Friday, June 28, 2013

More taping fun!

Good evening and happy Friday! Boy, am I glad this week is at end! It's just been so crazy around here. It was thankfully slow at work today, which was just fine with me.

Today's mani was pretty and fun. It started with 3 coats of Zoya Shelby, which  is my most loved Zoya color. I actually had to buy a back up for it in my last splurge lol. I topped with Seche and let it dry, then taped my nails off vertically. I applied Zoya Rory to the right side of my nails and topped again with Seche. I almost left them at that, but I wanted to stamp something where the two colors meet. I decided on the line of hearts on my Nailz Craze plate NC 01 in Sinful Colors Black on Black, and topped one last with Seche.

Excuse my jacked up pinky finger :P It took that one to figure out to stamp the line how I wanted it. 






Thursday, June 27, 2013

What a busy last 6 days!

Good morning!!

What a busy last 6 days I've had! Today I finally get a breather, I haven't hardly had time to do much of anything, mostly because of family and work stuff. Everything should calm for a while now :)

I have a few manis I want to show you, starting with my Stamping Sunday challenge. The theme for this past Sunday was French manicures. I despise regular Frenches, they're just so boring. This also coincided nicely with what I wanted to for my parents' 35th anniversary vow renewal :) I even bought a new dress for the occasion.

What I decided to was a funky French. It started with 1 coat of Zoya Madison topped with a coat of Seche, because it just wasn't drying fast enough for me xD Then I broke out the Scotch tape and taped off just below my natural smile lines. On my left hand, I applied Zoya Malia with Zoya Rocky as accents on my ring finger and thumb. For my right, I switched it to Rocky with Malia accents. Another coat of Seche and let it dry. I stamped tiny roses in Zoya Ibiza using my Messy Mansion plate 07 and topped one last time with Seche.

I'm quite proud at how nice this turned out. I was also surprised at well it held up. I finished it up Saturday night and didn't take it off till Monday evening; there weren't hardly any chips or tip wear!









Next is what I slapped on my nails for Tuesday. I certainly wasn't up for something involved, since I had to be up early, but I wanted something fun. I started with 2 coats of China Glaze's Fuschia Fanatic and topped with Seche. One coat of China Glaze's Crackle Glaze in Lightning Bolt, another coat of Seche followed by one coat of China Glaze's Matte Magic :)








Now, my mani yesterday was super fun. I had gotten the idea from Zoya's blog, where they had featured another blogger reviewing the Stunning and Irresistible collections. I decided that I wanted to give it a shot myself, but I had to substitute a few colors.

I started with a Skittles mani, using all Zoya colors, in Darcy, Thandie, Josie, Rocky, and Malia (I seem to be using this color alot......). I did three coats of each and topped it Seche, and let it dry completely before moving on. Using Scotch tape, I tape of my nails at diagonal angles, going the opposite direction on my ring finger as an accent. Over that, I used Kerry, Amy, Rikki, Hazel, and Danni, all foils. Topped it all with Seche again :)






Friday, June 21, 2013

So..........

Good evening!

I had a mani to show you all tonight, but it turns out I already shown you the swatches of it a few months ago xD Instead, I'll show you some swatches of a few Zoyas, Amy, Kerry, and Bobbi. They're all from the latest summer collection and they're all foils.

But this year's summer foils are different. With the exception of maybe Kerry, all the new foils have tiny gold flakies in them. I exclude Kerry because it's yellow gold, and you can't hardly tell if it has the flakies; I'm gonna guess not.

Bobbi and Amy were done with 2 coats, Kerry was 3. Application was easy and smooth. 













I love how these colors don't look like last summer's collection. I'll show you the other two foils in a few days. 

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Sparkly, orange jelly :)

Good morning!

I totally meant to post this last night, but I got wrapped up in a movie and time escaped me. Before I knew it, it was midnight and the movie wasn't over yet! BUT, better late than not at all!

Yesterday's mani featured two of the Birchbox Blogger Trio colors from last summer, Zoya's Coraline and Belle. Coraline is a tangerine jelly that builds up nicely; I still had some VNL after 3 coats, but I seriously didn't add one more, since I was going to use Belle over it.  Belle is sparkly, pinkish-orangeish color that you can wear alone (similar to OPI's Princesses Rule!) or layer over other colors. I chose to layer one coat of Belle over 3 coats of Coraline.

One little trick that I've learned with jellies, especially Zoya's jellies, you really need to cap the free edge with each coat. Why? Because if you don't, it makes the VNL show up more, and it will look like your polish shrank. I've had that happen with Kate, the other color in the trio.

Now, I liked Belle layered over Kate, and I really like Belle layered over Coraline. It reminds me a little of OPI's Wing It! but without all the foilness of Wing It!.






Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Holo butterfly

Good evening!

Very quickly, I wanted to get this posted, since it's late and I'm tired :) Today's mani was inspired by a blog I subscribe, Southern Sister Polish. She did this amazing, blue holo gradient with freehand butterfly wings over it yesterday, and I wanted to give it a shot.

My blue holo gradient consisted of OPI's DS Sapphire and Glamour, topped with Seche, and allowed to dry before stamping. The wing images I used were from my Nails Craze plate NC01 stamped in Sinful Colors Black on Black, white dots were Wet 'N Wild French White. All topped with Seche :)







Sunday, June 16, 2013

Stamping Sunday!

Good evening and happy Father's Day to those that celebrate it!

So, today is Stamping Sunday, and the theme for was inspired by the the 70's, 70's nails. This was pretty broad, so off to Google I went. It didn't take me long to find some inspiration. Here's the pic I found that I thought I could come pretty close to:



For my mani, I used all Zoya colors, starting with a Purity base in 2 coats, topped with Seche and let to dry a while. Using my Cheeky Jumbo 5 plate (musical nails), I stamped a full nail image that's kinda similar to the pattern in Raven, added Sooki dots, and topped with Seche again. Then I added a coat of OPI's Matte Topcoat.







Not too bad, I think!

Friday, June 14, 2013

Vintage cherries

Good evening!

Most of you may not know this, but I just love vintage styles and what not, and have started, as per my New Year's resolution, watching the old, great classics of Hollywood. I'm talking from the silent film era and the Golden Era, with stars such Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Jean Harlow, Clara Bow, and, of course, Marilyn Monroe :) I adore so many things from these eras, such as the fashions, attitudes, and just the way these people were. It's so completely different from now.

I was feeling rather inspired by it all (who wouldn't be! lol), and decided to a mani. It was nothing complicated or fancy, but I loved it. I started with 2 very easy coats of Zoya Sooki, which, in my opinion, is a very pinup-y red and really reminds of a color those starlets would wear. On my ring fingers, I used 2 coats of Zoya Purity, and topped all fingers with Seche.

I let that dry for awhile, because it's been extremely hot and humid here and that can affect dry time, before I stamped over Purity. I used the full nail image of cherries on my Sugar Bubbles 002 plate, stamped in Sooki, then topped with Seche again. Done!







Love it!!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Not what I intended it to be.......

Good evening!

I have for you tonight one of those manis that doesn't turn out quite the way I intended. It started with my base color, China Glaze's Isle See You Later. This color is part of their latest summer collection, which is half jellies and half cremes. Isle is one of the jellies.

First off, it's not a true jelly. It's missing the high shine that all jellies have when they dry; in fact, the color is rather dull and flat before topcoating. Second, even at four coats, the visible nail line was still very evident. Maybe I'm spoiled with my other jellies achieving some kind of opacity even at 3 coats. Third, the bottle color is deceiving. When you first see it, it's a pretty bright blue. On the nail, it's a watery, sea green blueish color. Definitely not what I expected.

The other part of what I hadn't intended was my stamping color. I thought for sure I had seen just last week that it stamped very well over colors. I'm willing to admit I might have gotten the wrong color, but I'm not sure. The result was my stamped image being more subtle instead standing out. My stamping color was Pure Ice's Excuse Me and the plate was my Apipila P.2.







All in all, I like it, even if it turned out differently from I had tried to do :)

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

More swatches!

Good evening!!

As promised, here are the other 3 Zoya Pixie Dust swatches. Two are from the Summer Edition, one is from the first set.

First up is Stevie. Stevie is a pretty light purple base with silver glitter. Very sparkly :)





Second is Liberty. This is one is more like the first set Pixie Dusts when dries. Blue base with blue glitter. It does stain the skin a little when you remove it, so take a little care when you do.






Lastly is Chyna. I love Chyna. It's the only true red textured glitter (or polish even) that I've seen so far. Chyna is just stunning on :)






All the swatches were done with 3 coats each. Being glitter, you should acetone to remove them.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Some Pixie Dust swatches

Good evening!

I have some swatches from Zoya's Pixie Dust collections. So far, they've released two sets of Pixie Dust, with a teaser for the fall debuting in the last two weeks (I think). Each of the collections has 6 colors in it; total, I've only gotten 6 of them. Tonight, I'm gonna show you 3 of them, tomorrow I'll show the other 3.

First up is Miranda. Miranda is a darker rose pink base with same colored glitter. Unlike the first set of Pixie Dusts, this one is foil like when it dries. It's very sparkly and pretty.






Next is Beatrix. I. Love. Beatrix! This one is a creamsicle orange that I find irresistible and just possibly my fave from this collection. Beatrix is an orange base with matching and just maybe some gold glitter in it. 






Lastly is Solange. This color is unique for me, as I tend to stay away from gold polishes. Solange, though, is a very yellow gold and more wearable for me than a regular gold. Can we say liquid gold for your nails? Because that's what it looks like in the sun!





I did all these swatches at three coats each. They do take some time to dry but are soooo worth it. I've worn a few and can tell they wear nicely. I found, though, the last time it helps to wear gloves it the shower to prevent chipping, since I don't always have time to do my nails right before I go to work. Aside from that, I have no complaints. The texture isn't so rough as to annoy the crap of me. I do prefer the matte glitter of the Pixie Dusts and OPI's Liquid Sands over bumpy cremes, such as China Glaze's Textures collections. Those just remind me of popcorn ceilings, and I hate those -.-

Tomorrow, I'll show you Stevie, Liberty, and Chyna :)

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Stamping Sunday and a few others.....

Good evening!

Sorry I haven't been around much this last week. We had a tropical storm pass through my area on Thursday, which pretty much scragged up the week. It also stressed me out enough to put me on trigger edge for panic attacks x.x Having lived through Hurricane Charley in 2004, it's not something I ever want to go through again. I know a tropical storm doesn't even compare to the tragedy in Oklahoma, but it's not easy for me. I do have some pretty manis to show to you.

I'll start off with today's Stamping Sunday. The theme was complementary colors off a color wheel. The first set of colors I picked weren't complementary, so I had to pick again. I settled on Zoya Josie and OPI's Pamploma Purple. Let me just say, I do not like how these two colors ended up looking together. I was really hoping PP would look more red toned, but it didn't. My stamping plate was Rica Glam-01, which I bought off Etsy. I thought making it matte would make the mani look better, but I think it just looks like zombie lips. I hate it, but maybe someone else will like it lol.








Now, I liked Friday's mani much better, even though Zoya Charisma was being difficult. I layered three coats of that over 1 coat of Zoya Purity to make pop. And it did! It just didn't want to go on even =\ So, I stamped over, using my jumbo Cheeky plate, Musical Notes, in Wet 'N Wild French White. Topped with Seche, of course.







Wednesday's mani was more simple, but just as cheery. Two coats of Zoya Darcy, one coat of Nubar 2010, one coat of OPI Matte Coat.