Stamped on Tuesday

I have been doing a lot of stamped manis lately. I'm not sure why except I have all these plates and I want to try them all!

I used a frankenpolish as the base. 

Then I stamped over that with Julep Aisha. 

I really like the result. It was more feminine that I thought. I ended up wearing this manicure until it started chipping. That is something I rarely do anymore. 

Galaxy Nails

Confession time! This is not the first time I've tried a galaxy nail manicure. It's just the first time I liked it enough to post. I would have fixed a couple issues, but we decided to go to dinner so I had to hurry a bit.

Items Used:

• Orly Bonder
• China Glaze Scandalous Shenanigans
• Orly Androgynie 
• Sinful Colors Snow Me White
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Melly Yellow
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Cherry Red
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Green With Envy
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Violet Voltage
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away!
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Crushed
• Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat "Gold"
• Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

I'm not sure what I did on my middle finger of my right hand. There is a weird spot on it. If we hadn't gone to dinner, I might have filled that in. And I don't know how the black hole on the ring finger happened, but I kind of like it.

I actually like my left hand better especially the ring finger. It's kind of strange that it looks better to me since I'm left handed and did this with my non-dominant hand.

My Halloween Week Nails

Was your Halloween week as crazy as ours?! I know this is a week late but wanted to share anyway. Here are two of the manicures I wore last week. There was a third, but it was a simple black mani with orange crackle polish on top. I didn't even take pics of that.

This first manicure was stamptastic! I so many different polishes here that I didn't even make a list.

The second manicure was my first real attempt at using acrylic paint on a couple nails. I like the outcome with the ghosts. I also used a Frankenpolish on this manicure. The green is a result of mixing neon green, a couple drops of black and a couple drops of yellow. It looks really disgusting in the bottle, but a perfect color for Halloween.

Sorry for being late, but Halloween is always busy around here!

Catching Up...

I haven't posted in a while. Life happens and I procrastinate.

I was unhappy with the state of my cuticles (which look awful in the pics below) so I've been working on that some. While they are never going to be perfect, I think they are better.

Also, I've been messing with the length of my nails as well as their shape. In the next few posts, it will be clear that I have had to shorten them quite a bit because I'm going to be taking a class that necessitates shorter nails. I do not want to accidentally poke someone in the eye!

Here are a couple manicures from the last few weeks. I don't have a list of products used, but I will get back to normal posting soon.

This was my attempt at a Breast Cancer Awareness watermarble mani. I used a glitter polish as the base which I think showed through pretty well.

This was supposed to be a variation of a Steampunk manicure. I added some liquid leather tips. I still haven't decided if I like it or not.

Monday Mani - Steampunk Inspired

I have been thinking of doing this manicure for a while now. It's not exactly as I planned, but it turned out better than I hoped too.

Here's what I did:

• Started with Seche Vite Ridge Filling Basecoat
• On all nails except ring fingers, I used 2 coats of L'Oreal Smell the Roses (it's sort of pink in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness)
• On my ring fingers, I used 2 coats of Julep Winona
• Once that was dry, I stamped using Milani Dark Coffee. For ring fingers, I used Bundle Monster plate H14 for the stop watch. On all other nails, I used Bundle Monster plate 415 (gears).
• To give it some subtle shine, I brushed on a coat of Orly Fifty-Four.
• Next I applied some tiny copper stones at random in the gears and a couple on the stopwatch designs.
• Finished up with Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat.

I thought about adding some liquid leather in dark brown to all of the nails, but I thought that might be a little too much. Maybe I'll try that before I change manis again just to see what it looks like.

Friday Mani

I decided to try a black matte mani this weekend. I like it!  I used polishes from the latest Julep box. The hardest thing was cleaning up

Two Mani's in One?

Over the weekend, I fell in love with China Glaze Ruby Pumps. I wore it for date night on Saturday and didn't want to take it off on Sunday so I just made a little change.

Saturday night, we went to this tiny little French restaurant. It was almost like being back in Paris. Here is the mani I wore that night.

On Sunday, I was thinking of what manicure to do for an entry today and decided that I liked the color so much I didn't want to change it yet. So I changed the accent nail and stamped over the rest with Konad Gold. Loving the gold on red!

Friday Fall Mani

I saw this manicure on Pinterest by SaltyStyle Nails and had to try it. I didn't have a solid fall leaf on any of my plates, but I found something close. I like it better with the solid leaf though. Gives me a good reason to get more image plates, right?!

I used

• Seche Vite Ridge Filling Base Coat
• Nina Ultra Pro Evening Sun as base color
• Milani Dark Coffee (for stamping)
• Konad Special Polish White (for stamping)
• Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat

I'm really liking this "stampwich" technique.

Water Marble Wednesday...Gone Wrong

I wasn't sure I was going to post this manicure. I'm not happy with the results, but there are some funny nails so I figured why not?

I used

• Seche Vite Ridge Filling Base Coat
• Julep Catrina
• Essie Wrapped in Rubies
• Essie Licorice
• Essie Armed and Ready (only on one nail - pinkie of right hand)
• Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat

I ended up with 2 Eye of Sauron nails on my left hand. Just need to add flames around the edges.

This is the right hand. I didn't do a great job on the clean up on my index finger. I wanted to see what Essie Armed and Ready would look like but ruled it out after seeing it on the pinkie. The black was more prominent even though it did muddy the yellow of Julep Catrina on the middle nail.

This is the Eye of Sauron hand. I actually really like the design on the thumb nail. If the polish had dried a little slower, I might have done better with the designs on this manicure. I think I'll have to find a new place to do water marble since air was blowing from a vent right above me. I was most of the way through when I realized this and didn't want to start over. I know I should have though.

Chaos on Monday

Last Monday, I thought frivolous was the way to go. Today, I decided to try to embrace the chaos of Monday in my manicure. We'll see if it works.

I used...

• Seche Vite Ridge Filling Base Coat
• Julep Bunny as the base color (2 coats)
• Julep Daria (used saran wrap to apply)
• Julep Stefani (used saran wrap to apply)
• Julep Josephine for dark splatter

It's pretty abstract. Maybe a pop of color next time?

Weekend Mani

This is late again. I should be back on track next week. 

Today's mani was a reverse recreation of a precious stamping. Before, I stamped blue on white. I like the silver on blue better. 

I used 

Orly Bonder

China Glaze Queen B (it looks darker than in the pics)

Konad Silver Polish

Seche Vite

Water Marble Wednesday

I'm late posting today because life just keeps happening! I think it's worth the wait though. Or maybe I'm just channeling the 70's with this one.

I used

Orly Bonder
Maybelline Color Show - Orange Extreme as my base color
Color Club Cosmic Fate
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Crushed
Julep Marjorie
China Glaze Peachy Keen
Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat

It turned out wild and crazy! Just look at the last pic!

Monday Mani is Frivolous!

I saw a post on Chalkboard Nails about this really cute polish by Pretty & Polished call Me, Myself and Cacti. It really struck me for some reason, and I had to try it. She's right! Looks like a bouncy ball with a matte finish! I think it's a hoot! (Am I aging myself there?)

How can Monday be Monday with such fun nails?!

Fantastic Friday

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm really going to try to ignore that it's Friday the 13th today. At least it's Friday, right?!

Today's manicure is a semi recreation of my art deco manicure posted on August 19th. I wanted to try it with different colors so went with emerald and gold this time. The polishes used are from Shany. I got them in a bulk order. It's the first time I've used them, and they are okay.

I realized a couple things doing this manicure. 1. I apparently need a protractor to get the angles right and 2. Using silver striping tape over gold nail polish can be hard to see sometimes. I know this is not a perfect manicure, but I like the end result and am happy to share this one.

Wonderful weekend wishes to everyone!

Changing Things Up

I am going to start posting new manis three times a week instead of five. It's been too much to change everyday what with work and all. Plus I'll have more time to plan new designs rather than posting old manicures from a few months ago.

Thanks!

Water Marble Wednesday

Well, I missed posting yesterday. I was just not excited about my mani. It was not very inspired. But I'm back with a water marble that is so not me. I do not usually wear pink polish. I must be channeling that inner girly child again.

Here's what I used:

• Orly Bonder Base Coat
• Color Club Miss Bliss as base color and in the water marble
• Julep Nellie
• Essie Boom Boom Room
• Essie Licorice
• Seche Vite Fast Drying Top Coat

I love using the holographic polishes in water marbles. It gives such an interesting effect depending on the lighting and time of day.

I am also loving Lemony Flutter cuticle butter by Lush as well as their Tiny Hands hand cream. Check out their hand products at Lush.

Daytime

Nighttime

Monday Mani

Over the weekend, I decided to try out different looks. I really liked this one. I started off with 4 base colors. Then I used a fan brush to apply the other 3 colors over top of the base. I ended with applying crackle polish to three nails for accent.

I used the following:

• Seche Vite Ridge Filling Base Coat
• Orly Liquid Vinyl
• Orly Boho Bonnet
• China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise
• China Glaze Scandalous Shenanigans 
• Sally Hensen Fractured Foil
• Seche Vite Fast Drying Top Coat

I like the thumbs best. Those are with the Liquid Vinyl as as the base color.

Another Wild Weekend Mani

I like the leopard print so much that I decided to do a snow leopard this time. Honestly, I like the original better.

I used

• Seche Vite Ridge Filling Base Coat
• Julep Bunny as the base color
• Julep Daria for gray spots
• Orly Liquid Vinyl around the spots
• Essie Matte About You Top Coat

I think something must have startled me when I was doing the index finger on the left hand. It's messy. So overall, I'm not thrilled with this manicure and think I'll stick to the tawny colors in the future.

In the background is my purse. I think I'll do a manicure based on it sometime. I just have to figure out what exactly to do.

Have a wonderful weekend!

More Dots

I realize this is the second "doticure" this week. However, I like this one too. Okay, maybe I was a little nuts with the dots on this one. 

I used

• Seche Vite Ridge Filling Base Coat
• Color Club Silver Lake as the background
• Color Club East Austin (orange dots)
• Color Club Wicker Park (purple dots)
• Essie Licorice (black dots)
• Seche Vite Fast Drying Top Coat

I might leave off the black next time. 

Water Marble Wednesday

Loving my water marble manicure today! I used

• Seche Vite Ridge Filling Base Coat
• Julep Florence (nude) from the Classic with a Twist collection
• Kristy (blue) from the Boho Glam collection
• Seche Vite Fast Dry Top Coat

I started with a base coat, one coat of Florence and then started the water marble. I did get some water spots that burst so I put random dots on those nails.

I'm thinking next time of doing a neon and black with this design.

Dot...Dot...Dot

This is another manicure I did a while back. China Glaze Peachy Keen was the base coat. Then I dotted China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise and Sally Hensen Crushed. I think I might do this one again with all shades of orange and the turquoise on only one nail as an accent.

Monday Mani

This is pretty simple, but I love red and gold manicures. I started with China Glaze Go Crazy Red. Then I sponged on Julep Tatiana. Finished off with Seche Vite. I like the effect. Sorry for the slightly fuzzy pictures. I'll have to look into that.

Daytime

Nighttime

Weekend Mani

Daytime

Ready for the weekend?!

The inspiration for this manicure came from Meliney's Pebble Nail Art tutorial. I wanted to try a black on black manicure but did not want to do the glossy over matte again for some reason.

I started with a fairly thick coat Orly Liquid Vinyl. While it was still wet, I scattered drops of  Color Club's Beyond on the nail. I tried to keep it random and the drops pretty close together. After about 5 minutes, I put on Seche Vite to help speed up the drying time. This manicure does take a little while to dry so be sure to give yourself time for that.

Have a great weekend!

Nighttime

Keeping It Simple

I totally changed my plans for this manicure after starting. I was going to stamp the orange nails, but I decided I liked it just the way it is instead.

I used Julep Marjorie and China Glaze Flying South as an accent on each hand. Simple and interesting.

Water Marble Wednesday

This is a water marble I did at the beginning of summer. Oh, wish we didn't have to say goodbye to summer but am also looking forward to fall colors.

I didn't record what polishes I used. Pretty sure Essie's Bikini So Teeny and Color Club's Over the Moon are in there.

Please excuse the mess. Blue is one of the hardest colors for me to clean up!

Color Club - Girl About Town Fall Collection

I got the Girl About Town Fall Collection from Color Club. I was playing around with it some and thought I would post the results. I like the colors. I think a few of them are really bright for fall. So I decided to see what would happen if I layered them a bit.

 Here I painted my thumb in 2 coats of The Uptown. I was surprised at how purple it was after applying it. Then I painted the following:

• index finger in Wicker Park
• middle finger in Silver Lake
• ring finger in East Austin
• pinkie in Pearl District

This is 2 coats each. I do really like Pearl District. I also really like Williamsburg, but I didn't use it for this experiment. It's too pretty to cover with anything but a top coat!

Another big plus for me with this collection is how easy it is to remove, especially The Uptown. You know what a mess some flake polishes can be to remove!

After letting these dry, I decided to see how they would each look with a coat of The Uptown. The pic on the left I took in normal lighting, and it picked up some of the differences in color. The pic on the right is in shaded sunlight which I think really shows better. (Forgive the messy manicure please! I was rushing a bit.)

I really liked the effect of The Uptown over Pearl District. It has a coppery look and you can see iridescence really well.