Matte Stamping and Born Pretty Store Review

I'm always up for a new technique, and matte stamping is an amazing one!  A fellow nail Instagrammer (@jay_jay_bee) posted her own version and I knew I would have to try it out.

The base color is Mentality Nail Polish in Sailor, the most perfect navy ever.  It's got a light shimmer and dries matte, but is equally gorgeous with or without topcoat.  I stamped using MoYou London Explorer 22, a lovely large image plate and Sally Hansen Matte About You.

The people over at Born Pretty Store were also kind enough to send me some items for review, one of which was the studs I used on my accent nails.  I really like them-they lie almost flat on the nail, so they don't get caught up in my hair, or fall off when I catch them on something.  If you would like to make a purchase of your own, there's also a link at the top right of my page, as well as my code for 10% off, UDG10.

C'est La Vie

Holy cow, I've been gone a while. I was looking up swatches for a polish and realized my own poor blog has been neglected in favor of Instagram! Here are some recent favorites:

I used China Glaze Tantalize Me and loose glitter from Born Pretty Store.  I loved these, I kept them on until the glitter mostly fell off!

I used the same loose glitter here, over China Glaze Pool Party, and stamped with Winstonia plate W-04 using Pure Ice Silver Mercedes.

This is Orly Ablaze (over white undies), stamped with Maybelline Bold Gold 70, which seems to have been discontinued in favor of Bold Gold 45.  Stamping plate is Pueen 14, from their 2013 plate collection.

For more available updates, my Instagram is nails_on_nails_xo.  See y'all later!

Stamps on Stamps on Stamps

 So a few months ago, I discovered the joy of stamping! These were all done with this set of Pueen plates and a Konad stamper/scraper set.  I've found that American Apparel polishes work well and that China Glaze Goldie But Goodie is an AWESOME gold.

Geometric! Lil' bit of smudging though, bleh.

WHO DAT! Stamped using Goldie But Goodie.

 More pretties after the jump!

Hellooooooooooo!

I've been absent for a while, since school is taking a major toll on my blogging abilities. However, school is out soon-ish for break, and I'm hoping to pick it up again.  I might start doing smaller posts, especially since I've been getting into indie polishes(!) and nail wraps and stamping! I do miss blogging, but it's just something I haven't been able to make time for. I'm currently wearing these nails:

The base is Zoya Mason, which I got in my October Ipsy Glam Bag! I don't know if I was the only one, but mine had some formula problems.  It was almost like there were tiny clumps of pigment and it was a little bumpy before topcoat.  I stamped using China Glaze Goldie But Goodie, using a design from Cheeky Jumbo Plate 1.  Necessary (for my conscience): The "name" of the plate is Viva Mexico, which I have problems with.  Some of the imagery is very stereotypical and I have a massive problem with that. Mexican culture is NOT all Cinco de Mayo, dammit. Most of the images are fine, albeit not exactly "Mexican"-there are some images that are heavily Maya and Nazca inspired.  I just needed to express that on some platform!  See y'al later!

Sugar Coat Pink Sprinkle Swatch

Three coats of Pink Sprinkle, one of the shimmery Sally Hansen Sugar Coat polishes. The glitter is almost like flakies and it's really pretty. However...the grit is white and it kind of shows through up close or at certain angles. 

Sugar Coat Red Velvet Swatch

Seriously, these polishes are awesome. Fast dry time, opaque in two coats, great colors...do I need to say more? 

Two coats of Red Velvet, all of the love. 

Julep Angela Swatch

I need to blog more, so I'm going to start doing quick swatches/reviews of polishes before I add art. All of these posts will probably be from my phone, just so y'all know! This is Angela, part of my (upgraded) July Julep Maven Box, and an "It Girl" polish. It's a gorgeous blue/purple duochrome, or "molten", as Julep calls it. 

The first coat was streaky, but a second coat seemed to even it out, to an extent anyways. The formula is pretty thin, and I had some drag problems. Overall, I like it enough to work with it, since it really is a gorgeous color. The purple in it comes out at certain angles, but it's mostly that pretty metallic blue-green.