31DC2013 12: Stripes

I have to say this is one of my favorites so far from the challenge. I love the look of stripes, especially the crisp ones you can achieve from striping tape. I have been waiting to try one of my new polishes, a england Ascalon. It is such a gorgeous silvery-purple holo. Or bet yet, a england describes it as, "Forged by magic and guided by our hero's sainted hand, the steely grey of his spire is alive with a swirling heart of lavender fire." Does that give you a better idea? I paired it with an old favorite, OPI Yes...I Can-Can, which is a vampy plum with a subtle shimmer. I think they compliment each other very well.

If this looks like it took a lot of patience, believe me, it did. I wouldn't say that that it's necessarily difficult, just a pain in the butt. It's still totally worth it because it turned out just how I wanted!

The art deco feel of this design brings me back my first trip to NYC. It was so cool finally visiting the iconic Empire State Building! Good times..

Even more photos..

What I used:
a england Ascalon
OPI Yes...I Can-Can!
Seche Vite top coat

I purchased my striping tape from Amazon. It costs practically nothing. My a england polishes have been purchased through Ninja Polish. I have three of their polishes, but I WANT THEM ALL. Or need, same thing.


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Silvery Swoopy Stamping

First things first, you will notice my nails are decidedly shorter here. I have always had super thin nails, so growing them out that long has been quite an accomplishment for me. They were splitting badly and it was time to start fresh. I've been trying my bestest to care for them, and I'm still hoping they'll eventually get a little bit stronger.

Here is my first ever attempt with nail art stamping. If you have seen or done stamping before, don't judge me! If you have no experience with it, doesn't this look awesome?!

 View from a distance.

Close up.

You will notice, especially on my thumb, that the stamp design was too small for my nails. Apparently these fit other people, but mine are too gigantic? I know I'm not the only one that has this problem, so it's confusing why they're not all made bigger. The plate I bought is from Born Pretty and it was only $3, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. (The stamper and scraper together were $2)

Besides the design not being big enough, I think the grooves were also too shallow? It's hard to tell. Maybe it was just me, because some seemed to stamp better than others. There are varying qualities of stamping plates out there from what I've read, but I don't really know where these land in the spectrum.

I followed Sarah's stamping tutorial from Chalkboard Nails. It was really straightforward and easy to follow. Basically you just paint the polish in the design on the plate, scrape off the excess, stamp the plate, then stamp onto your nail!

Despite some of the issue I had here, it was SUPER fun! I am really looking forward to finding some better quality plates, and hopefully ones that fit!

What I used:
a england Sleeping Palace- purple base color (GORGEOUS color, I will have to give you a better look soon)
Sephora by OPI Queen of Everything- silver design
Out The Door Northern Lights Hologram (Silver) top coat
New Curve Design Nail Art Stamp Template M69