Lemon Lime

Hot. Humid. Sticky.  That was the weather yesterday in Detroit.  100 Degrees.  Thankfully we only get a handful of those hot hot days each summer.  As I was drinking my ice cold Bud Light Lime, it reminded me of one of the stamping plates from the new Bundle Monster set (BM 308) and this mani was concieved.

To get this look I used Sally Hansen Insta Dry in Lightening and Just in Lime as base and stamping colors.  Lately, I have been loving these Insta Dry polishes.  I used to just use them for stamping, but I am loving the one coat coverage and fast dry time. 

Here is a  side-by-side so that you can see the difference in alternating the base colors and stamping colors.  On the left thumb, the base is Lightening, stamped with Just in Lime, and the right thumb is Just in Lime stamped with Lightening.

And one last parting shot for the road...

Thanks for looking.  Happy Polishing!!

Side note: Please excuse the different watermarks in the pictures. As a new blogger I am testing out different picture editing websites to find out what fits for me, but I'm trying to keep it as consistent as possible.  Bear with me :)

Monkey See Monkey Do Monday!!

Hi Ladies.

Today is my first time participating in Monkey See Monkey Do Monday.  I am so excited to to be a part of this with all the other fabulously creative nailnistas :)  The rules of Monkey See Monkey Do Monday are simple: re-create a mani from another blog and provide a link to the original manicure. 

My MSMD inspiration comes from Thriszha at Fab Ur Nails. She has the cutest nail designs and she also sells stamping plates and polish. Check out her blog. 

Outside, sunlight

Outside, sunlight

Outside, shade

To get this look I use the polishes above, L to R, Presto Pink, Fast Fuchsia, and stamped the design with Orchid Express. 

I thnk I'm gonna like the Monkey See Monkey Do thing.  I have seen so many great mani's that I can't wait to try.  This should be fun.

Thanks for looking.  Happy Polishing!!

Sunday Stamping Challenge

Hello Ladies.

Today is Sunday and in my nail world Sunday means the stamping challege for the Facebook group Adventures in Stamping.  This week the theme is Goth.  I don't know much about the gothic culture, but here is my interpretation. 

I used Kleancolor Angel Red and China Glaze Stone Cold for the base.  The silver is Revlon Top Speed in Metallic, and the black is Kleancolor Metallic Black.  I went through all my stamping plates and pulled out the ones that matched the theme.  So here's the rundown:

Chains: BM 12

Skull: Mash 29

Cross (thumb): BM 13

Cross (middle finger): Shany SH 15

Roses: BM 323

Cross (pinky): BM 01

All in all, I like how this turned out. I just wish that the roses were more visible.  So whatcha think? Did I do goth good?

Thanks for looking.  Happy polishing!!

African Jade Foil

Hello Ladies.  A few day ago I recieved my order from Dollar Nail Art. I got some great stuff that I cant wait to play with. First on the list was the gorgoeus African Jade foil.  The pattern on this foil kinda reminds me of crackle polish or Italian marble.

This was my first time using foils, and the application was fairly easy.  All you need is you base color, the foil adhesive and the foil of your choice. 

I started off with two coats of Milani Mint Candy for the base.  When that was completely dry I burshed on the adhesive using a french pattern on alll of the fingers except the ring finger.  The adhesive goes on milky white and is ready to be foiled when it truns clear.

Cut a  small amount of foil from the roll, enough to cover the entire nail. Place the foil on your nail and press down firmly over the nail surface then peel off the excess foil.  Topcoat and you're done.  The topcoat makes the foil crackle slightly, but it smooths out once its dry.  Do not use fast dry topcoats, as they make the foil crackle more.  As you can see there is still foil on the sheet.  I used these areas to do the French so that I was not wasting the foil.

Now for some pics of the finished product...

So overall, I think I like the foils for a quick and easy mani.  The only downside to the foils is that the wear is not that great.  After havin this on my nails for one day there was major tip wear on all the nails.  Even with two coats of topcoat.  It may be due to user error. I'll have to experiment with different topcoats on future foil mani's.

Thanks for looking.  Until next time ladies.  Happy polishing!

Glitta!

Hello Ladies!  Today I have a super sparkly mani to share with you.  I did this design for the Sunday Stamping Challenge .  The theme was "glitter in there somewhere".  I used two polishes from the Glaze Prismatic Chroma Glitters collection, Optical Illusion and Full Spectrum. Optical Illusion is an aqua-blue duochrome  superfine glitter that flashes to lavender with larger pieces of multicolored glitter.  Full Spectrum  is light pink with a lavender flash and contains the same multicolored glitter as Optical Illusion.

Giveaway!!

Glam Polish is celebrating 1500 followers by giving your choice of six colors from the China Glaze On Safari Collection.  Click HERE to enter.

OPI DS Reserve

Imagine my excitement when I laid my eyes on a silver topped OPI polish at my local Ulta.  It was the only one on the shelf, and they were running a sale at the time.  I thought to myself, this was meant for me.  So I picked her up and brought her home. She sat on my nail polish rack for about a month untried.  But lo and behold it was a sunny day and what better day to wear a holo?

And this is where my excitement ended.  I love the soft muted pink color, BUT WHERE'S THE HOLO??? The pretty holo made an appearance in the bottle but went into hiding on my nails. No matter how I tried ( no topcoat, sunlight, different angles) I could not get that awesome holo shine. The glitter showed up as more of a superfine silver glitter.  Bad bottle maybe, I dunno.  As with most OPI's the formula was fantastic.  Smooth application and opague in one coat, although the pics show two.  Check out the pics to see what I mean.




outside, sunlight



outside, shade



Indoors

I had such high hopes for the holo in this polish. 

So...I decided to stamp.  Let me just say that today was not a good polish day for me. Does this happen to anyone else?  I broke out the stamping plates and really wanted to try the bubble image from Mash-43.  I am very impressed with the quality of these plates.  So far all of the images that I have used transfer clearly.  Please take that into consideration when you look at the last picture.  The smears on the index finger are due to user error, I was kinda frustrated at this point.  Also, the pinky finger is a bit smeared due to the topcoat. I was testing out a new topcoat on this mani. 

I decided to try out the Oh So Wet! quick dry topcoat instead of my usual Seche Vite. Oh So Wet! lives up to its title because my nails still look oh so wet even when they are dry. The shine from this stuff is awesome, and it lasts for several days.   It also works well as a topcoat for stamped nails as long as you have the brush loaded and go over each area only once (the smears on the pinky are from going over the nail several times).

So whaddya think?  What is your experience with the OPI DS holos?

Until next time Ladies.  Happy polishing!!

Turned Up Turquoise

Meet my new color crush.

Outside, sunlight



Indoors

Turned Up Turquoise from China Glaze is the perfect summer neon blue green with just a hint of silver shimmer. Like most neons, this polish dries to a matte finish. The pictures show two coats topped off with Seche Vite to let it's teal glory shine thru.

Even though I am head over heels for this color, I just could not leave well enough alone.  I had to add a little something extra.  This image came  from my new set of MASH stamping plates. I love the combination of turquoise and bronze.For the stamping,  I used Avon Speed-Dry Bronze.

 Until next time Ladies.  Happy Polishing!!

Mash Haul

Today, I received my first order from Mash Nails.  I am very impressed with their service so far.  My order was placed on Tuesday and I was opening my package on Thursday :)  On top of the fast delivery, the shipping was FREE.  Gotta love it.  My order included their  Image Plates Set (26-50), Professional 15 piece Nail Art Brush Set, and 5 x 2 Nail Art Dotting Tools.

Pink Lemonade

The nail that I have to show you today is a bright summertime gradient that makes me think of pink lemonade.  Gradients are one of my favorite type of manicure. There is just so much that you can do with nail polish and a sponge.  The sky's the limit.

To get this look, I painted the entire nail with Pink Hottie from the Milani Neon collection. This pink is much brighter IRL, but my camera did not want to capture all its neon glory.   Next I sponged on SH Insta-Dry in Lightening on the tips. When everything was thoroughly dry I stamped the image from BM 203 with Insta-Dry Whirlwind White.  The image got a bit smeared from the topcoat.  I ended up using FingerPaints topcoat because I could not find my Seche Vite.

So what do you think?  Do you prefer to use contrasting colors or colors within the same family for gradients? 

Until next time ladies!

Welcome to my new blog!!

Hey Divas! Welcome to my blog.  I am so excited to share with you my love for all things nail polish and nail art related and to join some of the most creative bloggers that have served as my nailspiration when I just couldn't decide what to do with my nails. 

So lets get this party started!

Colorblock  Cheetah

Here's a colorblock mani that was stamped with the cheetah print from BM-221. The base colors  are Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Brisk Blue and Lively Lilac, Kleancolor black for the stamping and Wet n Wild Megalast I Need a Refresh Mint for the dots. Topped everything off with one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust and a coat of Seche Vite. Next time I will put the Fairy Dust on before the stamping so that the design stands out more.

Colorblock Zebra

Animal print and hot pink. Need I say more...

Neon!!

Here is a freehand neon design done with SinfulColors Pink Creme and Irish Green.  Added some colorful whisps and black and white dots for the accent nail.  I really like the freehand designs and I want to do more save for the fact that I am not ambidextrous. But like the saying goes, practice makes perfect, so I intend on practicing unitl its *almost* perfect.  Ummm hello...art is never perfect ;)  

Pastel Ruffian

I decided to try my hand at doing a ruffian mani.  Using some french tip guides that I found, it was not as hard as I thought. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Lively Lilac and Studio M Jade. In between the base and the stamping I used a coat of Essie Shine of the Times.  Essie SOTT gave this mani a sort of 3D look. Loved the effect. 

Flowerchild

This is one of my favorite mani's of all.  Love the rainbow of colors (if you're like me and have a hard time choosing one color then you know what I mean). I used the sponge technique and randomly applied the colors, then did one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust.  The Fairy Dust helps to tie all the colors together and give it that extra bit of oomph.  Then stamped the flowers from RA 106 and the peace sign from QA 11.  Kleancolor black is my go-to for a black stamping polish.  It is thick and has always been opague in my experience.  Of course everything is topped off with a coat of Seche Vite.

The colors used for this mani (from L to R) are Studio M Jade, Milani U Pinky Swear, SinfulColors Cinderella, Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Brisk Blue, SHID Lightening, Sally Hansen Hard as Nails No Hard Feelings, ChinaGlaze fairy Dust.

That's all for now.  Thank you for visiting my blog.  Please comment and subscribe.  More magnificent mani's to come!   Happy polishing!!