31 Day Challenge: Inspired by a Pattern

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Today's manicure was inspired by the pattern on the throw pillows from my sofa. While looking at the pillow I thought, "Yay! An excuse to wear Briarwood!" and there was nothing else to consider.

Love Manicure with Cult Nails Enigmatic

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Good evening. Today I share with you a lovely polish that I couldn't resist from Cult Nails. This is Cult Nails Enigmatic. I love it!

4th of July Nail styles

Pin It These were a couple of very quick Independence Day manicures I tried out over the past week. Forgive them for being kind of sloppy. They were done very quickly to see what I liked the best.

Quick Fireworks Nails:  I painted all my nails with the darkest blue I own, Revlon Midnight Affair and topped it with a quick-drying topcoat. Once it was completely dry, I used a dotting tool (a toothpick would work too) a gold polish and silver polish, Revlon Gold Coin and Silver Dollar and created spots reminescent of fireworks sparks flying. I then dotted some of the silver with a red glitter polish, China Glaze Ruby Pumps. The whole manicure was topped with a fast-drying topcoat.

Red, White, & Blue Star Cut-out Nails:  For this manicure, I painted each of my nails a different color, Revlon Silver Dollar, Sinful Colors Ruby, Ruby, Revlon Royal, and I did a water marble using all those colors on my ring finger. I then topped all the nails except the water marbled nail with Julep America. I topped my nails with a quick-drying topcoat. Once it was completely dry, I added foil stars to my nails and painted 2 coats of Revlon Midnight Affair over the top. I had to use a toothpick to make sure the star stickers were completely stuck on all the corners before painting each coat. Unfortunately I was impatient and peeled off the star stickers early, but you can see what I was going for. I topped the whole manicure with another coat of fast-drying topcoat.

Stamped American Flag manicure:  I painted all my nails except my pinky with 2 coats of Sinful Colors Ruby, Ruby and then added a coat of China Glaze Ruby Pumps to my ring finger. I painted my pinky with 2 coats of Revlon Midnight Affair. Once that was dry, I used a stamping plate with stripes and and polka dots to create my stars and stripes using Revlon Silver Dollar. This manicure was inspired by a couple of the pretty manicures on the Nouveau Cheap Independence Day manicure roundup.

 Old Glory Tie Dye Nails:  You can see instructions to create this kind of manicure here.

So, what will you sport on your nails for Independence Day? Do you have great plans for the holiday?

Take care.
~Alexis

Illamasqua Load done matte with subtle stamping

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Hello, lovelies. Do my nails look like embossed velvet? Because that was what I was going for. Let me quickly tell you about this manicure. I painted a three layer base of Illamasqua Load followed by Essie Matte about you. It took a very long time to dry (but I do usually use INM Out the Door fast drying topcoat). Load's application felt a little sticky or stringy, but I did end up with even coverage. I dinged up the polish a bit before stamping the image. I used Revlon Buttercup on Bornprettystore's m60. I then painted some of the details on my left ring finger with Sonia Kashuk Golden Ticket, Revlon ColorStay Rich Raspberry and Bare Bones. I didn't use a topcoat over the stamping or it would have eliminated the matte finish on the base polish.

I did not take this polish off after four days, but it was starting to look a little tired. Oils from my hands and lotion had eliminated a lot of the matte finish and I was left with more of a satin finish. I ended up with one chip on my left middle finger that was easily patched. I was actually very impressed with how well Illamasqua Load fared. All fingers had only the tiniest bit of tip wear and they still looked quite presentable, especially surprising with such a light colored polish and after using a matte topcoat instead of a more protective topcoat.

Do you wear matte polish? What kind of wear time do you get out of a matte topcoat?

I tried to liven this manicure up by topping it with Max Factor Fantasy Fire. I'll show you the results next week. I also plan to do a comparison between Julep and INM Out the Door fast drying topcoats. One of these topcoats already has a big lead in terms of shine, but that's a topic for later.

Check out all the manicure fun at The Nail Files-Week 17. Have a good weekend.

~Alexis