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.
Good afternoon!
I hope your Monday is flying by without too much unpleasantness :D I'm a little behind in posting, but only because I just haven't had time to so until today. So here we go!
I skipped out of yesterday's Stamping Sunday theme, funky French. I can't stamp French tips, of any kind really, to save my life. I chose to do a fall colored water marble with some new Zoyas I got last week. The base was 2 coats of Zoya Purity. The marble was created with Zoya Thandie, Chanelle, and Veronica, the dots were Zoya Darcy. Topped with Seche, matted wity Morgan Taylor's Matte's a Wrap.
As part of my Zoya order, I got their 3 new Pixie Dusts, so yay for new textures! For Textured Friday, I picked Arianna. Arianna is almost a magenta colored, very squishy looking texture. It didn't try quite as matte as other PDs do, but I think that makes it unique. I've read that some people have had a problem with this, but I like it. My pics don't quite do it justice, but we've been having some lousy ass, cloudy, rainy weather lately.
Since I've seemed (most of the time, anyways) to have gotten the hang of water marbles, I've decided I need to work on my gradients. I did a glitter gradient last Wednesday that I'm really proud of. It started with 2 coats of OPI's Suzi Loves Cowboys, which is a yummy, dark chocolate brown, perfect for fall, and a coat of Seche.
I did a little research on glitter gradients, and I found that instead of using a sponge to apply the glitter, others were applying it with the brush. I figured what the hell, I'll give it try. It's gotta be less messy than using a sponge. My glitter was Sinful Colors Pumpkin Spice, which I didn't know dries matte, then topped with Seche.
Even though it's gonna totally throw off the rest of the week for me >.<
Good afternoon! I have a few manis to show off today, especially one I completely spaced on posting Friday. Time definitely got away from me, which happens. Let's get rolling!
Today featured two Zoya colors, one new and one from the Awaken collection this past spring. I couldn't tell you why, because normally I avoid nudes/neutrals like the plague, but I have been loving Zoya's Naturel collections this year. So much so that I'm only missing just one of the colors. I couldn't tell you why they appeal to me so much, when others just don't, but these do. So when Zoya debuted the Naturel Deux, I snagged up half of it in one order, then the other three not two weeks later.
On my nails today are 2 coats of Chanelle with a coat of Monet sponged over it. Application for Chanelle was perfect. I've found Monet is best applied sponged because it is so thick and can quickly become a hot, bubbly mess. Topped with Seche to smooth things out.
Yesterday was Labor Day here in the US, and in honor of that, I did up something of a patriotic mani, trying out something I've seen done and talked about for a while now: water marbling with clear polish.
It started off with 3 coats each of China Glaze's Dorothy Who? and Ruby Pumps topped with Seche. I wanted to marble white over these to create red/white and blue/white nails. I had come across months ago a water marbled mani very similar to what I wanted to do, and the poster had used clear polish. Not topcoat, but just clear polish, like what most cheap brands carry. For mine, I used OPI's Alpine Snow and Sinful Colors Clear. It was no different marbling with the clear as opposed to other colors. Topped with Seche to finish.
Stamping Sunday's theme this week over a striped background. I had a hard time coming up with something; everything I came up with in my head looked very "nautical" to me. I think even my end result looked like it, so it didn't last long lol.
The base color for the mani was 2 coats of the bright ass Zoya Ali. The stripes were stamped in Mundo de Unas white from my VL-2 plate from aliexpress. Over the stripes I stamped a flowers image from the same plate in Mundo de Unas navy and topped everything with Seche.
Last Friday was Michael Jackson's birthday. If he was still living, he would have been 56. I have always loved his music, so I chose to a tribute mani. The base color is 2 coats of Smooth Criminal from Colors by Llarowe. SC was launched last in tribute to Michael, and on Friday she launched another tribute collection. I picked up a color from that one as well and can't wait to get it.
The images I used were from an entire plate dedicated to MJ by Chez Delaney, stamped in Mundo de Unas white. A coat of Seche finished it off.
Good afternoon and happy Tuesday!
I had a rather unexpected absence from blogging the last few days. My old lappy got fried on Sunday, and while I was able to replace it yesterday, it's definitely going to change how I do a few things with regarding to editing pics and blogging. So please bear with me as I adjust. Today, though, I was able to do what I needed on my work pc :) Let's get to it!
Once again, I totally skipped over doing Stamping Sunday's challenge, and did something on my own. It started with an awesome water marble I created with 3 of Maybelline's new Bleached Neons, Ultra Violet, Citrus Collide, and Day Glow Teal. O.M.G, these are just amazing to water marble with, they spread so nice! Water marble was done over 2 coats of China Glaze's White on White. I topped with Seche and cleaned up around the nails as that dried. I stamped on top of that with MJ Jr-20 and OPI's Kiss me on my Tulips, then added another coat of Seche.
First are the pics before stamping, then the stamped mani.
Monday featured a new (to me) matte color and one of Orly's matte Flakies. The base color is 2 coats of Sinful Colors Savage, which stains like holy hell. Savage by itself is very matte and almost neon-like, it's so vibrant. Sadly, the Green Flakie from Orly's Matte FX is not matte at all; it's not satiny either. I can't think of what to call it, except maybe it needed to be topped (like how most polish can look dull without topcoat) OR a true matte topcoat for it to be completely matte. I was really disappointed with that.
And today's mani! Three coats of China Glaze's Pink Voltage over a coat of White on White, a coat of Seche, stamped with MJ Jr-20 and OPI's AmazOn...AmazOff, and another coat of Seche. AmazOn looks more blue than green, I think, because of Pink Voltage, but trust me, that's what I used lol.
Good evening and happy Friday!
I have for y'all tonight the only other China Glaze texture that I picked up, Sea Horsin' Around from the Sea Goddess collection. It's a pretty, sea green sparkly texture with a bit of a golden shimmer.
The biggest difference between this texture and all the others I own, is actually the texture itself. Sea Horsin' Around is noticeably rougher than the Liquid Sands and Pixie Dusts. Even after wearing it for a day, it was still pretty rough. I will see that it wore very well, with no chips to show.
For my mani, I applied two coat of SHA over a coat of OPI's Natural Nail Base coat. Once dry, I stamped over it using Winstonia W203 and Sinful Colors Endless Blue. My goal was to create a water like effect and I think I nailed it :)
