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 afternoon!
I've got some catching up to do :P I totally meant to post over the weekend, but well, getting our taxes done was topmost of my list, so yeah lol.
I'm still taking part in the 31 day challenge, although that'll be coming to an end this weekend. I want to start on Valentine's manis, and the end of the challenge is actually this weekend, so it coincides nicely. For now, here's the manis I've got from last week on through yesterday.
Yesterday's theme was inspired by a book. I bet you can guess which ones :) The base is 2 coats of ILNP's Undenied, stamped over with Mundo light gold and Messy Mansion MM05 and MM21, then topped with Seche.
Sunday's Stamping Sunday theme was pink and black; it was also inspired by a movie day. The movie I picked may not be as obvious as the book inspired :P I picked Memoirs of a Geisha, I absolutely love that movie. The pink base is 3 coats of Zoya Gie Gie. The stamping polishes are Mundo mexican pink and black, the images are all from Sugar Bubbles SBS 022. Topped with Seche, course.
Textured Friday managed to be tied in with inspired by a color. My color was L'Oreal's Bad Bad Grey from their Dark Sides of Grey collection, inspired by Fifty Shades of Grey. I've seen some bad reviews about the textures in this collection, but I like this one. My mani only needed 2 coats.
Thursday was water marble day. I did a chocolate and vanilla marble with OPI colors, Suzi Loves Cowboys and You're so Vain-illa over Alpine Snow. OMG, I think this my favorite marble, I really love how this came out!
Wednesday and Tuesday were both fails for those days' challenges. I don't remember what Wednesday's was, but Tuesday's was half moon, and yeah, didn't work. For Wednesday, though, I did a stamped mani. The base was three coats of Zoya Kitridge, then a coat of Seche. Stamped over that with Mundo silver and FUN 14.
For Tuesday, I simply did 3 coats of Zoya Julie.
And, lastly, for Monday I did a jelly sammy, using 2 coats of Jordana Fairy Dust sandwiched between two coats of Orly Butterflies.
Good afternoon and happy Tuesday!
I had a rather unexpected absence from blogging the last few days. My old lappy got fried on Sunday, and while I was able to replace it yesterday, it's definitely going to change how I do a few things with regarding to editing pics and blogging. So please bear with me as I adjust. Today, though, I was able to do what I needed on my work pc :) Let's get to it!
Once again, I totally skipped over doing Stamping Sunday's challenge, and did something on my own. It started with an awesome water marble I created with 3 of Maybelline's new Bleached Neons, Ultra Violet, Citrus Collide, and Day Glow Teal. O.M.G, these are just amazing to water marble with, they spread so nice! Water marble was done over 2 coats of China Glaze's White on White. I topped with Seche and cleaned up around the nails as that dried. I stamped on top of that with MJ Jr-20 and OPI's Kiss me on my Tulips, then added another coat of Seche.
First are the pics before stamping, then the stamped mani.
Monday featured a new (to me) matte color and one of Orly's matte Flakies. The base color is 2 coats of Sinful Colors Savage, which stains like holy hell. Savage by itself is very matte and almost neon-like, it's so vibrant. Sadly, the Green Flakie from Orly's Matte FX is not matte at all; it's not satiny either. I can't think of what to call it, except maybe it needed to be topped (like how most polish can look dull without topcoat) OR a true matte topcoat for it to be completely matte. I was really disappointed with that.
And today's mani! Three coats of China Glaze's Pink Voltage over a coat of White on White, a coat of Seche, stamped with MJ Jr-20 and OPI's AmazOn...AmazOff, and another coat of Seche. AmazOn looks more blue than green, I think, because of Pink Voltage, but trust me, that's what I used lol.
Good evening!
I have for you tonight, today's Stamping Sunday challenge. Today's theme was dragonflies or butterflies. Right off the bat, I was set to do butterflies :P But, if I had any dragonfly images, I honestly would have done that instead, as much as I looooooooove butterflies.
I wanted to try something I saw on another blog a week or so ago. This chick used a jelly polish and sandwiched stamped images in between. I figured I would give it a go.
I started with a single coat of Orly's Butterflies (of course :P) and let that dry completely before I stamped a lacey like image from Apipila P.2 plate. I should have stamped it in black instead of white, because you can barely see it in direct sunlight. I let that stamped image dry a bit before applying another coat of Butterflies. This time, I stamped one of the butterfly image from the same plate in Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes. Let that dry, and a last coat of Butterflies with a last stamped image from Winstonia 104. Topped it all with Seche.
Like I said, I think the first image should have been stamped in black, but oh, well. Always next time :)
Good evening!
Boy, it's been a busy week. Mostly, it was just work, but sometimes, that's enough lol. I have a few manis to show you, starting with today's Stamping Sunday.
The theme for today was, of course, Valentine's day. Not that anyone won't be doing one on Valentine's, right? Lol. The colors I used for mine, I haven't seen used by anyone else. I started with a base of Zoya Piaf with 3 coats. Piaf was surprisingly not horribly streaky, just a bit sheer. I love how it's more a golden yellow as opposed to a lemony yellow. I topped with Seche and let it dry.
For my stamped images, I used Red Angel plates 106 and 120, stamped in Color Club's Cosmic Fate. If you don't have any of the Halo Hues from Color Club, I urge you to get them! They are so incredibly holo and stamp so nicely. I plan on purchasing more as soon as the tax return comes in :P
Friday's mani, in my opinion, was very cute. It was stamped also. My base with 2 coats of Zoya Gie Gie. Can I just say how much I love this color?! Gie Gie is a gorgeous, cherry blossom pink, a true cherry blossom pink. It's very similar to OPI's Pedal Faster Suzi!, but is lighter. I then stamped some lips over that from Bundle Monster plate 303 in Zoya Sooki.
Alrighty then, Thursday's mani was relatively easy compared to those two, Wednesday's as well. Both were two coats of the base, Zoya Blu and Zuza respectively, and one of the layering color, Zoya Opal and Orly Twilight. I absolutely love how Blu/Twilight came out.