So today, I practiced two more designs on my Essential nails course.
Design 5 is ‘Animal Print Zebra’ and I had mega problems with controlling the brush. It’s so thin and long that it was bending everywhere and like slipping off the nail at strange angles. And I managed to smudge the paint with my topcoat, argh. I felt really silly as I’ve done plenty of tiger/zebra print in my time, I’m going to put it down to my head not being in the game. I felt that the bottom right hand nail was not bad, the lines are pretty even, the paint is consistent however the lines are still a little wobbly. More practice needed!
Design 6 is ‘Animal Print Leopard’ and this was a strange one; The pictures in the tutorial are a little inconsistent, and the marking guidelines are a little vague. Even though the design on each nail is ‘random’ they look relatively consistent, I think this may be a design that I’ll have to ask my tutor about.
So now that the OMD3 challenge is over, I’m a bit ‘blank’ – I’m sure I felt the same way last year. After being given prompts and having the pressure (even though it’s all self-pressure) of doing a design a day, it’s almost as if I need to rest my brain for a bit. Unfortunately this means no new nail art, so I’ve had to have a rummage in the ‘Nail Fail’ folder.
Nail Fail, why? I don’t like how quint the stamping is on my middle finger, it doesn’t line up with the center of my nail or the studs, and this bugs me to no end. Urgh. Other than that I actually quite like the thing.
The Studs and Stamping Plate are both from BornPrettyStore, I use both of these items a lot so I would recommend getting some yourself. You’ll get 10% off items that are full priced with the code ‘AZYW10’.
So tonight, we’re off to the zoo. Visiting the zoo at night sounds strange doesn’t it, but Edinburgh Zoo has been opening in the evening for a few ‘adults only’ nights . I’ve never been to one before, but by the sounds of it I think we’ll enjoy it – there’s street food stalls, face painting, fossil digs (in conjunction with their dinosaurs exhibit), beer tents, cupcake stands, and more! The best part of it of course being there’s not going to be any children. I have another design on my fingers right now that I wasn’t ready to remove, but I couldn’t resist painting animal themed nails for it!
It’s super tricky to paint your own toes, give it a go I dare you. My ‘tiger’ turned out to look like a rather large cat, and my ‘zebras’ nose spiraled out of control so ended up disproportionately large, but they’re cute in a way!
(p.s sorry for all those people who hate feet/toes! It seems like I’ve been posting a lot of toe nail designs lately….)
So I just love how this turned out, it’s so happy and shiny! I want to say I went ‘too far’ with all the glitz and glitter but I’m not sure if that’s even really possible… I used a flakie and a glitter polish for the base, stamped on top using the multicolored blobbing technique,and then added a ridiculous amount of gems (even though if I’d planned it better I could have had more on there!).
It’s a shame because (how many times do I complain about this) the photos don’t do the glitter any justice, it’s so much brighter and glittery in person and it’s a serious distraction whilst driving. I used BornPrettyStore plate BP-16 which is an amazing plate that I’ve returned to time and time and time again for images. If you fancy purchasing it too, you can use the code ‘AZYW10’ at the BornPrettyStore check out for 10% off all full priced items.
So this is a colourful assault on the eyes right! Perfect for a festival or this beautiful spring weather -HA just kidding. It’s still cold and chucking it down….
P.S the zebra print is actually stamped from plate BP-16 from BornPrettyStore.
So as we all know, I am no stamper. So when Born Pretty Store asked me to pick a few items for review I thought ‘Why not go for a stamping set?’. This would give a fair review as a total novice trying it out, rather than a stamping wizard doing it who would no doubt get amazing results anyway. I picked this animal plate* and a stamper and scraper* because again, you would probably need to buy both when starting out.
The plate comes with a blue protective film, remember to take this off. The stamper is a good size to hold and looks like it’ll be large enough to pick up all of the zebra print section. The scraper feels sturdy and has a metal edge for removing excess polish, making cleaning it afterwards pretty easy.
The actual stamping TOOK PRACTICE AND REPETITION before I got anything usable! I don’t actually own any ‘stamping polishes’, again probably fairer I didn’t as what normal person really does. So at first I had major problems finding the right polish to stamp with, they didn’t transfer well, they looked too feint, etc etc. I eventually found that my Barry M ‘Guava’ was good because it was thicker and possibly more pigmented meaning the colour looked bolder. This had nothing to do with the plate/stamper/scraper, just me!
It also took me a while to understand how to ‘scrape’. At first I was holding it at the wrong angles, scrapping off too much, not scrapping off enough, too slow, catching the scraper on other designs. But once I got it, boy I got it! It was such a good feeling, the scraper is excellent it was just my inexperience!
As for the stamper, it was great for picking up designs, the pad is rounded meaning you can do a fancy rolling motion and transferring the design on to my nail was easy enough with the stamper too – it’s soft and deep meaning you can give the design a good press on to your nail without any problems. The stamper/scraper set is a great purchase as you don’t need to buy it again, so you’ll always have it for use on more plates.
The plate itself has a lot of small details, like the zebra eyes and trees and I was so happy with how they picked up. (You can see how tiny the details are especially on my pinky). It cleaned really easily, all I did was wipe it with an acetone soaked cotton pad to remove the polish then wiped it with a tissue to dry off the residue.
Over-all I’m impressed with the products – they worked well and did their job! It’s just myself that needs to practice, it’s not perfect but it’s pretty good for a first attempt. The designs are fantastic and I’ll definitely be having a play with it again. The prices are already crazy cheap for such good stuff, free delivery too, but remember you’ll get an extra 10% off with the code ‘AZYW10’ at checkout.
BPS Zebra Heads from Plate ‘BP16’
Stamping in progress
Stamper Scraper Plate
*These were provided free of charge, in return for me providing a review on my blog.
I’m off to the zoo today for my boyfriends birthday so of course my nails had to be something animal related! I’m into neons just now (who isn’t) and sponging so combined them both, and decided on a tiger/zebra print. You can’t see it very well in the photos, but it’s actually yellow and green sponged together.
Here’s the sponging – looks kind of like that textured nail polish?
This is my mums Hogmany design. She wanted something with black (no surprise) and with it being a celebration it had to include glitter. Easy peasy, simple design.
I only got to wear this design for one day! Booo. I had a job interview so had to take it off, I was so gutted.
I think it’s quite pretty so might do something similar again.
This is the first time I’ve attempted Zebra Stripes – I usually opt for Tiger as it’s easier. But tonight is my Graduation Ball and I’m wearing a Zebra print dress, so my nails just had to match!
WonderfulWolf 