Good afternoon!
I know most of the US is still under a bunch of snow and ice, and Florida has had some exceptionally cool weather recently, but I've been feeling rather springy lately. Don't get me wrong, I adore my dark, vampy colors, but I've been craving lighter colors lately. Let me show you what I've come up with!
Today's mani features a glitter gradient, using Zoya Odette (which is perfect to transition from winter to spring with) and Nails, Inc. Westbourne Gardens. Westbourne Gardens is a new to me polish that I picked up weeks ago on clearance at Ulta. I'll be honest, it's a glitter bomb. It contains pink and white matte hexes in mixed sizes and sparkly gold hexes.
Topcoat was a must for that mani, but sadly, even three coats of Seche didn't smooth it out O.o Not looking forward to taking this off lol.
Yesterday, I sported a new holo from Colors by Llarowe, Sexy Mother. When I first saw it, I had to have it! It's just gorgeous. It was perfection at 2 coats, but it's a stainer. You can kinda see the residual staining on the above pics. I so badly wanted to leave it as is, but I stamped over it to match a skirt I wore yesterday.
The chevrons were from Vivid Lacquer plate VL010, stamped in MdU white, then topped with Seche.
Last week, I picked up some Essies on clearance at a supplier. They were colors from their so called neon collection from last summer. Now, I don't normally care for Essies, because most of the time, the formulas are crap. I deal with it for the few that I love, like Splash of Grenadine and Mint Candy Apple. The "neons" I got for the sole purpose of water marbling with.
Let me say, they do water marble well. Imagine my surprise, though, when the marble dried to the semi matte finish of neons! The colors I got aren't bright enough to be true neons, but they sure want to be! Colors used were:
Sittin' Pretty
I'm Addicted
Too Taboo
Thrills & Chills
Over 2 coats of Zoya Purity, topped with Seche, then matted with Essie Matte About You.
For Textured Friday, I finally got around to trying one of the Zoya Satins and one of the last Pixie Dusts I need, Rowan and Godiva. To be honest, I don't think either color do anything for my skintone, but they both were very nice to work with. Two coats was all that was needed for both. Rown, especially, wore very well, considering my job can be rough on my manis.
Thursday was a matte flakie kind of day. Two coats of Zoya Monica with a coat of Essie Sparkle on Top, topped with Seche, then matted with Essie Matte About You. SoT is Essie's replacement for Shine of the Times, although I like SotT much better. The flakies lay better in SotT than the flakies in SoT, plus, they're different colors.
Good afternoon and happy Wednesday!
Did you have a good Valentine's day (if you celebrate it)? Mine wasn't too bad, considering I felt like I was getting sick. Didn't do much of anything, aside buying a new to me car :) Hubs did get me mini roses, which I wanted.
I've got some catching up to do, so let's get to it! I did mostly Valentine's type manis last week. Last Tuesday's mani was a sweet, pastel gradient using Zoya Julie, Seraphina, and Gie Gie over 2 coats of Purity. I totally planned on stamping over it, but ran short of time that night.
One of my favorite candies for Valentine's, besides chocolate, are the conversation hearts. They're nothing but sugar, and I can't have them now, but I still love them, so they were the inspiration for last Wednesday's mani. All Zoya colors, three coats each, as the base:
Mira
Neely
Arizona
Shelby
Rocky
Stamped over using Messy Mansion MM03 and Mundo fiusca, then matted with Zoya's matte coat.
Thursday's mani was one of my favorite holos, Orchids are Better Thank Roses Any Day from Colors by Llarowe. Two coats for my mani, then stamped using Vivid Lacquer VL009 and Mundo black. I love how simple and pretty this looked.
For Textured Friday, I chose Magazine Cover Mouse from OPI. Just two coats and done!
Now, like I said, we didn't do much for Valentine's, since I thought I was getting sick, but I still did up my nails. I used one of my other favorite holos, Champagne Blush from ILNP. Two easy coats for this mani.
Then, I repurposed this mani for Stamping Sunday. This week's theme was Chinese New Year. Images are from Bundle Monster BM-H15 stamped in Mundo red.
Monday's mani was a sweetly simple one. It featured my favorite Essie, Splash of Grenadine with Zoya Monet sponged on accents. Sorry for the blurriness, I had no idea until I looked at the pics today, and I tried to sharpen them up.
Tuesday featured a new to me color that I had traded for last month, KBShimmer Oh, Splat!. I must say, I love their crellies. This one needed four coats for opacity, so I should have used white undies with it, but now I know for next time :) Removal was pretty easy, in spite of that. This is such a fun polish!
And today's mani! It featured another KBShimmer color, this one from their new spring collection. It's a gorgeous, aqua blue holo called Blue-d Lines that reminds me of OPI's Blue Moon Lagoon. Unlike BML, it only needed 2 coats for opacity, and is so holo-y! I hated to stamp over, but I did :P It was for a flash challenge, though. Stamped image came from MJ Jr-8 stamped in Mundo turquoise.
Good morning! I hope everyone is doing well this fine Tuesday morning :) I am, and I also had a great weekend, I hope you did as well.
Well, I wrapped up the monthly challenge I was participating in and started with Valentine's manis on Sunday. I don't know, for some reason I'm not really feeling it this year, but I'm still plugging along with them. I love yesterday's mani, and I really love Sunday's before I stamped it.
Yesterday's mani was the traditional red mani, featuring KBShimmer's Whole Lava Lovin'. I love this red holo, it's the only I have felt the need to have. This mani only needed two easy coats, then was topped with Seche. I stamped over that with Mundo red and Fab Ur Nails 14. I wasn't sure how the red over red would look, but I loved it after it was topped. Subtle and very pretty.
Of course, leave it to me to want to wear a fabulous holo on a craptastic weather day so the holo won't show, even with a flash >.<
Stamping Sunday's challenge was, for obvious reason :P, was Valentine's nails. I decided that I wanted a bright water marble for the base. It was inspired by a water marble I remember seeing in a FB group I'm in, but I don't remember who, sorry! The colors used were all OPI:
Do You Have This Color in Stock-holm?
My Dogsled is a Hybrid
I Just Can't Cope-cabana
Suzi Has a Swede Tooth
Marbled over 2 coats of OPI Alpine Snow Matte. Honestly, I think I should have stopped with the water marble, because I thought is awesome, but nooooooo. Stamped I did. Mundo blue and Messy Mansion MM03, Seche, then OPI Matte Coat.
Friday was the last day I did for the 31 day challenge, and the prompt was inspired by a flag. I chose the flag of my not so distant ancestors, the st. Andrews flag of Scotland :) The is 2 coats of OPI No Room for the Blues, then Seche. Stamped image is from MJ XXIX and is stamped in Mundo white, then topped again with Seche.
Thursday's prompt was inspired by art. For this, I picked water color art. My base was OPI Alpine Snow Matte. To create the water color look, I used OPI's Sheer Tints, and just applied them randomly, then added a coat of Seche so I could stamp over. The tulips came from Fab Ur Nails 14 and were stamped in Mundo black.
Again, leave it to me to do something like this on a crappy day lol.
Wednesday's prompt was inspired by a pattern. I like my end result, but I do not like the base polish, which was from Sally Hansen's Velvet line. The color is called Velour, and it has got to be one of the weirdest polishes I've used. The formula was thick and kind of streaky, and the finish was.... strange. It was matte but it had a bit of a texture to it O.o Not what I was expecting.
I wanted to stamp over this, so I topped it was Seche. The stamped image came from Sugar Bubbles 021 and the color used was Mundo Fiji. I love images like the one I used. Topped with Seche, then matted with Morgan Taylor's Mattes a Wrap.
When it came time to take this off, lemme tell you, it was a bitch. I've never had a matte, or texture, polish give me such a hard time with removal. This is not a keeper, for these reasons. The color is also very much like Zoya Mira, so I don't feel that I need to keep it. It's on its way out!
Tuesday's prompt was inspired by fashion. I knew a few weeks ago what I wanted to do for this :) I watch The Young & The Restless, and one of the female characters wore this beautiful, royal blue and black plaid dress.
My base color was 2 coats of China Glaze Frostbite, then Seche. The plaid stamp was from MJ XXIX, stamped in Mundo black. Seche, then China Glaze Matte Magic, which should be called Satin Magic, because it's definitely not matte.
Ignore the crooked stamping :P I still struggle with placement and straightness lol. Overall, I was pretty happy with this.
