Good afternoon and happy hump day! :P
I hope today finds you all doing well. My week has been rather difficult, since about Wednesday last week, actually. I lost my sweet baby Merlyn, and have been having a hard time coping with her death. My main coping mechanism is BUYING ALL THINGS!!!, and I've had to really strive to keep that in check. Needless to say, zero fucks have been given to a lot these last several days. I'm starting to feel just okay now, but still am very sad.
I do have a few manis to show, a mix of challenge and just because. Today's mani is a challenge one for the 52 WPNMC. The themes were pastels and/or lilac and teal. I elected to do both and here is what I came up. A gradient using colors from Maybelline's Bleached Neons collection. Colors are Day Glow Teal, Coral Heat, and Ultra Violet sprinkled with China Glaze Fairy Dust. All over a base of Morgan Taylor's All White Now.
Inlinkz to other blogs doing this challenge:
Yesterday's mani was for the 30 Days of Colour Challenge. The options were matte and/or stamping. Of course, I picked both. My colors were China Glaze I Sea Your Point and Under the Boardwalk. Butterfly came from Marianne Nails no84, stamped with MdU white. Matted with China Glaze Matte Magic.
And yesterday's Inlinkz:
Monday was a challenge for Advanced Nail Stamping, a stamped pond manicure. I've attempted this before, without much success. I usually end up smearing my stamping because I wasn't topcoating the stamping, just add the jelly layer, then stamping. Got some advice, tried a new topcoat, and voila! Success this time! Orly Butterflies for the jelly, Marianne Nails no84 and MdU white again. Now, even though I had some peeling later that day, I really believe it was because I had at least 4 coats of Oh So Wet! on my nails, not because of the topcoat itself.
I totally skipped out on the Stamping Sunday challenge, and kinda half assed the mani I did for Saturday. I wasn't even going to do one, but I was supposed to go to a ladies' luncheon (which itself was kind of a mistake.....). It was a 30DoCC day, and the prompts with holo and/or water marble. I had intended to do both, but that didn't happen. I ended up with ILNP's Peri Me on my nails, and that was that.
Inlinkz for that:
Friday was truly a no fucks given day, even though I did make it a Textured Friday. My Merlyn was a black kitty, so it was only fitting that I chose a black texture to wear that. OPI Emotions was what I picked.
Thursday I stayed home and bawled my eyes out, so nothing for that.
Wednesday was another 30DoCC day. The prompts were animal print and/or glitter. I actually went with both, and loved what I came up with. Base color was Morgan Taylor's One Cool Cat. The glitter was also Morgan Taylor, Escar-Go to France. The animal print was from Vivid Lacquer VL 010, stamped in Mdu Lime.
And those Inlinkz:
Good morning!
How is your weekend going? Mine is just great :) Busy, but not crazy busy.
So, last weekend I decided to take a part in a 31 day challenge. I hadn't done one for quite some time, so I figured what the heck. This is the one the organizer found:
We're on day 9 today, but I don't have that mani ready to show you yet, and I don't polish my nails for Saturdays, so we're going back to day 7, black and white nails. That was Friday, so that also means I wore textured polish that day :) I picked Zoya Dahlia and OPI Solitaire. Two coats each for my mani.
Day 6 was violet nails. My base colors was 2 coats of Zoya Lotus, then a coat of Seche. I stamped over that, using Mundo de Unas Violet and MJ XXIX from myonlineshop, then another coat of Seche.
Early, early last year, I had posted about my experience with OPI's DS Lapis and Pewter. I had promptly sold them after my bad experience with them, but it had nevr occurred to me to topcoat them then rematt them so they wouldn't chip. I found Lapis on clearance at Salon Centric recently, and I had to give it a second chance.
My mani was two coats of Lapis followed by a coat of Seche. While it was pretty by itself, I wanted to use a new stamping plate I got, Marianne 84, which is, of course, butterflies. The images used were stamped in MdU silver, topped again with Seche, then matted with OPI's matte topcoat.
I'm happy to report that I had no chips with Lapis this time. I may need to try this with my Suedes, because they're chippers, too. This mani was Day 5 blue nails.
Day 4 was green nails, and I used a polish that I had just swapped for, Literary Lacquers Lake of Shining Waters. Honestly, I can't believe my camera actually made my pics look like the bottle color, which is a teal green, because on me, it was more green than teal. Not that that was a bad thing, I like anyways, it's very pretty.
The stamped images are from Mo You London Back to the 20's 01 and Cheeky Jumbo 5, all stamped in Essie Penny Talk, then topped with Seche. The base color was three coats, with a coat of Seche under the stamping.
Monday's nails were a redo of Stamping Sunday's fail, which I'll get to. It was also Day 3 yellow nails. The base color is 3 coats of OPI's I Just Can't Cope-cabana, then a coat of Seche on my index, middle, and pinky fingers. On the accents went two coats of Sally Hansen Crochet from their Luxe Lace collection.
The Luxe Lace collection are matte glitter toppers. It makes me happy to see more mainstream companies picking on this trend. Even though these look thick in the bottle, like last summer's failed glitter toppers from SH, these apply very nicely, or at least Crochet. I picked up Eyelet (white glitter) yesterday and plan on using it today in my pedi.
On the other fingers, I stamped the houndstooth image in MdU pastel blue from Jr. 20 (Stamping Sunday theme was using a plate ending in 0). Everything was topped with Seche after that.
Sunday's great big fail...... Not because of anything that I actually did. Sunday was Day 2 orange nails and Stamping Sunday. What I pictured in my head translated nicely to the nail...... until topcoat was added -_-
The base was 3 coats of Zoya Cole, then a coat of Seche. My stamped image came from the same Jr. 20 plate ^^^^, and my stamping color was MdU mexican pink. I knew that color was a stainer for skin and stampers, but I also found it it's a bleeder and it changes colors. After I topcoated, mexican pink bled and turned into an almost neon pink from a pretty, medium pink. I pushed on and matted it, and that made it worse. I ended up taking it off less then 12 hours later and only took one pic to show you.
