Graduation Nails: IU Crimson & Cream

My cousin Shawna is graduating from Indiana University with her Ph.D.!!  Woot woot!  I’m so proud of her!  She’s worked long and hard to get here and we’re going to celebrate all weekend long.  I did my nails in IU colors, crimson and cream, for the occasion.

For the sparkly crimson nails I used a base of Gelish Red-y For the Festival and topped it with two coats of Gelish Trends Life of the Party (very suiting names).  The cream nails have four (yes 4!) coats of Gelish Snow Bunny.  Gelish Need a Tan would have been perfect for this, but I lent it to my mom.  Doh!  Snow Bunny is off-white, so I made due even though it was very thin and streaky which is why I ended up with four coats.

I stamped the designs onto my nails using Bundle Monster holiday plate BM-H23, which is a stamping plate with graduation designs.  This was my first time trying a multi-colored stamp… it was pretty easy!  For the roses I used CND Vinylux Scarlet Letter (press sample) and a generic green stamping polish with no name.  And the image with the graduation cap and “CONGRATS” was stamped on using Konad black.

Time to celebrate!

Snow Bunny looks white, but when you see it against a white bottle you can tell it’s a little off-white.

And here’s a shot of the layered stamps on my thumb.