Striped Nails for the #31DC2018Weekly

Hello!

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I am almost caught up!  Today, I have my striped nails to share with you for Week 12 of my weekly version of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge.  I chose of calming colors and a little image of a succulent for this mani.  I have been obsessed with succulents over the past few years.  I am a brown thumb but my mother can make any plant thrive.  So, for Mother's Day this month, I got her a few succulents to start her rock garden off right.  Hopefully, I can watch her grow these beauties now!  My manicure today combines regular stamping with a little reverse stamping.  I think it all ties in well together!

Flower Nails for the #31DC2017Weekly

Hello friends!

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This week, we are all going floral nails for the weekly version of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge.  I decided it was time to do more advanced stamping and made some cute flower decals.  For this skittlette mani, I used all Zoya polishes again.  Most of them I had not tried before and I really enjoyed all of the shimmer.

Inspired by a Song for the #31DC2016Weekly

Hi friends!

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Sorry that I am a day late on posting my #31DC2016Weekly mani but I had numerous nail art fails yesterday and ran out of time.  But I am happy with today's attempt!  This mani was inspired by the hit song from DNCE called 'Cake by the Ocean',  I am certain you know this song, it has been a huge hit!  Not only is this song super fun but I have been dying to try out beach nails.

My base is a gradient of Zoya "Ling" and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in "Shocking Nude" made with a makeup sponge.  Then I a a spray water marble technique to make the water effect.  I dropped a drop of white nail polish into water then sprayed it with some aerosol hair spray.  The alcohol in the hair spray makes the paint separate and gives it that cool effect when you dip you nail in.  

Next, I used a little cake image from a Winstonia plate.  I did a little reversed stamping and colored in the cake with pink and purple and threw it on the nail.  I topped it all off with a glossy top coat.  And bam!  Cake by the Ocean!  Haha.  I know it is a little silly and literal but they used a great big slice of cake on the beach in the music video, so I though it was fitting.  Plus, I really like how the spray watermarble turned out.  If you haven't seen the video before, check it out below!

Be sure to check out all of the other ladies participating in the challenge but perusing the #31DC2016Weekly tag on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Thanks!
 - Amy McG (McPolish)

*products purchased by me*

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Geometric Nails for the #31DC2016Weekly

Hi friends!

Purchased by Me

It is week 16 of the #31DC2016Weekly and we are doing nails inspired by geometric patterns.  I decided to use a fun stamping image from UberChic that is sheet of triangles.  Triangles are my favorite shape, three points where two lines meet (bonus points if you know that lyric, if not you can check it out here).  I really liked how this mani turned out except for one thing.  I should have used a black base under my stamping instead of white. You can see the small defects up close but in real life it isn't obvious.  Check out my little mini advanced stamping tutorial at the end of this post!

Click through for more photos!

Floral Stamping Decals with Born Pretty Store Plate

Happy Monday!

Press SamplePurchased by Me

I have some bright nail art to share with out tonight.  Winter can be dreary but that doesn't mean you can't have fun and color nails!  I paired some super bright shimmery cremes from Pipe Dream Polish with some cute single flower stamps.  I received a floral stamping plate from Born Pretty Store for review and fell in love with all of the cute designs.  I was excited that there were plenty of open spaces in these floral designs to allow for some advanced stamping.  I typically do my advanced stamping straight on the stamper without using a clear coat to make a decal.  But I decided to give my UberMat a try at making decals.

I painted a patch of clear coat onto the silicone mat and waited for it to dry completely.  Then I used Cult Nails 'Nevermore' to stamp the two single flowers from Born Pretty Store 'Chic Flower' plate onto the dried clear coat.  I then filled in the open spaces with colored nail polish and a small dotting tool.  Once everything was completely dry, I gently peeled the clear coat with the stamp away from the mat and trimmed away the excess clear coat.  I placed the decals with the stamp side down onto a slightly tacky base of Cult Nails 'Tempest'.  Once I made sure the decal was all smoothed out, I topped with with a thick coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Let's talk about the colors used in this mani.  They are all from the Pipe Dream Polish Street Carnival Collection which is sadly not available anymore.  All of them are supper creamy with a slight hint of shimmer.  The purple is 'Harlequin', the pink is 'Masquerader' and the green in 'Tabanca'.  I used these three colors in the flower decals as well.  The black polish I used was not opaque enough for my liking.  You can still see the colored polishes through the black.  In real life, it was not noticeable but under my bright lights it was.

This stamping plate is available from Born Pretty Store for only $5.99.  I have been very happy with the stamping plates I have gotten from BPS.  They are very nice quality and always stamp well.  If you want to try them out for yourself, be sure to use my discount code for 10% off your entire order: AVAW10

Keep warm!
- Amy McG aka McPolish

*stamping plate provided for honest review, everything else was purchased by me*

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Ellagee - Brunch with Unicorns

Hello friends!

Press Sample

You know I love jelly polishes.  You know I love dat shimma!  Well, this new collection from Ellagee has them both.  Laura created this collection of sheer shimmers with the nail art enthusiast in mind.  These polishes can be used in a ton of different nail art designs and layered for different effect.  They are all pretty sheer but I have seen people get some of these opaque with enough coats.   I will be showing you how all of the colors layer together as well as a few nail art looks to spark your creativity.  Lets get into the fun!

Click through for all the awesome!

Pahlish - Happy Holo-Ween II Collection

Hi all!

Press Sample

I have some lovely fall holographic polishes to share with you this afternoon from Pahlish!  This is the second year that Pahlish has put out an all holographic collection at  Halloween.  This year we have a nice mix of bright and muted colors.  Each have a strong linear rainbow effect as well as tiny little flakies throughout.  One of the cutest things about Shannon's Halloween collection is the bottle design.  She puts these cute little ghosts on the bottles instead of the standard Pahlish logo.  Too cute!  Let's check out some rainbow-holo-awesomeness!

Click through for all the pics!

Cirque Colors - Magic Hour holos

Hello!

Purchased by Me

It's warming up out there and starting to feel a lot more like summer!  I will miss spring but I am excited for summer colors.  And what so we wear in the summer on our nails??  Neons!  And what type of polish is the most fun to wear in the sunshine?  Holographics!  So, put those two together and you have a winning combo.  Today, I have four limited edition holographic polishes from Cirque Colors to share with you from the Magic Hour collection.  This collection is exclusive to Nordstrom's Magic Hour pop-in shops curated by Olivia Kim.  These small shops are only in a select number of Nordstrom stores.  But you can purchase any of the limited edition products online like I did.  I snagged the four holographic polishes in this collection the moment they were available online and I can't wait to share them with you!

Click through for all the holo goodness!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Final Week Roundup

Wow!  I can't believe I finished this entire challenge.  And on time!

I had such a fun time doing the challenge this year.  I am quite please with myself that I completed it.  Like I had stated earlier, I fell off the challenge last year around week three.  So I was very exited to get to this last week (or 10 days to be exact) because I didn't get to these prompts last year.  These last challenge themes are all inspired by art and movies and other nail art.  I attempted a lot of hand painting this last week and I hope that you like my newbie skills.  Let's get right into it as there are 10 looks this time.

Click through for all the goodies!!

McPolish's Birthday Stamping Adventures

Hey all!

So, my birthday was last week.  Yep...another year older and my fourth 29th birthday (ha!).  I wanted to wear something super-duper awesome on my nails for the day, so I did some epic stamping.  This technique has many different names: advanced stamping, reverse stamping, stamping decals, I can't believe these are really my nails stamping.  Take your pick!  For this mani, I did the decal method.   I think Chanfie at Indian Ocean Polish has a great tutorial on this method, definitely check it out.

So on to the birthday mani!  I used OPI "Fly" for the base.  It is a gorgeous teal that really goes on smooth.  This polish was from the Nicki Minaj collection.  On my pinky, I used Freak Show Polish "Virgo", which is a microglitter textured polish.  Using the stamping decal method, I created the cool designs on my thumb and ring finger with MoYou London "Explorer 03" plate.  This is my most favorite stamping plate ever!  It has so many designs just begging to be made into stamping decals.  If you have not had the chance to experience MoYou London plates...put them on your wish list and bite the bullet for shipping.  They are absolutely worth every penny! 



MoYou London Explorer 03 plate

Ok...enough jibber-jabber and onto the mani!  I really, REALLY loved this manicure and would recreate it over and over again.  Do you love it?

I am currently holding a birthday giveaway on Instagram which ends on January 28th.  If you would like at chance a fabulous indie polish and your very own MoYou London plate, check out my page and do your best "McPolish Pose".

Would you guys like a tutorial on advanced stamping?

-Amy McG