Blue roses

This months theme for Cyw’s “Mottomonat” is “Blütenzauber”:

I started with two coats of a dark blue, added the white stamping and then a layer of top coat. After this was dry, I mixed some black and the blue polish with clear polish and roughly shaded the roses. I thought about adding some glitter, but then decided against it (unbelievable, right? *g*) and simply finished it off with another layer of top coat.

I had this idea in mind from the start, but boy, the first two tries were a total failure. And since Cyw once asked for outtakes, here we go… 😀

During the first try (picture on the left), I used the tints directly on the stamping, though I should have known better. The last time I used tints I mixed myself, they smeared, and of course did so again this time, even more so since I had to paint over the stamping multiple times. So on the second try, I put a layer of top coat between the stamping and the tints. I also thought that a darker polish might be more suitable, because while painting the first version, the black tinted parts of the roses gave off some sort of gothic feel, and I wanted to enhance that look. Unfortunately, the dark red I used turned bright pink after I thinned it down, which completely ruined said look again…

But third time’s a charm, right? 😉

If you look closely, the stamping on the ring and little finger looks a bit more soft, right? This was once again one of those happy accidents: I had to clean the plate between middle and ring finger, and I didn’t rub the plate completely dry afterwards. So it was still slightly damp with polish remover, which thinned down the stamping polish and caused that smooth look. I tried it again on purpose on the little finger and it worked like a charm. It might not be a good idea for patterns with thin, crisp lines, but for larger patterns like this I will have to keep it in mind, I really like how soft and somewhat blurry it looks. The downside is of course, that the original white pattern was already a bit shaded and not 100% opaque as usual – but in this case it didn’t matter.

I still love the variations you get with tinted stampings, and while they are more time-consuming than your regular stamping, they sure are something I love to play with. 🙂

Base coat: p2 hands & nails calcium gel
Base color: p2 volume gloss 240 royal beauty (two coats)
Stamping: essence nail art stampy polish 001 stamp me! white with Bundle Monster BM-323
Top coat: Seche Vite
Tints: essence colour & go 144 black is back and p2 volume gloss 240 royal beauty, both thinned down with essence colour & go 101 absolute pure
Final top coat: Seche Vite