Royal Red

Hello, everyone!
I had a wonderful vacation and I'm just now getting back in the swing of things! I had a whirlwind trip to two places I've always dreamed of seeing - London and Paris.  What a wonderful experience - c'etait magnifique!

The manicure I'm wearing now is actually inspired by one of the awesome sights from my vacation - the Red Drawing Room at Windsor Castle.

The room is breathtaking - and apparently only open during the winter months - so I felt extra lucky to have the opportunity to see it.  This was, by far, my favorite of the rooms we visited.

From: The Anglophile

I came home determined to "nailify" this beautiful color and texture combination.  Once I got settled in, I got out my plates and polishes and got to work.

It took a bunch of tries before I got the combination I wanted.  I finally settled on a base of Love My Nails Pomegranate stamped with the darker and more opaque Sally Hansen Insta Dri Rapid Red.  The shape and width of the lines on BM206 was about as close as I could get to the brocaded image.  For the accents, I used Essie Good as Gold and Mash 27.  I added a rhinestone for shimmer and as a nod to the color and shape of those beautiful light fixtures.

Nothing, alas, can replicate a room fit for a king...but this mani is a little reminder of a glimpse into the life of royalty that I was fortunate to have.

The weather, however, has refused to cooperate with my little homage  - we've had overcast skies and snow! - so I've had to take my pics indoors with and without the flash.

Thanks for reading!  Even after a dream vacation, it's always a blessing to come home to family and friends.  Thanks for stopping by!

31 Day Nail Challenge - Day 8: Metallic Nails

Metallic nails...hmmm...  What does that mean, exactly?  I use chromes and metallics a lot when stamping so I decided to go for a mani that reminded me of sheet metal.  I tried a bunch of different things until I finally found something close to what I had in mind.

The base is Love My Nails Silver Bullet, a silver chrome.  I used (another!) pattern from my XL Image Plate B which seemed to perfectly fit the bill.  I stamped over the silver with a Pure Ice Kiss Me Here, a gray chrome.  It's the exact combination I used before in my Silver and Gray mani, except in reverse order.

I pulled out my striping polish that I bought at Sally's a million years back to add the yellow stripe.  I used my cheapie Nail Star nail pens to add the dots on my "caution tape".  Theoretically, I could have used a combo of tape and stamping to get something that more resembled an actual caution tape, but the combination of drying time and trial and (lots of) error time made me go for the simpler approach.

I had so much fun trying to put this together!  It really got my creativity flowing and I finished with a mani I liked and bunches of polish strewn all over like there had been a nail polish tornado.

Overall, it was a fun stamping night!

Next up, "rainbow nails".

Red Angel Peacocks

So, after fiddling around unsuccessfully with the peacock on plate BM-15 - I just couldn't figure out to how get the placement right - I heaved one last sigh, and decided I would have to pick some other design.

I flipped through my nail plates binder and noticed that there's a peacock on Red Angel plate RA-102!

Hooray!  I put my imagination to work to see if I could accommodate my hankering for peacocks after all.

I used China Glaze Kinetic Candy as a base.  I used XL Stamping Plate B for the background design.

I stamped the pattern - not sure how to describe it, but it's circled in the piture - using three colors - Sally Hansen Insta Dri Jade Jump, China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le, and Revlon Top Speed Stormy. I tried to mush the colors a bit with the scraper so that the colors would mix a little at the edges.

Finally, I used Revlon Top Speed Espresso and Red Angel RA-102 to stamp this awesome little image of a peacock on top (I love its little "top feather").

Well, Konaddicts, there's one nail obsession temporarily assuaged...these things never last long, though.  I'm sure I'll have a bee in my bonnet for another design any time.  

Wait a minute - do I have any bees? :)

Citrus Sunburst

For this fresh and fruity mani, I layered the stamps a bit, moving from the lighter color at the top to the red at the bottom.

I started with a base coat of Rimmel 60 Seconds Extreme polish in Va Va Voom.  I rounded off the edges of the swirled pattern on plate DRK-A with a q-tip so that I could get close to a solid stripe of circles.

I stamped using Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lightening, then L'oreal Pumpkin, and finally, Pure Ice Siren for the tips.




I like the overall bright and cheery effect, and I especially liked the layering of the lighter yellow over the slightly more peachy base color.  The pearl of the base color also provides an interesting contrast with the creme polishes overlying it.

Playing with colors is so much fun!  What combinations are you aching to try this summer, Konaddicts?

Crazy for Paisley!

Why is nail stamping so much fun?  Because you can have paisley nails!  I had a lot of fun creating this mani and even more fun wearing it!

Here are the details:

I used China Glaze Kinetic Candy as the base coat.  I stamped with Kleancolor Military Green, Revlon Top Speed in Espresso and Revlon Top Speed in Stormy.  I used a dotting tool to add the gold and silver dots as accents.

The image plate is Cheeky XL Image Plate I.  I had some initial reservations about the plate because I got it at an "introductory price" of only $11.  When I got it, it even seemed to have a little bend in it .

Well...I gave the plate a try and haven't had any problems at all!  I do love the paisley designs and I'm always on the hunt for a bargain (which can sometimes backfire!).

Just when I got ready to give myself a pat on the back for coming up with such a nice color combination (always the hardest part for me!), I noticed my wall hanging from India.

Ah...the beautiful colors of India - always an inspiration!

Oil on water

I'm not sure exactly how to describe this design.  Well, with its fanning and waving patterns, it looks to me a little like a drop of oil on water.  That was the closest to a name that I could come up with, so there we have it!

I got to use several of my absolute favorite colors with this mani.

L-R: Kleancolor Jazz Olive, Metallic Sapphire, Fashionista, Metallic Purple

The base is Kleancolor Jazz Olive - a color I love!  I stamped using plate A59, Kleancolor Fashionista, and Kleancolor Metallic Sapphire.  Fashionista must be one of the strangest colors that I've ever picked up (I've heard it described as "swampy").  I was excited to finally work it into a design.  Finally, I used a portion of one of the designs of Konad Plate M78 and Kleancolor Metallic Purple to stamp the semi-circular accents.

I love the texture this combo creates!  Thanks for reading, Konaddicts!