Hello Kitty

Every week on Polish-aholics Anonymous, we do a nail art challenge with a different theme. This week was dedicated to Stephie Dauphinais. She suddenly passed away last week. In remembrance of her, we wanted to do our nails in designs and colors she liked.

I did Hello Kitty. I've never been a big fan of it, but it seemed like a cute idea since Stephie was big on Hello Kitty. I took inspiration from this cute design. I used Wet n Wild Tickled Pink as my base. Then I stamped on a full nail design with Wet n Wild Lavender Creme and plate BM21. For my Hello Kitty image, I used Sinful Colors Black on Black and plate m71. As an accent, I placed a hot pink rhinestone in the middle of her bow on my ring fingers.

Wet n Wild retail for $1-2 at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Ulta, and many other stores, all of which are listed on their website. Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. BM stamping plates are part of a 21 piece set that retails for $18 on Bundle Monster or their Amazon store. Plate m71 retails for $2.99 on Born Pretty.

Born Pretty has been running a promotion for a long time that offers a free Hello Kitty stamping plate to ten people per day. You do not even have to place an order for anything else. The plate can be found here, along with instructions on how to receive it for free. 

For the Love of Train

Its Stamping Sunday! Yes, it is that time of the week again. :) The theme is Inspired by Music. It could be our favorite artist, album, artist/band, et cetera. I chose to do a song by Train. Given I have a limited amount of stamp images, I listened to my favorite Train songs to see which one I could do.

Not perfect considering my limited collection, but it was fun to do. I was inspired by Save Me San Francisco by Train. I based each nail on a different piece of the lyrics as the story goes along. Index: "We took the highway to the One, up the coast to catch some sun." I did a base coat of Cosmetic Arts Sky High with Sinful Colors Snow Me White clouds. Then I stamped a sun with Konad Yellow and plate BM01. Middle: "I drove into Seattle rain, fell in love then missed the train." I did the same base as my index finger, then stamped on the Seattle Space Needle with Sally Hansen Night Flight and plate BM15. Ring: "If I could wish upon a star." I did a base coat of Sinful Colors Black on Black with Midnight Blue sponged on and a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust. Next I stamped on stars with Wet n Wild Silvivor and plate BM21. At the time, I had misplaced the plate with a single star, so I used my full nail design and just stamped one of the stars. Finally, Pinky: "But there's a wide-eyed girl back there, and she means everything... everything." I used  Look by Bipa Metallic Matt as my base before I stamped on Love with Love My Nails New Love and plate BM09.

Wet n Wild retail for $1-2 at CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Ulta, and many other stores, all of which are listed on their website. Cosmetic Arts retail for $2 at Ross (I'm unsure where else they are sold, if anywhere else). Sinful Colors retail for $2 at Walgreens (online/in store) and Target (in store). They're also available for $2.50 at Cherry Culture. Konad Special Polish (for stamping) retails for $6.80 on their website. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri retails for $3-5 at Walgreens, Walmart, Riteaid, Target, and Ulta. China Glaze retails for $5-10 a bottle at Sally Beauty Supply, Ulta, and various other stores/sites. Love My Nails retail for $1 at Bari Cosmetics.


If you want to listen to the song that inspired my nails, click the song title you see above. Or click here if you would rather see lyrics. :)

Retro Stars Rainbow Gradient

Its Stamping Sunday over at Adventures In Stamping on Facebook. This week is Stars. And tomorrow's Nail Art Challenge at Polish-aholics Anonymous is Gradient/Ombre. I had this vision of a rainbow gradient with black stars. My nails are not exactly what I imagined, but the design is growing on me.

It reminds me of a vintage tee where the edges of the images fade and become worn. I don't think this plate image was etched deep enough. I could not pick up the image in the same spots over and over.

Its a lot of color! I used Essie Bone Chilling, Zoya Pippa, Dahlia Orange, Love My Nails New Love, Color Club Poptastic, Julep Anne, Zoya Phoebe, and Sinful Colors Irish Green. I started with a coat of Bone Chilling then sponged on each of the other colors. Next I stamped the stars on using the BM21 plate and Sinful Colors Black on Black.

I really like how colorful this is!