Good morning!
After all the festive manis I've done in the last month for Christmas, I wanted to do something a little more New Year's-esque. This is the first of two manis I have planned for just this reason; the other you'll get to see either tomorrow or New Year's Eve.
As you may or may not know, I've had butter LONDON'S The Black Knight for months now and have used it only once, aside from swatching. At the time, I didn't really know about the super awesomeness of Gelous and what it does for glitter. Thus, my mani didn't look as great as some pics I had of TBK.
Now that I have Gelous and have seen what it does for glitter, I wanted to revisit TBK. I couldn't think of a better time to do so than in anticipation of New Year's. I started first with two coats of my Elmer's concotion to make removal a hell of alot easier. I let that dry completely (meaning, the glue became clear), then applied 2 coats of TBK. After that, 2 coats of Gelous, then one of Seche.
This came out so much better the second time around :)
So damn busy!
I haven't hardly had any time to blog, with everything I've been doing. I had some last minute shopping to do over the weekend, a meal to prepare for my parents on Christmas Eve, then Christmas, and work today.
My Stamping Sunday mani turned out horribly the first time I did it Saturday night, so I redid it Sunday morning. I was rather happy with it, even though I still need to work on my water marbling skillz :P
I started with a base of 2 coats of Milani's White on the Spot topped with Seche. My marbling colors were Zoya Kristen and Ibiza, which were pretty close to the colors on my tree (the theme for Stamping Sunday). I then stamped a snowflake pattern from Bundle Moster 319 in Zoya Trixie. I topped it all off with Out the Door's Northern Lights :)
Today's mani was kept rather simple. Just two coats of OPI's Baby, It's "Coal" Outside! topped with Poshe. That's it :)
Good morning! Down to 3 days left before Christmas :) Any plans for the weekend? Me, I just have a few errands to run later, then a mani to do for tomorrow's Stamping Sunday challenge. That's about it.
So, because of some heavy drama in my family, our little company Christmas party got pushed back to last night. If you don't already know, I work in my family's business, alongside with my parents and brother. I honestly couldn't decide what to do with my nails, so I reached for my absolutely, most favorite red in the world, OPI's Rose to the Ovation. This was the first color that I had bought a back up of, simply because not only do I love it, but so do other people that I've let borrow. It's very flattering on most skintones, I've noticed.
Two coats of color, topped with Poshe, and done. Doesn't get much easier than that :)
Good evening!
Well, it's a week till Christmas, do you have your shopping done? I finished mine up today, not that I had too many to shop for. My family draws names every year, so we only have one person to get a gift for, with the exception of myself, my hubs, and my mom. Our birthdays are this month as well :P
Anyways! I want to show you a few manis from this week, starting with today's. I stepped a bit out of my comfort zone and went with a darker green, Zoya's Suvi. I think I've only used once or twice and not as full manis. I did today, though. Suvi applied beautifully, and I achieved for coverage in two coats. I absolutely love how it turned it, but thought it could use a little sparkle. Not glitter but some sparkle.
I pulled out my little used Golden Rose Scale Effects #13. Wow, just wow. I topped it all with Seche, and just for giggles, I added a matte topcoat as an accent on the ring finger. The matte topcoat I used, NYC's Matte Me Crazy, made it look more satiny than matte. It was kind of hard to tell even in bright daylight, but it was still pretty.
Alrighty, Monday's mani was very simple. Using the glue method, I went with glitter- OPI's How's It Snowin'? topped with two coats of Gelous to smooth it out, the Seche. Let me tell you, as much as I hate using acetone to remove glitter, the glue method is almost as much a pain in the ass, at least in a full mani lol. Running my fingers under hot water helped with peeling it off though.
My mom wanted my to dress up her nails after she got them filled yesterday. Her base color is one of my fave reds, OPI's Rose to the Ovation. I pretty much did the same thing on her nails as I did for this past Stamping Sunday. Messy Mansion plate 01, China Glaze's Millenium, dotting tools, Zoya Song and Sure, and Color Club's Ho-Ho-Holly.
Good evening!
So, today is Stamping Sunday and the theme called for a red base. I knew exactly what I wanted to do :)
I started with two coats of China Glaze's Winter Berry. Winter Berry is from their holiday collection last year, and is an amazing, berry red crelly. I topped it with Seche and let it dry before moving on.
My stamped image was very simple: I used the lights on my Messy Mansion 01 plate, stamped in China Glaze's Millenium. For the "lights", I used my dotting tools and "colored" them with Zoya's Suri and Song, and Color Club's Ho-Ho-Holly.
Good evening! I have another festive, sparkly mani to show you, with two swatched-only polishes. This is also an accent mani, meaning my glitter is only on ring fingers.
The main color is used was China Glaze's Platinum Silver with two coats. Most people prolly won't like it as it's a frosty silver and you can see brush strokes. That doesn't bother me though, lol. My glitter was also from China Glaze, Lorelei's Tiara, with 2 coats.. I used the glue method I told you about in the last post. I absolutely had to use two coats of Gelous to smooth it out, then topped everything with Seche.
Has been getting in the way this week. I've had alot going on in my personal life, but I won't get into it here. The only bright spots this week were my bday on Monday and my mother's on Sunday.
To celebrate both, my parents, my husband, and I went out to dinner at Carraba's. The food was great, and we all had fun :) I have some swatches of what my husband got me as well as a few manis from this week. Let's start with what I had on yesterday.
So, you may may not have heard of a new method of dealing with glitter that's taken the polish community by storm. It calls for using a glue, such as Elmer's, watering it down a little, and using it as a base. For my glitter accents, I applied two coats and let them dry completely before applying the glitter. I used an old, clean nail polish bottle and filled it about 90% with Elmer's Glue-All, then added water and a couple of stainless balls, and shook the crap out of it.
Ok, for my mani, I decided to use one of my bday gifts, the Ulta exclusive OPI Skip the Gift Wrap with an accent of Nicole by OPI Kendall on the Katwalk. Two coats of each, with KOTK receiving two coats of Gelous, all topped with Seche. I love Skip the Gift Wrap, it's the perfect Christmas green. However, I absolutely hate KOTK, I think this is the first time I've used it, and it was horribly thick and goopy. I have a feeling, though, that one of China Glaze's Cirque colors, Water You Waiting For? (I think) is a dupe for it. I need to pick it up :P
Here are the mani pics, including how removal looks for the glitter.
The glitter didn't peel off, exactly; I used a rounded cuticle pusher to lift it off and kind of scrape it. I did this very gently so as not to injure my nails, but I think I prefer this over using acetone.
As I said earlier, Monday was my bday and Sunday was my mom's. Things got very iffy on Monday on whether we would go out Monday, and I didn't do my nails, until about an hour and a half before. Unfortunately, the weather here was so nasty and humid, it actually effected the dry time, even with Seche.
My mani was very simple: two coats of OPI's Birthday Babe and one of Happy Anniversary. Both are so pretty, I really don't wear them enough.
Don't mind the shimmer on my hands, that's from my lotion, CND Vanilla Velvet. It smells heavenly.
Now for some swatches! These are all OPI colors.
Every Month is Oktoberfest- 2 coats
Bogota Blackberry- 2 coats
Unfor-greta-bly Blue- 2 coats
I Think in Pink- 4 coats
Isn't that Precious?- 4 coats
Giftcards for Everyone!- 2 coats
Last Minute Shopper- 2 coats
Skip the Gift Wrap- 2 coats
