Good morning! I hope everyone is doing well this fine Tuesday morning :) I am, and I also had a great weekend, I hope you did as well.
Well, I wrapped up the monthly challenge I was participating in and started with Valentine's manis on Sunday. I don't know, for some reason I'm not really feeling it this year, but I'm still plugging along with them. I love yesterday's mani, and I really love Sunday's before I stamped it.
Yesterday's mani was the traditional red mani, featuring KBShimmer's Whole Lava Lovin'. I love this red holo, it's the only I have felt the need to have. This mani only needed two easy coats, then was topped with Seche. I stamped over that with Mundo red and Fab Ur Nails 14. I wasn't sure how the red over red would look, but I loved it after it was topped. Subtle and very pretty.
Of course, leave it to me to want to wear a fabulous holo on a craptastic weather day so the holo won't show, even with a flash >.<
Stamping Sunday's challenge was, for obvious reason :P, was Valentine's nails. I decided that I wanted a bright water marble for the base. It was inspired by a water marble I remember seeing in a FB group I'm in, but I don't remember who, sorry! The colors used were all OPI:
Do You Have This Color in Stock-holm?
My Dogsled is a Hybrid
I Just Can't Cope-cabana
Suzi Has a Swede Tooth
Marbled over 2 coats of OPI Alpine Snow Matte. Honestly, I think I should have stopped with the water marble, because I thought is awesome, but nooooooo. Stamped I did. Mundo blue and Messy Mansion MM03, Seche, then OPI Matte Coat.
Friday was the last day I did for the 31 day challenge, and the prompt was inspired by a flag. I chose the flag of my not so distant ancestors, the st. Andrews flag of Scotland :) The is 2 coats of OPI No Room for the Blues, then Seche. Stamped image is from MJ XXIX and is stamped in Mundo white, then topped again with Seche.
Thursday's prompt was inspired by art. For this, I picked water color art. My base was OPI Alpine Snow Matte. To create the water color look, I used OPI's Sheer Tints, and just applied them randomly, then added a coat of Seche so I could stamp over. The tulips came from Fab Ur Nails 14 and were stamped in Mundo black.
Again, leave it to me to do something like this on a crappy day lol.
Wednesday's prompt was inspired by a pattern. I like my end result, but I do not like the base polish, which was from Sally Hansen's Velvet line. The color is called Velour, and it has got to be one of the weirdest polishes I've used. The formula was thick and kind of streaky, and the finish was.... strange. It was matte but it had a bit of a texture to it O.o Not what I was expecting.
I wanted to stamp over this, so I topped it was Seche. The stamped image came from Sugar Bubbles 021 and the color used was Mundo Fiji. I love images like the one I used. Topped with Seche, then matted with Morgan Taylor's Mattes a Wrap.
When it came time to take this off, lemme tell you, it was a bitch. I've never had a matte, or texture, polish give me such a hard time with removal. This is not a keeper, for these reasons. The color is also very much like Zoya Mira, so I don't feel that I need to keep it. It's on its way out!
Tuesday's prompt was inspired by fashion. I knew a few weeks ago what I wanted to do for this :) I watch The Young & The Restless, and one of the female characters wore this beautiful, royal blue and black plaid dress.
My base color was 2 coats of China Glaze Frostbite, then Seche. The plaid stamp was from MJ XXIX, stamped in Mundo black. Seche, then China Glaze Matte Magic, which should be called Satin Magic, because it's definitely not matte.
Ignore the crooked stamping :P I still struggle with placement and straightness lol. Overall, I was pretty happy with this.
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.
Good afternoon, dearies!
It's been an incredibly busy week, hence my lack of posting, but this is going to be a catching up post :) So pull up a chair and your favorite snack/beverage and enjoy!
The first mani to be shown is today's Stamping Sunday challenge, Art Nouveau. The base color is 2 coats of China Glaze New Birth. I originally passed this up, but had read it was cool toned white, sort of like OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls, but instead of blue toned, New Birth is more green toned. In fact, the stamping polish I used, MdU Fiji, made it appear to be a pale, pale green. The stamped image is from VL-1. Topped, of course, with Seche.
I seriously need to work on my placement lol. For my thumbs, I enlarged this image, the other fingers I shrunk it for.
I almost did a black mani for Black Friday, but I didn't. I did a blue one, and it was textured. It was just two coats each of Zoya Nori and Vega. I like how Nori wasn't as rough as Vega but still has a bit of texture.
I had to take of my pics indoor this week, because the weather was pretty bad most, and wouldn't show some of these beauties properly.
My Thanksgiving mani didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it to, I think the green I used was too bright. My bas color was two coats of Zoya Nyssa, then a coat of Seche. Th first image stamped was the plaid from MJ XXIX in MdU high green. The other images came from Messy Mansion MM23, Winstonia W119, and Bundle Monster BM-H12, in the colors pinon, yellow, reddish, and brick, also from MdU. Seche over it all.
Wednesday's mani was a sparkly, girly mani, perfect, I think, for the day before a holiday. It was simply one coat of Zoya Margo, then 3 coats of Zoya Nova, then a coat of Seche.
Tuesday was more stamping, this time over Zoya Remy. First, two coats of Remy, in which the golden sparkle in the bottle didn't translate to the nail, which in turn made me happy. My pics make it appear more green though. Stamped over it was MdU light gold and MJ XXIX, then Seche.
Monday's mani was very simple, just two coats of I Love Nail Polish's Champagne Blush, a gorgeous rose gold holo. Seche didn't dull the holo either.
These pics make it appear more pink, but again, this was taken inside. Trust me, Champagne Blush is definitely more rose gold.
Good afternoon!
Many apologies for not posting since last week. I've had issues with my work computer that have kept me from being able to edit pics >.< Hopefully, I got it taken care, but at least I'm able to post today and get caught up! Shall we get started??
Today features a somewhat new-to-me brand, Morgan Taylor. Now, last fall I bought their matte topcoat, used it once, and kinda forgot about it. Some months after that, I bought the flakie, Day Dream; used that once, and set it aside. A week and a half ago, I took the plunge and bought 5 colors, four of which are from current collections. I paired one of these colors with Day Dream, then matted it with the topcoat.
The base color is Making Waves, which is a vibrant cerulean blue that I just love. There are similar colors, Nails, Inc. Baker Street and Sinful Colors Endless Blue are just a few, but they aren't as vibrant as Making Waves. Two coats of that for opacity, one coat of Day Dream, a coat of Seche, then Mattes a Wrap (their matte coat).
Unfortunately, I believe this line is only available at pro suppliers, like Cosmo Prof, but you may be able to find it online. The quality is pretty awesome, just from these three that I've used. I've got a mani planned for later in the week with the colors I bought :)
Yesterday featured a brand new Chanel my parents got for me while on their cruise two weeks.
You see that color??? Very pretty, isn't it? That's so not what it looks like on my nails!! Now, I didn't notice this when I did my nails, because I normally do them at night, and even with the bright lighting I use, sometimes colors don't look right until I see them the next day.
My mani was two coats of this color, a coat of Seche, then stamped with Maybelline Bold Gold and Messy Mansion MM20, with a final coat of Seche. This color looks more red/maroon on my nails than it looks in that bottle pic.
You can kinda tell the difference between my nails and the bottle. I like the color, don't get me wrong, I just was expecting it to more berry pink than red, lol.
Stamping Sunday's theme was music nails. The first idea that came to me was inspired from my marching band days :) My high school colors were blue and gold, so the gold was 3 coats of OPI's The "It" Color. Using the Saran Wrap method, I added Morgan Taylor's Making Waves. Stamped over that with OPI's Push and Shove and Cheeky Jumbo 5. Topped off with Seche. I think this is my best Saran Wrap mani yet, I love how this turned out.
Sorry I don't have a thumb pic, it didn't come out clear. There was a saxophone stamped on the nail, which is what I played :)
For Textured Friday, I gave a texture another chance for me to love it, but I think I can't. This is the second mani that I've used China Glaze's Sand Dolla Make You Holla, and I just have mixed feelings about it. I look how it looks in the bottle, but the formula is horrible and hard to work with. It appears to be more white, but turns pinkish on me =\ This mani was 3 thickish coats which I stamped over with Mundo de Unas Fiusca and MJ Jr 20.
Thursday was a polish of absolute perfection, Zoya Ling. I am so in love with this color. It applied so smoothly and looked so nice on its own, that I didn't feel the need to do anything more with the mani. Two very easy coats and a coat of Seche, and DONE!!!