I was going to use my Konad stamp set last week, but got lazy, and didn’t want to stretch the polish job out over two days again. Instead, I opted for what I like to call “manicurist flowers” – those simple little flowers made of dots that it seems like everyone ends up with after a trip to the manicurist. They’re simple, easy, and I added a rhinestone to the center for a little “dazzle”. Not too bad, though I was in a hurry, so my dots aren’t all that straight.What I used:
1 coat Nubar base coat
2 coats China Glaze Coral Star
Sinful Snow Me White for dots
Clear rhinestones
2 coats Nubar top coat (which bubbled…could be the Sinful dots)
I’m less than pleased with the Nubar top coat…the tips are pulling back already, and my index fingernail has a chip starting. I know the China Glaze polish wears better than that, so it has to be the top coat. Luckily, payday is Friday, so I’ll head over and get another bottle of OPI since mine is all “gooey”. I do need to grab some “non-big 3 free” top/base coats to use with my new Essie polishes, and I’ll be able to use those with my Sinful polishes as well.
I entered my Hearts and Pearls design in the March nail art contest over at trendyprincess.com...maybe I'll win some more nail art stuff!
I’m looking forward to greens, with St. Patrick’s day coming up. Maybe I’ll go green next week…
This art is pretty self explanatory. I centered the hearts first, then put the pearls on in a “necklace” layout that I hoped would mimic the natural smile line that would appear when the polish color changed on the tips. For the most part, I think I did pretty well, considering my hands were cold at the time, so my nails were completely purple. I’ve been having great fun showing off my “mood change” nail polish to friends and making it change color for them (I stick my hands under warm water to turn the nails all pink, then let the tips turn purple again as they cool off). Fun! Yes, the little things really do amuse me…
The power polish remover I also ordered from Nubar is a fun little gadget, and makes it super-easy to remove the polish from my nails! Each of those little sponges is in it’s own little bag, and you just pop the whole thing in the cup at the top of the machine. Then you fill the bag with nail polish remover to saturate the sponge, stick a finger into the middle of the sponge, and press the pink button. The machine turns the sponge around and around, removing the polish! I did have to touch up the edges with a q-tip, but it was a lot faster and easier than cotton balls and polish remover. We’ll see how it does with these nail charms later this week…but it really takes the “work” out of removing nail polish, for me anyways. Nubar sent me enough sponges for 6 months – you toss the sponge, bag and all after 10 nails, so one per week. The packaging says you can use a sponge for cuticle softening too, just put cuticle cream on your finger, then put it in a clean sponge. That can be reused much longer, according to the packaging. Very cool.
I started with a basic polish in gold (hubby picked the color – he likes to do that). I did three coats of top coat after reading in the NAD instructions that top coat would leave room for fixing stamped mistakes. Then I let it dry, and the following night, I set up at the dining room table with everything I’d need (including a glass of orange pop, which kind of matched my nails!).
The NAD machine is very simple. There’s a suction cup on the bottom that sucks it to the table to hold it in place. There’s a place for the metal plate with the designs cut into it, a silicone stamper, and a metal scraper. At the other end, there’s a spot for your nail to sit, with an 
