Confetti Crush

Really quick one today! This is 2 coats of Confetti Crush by love & beauty from Forever 21 over 2 coats of Sun Kissed by ULTA. Unfortunately the back of the love & beauty bottle lists the color as crystal/multi, but according to their website they call it Confetti Crush. It's mulit colored asymmetrical flakies and it was great for a day I just didn't feel like doing any real nail art. I've been doing more glitter lately with the Elmer's Glue basecoat technique, but of course I forgot to do it on this one so I'm sure it'll be fun getting it off.

love & beauty - Confetti Crush

ULTA - Sun Kissed

Orly - Top 2 Bottom

Beetle Love

A little while ago I was super excited to pick up Hard Candy Beetle which looks exactly the same as Orly Space Cadet for half the price. In the meantime, during the Sally's Beauty Supply half off all clearance items event, I got the Orly Original French Manicure set that had Space Cadet in it. The set included Top 2 Bottom, Liquid Leather, Space Cadet, chevron tip stickers, and regular french manicure stickers. I paid less for the whole set than I did for Hard Candy Beetle. Oops! If only I had know before. Which means I have a lucky sister that gets Beetle! I hadn't actually used it so before it gets gifted I had to try it out and OH   MY   GOD I love it!

Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone. I had to stamp it with... beetles of course.

I was so excited about this picture I had to make it X-Large! I positioned my fingers so you could see just how different it looks at different angles.

Straight on, it looks like purple with a gold shimmer. This is also the way the bottle looks.

Another X-Large because those little sparkles are amazing. I stamped Lady Beetles in black, gold, and silver marching across my nails.

Hard Candy - Beetle

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Silver Sweep

Wet n Wild - Black Creme

JLB - Immortal Gold

Orly Top 2 Bottom - base and topcoat

Shany - SH12

Pulsating Pink/Purple

I hate this Sunday's Challenge. However, in the spirit of things, I made sure it was as obnoxious as possible!

Kleancolor - Pastel Pink

Kleancolor - Barbie Pink

Kleancolor - Metallic Purple

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - topcoat

Shany - SH04

Glitter Explosion

I'm ashamed to admit I usually try to stay away from glitter due to the effort it takes to take it off. Being that I change my nails daily, it becomes a hassle. I saw a post by Mandy in Adventures in Stamping the other day and not only did I need to try her manicure out, I needed to buy the same brand glitter polish to do it too! Luckily with the Sally's Beauty Supply clearance deal going on right now, I picked up a teal shimmery Finger Paints polish that worked perfect as a base to fill in the bare spots under the glitter.

Here's the closeup of the finished product with BM-320 over the top.

This picture is in natural light. The rest were taken inside with a mix of lighting. It looks way toned down with the stamp over the top. Below are the pictures that show just how ridiculously packed on the glitter is!

This was 2 coats and then a lot of strategic placement of Teal Jewel FX by Milani.

I thought the glitter looked absolutely gorgeous, but I really needed the stamp because flashy blinding blue glitter isn't something I feel like I can pull off on a regular day.

Finger Paints - Late Night Rendezvous

Milani Jewel FX - Teal

Wet n Wild - Black Creme

Seche Vite - topcoat

BM - 320

Leopard Sock

So this one was inspired by my socks. The socks are actually heart leopard spots, but I gave it a shot freehand and I just didn't have the patience so I used the leopard print stamp from Bundle Monster. I'm not thrilled with this one but as far as it looking like my socks, I succeeded there.

The socks were some I'd gotten for Christmas in my stocking from the $1 sock section in Target. I just found them in the bottom of a suitcase recently and wore them for the first time. Better late than never!

NYC - Sidewalkers

Maybelline - Purple Icon

JLB - Pinkie Swear

JLB - Blush

Seche Vite - topcoat

BM - 221

Rain Storm

Wishful thinking. I'm having a lazy day with nothing to do. It would be a perfect day for rain. Although it's only succeeded in a sprinkle, at least my nails are in the spirit!

Using the Bundle Monster 2012 set, I used the cloud image and the lines from 319 to try and achieve a sheeting rain effect on my accent nail. Appropriately, I used Sinful Colors Rain Storm (one of my absolute favorites) to stamp the clouds.

Sinful Colors - Rainstorm

Sinful Colors - Snow Me White

NYC - Sidewalkers

JLB - Deep Sea

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - topcoat

BM - 312

BM - 319

Butterfly Wing

Crisis averted! I had been brooding over the fact that I couldn't order the butterfly wing plate from Nailz Craze because my childlike nail beds are about half the size of her small wing image. Determined, I wondered how hard could it possibly be to paint some lines and dots on myself. It's not hard at all! It just takes patience. The most frustrating part is having to clean your brush after each nail in acetone to get rid of the goop that builds up from drying nail polish.

The lines could have been a little cleaner but this was a first try. I'll definitely be doing this again and trying different colors. I was trying to go for an iridescent wing look with China Glaze Rare & Radiant from their Bohemian collection. Again, I had issues capturing the duochrome on camera but from this angle you can see the blue around the edges.

China Glaze - Rare & Radiant

Wet n Wild - Black Creme

Wet n Wild - French White Creme

Can't Wait for Fall

It's Sunday again which means another challenge in Adventures in Stamping. This week's challenge is Can't Wait for Fall. Originally I wanted to do leaves, but then I figured most people would do leaves. So to mix it up a little I went with the Bundle Monster combo of owl and vines from the pumpkin image over some glittered gradients. This was definitely some trial and error and a week of thinking, but it was so worth it because I love the way it turned out!

I think the owl is so cute. Unfortunately my nails are too small to make use of the full nail plate featuring the owls.

Wet n Wild - The Wonder Yellows

Milani - Metallic Mango

Sally Hansen - Quick Brick

Sinful Colors - All About You

e.l.f. - Chocolate

Seche Vite - topcoat

BM - 224

BM - 309

Maybelline Fall 2012 Limited Edition Color Show

I read these were coming out soon so I hunted them down at Rite Aid. I only bought 2 colors because I couldn't find any swatches anywhere and the other colors just didn't seem special enough.

The first one I got was Pink Cosmo which is a dupe for Swanky Silk in China Glaze's Bohemian Collection. I had the hardest time photographing this one. It kept showing up as gold with a flash of green on camera. It's actually gold with a pink duochrome. I did better with the natural light but it still wasn't quite as pink in the photo as it is in person.

Maybelline Color Show - Pink Cosmo

This one is Downtown Brown. As you can see in the macro shot, it has a teal duochrome but you can't see it's actually brown. Again, in person it's less teal and more green but I had the hardest time getting an accurate color.

Maybelline Color Show - Downtown Brown

Both shots of Downtown Brown were taken in the same natural lighting. One was just closer to the camera than the other.

Rain Card

I did a gradient of Wet n Wild Rain Check and Wild Card. The polishes are way too sheer for an easy gradient though. The amount I had to put on made it hard to work with and slow to dry. I peeled it off about 24 hours later and the bottom layer was still mushy. I used a small stamp on this one to not take away from the base colors. The stamp polish is Sally Hansen Hard to Get. This one works great for me because it's gotten thick and goopy over time.

I tried to get a few different angles to showcase Pure Ice Oh Baby! that I put over the other 2 colors, but it didn't photograph well. Oh Baby! is a pretty clear base with tons of blue micro glitter that has a pink holo effect. It looks great over blues and purples especially.

This one is the most color accurate. I should have added at least 1 more coat of Oh Baby! but there was way too much polish already.

Wet n Wild - Rain Check

Wet n Wild - Wild Card

Pure Ice - Oh Baby!

Sally Hansen - Hard to Get

Seche Vite - topcoat

Shany - SH18

Green Spider

Today's Sunday Challenge is using 2 or more stamps. 

I was originally going to do a flower on flowers design, but when I stamped on the roses I realized I needed a pop of color and I immediately thought about this photo I had taken a while back.

At the time, this spider totally creeped me out, but he served his purpose today.

L.A. Colors - Magnetic Force

e.l.f. - Smokin' Hot

Sally Hansen - Lickety-Split Lime

Seche Vite - topcoat

BM - 323

Shany - SH09

Black and Red Butterflies

If you don't have an XL stamper, why not? I got mine in the mail yesterday from here. The biggest problem I had with stamping was my little curved nails. Not only are they curved side to side, but they also curve top to bottom and I can't roll the stamper 2 different directions at one time! Anyway I read some lengthy discussion in the Adventures in Stamping group about the XL stamper and why it was so awesome. You really just have to squish it down on your nail and it covers the whole thing! How was I stamping without this?!

I waited until after I got home from work today to take these pictures, so the lighting isn't the best since the sun had almost set at this point. I love the shimmery micro glitter in SH Red Carpet. For the accent nail, I went with the chunkier glitter in Spoiled Ants in my Pants. This polish does have a gray base, but I needed 4 coats to get it opaque. I've seen other people start with a black base to skip building up the color. I wish I had gotten a picture, but on my other hand I put it on top of Red Carpet and it gave it a red/gray duochrome effect with tons of glitter. You can't go wrong there.

Sally Hansen - Red Carpet

Spoiled - Ants in my Pants

Wet n Wild - Black Creme

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - topcoat

BM - 205

First Fimo

This idea was good on paper but the execution could have been better. I've been meaning to try out some fimo canes my sister gave me a few weeks ago. I wanted to match my yellow shirt and gray pants today so I picked a yellow flower design. If I had reversed the colors, this would have turned out much better because Sinful Colors Unicorn is definitely not a 1 coat polish and the amount I had to use over NYC Bowery Black made it mushy and goopy and you could still see the black through it. There's no macro shot today! This one looked cute from far away, but up close, it's a big ol' mess.

NYC - Bowery Black

Sinful Colors - Unicorn

Seche Vite - topcoat

Flirt Plate B17

Yellow Flower Fimo Cane

New Storage!

Melmers seem to be the go-to nail polish storage. I figured the plastic storage boxes I was using was good enough, but with Michael's sale this week of 40% off all storage, how could I not buy one really?! With the sale I bought the 1 storage cube for $24. I also bought 3 sheets of scrapbooking paper for $0.59 a piece. I got this idea from the blog rebecca likes nails. To follow her step by step guide to decorating the front of your Melmers, click here.

There were a couple of things I noted along the way that would help the process in the future. The first thing is, the vertical striped paper was the best because you aren't going to find scrapbooking paper wide enough to fit the drawers and the stripes were an excellent way to hide the seams. You can't tell at first glance, but you can easily spot the seam on the butterflies. The other thing is if you're not familiar with Mod Podge, as I wasn't, it will leave brush strokes. I used a foam brush and it still left brush strokes you can see in the light. Again, the vertical stripes were great at hiding that a lot better than the butterflies. I personally loved the butterfly paper so much that it won't bother me, but there's a couple of tips for you if that's a deal breaker.

Paw Prints

The other day I was agonizing over which set of plates to buy. The paw prints and puppy face pretty much sealed the Shany deal for me. I'm sure a neutral base and brown stamp has been done before, but it's just the perfect combo for this stamp.

I used L.A. Colors Mega Watt which is almost the same color as my skin, but with the slightest shimmer to it. It took about 3 coats to cover, and it was still a little sheer, but really for $1.00 can you complain?

L.A. Colors - Mega Watt

e.l.f. - Chocolate

Seche Vite - topcoat

SH08

Glistening Purple

I recently discovered the best Dollar Tree ever! I've been in some that have a couple of rows of nail polish but this one had the biggest selection and each peg was crammed full of L.A. Colors nail polish. I really really love L.A. Colors and the best part is, they're only $1.00! Anyway I found a couple of glitter polishes I had to have and this is the first one I couldn't live without.

It was gorgeous alone, but I'd just gotten a bunch of new plates, and really why not stamp? The glitter is in a clear base so this is 2 coats over black.

L.A. Colors - Glistening Purple

Wet n Wild - Black Creme

Sally Hansen - Silver Sweep

BM - 322

Sunday Challenge: Gold Silver Bronze

Sunday's challenge in Adventures in Stamping: Gold, Silver, and/or Bronze. I did all 3 and because new Shany plates came in the mail after I had done my Sunday challenge manicure, I had to do another one!

I was so pleased with the gradient on my index finger, I had to do a closeup with both a stamped finger, and the index finger before stamping.

Finger Paints - Bronze Sculpture

Sally Hansen - Silver Sweep

JLB - Immortal Gold

SH01

This is the one I had originally done, but liked it less than the Shany design above.

This one was done with Bundle Monster and as you can see there was a slight bit of shadowing on the stamp.

Finger Paints - Bronze Sculpture
Sally Hansen - Silver Sweep
JLB - Immortal Gold
BM - 213

Fairy Dust

I love e.l.f. polishes and here's another reason why: Fairy Dust! Fairy Dust is a beautiful holo flakie. This one is new from e.l.f. and is normally $2.00. However, I got this when they had their 50% off anniversary sale for $1.00 with a bunch of other stuff like their super great waterproof eyeliner pens at $0.50 a piece.

You can see here how it changes from red to gold to green. This was 2 coats of Fairy Dust over Wet n Wild Black Creme and Finger Paints Bronze Sculpture on my ring finger with a Seche Vite topcoat.

Bright Dots

e.l.f. is always sold out of their sets of 3 polishes, but when I was browsing Ross the other day, I saw they had several different e.l.f. sets, so I had to get one! Most of the sets are similar to what I already have so I grabbed the Beautifully Bright set. It had Teal Blue, Yellow, and Party Peach. Teal Blue is almost green and Party Peach is bright orange. I had some trouble with the yellow being thin and streaky, but I did my best with 3 coats. Teal and Peach went on just fine with one coat. After painting on the base colors, I used the other 2 for dots. Having used my dotting tool successfully the first time out, I'd have to say a dotting tool is a must have! I think this turned out bright and pretty, but I did have some tip wear after a few hours with 3 coats and a topcoat.

e.l.f. - Teal Blue

e.l.f. - Yellow

e.l.f. - Party Peach

Seche Vite - topcoat

dotting tool

Furry aka Velvet Nails

I'd seen this done before here and wanted to try it out for myself. This is definitely not an every day manicure. People have labeled this, in reference to Ciate's manicure sets, as velvet. However, it comes out more of a furry stuffed animal rather than velvet. This was my first attempt so there are some things I could change to make this better. I did as suggested and bought the same flocking powder set from Michael's. I had quite a few issues. The flocking powder was mostly clumped together making the openings in the containers useless. I jammed the sharp end of a paper clip down in there a few times to break it up which helped a little, but the results weren't exactly powdery. I tried mashing my finger into the top of the container, but that only resulted in wiping away some polish. A friend gave me some tiny resealable storage bags from the dollar store so I tried pouring some in there first and dipping my finger in, but I wound up getting my finger stuck to the inside of the bag or having the polish dry on me before I could manipulate the powder onto my finger. I found the best way to go about this was pour some into the bag, then pour some onto my finger over a piece of paper or wax paper. Then I patted it down a little to make sure it was sticking. After it was dry, I used an old makeup brush to brush away the excess. I did get a couple of bald spots, but I put a little more polish on and then more flocking powder. It did fix that problem, but it also resulted in making clumps and/or discoloration. Another thing to note is the polish underneath makes a difference in the final color. The softer the polish color, the less extreme these bright colors will look. As you can see, I used polish that almost matched the powder exactly.

Sorry I can't include the names of the polishes I used because they came in a pack of 10 mini L.A. Colors Color Craze with no names on the packaging or the bottles.

Flocking Powder - Recollections 6 pack

L.A. Colors - Color Craze assorted