It is undeniable that nail art is more enjoyable when accompanied by really great polish. It's been three years since I started this blog and I'm unashamed to admit that I've amassed quite the collection. For me, having lots of choices makes the experience feel that much more decadent. Speaking of decadence...take a look at these nails...
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| Flash photography emphasizes the complexity of this polish |
See the original inspiration for these copy-cat nails with beautiful (if I do say so myself) macro shots to show off this gorgeous polish included in the rest of this post.
As the title suggests, I created these for the
Mani Swap Circle on Instagram. It's a lot of fun to discover new-to-me nail artists and then try on their style in the assigned color.
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| #maniswapcircle collage with Sreya's and my nail art |
The most recent challenge was to re-create someone's design in the designated red color theme. My assigned nail artist was
Sreya (
@bsreya). She has really pretty, long nails and lots of posted nail art to choose from. I had a hard time picking a design, but at the last minute went with her tone on tone stamping design. I even had the same exact stamping plate to use.
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| Sreya's design |
Co-hosts
Angela and
Natasha of the
#maniswapcircle do a phenomenal job keeping track of the changing list of participants, doling out the assignments and collecting everyone's entries. If you're interested in joining please visit their Instagram accounts,
@glacewing and
@natasha_dauncey respectively.
I liked that Sreya chose a dark polish with some shimmer and depth to it as the base for the tone on tone stamping design. It was the perfect opportunity to take out this beautiful red polish from my aforementioned large collection. I do remember the days when I had just a few red polishes...now I have fun spending time picking out JUST the right one. Rationalization? Nah.
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| Beautiful deep red jelly with lots of glitter and flakies |
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| This macro shot *almost* captures the magic of this polish in real life |
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| Even "Cindy" insisted on wearing this beauty and being photographed with it |
After seeing these pictures, do you see why it's completely necessary to own lots of polish? C'mon....say yes. Thank you. :)
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| Just look at that amazing sparkle in the bottle!! |
Design Details
On my own, I would not have chosen to pair this stamping image with this polish if it weren't for Sreya's influence. The stamping also brought out the color shifts that this polish has under different lighting. Most of the time it reminded me of the red hot cinnamon hearts that will always be my favorite Valentine's candy. But when paired with a flower image, it gave a whole other vibe.
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| Crimson flowers |
Bundle Monster released a
Shangri-La stamping plate collection last summer as a set of square flowing image plates. This specific plate is called
Cosmic Blossom (
BM-S104).
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| image from Bundle Monsster's website |
The area used on our nails is from the large flower in the upper right hand corner. You can see much more of the image on Sreya's longer nail canvas, but I think it still worked on my shorter nails too. These kinds of plates with continuous images give a variety of options.
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| This open flower image allowed the beauty of the polish to show through |
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| Gah!! |
Polish Palette
- Red base: Blood/Lust by Renaissance Cosmetics
(Meghan of Will Paint Nails For Food is the mastermind behind this brand. Last year she finished her PhD, moved from Canada to the US and began her career. Her polish shop is currently closed; yet, I'm hopeful that her life at some point soon will again support her nail art and polish making. Until then, I'm enjoying the beauties I purchased from her.)
- Stamp plate: BM-S104 (available seperately and in the Shangri-La collection) by Bundle Monster
- Stamping Polish: #51 Tulip by Mundo de Unas
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| Half-sun, half shade to show the stamping better |
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| Perfect polish for late Summer/early Fall |
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| A rare moment with no bees on this flower |
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| Sunlight brings out the cranberry side of this beauty |
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| My entry photo for #maniswapcircle in Red |
I decided to let the photos do most of the talking today. However, if there's anything I left out, please don't hesitate to ask in the comments.
Also - let me know what you think of these. Do you like the tone-on-tone stamping designs? I hope so as I love to do them every so often. ;)
Thanks for visiting!!!
Till Next Time,
Kimett
