Today’s Practice Session

Whew! Biggie today. So much time to play, because it is the weekend.

Where do I start?

Top row – first three. I wanted to practice using the Moyra Cuts 2 plate – it has loads of lines and shapes, and the idea was to use a foil stamping polish in a strip down the centre on the nail, then foil it. I’ve been trying these lines before – I tried to use the French template and I cannot get the lines straight, so thought today might be a good day to work on my skill.

First attempt – totally wonky. Second and third attempts – better, but then I decided to chrome the edges, using a clear top coat – and those lines are hand painted and not remotely straight. So then I thought I would put gems along the side lines, rather than chrome and middle row second and third nail is this in action.

The gems went ok, slightly time consuming, but not too bad, but I wasn’t happy, so decided I would have a go with caviar beads. Oh My Word. No. Just awful.

Top fourth nail is one of the other patterns on the plate – like a spider gel design, and this would only work with the smart polish – it was too thin and dried too quick to use regular stamping polish, but I do like how this turned out. So the overall opinion of the Cuts 2 plate is that it will come in handy, but needs more practice.

I wanted to have a go at another nail with crystals and middle row first nail is this attempt. I wanted to do a chain effect using caviar beads, and there is a semi circle stamp design on the Cuts 2 plate that I thought would be good for this. First attempt was not straight, so I wiped it off, and the second attempt worked well enough to give me a black template line to put the caviar beads onto. You can just about see the black line on the picture.

I had another idea – using some of the larger caviar beads I have, my idea was a gem, then a caviar bead down the centre of the nail. Bottom fifth nail – maroon nail is this in the flesh. The giant caviar beads totally overshadow the gems, so wouldn’t do this again. I decided it needed a little something else, so started having a look through my plates and found the UberChic 5-01 plate. It had 2 matching lace / mandala designs, so went for these – the opposite on each side of the gem line. For extra impact I then chromed and top coated shiny. I love how this turned out – just not the gems down the centre.

This hooked me right back into chroming and nail stamping, there were a few designs on this plate I wanted to try – top fifth is pale pink with a darker gold pattern, middle fifth is a sort of peacock pattern on an olive green tip, and bottom second nail – I thought the gold looked really good against the maroon, so gave it another go. I also added the middle row fourth nail, keeping it simple, but the light gold chrome against the light pink tip, doesn’t work. I know, I tried it again later on.

I love this plate. It has some really awesome and intricate designs and they pick up and stamp really well. There are tiny dots and holes that come across so definitely a high quality plate. For these I’m using the Moyra foil stamping polish in Rose Gold.

After doing the maroon, I remembered that I have previously seen tutorials for black and gold nails, so bottom row, third and fourth nails, are this colour scheme – and I love how this looks. I’ve used a swirly pattern on the third, and the lace / mandala on the fourth, and I love the detail and overall effect of this combination.

Still not done for the day, and with my stamping plates scattered around me, I came across a Temu Valentine’s plate and decided to give that one a whirl. I started with bottom row sixth nail. I used a MoYou red for the centre heart, and after that I couldn’t get any regular stamping polish to pick up. Back to foil stamping polish. The rose gold really didn’t show up too well, so I also chromed and added two more designs, the love at the top, and you at the bottom. In hindsight I’d place the red heart further up the nail next time.

Middle row, sixth nail I stayed with the chrome, but did light gold, on light pink and it’s not a good combo.

Then I remembered the Esmaltes da Kelly stamping polishes and decided to finish off with them on the Temu plate. First attempt was top row, sixth nail – these colours don’t really work against a darker purple background, so decided a second attempt – bottom row first nail, on a lighter pink background and this time the contrast worked well.

I’ve used Magpie chromes today as these were close to hand and always good quality. Mainly Bruna and Moet. The Temu pre coloured tips have been used for all the base colours too. Saves time on painting.

And, then it was tidy up time, as my brain was hurting. TTFN!