Young Love

Today's Valentine's mani idea was a great excuse to attempt different techniques. I called it Young Love because it's bright, colourful and not worried about what other people think of their PDAs!

The polishes I used are all by an Argentinian brand called Make MyDay. The lovely ladies at their nail salon in Rosario do the most fantastic nail art. They have been going for over 4 years and launched their own polish line a couple of years ago, which is especially formulated for nail art. I used Amelie (white), Jazmin (nude), Melania (mint), Karen (aqua) and Angelica (lilac).

I made a stamping decal of a kissing couple using the MoYou London Comic Collection 05 plate.

Decals can be tricky to make at first but I find that the key is to allow the nail varnish to dry between the stages. I posted a photo on Instagram of all the steps, which are:

1. Clean stamping plate, scraper and stamper and select your design
2. Cover the design with black stamping (or similar) polish
3. Scrape excess off and pick up the design with your stamper
4. Clean other designs (if any) from your stamper, using a toothpick or similar
5. Once you have your selected design on the stamper, colour in the areas you want to, using a fine nail art brush
6. Allow it to dry - I can't stress how important this is!
7. Do a second coat on the coloured details 
8. Allow it to dry completely
9. Cover the design and a larger area around it with top coat
10. Allow it to dry completely 
11. I normally repeat 9 & 10 (if I did the first layer of top coat from top to bottom, I do the second one from left to right for added strength)
12. Once the decal is dry, very carefully lift it from the stamper
13. Paint the chosen nail with top coat and apply the decal while the top coat on the nail is still wet, ensuring that you carefully stick it down in place, especially around the edges of the nail and cuticle area.
14. Allow it to dry (if you are using Konad stamping polish your top coat will probably make the design bleed and it will ruin all your hard work - drying time is essential!)
15. Seal with two layers of top coat

Yep, that's a lot of steps! I have made up to three at the same time using different stampers. The first time I had a go it was a complete mess because I rushed it, you need to be patient and keep trying. (Now you can see why I can live with the bubbles my top coat kindly added to it!)

For the hearts I followed the Pierced Hearts tutorial on the Nail Candy book. I didn't find it was as easy as it looked,  but maybe it's just me!