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| Product provided for review. All opinions are my own. |
Hello, Fireflies!
Y'all know how I love my nail art - freehand, stamping, and now, STENCILS! I had the opportunity to try out some fun stencils from SmART Nail Art, and I can't wait to show you how easy they are to use.
The stencils came in their own folder and wrapped in plastic, gummed to this full-color folder with pictures of many of their stencils, for easy shopping.
The first stencil I tried was the beautiful Fire Lily. My base color was Zoya Sansa, a beautiful dark, sparkly purple.
Using a stencil means that, unlike stamping, you can use about any polish to make the image. Of course, the more opaque, the cleaner the image.
I was able to use the stencil about 4 times in a row, but the last one was kind of messy. The stencils are designed for single use, but you can use them multiple times, with a bit of care. The manufacturer recommends letting each stencil dry before using it again (you can remove the polish if you want to change the color.) They have a video about how to best clean and re-use the stencils.
I learned the hard way that if I kept using the stencil without drying it, I could get about 3 clean uses, and then the fourth would be messy and/or the stencil would break. Like the Holy Handgrenade of Antioch, the number of the counting shall be three. Do not proceed to four, and five is right out.
I couldn't resist using these cute dog and cat stencils together! The base color is Clinique Black Honey, and the silver is Revlon Sequin. The white is my mix of Sally Hansen and Revlon. I hand painted the hearts with OPI Over and Over A-Gwen. By allowing the cat image to dry on my thumb, I was able to use the dog image right next to it.
Another elegant stencil was the Swan. I used it in black over SephoraX Photoelectric, an electric blue metallic with a purple shift.
Smart Nail Art has a few stencils that are dual purpose. The Spiral has a wave pattern on one side, and a French Tip guide on the other. I have such a hard time free-handing such delicate curls, but they were so easy with this stencil! By changing the position of the stencil, it looks like I made reverse images of the wave, which was painted with Milani Black Swift over OCC Ripley.
The last stencil I used is perfect for this cold weather! Even here in Florida, we're freezing our flip-flops off. With the Snowman stencil, you make the snowman body first, and then apply the features after the first image dries. This took a little practice for me to line everything up just right. I have a few Picasso snowmen for my first mani.
Have you used stencils for nail art before?
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