Hey y'all! Just a quick post announcing the name change. The blog formally known as Mama Hearts Polish is now Nadia's Nail Diary. Same unreliable posting schedule, same easy nail art and occasional swatches.
Blogger changed some stuff behind the scenes and I am not liking it. Bleh. Anyway, I mean to post this earlier in the week since I actually did these last week but my kid has been hogging my laptop for days on end. In his defense he hasn't been feeling super great so he's milking it for all he's got and getting extra computer time so he can play Roblox all day. Ok on to the nail art! I used polishes from my brand Moonflower Polish and a stamping plate from MoYou London. Details below.
Ok so this is a relatively super simple mani that simply looks more complicated than it is. First I started with a smoosh mani using Moonflower Polish in Lemonade (neon yellow-green), Sprinkles (neon magenta), and Electric Slime (neon green). You'll notice there's hints of orange in there and that's just from Sprinkles and Lemonade mixing together in the smoosh. Although I do have a neon orange (Summer Sunset) I didn't use it for this mani. Once that was dry I follower up with an image from MoYou London Pro 02, stamped with Noche (my 1 coat black). I finished it off with 1 coat of Sassy Cats Lacquer's Purrfect Matte topcoat (which was sent to me as a press sample). And that's it. It's hot already here in Central Florida so I'm feeling summery already. Expect more neon and summer inspired looks to come!
Happy Star Wars Day my friends! May the 4th be with you all. I won't have random nail art for a while since I actually have planned nail art this time. Today I wanted to celebrate my all time favorite movie series, Star Wars. I'm a huge fan and have been since I was a kid when my dad introduced me to the Original Trilogy.
These are all freehand stripes, and a water slide decal that says "I heart SW" from Fangirl Polish. The base is May's Polish Pickup color, Dulce de Coco. I also used 2 of my Star Wars themed polishes for previous Polish Pickups, The Grand Admiral (blue, Oct '18), The General (gray, Nov '18), along with gold accents with La Belle (Nov '19). The world is currently falling apart and things are shitty, but I can still find happiness in my hobbies. It's a great day to take a break and watch your favorite Star Wars movie and do a little self-care.
Saturday's Random Number Nails were picked by my husband, his number choices led me to Bettina Cosmetics Neptune. This is a super pretty matte indigo polish but the formula is the absolute worst. It's lumpy and dries so fast you can barely spread it on your nails. I ended up having to do very sloppy, large coats that covered all my nail surface, and then clean it up. That also ended up being a problem because it's also really pigmented. The end result was that I needed to use a lot of acetone to clean up, and since my skin is dry from all the hand washing, you can see where the polish stained and clung to those dry spots. Even after all that it was still looking like a mess, so I had to use topcoat to smooth it, and then apply a matte topcoat.
If I ever decide to wear this again, I'm thinking I'll try to sponge it on or use it for nail art since it is super opaque. Other than the stained skin, it does look really pretty on nails.
Emily de Molly's Odd Strategy for June 2018 Polish Pickup was Friday
April 24th random number nails. I really liked how this one looked on
it's own so I decided not to do any nail art.
It's a purply gray base
with pink-blue multichrome shimmer and blue microflakies. Shown in 2
coats with topcoat, super smooth formula and a dream to apply. Kinda sad
it's taken me 2 years since I bought it to actually wear it.
Thursday April 23's random number nail art is brought to you by Ariana,
my daughter. Her random number selection resulted in Polish for Days You
Can Fly! with some gold stamping using MPolish Bells and MoYou London
Pro 02.
I'm gonna be honest, I was not a big fan of this polish. The flakies look amazing and shifty in the bottle but I had trouble getting the polish to look nice on my nails. I ended up sponging a 3rd layer and that helped a bit but the end result was lumpy, even after 2 coats of topcoat. It was also really hard to clean up for some reason, which led to super dry cuticles and then super oily cuticles in pictures. And then the pics themselves came out very dark. Overall not a good nail day. The MPolish stamping polish is perfection though and I really wish she'd make some more.
Yesterday's Random Number Nail Art lead me to the color green and the 6th drawer in my 2nd Helmer unit, which resulted in Ethereal Lacquer's Rainforest for June 2019 Polish Pickup. This one is very sheer so I started out with a base of 2 coats of Bettina Cosmetics Green.
Followed up by 2 coats of Ethereal's Rainforest. This one is super shifty and full of aurora/unicorn pigments. It has an agua shift to it by itself but I wanted to bring out the gold and green shifts more, hence the green base.
Lastly, some very simple but I think, elegant stamping with MoYou London
Pro 02 plate and Moonflower Polish Noche. Not to toot my own horn here
but I do think it's the best black nail polish ever... and not just
cause I made it. Oh forgot to mention, I used my trusty Simply Silver Stamper from Lantern & Wren.
To finish it off I sealed the whole mani with one perfectly smooth coat of Sassy Cats Lacquer Purrfect Shine topcoat (which was sent to me originally as a press sample).
What is this?! A freaking blog post! I seriously think there's only 1 person still reading this...maybe 2, and they know who they are. Thanks. Ok so like almost everyone, I'm stuck at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Not that I normally go out anyway but besides the point. My son is doing virtual distance learning which consists of me sitting there next to him while he uses my desk and computer, explaining things occasionally. Same thing ends up happening with my daughter in middle school. For the most part I'm not actually doing anything other than technical support, reading stuff and explaining it to them so I find myself with extra time as I just sit there next to them while they work on stuff. So I strangely found myself with time to do nail art again. To make things easy? Fun? Simple? I made a list of sorts and assigned numbers. I started by having the kids just give me random numbers which correspond to various Helmers and drawers and then deciding on nail art based on the colors. But I also have random numbers for nail art techniques and stamping plate holders in case I can't think of anything. I have hundreds...a thousand... nail polishes and nail art stuff so I just wanted to get using these things again. Also it's relaxing.
So I had been taking pics of them on my phone previously and I'll make another blog post with all of those but today's the 2nd time I sat down and actually used my DSLR. Today's random number nail art resulted in a no-name franken orange of mine, with Moonflower Polish Navy stamped over it, using MoYou London Pro 02 plate (the little one, not XL).
I finished off with Sassy Cats Lacquer top coat in the scent Jolly Rancher and used my Lantern and Wren angled clean up brush. *Both of these items were sent as press samples in the past.*
That's all folks! Let me know your thoughts and what nail art design ideas I should try.
Hey guys! This month I have 2 polishes to show you for the August 2019 At The Carnival theme for Polish Pickup. I have Great Lakes Lacquer - Creatures of the Night, Brought to Light! and from my own brand Moonflower Polish - It's Not About the Parakeet!
Great Lakes Lacquer - Creatures of the Night Brought to Light!
Swatches are all 3 coats with no topcoat. This polish is inspired by Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival from The Last Unicorn. Described as a midnight violet corrupted by a strong red to orange to bronze multichrome sheen. I will add that this has a sheer jelly base with a smooth application that dries to a shiny finish. Price is $12.50 and there is no cap. Lots of pics below.
Swatches are 1 coat on the index and pinky, and stamped over black and white using the Pueen clear stamper from Walmart and Lina Nail Art Supplies License to be Sexy 02 plate. Finished with my own unreleased shiny topcoat. This polish is inspired by Sunset Shimmer from the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls series, specifically the episode where she and Twilight are trying to beat a ring toss game. The color is a bright shimmery orange with hints of red to green aurora pigment and iridescent green microflakes. You need to use it for black to get that flash of green to show up. Swatches and video below. Price is $12.50, cap is75 (US) 5 (UK).
Application and stamping video featuring my daughter and me here:
Hey everyone! Long time no see. How's your summer going? Mine's been super busy, which is why I haven't had any posts in a while. I've painted my nails, I just haven't even photographed them, not even for IG! Le gasp. 😲 Today's review is for the new Island Collection from Soothing Soul Nail Lacquers. On to the swatches!
Actually, these all had a similar but great formula, so to save time (me writing and you reading), let's talk quickly about that first. All 5 colors in this collection will make you think of a nice beach vacation (which surprisingly for someone from the Caribbean who lives in Florida, I haven't had this summer...). They all have some nice strong shimmer effects, opaque in 2-3 coats (I'll specify for each color before the swatches), dried pretty shiny and quickly. What I love about the formula for these is that it self levels nicely and stays right where you put it, not runny or thick, just perfectly smooth and easy to apply. Ok now on to the swatches.
Lily Pad - shimmery jade green, slightly blue leaning. Swatches show 2 coats with topcoat.
Blue Lagoon - bright shimmery medium blue with the slightest hint of a darker indigo shade when it catches the light in certain angles. Swatch shows 3 coats with topcoat. This one is sheerer than the other 4 colors.
Island Breeze - blue periwinkle or grayish blue shade with hints of a pink-purplish shimmer. Swatch shows 3 coats with topcoat. You can get away with 2 thicker coats too.
I'm Nadia, a Puerto Rican mom of 2 who relocated to Florida. I'm a sci-fi and book nerd with an art degree, a husband, and a dog. A love of nail polish helped me overcome a nail biting habit of 22 years. I write about nail polish, nail art, beauty and cosmetics, with a little bit of lifestyle blogging.
