Breast Cancer Awareness Mani: 22nd - Ombre

This month is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and every Wednesday, we wear pink to highlight the cause. Each week has a theme for the manicure, and today's was ombre:

I decided that the cause needed flowers, and my favourite pink gradients are usually done with white. I therefore chose a flower that exists in both colours: roses. I used probably my single most used plate stamp - the roses from Moyou Pro XL 07. With a strong, pink like Mundo de Unas 20 (Fuschia), I thought I'd go for a dark base that's a little less harsh than black - Essie's Luxedo, a midnight plum shade. All I had to do was paint the stamp with MdU 20, Konad white, and then mix where the two met with the wooden end of my nail art brush. I then scraped twice in different directions to ensure the mix of pink of white, then picked it up and voila! A stamped gradient of pink and white roses over plum :)

This isn't perfct - I think it shows that it was my first time doing a gradient stamp, but I rather like its imperfections. It has, more importantly, drawn a lot of comments including from my partner, for whom funky nails are a norm so often go unnoticed.

So, go on: why not give it a go yourself, and see how much fun you can have, and how many people you can discuss Breast Cancer Awareness month with? Just remember to use the following hashtags when posting to Instagram ( I'm boldandbeautyfool btw):

#maniroseenoctubre

#enoctubreusamosrosa

#OnWednesdaysWeWearPink

See you next week for flowers :)

The ingredients: Konad White, Essie Luxedo, Mundo de Unas 20 (Fuschia) and Moyou Pro XL 07

Farewell Stamping September, Hello Autumn Colours!

So, yesterday was my last manicure for Tina's September Stamping Challenge. It was a choose your own day, and I wanted to do a technique-oriented manicure; I had a few ideas on my head, but settled on a multi-coloured stamping technique and a theme from a day I had missed - Day 5, birds.

So, peacocks were the name of the game. I first painted my nails gold with Zoya's Richelle, and got my Moyou plate ready - Pro XL 05. I decided blue and green were the most in-keeping with the peacock colour scheme, so took two Mundo de Unas polishes out for a spin - #3 Navy Blue and #38 - Neon Green. I dobbed both colours on the image, scraped twice to mix them, and then stamped them on my nails. I think the more mixed nails looks better (the unmixed green on my little finger irks me), but it's not bad for a first attempt I don't think!


Taken in direct sunlight:

With flash:

Ingredients:

So, I have a mani of my choice, with a theme of Tina's choice, and using a gold base that will no doubt return again in the Lady Loves Lacquer October Mani Challenge. I look forward to taking part, and seeing what everyone is wearing. This month has been a lot of fun though: thanks Tina for setting up and running the challenge. It's been a blast! :)