33 Day Challenge: South America

I think this will be the shortest written post I've ever done. I'm exhausted and have no words left in me.  I actually planned ahead and did this mani on Friday because I knew I wouldn't have time to do a creative mani today.

Today's prompt for the 33 Day Challenge is South America and I went with a theme that is appropriate for every country on that part of the world. Soccer. I painted the uniforms from Brazilian player Pele and Argentinian Maradona, whom never played against each other as Pele had his peak a decade or so before Maradona. It's general consensus that they both have been the best soccer players to come out of their respective countries, if not in the world. There's obviously fans out there that will disagree but that's what I grew up so I'm sticking with it :). 

From what I've read Pele invented the position he played which was numbered 10, Maradona ended up playing the same position and that's why I have 10's all over my fingers.

Polishes used:

• Ulta3 in Honolulu
• Essence in Grumpy
• Ulta3 in Soft Hydrangea
• Models Prefer in Hickory Dickory
• Daiso green striper
• Topshop black and white striper
• Seche Vite for quick drying 
• Rimmel Pro Matte Finish as topcoat 

This is the shiny version but I wanted to imitate the semi-shiny fabric of the soccer jerseys, hence the matte topcoat.  

I was really happy with my idea and I think it's been executed OK (just look at how straight that striper-drawn 1 is on my ring finger!) but checking out the other ladies' manicures makes me think this is a bit rough. Hopefully, I can come up with something amazing with my favourite brand... Hold on, I don't have a favourite brand and neither do I want to choose one!!! They're all great!

Born Pretty Store Leaf Shaped Studs

I've been building up a healthy collection of studs lately so when the opportunity arose, I put my hand right up and asked to review these leaf shaped studs from Born Pretty Store. I loved the variety of neon and pastel colours and they seemed versatile enough to create lots of designs. Best bit? They come in a wheel. I'm terrible at spilling studs all over the place when they are in bags. Does that happen to anyone else? No? OK. Either way I'm so very glad they came in this handy little package. 

When I got the my hands on the little wheel, the only design I could think of was flowers. It seemed like an obvious choice so I put some more thought into it and it felt like I had a light bulb moment. Rainbows? There wasn't enough room. Fireworks! It would be awesome to recreate fireworks and I could still use rainbow colurs. Here's my take. Please note that these pictures are colour inaccurate but you get an idea of what can be done with these studs.  

I started with one coat of Models Prefer in Hickory Dickory, a dusty blackened out navy blue, and topped my index finger, thumb and pinky with a coat of Seche Vite. To prevent any smudging/bumping/having-to-redo-any-nails, I waited for the topcoat to dry completely and proceeded to apply Ulta3 Clear on my middle finger. I got myself sticking studs from the bottom in a fan out design without waiting for the clear polish to dry. I picked Ulta3's Clear polish because I thought it would be a slower-than-topcoat drying polish but it dried before I was done with one nail and each nail only took me a little over a minute. I've had topcoats that dried slower than that but I have run out so I just kept adding fresh thin coats of Clear until I was done with the nail. I mirrored the design on my ring finger to simulate the fireworks on a dark night.

Source

Looks the same, yeah? Actually it reminds me of this... Sort of.

Source

I knew that if I didn't topcoat the studs, they would end up falling out within the hour and I really liked the look, so I applied one thick coat of Seche Vite on my ring and middle fingers. This is where the mani went pear shaped. A lot of bubbles started forming around the studs and there was nothing I could do about it!!! I just had to watch it fail...

I went out to the sun to take photos because natural light is very forgiving on those little details. Do me a favor, squint your eyes while looking at the following pic. Doesn't that look good? :)

I still wanted to get a colour accurate picture so I went back to the light box. It still isn't showing the exact colours but it's better.

These studs should glow under black light but I don't have the equipment to test it out. I might have to invest on one. 

Putting the topcoat bubbling fiasco aside, I'm really happy with these manicure and the studs. They are sturdy, the colour doesn't bleed, they are small enough to fit a heap on your nails but big enough to not be fiddly and you get 300 pieces per wheel. I had a tiny bit of tip wear on one of the orange studs on my middle finger after about 12 hours, I'm not sure if it was my application or the quality of the studs. I haven't had any issues with the rest of the studs. The wheel is discounted at the moment for $5.59 here (or you can click on the photo below). 

If you are placing an order and haven't found one in any of the other million blogs that have a BPS store coupon code, feel free to use ours to receive 10% off full priced items.

Till next time, 

Laura

Disclosure: 
Affilliate Link. 
Studs were sent by Born Pretty Store for honest review. 
All other products featured were purchased by me.

33 Day Challenge: Tape Mani

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A tape mani was my introduction to nail art about 15 years ago and I haven't looked back since. They're easy, quick and the amount of designs that can be created is endless. I even created my first post for this blog with a tape mani. I know I've had to restrain myself from creating 33 different tape manis for this challenge and just sticking to it when absolutely necessary. Luckily for me, the third prompt called for a tape mani. Yay!

I wanted to create a skittlette manicure using Maybelline Color Show Sequins in, er, Sea-Quins as a base and Models Prefer in Midnight Madness. There's a bit of a story about Sea-Quins after the page break but I'll explain how I did the mani first. I started with two coats of Sea-Quins, topped it off with two coats of The Awesome Topcoat to make the glitter smooth, taped my middle and ring fingers and applied one medium coat of Midnight Madness. I took off the tape immediately after, let the two fingers dry and finished them with one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat. 

For my short polish story and a matted version of this mani, click on the page break.