4th of July

Once again - a collaboration mani. I really love those!
What I really wanted for this mani was a needle marble. But I tried it, and re-tried and tried some more - with no success. I simply could not manage to right amount of polish that will swirl nicely without showing my nail under it, and yet will not flood my cuticles.
I haven't given up yet. Not to worry. I will do this thing sometimes soon and do it right! But for now I'll use some stamping instead. This technique too did not come without trouble. For a while I was using my polish remover to clean the stamper and the plates, and I simply did not understand why I could not get the stamping to show. When asking some talented bloggers about it, Jacki from Adventures In Acetone suggested that I tried some pure acetone. And guess what? She was right!!  

That's an important thing to remember when you try some stamping. Apparently the oils that are added to the polish remover, fill the plates and they don't let enough polish in. Since I started using pure acetone to clean my plate and stamper, I can actually stamp! Well, as you can see, I still have a lot to learn. i still cannot stamp straight. But I believe this will come with practice. The important thing for me now is that the patter show! So THANK YOU JACKI SO MUCH!!!

Anyway I did two mani's. I was not 100% happy with either, but I still am practicing. LOL
The first one was red, blue and silver strips over white background, with the stars stamped on the empty area. I used Milani - white on the spot - the perfect white one coater, as my background, and with one of these long, thin brushes I drew the stripes.

Close up

Life - unnamed strawberry scented, Sally Hansen - Blue Me Away and Celeb City, Milani - White on he Spot. 

Then I decided to try a full finger stamp. Again I used white as my background, but this time I used Orly - Champagne, which has a very nice formula, it did require two coats but it was very self leveling and fast dry. I stamped the stripes with a red Konad special polish. As you can see - no finger managed to turn straight. In fact, I ended up doing the silver tips because my lines were so off-sided that although the stamping pattern was huge, I never managed to get all the nail stamped.

I needed the stars for my 4th of July mani, so I decided to stamp them on the stripes. I used another local brand - Chic, with their Smashing Blue polish which is a chrome - metalic polish. My result is messier then I planned, but I am so happy to finally get some stamping to really show, that I don't care for the mess!

Close up

Chic - Smashing Blue, Sally Hansen - Celeb City, Orly - Champagne, Konad special red.

Hopefully, by the next year, i will be able to do some amazing free hand mani suited for the celebrations. In the meantime - Happy 4th of July America!!
Oh, and do not forget to check my friends' amazing 4th of july's manis below!