Gelaze Celtic Sun Stamped

Hey Everyone! I am typing from a very clean keyboard right now. I accidentally spilled water all over my keyboard this morning. I had to take off each key individually and clean under them to ensure I got all the water. Other than my T which is sticking a little bit the keyboard is tying so much nicer now. I don't even want to think about how much dirt and crumbs and stuff was under those keys. 

Today I have some stamping over one of my Gelish manis. For some reason I am missing a lot of pictures of various manis including a picture of just the Gelish polish. Things should be more organized now.

I started with a base of Gelish Celtic Sun. I used this one without using a white base which was somewhat of a mistake. I had to use four coats to get it dark enough for my liking. It is quite neon and very fun even though it doesn't pop as much as it would with a white base. It also looked very much yellow and non neon under certain lights which was weird.

I wanted to mix up a few different designs for this mani. I looked through my stamping swatch book for designs that reminded me of the 80's-90's when I was in my major neon phase. I think I picked some pretty decent designs and patterns that I am sure I probably wore at some point.  

I used Pueen plate Pueen 05 from the 2013 25F stamping set for my index fingers. I strategically placed the happy faces from Mash-31 on my middle fingers. I figured if I was showing anyone my bird it would be a nice happy face they got to look at. I used the swirly design from Bundle Monster BM-418 for my ring finger and BM-416 for the splatter design on my pinky.

I loved this mani. It was bright and fun and totally reminded me of my childhood. I would have kept it on longer but it started chipping. I am not completely thrilled with the wear time I get on Gelaze polishes. I think this mani lasted a total of 4 days one of which I spent most of the night in the car doing absolutely nothing that would affect wear time.

That's all for now :)

My Greyhound Adoption mani

Hey Everyone! It has been a crazy two days at work. The guy that works in the warehouse has been out sick so I have been covering for him. It is quite hot out there! I think it was 87 yesterday and the heat and humidity zapped all my energy. It didn't help that I spent the morning at the doctor's office and didn't eat anything until 1pm. Gotta love that blood work that requires fasting when your appointment isn't until 11:30am to begin with and then they don't bring you back into an exam room until well after noon. I am trying to get this in before heading home for the day so it should be brief. 

As you may know C works for a Greyhound Adoption. I volunteer over there a lot and have been taking pictures like the one above for National Adopt a Greyhound Month. I got the idea to do some nail art for the weekends based on the shirts that the group wears.

Since I don't have a greyhound stamping plate I made some water slide decals. I used some different images including one of Mr. Bruce! I am happy to report that they worked wonderfully and though I haven't tried the Bruce decals I will very soon.

Above is a picture of one of the shirts and my mani. I have a shirt that is in purple but it is pretty old and ragged so I took a picture of the pink one because it is newer. The purple one is what inspired the mani. I added the paw print on my pinkie because I couldn't leave it naked.

I did this mani with a base of Gelaze Secret Periwinkle. I stamped a pattern on the background with Konad m64 and Sinful Colors Slick. I stamped the paw print, peace sign and heart with black polish. I didn't realize I should have done my right hand with the pictures in the opposite order so of course they are backwards. duh for me.

I loved this mani but I meant to do some white stamping in the background to make it look more like the tie dyed t-shirts. Next time I will do something like that. I loved the mani but of course no one really noticed it much less connected it to the shirts I was wearing that weekend. Ah well, at least I can blog about it and enjoy it myself.

Sadly this mani didn't last through the weekend. Did I mention the kennel is terrible on my nails? 

That's all for now :)

Secret Periwinkle Flowers

Hey Everyone!!! Happy Friday to you! I am so tired today. Instead of going back to sleep for a bit after dropping T off at school I went to the grocery store. I then made lunch and went over to the kennel to try and get some pictures of the dogs before coming to work. I am actually regretting not sleeping now that it is slow and I am quite sleepy. It is either going to be an early night or a lazy night because right now I am pretty tired. Thank goodness it is Friday!

Today I have another Gel mani for you with some stamping. I only have three pictures though for some reason. I was really eager to play with my new Konad toys that a lovely nailboard friend sent me. I have never had an actual stamping polish so I was super excited to use one of the ones she sent. I didn't quite think the color combination through though and I ended up not liking this mani as much as I wanted to.

I started with a base of Gelaze Secret Periwinkle. This one was a little thicker but application was no problem. It actually lasted about 6 or 7 days before I had lifting and chipping and had to remove it. The abuse I put this gel mani through included scrubbing 30 muzzles clean at the kennel.

I used Konad plate M64 for the flower design and Konad Yellow stamping polish. I then used Milani Creamy Pistachio to add random dots. I must say using polish that is meant for stamping as opposed to polish that may or may not stamp well is quite nice. I have never used an actual stamping polish and not having to worry about if it is going to show up is great. It is also great to know that you can rely on that polish to do what you want instead of being disappointed when your stamping is so subtle it is hardly noticeable. I wouldn't stop stamping with normal polishes but I definitely see myself buying some more stamping polishes! 

That's all for now :)

Gelaze Flip Flop Fantasy

Hey Everyone! I spent today working on that gel mani with foil. Oy. I will have a post all about it later. I am probably going to be doing a lot of manis with the same base and then stamping over them for a bit. My helmers are all tucked behind the bed crammed into the small bedroom right now. I don't have much access to them though I do have some stragglers that are out and about. I also have been keeping a gel mani on to help my nails grow out their damage and not break while I am at the kennel on the weekend. I have still had some breaks and the gel only lasts about a week with all the kennel work. 

Today I have a post with the new Gel polish line from China Glaze. The line is called Gelaze and actually doesn't require a base coat which is kind of nice. I picked two colors up when they were on sale at Sally Beauty Supply last month. You know I had to give them a try since China Glaze is one of my favorite brands.

The first one I used was Flip Flop Fantasy. I actually do not have this one in the regular formula but since I had wanted it I decided I had to have it in the gel formula. I think it is close to the color of the regular polish but since I don't have it I can't compare it. My pictures do not do this polish justice at all, it is much brighter and prettier in person. My camera kinda freaked out a bit though.

For the accent nail I used Elevation polish Huangshan. I loved these two together! 

I wish my pictures had come out a little better to show you how bright and fun this mani was. I am going to do another mani using it soon because I did not have good results with this one at all. My thumbs were chipped within 2 hours and the entire mani didn't last more than 4 days. I found the polish rather thick too. I was not really happy with it but I was also trying a new technique that I had read about where you put acrylic powder on your layer of structure to give it added strength. I will try again when I can judge it on my normal technique.

As a side note I didn't notice that there was any more strength with the added acrylic powder as I usually get with just the structure gel. I did one hand with the acrylic powder but then I was running late so I did the other hand with just structure gel. I didn't notice any notable difference between the two but the acrylic powder hand took much longer to soak off.

I stamped a design on the other nails the next day with Pueen plate Pueen 08 from the 25F set. I used a standard black Wet n Wild polish I had with me.

I loved this mani but I kept wanting to add more color to the stamping. It started to lift and come off so I had to remove it before I got a chance to add anything.

That's all for now :)