Friday Triad: inspired by @yyulia_m

Hi everyone!


Another month has almost passed so it's time for the Triad manicure again. That means I had to find a clean spot and some peace and quiet to do a manicure using the inspiration Michelle chose, an absolutely gorgeous manicure by Yulia from Yulia's Nails (@yyulia_m on Instagram). This is a manicure that actually was on my to do list, so I had plenty of ideas. Of course those ideas were nowhere to be found when it came to making a list for my husband who had to get my polishes from the storage they're still in (still no finished kitchen... but there is definitely some light at the end of the tunnel as the renovations have started again. ETA is now the last week of June/first week of July).

As I really needed to start on those nails, I asked him to help me out and pick some colors he liked from the swatch pictures I have of all my polishes and bring them home. This is the result of our collaboration... and I love it!

I started out by painting all my nails with a coat of Masura Cinnamon Latte, a beautiful gray-ish, beige-ish neutral that is stuffed with teeny tiny miniature specks of red and the most subtle, but visible holo you can imagine. It wasn't completely opaque but that didn't matter as I knew I would be adding more... lots more!

So while that was drying I painted six squares of clear polish on my silicone mat. Yep, I did full decals for this one (which is why I needed a clean spot as the walls in the kitchen are going to be plastered again so everything, and I do mean e-ve-ry-thing, in the house is covered with a thin layer of dust from removing the old, bumpy plaster).

When both nails and squares were dry, I painted my right thumb and middle finger and my left pinky and nubbynized index (which is the reason why you're seeing my awkwardly posed Cinderella hand, as I'm sure Michelle's OCD can't cope with the difference in length on my left hand at the moment ;) with two coats of Masura Keeper, a beautiful garnet colored, small particled holo that has an amazing orange flame.

For the decals I used Painted Polish Midnight Mischief to stamp the floral swirly image from Whats Up Nails B032, the same one Yulia used. When that had dried, I colored the hearts of the flowers with Different Dimension Kiss Me Under The Light Of A Thousand Stars, a stunning silver holo with the most romantic name I can imagine... *swoons*. After some more drying, the flowers themselves were colored in with Masura Overload and, again after more waiting, I painted Keeper on top of half the image (making sure to stay within the swirly lines) and the other half was done in Cinnamon Latte. I finished the decals with another coat of clear polish to make them a bit more sturdy and left them to dry for about half an hour. Finally I carefully peeled them off the mat, cut them roughly to size, stuck them to my nails and removed the excess using acetone and a brush. I finished my manicure by painting a generous coat of Seche Vite on all nails.

And guess what? I even remembered to take a bottle shot!

Masura Overload, Masura Keeper, Masura Cinnamon Latte, Painted Polish Midnight Mischief,
Different Dimension Kiss Me Under The Light Of A Thousand Stars

I can't remember when I had this much fun doing a manicure lately! My husband picked some really pretty colors and combined with that gorgeous inspiration I now have a manicure I don't want to take off. I absolutely love it and I hope you do too :)

As usual, please check out the manicures Michelle and Juanita did. I for one can't wait to see what they created.