Stamping and Gradients, Finally Coming Together in a Cutesy Package

Are you ready for the most cutesy nails ever seen on this blog?  I'm starting off with a warning cos they're a bit ridiculous.  So I've been on a bit of a gradient kick lately ever since I figured out that you just have to follow all the tutorials out there.  I saw a particularly awesome pastel and paisley design on tumblr the other day and thought I'd give it a shot.  Not only did the gradient work, the stamping did too!

To start, I applied two coats of L.A. Girl Delicate and, once dry, painted strips of Revlon Pink Lingerie, Urban Outfitters Mojave and Revlon Cloud on my makeup sponge.  Three coats of dabbing got my colours nice and even, smooth.  I have trouble getting in around my cuticles so I helped the coverage along a little with applying the polish directly.  Once the gradient was dry, I waited another ten minutes before starting my stamping. Trust me, there's nothing worst than getting all the way to the stamp application stage only to have layers of wet polish ooze out under the stamp *shudder*.  So after waiting ten minutes I waited another ten.  Then, using my Konad Black Special Polish and BM-320, I actually got the stamp to apply.  I've always had issues with getting the stamp on the stamp but turns out being quick with the scraping and then using a rolling motion to pick up the image, I actually got a good result. 

 The Verdict: Of course I love this.  It took too long and was so risky with the stamping on the top for me not to love it.  My bf came up behind me as I was editing these saying "Oooh, who did those?" cos they were so awesome.  And cute, I like cute.

So-Cute-You-Might-Die Black and White Stamping!

Hey! I'm here! Not dead!  It's just incredibly hard to blog and start a new job when I've been sitting at home not doing much for two months.  I'm now working for an agency in downtown Toronto doing front-end web development and it's really fun.  Anyway, I was lucky enough to get some new MASH stamping plates in the mail this week and I just had to try them out.  I chose ridiculously cute as a theme and away I went. 

As I'm still not that good at stamping and I'm only half-way good with the Konad polishes, I decided on a black and white theme.  To start, I applied three coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.  If you're looking for a white to be something other than polish underwear, this is actually a really good option.  It doesn't go streaky at all.  Once I was sure each layer and the overall result was dry, I waited another ten minutes.  I can't even count the number of times I've stamped on my nail only to have still-wet polish squish out the sides.  Using the Konad Black polish and the MASH plates (26-50) I went to stamping.  I had trouble getting the polish to come off evenly on the larger areas like the cherry bodies and the horses but I'm ok with it, makes it look rustic.  I had this idea in my head of stamping a small design over and over again to create my own design but only really did that on my thumb and middle fingers.  Stamping is good in that it's dry almost instantly so you can stamp repeatedly. 

The Verdict:  Still love the white OPI polish and really like these new plates, despite some issues I had with getting the polish to be even across the larger areas.  Seems like the direction you use the scraper in helps.  If you look at the shape of the horse, I got better results when I swiped from head to tail rather than down the body.  And look how cute these images are!  Even my male friend noticed and I always take that as I sign I did a good job.

The Polishes:

• OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls
• Konad Black
• MASH Stamping Plates 26-50, mashnails.com

Stamping plates were provided for honest review.