Some sparkle and some holoness!

Good evening! I hope everyone's week has been going well. Mine has been kinda crappy but it's getting a little better. I got some nail mail, and that makes things better :)

I'll start with today's mani. It was pretty simple, but kind of sparkly. My base color was two coats of the lovely Zoya Dita, followed by one coat of Zoya Chloe, topped off with Seche. I know the third pic is a bit blurry but you can see the flakie really well like that.

Ok, now brace yourselves. Over the weekend, I read about and saw swatches of Color Club's newest Halo Holo offerings. As much as I wanted the set, I got just one, Cosmic Fate. It was supposed to be orange, I don't have an orange holo, and I loved how it looked.

Unfortunately, when I got it, it wasn't as orange as I had hoped; it's more of a weird orange/beige color. I like it, it's just not what I expected. What else I wasn't expecting was how holo it is. I mean, seriously holo, and linear! It's prolly the most holo, holo polish I own! I'm totally getting the others from this set, it just might one at a time.

All I did for this mani was two coats of Cosmic Fate, topped with Seche. Yes, it's still this holo-y with a topcoat. The first three pics are outside no flash, the fourth inside with a flash, the fifth inside no flash.

 

Stamping Sunday

So, here it is, Stamping Sunday again, and I manage to get today's themed mani posted for it lol. Go me!

Today's theme called for using tape some how/way in your mani. I figured it's been a long time since I did a funky French, so that's how it started. I pulled the inspiration for the colors from Zoya; for the Peter Som fashion show, their manicurists paired mint and tangerine together.

I don't have the specific colors that were used, but I do have Wednesday and Arizona. Wednesday was the base color at two coats topped with Seche. I let that dry for a while before I whipped out my Scotch tape to do Arizona tips. I went over the tips a second because I didn't feel it wasn't opaque enough with just one go round.

I don't know how long I let Arizona dry, but it was long time, because I didn't to have to topcoat a second, then a third time after stamping. It was good and dry when I did stamp, so it wasn't smudged. My stamped image was Konad m66 in Wet 'N Wild's 2 Weeks Sober.

Overall, I like this mani, I just wish Arizona looked a little nicer. I'm just afraid it would have been really thick if I had gone over it a third time. But hey, at least my lines were straight and there was no bleed through :)

Happy Friday!

Good evening and happy Friday! Got any big plans for the weekend? I don't, other than chillaxing after some hellish customers this week.

Anyways! I have two pretty manis to show you, today's and Wednesday's. They're not especially fancy or complicated, but they are pretty and I like how they came out. I'll start with today's.

It seemed somwhat appropriate to start wearing some spring like colors, since we've had weather that's more like spring than winter here. Nothing says spring more than yellow, so I picked China Glaze's Sunshine Pop. It's not a bright yellow, but it's cheery and happy and warm :) I applied two, somewhat thicker coats (this is a little streaky, but no where near as bad as other yellows), then layered one coat of Nubar 2010 over it. Seche over top of that and done.

Wednesday's mani was a little more subdued but just as pretty. It started with two coats of Zoya Jo. I absolutely like this periwinkle blue, and my camera finally captured it. Then I layered one coat of Orly's Twilight (which I finally found this past weekend at Marshall's!) over that. Twilight gave it just the right amount of sparkle without looking like glitter :)

Happy Stamping Sunday!

Good evening!

I have a couple of stamped manis I'd like to show tonight. First up is today's Stamping Sunday theme, an accent. Remember last week I had done SS's theme but, not only did my pics suck, the mani sucked also? Well, I gave the stamped image another shot.

I started with 3 coats of OPI's Pedal Faster, Suzi! and topped with Seche. On a quick side note, I'm really hoping PFS isn't too similiar to Zoya Gei Gei >.< Once dry, I stamped the Marilyn Monroe image on my Sugar Bubbles 002 plate onto my ring fingers in Wet 'N Wild's Black Cream and topped with Seche again. The first three pics are my left hand, the fourth is my right :)

Next is the mani I rocked Friday. I've come across some Sinful Colors lately that are just awesome for stamping. The one I used in this mani is from the Haute Rebel, or Rebel Haute, set I've seen at Walgreens.

My base color is 2 coats of Zoya Lotus, which I think is perfect for this transitional time of year. I topped with Seche and let that dry before I stamped the geometric image on MASH plate 41 using Sinful Colors Rain Storm. The pattern turned out to be more subtle than I expected; I thought the blue would be brighter, but that's ok. Yes, I know my pics are a bit blurry but you can actually see the stamping pretty well in spite of the two dark(ish) colors :)

Pretty princess mani

Good evening and happy humpday! How's the middle of the week going for you? Things are looking up for me. I got some rather exciting news yesterday: my family will be taking a wonderful trip the week of Thanksgiving :) I can't wait!

It's not everyday I want to do a super girly mani; I did today, though. And what could be more girly than a princess themed mani? I had recently gotten a girly stamping plate from Ebay. It has several Snow White images and a Cinderella one. I've always like Cinderella more, so I went for that one.

I started with a base of 3 coats of What's with the Cat-itude? from OPI and topped it with Seche. The plates I used to stamp with were Bundle Moster 304 and 321; I wanted to use the full nail shoe image on BM 216 but it won't stamp for crap -.- I ended up using the shoe on the plate with the Cinderella image. That is MLS 07 but I don't know who the maker is. All the images I stamped were stamped with Sinful Colors Adroise.

I also wanted to show a gradient I did the other day. I had been really wanting to something green, but didn't know what. I settled on the colors Gaga for Green from China Glaze and Your Palapa or Mine? from OPI. Gaga was the base at 2 coats, with Palapa sponged on. I like the two colors together :)

Had one of those weeks....

Good evening!

Many apologies for not posting since last week. Pretty much the whole week after my last post was just sucktastic, and this week's not shaping up to be much better. There's not alot to be done about it, so I'm just trying to move past everything. Now, if only I don't get sick...... lol.

I'll start with last Wednesday's mani. I'd been wanting to do a pink and gray mani for a few weeks; not a bright pink but something soft. I pulled out Zoya Shelby and laid down three coats of that. I need to get a back up of that color, I just love it.

I let that dry and decided to add some grey dots. I had gotten a new grey a few days before that to use for stamping and used that. It's Sinful Colors Adroise, it's nice and thick and does work nice for stamping as well as dots :) After the dots, I applied one coat of NYC's Matte me Crazy.

I love love love Friday's mani! I used two different textures, matte and liquid. I wasn't completely sold on the whole liquid sand when I first heard of it, but I like at least the one I bought, Get Your Number from OPI.

Now, I basecoated under that and the matte. For the matte, I used Orly Bonder and Elmer's under the liquid sand. Then, I did 4 coats of Zoya Phoebe and 2 coats of Get Your Number. This mani actually lasted pretty well.

Ok, now I did have a mani done up for Stamping Sunday's theme, which was a light, stamped color over a dark base. My pics did not come out well, and for some reason, even though the stamped image didn't come out nice and I was gonna show it, my Konad Special white messed up the image a little. I plan on trying it out again, because I love the image I wanted to use :)

Stamping Sunday and Monday blues

Good evening!

So, yesterday was Stamping Sunday, and the theme was supposed to be based on a book you're reading. I should have loved this theme since I love to read. Right now, I've been reading books based on Henry VIII and his wives.

I had a difficult time trying to come with something; I had the colors, green and white. Apparently, those were the colors preferred by Henry VIII and his father. I just couldn't figured out anything else. What I finally came up with was, in my opinion, kinda lame but I'll show you anyways.

One of the key events in Henry's reign was when he made himself head of the Church of England and broke from Rome and the Pope. So, I did 2 coats of OPI's Your Palapa or Mine? topped with Seche. It's a lovely green and about perfect for a Tudor green. For the stamping, I used Bundle Monster plates 08 and 13 stamped in Konad Special white. Unfortunately, Seche smeared the image on my left hand, so I didn't do a close up >.>

 

 

Today was rather gloomy, hence the Monday blues. I decided it would be fitting to try out Zoya Kristen. Kristen is a pretty, light blue grey that reminds me of dolphins :) It's not pastel enough for spring, but soft enough for midwinter.

 



I applied two coats of Kristen, followed by one coat of Finger Paints' Motley then Seche.

 

 

Silly me :P

Good morning and happy Saturday! Got any plans for the first weekend of the new year? I don't, lol, aside from the usual laundry/cleaning.

Today, I'm gonna show you a new to me polish, an OPI Suede. I totally passed on this collex when it was first released about 4 years ago. At the time, I wasn't keen on the idea of not having a topcoat over my polish and "not using lotion, ect." (this was per the recommendations for Suedes). Silly me, I was under the misunderstanding that they had a suede feel, even up until I got mine.

I found a brand new, full bottle of We'll Always Have Paris Suede at a little salon earlier last month. It was the first time I was intentionally dusty hunting, since the salon had many Zoyas and OPIs. I saw Paris and figured I would give a Suede a shot.

Imagine my surprise when the finish was smooth, satiny matte, lol, which was fine. It was then I realized this collex had the suede sheen, not feel. I used one coat of Orly Bonder before applying two coats of Paris, but I still had some minor tip wear before I got to take pics yesterday morning (I had done this mani late Thursday afternoon). It wasn't unexpected, but I managed to get through a busy work day without huge chips. I may have to try and hunt down the other Suedes :)

Some matte goodness

Good morning! How's everyone getting through another short work week? I'm off today, but that's not unusual for me. Once I get into a salon, which will be soon I'm hoping, I'll long for the days off in the middle of the week, lol.

Ok, so now the holidays are over, the next one being over a month away. I don't know about you all, but I'm definitely craving shades that are easier on the eyes than the all the glitter bombs and festive manis. I'm not quite ready for full on spring colors, more like softer winter colors, and maybe a little texture.

Enter this morning's post. I started with 2 coats of OPI's French Quarter for Your Thoughts. I followed that up with one coat Sally Hansen's Glass Slipper, one coat of Seche, and one coat of NYC's Matte Me Crazy. End result- easy on the eyes, soft color, and a satiny feel thanks to the matte coat.

Texture is a big trend, I think, in the coming months, what with OPI and Zoya both releasing "liquid sand" and "pixiedust" collections. I did pick up just one from the Mariah Carey collex that OPI released on the first, and I think I'll post that next week. To be honest, I've only liked matte, suede, and sand as far as intentional texture. Everything else has to be smooth or it makes my OCD go nuts xD