Good evening!!
It's been a crazy week, and quite frankly, I've been a little too tired at night to post, on top of having to get up early. BUT!!! Tomorrow is Saturday, and I always weekends off :) So, here we go!
Today's Texture Friday color is from China Glaze's newest collection, Sea Goddess. They finally, finally, released a sparkly textured collection. I picked up two of them about a week and a half ago, and wore one today, Sand Dolla Make You Holla.
First off, the name makes me giggles lol. I just love. This and the other color I got were the only two that really called to me after seeing swatches. Sand Dolla reminds me of the glitter loaded, white crellies that are so popular are now, except of course for it being a texture. Sand Dolla is loaded with green, blue, silver, gold, and fuschia sparkly hex glitters. The formula is..... weird. In the bottle, it appears to be white. On my nail, it becomes pinkish. It's also the only textured that I would consider a fourth coat on it, it can be that uneven. My mani was done with 3, then stamped using Bundle Monster BM-H18 and OPI's Miss You-niverse (which stamps like a champ!).
Yesterday, I did another throwback mani with, yes, Shatter. This time with colors from the Niki Minaj collection. The base color was two coats of Pink Friday with a coat of Seche. I then applied Fly using the Saran Wrap method and let it dry a few minute before applying Super Bass. Over that went another coat of Seche. There actually weren't white spots on the mani, that's my flash. We haven't had much in the way sun this week.
Wednesday's mani was directly inspired by this blogger. Mine wasn't a whole different: 2 coats of OPI Diva of Geneva, 1 coat of Nubar 2010, a coat of Seche, and a coat of OPI's Matte coat.
Tuesday's mani didn't turn out quite the way I expected. It started with a gradient of Zoya's Gie Gie, Julie, and Seraphina, which, by the way, was a right bitch to clean up. The gradient was....... softer? less vibrant? than I was shooting for, but no biggy, I liked it. I stamped over the gradient with Bundle Monster plates BM-H18 and H17 with Maybelline Blue Blowout, topped with Seche. The images were a little hard to capture, because of the weather again.
Good afternoon and happy New Year to you and yours!
I've finally gotten some time to sit down and post my latest manis ._. The last week and a half just haven't gone how I anticipated, thus putting me behind. BUT!!! I'm going to remedy that, so sit back, relax, and enjoy!
You'll have to excuse some of my, not so clear pics -.- The weather here has been rather craptastic, and even though I don't mind (much) using indoor pics, I'd still rather take outside pics. I tried to limit the not so clear ones lol.
Let's get started with yesterday's New Year's mani. It was inspired by a photo posted by Zoya on their Face Book. While I didn't quite achieve the one I picked out, I used the same colors for my mani. Base color was two coats of Trixie, followed by Seche and allowed to dry. Contrasting color was Dream, applied to taped off nails. Another coat of Seche, and one at a time, I added the little gems. To make sure they held up through work, I added another coat of Seche.
Monday's mani was very simple. Just 3 coats of Amy's Nail Boutique Ashes to Ashes. In the bottle, this appears to be an almost charcoal grey linear holo. However, on the nail, it's no where near as dark. In fact, I was very surprised at how sheer it is. The linear holo was still there, but not the darkness. Even after applying my second and third coats a little thicker, it still wasn't as dark as it looks in the bottle.
Those pics don't show the holoness of this polish, because, as I said, the weather's just been crappy here, but the next two pics do. They were taken inside with a flash.
Stamping Sunday's challenge theme was Happy New Year. I kept it kinda simple, starting with two coats of Zoya Raven as my base. Using the numbers from Shany SH07 and an image from Messy Mansion MM02, I stamped them in CND's Vinylux Cream Puff. I then added French tips using Zoya Trixie and topped it all with Seche. Normally I use Scotch tape when I do French tips, but this time I freehanded them. I do not like how they turned out lol.
Last Friday was Texture Friday, and I tried out a newcomer to the texture game. Essie had released two textured polishes as part of their holiday collection. I immediately passed on Belugaria because all the swatches I saw just looked gross. Instead, I bought Lots of Lux (surprise surprise :P). Now, I kept an open about this one, since I'm not a huge of fan of Essie. I love the color of LoL, sadly, it's not quite up to par with my Pixie Dusts and Liquid Sands. While the PDs and LQs apply nice and smooth (ish), this one doesn't. It's a lot grittier than I expected, and I only used two coats. Maybe a third would have helped? I don't know. You can even tell in my pics it didn't apply well. I may have to give it a second go round in the future.
I will say this about the color: it reminds of OPI's Absolutely Alice. What I thought was a silver sparkle (in some lighting) was actually a gold sparkle.
I loved my mani for Christmas, I just wish it was held up better than it did. Or rather, I wish I had gotten pics of it looking good earlier in the day >.< My base colors were one of Zoya Payton over one coat of Zoya Blaze, topped with Seche. Stamped images were from Bundle Monster BM-H03, stamped in Maybelline Bold Gold. Topped again with Seche.
My mani for Christmas Eve was one of those that didn't turn out quite as I intended. The base color was two coats of OPI's Baby, It's "Coal" Outside, topped with Seche. Then I sponged on, in an attempt to do a glitter gradient, OPI's How's it Snowin'?, which is where I prolly should have stopped. But I didn't, and stamped over that with stars from Sugar Bubbles Special 02 and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. If memory serves me right, I needed two coats of Seche for this glitter bomb.
And finally, last Monday's mani. It's not very often that I get to say this, but I actually hate this mani. It's just one of those that I should have taken off and done over, but I don't think I had the time to. I was stuck with it. Base color was two coats of OPI's Rose to the Ovation, followed by a coat of Morgan Taylor's Day Dream. Topped with Seche.
I think the Morgan Taylor flakie would have looked better over any other color, and I just shouldn't have used it over red. I couldn't hardly see the colors of the flakies, and it just looked like I had something stuck to my nails that day.
Good evening!
Today's Stamping Sunday challenge was Halloween nails. If I had followed my set up, it would have instead been pink nails, but since this is the week of Halloween, I decided that I would do some kind of 'weeny nails the rest of the week. So here goes!
My base for this mani is comprised of all OPI colors and all one of each: Flit a Bit, Serving Up Sparkle, and Y'all Come Back, Ya Hear?. Yes, the base was a jelly sammich :) I actually really like how the base alone came out, but since it was for the stamping challenge, it wasn't meant to stay that way lol.
My stamped images came from Bundle Monster BM13, Mash-38, and Shany SH25 (just on the pinkies). Stamping colors were Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and Sinful Colors Black on Black. All topped with Seche.
Good evening!
I've two manis I want to share with you tonight, yesterday's Stamping Sunday challenge and today's BCA mani. Let's get started!
Yesterday's theme for Stamping Sunday was simply over a black base. Done! Two coats of Zoya Raven, one coat of OPI's Call me on my Cell-ery, one coat of Seche. Stamped images were from Bundle Monster BM-223, Winstonia W116, Shany SH02, and Red Angel RA-119, stamped in CND Vinylux in Cream Puff. Let me just take a moment and say how impressed I am with how that stamps. It's pretty opaque over black and red (the red I tried was Zoya Sookie). One more coat of Seche and done.
Today's mani was a pink themed one for BCA month :) I used another color from OPI specially for BCA month, ok, well, not color. The bright pink, shimmery, jelly like Shatter they released two years ago. One coat of that over 2 coats of Zoya Purity, topped with Seche.
Good evening and happy Friday! Any big plans for the weekend? About all I plan on doing is getting my hair cut tomorrow, then coloring it Sunday. That's it :)
Today's mani was inspired by the skirt I wore today. It's a colorful paisley print, below-the-knee skirt with a beaded fringe. It has several different colors in it, including purple, which I picked as my base color. So, two easy coats of Zoya Carly and a coat of Seche left to dry.
Flipping through my selection of plates, I couldn't find a true paisley print image. The closest I found was Shany 20, so that's what I used stamped with Wet 'N Wild French White. Topped it all with another coat of Seche and done.
Good evening!
I know that today being Sunday, I normally feature the Stamping Sunday challenge, today's being some aspect of matte. Now, I love matte, so you can imagine my excitement to do a stamped matte mani. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a complete fail. So much so, that I'm kinda embarrassed to show it here.
I do, however, have one to show from Friday. It's a bit of a copycat, as I saw a friend on Face Book post this early last week. Hers was OPI's Unfor-greta-bly Blue with an accent of Absolutely Alice. It was gorgeous. I wanted to do this myself, since I have Greta and hadn't tried it out. Instead of Alice, though, I used Simmer and Shimmer. I did two coats of each, then two coats of Gelous over Simmer, then finally SV over everything. I love how this turned out.
Now for some swatches! These are the last of my new Zoyas. Enjoy!
First up is Frida. Frida is teal green jelly that builds up nicely. I did 4 coats for this swatch, no topcoat.
Next, is Elisa. I knew I had to have Elisa when I saw it. Elisa is a gorgeous, gorgeous, lit from within, red shimmer. I truly don't own anything like it. Two coats for my swatch, no topcoat.
Third is Blaze. Blaze is a cool toned burgundy with irregular sizes of holo glitter. It's scattered holo, but holo nonetheless. Two coats, no topcoat.
Last up, is Storm. Storm is the same thing as Blaze, but in black. I can totally see this as a mani for New Year's Eve. Also two coats, no topcoat.
That's it! Enjoy your night!
