Good afternoon!
I hope your Monday is flying by without too much unpleasantness :D I'm a little behind in posting, but only because I just haven't had time to so until today. So here we go!
I skipped out of yesterday's Stamping Sunday theme, funky French. I can't stamp French tips, of any kind really, to save my life. I chose to do a fall colored water marble with some new Zoyas I got last week. The base was 2 coats of Zoya Purity. The marble was created with Zoya Thandie, Chanelle, and Veronica, the dots were Zoya Darcy. Topped with Seche, matted wity Morgan Taylor's Matte's a Wrap.
As part of my Zoya order, I got their 3 new Pixie Dusts, so yay for new textures! For Textured Friday, I picked Arianna. Arianna is almost a magenta colored, very squishy looking texture. It didn't try quite as matte as other PDs do, but I think that makes it unique. I've read that some people have had a problem with this, but I like it. My pics don't quite do it justice, but we've been having some lousy ass, cloudy, rainy weather lately.
Since I've seemed (most of the time, anyways) to have gotten the hang of water marbles, I've decided I need to work on my gradients. I did a glitter gradient last Wednesday that I'm really proud of. It started with 2 coats of OPI's Suzi Loves Cowboys, which is a yummy, dark chocolate brown, perfect for fall, and a coat of Seche.
I did a little research on glitter gradients, and I found that instead of using a sponge to apply the glitter, others were applying it with the brush. I figured what the hell, I'll give it try. It's gotta be less messy than using a sponge. My glitter was Sinful Colors Pumpkin Spice, which I didn't know dries matte, then topped with Seche.
Good evening!!
I hope everyone had a great weekend. It did nothing but rain and be miserable here alllll weekend. I did make a trip to Cosmo Prof Saturday and Publix on Sunday, but that was about it. The weather was just too yucky to be out in.
I did manage to do a mani for yesterday and for Stamping Sunday, so let's get to them! The one group I'm in that does week long challenges, the theme for this week was dotticures, stamped or not. Mine was done with a dotting tool but I don't like how it came out; my original colors were too dark.
The base color was 2 coats of Zoya Mira. The first set of dots were Zoya Kelly, which didn't show up very well, so I added dots in Zoya Dove. These were only on my thumbs and ring finger. Those fingers only got matted with Morgan Taylor's Matte's a Wrap.
See? You can't hardly tell the dots in Kelly -_-
The Stamping Sunday challenge this week was using single images only, no full nail images. I wasn't really feelin' this challenge, but I half assed it anyways. I had a new Colors by Llarowe that I wanted to try :P
The base was 2 coats of The Way You Make Me Feel, from the Michael Jackson Tribute collection Colors by Llarowe. She had launched the original collection last year, and relaunched with new colors last month. This was one of the colors that caught my eye. My stamped images came from Nailways A-NW00013 and Winstonia W217, stamped in Mundo de Unas Lilac. Topped with Seche to finish it.
Now, it was really craptastic on Sunday when I took the outdoor pics, even with the flash. There are two sets, outside with the flash and inside with the flash.
Yes, that last pic is a bit blurry, but is shows the holo-ness and the sparkly-ness of the base really well.
Good Saturday afternoon! I hope y'all are having a better weekend than we are here in soggy SWFL >.< It's been rainy and dreary for the last three days and is supposed to be like this for a few more, ugh. I think it's making up for the lack of rain and killer heat we had last month lol.
I want to show you a couple manis I had from yesterday and Thursday. Not only do they feature new (to me, on one of them) colors, but also new stamping stuff!
About...... 3 weeks ago, I think, I saw swatches of Formula X for Sephora's latest collection. I believe they were all mattes, but the one that screamed out for me was Prophecy. Out of all the matte polishes I own, I definitely lack in a bold, vibrant blue. Yes, yes, I know, I could use one of my umpteen million matte coats to achieve the look, but even with all the blues I have, I don't think I have one like Prophecy. One of my awesome Face Book friends hooked me up and got Prophecy to me :)
That is what I wore on my nails yesterday. Now, I had read that these Formula X mattes were prone to chipping, and I also wanted to stamp over Prophecy. I did up a regular mani, with two coats of color followed by a coat of Seche, and cleaned it up while it dried. Prophecy does dry quick on its own, but I wasn't gonna take the chance of smearing the base trying to stamp.
This is where the new stamping stuff comes in :) The stamping polish is, of course, Mundo de Unas in silver, which came in my last from Mundo. The stamping plate is a new release from Messy Mansion, MM42, and I got new squishy stamper heads!! For those of you that stamp and want squishy replacement heads, you need to get the Messy Mansions. I ordered the medium soft set, and I swear to you, they are better than my original white marshmallow! Also, I did not need to prime this set, they worked beautifully right out the package. They're perfectly squishy and sticky, and there's and even softer and stickier set!
My mani was finished up with a coat of Morgan Taylor's Matte's a Wrap. It didn't seem to smear my stamping as much as other matte topcoats have, which is nice, and Prophecy was returned to its original glowing matte-ness.
For Thursday's mani, I didn't have a lot time to put together a look, so really, I just grabbed a red creme, added a flakie, and was done. This is two coats of Zoya America, which is one of those gorgeous pin up reds, and one coat of Zoya Chloe. I wanted the flakie to be more subtle, that's why I did only one coat of Chloe. Topped with Seche and done!
It's only Wednesday, and yet the week has seemed to have gotten away from me!
Good evening!
I've had something of a wonky schedule this week, making it hard for me to post. But post I will!! I've several manis that need showing off, so let's get to it!
Today's mani was simple but sparkly. It was just two coats of OPI's Anti-Bleak and one coat of My Voice is a Little Norse, also from OPI. My Voice is a Little Norse made Anti-Bleak appear to be darker than it is, which leads me think the base it tinted (not really sure it is or not). Topped with a single coat of Seche.
I wish my pics showed how sparkly it was, but the weather was craptastic today.
Yesterday's mani was definitely more fall like. The base was a gradient created Zoya colors, Emilia, Spencer, and Chantal. The stamped image came from Messy Mansion MM23 and the stamping color was reddish from Mundo de Unas. A coat of Seche sealed it all.
Alrighty, I seem to really be getting the hang of water marbling. Monday's water marble wasn't quite what I wanted, mostly because two of the colors I wanted to use wouldn't cooperate, so I settled for just two colors. Both are from OPI, Anti-Bleak and Suzi has a Swede Tooth. I'll be honest, I freakin' love how this turned, so much so that I couldn't bring myself to stamp over it as part of a weekly challenge in one of the groups I'm in.
Water marble was created over two coats of Alpine Snow and topped with Seche.
Sunday's Stamping Sunday theme was over a purple base color. I opted for a fall color instead of a lighter purple. I chose Zoya Katharine for my base, and it took three coats for it to be even. I stamped over with Mundo de Unas light grey, the image from VL-2 from aliexpress. I wasn't very happy with how it came, I think because of the base.
Good evening!
It's been a while since I've posted anything for Textured Friday. Truth is, I haven't bought a new texture in some time. I do have a new one, but I'm saving it for next week. For today, I have something else.
I will admit, I totally ripped it from a pic that was posted on Zoya's Facebook page. It's not the exact same colors, but that's only because I don't have the creme color that was used....... yet :P The colors used in the pic on FB were Zoya Genevieve and Vega. I substituted Timo, which came in the mail yesterday, for Genevieve.
Timo is a dark, dark blue teal that was part of Timo Weiland trio during New York Fashion Week last year. The color reminds me OPI's Incognito in Sauslito, but I think Timo is darker. Anyways, Timo is gorgeous, very pigmented, and applied like butter. Two coats was all I needed for opacity.
Good afternoon!
So, anyone that knows me, knows that I do not like brown polish on me. I do like how it looks on other people, most of the time, but I have never liked on me. Most browns was too warm for my skintone and just look yucky. That is, until Zoya's Naturel and Naturel Deux. Those two collections had me trying colors outside my comfort zone, including the chocolately Emilia.
Even before I saw swatches, I knew I had to have this color. It appeared to be less warm than most other dark browns I've seen, which is what attracted me to Emilia. This is the first brown I've intentionally purchased...... and I don't regret. Emilia is just fabulous on the nail, and I love it. Application and formula were just perfect. I seriously thought about leaving it be, but I wanted to do a glitter gradient, so I did lol. Two coats of Emilia, a coat of Seche, and a gradient with A Little Bubbly from Candy Lacquer, then two more coats of Seche.
On Monday, I sported what I think is my best water marble yet. Funny part is, it was created when we lost power Sunday afternoon lol. I had just finished my base color, Zoya Purity, and was cleaning it up when the power went. It wasn't even storming at our house at the time, it was further away, but out it went. I still had light from my bedroom window, so I just pushed on and water marbled.
The colors I used I had been dying to use together since I got them- Zoya Alexa, Cole, and Edie. They worked beautifully together, I must say!
Stamping Sunday's theme happened to be one of my favorite things to stamp right: geometrics. I kept it simple, as a basic black and white mani to start. Zoya Purity and Black Swan were the base colors, Mundo de Unas black and white to stamp with, and my VL-2 plate from aliexpress for the image. A coat of Seche followed by a coat of Morgan Taylor's Matte's a Wrap finished it off.
