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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last Sinful! (this week)

I registered my CVS extra care card online and they were nice enough to send me $5 in extra bucks to my email the other day. The expiration was for August 1st so of course I knew I could find some nail polish I would want. I had been reading that Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep was everyone's go-to polish for silver stamping, but I never picked it up because I already had a couple of silver polishes. I went to CVS yesterday and got it for free with my $5 extra bucks. I also bought a second Insta-Dri to earn $3 more in extra bucks. It wound up being around $3 for the 2 after taxes. I love great deals! Of course I had to try it right away on top of one of my new Sinful Colors. Today is the last day they're $0.99 so it'll be the last day of my Sinful posts requirement.

This one is Mint Apple which is a slightly greener mint color with teeny tiny silver micro glitter which gives it a nice shimmer to the creme base. Of course it's Silver Sweep with more Bundle Monster plates. They're still new to me so I'll be working my way through them for a while.

Sinful Colors - Mint Apple

Sally Hansen - Silver Sweep

Seche Vite - topcoat

BM-201

BM-206

Quick Brick

I got distracted watching the opening ceremonies last night and forgot to post my red Friday manicure. I also forgot I was doing a Sinful Colors theme this week so I'll put up another post to make up for yesterday. I forgot the Sinful Colors because I got excited when I was browsing the polish in the Dollar Tree again and found 2 Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes! I'm assuming they've been discontinued because later I found similar colors with different names in CVS.

I had intended to try the Insta-Dri out for stamping because I had read several people loved it for stamping, but as you can see I used it as my base coat instead. I was having difficulty using black polish with this plate so I used my trusty e.l.f. Chocolate instead. I had some issues with lighting. Next time I won't wait so late in the day to try to catch the natural light.

Sally Hansen - Quick Brick

e.l.f. - Chocolate

Seche Vite - topcoat

BM-201

Double Sinful!

Having the day off work with nothing to do equals a double feature. Today's post features 3 more new to me Sinful Colors polishes. Both manicures also features the new Flirt plates I got from Walmart for $3. They worked surprisingly well for $1.50 a piece.

Cinderella is a light blue with pink micro-glitter. Glass Pink is a light pink with pink micro-glitter. Both Cinderella and Glass Pink by Sinful Colors are extremely sheer. Cinderella took 3 coats. Glass Pink wouldn't build up enough without being thick and goopy so I used 1 thin coat of JLB Blush before putting on 2 coats of Glass Pink. Plate B65 has this cute full nail design on it that transferred really well except for my ring finger. I painted in a couple of spots myself. The image fit perfectly on my fingers, but not my thumb. I have small nail beds so I doubt this would work for most people.

Sinful Colors - Cinderella

Sinful Colors - Glass Pink

JLB - Blush

e.l.f. - Chocolate

Seche Vite - topcoat

Flirt - B65

I love Sally Hansen Insta-Dri and Art Deco for stamping! The flowers are from the second Flirt plate B17 and the cute leaves are from plate B65. These designs transferred better than my Bundle Monster plates. I'm very pleased with my $3 purchase! The color combo reminds me of the brown baby bedding/accessories.

Sinful Colors - Nirvana

Sally Hansen - Lickety-Split Lime

Art Deco - Baby Pink

Seche Vite - Topcoat

Flirt - B17

Flirt - B65

Happy Birthday!

My sister's birthday is tomorrow. We celebrated yesterday and for the occasion I thought balloon nails would be really cute. There were a lot of balloon manicures out there but I thought the cartoon balloons were the cutest. I did the plastic baggy method for my right hand and figured since I was at it I'd go ahead and do 10 balloons and take care of both hands at once.

First I sponged SH Hard to get on the tips. For the balloons, I used e.l.f. Smokin' Hot, Pure Ice French Kiss, SH Lickety Split Lime, Art Deco Intense Pink, and Art Deco Yellow. After that I outlined them with a black SH Nail Art Pen and topped it off with a Seche Vite topcoat.

My sister was nice enough to share a couple of extra dotting tools with me so maybe tomorrow I'll try to recreate the cupcake nails she did for herself!

Water Color

I'm not a fan of these, but I spent so much time I had to post pictures anyway. I've seen this water color technique on a few different blogs so I thought I'd try it myself. One of the pictures I'd seen had the Bundle Monster stamping over the top and it looked beautiful! I'm not sure what the difference is between my nails and the pictures I had seen; maybe my colors were too aggressive. Anyway here is the result and instructions:

1. Paint nails with 2 coats of Wet n Wild White Creme and protect the white from the polish remover with 1 coat of Seche Vite.
2. Dot Art Deco Intense Pink in a few different spots and spread/pat the color around with a makeup brush dipped in polish remover.
3. Dot L.A. Colors BCC 566 (Apparently the name of the color was on the package it came in that I no longer have. It's a shimmery intense blue) and repeat the previous step.
4. Dot Art Deco Yellow and repeat the previous steps.
5. (sorry just noticed the font for the 5 was different) Using SH Hard to Get, I used the Bundle Monster 2011 stamping plates BM-201, BM-203, BM-212, BM-222, and BM-223.


Again, I'm not crazy about it, but there's one more thing to cross off my list of manicures to try.

Gold Vein

I was trying to achieve the look of an actual vein of gold:

I wanted a shimmery peach color, but I didn't have it so I had to do some layering to get the color I wanted. Sorry I should have used a flash to get the color to show better. For the gold I painted gold polish on a small piece of a crumpled up sandwich bag and patted it on.

I used Milani Metallic Mango for the base and did a very sheer layer of SH Lavender Marquis which toned down the orange to give it a shimmery peach color. For the gold, I used Immortal Gold by JLB Cosmetics with, of course, a Seche Vite topcoat. 


The gold came in a pack of 7 metallics that work beautifully for painting a full nail or stamping. I've found 2 different packs of 7 colors at Ross for $5.99 each. They're the most pigmented and smooth polishes and I wish I could get more without having to stop in Ross randomly. The only downside is the metallics and glitters smell awful, but it's definitely worth it for the end result.