Mags' Mix & Match Nautical Nails

Hello Everyone!

I have a nautical nail art for you today! I absolutely LOVE nautical manis! I think it is my favorite kind of nail art to wear! So as soon as summer starts, it's only natural for me to create one. This year is no exception!

As you can see I went for a mix and match kind of mani. There are usually not my cup of tea but I couldn't decide on one design so i did them all :)

Before I go into the manicure detail, I want to take a moment to express my absolute adoration of Kiko - Electric Blue! It's hands done my favorite polish of all time! That color is magnificent and I always reach for it whenever I want to do a blue nail art or when I just want plain nails. It's Glorious!!

For this look I used Essie - Blanc as a base for my ring and middle fingers. I made a gradient using Kiko - Baby Blue, Kiko - Electric Blue and Barry M - Blackberry and topped it with a little gold shell from Born Pretty Store.

For the middle finger I used nail vinyls again from BPS and Barry M - Blackberry, and topped the look with a anchor metal sticker. The metal anchor was such a pain to use, I should have curved it before applying, but i ended up managing to stick up fairly well.

You can see that the anchor is a bit damaged from me trying to stick it down! You live and learn :)

The rest of the fingers were less complicated to make, just few dots here and there using Catrice - Goldbusters. I ended up adding a thin layer of a shimmery polish from Berangé called Bleu Désir on top of Blackberry on my little finger.

With this kind of design, it is quite easy to do your dominant hand:

Everytime I look at my nails my mind  wanders on faraway beaches and sunny skies! Oh how am I longing for my holidays! To pass the time, bringing the holidays to my finger tips was the only thing to do!

I couldn't resist taking a macro shot of the little shells studs!

Until next time!
-Mags

Fabs' Maniswap with Deinitisa

... and I wanted  to add unicorns (but there are no unicorns)

A good morning to everyone!

Lately, I have really been enjoying challenging myself with #ManiSwaps!

For my first official post on the blog, I thought I would share with you my maniswap with the lovely Deinitisa Amarawi on G+. She asked if I wanted to do a maniswap and I jumped at the idea. Her nail art always has a wonderful, fresh feel to it and I couldn't wait. She chose my holo chevrons with neon accent. I chose her beautiful rainbow mani dry brush stamped with black. Her mani just made me happy. :) 

The two top ones are the recreations and the originals are below.

A big thank you to the lovely and talented Deinitisa! (Check out Deinitisa's G+ post for details on her recreation of my mani.)

For my recreation of her mani. I used the following polishes:

Zoya "Sooki" 
Deborah Lippmann "Lara's Theme"
Deborah Lippmann "Dear Mr. Fantasy"
Deborah Lippmann "Weird Science" 
Color Club "Almost Famous" 
Cult Nails "All Out" 
Nubar "Pasadena Purple" 
Kiko 336 
BarryM "Guava" 
Serum No. 5 "Pure Glow Getter" (Yes, it does glow in the dark...)

Stamping plate:

MoYou Kitty Collection 02

It was so much fun to do this mani! Now, you will notice that Deinitisa chose polishes with a little glitter. I only noticed this after I was done. I know... No one has ever accused me of being overly observant. :P 

I also used the dry brush technique (here is a tutorial by The Lacquerologist). I started on my left and then did my dominant hand and because I am not used to doing dry brush, my dominant hand came out better than the left (submissive? less dominant?...) as I got more comfortable with the technique. But of course, silly me, I did not take a photo... Queue the eye rolling.

The only thing that made me a little sad was that I did not have the same stamping plate so I could not make it an exact replica, but I loved the final product anyway. :) 

Remember I mentioned that it glows in the dark? Well, it does... but I was not impressed with the effect... Am I wrong? I don't know. Just looked messy to me. Although the Serum No. 5 base "Pure Glow Getter" is just to die for!! 

(I know... I remember to take a glow in the dark picture while I am not excited about it... and I forget to take a photo of my dominant hand... Yay for me)

With that, I leave you all, wishing everyone a wonderful day.

Until next time, faithfully yours, Fabiana.