Happy New Year!

Good evening and happy New Year!!

Did you do any special for New Year's Eve? Hubs and I actually went to a little party with a few friends. It was great, since we almost never do anything special for New Year's.

I'll get to my New Year's mani in a sec, there's a few others I want to show first, starting with yesterday's Stamping Sunday challenge. The challenge this week was negative space, which is pretty popular right now. There are a few ways to interpret this challenge. Here's how I did mine.

Instead of a naked nail, I went with a naked look, using Zoya Chantal as my base. I used an open, lace like image from my VL-3 plate, stamped with Mundo de Unas black. Topped with Seche, then matted with Zoya's matte topcoat.

For Textured Friday, I used a new to me Pixie Dust. Zoya announced last month that they were discontinuing their Pixie Dusts, which makes me sad. After this announcement, I decided to get the last three I didn't have, Vespa, Godiva, and Destiny. Vespa was the Pixie of the day Friday :)

Vespa isn't as sage green as I thought it was, it's almost minty. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it looked on me. My mani was three coats.

Now my New Year's mani! It started with Zoya Imogen for the base. All the images came from Messy Mansion's MM02, all the colors were Mundo d Unas neons and white. I did top with Seche to protect the stamping. This probably the most elaborate stamping I've done yet, I'm very proud of it!

Tuesday was a simple look. I had picked Deborah Lippmann's I'm Not Edible at Marshall's for super cheap last weekend. This is three coats topped with Seche.

In another stamping group I'm in, we had a flash challenge last week, where you had to create a gradient or do a stamping gradient. I chose to do a gradient and stamp over it. The gradient colors were Zoya Kristen, Edie, and Sailor over Purity. The stamped images are from Mo You London Kitty collection 12 and Messy Mansion MM42, stamped in Mundo lavender. Topped with Seche and matted with Zoya matte topcoat.

I chose to not particpate in last Sunday's challenge, mainly because it (the challenge) was New Year's Eve, and I didn't plan on doing that until New Year's Eve. I did kitty cats instead. The base was Zoya Marina, the images from Konad m94, stamped in Mundo de Unas white. Topped with Seche.

Stamping Sunday!

Good evening!

I was actually able to find inspiration for this week's Stamping Sunday challenge- inspired by fabric. All I had to do was look around my home...... and my eyes settled on my curtains. They're this gorgeous, red brocade with black flowers.

I knew immediately I wanted to a mani like this! For the red, I chose Zoya Elisa, because it has a satiny look to it that all Zoya's shimmers have. Two coats was all I needed for opacity, then topped with Seche. For the stamped color, I used another Zoya, Raven, with Konad m66 for the flowers. Topped again with Seche and done!

I love this so much, that I'm gonna keep it on for tomorrow :P Barring that it doesn't chip before I have to leave for work lol!

Stamping Sunday!

Good evening!

Yay for me on actually posting a Stamping Sunday mani on Sunday! Today's theme was, simply, Merry Christmas. Easy peasy :P

I chose to use last year's Ulta exclusive holiday set of OPI colors: Skip the Giftwrap, Giftcards for Everyone!, and Last Minute Shopper. I love these colors, they applied so nicely and evenly. Each only needed two coats for opacity. I topped all colors with Seche before stamping. Plates used were Mo You Festive 06 and Konad M64 (I think), stamped in Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. Topped again with Seche.

Do you feel lucky?

Well......

Do you?


Good evening, lol! This week, I'm showing some green manis for St. Patrick's Day. I have today's and yesterday's manis to show off tonight. I'm not normally one for greens, unless they're teals or mints, but occasionally I would go for something different.

Today's was the something different. I started with 2 coats of China Glaze's Gaga for Green. Layered over that was one coat of Sour Apple, also from China Glaze, topped with Seche. Simple, but glittery :)

The next one I'm rather proud of. It's a gradient, and it didn't come out too bad, if I do say so myself :P My base color was two coats of Essie's Mint Candy Apple topped with Seche. I let that dry for about ten minutes before I sponged on my gradient colors, China Glaze's Aquadelic and Turned Up Turquoise. I went over the gradient twice and topped again with Seche.

Now, I had full intentions of leaving it be, but I was just dying to try my St. Patrick's themed plate, MM04, from Messy Mansion. I chose to the line of shamrocks, stamped with Konad Special white. After all that, I then made it matte with China Glaze's Matte Magic :)  It did smear some of images a little, but it wasn't too terribly noticeable until close up.

Better late.....

Than not at all!

Good morning, peeps! It's a beautiful morning here in FL, and I really can't complain about it being too warm...... yet xD I can complain about the time change, though. I was still all messed up from the fall time change, so yeah. The change this past weekend did not help any lol.

Anyways! On to today's featured mani, which is yesterday's Stamping Sunday challenge. This one called for using a plate that ended in 6. Realistically, most of my sets on have 2 plates that end 6, so you'd think it would have be easy to pick one......... I chose Bundle Monster 316. Turns out, my BM 316 doesn't stamp, at least not with the polishes I tried (including Konad Special White), and I refuse to stamp full nail image with any stamper but my XL one.

So, sadly, I moved on to my back up plan, which was MASH 46. I used two images from that plate, because their full nail images don't fit my wide thumb nails. My base color was two coats of Zoya Gie Gie, Seche over that, and the images stamped in Sinful Colors Ardoise with one more coat of Seche.

Stamping Sunday

So, here it is, Stamping Sunday again, and I manage to get today's themed mani posted for it lol. Go me!

Today's theme called for using tape some how/way in your mani. I figured it's been a long time since I did a funky French, so that's how it started. I pulled the inspiration for the colors from Zoya; for the Peter Som fashion show, their manicurists paired mint and tangerine together.

I don't have the specific colors that were used, but I do have Wednesday and Arizona. Wednesday was the base color at two coats topped with Seche. I let that dry for a while before I whipped out my Scotch tape to do Arizona tips. I went over the tips a second because I didn't feel it wasn't opaque enough with just one go round.

I don't know how long I let Arizona dry, but it was long time, because I didn't to have to topcoat a second, then a third time after stamping. It was good and dry when I did stamp, so it wasn't smudged. My stamped image was Konad m66 in Wet 'N Wild's 2 Weeks Sober.

Overall, I like this mani, I just wish Arizona looked a little nicer. I'm just afraid it would have been really thick if I had gone over it a third time. But hey, at least my lines were straight and there was no bleed through :)

Had one of those weeks....

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 :)

Stamping Sunday and Monday blues

Good evening!

So, yesterday was Stamping Sunday, and the theme was supposed to be based on a book you're reading. I should have loved this theme since I love to read. Right now, I've been reading books based on Henry VIII and his wives.

I had a difficult time trying to come with something; I had the colors, green and white. Apparently, those were the colors preferred by Henry VIII and his father. I just couldn't figured out anything else. What I finally came up with was, in my opinion, kinda lame but I'll show you anyways.

One of the key events in Henry's reign was when he made himself head of the Church of England and broke from Rome and the Pope. So, I did 2 coats of OPI's Your Palapa or Mine? topped with Seche. It's a lovely green and about perfect for a Tudor green. For the stamping, I used Bundle Monster plates 08 and 13 stamped in Konad Special white. Unfortunately, Seche smeared the image on my left hand, so I didn't do a close up >.>

 

 

Today was rather gloomy, hence the Monday blues. I decided it would be fitting to try out Zoya Kristen. Kristen is a pretty, light blue grey that reminds me of dolphins :) It's not pastel enough for spring, but soft enough for midwinter.

 



I applied two coats of Kristen, followed by one coat of Finger Paints' Motley then Seche.