HPB Presents: Goldfish

Hobby Polish Bloggers picked "goldfish" as the theme for the August link up, so I just gave to participate this time around! Maybe even more than once if I'm feeling ambitious!

Read more to see how this all started!

Stamping Saturday & HPB Presents: Floral Gradient

Another Saturday and another day to stamp! Today's post also doubles up for January's HPB theme of gradients. On a normal basis I do incorporate gradients into my manicures pretty often, but once this technique is part of a prompt, I was just drawing a blank as to what to do with my nails! I had a few polishes hanging out on my desk that weren't put away yet, so they became my victims in this purple floral gradient.

*Purchased by me* *Affiliate link*

I know part of the country is currently snowed in, but our weather has been getting slightly warmer lately so I'm not as drawn to winter designs at the moment. Although there still a few ideas I'd like to see on my nails before the season changes to spring. Details on this design and polishes are after the jump!

#52WPNMC - Week 3; Matte

Week 3: I went with the matte prompt. Other choices were 60's and textured. I really wanted to try and do matte blue nails, like ones I pinned so long ago but didn't get the polish name. So I used what I did have on hand.

Julep Marisa topped with NYC Matte Me Crazy 

I stamped the flowers using plate m57 and Konad Special White. It's been a while sine I used this white to stamp and it didn't want to cooperate with me. 

A lot of you might have seen this pic on Pinterest, & it was the inspiration behind my mani. Maybe I'll get a navy blue someday and be able to match this closer :) 

An InLinkz Link-up

#StampingSaturday - Black & Silver Floral

So, I don't own a lot of OPI polishes, but more and more variety of colors has been showing up at Marshall's recently (or maybe I just go there more often, lol) so every now and then I'll come home with a new bottle or two (2 packs for $8!) and the most recent is DS Coronation. There are so many prompts and challenges going on in various FB groups that it's hard to narrow down sometimes, and it being October and pink everywhere for breast cancer awareness, I really wanted pink and silver. But looking at my stamping plates to see what catches my eyes, had to go with the tried and true - Konad Black!

The floral design is from PUEEN SE04B plate. 

Stamping: Lily of the Valley

My favorite flowers that I look forward to in spring are lilacs and lilies of the valley. More than a decade ago, I got a giant bouquet of lilies of the valley for my birthday (it's in May) so when May comes around - I always look for these flowers. To my delight, grandma planted some in our garden!

Not too long ago I got a new stamping plate from Vivid Lacquer (VL019) and it has an image of this flower on it, so in the back of my mind I've been planning on doing this mani. You know how it is - you see a plate or a polish and have a picture in your head of what mani to do and you must have it right away, and the it arrives in the mail and you're happy that you have it - and put it in the box with the rest of the goodies and don't make the mani right away? Yeah...that's been happening a lot, but at least I have a good excuse - no nail art allowed at work, so I have to save it till the weekends </3

White and green were the easy colors, but what background color to use was the hard part. I was leaning towards pastels, but I'm glad I picked this blue instead! After I had applied it, I noticed how well it compliments my sapphire ring, and even hubby agreed it was a good choice <3

Cloudy day

I really wanted to do a gray gradient, as it's been a long time since I attempted one. And of course, right as I started doing it I realized I misplaced my makeup sponges, so I had to improvise and grab a sponge from those I use in the kitchen...the yellow and green kind >< 

Well, now I'll know it's still possible to do gradient, but it's not as smooth (even after topcoat) and looks a bit porous. 

My grays are Revlon Timeless and Ulta Smoke Screen. I then stamped little clouds from a CICI&SISI stamping plate (which can be purchased here), using Konad Special White.

It might not be April yet, to have showers for the May flowers, but it's often rainy here, so gray skies are common :)