Good evening and happy Friday! Woot woot!
I've got a few manis to show off tonight :) Let's start with today's Texture Friday.
I wore a new Pixie Dust today, Zoya's Lux from their Spring Magical Pixies. These pixies are rougher than the pixies they released last year. Lux doesn't see quite as rough as Cosmo and Vega, which I wore last month I believe. I applied two coats and let them dry a while before stamping. The plate was Vivid Lacquer VL 019, the colors OPI's Every Month is Oktoberfest and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes.
Thursday featured a new glitter from Candy Lacquer, Candy Confetti. I knew this glitter contained round and square glitters, but it also has heart shapes and diamonds too. Not a lot, at least not that I got onto my nails. I sponged it over 2 coats of Nails, Inc Baker Street with a coat of Seche sandwiched inbetween. I put a coat of Gelous over the glitter, then Seche.
And Wednesday....... Originally, I was going to do a bright yellow, but I got talked into doing a black and glitter mani. Rather than use two seperate polishes, I pulled out butter LONDON's The Black Knight. Yeah....... I have a seriously love/hate relationship with the polish. I love love love the color of the glitters and how it's kinda jelly like. However, I hate how it pulls away from my free edges, making it look shitty when I topcoat. It's not the topcoat doing it, it's TBK. I think the next time I wear it, it's going to be with undies -_-
I fully admit I retouched the pics just so the free edges looked decent. This is two coats, a coat of Gelous, and a coat of Seche.
Good evening!
Sooooooooo...... I've been rather lazy this week with blogging :P I have no real excuse for it, other than just plain laziness lol. Let's get started with my new feature, Texture Friday.
I decided that I wanted to feature some kind of textured mani, since I've so many to chose, and quite a few that I haven't worn yet. Today, I wore a texture look that I know most everyone got sick of, but I still love, the crackled/shattered look. The very last one I bought was Shatter the Scales from last year's Spiderman collex from OPI.
This is only the second time I've used this particular Shatter. I layered it over two coats of My Boyfriend Scales Walls, also from the Spiderman collex, with a coat of Seche in between and over all. I don't think I've done this combo, but I could be wrong :P
Alrighty! Wednesday's mani featured a polish that I believe was inspired by the many indie polishes using the same glitter, Maybelline's Color Show in Drops of Jade from the little Polka Dots collection.
It's a green jellyish base with black and white matte glitters in various sizes. While I love that mainstream companies are catching on, this collection could use fine tuning. I found the formula hard to work with, especially if you don't use undies. After two coats, it's a bitch to apply.
For my mani, I layered 2 coats of Drops of Jade over 1 coat of Mermaid's Tears from OPI. Even though I was generous with the Gelous, it prolly could have used another coat before the Seche.
Last but not least, is Monday's mani, another stamped Marilyn Monroe mani :) I received some new plates from Mo You UK with MM images, and let me tell you, they stamp ah-mazingly well! I can't wait to get my next order and to order more, they're that awesome. I highly recommend you check them!
For this mani, I started with 2 coats of OPI's French Quater for Your Thoughts (I'm soooo ready for fall!) with a coat of Seche over it. My stamped images were from Mo You's Rebel plates 02 and 03, and Mundas de Unas Handy 39, in Sinful Colors Black on Black and Sally Hansen Insta-dri Quick Brick. Topped with Seche then OPI Matte Topcoat.
Good evening and happy Wednesday!
I have a couple manis to show y'all, starting with today's :)
Today's mani is courtesy, in part, to my Zoya haul from last week. It included several colors from their fall collections and quite a few that weren't that I had wanted. Today's mani started with two coats of Zoya Kristen as my base followed by a coat of Seche. I got Kristen last year at Ulta on clearance.
Then, I sponged a gradient on, using Kristen, Natty, and Sailor. All of them are lovely, smoky blues that work well together. I topped again with Seche and cleaned up the mess around my nails. Finally, I stamped a cool image on top from my Mundos de Unas Handy 39 in Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes. Another coat of Seche and done :)
Now, I think Tuesday's mani was something I have done before, but I'm too lazy to look :P I applied three coats of China Glaze's Riveting, a coat of Luxe and Lush, a generous coat of Gelous, and finished with Seche. The Gelous really helped smooth out L&L's bumpiness. I believe it would work really well for OPI's I Lily Love You, which has the same problem.
Good morning everyone!!
I'm finally feeling better, not 100% back to normal but close enough that I worked this week and did my nails :) I have several manis I want to share with you, so let's get started! I'll with today's.
Today is my nephew's 4th bday party, and I wanted something fun and cute. My base is something that I just knew I was gonna to use for this particular mani, even though I wasn't totally sure it would arrive in time. Over 1 coat of Milani's White on the Spot, I layered two coats of Jindie Nails' Betty's Fetti Milkshake. BFM is a white crelly base just packed with matte glitters of many colors. I did find that I needed to use a coat of Gelous before the Seche to smooth it out (which I'm finding typical of my indie glitters....).
For the stamped images, the plates I used were Messy Mansion MM02, Winstonia W117, and Red Angel RA103, stamped with Maybelline Color Show in Flash of Purple and Navy Narcissist, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri on Jumpin' Jade, and Confetti Purple Reigns. All topped with another coat of Seche.
Now, the next mani I so meant to post yesterday, because I want to feature textured polishes on Fridays. I was just a little too tired, and was trying to get the above mani done to post it =\ But here it is!
Friday's Textured Mani featured Zoya Tomoko. Tomoko is from the Fall 2013 Pixie Dust collection that I bought and received on Monday. Even though I had read the description, I was a little disappointed that Tomoko wasn't more silver. I think this is the first time I was disappointed in a Zoya color. Don't get me wrong, I like it and will be keeping it, I just wish it was more silver than champagne. I applied 3 coats of Tomoko to my bare nail, and had hardly any wear by the time I took it of yesterday.
Wednesday's mani was a tribute to the beautiful, late Marilyn Monroe. I absolutely adore her, and think she's one of the most beautiful women to grace the silver screen :)
My base was 3 coats of Zoya Shelby followed by a coat of Seche. The images I used were from Rica GLAM-01, Mundo de Unas Handy 39 (I may have just butchered that >.<), and Sugar Bubbles 002, all stamped in OPI's Every Month is Oktoberfest. I'll be the first one to admit, I have bought plates for just the Marilyn images on them :) But I don't have duplicates yet lol.
And, lastly, is Tuesday's mani, which was rather simple. Just two of Zoya Yummy with a coat of Zoya Maisie, followed by a coat of Seche.
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 evening!
Sorry I was MIA last night; I was very upset over an issue with work and I ended up going to bed early =\ Today was better, though, except for the gloomy, rainy weather we're having.
So, in effort to brighten things, I chose to do a bright-ish mani. A few weeks ago, I posted my first mani using Amy's Nail Boutique Pink Lemonade, which sent me on a search for another matte glitter. Enter in Pretty & Polished Sand Art. Sand Art is a multi-neon matte glitter suspended in a clear base. I'm not sure how many coats it would take for opacity, since I layered it. My base color was 2 coats of Zoya Robyn, with 2 coats of Sand Art over it. I didn't use Gelous to smooth it, because it wasn't needed. I just used a single coat of Seche.
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.
Good evening!
I know I've been slacking this week, but it's been a bit busy for me. I've had family visiting from out town and get ready for Easter :) I do have today's and Wednesday's manis to show you. Both are flakie manis, which I've really been in the mood for lately.
Today's flakie mani uses China Glaze colors, Dandy Lyin' Around and Luxe and Lush. I remember reading reviews last year about Luxe and Lush, and they weren't glowing. I still wanted it, and figured I would get around its rough feeling. Luxe is very like I Lily Love You from OPI in that the flakies don't want to lay nice. I had since discovered Gelous, which is a smoothing miracle in a bottle for rough textured polishes. So, three coats of Dandy Lyin', one coat of Luxe, one coat of Gelous, and one coat of Seche :)
This was one of those manis that I honestly didn't know how the final mani would look, and if I would like it lol. I was really tempted to matte it, but I did not want to put another coat of anything on it, since the base color was three, thickish coats to get opacity. I ended up liking just like this though.
Wednesday's mani was an exercise in pissing me off. I did that one 3 time before I was happy with it. By the third mani, the colors weren't even the same as I had started with.
I had wanted to do a jelly mani with a sparkly/flakie topcoat. The original mani was Zoya Kate and Belle, but when I woke Wednesday morning, I don't know, it's like the tips shrank or something. I thought, ok, I have time before I have to start getting ready for work, do over. The second mani was OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y and Zoya Chloe. Talk about way too much visible nail line >.> So off that mani came. The final mani was one coat of OPI Kiss me on my Tulips, 2 coats od Do You Think I'm Tex-y?, and one coat of Zoya Chloe. I still wasn't entirely happy with it, I wasn't wanting something so bold, but it is what it is lol.
