Good evening!
Today starts week 3 of my course, and I thought I would do a quick, little check-in. I'm having a blast with my course, mostly due in part to my awesome instructor and classmates, and because I love what I'm doing. I've been super busy, between a 40 hour class week, working one day a week, and trying to catch up on other stuff on my remaining day x.x I don't have the time that I thought I would to even do Stamping Sundays, and that makes me sad.
BUT, if everything goes well, I should graduate at the end of September. I don't anticipate not being able to, since I've been testing very well. Once things calm down, I'll be back to posting more regularly.
Until then, though, Tata!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
Dupe Monday
Good morning!
Today's dupe post is going to be part one of two. I'll be comparing a couple of berry pinks in my stash, so enjoy!
For today's comparison, I bring to the table OPI's Dim Sum Plum and Ate Berries in the the Canaries, from the India and Espana collections respectively. I believe, but am not positive, that they were released with a year or so of each other. In the bottle, they look exactly the same to me.
On the nail, I applied two coats of each, which is all that was needed for opacity, and no topcoat. Even then, the differences between the two are very subtle. ABITC is a touch deeper and bluer (?) while DSP is not. It's incredibly hard to tell the difference even in bright sun. You really don't need both of these if you already have one.
DSP is on my index and ring fingers, while ABITC is on the middle and little fingers.
Today's dupe post is going to be part one of two. I'll be comparing a couple of berry pinks in my stash, so enjoy!
For today's comparison, I bring to the table OPI's Dim Sum Plum and Ate Berries in the the Canaries, from the India and Espana collections respectively. I believe, but am not positive, that they were released with a year or so of each other. In the bottle, they look exactly the same to me.
On the nail, I applied two coats of each, which is all that was needed for opacity, and no topcoat. Even then, the differences between the two are very subtle. ABITC is a touch deeper and bluer (?) while DSP is not. It's incredibly hard to tell the difference even in bright sun. You really don't need both of these if you already have one.
DSP is on my index and ring fingers, while ABITC is on the middle and little fingers.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Dupe Monday
Good morning! I hope everyone had a great weekend and is refreshed for the work week!
Ok, so the last three dupe posts were about blues; today's is for the mints in my stash, which thankfully is only two. It surprises that I have only two mints, considering how much I truly love that range of colors. Maybe I should clarify and say true mints, since I do have a few that are kind of minty but not true minty, which is for a later post.
For today's comparison, I have Essie's Mint Candy Apple and Color Club's Blue- Ming. In the bottle, you can tell that MCA is just a tad lighter than BM.
On the nail, it becomes more obvious that they're not the same color, even though they're both gorgeous. BM is darker and a bit bluer, where MCA is more of a traditional mint. Unfortunately, both apply like crap and are streaky. It took me three coats to even get them to look nice for the pics. In this case, BM is the better value, since it's still available and CC's prices are more reasonable. You definitely don't need both of these colors.
Blue-ming is on my index and ring fingers, Mint Candy Apple on my middle and little fingers, no topcoat.
Ok, so the last three dupe posts were about blues; today's is for the mints in my stash, which thankfully is only two. It surprises that I have only two mints, considering how much I truly love that range of colors. Maybe I should clarify and say true mints, since I do have a few that are kind of minty but not true minty, which is for a later post.
For today's comparison, I have Essie's Mint Candy Apple and Color Club's Blue- Ming. In the bottle, you can tell that MCA is just a tad lighter than BM.
On the nail, it becomes more obvious that they're not the same color, even though they're both gorgeous. BM is darker and a bit bluer, where MCA is more of a traditional mint. Unfortunately, both apply like crap and are streaky. It took me three coats to even get them to look nice for the pics. In this case, BM is the better value, since it's still available and CC's prices are more reasonable. You definitely don't need both of these colors.
Blue-ming is on my index and ring fingers, Mint Candy Apple on my middle and little fingers, no topcoat.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Dupe Monday
Good afternoon!
Today's dupe post if kind of a part two to last week's. After I finished up with the two colors I featured, I found that I had another color that was very similiar to Just Groovy and No Room for the Blues, FingerPaints' Blue Raspberry Taffy.
In the bottle, BRT is very similiar to JG and NRFTB.
On the nail, I applied 3 coats of BRT, which is what was needed for opacity, no topcoat, to my ring finger. I found that BRT isn't quite as blue as the other two colors. You can see in my pics that it's just off enough to be noticeable, even though my camera makes it look more blue than it is x.x
Today's dupe post if kind of a part two to last week's. After I finished up with the two colors I featured, I found that I had another color that was very similiar to Just Groovy and No Room for the Blues, FingerPaints' Blue Raspberry Taffy.
In the bottle, BRT is very similiar to JG and NRFTB.
On the nail, I applied 3 coats of BRT, which is what was needed for opacity, no topcoat, to my ring finger. I found that BRT isn't quite as blue as the other two colors. You can see in my pics that it's just off enough to be noticeable, even though my camera makes it look more blue than it is x.x
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Stamping Sunday
Good evening!
Today's Stamping Sunday challenge called for two stamps in the same image. This one gave me a bit of a problem; last night, when I was doing up my mani, the two images I wanted to use just would not play nice. I ended up redoing the entire thing with different images.
I started with two, very nice coats of China Glaze's Deviantly Daring. I absolutely love this color. It's not quite a true duochrome, but it is a gorgeous color. I topped with SV so I wouldn't ruin the base. My image plates were Shany 08, 12, and 13, all stamped in China Glaze's Millennium. I made quite a mess of my color, so I cleaned up before putting a final coat of SV on. That seemed to help prevent smearing.
Sorry for the crappy pictures, it had rained most the day so I couldn't get any outdoor shots.
Today's Stamping Sunday challenge called for two stamps in the same image. This one gave me a bit of a problem; last night, when I was doing up my mani, the two images I wanted to use just would not play nice. I ended up redoing the entire thing with different images.
I started with two, very nice coats of China Glaze's Deviantly Daring. I absolutely love this color. It's not quite a true duochrome, but it is a gorgeous color. I topped with SV so I wouldn't ruin the base. My image plates were Shany 08, 12, and 13, all stamped in China Glaze's Millennium. I made quite a mess of my color, so I cleaned up before putting a final coat of SV on. That seemed to help prevent smearing.
Sorry for the crappy pictures, it had rained most the day so I couldn't get any outdoor shots.
Friday, August 10, 2012
I love jellies!
Good morning and happy Friday! So, this is my last weekend of freedom lol. Do I have any big plans? Not really, aside from doing a little shopping and changing my pedi with possibly some housework thrown in there somewhere xD
Ok, so if you've been following polish trends at all for the last several months, you'd know that jellies have been a big hit this years. It seems like every brand now has their jellies. Zoya, though, is the first that I've seen, though there may be others, that has a set with their fall collection. They are called the Gloss collection and the two I bought are just beautiful. I welcomed into my collection Frida and Paloma, and I'm really rethinking not getting Katherine. Today I'm going to show what I did with Paloma.
I don't particularly care about wearing jellies just by themselves, although I have done that. They're so much more fun when they're layered; they're just that versatile. I wanted to wear Paloma layered, but not as a jelly sandwich, not this time anyways. By chance, I picked my only purple from Zoya, Carly. Carly is a lovely, grape purple foil that stood alone in the Beach & Surf collection.
For this mani, I applied two coats of Carly, although I could have gotten away with one, slightly thick coat, that's how pigmented Carly is. I let that dry, which wasn't very long, and applied one coat of Paloma. All I can say is, wow! My final result was a very, lit from within look that is much coveted. I topped with Poshe and done! I'm very happy with how this little experiment turned out :)
Ok, so if you've been following polish trends at all for the last several months, you'd know that jellies have been a big hit this years. It seems like every brand now has their jellies. Zoya, though, is the first that I've seen, though there may be others, that has a set with their fall collection. They are called the Gloss collection and the two I bought are just beautiful. I welcomed into my collection Frida and Paloma, and I'm really rethinking not getting Katherine. Today I'm going to show what I did with Paloma.
I don't particularly care about wearing jellies just by themselves, although I have done that. They're so much more fun when they're layered; they're just that versatile. I wanted to wear Paloma layered, but not as a jelly sandwich, not this time anyways. By chance, I picked my only purple from Zoya, Carly. Carly is a lovely, grape purple foil that stood alone in the Beach & Surf collection.
For this mani, I applied two coats of Carly, although I could have gotten away with one, slightly thick coat, that's how pigmented Carly is. I let that dry, which wasn't very long, and applied one coat of Paloma. All I can say is, wow! My final result was a very, lit from within look that is much coveted. I topped with Poshe and done! I'm very happy with how this little experiment turned out :)
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Tetris, anyone?
Good morning! So the countdown has started! I have 7 days until I start my nail tech course. I'm excited......... and little nervous! I haven't really been in school or a class of any kind since I graduated high school 15 years ago (can't believe it's been that long!). This is a huge change for me, and I'm hoping for a alot of good to come of it =D
On to today's mani! Normally I do a pink themed mani for Wednesdays, but I chose to break away from that today. I wanted to use an image on my new Vivid Lacquer plate that was the sole reason for me getting it. The other images are nice, but this is my favorite.
I'm sure most of us can remember when we first got our favorite, or when it came it out. I know do; I may have been pretty young, but I do remember it, and even had it up until about 8 years ago. I'm talking about the old, spinach colored version of Tetris! I could literally play that for hours. I loved it, and I was pretty sad when my old, old Game Boy finally gave up the ghost. Imagine my joy at getting a Nintendo DS Lite and the new version of Tetris! I still want to get the traditional version, but I'm happy with the new :)
So, yeah, when I saw this plate come up for sale, I had to have it. And today I finally get to show it off. I wanted to incorporate colors into the design, so I started with a water marble. First, I used two coats of Milani's White on the Spot as my base color and topped with SV. Then I set up my space with everything I needed to water marble.
My last few attempts at water marbling were fails; someone suggested heating the water in microwave. It also helps if I'm not right up, face first against my water lol. This water marble didn't come out quite the way I would have liked, but it was better than before. My colors were Color Club's Disco Dress, Sinful Color's Clementine, and China Glaze's Splish Splash and Pink Voltage. I cleaned it all up and topped again with SV.
Now, the entire Tetris image on VL plate is pretty big, so I only used part of it. I used Konad's Special White to stamp with, and one last coat of SV. I actually really like how this turned out!
On to today's mani! Normally I do a pink themed mani for Wednesdays, but I chose to break away from that today. I wanted to use an image on my new Vivid Lacquer plate that was the sole reason for me getting it. The other images are nice, but this is my favorite.
I'm sure most of us can remember when we first got our favorite, or when it came it out. I know do; I may have been pretty young, but I do remember it, and even had it up until about 8 years ago. I'm talking about the old, spinach colored version of Tetris! I could literally play that for hours. I loved it, and I was pretty sad when my old, old Game Boy finally gave up the ghost. Imagine my joy at getting a Nintendo DS Lite and the new version of Tetris! I still want to get the traditional version, but I'm happy with the new :)
So, yeah, when I saw this plate come up for sale, I had to have it. And today I finally get to show it off. I wanted to incorporate colors into the design, so I started with a water marble. First, I used two coats of Milani's White on the Spot as my base color and topped with SV. Then I set up my space with everything I needed to water marble.
My last few attempts at water marbling were fails; someone suggested heating the water in microwave. It also helps if I'm not right up, face first against my water lol. This water marble didn't come out quite the way I would have liked, but it was better than before. My colors were Color Club's Disco Dress, Sinful Color's Clementine, and China Glaze's Splish Splash and Pink Voltage. I cleaned it all up and topped again with SV.
Now, the entire Tetris image on VL plate is pretty big, so I only used part of it. I used Konad's Special White to stamp with, and one last coat of SV. I actually really like how this turned out!
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