Hello, my lovelies! How are you today?

I only have a few minutes to write today, but I really wanted to share this manicure I made for the 26 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge this week. Our challenge prompt was not a "theme" or a colour but a nail art technique. Basically, we could do whatever design we wanted, with whatever colours we preferred, as long as we used a "silicon mat" as a tool in the process of making the nail art. If you are new to nail art, you must be wondering what the heck is this "silicon mat" thing. You might find this tool a bit strange, but a silicon mat has become a must-have for any nail artist. Keep reading to find out why!


I really wanted to make a soft coloured nail art with some "fabric" feeling. I thought to go with pink and throw a sating finish and a paisley pattern in the mix. Of course, the nail art had to be done with a silicon mat and that is what I did.
Silicon mats for nail art are rectangles of a very supple and flexible silicone, with a porous textured designed to be able to create nail polish designs on it, that later can be transferred to the nail. There are plenty of brands which offer their own silicon mats, with different sizes, most of them have some nail shapes predesigns on the mats that can be taken as reference. If you want to know more about this, please, read my review on silicon mats here.


There is a number of different techniques that you can use on silicon mats, like needle dragging, marbled designs, layering, etc. I chose to do STAMPING DECALS on silicone mats. You can see below the process of creating Stamping decals on a silicone mat, step by step.

1. I painted a thin layer of clear topcoat or clear polish on the "nail shapes". I used a topcoat by Essence and my Born Pretty Silicone mat.


2. Once the clear layer is dry, I stamp on them my chosen design with black stamping nail polish. I used Moyou London Fashionista collection plate #11 and Moyou London nail polish in New Moon, a dark grey.


3. The difference between simply stamping and "stamping decals" is that the design on the latter is enriched by filling different parts with different colours. Here below you can see I used red polish (MoYou London Femme Fatale) to fill in the dots using a dotting tool.


You can leave it there or continue filling in with other colours. Here below you can see I used a thin brush and lilac (Moyou Frosted Kiss) to fill in some details.


I kept filling in with a slightly larger brush and pink (Moyou London First Kiss). You can do this as much or as little as you wish! Just remember, that everything you paint first, will show on top, as the decal will be placed on your nails "backwards" if that makes sense.


4. Finally, when you are happy with your decal and it has dry, you gently peel it from the silicone mat using tweezers, or a wooden orange stick. Be careful not to tear it off!

5. On my nails, I applied my base colour, which will be the background for the decals. I used Moyou London pink nail polishes, First Kiss on three of my nails and Milano Pearl on my middle and ring fingernails. I carefully mmeasured the decal on my nail, cut off the excess (the decals are quite larger than the nails) with small scissors, and gently press the decal into position. Once I was happy with the placement of the decals, I seal it with a top coat and that was it!!





So that was my pink satin Paisley manicure done using a silicone mat. What do you think? Do you like the stamping decals? Don't forget to pay a visit to my challenge mates in the list below for more manicures done with silicone mats!

Love,
Nati





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