Twirls and Swirls Nail Art - Lina Nail Art and Moonflower Polish

Hey there! Long time no see. No seriously, I have like quite a few things to blog about, but then instead of editing videos or photos or even painting my nails, I've been binge watching Stranger Things. Cause believe it or not, I hadn't watched Season 1 in it's entirety. My hubs has this annoying tendency to keep watching series without me, after I take the kids to my room for bedtime stories and nighttime cuddles and whatnot, which always takes too long and I end up falling asleep. The result is that he keeps on watching episodes unless I specifically tell him not to. And the other thing is that I tend to avoid things when they are super hyped up. Like it seemed interesting but I thought it was going to be more "horror" and less "sci-fi" so I didn't pay attention. And then it blew it up and everyone was watching so I felt like I had to resist it. But then the hubs watched Season 2 last weekend and I caught the 1st few episodes and the last 3 and I was like...I *have* to watch this now. So I went back and watched Season 1 and now I'm almost done with Season 2, and that's been my week so far. Totally irresponsible, housework ignored, polish making business placed aside, nails unpainted, press samples and stuff bought with blogger discounts just collecting dust on my desk.... tsk tsk. But it's sooo good you guys, so good. Like, the type of story I just absolutely love. I get it now, I get the hype.

Anyway, on to nails! I recently purchased the Lina Nail Art Twirls and Swirls 01 plate* and I've been wanting to take it on a test run. So here's what I came up with..or rather, there it is above. Guys...I have to be honest, it's a bit tricky to use. At least for me. This isn't really a full on plate review, no pics or swatches here but here's my experience with it. First off, I don't like clear stampers, I have trouble getting them to work and I feel they are so finicky with the polishes they will work with. This plate for the most part has to be used with a clear stamper because it's all about layers. You have a bunch of wonderful negative/blank spaced images and these super cool twirly arabesque vines and leaves and twirly swirly images to layer over them. And I suck at it. It took me all day to do these nails, I was so frustrated.

The concept is simple, you use the negative blank space on one side of the image with one color, stamp that on your nail, then use the corresponding swirly part with another color and layer that on top or on the edge of the part you stamped 1st. Did that make sense? So for my mani here I started with a base of Renaissance Cosmetics Blood Lust (sadly no longer in business) and then stamped the blank/negative spaced image in black (Moonflower Polish Noche). Got that part down. But for the life of me I couldn't line up the swirly wines properly over the black on my nails. I couldn't figure out how to align them, did they go over the black, over the red, along the edge? After multiple failures, I wiped the stamping off, redid my base and settled on doing decals. And that finally worked, stamping the black on the mat, allowed me to clearly see how I wanted to align the vines over it. For this image, the vines looked best right over the edge between the red and black.

It was so hard to do you guys...like way harder than it needed to be. I would have done a video but by then end I was just to annoyed at it. Like I seriously thought I would have to sell the plate cause I would have no use for it. I am super glad I got it to work.

Products used:
Base polish: Renaissance Cosmetics Blood Lust
Stamping Polish: Moonflower Polish Noche and Bronze
Stamping Plate: Lina Nail Art Supplies Twirls and Swirls 01
Stamper: Eujibas Clear Stamper
Top Coat: INM Out the Door

Twirls and Swirls 01 was purchased with a blogger discount from Lantern and Wren. Use my link here for a 10% discount on your purchase, only for 1st time buyers, discount applied at checkout. Moonflower Polish is my own brand of 5 free handcrafted nail polish for stamping, nail art, and regular wear, available at www.moonflowerpolish.com and www.nail-artisan.co.uk. Noche is also available at Lantern and Wren. 

If you made it all the way to the end, tell me...do you have this plate? Did you find it hard or easy to use? Let me know in the comments!