Friday 14 March 2014

St. Patrick's Day stamping look

Hey y'all!

St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner!  Sucks that it falls on a Monday this year, but what better way to make a Monday a little more festive?  It's also one of the few holidays that everyone seems to celebrate, regardless of religious affiliation or Irish heritage.  Today I've got an easy stamped look that brings the craic to your fingertips!


I've been loving french tip looks lately, and I thought today's celebration would be an excellent time to bring them out to play.  This nail art uses 4 polishes and two stamping plates to achieve.

Left to right:Barry M Gold FoilModels Own Midori Dancing QueenEssie Mojito MadnessBarry M Watermelon
I began by creating painting my tips with Watermelon, and Gold Foil on my ring finger.  Then I used an eyeshadow brush dripped in acetone to clean out my smile lines to create perfectly-shaped french tips, and then covered them in a coat of SV to protect the tips and even the nail surface so that I could stamp over it.


On all of my green-tipped nails, I began by stamping the shamrock image from MoYou London Princess plate 10 in Mojito Madness.  Then I used Gold Foil to stamp the celtic heart knot shamrock from BM-403, and finished by dabbing on the wonderfully watermelon-scented Dancing Queen over just the tips.  Of course everything is sealed in under another coat of SV.


Unfortunately you can see on my index finger where the stamp didn't come out cleanly, so I had to draw part of it in with a nail art brush.  That's because I actually started using Essie Good As Gold on that stamp, and immediately remembered that I can't get Good As Gold to stamp anywhere near as cleanly as Gold Foil, thus, I switched over.


On my ring finger, I skipped the full nail pattern and only stamped the same celtic heart knot shamrock in Watermelon.  I covered the whole nail in Dancing Queen, and unfortunately it smeared one edge of my shamrock.  Grrr.  This too was then coated in SV.


From arm's length, the full-nail shamrock pattern isn't terribly visible which is what creates the sort of green cast on the nails, so I decided to grab some macros for you to see the detail more clearly.


... okay.  You can't really see them very well at all.  Hey, put that shillelagh down!  It's only nail art!  Were I to recreate this look, I would either choose a darker, more opaque green or leave that stamp off altogether.


It's a shame that there are so many minor problems with this look, but I felt it was worth posting because it's still kind of cool.  Also, this means you have time to learn from my mistakes when you create your own St Patty's Day look for Monday!

Do you celebrate the Feast of St. Patrick?  Are you taking Tuesday off work to nurse your green beer hangover?  Let me know in the comments!