Hey there!
I hope you're all doing well? Here we are at the change of the seasons again, and we're now getting into my favourite! The leaves are starting to turn, and whether you call it Autumn or Fall, I reckon it's the most beautiful season there is.
Having been completely underwhelmed by high street nail polishes of late, and unwilling to pay the higher prices of indies when I already have so much polish, it means I've actually bought very little lately, and that's why I haven't had very much to show you. I haven't even done much nail art, and that which I have done has been simple dots or stripes and not really worth shouting about.
However, I was in Superdrug last weekend, and ka-pow! Some polish that made me do a double take. In fact I might have even said "ooh!" out loud, for here were some polish colours I didn't already own, and in wonderful Autumn colours. There were 5 or 6 in the range, but Superdrug had a 3 for 2 offer on, so I rationed myself to three.
These were the three polishes I got:
From L-R they are Cardamom, Mustard and Paprika.
I may as well now show them to you in the same order as this picture, which is just the order I picked them up in my hand (professional to a fault hehe).
For each colour polish I've taken three pictures. One in direct sun, one in the shade and one showing the bottle so you can see how the polish on the nail compares with the colour in the bottle.
So lets go with Barry M Cardamom. First in the shade:
The formula was lovely, if you've used Barry M Gellies before, it's pretty much their standard formula. This is one coat with no top coat, and it had the lovely shine as they all do. I find that this shine doesn't last long on me and if I manage to wear it for a couple of days without chipping (I'm tough on polish) I find I want to add a topcoat at that point just to get the shine back.
Usually by a couple of days I've chipped any polish anyway, no matter what the make. I think it's because I wash my hands alot, and am typing most of the day.
Here it is in direct sun:
I have had to do a little bit of electronic dry skin gardening on these pics. Not to make my cuticles look marvellous (as I'm sure you can tell) but just to make sure I don't put you off your breakfast. They were most incredibly dry, despite me treating them better than most Egyptian princesses day and night. They're so ungrateful and insist on shedding all the expensive moisture I try to pamper them with. Sigh.
Here's the bottle comparison:
I have to say I was a little bit disappointed in this colour when it dried. As you can see, the colour in the bottle is a more greyed out green, which I prefer, and it dried to a kind of light British Racing Green, which is not what I was looking for. But still, it's not unpleasant, and I do think I'll wear it. Dry time was the usual Gelly medium-fast.
Next up we have Barry M Gelly in Mustard, firstly in the shade:
Again this is one coat with no top coat, and for a light colour it gave pretty good coverage. The same nice formula with a medium-quick dry time. I do find I have to be quite careful when applying Gellies to wipe the brush stalk or else there is a high possibility of a big blob of polish making its way onto my nail (or leg, or carpet, etc, in a nail polish Russian Roulette stylee).
Here it is in the sunshine:
You can see on this pic, very slight VNL on my index finger and the edge of my thumb, but in real life that wasn't noticeable. Another coat would have sorted it out, but to be honest, I was too lazy.
Here it is with its bottle comparison:
Again, a little bit darker than in the bottle. When I first applied this colour I said, OMG this does absolutely nothing for my skin tone, but it was that fugly I actually fell a bit in love with it. Of the three colours, this is my fave, and I think it will be my go-to Autumn colour this year. Though not really office friendly in the conservative environment at mine so I'll have to reserve it for weekends.
And onto the third colour, Paprika:
A true russet red, this one really did need two coats. However I didn't, because I'd only done one coat for the other two colours, I wanted to keep the same for this (see also, lazy). Same formula and dry time as the others. Reds are not really my thing, but this one is wearable as it's definitely more in the brown family.
Here it is in the sunshine:
This picture is actually pretty spot on colour wise, and is the most office friendly of the three I bought.
Here's its bottle comparison:
Again a bit darker than in the bottle, a recurring theme.
The three look lovely side by side, so I thought I'd mix them up a bit:
I used striping tape to section off the end and middle of my nails and just using the brush from the bottle I painted between the tape. Leaf for topical interest ;-)
It's not the neatest nailart I've ever done but I absolutely love the end result. So much so, I took another pic haha. This time in the sun:
It was topped off with HK Girl Glisten and Glow top coat which is my current favourite. It doesn't go gloopy and shrink like Seche can after a while.
So there we have it, the three I bought, and I'm very pleased with them. I would definitely recommend them. I paid £3.99 per bottle, but as I said I got them on a 3 for 2 offer which means I ended up paying just over £2.50 per bottle.
You can see the full range of the Barry M Gelly colours by following this (link) and the list of ingredients are also there. Barry M are cruelty free, so guilt free polishing.
The next polish on my want list will be a thermal, I've only got a couple of those and the formula of the ones I have is not great. Do you have a favourite I should be looking at?
Is Autumn your favourite like mine, or do you prefer another season?
Until next time....
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Woot! I found some mojo! It's been a long time people, and good to be back. What an up and down few months I've had. It's certainly true what they say about not fully appreciating your good health until you don't have it. However, things are looking up now and so I've got room in my brain for the fun stuff. So OBVS I've gone straight to my finger ends :-)
I've hardly bought any polish these last few months (I knowwwww), and have spent most of my time with just strengthener on them. My cuticles are awful due to a dermatitis attack, despite constant moisturing I'm pretty sure I'll have to photoshop at least a couple of fingers to prevent my post looking like an episode of Casualty haha.
On a happier note I reached 100,000 pageviews yay! Actually it's a bit past that, but for some reason I can't fathom, one of my Feelgood Friday posts is getting ALOT of love. It must be linked somewhere in somebody populars' blog, but because I can't work Google Analytics properly I'll never know. So I'm not counting the pageviews from that one post, because it makes me look much more popular than I actually am.
So, I went out shopping today and some new Barry M Gellys caught my eye. I'm always on the lookout for pale green polishes and GNP23 Olive fits that bill perfectly. A washed out khaki that reminds me very much of Essies Navigate Her, which I loved the colour of, but hated the formula. I would do a comparison post for you, but am pretty sure I gave Navigate Her away.
So how was it I hear you ask? Well, here's how the colour looks:
As you can see, a pale grey/green.
Here's the full hand swatch. It has a coat of HK Girl Glisten & Glow topcoat on it as I forgot to take a picture before I applied it, doh! It was the usual Gelly shiny finish though.
It's looking slightly more greyed out here than it looks in real life, and it is flattering to my skin tone. I used two coats, but you could definitely get away with one thickish one if you're using a fast dry topcoat over it. Dry time was pretty fast, and I didn't have any problem with the formula. Nice and smooth, and no bubbles, lovely.
But of course, due to the aforementioned return of the mojo, I couldn't just leave them all blank and sensible. So I went to YouTube to look for some inspiration. I found some in the form of this video http://youtu.be/yC3P3pIrR3o by LNETSA for some lovely lace nails. Keeping with the Barry M theme, I used their nail art pen, which I reviewed in full (here)
And this is what I came up with:
I'm really pleased with how they came out, considering they didn't take much time at all, and I'm considering doing a step by step tutorial for them, if anyone would be interested?
As you can see in the background, the bluebells are back out in the garden and I couldn't resist giving them a part in the show:
How gorgeous are they? And they smell divine. They really do make something simple like walking up the garden path a pleasure. Yes, I do stop to smell the flowers, I think we all should whenever we can. How are your gardens going, do you have flowers out yet?
And finally, back to the polish, here's the brush shot:
This is probably the most accurate picture colour wise, and I would say it has dried to half a shade richer on my nails. As I said, I had no problems with application and I'm very pleased with it. I can see it becoming a regular for me.
I paid £3.99 in Superdrug, and because they had a 3 for 2 offer on, I got it a little bit cheaper than that. In fact I didn't realise about the offer until I already had two things in my hand, so I felt like I got a bonus freebie.
So what do you think, is it a colour or design you'd go for?
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Really? Last minute rush again, me? I'm so glad this weeks challenge is polka dots, as they're quick and easy. Also I've been itching to give my new Barry M nailart pens a go, and let you know what I think. I looked up the definition of polka dot on Google, and it said 'a regular pattern of round dots, usually on fabric'. Which actually changed my idea of what to do, as my orginal pattern wasn't going to be at all regular. Good old Google.
I got these nailart pens last weekend when I was *supposed* to be Christmas shopping. I ended up bringing more home for myself than I did for friends and family, oops! Happily my TK Maxx are getting their polish stocks back up for the festivities, but nothing really shouted 'buy me' this time. I'm happy to see that they're starting to sell individual polishes in there too, because all too often I'll have to buy a set of three just to get one colour I want. There were L'Oreal polishes in Poundland though, and I picked a couple of those up.
I did make a start though. One person has a present haha.
So, back to the nails. I started with a base of Nails Inc's Bruton Street. I like this colour, it's a pretty neutral dusky pink that's most definitely safe for work, while managing to be at least a bit interesting.
Also flattering to my skintone and with great opacity, I've only used one coat here. It's an all round winner for me. I did somehow manage to apply it a bit unevenly on the end of my ring finger, but that's my fault for rushing, not the polish formulation.
So here's a picture of what I did:
I was really impressed with the Barry M Nail Art Pens. The polish flowed neatly out of them, and they were incredibly precise. As you can see, I managed to do teeny weeny dots, and it took no time at all.
Here's a pic of the nibs, they're not like traditional felt tips, they're sort of a hard plastic, but lovely and smooth to use:
The one thing I did notice is that when I tried to do stripes with them, my initial line went slightly thinner as it dried, and sometimes I had to do over it twice to get the thickness I wanted. That didn't bother me too much though, and as you can see it worked brilliantly for dots.
Here's what the full pens look like:
The nailart pens also came in pink and silver, but I didn't buy those. They were £4.99 each in Superdrug, and at the moment they are having a 3-for-2 offer, so you could pick up 3 at a good price if you're quick.
One last picture of the nails:
So, there we go, I was really pleased with the quality of the Barry M Nailart Pens, and would definitely recommend them. They're quick, easy, and mess free.
Don't forget to check out what the rest of this weeks dotty ladies have to offer:
Catrine at Unnaked Nails (link)
Michelle at Labmuffin (link)
Maria at Maria's Nail Polish Blog (link)
Melanie at Nail and Polish (link)
Ameerah at Valiantly Varnished (link)
Anna & Haylee at Makeup and Masala (link)
Rosemarie at Every Little Polish (link)
Anna at Makeup N More (link)
So, have you tried the Barry M pens? Did you like them as much as me? Are you a fan of dotty nails?
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
I've got some mojo back, yay! This is the manicure I wanted to do for the Artsy Wednesday Disney week, but I just couldn't make it work. I absolutely love the book Alice in Wonderland, and I've wanted to put a representation of it on my nails for a long time.
My favourite character in the book is the Cheshire Cat, so he's the centrepiece of my creation. One of my favourite quotes from the book is:
Alice "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where –" said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"– so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
Simple yet clever. A sign of great writing, and the book's like that all the way through.
So without further ado, here's what I came up with:
I painted the Cheshire Cat mid-disappear. I'm not completely heartless though, so gave him a nice branch to sit on.
The playing card characters are actually stickers, which I got from Amazon, here's the (link), and here's what you get:
Some of these are a bit too cutesy for me, and I probably won't use them, but for £3.25 with free shipping, I don't mind that too much. They are quite thick, and as you can see I had a little bit of wrinkling, but in real life you can hardly tell.
So here's another pic, and then I'll go through what I did:
So, I started off with kitty cat. I painted my nail with Nails Inc Albert Place, which is one of my go-to light blues. I then put a coat of Seche on it to dry it quickly. Then I used a silver Sally Hansen nailart pen to sketch out the design. I like this because it doesn't matter too much if it's not exactly perfect, as you hardly see it at the end.
Then I drew in the branch with a brown Precision striper, and the leaves with a Color Club green striper.
Then I used my spotter brush and black acrylic paint to place out the mouth and eyes. Once that was dry I filled in the eyes with green acrylic paint, and made the teeth with white acrylic paint. Then I filled in his pupils and nmade a little highlight in his eyes, again with acrylic paint. I then went over the whole thing with a coat of Seche, being VERY careful not to drag the design after all that painting!
The green nails (representing the Queen of Hearts croquet lawn) are one thick coat of Barry M Gelly in Key Lime, and the white nail (as a nod to the White Rabbit) is OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls.
A coat of Seche then went over everything to dry it in a reasonable time, and smooth out the stickers.
Here's a close up of my Cheshire Cat nail:
You can just about see the silver pen I used to sketch out the design under his right eye. In real life it kind of makes it look 3-D, which is pretty cool.
And here's the tools of the trade:
If you haven't read the book, I wholeheartedly recommend that you give it a go, it's a real delight. And if you do, please let me know what you think of it!
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Hi everyone!
I hope you are all doing really well. I've finally made it to my week off work, am off on my hols tomorrow woohoo! Of course I'm taking my laptop so I'm hoping I might even get some cheeky blogging in :-)
So, I was having a rant a while back on Twitter about my work printer taking a million clicks to print one page, and I called the printer a "beige git". I finished this with a disclaimer stating I wasn't beige-ist, which led to a bit of a discussion with Liloo of Le Petit Jardin of Liloo (link) about whether I was beige-ist or not, all tongue in cheek of course! If you haven't checked out her blog before, you should give it a look, especially if you're into make-up as well as nails, it's fab, and she's beautiful inside and out, I love her and her blog. :-) Anyway, this conversation led round to a chain of thought, because I'd bought Barry M Lychee the previous week and not used it yet, and it's kind of beige.
I got to wondering how close it was in colour to My Vampire is Buff by OPI. And usually, if I've wondered it, other people have too. And because I own both I thought I would do a quick comparison and review for you.
So here we have the polishes side by side:
You can immediately see that they're close, but in no way dupes. The Barry M is more of a taupe, whereas the OPI is whiter and pinker, although the pink hue doesn't come out very well in photos, it is there in real life, just the slightest blush tone.
So here they are side by side on my nails:
Lychee is on my index and middle finger, and My Vampire is Buff is on my ring and little (pinkie) finger. Both two coats.
I think this shows the difference in tone better than it shows in the bottle. But of course, if it was just a case of choosing which colour we like best, there would be no need at all for nail polish reviews, would there? So how do they compare in application?
MVIB: First coat a bit streaky and still some visible nail line
Lychee: Not as streaky and shinier
MVIB: Consistency just right, easy to apply
Lychee: A bit runnier, need to be careful about leaving polish on stalk as it could drip, but still easy to apply
MVIB: Not as self levelling as some Nails Inc cremes but still OK
Lychee: More self levelling, pretty good
MVIB: Brush typical OPI brush, just right softness, nice shape
Lychee: Main let down, too square at top so made shaping at cuticles more difficult, and a bit too stiff, although released polish well
MVIB: One coat touch dry time 3 min 45 sec
Lychee: One coat touch dry time 3 minutes
MVIB: 2 coats left only very slight nail line
Lychee: 2 coats left no nail line, could be a one coater with medium thickness application
MVIB: £7.85 from Amazon UK (link)
Lychee: £3.99 from Amazon UK (link)
So lets have full swatches then. Here's Barry M Gelly Lychee swatched on all fingers:
And here's OPI my Vampire is Buff swatched on all fingers:
So which is the winner? Lets recap:
Barry M Gelly in Lychee dries faster, is more opaque, is more shiny, and importantly it costs less.
OPI My Vampire is Buff has a slightly better formula and much better brush. So there's pros and cons to each.
At the end of the day then, for me it comes down to which colour I prefer. I personally prefer My Vampire is Buff, because I like white-based polishes, and I find Lychee a little bit uninspiring.
However, the happy news is that to polish nuts like me, they're different enough to justify owning both, which is always a good thing. They're not the same, they're SIMILAR ;-)
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Hi All!
I feel like I haven't blogged for aaages! It's only been a week though, and I do have some photos ready to go, so it's about time I got my blog on.
Been a busy week this week, work has been super-busy, and pretty stressful, so I'm happy that it's finally the weekend. Amazingly the sun is out, and things are starting to warm up at last. Spring might be finally here, after a couple of false starts.
We watched the movie 'In Time' last night. I enjoyed it, if you get a chance to watch it I'd say go for it. I also realised how much I like the actor Cillian Murphy ;-)
Anyway, back to the nail polish...
I've been wanting to do a review on this polish for a while, but something else always comes up. I bought it a while back as part of a haul when I was looking for a(nother) light blue for a particular look I wanted, but this one didn't make the grade. "Why not?" I hear you ask. Yes, in my head. I worry about that, but not often. Just joking.....
So anyway, enough of this revelrie, let's get on with the review. Here's Barry M Blue Moon at one coat:
Noooo! Look at the sheerness! *sad face*
Actually though, application wasn't bad, and dry time was med/fast. So I perservered.
Here's Blue Moon at 2 coats:
Starting to get some coverage. This is usually my limit for a polish. If it's not opaque in 2 coats I'm not interested. But I was intrigued to see how many coats it took to become opaque. There is a blue shimmer in this polish that looks pretty in the bottle but it doesn't really show when it's painted on my nail.
So, I went for it again with another coat as I'm in a more patient than usual mood today:
STILL some VNL!! Although, to be fair, most people would consider this enough coverage. If you look on my middle finger, you can still make out my nail line. That would drive me insane, I would feel like I had to apologise for it every time someone commented on my nails.
So, in a bold move I went for another coat, here we are at the heady heights of four coats:
This is finally enough coverage for me, and it also meant I couldn't see my nail ridges. However it does dry slightly brighter than the bottle colour, which was a little disappointing, as I like that slightly dirty blue look it has in the bottle. I guess that's the shimmer, and that's why it's different when worn.
So, if you have the patience, at four coats Barry M Blue Moon is a pretty light blue polish with a completely hidden shimmer.
Here's a picture of the brush, as it's the thing that's missing in most polish reviews:
Yes, we do have chipboard wallpaper. The brush was fine to work with, not too soft and not too stiff. It also delivered the polish at a consistent speed, with no blobbing or bubbling.
And, me being me, I couldn't resist putting a bit of simple nail art on the top:
All I did was use a blue striper which I bought from the makeup stall at Carlisle indoor market, and a silver striper that I bought from Claires Accessories, and drew on the stripes. I was going to do some dotting either side, but I think you have to know when to stop sometimes, not one of my strong points, but on this occasion I managed.
Here's another pic of it, along with one of the stripers:
I bought a couple of these stripers, but if I remember rightly this was the only one I really liked. Am quite liking this look, but am not sure if I can be bothered to do the four coats it took of Blue Moon on my other hand!
I've just been to the Superdrug Website (here) and they're calling this pale blue. But 317 is Blue Moon, according to the sticker on the bottom of my polish anyway, so I don't know if that's a mistake by Superdrug. It's available at £2.99, and at the moment they're on 3 for 2. I've also seen it on Amazon (here) for around the same price once you factor the shipping cost in.
Barry M nail polish is cruelty free, vegan and vegetarian, so at least when you're applying all those coats of polish, you won't be feeling guilty!
In brief, unless you have the patience for the amount of coats it took in order to be opaque, or you don't mind VNL, I wouldn't give this one a thumbs up. 5/10 from me. Sorry Barry M, because I love alot of your other polishes!
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
Hi everyone,
Hows your Sunday going? Happily for me the roads here are back open, so I'm not trapped indoors anymore. So OBVIOUSLY I've been shopping.
I was asked recently by the beautiful Catrine at Unnaked Nails about nail stamping. I said I would do a post about it, and I'm a woman of my word, so here it is. By the way, if you like nails and beauty, and you don't follow her, you're missing out, her blog is fab.
While I was out shopping, I was in Poundland looking to see if they had any Sally Hansen polishes lurking around as they sometimes do (none this time), and I saw their nail stamping kit. I've been intrigued to know if this was any good, and so far I haven't seen any comparison posts from the blogs I follow. So thought I would kill two birds with one stone, and do the comparison along with a quick 'how to' about nail stamping.
So here's a pic of the Poundland kit still in its package, alongside the Konad equivalents:
I knew as soon as I saw this kit, that I already owned the Konad plate that they've produced a dupe for, so it would be a good chance for me to show them side by side. And here they are:
As you can see, the Konad plate M20 on the left, and the Poundland plate B17 on the right, both have identical images on them, and the plates are exactly the same size. The Poundland plate didn't have any backing on like Konad plates do, but actually the edges weren't too sharp so it wasn't so bad. I got some quite bad cuts from the original Bundle Monster plates so I know how dangerous they can be! I've discovered that it's quite difficult to take photos of highly reflective things without appearing in shot haha. As you can see the Poundland scraper has a plastic blade, which is quite handy because both my Konad scrapers have metal blades, which work brilliantly, but can scratch your plates. I wonder how they can get away with directly copying things like this without infringing copyright?
So anyway, let's see if the results are as similar as the plates. Firstly I painted my nails using Marks & Spencers Limited collection polish in Pale Lavender. Then I used a coat of Seche Vite, and I was ready to stamp. I'm using Barry M Gelly in Blackberry to stamp with.
Here's the outcome:
Pretty impressive! Konad is on pointer and middle finger, and Poundland is on ring and little finger. I chose these two images because they both have fiddly lines in them, which can easily go wrong in cheaper plates. I actually think the floral design on the Poundland plate came out better, but certainly Konads butterfly image is crisper. This could of course been because of the plastic scraper.
The both stampers seemed to work as well as each other, the Poundland one didn't feel as firm or tacky, but worked just as well.
In summary, if you don't own any Konad, but want to try stamping on a budget, this Poundland kit is definitely worth a go. I couldn't tell the difference between my nails in real life, and it's no harder to use than Konad. It's a go-er!
So then, this is all very well, but how do you use it? I've put together a mini photo tutorial below, but there are tons of videos on YouTube. Soguesswhat11 is one of my favourites.
Preparation:
After applying your base coat, paint your nails with the colour of your choice. I then apply a coat of Seche Vite. Then WAIT. Your polish has to be hard dry before you can stamp on it. I usually do this and wait at least a quarter of an hour, even with Seche, because if you dent your colour coat with your stamping, there's usually no rescue and you'll have to start again.
Also the Seche acts as a barrier between your colour coat and your stamping. This is expecially handy if you mess up a stamp, because if you're careful, you can sweep off the dud stamp and apply another coat of Seche to have another try without having to do your colour coat again.
If your plate is new, there could be a plastic film cover stuck on the front of it, which you'll need to peel off.
1) Load some polish on your image. You don't need to totally cover it, but you can if you want:
Some polishes work better for stamping than others. All the Barry M Gelly ones I've tried so far have worked well. As a general rule, the more opaque the polish is, the better. If it's a one coater, it will probably be good for stamping. Any polish that's gone gloopy is usually good too. I do own some Konad special stamping polishes as they came with the kit I bought, and if I want to stamp in white, I'll use the Konad one as it's the most opaque I've found so far. The only real difference between the Konad polish and regular polish (that I can see) is that the Konad polish is thicker, and it dries slightly matte.
2) Scrape away the excess polish:
As you can see, I'm holding my scraper at a 45 degree angle, which seems to work the best. You do want to have your plate resting on something absorbent (kitchen roll is best but we didn't have any), because when you scrape to the edge, the polish will go off the edge and onto whatever you're resting on. You don't want to press down too hard or you'll scrape too much polish off your plate and you'll be missing bits of your design when you come to stamp it.
3) Pick the image up onto your stamper:
Hold your stamper above the image and then press straight down onto your image, and then straight up again to pick your image off the plate. Don't use a rolling motion at the point or you'll have a bigger chance of getting a smudgy image. Actually this is the point where alot of people get their stamping technique wrong, before they've even got close to their nail.
4) Have a quick check of your image:
All too many times I've missed this step out, and regretted it. As you can see, I've missed the bottom of this image, so I would clean my stamper and have another go. To do that you just rub it on a cotton pad with polish remover on it. I usually rub it on the palm of my hand afterward to make sure it's dry. If you rub it on a cotton pad at this point, it would probably pick up lint, but a paper towel would be ok. If it's not dry and you try to stamp with it, the polish remover would spoil your stamping.
5) Stamp your image:
Here's where you want to use a rolling motion. Starting at one edge of your nail, press the stamper onto your nail and roll across to the other side. You don't need to press too hard, that's another common mistake people make when they first start stamping. If you press too hard there's more chance that your image can be distorted, whereas if you just gently place it on the nail, it settles more evenly. You also don't want to wait too long between picking up your image and stamping it on your nail, because if it dries it will stay on the stamper and not transfer onto your nail.
And so onto the next nail. Depending on how gloopy your polish is, and how quick/perfect you want to be, you might need to clean your plate between every nail. It's not messy to clean the plate anyway with a cotton pad and polish remover, and remember to give it a quick dry too. I usually just have one wet and one dry cotton pad on my workstation, and rub with wet then dry.
So when you've done all your nails you can topcoat if you wish. Topcoat does give it a nicer finish. It's another common preconception that you have to topcoat. You don't. It's still polish that's on your nails, so it's not going to wash off in the bath or anything. If you topcoat too soon, you'll drag your image and ruin your design. If you wait an hour or so you'll probably be ok.
And there, you'll be done! Here's a manicure a I did using stamping and dotting. You can see the post I wrote on it (here)
I painted a third down my nails, stamped the flowery line, and then dotted below that. It didn't take very long, and I think it looks pretty good, even though I do say so myself.
So what do you think, have you tried stamping, or is it something you'd like to have a go at?
Until next time...
MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~
