Such a busy week!

Good afternoon, dearies!

It's been an incredibly busy week, hence my lack of posting, but this is going to be a catching up post :) So pull up a chair and your favorite snack/beverage and enjoy!

The first mani to be shown is today's Stamping Sunday challenge, Art Nouveau. The base color is 2 coats of China Glaze New Birth. I originally passed this up, but had read it was cool toned white, sort of like OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls, but instead of blue toned, New Birth is more green toned. In fact, the stamping polish I used, MdU Fiji, made it appear to be a pale, pale green. The stamped image is from VL-1. Topped, of course, with Seche.

I seriously need to work on my placement lol. For my thumbs, I enlarged this image, the other fingers I shrunk it for.

I almost did a black mani for Black Friday, but I didn't. I did a blue one, and it was textured. It was just two coats each of Zoya Nori and Vega. I like how Nori wasn't as rough as Vega but still has a bit of texture.

I had to take of my pics indoor this week, because the weather was pretty bad most, and wouldn't show some of these beauties properly.

My Thanksgiving mani didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it to, I think the green I used was too bright. My bas color was two coats of Zoya Nyssa, then a coat of Seche. Th first image stamped was the plaid from MJ XXIX in MdU high green. The other images came from Messy Mansion MM23, Winstonia W119, and Bundle Monster BM-H12, in the colors pinon, yellow, reddish, and brick, also from MdU. Seche over it all.

Wednesday's mani was a sparkly, girly mani, perfect, I think, for the day before a holiday. It was simply one coat of Zoya Margo, then 3 coats of Zoya Nova, then a coat of Seche.

Tuesday was more stamping, this time over Zoya Remy. First, two coats of Remy, in which the golden sparkle in the bottle didn't translate to the nail, which in turn made me happy. My pics make it appear more green though. Stamped over it was MdU light gold and MJ XXIX, then Seche.

Monday's mani was very simple, just two coats of I Love Nail Polish's Champagne Blush, a gorgeous rose gold holo. Seche didn't dull the holo either.

These pics make it appear more pink, but again, this was taken inside. Trust me, Champagne Blush is definitely more rose gold.

What I'm thankful for....

Good evening!

I hope everyone had a great weekend :) Mine was uneventful, but nothing wrong with that. It was the first weekend in several weeks that we weren't running here and there, which was nice.

Alrighty, today's Stamping Sunday challenge was "things I'm grateful for"/Thanksgiving nails. There are truly so many things that I'm grateful for right now, that I stuck with just Thanksgiving nails.

My base color was 2 coats of Zoya Veronica. Veronica is, at least on my nails and to my eyes, a gorgeous, almost cranberry red. Perfect for fall! A coat of Seche, then stamped with images all from Messy Mansion MM23 and MdU Pinon, and sealed with another coat of Seche.

For Textured Friday, I finally got around to using Zoya Harlow. Omg, I can't believe I passe this up months ago, but at least I did finally get it! I was mistaken in thinking that Harlow is like OPI's We'll Always Have Paris Suede, but it really isn't. Harlow is so beautiful.

I decided to recreate another Fall 2014 Trend mani from Zoya, using Harlow and Loredana. Two coats each, then (gasp) a coat of Seche. Don't worry, I rematted them once I was done adding some free hand art. Both colors looked the same with the matte coat as they do without.

Happy Wednesday!

Hello, hello! Good afternoon!

It's been a busy last few days, but I finally got a day off during the week so I could edit some pics and get them posted!

First up is a challenge mani, the theme splatter nails. I've tried splatter nails before, and the result was a hot mess. I didn't really have time for what I had in mind, so I settled for a stamped splatter..... only to realize that the plate I thought I had, I don't, so I had to use something else. This is the result.

Two coats of Zoya Genevieve (which is much bluer on my nails than in the bottle), followed by a coat Seche. The "splatters" are from Pueen 62, and the colors are MdU Fiji and Fantasy. Excuse the crappy pics, until today, the weather had been awful for taking pics outside. If I had known these were gonna turn out like this, I'd have taken them inside -_-

The indie polish world has practically exploded with collections of flakies, that to which I haven't been immune. I adore flakies, and wish that I could get them all. While I wait to hit the Powerball, I had to content myself with a preorder for two from ILNP. Seeing all the soon to be released flakies definitely put me in the mood to use mine :)

Thus, Tuesday's vampy flakie mani. It started with 2 coats of Zoya Anja, then a single coat of Zoya Chloe. Topped with Seche, and you know I had to matte that, and I did with Zoya's matte topcaot. Zero regrets :)

Again, absolutely craptastic weather when I took these pics Tuesday.

I think it was early last month or late September that Zoya released their Fall 2014 trend guide. In it, they show what was hot on the runways and how to achieve these looks. I plan on creating each one at some point, and have done so twice already. Monday's mani was the second.

It was a simple tape mani. The base color was two coats of Zoya Monica, then a coat of Seche. Using Scotch tape, I taped off my nails at angle and applied Zoya Sansa, removed the tape, and topped again. Done!

And now, my fave mani this week (so far)! This week's Stamping Sunday challenge was leadlighting. Basically, you're using an image that is filled in with jelly polishes, to create a stained glass look. I've done this once before, and admire most that I've seen.

My base color was 2 coats of OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls and a coat of Seche. The stamped image came from Messy Mansion MM42 and was stamped with MdU black. The jelly polishes were Zoya Frida and L'Oreal Miss Pixie. The glitter accent was 2 coats of OPI's Comet in the Sky. Everything was topped with Seche.

Happy Saturday!

Good evening!

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! We've got some very pleasant, fall weather here in FL, very different from last year where it didn't seem like we had any. I love not having to have my house closed up all the time :)

Alrighty, I've got a couple manis to show you, the first being a failed Textured Friday mani. The mani itself wasn't the fail, it was the textured polish that's the fail. I'm not sure on the release date, but Color Club recently released their first textured collection, called Seven Deadly Sins. I didn't find them locally, but at a Bed, Bath, and Beyond an hour from where I live. The one that called to me was Obsessed, because it's this gorgeous dark teal that only one other company has created, and they're not quite the same.

I was excited when I saw these, as I was quite willing to try a new textured polish. Sadly, this particular one didn't deliver. It was true to the bottle color, but when it dried, it wasn't textured and only slightly matte. Three coats was needed for evenness and opacity, and because of the lack of texture, I topped it with Seche so I could stamp it. I used Messy Mansion MM21 and Mundo de Unas silver, then applied another coat of Seche to seal it.

I should have gotten a pic before I stamped it, because the color really is gorgeous.

Thursday's mani is one I wanted since I got Zoya Ryan. Ryan is a blackened, blue teal creme. Two coats, one done right, for opacity. Over that, I layered two coats of Zoya Kotori and topped with Seche. When I got outside to take the pics, I fell in love. If you have these two colors, you definitely need to try this for yourself!

Wednesday's mani was a challenge theme for a group I'm in. This week's challenge was to create "better than Jamberry" nails. Jamberrys are nail wraps, and come in a limited variety of colors and patterns. I personally don't see the allure of them, as I love taking the time to create my nails, even if it's a single color or a simple design, especially since a sheet of one time use wraps is $15. 

The design I chose to recreat was this one. The base color of mine was OPI's Love.Angel.Music.Baby at two coats. I added Sinful Colors Pumpkin Spice in something of a subtle glitter gradient. Over that, I sponged OPI's Y'all Come Back, Ya Hear? and sealed it with Seche. 

I don't know if these are better than the original, but they weren't too bad.

Enjoying fall!

Good evening!!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I've been enjoying the lovely fall weather that we don't really get here in Florida. Most of the time, it's either hot or not so hot, but it's been absolutely beautiful.

I've been trying to stay on top of things, but I've been dealing with some personal issues. Hopefully things will get back to normal after next week. So, because of my preoccupation, I've got a few manis to show off. 

The first is a simple flakie mani. The base color was 2 coats of Zoya Monica, followed by two coats of SpaRitual's Opaline Luminary, which is a matte flakie topcoat. Now, I'm usually all about matting flakies, but I chose to top this with Seche and leave it at that.

Now, I did take part in this week's Stamping Sunday challenge. This week's theme was wildlife. My base color was 1 coat each of Zoya Tiffany and Autumn, then topped with Seche. My stamped images came from VL-3 and -4, Winstonia W-03, and Bundle Monster BM309, stamped in MdU white and brown. Sadly, the pic for thumb was stupidly blurry, but it was a really cool image from of the VL plates.

For Textured Friday, I wore one of my newer Zoya Pixie Dusts, Oswin. Oswin is a gorgeous red Pixie in the new Ultra Pixie Dust formula. I only need 2 coats for opacity. I top coated so I could stamp over it, for which I used Messy Mansion MM20 and MdU black. Topped with Seche again, then rematted with Zoya's matte topcoat.

No idea what that white spot on the ring nail O.o It wasn't there before I took the pics lol.

Wednesday's mani featured a new to me color that I received as a freebie from one of my last Zoya orders, Kierra. Kierra reminds me a little of OPI's Congeniality is my Middle Name, just a bit lighter. Three coats was perfect for Kierra.