Purple to orange gradation & nail art stickers

Purple to orange gradation & nail art stickers

Oh my... I had such a hard time photographing this mani that I'm just going to post this single pic of it... I'm sorry. :/ The puple base is Golden Rose Classics Metallic Nail Lacquer #10 (phew!) and the orange is Jessica Pumpkin Delight (Scrangie has an awesome swatch of it on her site). As usual, nail art stickers, blah blah blah. ;)

Orly Preamp, pink glitter gradation & nail art stickers

 

Orly - Preamp, pink glitter gradation & nail art stickers

Hi all... I'm trying to make a comeback after several weeks' hiatus. Here we have Orly Preamp, a super pretty pink with tiny duochrome glass particles. Lately I've been obsessed with gradations, and this is Pretty Woman PW9 sponged over Sinful Colors Forget Now plus nail art stickers, which is another staple of mine.

Gold glitter gradation

Gold glitter gradation

This mani looks so much better IRL than in my pictures... *sigh* Hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow so I can show you the glitz! Here are the polishes I used:

L'Oreal Shine & Resist - 735 (the base)

Gallery Colours - Gold Sparkle

Color Club - Gingerbread

Milani Jewel FX - Gold

OPI - Heart Of Gold

Gold gradation on wine & nail art stickers

Gold gradation on wine & nail art stickers

Hey, my mani matches the layout! :D This is Sally Hansen Save the Date with a Nails Inc. Wardour Mews and Essence Make It Golden gradation, topped with nail art stickers.

Watermelon nail art

Watermelon nail art

The polishes I used were:

- Guppy 19 (neon pink creme) & Nicōle by OPI You're An Angel (warm pink jelly w/ golden glass fleck) for the base, also Sinful Colors Forget Now (dark pink jelly w/ glass fleck) near the eponychium to give the pink watermelon flesh some depth.

-  As for the gradation, I first sponged along the free edge with an opaque white creme, then with NYX Girls Sour Apple (chartreuse shimmer) and a franken of mine (lush light jelly green w/ golden microglitter), then applied smudged, squiggly lines of Rimmel Camouflage (mid-toned green w/ golden shimmer) with a nail art brush.

- The seeds were painted with white & brown acrylic paints and a nail art brush.

Cherry blossom nail art

Cherry blossom nail art

The colours I used:
- Nude base - Ruby Kisses Cream White
- Pinks - Nubar Pink Crème & Revlon Grapefruit Fizz
- Turquoises - Model's Own Top Turquoise & Barry M Aqua Blue
- The branches were painted with Nubar black striper & Nubar Swiss Chocolate
- Topped with Orly Love Each Other

Original idea shamelessly stolen from HERE. :P The bottom picture is the most colour accurate of the bunch.

Tricolor gradation & nail art stickers

Tricolor gradation & nail art stickers

Wet 'n' Wild Toss Me A LIFESAVERS & glitter gradation

Wet 'n' Wild - Toss Me A LIFESAVERS & glitter gradation

Las Vegas Showgirl's Nightmare

Las Vegas Showgirl's Nightmare

It all started with two coats of L'Oréal Resist and Shine #739, the most gorgeous cool gold you'll ever see. Unfortunately, every single Resist and Shine polish I've tried ends up bubbling like a mofo, and this one was no exception. The finished product here is an attempt to hide those ugly bumps - the sponged on purple microglitter did conceal the vast majority of them, and since I had gone through all that trouble, I decided to finally make some use of my large selection of (plastic) rhinestones. Garish, yes, but I couldn't stop looking at my nails during the whole two days that the stones stayed on.

Pink gradation & floral nail art stickers

Pink gradation & floral nail art stickers

Hi everyone, I'm back from my hiatus with a mani very that is very "me" - a light pink base with nail art stickers. I started with two coats of a generic white polish, then a coat of Delia No. 1 #206 (a super light semi-opaque pink) after which I sponged on Delia No. 1 #13 (a warm toned opaque mid pink) almost all the way to the cuticle, and Golden Rose Fashion Color #24 (a semi-dark shimmery pink) along the free edge. After adding a few stickers the mani was finished, easy peasy.

We Care Icon Magic Sapphire & glitter gradation

We Care Icon - Blue Sapphire & glitter gradation

Oh, look - it's another glitter gradation... again. The reason I like these is that it's an easy way to spice up any existing mani, and the lesser amount of glitter used (vs. a full glitter mani) means that one can remove a gradation like this with relatively little hassle.

Blue Sapphire by We Care Icon has this incredibly glowy shimmer in it which would take it to the top of my dark blue polishes list, but the packaging is just dismal. The WCI polishes come in these teeny-tiny, square-shaped 5 ml bottles with the shortest wand you'll EVER see in a nail polish brush. Now, if the bottle is just sitting on the table and you dip the brush into it, you can't get any of the product out, but you'll  have to pick the bottle up and actually POUR the nail polish out and onto the brush. Not cool, WCI, not cool.

Layered purples & glitter gradation

Layered purples & glitter gradation

Oh dear... this mani has so much going on in it I don't know where to start. Originally, I had wanted to do a simple, clean nude mani with absolutely no bells or whistles, but the polish I was using was so sheer I would've had to do 5 or 6 coats to get an even semi-opaque finish. So I said to hell with it, I'm going to have to redo this all in any case, and just started slapping on any sheer polish that was on my desk. In addition to the nude polish, this has at least the following: Flormar Supershine Miracle Colors U28, Maybelline Purple Water, Pure Ice Busted, China Glaze Nova, and an unnamed Yes Love purple tinted hologram glitter. Phew! And you know what - I actually really, really like the end result!

Glass-flecked sunset gradation with flakies

Glass-flecked sunset gradation with flakies

My mum has a plethora of different perennials growing in her garden, and in July I was visiting my parents at the perfect time to admire her beautiful daylilies. Originally I had wanted to do a yellow & orange gradient, but as I only store a limited selection of random polishes at their house, the gradient came out more on the pinkish side. The yellow base is one coat of Misa Under my Sunbrella, followed by Flormar U05 (middle) and U24 (tip) which were sponged on, and then topped with GOSH Rainbow. I absolutely loved this mani and wore it for days.

Mum's daylilies

Essence Cherry Juice & vampy half-moon mani

Essence - Cherry Juice, 2 coats

A red polish on me, a sight most uncommon! Cherry Juice is part of Essence's Jelly Baby line which consists fully of - can you guess it? - yes, jellies. This one went on effortlessly and was almost opaque after two coats. I wore two different basecoats underneath Cherry Juice, but after removal I noticed that a little bit of orange staining had still occurred.

Essence - Cherry Juice & YSSY - Dark plum #35, 2 + 1 coats

I had planned to do a half-moon mani before I even put on Cherry Juice. I used hole reinforcers to get a nice crisp line. The YSSY may look like an ordinary black polish, but under strong sunlight you can see that it is a very dark plum with matching shimmer. The red glitter gradation was done with La Femme Jupiter, and I also added some red rhinestones where the two contrasting polishes meet.