Good evening! I hope everyone has had a sppoky weekend before Halloween! Myself, not so much but that's ok :) I've had other things to worry about lol.
Tonight's post is a two for one, because I haven't posted Friday's mani. I'll start with the Stamping Sunday challenge. I almost didn't do today's challenge; at first, the theme called for "using a plate that ended in the day you were born". Well, my day of birth is the 10th, so my choices for plates were few and unappealing. However I later checked, and the month you were born was added. That helped with the choices, and today's mani was created.
I started with two, very easy coats of OPI's French Quarter for Your Thoughts and topped with SV. I then stamped with Wet 'N Wild's Black Cream and Bundle Monster plate 312. The result: storm clouds!
I prolly should have waited a little longer before I applied my matte coat, because, unfortunately, it smeared the image a little =\
Now, for Friday's mani, I think that was the last pink I'm doing for this month. For it, I chose Congeniality is my Middle Name from OPI. Just 3 coats and SV, and that's it. I do love this color, I should wear it more, it's so pretty.
Good morning!!
Ok, so earlier in the week I posted a swatch of the beautiful Paloma from Zoya. Well, I loved this color so much that I had to do a jelly sammich with yesterday for Pink Wednesday. The resulting look has got to be, by far, my fave jelly sammich. I really can't wait to make a jelly sammich out of Frida next!
To start, instead of using a creme as I normally do, I applied two coats of Paloma and let that dry. I then applied a not so thick coat of OPI's You Glitter be Good to Me!, then one final coat of Paloma and SV. My pics don't show just how sparkly this mani still was; that's what happens when you have tropical storm sitting off your coast. Clouds, clouds, and more clouds when I wanted to take pics -.-
Good morning everyone!
For today's mani, I did something a little fun- a watercolor look! I've seen this done a few different ways, so there really isn't a right or wrong way to do. All you need is some acetone, a small paint brush of some kind or Q-tips, your polishes for making the watercolor look, and your nails done in your base color and topped with a thick topcoat, like Seche Vite.
I started mine with two coats of OPI's San Tan-tonio topped with SV. Yes, I know, I never browns of any kind!! I actually kind of like how this one looks on me....... For the other colors, I used Sparrow Me the Drama, Shorts Story, and Ate Berries in the Canaries, all from OPI. I poured a little of each onto a paperplate, and dunking my brush in the acetone first, I dabbed some of ABITC onto my nails. I repeated the process with SMTD, then SS, and ABITC again. After a little bit of clean, I topped again with SV and was done.
I don't think it came out too bad, but it is something I need to practise :P
Now for some swatches! These are all Zoya colors again, starting with Paloma. Paloma is a gorgeous, berry pink jelly from the Gloss collection. I adore this color and plan on using it for a jelly sammich tomorrow. I used 4 coats for this swatch, no topcoat.
Next for show, is Suri. I almost passed on this, until I saw it in person at Ulta. Suri is blue toned purple shimmer, which is unique in my stash. Most of my purples are more red toned. I even passed on the one purple in OPI's Germany collection because it's a red toned purple. But Suri I had to have. Shown is 2 coats for my swatch, no topcoat.
Lastly, I have for you Fei Fei. Fei Fei, in my opinion, is the lovechild of Crystal and Noel. It's sparkly without being too glittery, but it's not a shimmer either. I'm not sure what to call it, other than beautiful. Fei Fei is a blueish green base with the same color and gold fine glitter. I needed 3 coats for this swatch. No topcoat of course :P
Goooooood morning!
Today I bring to you, not so much dupes, but more like two very similiar colors, Zoya Jem and OPI Diva of Geneva. Both are from last fall's collections, Smoke and Mirrors and Swiss, respectively. Now, in my bottle shot pic, they don't look all that similiar, but trust me, they are.
Both are a red violet with a bit of golden shimmer. In the bottle, it's more noticeable in Jem than Diva of Geneva, but you can still see it in Diva. Jem almost appears to be more foil like, where Diva is definitely a shimmer.
On the nail, you can really see the differences. I did two coats of each, no topcoat, Jem on index and ring fingers, Diva on the other two.
Jem is quite obviously the darker of the two, although the other similiarities are still there. Honestly, unless you're really into these kinds of reds, I would have to say you may not need both of them. Then again, I didn't either, but I just love reds :)
Good evening!
So, it's finally starting to feel like fall here in Florida! I have my windows all open up for the first time since early last spring :) It was absolutely beautiful today.
Today's Stamping Sunday theme was called simply Halloween. I combined my pink theme with that, and came up with my girly Halloween mani for today. I started with a pink gradient, which started with 2 coats of My Boyfriend Scales Walls from OPI as my base. For my gradient, I used Zoya Shelby and Reagan. It didn't come out quite as nice as I had hoped, but I think I applied a little too much polish to the sponge =\
Next, I stamped bats to all my fingers except the thumbs, which got a web and spider. I used Color Club's Revvvolution with Bundle Monster plate 13. Topped it all with SV.
Good evening!
So, I made a liar of myself when I wore DS Signature. I said that it was the only pink holo I own, completely forgeting that while I was attending school, I found a holo at the nearby CosmoProf. I sure wasn't expecting to find to find like this, considering it isn't part of a current collection.
At first I was gonna pass on it; I had read reviews about the collection not being very holo. But I figured if wasn't, I still liked the color enough to want. I'm glad I did, since I've fallen in love with China Glaze Electra Magenta. The holo isn't as strong as my DS, but it's still noticeable in sunlight. I only needed 2 coats for opacity.
Now for some fun swatches! These are part of what I've picked up over the last 2 months. First up, Zoya Charisma. This was a gift to myself for graduation :) All I can say is wow! I had no idea that Charisma was a neon. Three coats, no topcoat was used for this swatch. Like all neons, it dries matte.
Next, is Zoya Robyn. I. Love. This. Color. It's the perfect sky blue creme. I needed 3 coats for my swatch, no topcoat.
Lastly, is Zoya Song. Again, I love this color. Song reminds me of a darker version of Zoya Tallulah. Only two coats for opacity, no topcoat.
Or, rather, been fighting to not get sick since last Saturday =\ My brother and mom have both been fighting the same nasty little, wannabe cold thing too. Me, it's just made me tired more than anything, but it means I've been lacking the energy to really want to do anything.
Nevertheless, I did have a mani ready to go for yesterday's Pink Wednesday theme. It was nothing extravagant, but was something I haven't done in a while: matte flakies!
You all know how much I just love love LOVE matte flakies. It's one of my favorite looks, even if not too many people like matte. In my opinion, making a flakie matte brings out the flakies better. Granted, there are some flakies, or flakie/base color combos that look better left shiney, but for the most part, matte looks better.
I started with 3 coats of one of my favorite Essie colors, Splash of Grenadine. Every time I think of that color, I think of Tequila Sunrises, lol. This is magenta hued, medium pink that's not too bright or too soft. My only real problem is that it does take 3 coats for opacity because it is streaky. I let that all dry, then apply 2 coats, drying in between them, of FingerPaints' Asylum. I topped with SV and let that dry before applying a final coat of Hard Candy's Matte-ly in Love.
I use the SV before I matte the mani because it just doesn't dry fast enough if I use the matte topcoat alone. I've dinged and smudged an hour or more after doing my nails that way. Now, here are the pics, before I fall asleep at my keyboard lol.
Please excuse my lousy indoor pics. We've without sun for the most part of several days lately, especially yesterday. That forced me to have to take indoor pics, so my mani doesn't appear as bright or "crisp" as I'd like.
Hello, hello!
As promised, I have some other colors up for dupe comparison today. They be OPI's Let Me Entertain You and Zoya's Alegra. In the bottle, they look exactly the same.
Both are pink jelly bases packed microglitter. I've worn LMEY quite a bit, since I got it first. Unfortunately, it's no longer available as it was part of a holiday collection two years ago. I kind of suspected that Alegra was a dupe for LMEY when I bought it, but I wasn't positive. Once I compared them, though, it was very clear they are.
On the nail, I applied 2 coats of LMEY and 3 of Alegra, no topcoat. Index and ring fingers are LMEY, Alegra middle and little fingers. They are exactly the same, except for formula. I actually like Alegra better because it applies nicer and isn't as rough feeling as LMEY.
Good evening!
Ok, so I know it's normally Stamping Sunday, but I didn't particularly care for the them that was chosen for this week's challenge. Instead, I chose something different.
I've seen quite a few other people showing off Halloween manis. While I'm still doing manis for BCA, I wanted to do something that tied in with Halloween too. Today's mani is that result. I started with 3 coats of Maybelline's Crushed Candy from their Color Show line. From what I understand, it's a dupe for butter LONDON's Disco Biscuit, but I don't have that to compare. Either way it's pretty. It's bright pink with a purple and fuschia shimmer. I cleaned up the excess and topped with SV.
Once that was dry, I pulled out my stamping stuff- Wet 'N Wild Black Creme and Shany plate SH02. I stamped a little black kitty onto each finger, topped SV again, and that was it.
Good evening one and all!
I figured I needed to get this post up before I called it an early night. Between the weather changing and my allergies reacting today, I am wiped. I hope you all are having a better weekend than me! :P
Tonight's post is actually yesterday's mani. It's been quite some time since I last glitterbombed my nails........ Like I need a reminder as to why I don't do it very often lol. It was the first time using the glitter from this year's BCA duo from OPI, You Glitter be Good to Me!
Instead of wearing it alone, which you could. I decided I wanted to a gradient with it and Crown Me Already! over I Think in Pink. This is definitely as case of where I should have stuck with just one xD Not only was it a pure bitch to clean up and remove, I think CMA washed out the rose gold colored glitter in YGBGTM. I think the overall mani come out pretty, I just wish that color had come throught more.
Yay for nonblurry, close up pics of glitter! But yeah, you see more the silver from CMA =\ Oh, well, there is plenty of time for me to use this again!
Good morning!
I hope everyone is doing well on this fine day :)
The mani I'm showing to you is very simple, and comes from my swatched only list. When I bought it, I didn't realize that it's pretty much a dead on dupe for OPI's Let Me Entertain You, which I just love. From the squishy jellieness to the pink glitter, Zoya's Alegra is girlyness in a bottle and perfect for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
For this mani, all I did was 3 coats of Alegra sandwiched between Poshe base and topcoats. Clean up was surprisingly easy, considering all the glitter in Alegra.
