Show Me Your Nails 2.0

[Tamara76]

Due to some technical glitches with the original Show Me Your Nails Thread, I am starting a new thread with @vegchililover78's blessing (She says "hello," by the way!).

Please share your nail looks, nail art and manicures!

...And don't forget to check out @Beadshopgirl's Nail Stamping Thread for stamping inspiration! ❤️  

https://community.sephora.com/t5/Nailed-It/The-Nail-Stamping-Thread/m-p/3328865

[RGbrown]

@Emmapump 

What a fun mani, but I'm sorry to hear it destroyed your nails 😞

[Saradestin]

This week I decided to wear black, red and white. Once applied, my mani gave me deck of cards vibes. If I had the right stamping tool or the right detailed brush, I may have played with hears, clubs, diamonds and spades. It would have looked pretty cool.

Red: Zoya Rashida.

Black: LynB Designs Quoth the Raven.

White: Orly White Tips (which is for French manicure but I use it over the entire nail anyway)

Direct sun in the poolOutdoor shade

Then I decided to give it a fun touch because it was looking too flat, so I added some dots, which always improve any many 😁 Now it looks so cute! 

FlashDirect sunOutdoor shade

[ather]

@Saradestin  Love these!

[CookieGirl1]

@Saradestin the red with the black and white looks AMAZING!

[Saradestin]

Thank you @CookieGirl1! I loved the result! 

[Mellmars1185]

@Saradestin Great colour combo. I really like the shade Rashida!

[Saradestin]

Thank you so much @Mellmars1185 ! It is a beautiful shade of red indeed! 

[RGbrown]

@Saradestin 

Fun fun fun!!! I love this playful mix, and that red is gorgeous 😍 it positively glows! 

[Saradestin]

Thank you so much @RGbrown ! I am really enjoying it so much!

[itsfi]

Super adorable @Saradestin! These are my favorite colors! ♥️🤍🖤

[Saradestin]

Thank you @itsfi ! They make a beautiful combination ❤️

[Titian06]

OMGosh!  The red polish is stunning, @Saradestin ! 🤩  I love both versions of your mani, but, of course, the dotted version is much more cute and fun! ⚫⚪🔴

[Saradestin]

Thank you @Titian06 ! As with lipsticks, I could not have enough red polishes... 😅

[WinglessOne]

Finally filed all but one nail down to a short length. (Can't shorten my right thumb nail until a bad chip + split grows out past my fingertip, so I can fully remove that damage.) Ah, the joy of effortless typing at top speed again! 

What began as this morning's layered color-tweaking experiment became frustration. I started with these base colors, putting the shade I wanted to alter on both pinkies as a solo color for comparison’s sake. 

Right thumb: that glitter's not really olive. It's a rather reflective champagne gold.

Left hand: 

Spoiler

All are 2 coats unless otherwise stated. 

Thumb: SweetHeart Polish Everything (1 coat). The quintessential everything bagel topping polish: a clear base full of gold, white, and black glitter, plus a good amount of scattered holo glitter. Next time I use it, I’ll build it up to opacity as a solo color. Pretty sure I can do that in 3-4 coats. 

Index: Smith & Cult Fade the Sun. A salmon coral (looks more light orange in some lighting) with subtle gold shimmer. Easy to apply and leveled itself nicely. 

Middle: Butter London Empire Red. A red coral with very subtle gold pearl. I still wish the gold was a stronger shimmer. 

Ring: Night Owl Lacquer The Blood Moon Rises. The red jelly full of red, gold/orange, pink, and charcoal flakes I like to use as a topper or base for various looks. 

Pinky: Fair Maiden Mindfreak (3 coats). It’s described as an orange jelly base but, on my pinkies, it looks more red based. It does have lots of gold, red, and what looks like black glitter and flakes. Sadly, it was a chore to work with. It's goopy enough to make the flakes hard to control, so capping tips was a big mess. (Why yes, I do try to cap my nail tips even when they’re short.) Also, it seems to stiffen up quickly, which would be good if it didn’t happen while I was still working on a single coat. This caused large bare patches with each brushstroke; I wound up needing 3 individual coats to cover them. I’ll try thinning this polish later. That might help bring out more of the orange I see in the bottle and other people's older swatch photos. I expected it to look more smoldering fire than ruby slipper. 

Right hand: 

Spoiler

All are 2 coats unless otherwise stated. 

Thumb: Smith & Cult Shattered Souls (1 coat). A very shiny topper of champagne/antique gold glitter in various sizes. I had no trouble getting enough glitter despite the annoying brush and bottle shape. Another topper I can probably get opaque in 3-4 coats. 

Index: LynBDesigns I Totally Paused. A yellow jelly full of orange and gold/yellow glitter with an orange shimmer shift. One of my favorite yellow polishes. 

Middle: Zoya Amy. Crazy sparkly fiery orange with a gold shift. I meant to put this on my ring nail instead (and Tanzy on this middle nail). 

Ring: Zoya Tanzy. Amy's equally sparkly yellow gold sister. Amy and Tanzy together = nail ablaze. If removing all their glitter from my skin was easier, I’d frequently ombre these 2. 

Pinky: Fair Maiden Mindfreak (3 coats). 

Then, per my original plan, I put one coat of Fair Maiden Mindfreak over all but the pinkies: 

Zoya Tanzy (base color of right ring nail) refuses to be fully subdued. 😄

It’s hard to capture the subtle color differences on each nail in photos. Though Mindfreak did become more orange toned over Tanzy and Amy, and more candy apple over Blood Moon Rises, there’s not enough shade variation amongst my 10 nails to make this mani interesting for me. I don't hate single polish manis but, on my own nails, I prefer more variation. I’d also planned to do more layering beyond this but bailed, having lost my patience with Mindfreak. Eh, in a day or 2, I’ll probably add some other toppers. Or I’ll strip everything down and start over. 

[itsfi]

@WinglessOne, love the autumnal feel of that first mani. 🍁 🍂 Love the result you got from adding Mindfreak to Blood Moon Roses; feels like that color combo would make for a great base color  + nail art color conbination.

Sorry to hear about that bad chip / split - been there way too many times to count. 😬 I often have to place a bandage over my nail when that happens while it grows out to protect it against my own klutziness 😂 - if there’s a way to make the chip or split worse, either by snagging my nail on something or bumping it into something, I’ll find a way to make that happen. 🤪 

[WinglessOne]

@itsfi  Sometimes I can get away with a ridge filler base coat to "mend" a mild split or chip until my next mani. Other times I use a bandage, because it's faster than ridge filler, plus faster and easier than custom creating a patch and glueing it over the damage, and then buffing the patch down, trying not to over-buff so as not to create more nail damage. 😂 This particular chip + split is almost far enough past my fingertip that I can file the nail back without getting into the quick, so I didn't bother patching it. A bandage is likely in that nail's immediate future. 

And ugh, sorry you've has so many splits/chips! If I don't patch, ridge-fill, or bandage mine, I'm guaranteed to make it worse. I have to remember not to touch my hair or hairline with the affected finger, because nail damage is a curly/coily hair magnet. And really, clothing and zippers (on everything) exist mostly to snag damaged nails. Pretty sure clothes and zippers hold late night and early morning meetings to discuss what worked and failed the prior day, and plan their next attack. Sometimes they even get bed sheets involved, those dang traitors. 🤣 

[Mellmars1185]

@WinglessOne Beautiful shades! 

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @Mellmars1185 !

[RGbrown]

@WinglessOne 

Gorgeous! I'm sorry Mindfreak was ornery, but I'd bet a little thinner will take care of that for next time 💖 The results are simply fab, even if the all the nails are a bit more samesies than you are used to 😅

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @RGbrown ! The longer this mani sits as-is on my nails, the more it grows on me. And this experiment showed me how much a reflective large glitter or flake base can affect Mindfreak for the better. 

In addition to adding thinner, I've inverted Mindfreak's bottle to see if that brings more orange gold to the party. I suspect a lot of it had settled to the bottom of the bottle, and maybe that's why this shade shows almost no gold (as a solo polish) on my pinkies. Interestingly, there's a lot of scattered holo glitter that doesn't appear at all—not even on my other 8 nails—unless viewed under flash/flashlight. I need to redo one of my nails tonight, so I'll get to see if thinner + inversion helped at all. 

[RGbrown]

@WinglessOne 

Yay, glad to hear it's growing on you! Hopefully thinner helps make it a bit more workable and you'll be able to find more gold next time ✨