Balloons!

Good evening!

When I was trying to come with today's mani, I decided I wanted some fun and not too bright. I also wanted to give one of my new indies a try. First things first, I started with a single coat of Milani's White on the Spot as my base color.

It didn't take long for that to dry, then on went two coats of Above the Curve's Sugar Rush, followed by a coat of Seche. Sugar Rush is pretty awesome. It's a white crelly base with different colors, sizes, and shapes of glitter. There's matte and sparkly, round and hex. It's a fun polish and I love it. 

I added some balloons stamped using my Vivid Lacquer plate VL 002. The colors I used were all from Maybelline's Color Show line, Mesmerizing Magenta, Flash of Purple, and Navy Narcissist. They all stamped very well and didn't smear when I topped again with Seche.

A new use for Saran Wrap....

Good evening!

I know I'm a day late posting my Stamping Sunday challenge, but I've had an incredibly busy weekend that involved a party Saturday, cleaning practically all morning yesterday (needless to say, I'm very sore from that x.x), and hanging with an old, dear friend yesterday afternoon. Through all that, my mani held up unbelievably well, but that could be because of the three coats of Seche lol.

Let's get started!

Yesterday's theme called for using a Saran, or cling, wrap base. This is a new technique to me but I've found that's not very dissimilar to sponging; you're just using the wrap in place of a sponge. From what I can tell, there are two ways to do this, but I'll get that in a sec.

For my base, I used 3 coats of Zoya Arizona followed by a coat of Seche, since I didn't want to destroy it. Now, to create the effect, you can either apply your next color directly on top of the first, then dab it with the Saran wrap, or put some polish on the Saran wrap then dab it on. Either works, but I think the second method may better, even though I tried the first one. It seems my polish dried a little faster than I would have liked and tried to pull off more, if that makes sense. 

My second color was Zoya Wednesday. I was trying to create a beachy look, but it came out a little muddy =\ I topped that with Seche and let dry before stamping. The plates I used were Winstonia W108 and Mash 35, all stamped in Sally Hansen Insta Dri Co-balt Blue, followed by the last coat of Seche.

Overall, I like how it turned out and held up under the abuse I put it through, but yeah, I think the base could have been better. See for yourself!

Dots, dots, dots!

Good evening!

I have yesterday's mani to show everyone tonight :) Recently, I've bought several indie polishes, two of them from Candy Lacquer. I've already shown you one, Pixel Party. Here's the other one, Candy Dots.

Candy Dots is made up of round, multi colored, sparkly glitters in a clear base. I wore it over 2 coats of Zoya Dita. I did have to dab and place the glitters but it wasn't too horribly bad to apply. You can't really see it in my pics, but I did end up with bubbles in the clear base from the dabbing. I could have prolly done with a coat of Gelous instead of 2 coats of Seche, because it was just a tad rough.

Texture lovin'!

Good evening!!

I hope everyone's week is going well. Mine isn't too bad, I just wish it wasn't so hot >.< This week is especially, though, since we're not supposed to get much rain. I hate it, lol, and wish summer was just over already.

Anyways! I have a mixed texture mani to show you tonight. I started with 2 coats of OPI's Can't Find my Czechbook followed by a coat of Seche then one coat of OPI's Matte Topcoat. I let that dry a good while,and did my clean up of the color.

I wanted a sort of monotone in color with different textures. The closest thing I have in texture to Czechbook is the Liquid Sand in Tiffany Case, also from OPI. I taped off my tips with Scotch tape and applied Tiffany to the exposed areas.

I really like how this turned, I may have to try it with other some of the colors I have in the textured polishes.

In case you didn't notice, I added a new tab at the top! You'll find polishes I have for sale. If you're interested, email me at: elfleidy@hotmail.com :)

Blah.....

Good evening!!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I just haven't felt up to it. It's just been so hot, and it feels like it sucks the energy out of me driving home. Having no A/C in the summertime here is miserable.

Anywho! I have three manis I want to show you. The first, today's, was inspired by this photo:

 Disclaimer: This is not my photo, it's OPI's, but I wanted to show what I was inspired by :) I've wanted to do this for quite a while, I just didn't have the color used, Louvre me Louvre me Not. I finally got it about 2 months ago, and still didn't get around to it.

Thankfully, though, I did. I wasn't really feeling bright, obnoxious colors today, so I opted for something a little dark and vampy. I applied 3 coats of LMLMN and topped with Seche. I realize now that I did my mani sort of opposite of OPI's, take a look. I used Scotch tape to achieve my tips.

Now, yesterday was Stamping Sunday, and I did up a mani for it. The theme for it was called your favorite color combo. I have a few that I especially like, but the one that is dear to me is blue and silver. I had just picked a new blue earlier in the week, Essie's Bouncer it's Me, which is a gorgeous neon blue.

I started off trying to sponge that over one coat of Milani's White on the Spot, but I couldn't get it even, so I ended up applying it normally. I topped with Seche and let that dry a good while before stamping.

This gave me a chance to try out a new plate I got a few weeks ago in a group buy from Betina. I used the animal print image from B-16 stamped in Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes. Topped with Seche again and done. I think it all came out a little thick looking, and it was a bitch to get off, what with all the Seche I used.

Lastly is a fun mani I wore Friday. I started with 3 coats of China Glaze's Highlight of my Summer, which is a cross between lime green and mint green. It's not a true lime green, it's too blue toned to be lime. It's also not a true neon as it doesn't dry matte. I love it, though, because it's bright and cheery.

I let that dry alone before applying one of my new indie glitter, Pixel Party from Candy Lacquer. Pixel Party is a fun glitter full of multicolored, matte, square glitters. You're definitely going to have to use the dab and place method for this, but you don't need to fish for them. I only did one pass of PP, and used 2 coats of Seche to smooth it out. I think I could have done with a coat of Gelous and a single coat of Seche instead though.

Some pixie love!

Good evening!!

So, I know it's been pretty obvious that I love the whole textured look trend that's been popular, starting with Shatters/Crackles (which I still have plenty of), and has crossed over to the whole textured glitters (I can't stand the textured cremes). I own three of OPI Liquid Sands, 6 of the Zoya Pixie Dusts, and just one of the Nicole by OPI Gumdrops. Those numbers are, of course, subject to change, and most likely will in the next month or so with the release of the fall collections. It certainly doesn't look like the textured trend is fading out anytime soon.

Tonight, I have 3 of the summer Pixie Dusts to show you. I wanted to give them a little before the fall collections come out lol. I'll start with yesterday's mani, which was simply 3 coats of Stevie over my bare nail. I highly, highly recommend not using a base of any kind, even a glue base, to avoid chipping or tip wear. That seems to be best for me, even with my chipping problems.

Stevie is a gorgeous, light purple matte glitter with some silver thrown in. I could have probably been all right with two coats, but three made it appear more....... even, I suppose.

I know the third pic is a little blurry, but it does show the sparklieness of the matte glitter :)

Today's mani was a little more colorful. I got the idea from a pic Zoya had posted from the CosmoProf show in Las Vegas. I don't have the colors in their pic, so I chose my own, Liberty and Solange.

Now, I'll be honest, Solange isn't a color I would normally choose for myself. It's gold. and gold is not a good color for me. However, Solange is very yellow gold, not a regular gold. I found the color, for me, very wearable. Kerry from the Irrestible collection is the same in a sparkly foil.

I applied Solange as accents on my middle and ring finger, per the Zoya pic, and Liberty on the remaining fingers. Can I just say how much I love Liberty? Three of my textured polished are blue, and they're all different. Anyways, 3 coats of each over a bare nail and done. I will note that Liberty did take longer to dry than Solange, since I think the formula for Liberty is the same as the first collection of Pixie Dusts, like Chyna. It's worth it, though :)

I don't know why that last pic came out so dark, it wasn't anything I did in Picasa O.o

Stamping Sunday

Good evening! I hope everyone had a great weekend! All I really did was get my hair trimmed yesterday, that's it lol.

As usual, today is Stamping Sunday, and the theme today is double stamping or shadow stamping. Now, I've never done shadow stamping and it didn't sound like it was something I was going to be able to do easily, so I chose to double stamping. I pretty much interpreted that as using two different images, although I kinda technically did shadow stamping also.

I started with 3 coats of Maybelline's Mint Mist from the Color Show line. I love mints, and I was very happy that it wasn't the same as the ones I already own :P It's not as blue as some, or as dark. I topped with Seche and let that dry for a while, since all three coats were a little thick. The image plate I used was my Messy Mansion 07. I stamped the leaves image first in Sinful Colors Last Chance, then in Ulta The Jungle Look. Lastly, I stamped roses in Sinful Colors Endless Blue, and topped it all with Seche again.

My latest Indie!

Good evening!

I have something of a treat for you tonight :) I was lucky enough to get in on a group buy several weeks for Aussie Indie polish maker, Emily de Molly. While it was hard for me pick just one, I managed to decide on Version 2.0

I don't know the story behind the creation of Version 2.0, I can tell it's a black jelly, with what looks to me purple-ish undertones, loaded with matte glitters and silver sparkles. Taking a jeweler's loupe to it, I can see purple, red, yellow, orange, blue, and green matte glitters in it.

For my mani, I layered 2 coats of Version 2.0 over 1 coat of Zoya Raven, because I have difficulties with getting jellies evenly opaque in less than 3 coats xD The glitters in this polish laid smoothly enough to not need any Gelous, so I just topped with Seche and was done.

This is, to me, a really unique polish in my collection, and am very happy I added it to mine.

^That pic was taken inside with a flash.

Happy Wednesday!

Good evening!

How's the week back to work after a 4 day weekend? Me, I'm all sorts of jacked up lol. I hardly know what day it is. Ah, well, it's half over.

I did up a cute little mani for today. I hadn't had a chance to use one of my newer plates that I bought in a group buy a from a few months ago, and I thought this was a great time to try it out :)

I started with a base of OPI's Shorts Story in 2 coats, followed by a coat of Seche. For the stamping, I used Sinful Colors Black on Black and Mundo de Unas plate, Handy 32. The result was very simple but cute.

I've finally, finally updated all my swatches tabs. At least for now xD I'm still updating swatch pics on the OPI tab at that moment, I've just gotten thrown off course the last few weeks. I'll update those by color as I finish them :)

Stamping Sunday!

Good evening!

I'll get right on to tonight's post! Today's theme for Stamping Sunday was using your birthstone color. I was born in December, and quite often as a child, I received blue topaz jewelry. I know there are other gems for December, but that's the first one I thought of.

Here is a gorgeous example of my birthstone:


                                   

The closest color I have, I think, is Zoya Tallulah, quite possibly one of my favorite blues; definitely one of my favorite Zoya blues. So, two coats of that was my base color, topped by Seche. I kept my stamping simple, using my jumbo Cheeky Musical Nails plate. I stamped musical instruments onto my nails using Pure Ice Silver Mercedes, and topped again with Seche. Done!

Yeah, so, I was wrong......

................

About this week being tamer than last week >.>

Good evening! I had a rather unexpectedly crazy week again, leaving me with little time for posting manis. Last weekend, I was totally uninspired for Stamping Sunday, never mind that the theme chosen was something I was waiting to do until yesterday, so I had nakey nails until Monday. Wasn't able to get any pics of that mani because, well, we had nasty, nasty weather here most of the week. It finally settled back down into our usual summer weather, but still.

So, I do have 3 manis to show you tonight, let's get to them! First, is yesterday's patriotic Fourth of July mani. All colors used are from Zoya. My base colors were Purity and Ibiza, stamped colors were Sooki and Trixie. I added a coat of Out the Door's Northern Lights to the Ibiza/Trixie combo :) Stamping plate used was Winstonia W107.

Excuse the awkward, dominant hand pics, I jacked up the stamping on my other hand and just didn't fix it :P

Now, since I worked on Wednesday, I did do something patriotic that wasn't that ^ mani. I found at Walmart, several weeks ago, this pretty glitter from Pure Ice. It has two different sized red hexs, larger blue hex, and silver stars. This is certainly one you need dab on, and fish for the stars. I layered it over OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I didn't need to add a coat of Gelous before the Seche. I did matte it, though, with OPI's Matte Topcoat.

And lastly, is another glitter, this one from Maybelline. They've released, within the Color Show line, a set of 5 polishes called Polka Dots. They're all colored, jelly bases with mixed size, black and white matte hexes. The one I'm showing you is Blue Marks the Spot, although I went back and got Drops of Jade and Pretty in Polka. For my mani, I did three coats of Blue with one Gelous and one Seche. Personally, I'll be layering them the next time I use one. These you will need to dab on.

I found the Polka Dots at Walgreens last weekend, and they're on sale right now BOGO 50% off. I'm happy to see another mainstream company catching on to the matte glitter (as opposed to the textured glitter, Pixie Dusts or Liquid Sand) trend. I'm still waiting to find the Salon Perfect Neon Collision matte glitters at one of my Walmarts >.>