Hello and happy Monday!
Sorry for the lack of posting. I've been very busy, stressed out, and not feeling well since Thanksgiving. I'm hoping things will slow down just a little this week. Here's what I've got to show you :)
Last Friday's mani was a 30DoCC prompt and an IG nail art challenge prompt. One was candy canes, the other Christmas candy. This is what I came up with. The base is OPI Kyoto Pearl, to have that pearly finish that old fashioned Christmas candy has. The candy cane like swirls are stamped in MdU red and green, and are from Winstonia 216.
Candy cane Inlinkz-
Last Thursday was my birthday, so I had do something more "me" instead of festive. The colors were definitely seasonal, but then I've always loved blue and silver together :) The base color was Et Tu, Brute? from Cupcake Polish, which just happened to be the first one I own. This beautiful polish was gifted to me by a wonderful friend I met on FB <3 The butterflies are from one of my favorite stamping plates, Messy Mansion MM42, in MdU silver.
The water marble prompt for last Wednesday's #watermarblepracticewed prompt was a bit of a challenge this time. The prompt was poinsettias, and I had to really think on how to achieve this. I really didn't want any white in there, even to outline the petals, so I decided to a red on red look. The base is KBShimmer Whole Lava Lovin'. To create the water marble, I used Zoya Asia, so it would show over Lava, and OPI Nail Envy. Some nails even got double water marbled, something I've never done before, but you can't really tell. The "centers" were dots done in Zoya Darcy.
Last Tuesday was another two challenges combined; this time, it was hot chocolate and reindeer. My base color for the whole mani was Zoya Emilia. I stamped reindeer sweaters on three fingers on each hand, and lemme tell you, that was a bitch getting two of them straight. The sweater images were from Marianne Nails 53, and the single reindeer was from Handy N1, stamped in MdU bones. On the other fingers, I used a dotter to create "marshmallows" and OPI Angel With a Leadfoot for a mug of hot chocolate look.
Hot chocolate Inlinkz-
Last Monday, I combined the PAA Mani Monday prompt, red/green/white only, with 30DoCC prompt, wreaths. Base colors were Zoya Aspen, Amal, and Veruschka. The wreaths were stamped in MdU green, and were from MdU Christmas 2.
Wreath Inlinkz-
Last Sunday, I kept it simple, because we had family visiting from out of town. It was just Ashes to Ashes, from Amy's Nail Boutique, who seems to have disappeared =\ That sucks, because I love this polish.
The previous Friday, that day's 30DoCC prompt was ugly sweater nails. I had a hard time intentionally doing ugly nails, but this was my result lol. Essie Mint Candy Apple was the base color. For the ugly sweater image, I used one from Marianne Nails 53, stamped in MdU tutti.
Ugly sweater Inlinkz-
And my final mani for this post. It was simple; Zoya Iris and Loredana.
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!
Ok, so I FINALLY, finally finished swatching my recent acquisitions lol. I know I've devoted a post to what I'm about to show you, individually, but I'm gonna put them together here. Tonight is the three Indies I've bought/received as a gift :) Two are matte glitters, one is a holo.
First up is the holo. Dark Emerald is from up and coming Indie seller Aly's Dream Polish, from the Holographic Euphoria collection. This collection had literally dozens of different colors. Most of them had a pretty strong holo effect; Dark Emerald's is a little more subtle, but the color is gorgeous. I only need two coats for opacity.
Now, the two matte glitters are from two different sellers. Pink Lemonade is from Amy's Nail Boutique, and Sand Art is from Pretty & Polished. I love them both. I layered one coat of Pink Lemonade over 2 coats of China Glaze's Sunshine Pop. PL is a mixture of matte pink and yellow, tiny hex glitters, suspended in a clear base.
Sand Art is a mix pink, lime green, bright blue, darker blue, and red violet matte glitters in a clear base. I layered 2 coats of Sand Art over 2 coats of Zoya Robyn for this swatch.
One tip: You will want to either use Gelous before you top coat over PL, or double up on your preferred topcoat. Sand Art isn't as rough when its topped, I've found, but I think it could have benefitted from a coat of Gelous.
Good morning!
I have for this morning an Indie polish I received last Christmas as part of a Secret Santa swap I was in. It's the first of the brand that I now own, Amy's Nail Boutique Pink Lemonade.
Pink Lemonade is full of yellow and pink tiny, tiny hex matte glitters. Sometimes, it looks like there's orange in there, but there isn't any; I checked with a loupe just to be sure. The glitters are suspended in a clear base that dries kinda matte.
First, I had to thin the crap out the bottle I got, lol. I think that was just mine, and not manufacturer problem. I finally got it thin enough to use this week :) I found it is easier to apply a drop of it near the cuticle and spread it out from there, not necessarily dabbing, but not quite like you would with normal polish.
My mani started with 2 coats of China Glaze's Sunshine Pop let to dry, followed by one coat of Pink Lemonade, a coat of Gelous to smooth it out, and Seche.
