Patriotic Gel Art! and How to do it!

Hi Monkeys, this is a bit over due, sorry things have been super busy lately! My 4th of July mani was super fun and easy and got tons of compliments.

For those wondering how to stamp over gels (love this because it lasts longer!) here's the order:
Prep your nail as you would for gels (buff, clean with alcohol or acetone)
Base gel layer, cure
1-3 coats of color gel, cure after each coat
wipe tacky layer off with alcohol
Stamp as you would a regular mani (I used Konad white polish)
clean up your edges with acetone (be careful here not to flood your nail)
add top gel coat and cure
wipe off tacky layer
And you're good to go!

The white I used is Whipped Cream by IBD and it is by far the best gel white I have found, two coats for that and 3 for the shimmery blue. Loved this mani, reminded me of distressed jeans and Bruce Springteen! Total American!

Black Gel Mani with Gold Stamping using BM 314

Vote on your favorite Winter Nail Art entry! (a lucky voter will win a prize too) 

Hi Monkeys, today I have a different type of mani for you. I used IBD Black Lava gel polish then stamped over it using Bundle Monster 314's filigree pattern. I did an accent finger with a gold gel polish I have, but I sponged it on so you could still see the black for a bit of contrast. 

 If you're wondering how to stamp over a gel polish, here's what I do (I use the Sensationail LED light)
Lightly buff bare nail then cleanse with alcohol or acetone- apply base coat and cure- apply 2 coats of color, curing after each coat- wipe residue with alcohol  on a lint free wipe- stamp nail (I use regular polish for stamping)- apply gel top coat and cure- wipe off residue with alcohol and lint free wipe.

If you do gel nails and stamp over them, let me know and I'll feature them here for everyone to see. I love this because it lasts so much longer than a traditional stamped mani, especially in black or white.

Guest Post: Fall Mani Tutorial by Messy Mansion!

Today I have a guest post for you from Julia who blogs at  Messy Mansion and she has a pretty fall manicure tutorial for you today Monkeys! Thanks Julia, be sure to stop by and tell her hello!

Earlier in the week I did my nails in fall colours. In Australia it's spring.. and this look can be wonderfully spring-like if you chose a range of pink colours instead of the brownish shades.  Actually, any group of similar shades would work really well.  So.. lets get started!

You will need the following:

• Basic stamping tools (stamper and scraper. We’d recommend the XL squishy stamper as it works great on full nail designs like these ones.)
• Basic nail art tools – basecoat, topcoat, cleanup tools like acetone, etc.
• Additionally.. you’ll need 4 creme nail varnishes in various tones of brown.  Ombre is nice, but it doesn’t have to be.  Mine isn’t.
• A stamping colour.   I’ve used China Glaze “Rare and Radiant”.
• You’ll also need image plate M83.

Your first step is to basecoat your nails.  I use OPI basecoat.   You can also use treatment products at this point including things like OPI Nail Envy, or Chip Skip.

Start off painting your nails with the darkest colour on your pinky, graduating to the lightest colour on your index finger.  Repeat the darkest colour again on your thumbs.  While you are working through the colours, swatch a patch so you can use it for testing later.  I swatch on the back of business cards, then I can keep them to refer back to later.

Having done my nails and swatches on the card, I needed to chose which colour to stamp with.   The little swatches gave me something to practice on.  There are 3 lovely greenish tones in the China Glaze Bohemian collection.. but I wasn’t too sure which was going to look good on *all* of these brown colours.  So I did a little test with a small design on each swatch.  Here are my swatches with the test stamping.

I decided that I liked “Rare and Radiant” best.. that’s the one at the top of the swatches.    Doing test strips like this is a great idea – it stops you using a colour that you find doesn’t work on all of your chosen brown cremes.    I remember the first time I did a mani like this.. I got to the end and just hated the look of the stamped colour on the last base colour I’d used!  Too late by then to change it all out, unfortunately!  :(
There was just one last thing I wanted to try out.  Just recently I picked up a gorgeous topcoat from www.zanynailz.com called “Flora”.  It’s a beautiful duochrome.. green to gold.  I thought about putting this on top, but I was a bit worried about obscuring the details of the stamping.  Luckily I had my trusty swatches already done, so I tested the topcoat over them all, just to see how it would go.  Glad I did because as much as I love this topcoat, it wasn’t right on all of the colours.  Here’s my swatch again, with the topcoat as well.
M Series plates can be pretty small and the images may not cover all of your nail.  If this is the case and you have an XL squishy stamper, you can pop the stamper out of the holder, and squeeze it to make the image larger.  I often need to do this with my thumb nail.


Fall is a great time of year… so many lovely colour combinations to use!  I hope this tutorial has been helpful to you

Jamberry Nails: Tutorial and Review

I have a tutorial/review from Jamberry nails today. So let me tell you about these beauties before we get into details. They are like nail applications but not nail polish, they are more like vinyl and they apply with heat from a hair dryer and pressure. Below the video I've put useful links and the instructions from their website. Sorry the video is out of focus in parts, my camera would not play nice. These specific decals are called "Fireworks" and there's also a holo version! I'm going to wear test a different design for you in about a week and a half so I'll have that result but for now, this is strictly a how to apply and to get you familiar with Jamberry!  You can email Jenni Shirley who is an independent Jamberry consultant, and they retail for $15 which is great because, you cannot get nail art with a manicure for that price!

Jamberry on: Facebook, the Web, Twitter

*product sent for review*

Tutorial: Easy Snowflake Mani

My cousin did a cute and easy  snowflake mani tutorial for you guys!

New Tutorial: Yin Yang Nails!

My creative little cousin was at it again, check out her Yin Yang nails.. very cool!! Good job T!

Tutorial: Violent Lips application

My cousin T has done a video for you to show you how to apply the Violent Lips tattoos... her second time doing them, they're not that hard :)



Find Violent Lips on Facebook and Twitter


*product provided by PR company*

Purple Water Marble Tutorial

Hi everyone! My cousin finished editing and doing the voice over for the purple water marble you saw a while back. Enjoy the video, I used different pattern technique in this one.



Check out my giveaway of current fun stuff! 

YouTube tutorial!: 4th of July mani pt. 2

This is a cross post of a guest spot I did for Jeanie of Midnight Manicures .  She has a great blog and an awesome giveaway right now too :)

The 4th of July is right around the corner for Americans! It's a day we celebrate our country's independence, grill some hot dogs, have some refreshing drinks and of course.... wear cute manis! I wanted to do red, white and blue (colors of the USA) but did not want it to be boring.  I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White (SMW), Ruby Ruby (red), Ciao Bella (blue), a silver glitter striper, OPI Birthday Babe and a dotting tool and nail striping tape or you can use scotch tape or french tip nail guides (the straight ones).


Check out the video tutorial for a quick step by step how to  and don't forget to enter the giveaway, it ends in a few days!!

YouTube tutorial: 4th of July mani pt. 1

Here is the first of 2 July 4th manicures I have for you.  This one was designed by my awesome cousin.  She also did the voice over for the videos, her talent is endless!

Check out the tutorial, it's easy and fun! If you have red, white and blue polish, you can  do this mani!

YouTube Tutorial: Flower Mani

My awesome cousin did this mani. (you may have heard her on the last YouTube tutorial). She wanted to do a tutorial on this mani after she got a ton of compliments on it, including many from me!

Polishes used:

China Glaze- For Audrey, Lemon Fizz

Color Club: Puccilicious, Edie

OPI: Rumples Wiggin'

What you will need:
Dotting tool or bobby pin (something to do dots with)

And... to watch the video :-)

You could take this mani from spring time to summer time by changing up the colors, perhaps a neon background with other bright flowers, or a soft background and neon flowers and add some glitter in there.  Very versatile and pretty mani for Spring and Summer. 

Sally Hansen: Salon Effects

Hi everyone! Recently I got HD polishes and a bunch of Sally Hansen Salon Effects sent to me from Gabby from Sally Hansen's PR for review.  The HD polished will be throughout this week but today's post is of the Salon Effects.  So being someone who does nail stamping, I had never tried the salon effects strips.  I thought it would be helpful to say some of my preconceptions of them versus thoughts after I used them.

I thought they were similar to foils or decals that laid over the nail, but really they are ACTUAL nail polish that lays down/stretches/adheres to your nail.  It even smells like nail polish when you open the sealed pack they come in.  You can also take them right off with polish remover and in my opinion, the purple I did on my nails came off a lot easier than most regular polishes and definitely easier than glitter polishes. 

You Tube Launch!!

Hey everyone! I'm quite excited to announce that The Manicured Monkey has taken the party to You Tube. This was the idea of my little cousin who is awesome with the video editing (thanks T-mo!). We did our first video on how to stamp, and I think it came out quite well. We've been writing ideas for future tutorials. What would you guys like to see? Here's the video below, and subscribe to the Manicured Monkey channel for future tutorials. I try to keep them relatively short and informative so you don't get bored :-)