The Nail Challenge Collaborative - Stamping - Week 4

Hi~

today, I'm going to complete my second month of the Nail Challenge Collaborative's May challenge: stamping. I tried to do different things for all four weeks, so for the last of the four manicures, I decided to try to recreate one of my earliest inspiration pictures I saved back in 2011: a manicure by Emerald Sparkled.

The inspiration mani is quite special to me. I loved it so much, that I even went ahead and searched for the perfect polishes to do this. In the end, I bought them, but hadn't even swatched them to this day. Kind of sad, isn't it?

So the base for this mani is H&M U Must Have This. I love the name... remember: I bought it just for this mani... like two years ago! Haha... It's a teal leaning sky blue creme bordering on what I imagine a neon blue to be. Application was smooth, but drying time leaves quite a bit to be desired.

Diese Mani habe ich mit zwei Schichten H&M U Must Have This begonnen. Den Lack habe ich ursprünglich extra mal für die Replikation dieser Mani gekauft, aber letztlich bis zu diesem Versuch nicht mal geswatched. Das ist zwei Jahre her. Keine Ahnung, ob es den Lack noch zu kaufen gibt, aber dieses Türkis gefällt mir immer noch sehr gut. Vom Auftrag her prima, aber leider war die Trockenzeit nicht so die beste.

When my base seemed dry, I tried taping of a part to cover it from the brown polish I applied on top. Sadly, that didn't work properly, because the base wasn't really dry even after 30 min. So I painted the brown part by hand using Color Club Rebel Spirit. It turned out darker than I thought. Looks almost black, doesn't it?

Als nächstes habe ich versucht einen Bogen abzukleben, damit das Türkis unter dem Braun erhalten bleibt, aber leider hab ich mir damit Teile vom Lack abgezogen, weil er selbst nach 30min noch nicht ausreichend trocken war. Daher habe ich die braunen Teile letztlich per Hand gemalt. Das Braun, das leider sehr dunkel ausgefallen ist, ist Color Club Rebel Spirit.

After letting that dry, I continued with the stamping using essie Good as Gold and plate A07. There are several mirrored images on this plate and I chose two of them to stamp to create a larger image. As you can tell... my aligning leaves a lot to be desired too. I'll have to practice that. Some parts didn't transfer properly, so I went in with a fine brush to fill in. I finished the whole thing with a thick layer of topcoat.

Mit essie Good as Gold und Schablone A07 habe ich dann das Ornament aufgestempelt. Auf der Schablone gibt es einige gespiegelte Motive, aus denen ich zwei ausgewählt habe, um das größere Muster zusammenzusetzen. Das mit der Symmetrie muss ich aber noch üben. Teile, die sich nicht ganz übertragen ließen, habe ich mit einem feinen Pinsel dann aufgefüllt.


Lastly, here are two pictures of the base on its own. It's pretty (and has been sitting in my untrieds forever), so it deserves some attention.

Und zum Schluss den Basislack noch mal solo. Verdient er irgendwie... nach dem ich ihn so lange auf seinen Einsatz habe warten lassen. 

So that was the stamping challenge. I sure stamped a lot this past month and I think I got a little better at it. It's not as scary anymore. I'm currently waiting for a set of Bundle Monster plates and I can't wait to play around with those. Especially, because my ordered Kiko Mirror polishes are sitting on my desk waiting!

On to the next challenge... which will be neons! So summer has arrived, I guess? Not here in Germany though. :((

I hope everyone has a nice weekend! Until next time!