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

Heart Tips

I just got Mega Image Plate B from Cheeky. It looks like most of the images are copied from Konad. I'm not 100% familiar with Konad so I'm not sure if the entire plate is an actual copy. Unfortunately one of the images I really wanted (argyle) had been shrunken to smaller than my nails which is hard to do considering they're pretty small already. On top of that, it has 3 deep scratches across it so that one's unusable. In their defense, it did show the image being smaller in the picture. I just didn't notice. They also offer a return on the item, but I really couldn't be bothered for that one image.

Anyway, I tried some other images out and they worked great. I wanted to try out Hot Hot Heat from Sinful Colors again so I thought hearts would be pretty appropriate especially over Sinful Colors Rich in Heart. Excuse the awkward upside down photos. The tips image required it to be stamped opposite of the way I prefer. Also the first photo is a little washed out so the stamp would show up better in the poor lighting I was using.

Sinful Colors - Hot Hot Heat

Sinful Colors - Rich in Heart

NYC - topcoat

Cheeky - Mega Image Plate B

Stone Cold

There have been too many sales and bargains lately! I have so many untrieds to get to and I'm way behind on posting while the event is still ongoing. This one is a combo of the Sally's Beauty Supply half off clearance a while ago and this week's half off Sinful Colors Walgreen's sale.

The base color is China Glaze Stone Cold which I got for 50 cents. It doesn't even matter what the color looked like because I got it for 50 cents! When I tried it the other day I was pleasantly surprised it had a matte finish. I didn't actually leave it that way though because I liked the shinier finish with this manicure. The stamp is Bundle Monster with the Sinful Colors Hot Hot Heat from their new metallic collection. It's not quite metallic but it showed up decently over this dark gray.

China Glaze - Stone Cold

Sinful Colors - Hot Hot Heat

Orly - top 2 bottom

BM - 203

Lazy Man's Ombre

If I had done a true ombre, I would have used 1 pink and added white and black to achieve a seamless color change, but as indicated by the title, this is the lazy way. This was actually one of my first attempts at a previous Sunday challenge titled pulsating pink, but I wasn't happy with it after I stamped over it and I did something else last minute. Even though I didn't use it, I was thrilled about the pink and the glitter.

I had actually left this on for a day before stamping over it knowing I wouldn't like it once I stamped the purple over the top. I used some of my favorite bargain buys from Ross, the Dollar Tree, and Sinful Colors (of course).

Colors listed from left to right:

L.A. Colors - Fuel

Kleancolor - Barbie Pink

Kleancolor - Pastel Pink

JLB - Blush

Sinful Colors - Pinky Glitter (glitter)

Kleancolor - Metallic Purple (stamp)

Seche Vite - topcoat

BM - 207

Pink Phoenix

Sunday again which means another challenge! This week has a lot more freedom than typical Sundays with the challenge "something you've learnt from a.i.s." The first thing I learned was the difference between the British "learnt" and the American "learned". It's the same thing.

Now that I'm a fan of glitters thanks to the Elmer's Glue base trick, I use glitter polish as much as possible and that's why I'm doing this glitter base post for today's challenge. I learned the technique in Adventure's In Stamping.

Elmer's - Glue All (2 layers)

Wet n Wild - Black Creme (1 layer)

Revlon - Sparkle Aplenty (2 layers)

Seche Vite - (2 layers to smooth glitter)

JLB - Cherry Pop (stamp)

Orly - top 2 bottom (topcoat)

BM - 314