Sunday, December 28, 2014

Happy Sunday!



Good morning and happy Sunday!!

Do you have a good Christmas? Get everything you wanted???

Hubs and I don't really exchange gifts on Christmas, we buy each things throughout the year :) My family did do a.... I guess it was a white elephant gift exchange, which was fun, it was the first time we did that. The last 9 years we've been drawing names. I ended up with a cool, power cell thing that acts as charger for my phone and Kindle Fire.

So, I have several manis to show you (duh :P). I think it's pretty safe to say, that until I get a different laptop or or other device, I'm only gonna be able to post once a week. I love my Chromebook, but not having Picassa on it (and yes, I know I can always use an app, but I'm familiar with Picassa and like it) slows me down, and I don't like tying up hubs' pc for my photo editing. BUT!!! You can follow me on IG, user name elfleidy, as I post my manis there pretty much daily. Now, on to the manis!!

Even though I didn't work Friday, and had no other reason really to do a mani, I did, and I used my other I Love Nail Polish Ultrachrome flakie, Cold Fusion. I layered two coats of it over two coats of OPI's Eurso...Euro and finished it with Seche. These pics are direct sun, and you can see some of the color shift as is.








My Christmas nails didn't turn out quite the way I pictured them, but that wasn't a huge deal, because we spent Christmas eve with my family and Christmas day at home watching movies :) I chose to do a chevron French with Zoya Anja and India. Only one of my pics came out decent.




My nails for Christmas eve were much more festive. The base color was two coats of Zoya Yummy, followed by two coats of Zoya Mosheen, then a coat of Seche. That was stamped over using Sugar Bubbles SBS 06 and MdU silver, then topped again with Seche.






Out of all the manis I did last week, I think I love Tuesday's the most. It combines two of my favorite colors, mint and coppery/rose goldish metallic. Both colors are from Essie, Mint Candy Apple and Penny Talk, and the plate is Vivid Lacquer VL010.






Monday was a water marble that I've been wanting to try, blue and silver. Zoya Trixie was the base for this one. The marbling polishes were Zoya Song and Wet 'N Wild clear. It didn't turn out quite the way I was hoping, but I think that's because of the clear polish. I need to find something that works better lol.








And finally, last Stamping Sunday's mani. I believe the challenge called for Christmas nails in general, so I chose to do peppermint swirls. The base color was Zoya Teigan, stamped with VL-1 and MdU white.







Saturday, December 20, 2014

Getting all caught up!



Good evening!

I've got a lot of manis I want to show y'all this evening :) Let's get started!

The first is yesterday's office party look, which was also my Textured Friday mani. The colors I used were Zoya Veruschka and Bar. The stamped images on Veruschka were from Sugar Bubbles Special 02, stamped in Mundo light gold.








Thursday was a sparkly glitter gradient. It started with 2 coats of Zoya Casey, which I think was a gorgeous background for Finger Paints' Peacock Portrait. Two coats of Seche smoothed it out for the most part.






Wednesday featured one of the sought after I Love Nail Polish multichrome flakies, Phoenix. I layered two coats of Phoenix over two coats of Zoya Mason.

The first two pics are direct sunlight.





These are shade shots.






And this inside with a flash.



Tuesday was another indie feature, this one from Jindie Nails. I bought this last year, but had only used it once. This is Footprints in the Snow, 3 coats. Topcoat, then stamped with images from Bundle Monster BM-608 and Chez Delaney Xmas 001, in Mundo black and silver. Finished with Seche.








For Monday, I did up a red and green water marble, using Zoya Elise and Giovanna. I added dots in Zoya Brooklyn.








I don't remember what last Sunday's Stamping Sunday theme, but this is what I came up with. It also fit a flash challenge for another stamping group I'm in. Base color is Zoya Cassedy. The stamped images are from Sugar Bubbles SBS 06 and Chez Delaney Xmas 001, stamped in Mundo light grey and light blue. I call it Flurries :)







And last, but not least, is last Friday's texture of the day, Zoya Noir. It seems my camera was determined to make all my pics look horrible -_- This is only one that looked half decent, and I'm not happy with it. Noir is gorgeous, I love it. My mani was two of it.


Thursday, December 11, 2014

Brrrrr!



Good morning!!

So, we are finally, really, feeling fall/winter like weather here, and I couldn't be happier. I love cooler weather, and it looks like it'll be around for a while. Finally, it feels like the holidays!

Because of that, I finally felt like doing a snowflake mani. I chose to do it yesterday, since it was my birthday and I got two new flakie toppers for it :) I remember doing a mani inspired by this mani, and it's definitely making the rounds again this year. I decided to do a slightly different take on it.

For my base color, I used two coats of Zoya Ryan. Instead of a glitter topper, I used one of my new flakie toppers KBShimmer, Dark Matter, then topcoated with Seche. All the stamped snowflakes, of which there were no doubles on either hand, came from Infinity Nails 79 and were stamped in MdU silver. Another coat of Seche then Zoya matte coat. Oh, and some bling on the ring fingers.

I am so proud of how this turned out.






Tuesday featured another new polish from KBShimmer, Holly Back Girl. This is a white crelly with red and green glitter. I had seen something similar from a different indie brand, but found it wasn't available, which sucked because I loved it. Then I found this, and made haste to get it.

My mani used 3 coats of Holly Back Girl, then a coat of Seche. Keeping with the theme, I stamped different holly images on top, which all came from Chez Delaney Christmas 001. MdU red and high green were used to stamp with. A coat of Seche to seal it all.








Alrighty, moving along! It's been about a month or so since my last water marble. I wanted do something orchid colored, since Pantone announced this week their color of the year for 2015. Let's just say I'm less than thrilled with their choice.

My base color was a coat of Zoya Purity, then a coat of Seche. My marbling colors were Zoya Perrie and Haven, and the dots were Zoya Trixie. All topped with Seche. I was reluctant to take this off because it was so pretty.








I skipped this week's Stamping Sunday theme, mainly because I couldn't figure out how to translate a childhood winter memory to my nails. It's not that I didn't have any, there is one that stands out, but it was trying to figure out how to do it. Instead, I did "ugly" sweater nails.

The base color was 2 coats of KBShimmer Whole Lava Lovin'. The images came from Mo You London Festive 06 and Sugar Bubbles Special 002, stamped in MdU white, and topped with Seche.

I really need to work on my placement >.< Also, that thumb pic isn't blurry, the image stamped like that on just that thumb, I have no idea why lol.








Oh, and before I forget, I now have an Instagram! I can post there more often right now, than I can make a blog post. My user name is elfleidy if you chose to follow me :)

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Less than a month left in the year!



Good afternoon!

Boy, this year has certainly flown by; I can't believe it's already December! I guess that means I've had a busy year XD It doesn't really feel like it has been, well, at least no busier than usual, I suppose lol. Work has been busy, though, which has kept me posting to just once a week, so I have a week's worth of manis to show y'all :)

Let's start with Textured Friday's offering. I used three coats of the pretty purple Zoya Thea for my base, and stamped over with present images from Winstonia's Merry Christmas plate and MdU silver.








Thursday's mani was bright and festive, using a bright summer creme and a mixed sized circle glitter. The creme was Wait 'N Sea from China Glaze (which stained my nails upon removal) and the glitter was Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree from Candy Lacquer. Because of the glitter, I needed two coats of Seche to smooth it out.

Sadly, only one of my pics came out decent -_-




I regard Wednesday's mani as something of a fail. It certainly didn't come out how I pictured in my head, I think I should have used a different base or something. Anyways, it was 2 coats of Zoya Celine and a single coat of Finger Paints' Hollywood Decadence. HD is very similar to OPI's More Than a Glimmer. It dries matte just like Glimmer does, but I added a matte coat to my mani anyways.







In one of on the groups I'm in, on FB, this week's challenge was a radial gradient. There aren't many tutorials on it, but I recalled seeing a pic weeks ago of one. How I did mine was this:

I started with a white base, Zoya Purity, which got topcoated. On a makeup sponge, I made a dot of Purity, then circled it with Zoya Prim. I then sponged it onto my nail, going over it as many times as it needed, twice for this mani. I almost stamped over after I topped again, but I decided against it.

I was really on the fence about this mani, but I think with practice, I could get the hang of this particular style gradient.






Last week or the week before, I don't remember which, I received two new polishes from I Love Nail Polish. One of them I've already worn, Champagne Blush. The other, Black Orchid, I paired with one of their multichromes, Undenied, for Monday's mani. Two coats each, then topcoat.

The first three pics are direct sun, the other two shade.