New Year's!

Shocking! I didn't even post what holiday manicures I had done before I went out of town. Oh well! Onto this week's challenge that is about an hour away from being late.

The theme is New Year's and in my typical "wait til the last minute" fashion, I realized I didn't have a champagne glass stamp. I had to improvise with bubbles instead.

I fancied up my index and pinky finger with a smattering of glequins for good measure. The polish I used here was Champagne Kisses by China Glaze (which was super appropriate) with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep for the stamp.

China Glaze - Champagne Kisses

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Silver Sweep

NYC - Grand Central Station

Mash-50

Holiday Blues

This holiday season, I couldn't miss out on a blue and silver combo. It may not be traditional, but it's still gorgeous! I still have more holiday to cram in before it's too late!

This is Orly Witch's Blue with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep stamped on top.

The index finger is a snowflake from Fing'rs Flirt B17. The middle finger is what I assume is a reindeer from Shany SH13. The ring finger is from Shany SH03 which seems to be my favorite filler image.

Orly - Witch's Blue

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Silver Sweep

NYC - Grand Central Station

Fing'rs Flirt - B17

Shany - SH13

Shany - SH03

Holly over Red

Today's challenge is "Over Red". Perfect opportunity to get in some holiday manicures that I've been slacking about. I'll be out of town over Christmas without my camera and nail stuff so I only have a couple of days to do some marathon holiday nail art.

I started off with Elmer's glue and a base of e.l.f. Smokin' Hot. China Glaze Pure Joy could be applied alone but didn't give clean edges. After several coats of NYC Grand Central Station to make the surface smooth, I stamped the holly with Wet n Wild French White Creme and painted green over the top with acrylic paint. The holly berries are glequins from the Born Pretty Store.

China Glaze - Pure Joy

e.l.f. - Smokin' Hot

Wet n Wild - French White Creme

NYC - Grand Central Station

Bundle Monster - BM14

Challenge: Winter

I know I need a better method of photographing my nails during the winter. Well that or not being so lazy about doing my nails and posting challenges at the last minute.

This week is a winter challenge. I think this color combo turned out great. I'll admit it looks a little sub par in this lighting though. Both of the images are from the new Shany set. I think the snow covered trees with snow was the perfect image for this week. 

I need to pick up the pace and get started on holiday manicures before it's too late!

Pure Ice - Platinum

Wet n Wild - French White Creme

NYC - Extra Shiny Top Coat

Shany - SH202

Shany - SH207

Blue Dandelions

Another Sunday another challenge. This week was a simple theme "Over Blue". I really appreciated the freedom this time around with all the new stuff I've gotten recently. I went for a couple of weeks of not buying anything and now I'm just trying to cram it all in. 

I used Mash M-30 over a blue gradient. I've seen some elaborate designs with this image, but those people have about twice the surface area on their nails that I do!

I used a new to me set of Kleancolor called Blue Maniacs. As with all my Kleancolors, I get them in sets at Ross for $3.99. I even got the green set. I'm not that big of a fan of green, but I couldn't stop staring at the box while standing in line.

After sponging on the gradient, I used a topcoat to smooth the finish. Once I was done stamping, I topped everything off with a matte topcoat to give it a nice soft finish to simulate the sky.

Kleancolor - Lake Mist

Kleancolor - Kawaii Stuff

Kleancolor - Cobalt

Sally Hansen - Hard to Get

NYC - Matte Me Crazy

Mash - M30

Sinful Colors Winter Wonder

With Christmas coming up, I've been trying to avoid nail purchases due to people asking for wishlists. I made the mistake of going into Rite Aid the other day. There were a few holiday polish displays and I couldn't risk adding them to my wishlist and possibly not getting them!

One of my must haves was this one - Sinful Colors Winter Wonder. I loved the million little sparkles in the bottle and even more on my nails. I've read that it's a near match to OPI Her Majesty's Secret service from the holiday Skyfall collection. Judging from the swatches online, they're very similar.

Even though I had a nail plate extravaganza for my birthday, I went low key with just an accent finger on this one to avoid overpowering this amazing polish.

Sinful Colors - Winter Wonder

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Silver Sweep

Bundle Monster - BM12

NYC - Extra Shiny Top Coat

Matte Snakeskin

I haven't posted in a while due to a combination of illness, birthday, and really just a creative block. I have been painting my nails of course, and I even had a really elaborate design for my birthday, but it just wasn't up to par for posting. I think I've just about kicked this sinus infection and just in time because my wonderful sister, who also loves nail polish, had given me TONS of new plates for my birthday! I also had an order come in yesterday from Born Pretty and I have new plates everywhere. I feel really overwhelmed.

I tried to hurry and get back on the horse for this Sunday's challenge because it's Some Aspect of Matte and I've been trying to use any Kleancolor Metallic for a while and this was the perfect opportunity.

Using my new Shany set, I used 2 different snakeskin patterns. I think the middle finger was the better choice, but I had already done the other pattern and as usual, running late for the challenge so I wasn't going to go back and do the whole thing over again.

Sinful Colors - Nirvana

Kleancolor - Metallic Orange

NYC - Matte Me Crazy

Shany - SH213

Shany - SH225

Glitter Snowflakes

I've been having the worst luck photographing my nails lately. It's constantly overcast during this season and all my indoor lighting has a yellow tone. I'm sorry about the weird tones, but I did my best to adjust to make the polish accurate but not so much as far as the skin tone.

This week's challenge is "over glitter". I've done a lot of glitter before, so I was hoping to make this one stand out from the rest. It's a little premature for the area I live in, but I thought I'd get the jump on snowflakes before everyone else.

The images are a combo of Shany and Bundle Monster. The polish is layers of Hard Candy, Sinful Colors, Pure Ice, L.A. Colors, and a couple of coats of Seche Vite to smooth out the uneven glitter surface.

Hard Candy - Sky

Sinful Colors - Cinderella

Pure Ice - Oh Baby!

L.A. Colors - Sparkling Diamonds

Sally Hansen - Hard to Get

Seche Vite - topcoat

Shany - SH17

BM - 323

Happy Halloween!

Although it's late, it's still Halloween! Sadly this is the last Halloween manicure of the year and somehow I avoided pumpkins all month. This one is really simple, but I think it's my favorite. To give it that extra special Halloween kick, I lowered the saturation on everything but my nails giving it that nice bright orange pop.

This was really easy. The base color is Milani Metallic Mango and the tips were sponged with Sinful Colors Black on Black. The image, which has been my favorite all fall, is BM-224 stamped with Wet n Wild Black Creme.

Milani - Metallic Mango

Sinful Colors - Black on Black

Wet n Wild - Black Creme

NYC - Extra Shiny Top Coat

BM - 224

The Fourteenth

Today's challenge is using a plate that ends in the day you were born. I was born November 14th so I used BM-314. Being all caught up in Halloween, I waited until the last minute to do this one. It didn't photograph as pretty as it looked on my nails, but I didn't have much time and the hurricane Sandy dark skies weren't on my side either. Oh well. Live and learn.

Although I like Twilight Rays, The color looks more black than green in pictures and the gold glitter is more intense in the bottle as it clings to the glass. Stamped, the Yellow Metallic turned out more gold than yellow. I still like it, but it isn't blowing me away like I had envisioned.

Maybelline Color Show - Twilight Rays

Kleancolor - Metallic Yellow

NYC - Extra Shiny Top Coat

BM - 314

Spider Skittles

With October winding down, I'm running out of time to fit in more last minute Halloween ideas. I had to do spiders some time so I went with a skittles manicure to incorporate all the images I own.

The base color I used was e.l.f. Metal Madness. It's a dark metallic gray with a subtle holographic glitter. I put too much stuff over the top of it for the glitter to show up on my nails though. The index finger is Silver Sweep sponged on the tip. The ring finger is Fantasy Makers Confetti poured over the top of very wet nail polish and sealed in with a couple of layers of topcoat. I used wax paper underneath so I could put the excess back in the bottle.

e.l.f. - Metal Madness

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Silver Sweep

Wet n Wild - Black Creme

Fantasy Makers - Confetti

N.Y.C. - Extra Shiny Top Coat

Shany - SH01, SH09, SH25

Red Halloween

I'm rushing this post to get my Sunday Challenge in before the end of the day. This week was a really simple Halloween free for all. I'm still trying to avoid orange and pumpkins as much as possible so I did red. Why red? Why not?!

All the images used were from Bundle Monster. From one set to the next, their spooky house got spookier and more detailed.

I started out with a gradient of Sinful Colors Hot Hot Heat and Rich in heart. I had to get in the before stamping photo because I thought the 2 metallics looked so pretty together.

Sinful Colors - Hot Hot Heat

SInful Colors - Rich in Heart

Wet n Wild - Black Creme

Orly - Top 2 Bottom

BM - 213

BM - 224

BM - 305

Wicked Inspiration

Going through my Halloween images, I settled on the hat from plate BM-209. Using colors inspired by Wicked, I stamped the hat in black for Elphaba and in white (with a stamper to stamper transfer) on the accent finger for Galinda. 

Anything other than the hats seemed to be too much. So on the other fingers, I used a generic design from Shany SH15. On top of the green, it ended up with a Frankensteinish effect.

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Lickety-Split Lime

Sinful Colors - Black on Black

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails - Hard to Get

Wet n Wild - Black Creme
Orly - Top 2 Bottom

BM - 209

Shany - SH15

Sexy Devil

Would it be Halloween without seeing at least one girl wearing the sexy devil costume?! The big chunky glitter is Spoiled Ants in My Pants. It has a sheer gray base so I started with 1 coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Red Carpet. The ring finger is 1 coat of Sinful Colors Black on Black, 3 coats of Sally Hansen Red Carpet, and 3 coats of Sinful Colors All about you. Of course, because I used glitter, I started with a basecoat of Elmer's School Glue!

Thank you, Halloween for giving me the opportunity to use images I wouldn't otherwise use!

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Red Carpet

Sinful Colors - Black on Black

Sinful Colors - All About You

Spoiled - Ants in My Pants

JLB - Immortal Gold

Wet n Wild - Black Creme

Seche Vite - topcoat

Shany - SH09

Halloween Witch

Another Halloween theme and I'm continuing to avoid pumpkins! I'm still in love with glitter so I wanted to make this one sparkly too. I went with a base of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Loves Me not. Then I did 1 coat of Sinful Colors I Miss You which gave me a purple starry night sky effect. I had to freehand a moon to get the witch to show up. The moon was a little sloppy, but it worked.

I'll be honest. I had to do some photoshop cleanup on this one to remove the next day cracking. I'm not sure which polish caused it, but that's what I get for not taking pictures the same day.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Loves Me Not

Sinful Colors - I Miss You

Wet n Wild - White Creme

Wet n Wild - Black Creme

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Silver Sweep

NYC - Fast Drying Top Coat

Shany - SH02

Shany - SH03

Snow White

I've been staring at the 2 Fantasy Makers polishes I got weeks ago and trying to think of something for Halloween. I got the red glitter Once Upon a Time and the purple based Rest in Pieces. The two of them together kept reminding me of Snow White's apple and the queen. So for the first attempt at Halloween this year, I went with more dress up than the tradition pumpkins or black cats.

Of course these were an impulse buy. After putting on the one coat of Once Upon a time, I realized it's exactly like Spoiled Ants in My Pants. Both have a gray base and take about 5 coats to get coverage. I'm not sure, but I think Rest in Pieces may be black with purple micro glitter. It definitely looks purple though with all those sparkles.

Fantasy Makers - Once Upon a Time

Fantasy Makers - Rest in Pieces

JLB - Immortal Gold

Seche Vite - topcoat

BM - 215

SE18

Black and White Swan

This week is Metallic Madness. I've been trying a few different things with this plate for a while. This week's theme gave me the inspiration for something better!

I would say I took some liberties with the madness part of this challenge. I used China Glaze Stone Cold and Pure Ice Platinum. Stone Cold dries matte, but it ended up with a satin finish with a shiny topcoat. I had to use a different black for the black swan because the stamper couldn't fully pick up Stone Cold.

To get the swan facing the opposite direction, I stamped with my XL stamper and then onto my Salon Express stamper before my nail. This is definitely a trial and error method, but it eventually worked out well. I wasn't a fan of the asymmetrical wings on this plate, but it actually turned out better that way for me on this manicure. My pinky nail is way to small for the wing size on the left. I used the stamper transfer method on my right hand to get the wings on the correct fingers too.

China Glaze - Stone Cold

Pure Ice - Platinum

Wet n Wild - Black Creme

Orly - Top 2 Bottom

Shany - SH03

Green Tips

I didn't intend to do 2 Sunday Challenges so close together using the same green base, but I've been so slack about my nails lately, I hadn't even seen this week's challenge until today. Fortunately I had done this manicure sometime in August and just hadn't posted it yet.

I tried to get a good macro of the design on this stamp, but although Kleancolor Metallic Green stamped really well, it's a little too gritty looking for a sharp design. 

Another reason I accidentally used the same green polish is because I'm really loving Finger Paints Tough Art to Follow. The best part about it was how cheap I had gotten it at Sally's when their clearance was half off. In the Gold Leafy post, it looks so much darker in different lighting.

Finger Paints - Tough Art to Follow

Kleancolor - Metallic Green

NYC - Extra Shiny Top Coat

Shany - SH06

First Attempt at Nail Tape

This was my first time trying out nail tape. I had originally used it to mask my ring finger, but I was too cautious in removing it and the polish dried too much resulting in a messy stripe. This is also my first time using the Spectraflair topcoat I made with my sisters a few weeks ago. Too many polishes so little time! On the downside, the topcoat was an afterthought and took away from the natural subtle sparkles of Orly After Party on my ring finger.

You can see on the edges I made the mistake of doing my nails at night with the intention of photographing them in the morning. The edges started to lift in my sleep. I tried to clip them down a little, but after a couple of hours I was pulling them the rest of the way off.

The picture below is a better shot of the Spectraflair holo, but still doesn't do it as much justice as being in full sunlight. I think one more coat would have done a better job of giving it a more linear feel.

Finger Paints - Grape Gumball

Orly - After Party

Spectraflair - topcoat

Pink Nail Tape

Reds!

My favorite color is red and with my abundance of Sinful Color polishes I have plenty to play with! The stamp I used seemed a little too festive with the reds so I offset it with a butterfly. In my opinion there's no such thing as too much red or butterflies.

On top, I used Oh Golly Gee by Pixel. It's garbage as a polish by itself, but so pretty layered on top of other polishes.

This photo shows the sparkles a little better and how much better it shows up the darker the base polish.

Sinful Colors - Rich In Heart

Sally Hansen - Quick Brick

Sinful Colors - Hot Hot Heat

Sinful Colors - Dancing Nails

Sally Hansen - Silver Sweep

Shany - SH03

Shany - SH12

B for Blue Braid

Of course another Facebook group challenge! This one is Llama Nails and their challenge is the alphabet. I missed A and we're already on to B. I had to work today so I'm late posting. I'm disappointed I'm not the first braid today! My braids were a little textured and lumpy in parts, but it was nothing 3 coats of Seche Vite couldn't fix! I apologize for the awful quality picture, but I did my nails last night and I prefer natural light for photographing them and figured I'd just take pictures in the morning. I was slow to get ready for work and wasn't dressed appropriately for outside photography so this is as much light as a rainy day was letting in through the windows.

Sinful Colors - Ocean Side

Sinful Colors - Savage

Sinful Colors - Rain Storm

Art Deco - Silver

Seche Vite - topcoat

Gold Leafy

I took the week off, but I couldn't miss Sunday in Adventures in Stamping! This week is Leafy and I only stamped one leafy thing because doing the other fingers wound up looking cluttered.

I did 3 coats of a dark green and then I stamped the fern image with a Shany plate and then barely stamped the other fingers with a tip stamp also from Shany to give it a gold leaf gilded look. It was overcast today so although the green is dark, it looks almost black in these photos.

Finger Paints - Tough Art to Follow

JLB - Immortal Gold

NYC - Extra  Shiny Top Coat

SH17

SH06

Poison Dart Frogs

Although I've been pretty slack about posting lately, it's Sunday! Which means another AIS challenge. This week: Toxic or Poisonous. The first thing that came to mind was snake, and even though I had some good snake ideas, I wanted to do something else. My thinking outside the box only got me so far as Poison Dart Frogs. They are so vibrant and of course cute. There's a bunch of different colored poisonous frogs, but red, green, blue, and yellow seem to be the basic colors. Their patterns vary too. So doing the best with what I had this is what I came up with!

I used 3 different Bundle Monster images and a Salon Express. These 2 photos are with NYC matte topcoat for the less wet frog look. The last photo is the original shiny, but I was just in love with the yellow matte finish.

The yellow pattern was my favorite, but the Salon Express full nail images are too small to fit on any other finger. I tried to add eyes, but that turned out looking really stupid.

e.l.f. - Smokin Hot

Wet n Wild - SaGreena the Teenage Witch

Pure Ice - French Kiss

L.A. Colors Art Deco - Yellow

Wet n Wild - Black Creme

NYC - Extra Shiny Top Coat

NYC - Matte me Crazy

BM-313

BM-222

BM-211

SE22