Stamping Saturday: Glamorous Mermaid

Welcome to the first post of 2016! It's still winter outside and we even have our first snow day, but I wanted something a bit more sparkly on my tips, and there's a polish that's been begging to come out of my helmer to play, so I obliged and the end result is pretty nice! I'm going to say it's part of my Stamping Saturday series of posts even though it's late..but things get busy over the holidays!

*Purchased by me* *Affiliate Link*

Doesn't it look like realistic mermaid scales?
I'm going to include a little pictorial step by step process at the end of the post, in case the visuals are more helpful than a page of my ramblings, but I'd like feedback on it! I always stamp and sometimes forget there are newcomers to this art that might need a little more explanation, so I'm hoping to improve on it this year :)

My base color is the beautiful Pacific Blue from Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear line. It got quite the attention a while back when this (original) color was reformulated and the new version turned out quite different, yet had the same name.

The original Pacific Blue is popular for many reasons - it has a very nice formula, is pretty much opaque in one coat (I used 2 for evenness) it does not smell and does not stain upon removal. The last 2 are an issue in many blue polishes due to the pigments used. I wasn't into polish back when this one came out (2009), but I've read multiple times that this particular blue got a lot of people into nail polish as there were not a lot of vibrant shades available in the drugstores. (Nouveau Cheap has a couple blog posts over the change, if anyone is curious)

My next step is a sponged gradient. I used SH Insta-Dri Night Fright and Sinful Colors Navy I Do, as well as the Pacific Blue.

Then I topped it all with Arcadia by Baroness X.

Arcadia is a glass flakie polish with iridescent glitter shards. It's suggested to wear it over black for the greatest effect,but I thought it would look great with a gradient as well. I just brushed on one coat and did a little bit of dabbing to get a couple larger flakes onto the nails.

Depending on the lighting, the nails shift colors and can look more subtle, but the green shift definitely stood out for me.

I was pretty pleased with the result, and I could have just stopped here. But it wouldn't be Stamping Saturday if I didn't get my plates out! This definitely called for mermaid scales. Dragon scales could have worked too!

Design is from hehe05, stamping polish is Ya Qin An - Black, from BornPretty Store.

It's like mermaid scales in a bottle!
Now for the pictorial:

I think Sinful Colors Green Ocean could be an alternative to getting this kind of a design.
I hope you've enjoyed this post! Looking forward to having Stamping Saturday resume in 2016 and for my nails to grow back! I've shortened them since the last post - mainly because I had a really bad break a few months ago and have been nursing an acrylic extension but it wasn't blending in and it was just time for it to go. New year, new growths & goals, right? :)