2x1 Día de Muertos Nail Art

Hello dear readers!

Today I will be showing you two different Día de muertos (Day of the dead) nail art in the same post ;)
I wanted to try a more traditional one and a simpler one, but with a similar theme.

More detailed pictures and details below....

As I wrote on my día de muertos post from last year, Nov. 1st (children) and Nov. 2nd (adults) are days for Mexicans to remember our loved ones who are no longer with us. We prepare an altar with elements such as fruits, food, and other elements that are supposed to guide the spirit of our loved one to us and then back to the afterlife.

(A  traditional día de muertos altar)

Now, this theme translated to nail art...

*I added the dead lovers as the center of this nail art as a symbol of love after death. 

Absence does not mean forgetting.

There will always be a very special place in our hearts for those who have gone before us.

For this manicure, I started with China Glaze - Howl you Doin' as the base. Then, I stamped the lover's skeletons, papel picado (cut paper) pattern, crosses and candles from HD C and HD D plates.

I painted the skeletons using the stamping decal technique.

On my thumb, I applied a combination of stamping sugar skulls and added flower stickers for extra decoration.

*In Mexico, calaveras de azúcar (sugar skulls) are given as a treat for this celebration or as part of the altar. When given to a friend or relative, the name of the receiver is usually written on the skulls forehead. 

Now, the 2nd nail art theme is death as part of life itself.

It is a fact that many people don't like to think about because it may sound gruesome or sad.

The day we are born, we have started a journey that will finish with death.

A part of a dancing skeleton stamped on my nail...

The skeleton is probably mocking us, saying "Cómo me ves, te verás"

(The way you see me now, sooner or later you will look like me).

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I hope you liked any of these two nail art that I made for this very special post.

I had to take some time to write something meaningful for this day because this festivity is very close to my heart. So, if you took your time to read through this post, I hope you've learned a little bit about día de muertos.

♥♥Thank you for reading♥♥

Halloween Night

Hello dear readers!

This is my last Halloween nail art of the year. I did 4 different manicures in total which is an improvement because I usually only did 1 manicure on previous years. This manicure is originally my bf's idea. He wanted to do all the nail polishing and stamping himself but then got frustrated by my huge nail polish stash. From what he told me about his idea, this is what I came up with:

I started with LVX nail polish in Legendaire as the base. I stamped a grunge splatter pattern from HD-C plate using Sally Hansen Insta-dri in Lively Lilac. I stamped all the small designs using HD C and D plates including a tree design from last year's collection.

I used Nabi in black for stamping. on some designs I used the decal technique to do a reverse stamping. 

Here's the stamping on my thumb.

I hope you liked this nail art ;)

♥♥Thank you for reading♥♥

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Nail Art: Zombie Mayhem

Hello dear readers!

I'm trying to come up with more Halloween nail art... I think the idea of doing one on each hand has helped me accomplish  that...

This time, I bring to you a zombie inspired manicure...

(All pictures can be enlarged)

For this nail art, I started with Sun Kissed by Cameo Colours as the base. It is a thermal nail polish which is orange-beige when cold and lime green when temperature turns warm... perfect zombie color combination.

I used  Halloween stamping plates HD C and D for the designs.

Here's what I did on the thumb, blood splatter as the background and a bunch of zombie hands.

I used Sally Hansen Insta-dri in Cinna-snap as the stamping polish for all the blood you see on this manicure.

This is how the manicure looks under cold temperature. The eyes, brains and axe were stamped using the decal technique.

Here you can see the eyes and brains in more detail.

Here are some of the stamping decals that I used on my nails.

What do you think of this manicure? 

♥♥Thank you for reading♥♥

Challenge: Tone-on-Tone Stamping

Hello dear readers!

I did another manicure for FB group AiS. For Sunday September 1st, the theme of the challenge was tone-on tone which was pretty easy. I chose gray tones for this manicure because it's one of my favorite colors that I rarely get to wear.

I started with China Glaze - Pelican Grey as the base...

Then, I applied a layer of Spectraflair topcoat.

After that, I stamped a full nail design from plate XL M using Kleancolor - Charcoal for stamping.

(Kleancolor Charcoal doesn't work as a nail polish at all, takes ages to dry or slides off your nail...other than that... for stamping, it works flawlessly) ;)

Extra pic :)

 What do you think of this nail art?

As always...

♥♥Thank you so much for reading♥♥

Challenge: Stamping Over a Nude Base

Hello dear readers!

Last Sunday's challenge on FB group Adventures in Stamping was to do some stamping nail art on a nude base. I find this group very fun because it stimulates my creativity when I have no inspiration.

Well, here's what I came up with:

More details below....

The base color for this nail art was Palm Springs by American Apparel. Then I did some sponging using other lighter and darker nude tones to give more dimension to the background of my design.

For stamping polishes, I used:

-Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Mint Sprint (leaves and foliage)

-Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Presto Pink (Flowers)

-Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Snappy Sorbet (Flowers on thumb)

-Pop Beauty - Thirty Seven Foggy (Light grey foliage)

-Nabi - Black (Feathers)

For designs, I used:

-XL R plate (Bird on thumb, flowers, big feathers)

-XL F plate (Small flowers, leaves on thumb)

-XL M plate (Big flowers and foliage on ring finger)

-QA23 (Vines on thumb and pinkie)

-A49 (Flowers and leaves on  index)

-m77 (Small feathers and flowers on pinkie)

Here's a detailed picture of what I did on my thumbnail using the stamping decal technique

*I will do a tutorial on this next week

 What do you think of this nail art?

Stay tuned for my tutorial on how to do a nail decal using a stamping design next Monday ;)

♥♥Thank you so much for reading♥♥

Tiger Print Nail Art

Hello dear readers!

This time I just did a simple tiger print on my nails... I'm not into animal prints... but I used a gold nail polish that was calling for something wild and I thought, why not?

I started with a nail polish by Icing called Golden Rule.

It is a gold color with foil finish and holographic micro glitter.

*You can see a 15 sec. video swatch of this nail polish here.

I stamped the tiger print with Kleancolor black using stamping plate QA25 

(Available for purchase in my online store)

As I said previously, looks a bit too wild for my taste especially on this nail lenght... Rawr!! But it's always good to try something different...

What do you think of this design? Too wild? :)

♥♥Thank you for reading♥♥

My 1st Attemp at Water Marble Nail Art

Hello dear readers!

Today, I'm excited to show you my first attempt at water marbling :) I know I'm years too late to try this trend. In my case, this was not as easy as it seems... you have to choose the right nail polishes otherwise, you'll end up with a blob of polish on the bottom of the cup of water... it happened to to me before :'( and for this reason, I thought trying more would be a waste of time and precious nail polish.

I have to admit that I love to watch water marble YouTube videos (I find them relaxing for some strange reason). The whole process is fascinating and the end results amazing. I know this manicure is not spectacular as many other water marbles out there... but, bear with me... it's only my 1st attempt ;)

For this manicure, I used three China Glaze nail polishes from the Avant Garden collection: Passion for Petals, Fancy Pants and Dandy Lyin' Around. The base of this manicure is Passion for Petals as well. I found that most China Glaze nail polishes are good for water marbling.

As you can see, the swirls of nail polish are not as much. This is because I was experimenting and I just added a few drops of each color in case I failed... but in the end, I really like the randomness of the lines.

Have you tried water marbling? What do you think of my first attempt?

♥♥Thank you so much for reading♥♥

Black Lace and French Manicure and How to

Hello dear readers:

The nail art I'm posting today is a remake of something I already did once before I started this nail blog. It is a combination of French manicure and lace. Details on how I did it below:

I started with one layer of basecoat. Using Kleancolor in black, I painted French tips using the nail polish brush. I didn't use adhesive guides this time. I think it looks better if I use my natural nail smile lines as my guide.

I stamped on top of the nail bed area with a lace pattern from A40 stamping plate using Kleancolor black as the stamping polish. I wanted to give this manicure a bit more glam so I added one layer of a glitter nail polish on top of the French tip.

What do you think of the combination of lace and French manicure?

♥♥Thank you so much for reading♥♥

Halloween Pumpkin Nail Art and Tutorial

Hello dear readers!

Today I decided to do a freehand nail art featuring a Halloween design. (Last year's Halloween nail art here)

This time, Halloween pumpkins were my inspiration.

Below you will see step by step pictures and instructions on how I did this nail art.

First, I painted my nails using a dark purple nail polish. I used Orly's Fowl Play. 

Using an orange color nail polish (or acrylic paint), paint the tip of your nails making semicircular edges at the top of the design. The nail polish I used is Ulta - Sun of a Gun.

With a metallic or glittery nail polish paint the outline of the pumpkin. I used Kleancolor - Metallic Orange.

Now, paint the faces of the pumkins. The facial expressions are up to you ;)

Paint stems and leaves on the top of the pumpkins. I used Kleancolor -  Metallic Green.

This step is optional: you can add any glitter, dots, etc... I painted some candies on the accent nails using to finish the design. I added wrapped candies on the thumb and candy corns on my ring finger nail.

Finished!

I hope you liked this nail art. You still have time do it yourself for this Halloween ;)

♥ ♥Thank you for reading♥ ♥