Twin Post with Stephanie of Sincerely Stephanie Nails using MASH plate #49: Night Sea Nails

And so we arrive at the last of this series. It's been a good run and both Stephanie and I have come up with some pretty snazzy designs (if you don't mind me saying so!) that we hope you've enjoyed. Hammie and I sure hope this won't be the last collaboration we'll do with the lovely Stephanie! If you've just tuned in, you can see my first foray using saran wrap here, my take on simple yet elegant here, and my wee ninja nails here. I'd like to end on a great note so we're doing something that I thought was just simply meant to be. When I saw this stylized wave pattern on plate #49, I immediately thought of a combination of polishes that I knew would be killer. Luckily, this was one of those instances where instinct proved oh, so right:

Brooding and deep, yet sparkly. Very sparkly.

What I Used:
Blackened teal base: Cult Nails Living Water
Additional blue/aqua glitter: Cult Nails Hypnotize Me
Pale blue stamping polish: Color Club Lumin-icecent

How I Did It:
***I forgot to photograph the first step which is just an opaque coat of Cult Nails Living Water on all the nails. The next step after that is where we'll begin. I'll update this later on when I next sport Living Water.

Step 1: Once your base color is dry, take a piece of saran wrap and crumple it into a ball. Smear some of the blue/aqua glitter polish on to a piece of foil or plastic and dab your saran wrap ball on it. Dab it once on to a piece of paper to take away the excess before pressing it onto your nail. Repeat the process for each nail.

Step 2: Next, take your pale blue foil polish and use it to stamp on the swirly wave pattern on to all the nails. Wait a couple minutes and finish everything with a generous layer of top coat. Now, step back and enjoy your "sea at night" nails!

Notice my fixation with the saran wrap technique? I like it for adding some sort of texture without the fuss. You could probably get the same effect with a sponge and some strategic placement, but using saran wrap took away all the guesswork and uses up a lot less time. One dab and you're done! I could've just painted on a thin layer of Hypnotize Me, to be honest, but I didn't want it to look too even. I wanted it to be more sparkly in some areas and less muted in others. A lot like how the sea looks at night, really. Or at least how I imagine it to look when you have a whole lot of bioluminescent plankton in the depths (*ahem, Living Water, ahem*). Otherwise, these colors and stamping image seemed meant for each other. None of my photos really do justice to how ridiculously shimmery this was.

 Here's a look at the entire hand.

 Hypnotize Me really adds that little "something, something" to Living Water.

 The uber reflective shine of the top coat made it even harder to photograph it properly in bright light.

 Notice the teal/blue glitter under the "waves"? This gives you an idea of how amazing it looks in person.

One last look!

Will you look at us, posting on a Sunday! *feeling proud* I usually try to go offline on the weekends just to find time to do things other than sit in front of a computer but we've made an exception this once. Who knows, we might even develop a habit for it. More posts all around make both you and I happy! :) We hope you're enjoying your weekend and do try to milk the most out of it before dreaded Monday! Before that, take a few minutes to answer a few things for us: Do you often get ideas based on nail polish names and how to use them in nail art? Do you gravitate towards specific designs when it comes to stamping (I usually prefer the ones that are super detailed and swirly, the kind that would take you forever to do freehand)? Which MASH plate image is your favorite? Now, don't head out yet; check out how Stephanie over at Sincerely Stephanie Nails ended our Twin Post series with a bang!