Sunday, May 20, 2012

Tropical Manicure with Hummingbirds & Hibiscus'

Hello Lacquer Luvers! If you guys follow me on Facebook, you know that the past few days nail polish just was not feeling like being my friend. I decided to let it be for a while and come back to it a couple days later and guess what? It loves me again! Yay, lol!

I'm in a group on Facebook for nail art stamping and every Sunday there is a challenge. Today's theme is "The Sky's The Limit." For this theme, you can use any images you want to create a manicure that showcases anything you would see in the sky (planes, butterflies, birds, stars, etc). While going through my stamping plates I was inspired by images of hummingbirds. I Googled images of hummingbirds and was captivated by these two photos which also happened to include my most favorite flower:

Photo Credit: http://hoosiergardener.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/hummingbird-hibiscus-steve-byland-a-Fotolia_15250719_S.jpg
Photo Credit: http://shenthreedees.blogspot.com/2010/10/hummingbird-hibiscus-interaction.html

My manicure today began with a base of Essie Grow Faster. I used 3 polishes by Bettina to water marble all of my nails and used the same 3 polishes to do a gradient on my accent nail. The polishes I used were Peppermint, Ocean, and Marshmallow. I chose these colors to symbolize the grass, sky, and clouds. I know that Ocean isn't really green-green, it's more of a aqua/green kind of color but I liked the way this color combination worked better than when I tried it with a true green (Bettina Mojito).


Next I used M72 from a set of plates I purchased from BornPrettyStore and Sally Hansen Color Quick pen in Fuchsia for the hibiscus image. Then I used my Sally Hansen Color Quick pen in Green to stamp on the hummingbirds which were on the H26 image plate by Chez-Delaney. I completed this manicure with a coat of Good To Go topcoat by Essie.



I really do love the way my manicure came out today and am glad that I had the patience to wait out a couple days for nail polish to once love me again. I like the chrome/metallic in the Sally Hansen pens and how it gives the hummingbirds that bit of sheen that you see in their feathers. This manicure makes me want to take a trip to Hawaii! What do you guys think of this manicure? What would you have come up with for this Sunday's theme for the challenge? As always, I hope you all liked this post my dear Lacquer Luvers and I look forward to sharing my next post with you, xo!

~Jessica

16 comments:

  1. Your water marble turned out SO perfect!!!
    But I love the fact that you "broke"
    the pattern with the stamping. i love your colors and it's just such a fun spring mani!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful! I don't have any Bettinas, but I really would love some since they are so good for water marbling!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Absolutely stunning! I'm in envy of your perfect watermarble!

    ReplyDelete
  4. So wonderfully summery and tropical, love it!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love it!
    In Jamaica our national bird is the Doctor Bird which is a humming bird :D
    They are very pretty with long tails http://www.flickr.com/photos/50130110@N08/4594727353/in/photostream/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lovely mani, really pretty. I've got some stamps ordered so I'm hoping to take part in some stamping groups soon x :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Totally beautiful!!! So peaceful looking :-D

    ReplyDelete
  8. Incredible water marble! It's so perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is very pretty! I love how nicely your water marble placed upon your nail bed and the hummingbirds turned out!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love how your marbling came out. I tried doing doing it and it turned out awful. Suggestions on how to make my natural nails turn out this good...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Would you be willing to do a water marble tutorial? your designs are some of the prettiest and uniform i've seen and i'd really like tot try and replicate them!

    ReplyDelete
  12. wow you're such a pro at this! your water marbling designs are so consistent. it's amaaazing!

    ReplyDelete