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

[CynthieLu]

@WinglessOne  @RGbrown  If i bookmark it, I might not be able to resist a purchase  🤗  I'm weak lol and I love the sales.

[RGbrown]

Y'all bookmark that page...Orly doesn't advertise it on their front page or list it on the menu all the time, but every time I randomly check it, it's got polishes on it. The selection changes from time to time, and I'm vaguely annoyed that it requires a code now (they used to just be marked down to $5 automatically, but now you can't combine it with another code-based promo), but they do seem to keep this promo going pretty regularly!

[WinglessOne]

@RGbrown  This reminded me that I should’ve posted the url. 😂 Edited my post to include that info. 

[WinglessOne]

2 days ago, I wound up using more polishes than I meant to for a manicure. To simplify things, I’ll describe each polish first and then explain which ones I put on which nails. 

Polish descriptions: 

Spoiler

786 Cosmetics: 

• Granada - dusty purple cream that's nearly grey. 
• Xi’an - deep steely blue cream. 

This is my first experience with 786 polishes. Xi’an is the shade I wanted most from the brand, and I kinda built this mani around it. 

All Mixed Up Lacquer Grape Slushie - deep purple plain jelly. It looks very blue in the swatch photo, but in person it’s a very grape purple jelly.  

Born Pretty: 

• Astral Realm - magnetic that shifts claret > antique gold > aurora borealis green. 
• Lightning - magnetic with a gold > olive > pine green shift, plus a little warm reddish taupe at extreme angles. 

On the swatch sticks, the nails have a black base coat. These polishes are from a set of 6 and might’ve been the first magnetics I ever bought, now that I think about it. 

Cirque Colors: 

• Haze Jelly - lilac plain jelly. 
• Navy Jelly - navy blue plain jelly. 
• XX - topper of various sized & shaped glitter in holo and various colors. 

EDK Arya Stark - ocean blue jelly base packed with mauve shimmer and scattered rainbow holo glitter. 

KBShimmer Kinda Shady - black based cobalt blue that shifts violet or blackened blue, depending on the angle. 

LynBDesigns I Drain to Live - deep midnight blue base with a red copper shift and linear holo rainbow. From LynB’s What We Do In the Shadows collection. (WWDITS is one of my favorite TV shows, spun off from one of my favorite movies.) 

Whats Up Nails Eyegazer - magnetic grey and silver with a linear rainbow pull. On the swatch stick, the nail has a black base coat. This polish never does what I want, so using it was another “why do I torture myself like this” experience. 

Zoya Vega - sand-textured sky blue matte full of large holo glitter and holo & silver pinpoints. This is one of Zoya's Magical PixieDust polishes. 

The manicure: 

Left hand. Photos taken in my warmly lit bathroom and temperature/tint adjusted for color accuracy.Right hand. More warm bathroom lighting.Flash photos to bring out any holo glitter that wasn't already showing off.

Mani details: 

• Left hand: 
  
  Spoiler

  Thumb: Zoya Vega. One coat would’ve sufficed but I needed a second coat to mask an underlying patch. No top coat needed for this PixieDust. 

  Index: 786 Xi’an base (2 coats), topped with a sandwich of Cirque Colors XX and Cirque Colors Navy Jelly. I should’ve used one of my black jellies instead but was afraid of fully obliterating Xi’an—which mostly happened anyway with Navy Jelly, so what I really should’ve done is mixed Navy Jelly with a black jelly and then applied that (instead of Navy Jelly) over XX. Lesson learned. Xi’an applied smoothly and self-leveled nicely. It’s the first 786 polish I’ve ever used. Could’ve stopped at one coat, but I accidentally bumped this nail while it tried and needed a second coat to smooth things out. 

  Middle: LynBDesigns I Drain to Live (2 coats). One of the best behaving polishes I’ve ever used: not too thin or thick, so I had no clumping/gooping or sidewall flooding. 
  

  Ring: 786 Granada (2 coats) topped with Cirque Colors XX. Then I covered everything with a coat of Born Pretty Lightning and used an S magnet to pull a straight diagonal band. This is my favorite nail of the whole manicure. I wish I could post a video to show this and other nails in motion. (Yeah, I won’t create and post animated gifs of my nails again; way too much image degradation.) It’s too hard to convey the depth of layers and visual textures via still photos. 

  Pinky: 786 Xi’an topped with Whats Up Nails Eyegazer. Didn't work well because of course it didn’t, because I can never stop Eyegazer from clouding up my whole nail. I had plan B ready: conceal the crime with a coat of Cirque Colors Haze Jelly. That was kinda interesting: some white foggy Eyegazer clouds appeared beneath Haze Jelly in an almost velvety magnetic way. But I decided that result wasn’t enough for the overall mani, so I added a coat of Born Pretty Lightning and used the S magnet to kinda randomly push and pull the metal bits around. 
• Right hand: 
  
  Spoiler

  Thumb: KBShimmer Kinda Shady topped with Cirque Colors XX, then topped again with a coat of All Mixed Up Grape Slushie. I didn’t add another coat of XX atop Grape Slushie because I wanted some of Kinda Shady’s black > blue > violet shift to show through all the scattered holo glitter. My photos don't convey how ridiculously rainbow-sparkly this nail is. 

  Index: Cirque Colors Haze Jelly and Cirque Colors XX… I think I did 2 coats of Haze Jelly + 1 coat of XX + 1 coat of Haze Jelly + 1 sparse coat of XX. 

  Middle: EDK Arya Stark (2 coats). This is another patched nail, and I was too impatient to file/buff the patch down enough to not leave an obvious bump on the nail. I almost swapped Arya Stark for a purple PixieDust to hide the bump, but I wanted to see this polish in action. I’m happy with my decision, though that bump taunts me. Arya Stark applied well with no issues. 
  

  Ring: KBShimmer Kinda Shady (2 coats) topped with Cirque Colors XX. Then I topped everything with a coat of Born Pretty Astral Realm and used the S magnet to pull a straight diagonal band. This is my second favorite nail in this mani. Kinda Shady’s blue to purple shift is subtle, but it’s in there. 

  Pinky: All Mixed Up Grape Slushie (2 coats) topped with a coat of Born Pretty Astral Realm and pulled with the S magnet into an X pattern. 

How about another mani? Here’s the deep sea inspiration I wore on my nails from March 18-28: 

Top row: indoor lighting. Bottom row: flash photos to highlight holo and other sparkles.

A few details: 

Spoiler

I didn’t take notes while applying this mani and I’m pretty sure I was deep in some insomnia stupor at the time. I’ll skip most details and just list the polishes. Assume everything’s 2 coats unless otherwise stated. 

Thumb & ring: 

• Left - Picture Polish Saphira. This wasn’t nearly as sparkly on the nail as I expected, and it was thick. I should’ve thinned it first. 
• Right - Besamé The Raven. The linear holo appears only in bright light, and even then it's subtle. 

Index: Cirque Colors Olive Jelly (probably 3 coats), with dots of The Raven. 

Middle: a messy marble of Cirque Colors Olive Jelly and Orly Oasis Jelly. I do recall how I did these 2 nails: base coat of Olive Jelly, then I dripped on 2 blobs of Olive Jelly and 1 blob of Oasis Jelly, and let my hand hang down (nails pointing downward) and occasionally rotated my finger/hand so gravity could create a marble pattern. 

Pinky: Orly Oasis Jelly, partially topped with Saphira (left) or The Raven (right). 

[Saradestin]

Wow @WinglessOne ! These are all spectacular! Your manis are like stepping into a museum or a science class or both! 😍

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @Saradestin !

[ather]

@WinglessOne  These are great manis! I love them! 786 is so pretty both of them!

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @ather !

[Mellmars1185]

@WinglessOne Beautiful manis. Love the shade combinations.

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @Mellmars1185 !

[RGbrown]

@WinglessOne 

I'm always in awe of your combos and creativity 😍😍 I love everything here! Layering and marbling and dotting, it's all spectacular 💖

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @RGbrown ! Coming from you, that says a lot! 😊

[itsfi]

Your Cirque sandwich with 786 X'ian is beautiful @WinglessOne.

[WinglessOne]

Thank you @itsfi ! I wish Xi'an appeared more strongly through Navy Jelly (or that I'd used a black jelly instead), but it turned out well. 

[CookieGirl1]

@WinglessOne wow, you squeezed a lot of different formulas in there!  I loved hearing your thoughts on each of them.

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @CookieGirl1 ! I originally had maybe 8 polishes for my current mani, then added a few more while thinking about the final results I wanted. This might be the most polishes I've ever used in a single manicure. 😄 

[CookieGirl1]

I'm a little impressed, @WinglessOne.  Thassa LOT of polishes at once, lol.

[Titian06]

As always very interesting combinations, @WinglessOne ! 😍  I'm glad to hear the good results of 786 since that brand is on my list to try.  I don't know EDK, but that color is gorgeous.  Your middle finger is my favorite on the right hand.  I am absolutely loving the ring finger on your left hand.  

In the bottom mani, the marbling you did is awesome.  Thanks for sharing how you did it.  That's a method even I can do! 😄  Your index fingers with the dot designs are unexpected.  I like this!

[WinglessOne]

Thank you @Titian06 ! Jellies are very easy to marble with, thanks to their thinness. They’re also easy to ombré: no sponge required. There are other ways to get a marble effect without actually water marbling, like the old “paint plastic wrap and smush it onto your nail” method. That one works well with creams. Whichever method you try, I can hardly wait to see your results! 

EDK = Esmaltes da Kelly. In addition to stamping plates, EDK has some good looking polishes. I think I bought mine at Beautometry where they might still be marked down… not to enable of course, you know, I’m just throwing that out there. 😈 

[CynthieLu]

Your nails are so fun to look at @WinglessOne Thank you for sharing these two 😄 ooooh yikes looks like you got a finger injury?

[WinglessOne]

Thanks @CynthieLu ! I usually have fun with my crazy layering and/or non-uniform color schemes. Very rarely do I wear the same single polish on all 10 nails. 😄 

The finger injury is self-inflicted: I chewed up the skin fold and some of the skin below it. Sometimes my anxiety disorder still gets the better of me, though I bite the skin around my fingers much less often than I did when I began posting in this thread. I’m healing that skin as usual: hypochlorous acid* spray as needed, fragrance-free facial oil, and Aquaphor Ointment. It’s not sore anymore and should heal up with a few days if I don’t pick and bite at it again. 

*This is the main ingredient in the Tower 28 spray that does wonders for many people’s skin. Hypochlorous acid is antibacterial and anti-inflammatory. I buy SkinSmart’s spray because it’s much less expensive than Tower 28’s, and both sprays contain nearly the same ingredients.