Good evening!
Many apologies for not posting since last week. Pretty much the whole week after my last post was just sucktastic, and this week's not shaping up to be much better. There's not alot to be done about it, so I'm just trying to move past everything. Now, if only I don't get sick...... lol.
I'll start with last Wednesday's mani. I'd been wanting to do a pink and gray mani for a few weeks; not a bright pink but something soft. I pulled out Zoya Shelby and laid down three coats of that. I need to get a back up of that color, I just love it.
I let that dry and decided to add some grey dots. I had gotten a new grey a few days before that to use for stamping and used that. It's Sinful Colors Adroise, it's nice and thick and does work nice for stamping as well as dots :) After the dots, I applied one coat of NYC's Matte me Crazy.
I love love love Friday's mani! I used two different textures, matte and liquid. I wasn't completely sold on the whole liquid sand when I first heard of it, but I like at least the one I bought, Get Your Number from OPI.
Now, I basecoated under that and the matte. For the matte, I used Orly Bonder and Elmer's under the liquid sand. Then, I did 4 coats of Zoya Phoebe and 2 coats of Get Your Number. This mani actually lasted pretty well.
Ok, now I did have a mani done up for Stamping Sunday's theme, which was a light, stamped color over a dark base. My pics did not come out well, and for some reason, even though the stamped image didn't come out nice and I was gonna show it, my Konad Special white messed up the image a little. I plan on trying it out again, because I love the image I wanted to use :)
Good morning!
After all the festive manis I've done in the last month for Christmas, I wanted to do something a little more New Year's-esque. This is the first of two manis I have planned for just this reason; the other you'll get to see either tomorrow or New Year's Eve.
As you may or may not know, I've had butter LONDON'S The Black Knight for months now and have used it only once, aside from swatching. At the time, I didn't really know about the super awesomeness of Gelous and what it does for glitter. Thus, my mani didn't look as great as some pics I had of TBK.
Now that I have Gelous and have seen what it does for glitter, I wanted to revisit TBK. I couldn't think of a better time to do so than in anticipation of New Year's. I started first with two coats of my Elmer's concotion to make removal a hell of alot easier. I let that dry completely (meaning, the glue became clear), then applied 2 coats of TBK. After that, 2 coats of Gelous, then one of Seche.
This came out so much better the second time around :)
Has been getting in the way this week. I've had alot going on in my personal life, but I won't get into it here. The only bright spots this week were my bday on Monday and my mother's on Sunday.
To celebrate both, my parents, my husband, and I went out to dinner at Carraba's. The food was great, and we all had fun :) I have some swatches of what my husband got me as well as a few manis from this week. Let's start with what I had on yesterday.
So, you may may not have heard of a new method of dealing with glitter that's taken the polish community by storm. It calls for using a glue, such as Elmer's, watering it down a little, and using it as a base. For my glitter accents, I applied two coats and let them dry completely before applying the glitter. I used an old, clean nail polish bottle and filled it about 90% with Elmer's Glue-All, then added water and a couple of stainless balls, and shook the crap out of it.
Ok, for my mani, I decided to use one of my bday gifts, the Ulta exclusive OPI Skip the Gift Wrap with an accent of Nicole by OPI Kendall on the Katwalk. Two coats of each, with KOTK receiving two coats of Gelous, all topped with Seche. I love Skip the Gift Wrap, it's the perfect Christmas green. However, I absolutely hate KOTK, I think this is the first time I've used it, and it was horribly thick and goopy. I have a feeling, though, that one of China Glaze's Cirque colors, Water You Waiting For? (I think) is a dupe for it. I need to pick it up :P
Here are the mani pics, including how removal looks for the glitter.
The glitter didn't peel off, exactly; I used a rounded cuticle pusher to lift it off and kind of scrape it. I did this very gently so as not to injure my nails, but I think I prefer this over using acetone.
As I said earlier, Monday was my bday and Sunday was my mom's. Things got very iffy on Monday on whether we would go out Monday, and I didn't do my nails, until about an hour and a half before. Unfortunately, the weather here was so nasty and humid, it actually effected the dry time, even with Seche.
My mani was very simple: two coats of OPI's Birthday Babe and one of Happy Anniversary. Both are so pretty, I really don't wear them enough.
Don't mind the shimmer on my hands, that's from my lotion, CND Vanilla Velvet. It smells heavenly.
Now for some swatches! These are all OPI colors.
Every Month is Oktoberfest- 2 coats
Bogota Blackberry- 2 coats
Unfor-greta-bly Blue- 2 coats
I Think in Pink- 4 coats
Isn't that Precious?- 4 coats
Giftcards for Everyone!- 2 coats
Last Minute Shopper- 2 coats
Skip the Gift Wrap- 2 coats
