything came up with it. So much for avoiding another mistake.
Since there was no way for me to save the vinyls from this point, I moved on to using the chevron pattern. And this time I placed them down without top coat underneath. I used the dotting tool to fill in every visible stripe a different color. Green, then blue, then purple, and white. Reminds me of an Easter egg, now that I’m looking at them.
I lifted the vinyl successfully off the mat, and let them dry. So in the meantime I put a layer of glitter topper on my ring finger and thumb, (Cotton Headed Ninny-Muggins is the cutest name for a polish) and placed the elephant vinyl on my middle finger.
In order to make sure the green popped off the pink, I added a layer of white polish to my elephant first. Of course, vinyls aren’t meant to sit and dry with the polish. You’re supposed to lift them immediately. So I added the green on top after maybe a second of letting the white dry, and removed the vinyl. And for having a thick, wet layer of polish on them, I don’t think the elephants turned out too bad.
For the chevrons, I was using normal top coat to connect the stripes, and lift them to my nail. But at some point I realized that it had a smoother look if I backed them with pink instead. Not sure why, or how, but I can tell a difference.
In the end, these were a lot more work than I had bargained for. Everyone else makes vinyls sound so easy. Maybe I just need more practice. But they look great, are perfect for spring (which was when I did them), and might be something I try again. At least the elephants will definitely be making a comeback!
Hope everyone enjoyed their week!
Update:
Well it was great week for my nails, and you can tell by just looking at them. There’s practically zero chipping, and you can’t even see any wear at the tips. The “worst” part is probably just the grow out line. But I like to think of it as my nails just being extra healthy and growing quickly.
Weekly Nail 