#ManiMonday 27/07/2020

Happy #manimonday everyone! I was going to have a horse racing this weekend but then she got scratched after I had already done my nails. So, let’s get into this week’s red and black tartan design.

Products used:

Stamping plate: Born Pretty “BP-L006” and Clear Jelly Stamper “CJS LC-40 Horsin’ Around”
Stamping polish: Hit The Bottle “Drop Red Gorgeous”
Base: Sally Hansen “Double Duty Base & Top Coat” and Essie “Licorice”
Top coat: Hit The Bottle “Water Tight” Smear Free Topcoat and “Varnish Without a Trace” Topcoat

This week I did my nails again on Thursday as I was at the races on Wednesday, but this gave my less experienced support worker another chance to practice. I’m pleased to say that she improved, so if you’re a beginner stamper and having troubles, don’t give up because you will get better.

From the start, I knew exactly what colours I would be doing this week. When ordering my new lot of Hit The Bottle polishes, I wanted to get a red because my Born Pretty stamping red doesn’t show up on dark colours, which limits my options when doing my nails for the races. I would describe this red as a deep cherry/fire engine red. I went with this one as it matches the red on my horses’ silks the best plus a lady on the nail stamping group recommended it. Then to really put it to the test and to match the outfit I had planned, I opted for a black base.

As I was going with this colour combination and as my support worker is still learning, I chose some simple images. For my non-feature nails, I was tossing up between love hearts (because of the red polish and my love of racing) or this tartan image. I ended up going with the tartan as it would have matched the pattern on my cape. For the feature nail when I have a horse racing, I always turn to this Clear Jelly Stamper plate. I went with this quote because it doesn’t require double stamping, like the horse I usually use, and you don’t have to rotate it to fit on my nail.

The tartan this week picked up like a dream! It took my support worker two or three goes to work out the right technique and then we were good to go. A light touch was required when placing it onto the nail, just so the lines didn’t distort, but that was the only issue. When it came to the quote, we had a little more trouble. As we had no issues with the tartan (which ruled out the polish as the problem), I’m starting to think the Clear Jelly Stamper plate is just a touch difficult to work with. To start with, my pick ups would miss the top of the “g” or the bottom of the “w” but other than that they were fine. When my support worker did it, the lines were way to thin, so it was definitely a pressure technique problem. In the end, I was like we’re overthinking it and I just picked it up really quickly with a slight roll at the end to get the “g” and they were good enough to put on my nails.

This week I also did a little experiment with my topcoats. I was really curious to see how the new Hit The Bottle “Water Tight” topcoat would go over black and I’m happy to report that it didn’t smudge at all! Then at the suggestion of Hit The Bottle I apply a second topcoat (their “Vanish Without a Trace) just to see if it would make my mani last longer. It didn’t smear the design when I applied it, but it was slightly streaky (probably because it’s an older bottle that I have used in ages). However, it dried smooth so that was good to see. Black does show the chips really badly, but as a whole, I wouldn’t say the second topcoat made much difference.

Overall, I think this design is really classic and one that you can wear anywhere. This design could easily be adapted colour wise to create a wonderful autumn/winter design. As always, the Hit The Bottle stamping polish has a beautiful shimmer to it.

Bye for now!