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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Red and Black Animal Print

I recently joined the Adventures in Stamping Facebook group. They have challenges every Sunday. Today's challenge was Red and Black. This is my entry with layered stamping. I used both Bundle Monster and Salon Express for the stamps.

I'm in love with the way this turned out! I think the red on red makes for a pretty background.

e.l.f. - Smokin Hot (base)

Loreal - Haute Couture Red (animal print)

Wet n Wild - Black Creme (hearts)

Seche Vite - topcoat

BM-223,BM-222,BM-215,BM-221,BM-224 (animal print)

SE18 (hearts)

Green... Again

I couldn't steal my sister's cupcake thunder so, keeping with the work shirt matchy tradition, I did another green. After today's and last week's greens, I think I'm going to have to put a stop to that trend. When I first started painting my nails with essence Choose Me I LOVED it, but having it on my nails all day with the green shirt got to be too much. Besides, I have a box of untrieds to work through which doesn't include any greens at this moment. So after falling in love with Choose Me, I couldn't stop myself and I had to keep going with stamping and dotting.

essence - Choose Me! (base)

Wet n Wild - Black Creme (stamp)

L.A. Colors - misc blue that I thew away the package with the name for (dots)

L.A. Colors - Fuel  I was all over it this time (dots)

e.l.f. - Royal Purple (dots)

BM-212 (stamping plate)

Seche Vite - topcoat

Red for Friday

For Friday's red I used my new favorite nail polish by e.l.f.  - e.l.f. just had an anniversary sale where everything was 50% off. My sister and I stocked up on some polishes while they were only $1.00. It turns out we should have bought more! Each polish only took 1 coat with no streaking. I used a gold metallic with a Bundle Monster stamping plate and a burgundy for the accent nail and thumb. To get it to pop a little more, I used NYC Matte Me Crazy over the red.

e.l.f. - Smokin' Hot

JLB - Immortal Gold

Wet n Wild - Burgundy Frost

NYC - Matte Me Crazy

BM-225

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.