Monday, January 26, 2015

Happy Monday!



Good morning and happy Monday!

I decided to get this post up before I headed off to work today, since I totally slacked on it last night :P I was just too tired after I finished my mani for today, not that my weekend was that exciting lol.

So, if you've been following along, I've been taking part in a 31 day challenge. Here it is:



Through yesterday, those of us were up to geometric manis. Yesterday was also Stamping Sunday, and I was able to tie the two together. The Stamping Sunday challenge was over a blue base, which pleased me to no end :)

For my blue base I chose Jindie Nails Blue Ivy. It was perfection at 2 coats, then topped with Seche. For the geometric, I chose images from My Online Shop Jr. 4 and 8, stamped in Mundo neon blue, and finished with another coat of Seche.








Friday's theme was floral, as well as being Textured Friday. I picked up a new to me texture a few weeks ago, SpaRitual Wilderness. Wilderness is a pretty, peachy/pinky/orange color. It's supposed to be a dupe for a TJ Maxx/Marshall's only release of Orly Just Peachy. I wouldn't know, as I hadn't seen either around here, and got Wilderness on Ebay.

For my mani, I applied two coats of Wilderness and let it dry thoroughly before stamping over it. The floral image I used came from Fab Ur Nails 14 in Mundo fiusca. I will say that Wilderness wears just as well as Pixie Dusts and Liquid Sands.







Okay, Thursday called for animal print. I can't stand animal print on me, but I went ahead and did it. This gave me the opportunity to show off my newest Chanel that my parents picked up while on their latest cruise. Rouge Noir is a dark, vampy red, possibly the darkest red I now own. I think because of the color I used to stamp over it, the pics show it leaning a little brown, but by itself, it does not.

This mani used only 2 coats of Rouge Noir then a coat of Seche. The animal print came from Vivid Lacquer's VL010, stamped in Mundo Pinon. Finished off with another coat of Seche.






Wednesday was stripes day. Let me just say, I absolutely love the base color I used for this mani. It's Zoya Kiki, and she's such a pretty, bright, blue leaning pink. I did need three coats for opacity, but Kiki is so worth it. The stripes were from Winstonia W205 and stamped in Mundo navy blue. Those stripes almost didn't fit my damned nails, because I didn't get a chance to file them down last weekend and were a little long. Seche to seal it all.








Dots were on for Tuesday. My mani was inspired by one I saw either on Face Book or Instagram, I don't remember which. The base color was 2 coats of Zoya Madeline. I guess you could call what I did a dotting gradient, but I used Zoya Rue and Marney to create the look. Topped with Seche then matted with Zoya's matte topcoat.








Monday was for gradients, and I chose to do a glitter gradient. The base color was 2 coats of Nails Inc. Baker Street. The gradient was done in Nails Inc. Portobello Gardens, then two coats of Seche.







I think the mani I did up for last Sunday is my favorite gradient ever. It was my first time trying a vertical gradient, and a rainbow one at that, since Sunday was rainbow nails. It was also Stamping Sunday, which was stamping with 3 colors. I didn't want to cover the gradient, so I did a different stamping color on each finger.

The gradient colors were all Zoya: America, Sharon, Pippa, Josie, Ling, and Mira, and were sponged over 2 coats of Zoya Purity. Stamped colors were Mundo pink, white, and black, and the images were from Vivid Lacquer VL019.







Sunday, January 18, 2015

Another week, more manis!



Good morning!

How is your weekend going? Mine is just great :) Busy, but not crazy busy.

So, last weekend I decided to take a part in a 31 day challenge. I hadn't done one for quite some time, so I figured what the heck. This is the one the organizer found:



We're on day 9 today, but I don't have that mani ready to show you yet, and I don't polish my nails for Saturdays, so we're going back to day 7, black and white nails. That was Friday, so that also means I wore textured polish that day :) I picked Zoya Dahlia and OPI Solitaire. Two coats each for my mani.








Day 6 was violet nails. My base colors was 2 coats of Zoya Lotus, then a coat of Seche. I stamped over that, using Mundo de Unas Violet and MJ XXIX from myonlineshop, then another coat of Seche.








Early, early last year, I had posted about my experience with OPI's DS Lapis and Pewter. I had promptly sold them after my bad experience with them, but it had nevr occurred to me to topcoat them then rematt them so they wouldn't chip. I found Lapis on clearance at Salon Centric recently, and I had to give it a second chance.

My mani was two coats of Lapis followed by a coat of Seche. While it was pretty by itself, I wanted to use a new stamping plate I got, Marianne 84, which is, of course, butterflies. The images used were stamped in MdU silver, topped again with Seche, then matted with OPI's matte topcoat. 

I'm happy to report that I had no chips with Lapis this time. I may need to try this with my Suedes, because they're chippers, too. This mani was Day 5 blue nails.





Day 4 was green nails, and I used a polish that I had just swapped for, Literary Lacquers Lake of Shining Waters. Honestly, I can't believe my camera actually made my pics look like the bottle color, which is a teal green, because on me, it was more green than teal. Not that that was a bad thing, I like anyways, it's very pretty. 

The stamped images are from Mo You London Back to the 20's 01 and Cheeky Jumbo 5, all stamped in Essie Penny Talk, then topped with Seche. The base color was three coats, with a coat of Seche under the stamping.








Monday's nails were a redo of Stamping Sunday's fail, which I'll get to. It was also Day 3 yellow nails. The base color is 3 coats of OPI's I Just Can't Cope-cabana, then a coat of Seche on my index, middle, and pinky fingers. On the accents went two coats of Sally Hansen Crochet from their Luxe Lace collection.

The Luxe Lace collection are matte glitter toppers. It makes me happy to see more mainstream companies picking on this trend. Even though these look thick in the bottle, like last summer's failed glitter toppers from SH, these apply very nicely, or at least Crochet. I picked up Eyelet (white glitter) yesterday and plan on using it today in my pedi.

On the other fingers, I stamped the houndstooth image in MdU pastel blue from Jr. 20 (Stamping Sunday theme was using a plate ending in 0). Everything was topped with Seche after that.





Sunday's great big fail...... Not because of anything that I actually did. Sunday was Day 2 orange nails and Stamping Sunday. What I pictured in my head translated nicely to the nail...... until topcoat was added -_-

The base was 3 coats of Zoya Cole, then a coat of Seche. My stamped image came from the same Jr. 20 plate ^^^^, and my stamping color was MdU mexican pink. I knew that color was a stainer for skin and stampers, but I also found it it's a bleeder and it changes colors. After I topcoated, mexican pink bled and turned into an almost neon pink from a pretty, medium pink. I pushed on and matted it, and that made it worse. I ended up taking it off less then 12 hours later and only took one pic to show you.


Sunday, January 11, 2015

Happy Sunday!



Good morning and happy Sunday!!

How was your first full week of 2015??? Mine was rather busy, which is a good thing! I received a new rack, my third, for my ever growing Zoya collection, yay! Now to fill up again lol :P

Alrighty, so I have some new and not so new colors to show y'all today, starting with the color I wore Friday, SpaRitual's Oasis. When I picked it up on clearance at Ulta, along with two glitters from Nails, Inc., I sincerely thought it was gonna be a texture. Right on the label, under the color name, it said sandy matte. I figured cool, I don't have a texture this color! Sad to say, it wasn't a texture, and it wasn't hardly even matte, it's more of what I would call a satin, like OPI's 4 in the Morning or This Gown Needs a Crown.

I did my two coats, which was perfect for Oasis, topped it with Seche, then added a coat of Morgan Taylor's Matte's a Wrap. O.M.G. I think this what Oasis should look like!








Thursday I tried my hand at some freehand art. I suck at freehand, so this took me about two hours do. It was one the manis from Zoya's Fall Trend Guide, the colorblocking. Colors used were Ryan, Genevieve, and Dhalia.









Wednesday was a flakie day. I used my two flakies from KBShimmer, Lightning Ridge and Dark Matter, to create this look, over two coats of OPI's Amazon...AmazOff.







Last weekend, I picked up the only color I wanted from OPI's Fifty Shades of Grey collection. Let's just say, I'm as underwhelmed by this collection as I am the books, and I will leave it at that. This color, however, is gorgeous. Shine for Me is a silver glitter with blue glitter sprinkled throughout. My mani was two coats, with just a single coat of Seche.







Monday was a challenge mani for a group I'm in. It called for a Saran Wrap mani, stamped with either snowflakes or flowers. My base color was 2 coats of OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls, the pink is OPI's Suzi Has a Swede Tooth, the stamped color is Mundo's Fiji, and the snowflakes came from Infinity Nails 79. The matte coat is from OPI.






Monday, January 5, 2015

Happy New Year!



Good evening and happy New Year!!

Did you do any special for New Year's Eve? Hubs and I actually went to a little party with a few friends. It was great, since we almost never do anything special for New Year's.

I'll get to my New Year's mani in a sec, there's a few others I want to show first, starting with yesterday's Stamping Sunday challenge. The challenge this week was negative space, which is pretty popular right now. There are a few ways to interpret this challenge. Here's how I did mine.

Instead of a naked nail, I went with a naked look, using Zoya Chantal as my base. I used an open, lace like image from my VL-3 plate, stamped with Mundo de Unas black. Topped with Seche, then matted with Zoya's matte topcoat.








For Textured Friday, I used a new to me Pixie Dust. Zoya announced last month that they were discontinuing their Pixie Dusts, which makes me sad. After this announcement, I decided to get the last three I didn't have, Vespa, Godiva, and Destiny. Vespa was the Pixie of the day Friday :)

Vespa isn't as sage green as I thought it was, it's almost minty. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it looked on me. My mani was three coats.








Now my New Year's mani! It started with Zoya Imogen for the base. All the images came from Messy Mansion's MM02, all the colors were Mundo d Unas neons and white. I did top with Seche to protect the stamping. This probably the most elaborate stamping I've done yet, I'm very proud of it!








Tuesday was a simple look. I had picked Deborah Lippmann's I'm Not Edible at Marshall's for super cheap last weekend. This is three coats topped with Seche.








In another stamping group I'm in, we had a flash challenge last week, where you had to create a gradient or do a stamping gradient. I chose to do a gradient and stamp over it. The gradient colors were Zoya Kristen, Edie, and Sailor over Purity. The stamped images are from Mo You London Kitty collection 12 and Messy Mansion MM42, stamped in Mundo lavender. Topped with Seche and matted with Zoya matte topcoat.







I chose to not particpate in last Sunday's challenge, mainly because it (the challenge) was New Year's Eve, and I didn't plan on doing that until New Year's Eve. I did kitty cats instead. The base was Zoya Marina, the images from Konad m94, stamped in Mundo de Unas white. Topped with Seche.