Victorian Wall Paper

I'm enjoying using my stamping plates and now I'm obsessed with collecting them.  The ladies over at  Facebook Adventures in Stamping are enablers.  After wearing Sinful Colors Nail Junkie matted for one day I was ready to do some stamping.

I'm loving my latest plate that I purchased DRK-A.  It's large enough to cover my nail beds.  I'm also in love with Sally Hansen Color Quick Nail Color Pens.  I don't like their brushes, but they are awesome for stamping. The one I used is Gold Chrome.

I like how the glitter is peeking through the design.  It looks like an old Victorian wall paper pattern.

I sealed it with Seche Vite Topcoat

Do you collect stamping plates?  Are you hooked on stamping?

 

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Until next time please have a great nail polish day. (✿◠‿◠)

Doodly Phone

I love doodling, and I love bright colors. I've also recently adopted an affinity for my iPhone, and its beautiful casing from Skinit. It's one of those designs that looks hand drawn and easy enough to do, so when inspiration struck, I decided to try my hand, or nail, at it. Two colors and a Sharpie later, I nailed it.

 Electric Pineapple from China Glaze is one of my favorite polish colors, so I was excited it pretty closely matched the case's color. The white blob was just done using Bad Chick from Sinful Colors and dotted using French White Creme from Wet n' Wild. Then, I just sort of freehand traced the outlines of the white with a Sharpie. It's not as thin and precise as I would've hoped, but I don't know if Sharpie makes anything finer than Ultra Fine Point. Is there an Uber Fine Point or Ultra Extreme Fine Point out there?

Blue Monday, Sinful Colors Cinderella

Good Morning,

Hope you had a great weekend.  I did lots of yard work raking up leaves.  It wasn't easy,  I look at it as exercise bending and lifting.   Boy do my arms and legs hurt.  Lol!

Anyway,  I have the lovely Sinful Colors Cinderella to show you.  I know you have seen it but if not here it is.  It's a lovely light baby blue with pinkish/orange shimmer.  I thought it was sheer so I first layered a coat of Color Club Blue Light then 2 coats of Cinderella.  No problems with the formula.  If you haven't picked it up I suggest you do.   Just go to your local Walgreens.

These 2 make a great pair

Did you pick up Cinderella already?  Do you like it?

 

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Until next time please have a great nail polish day. (✿◠‿◠)

Outlined Flowers

I was originally inspired for today's manicure by Gully Nails's post, Polka Dot Flowers. After looking at her design again, I know I kind of missed the mark, but I'm still sort of giddy about my own design. Sort of seems kind of Spongebob-esque.

The base color here is Secret Peri-Wink-Le (China Glaze), overlaid with Whimsical (Revlon).  The petals are a combination of Feeling Great (Sinful Colors) and Lightening (Sally Hansen Insta-Dri). Finally, I drew the inner pollen spots with Time Off (Sinful Colors).

I will try this again to get it closer to Becky's design, because I absolutely love it.

Sunflowers in the Sun

My nails are still not the right length and my cuticles are still dry and wounded in some spots. However, I couldn't bear bare nails any longer. Fed up, I posted on Facebook this morning, calling upon my fans for what design to create. The respondent asked for flowers or blossoms of some sort, and since it has been absolutely gorgeous and sunny all day, I decided to do sunflowers. I'm pretty pleased with the results too.

The base for this is Suzi Says Feng Shui (OPI). The petals were done primarily with Design Yellow (Color Madric), but then I added a tiny bit of Me First, a neon yellow from Sinful Colors. The seeds were dotted on using another OPI, Get in the Expresso Lane.

Basketball and Nail Polish: 30 Day NBA Challenge Day 3 *SPURS*

Today's challenge:  San Antonio Spurs

Team colors: Black, Silver, White

Hi guys, 

Sorry I'm just posting this. My internet service had some issues.  My original manicure didn't turn out like I wanted so I came up with this.  Hope you like it.

Silver glitter I used one coat 

White: SinfulColors Snow Me White

Black: Lechat Dare To Wear Powerful Black (from the Back To Basics Collection)

Silver Glitter: OPI Crown Me Already (from the Miss Universe 2011 Summer Collection)

Konad plate (can't remember)

White, two coats 

Black, two coats 

History

The Spurs are one of four former American Basketball Association teams to remain intact in the NBA after the 1976 ABA-NBA merger and is the only former ABA team to have won an NBA championship. The Spurs have won four NBA championships, more than any NBA franchise except the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and Chicago Bulls. The Spurs' perfect record in NBA Finals series is surpassed only by the Chicago Bulls, who have won six without a loss;^[1] the Bulls and Spurs are the only two teams to maintain perfect records through multiple Finals series. As of July 2009, the Spurs rank third among active franchises for the highest winning percentage in NBA history; they have only missed the playoffs 4 times as an NBA franchise.
In their 33 NBA seasons since 1976–1977, the Spurs have captured 17 division titles, which gives the Spurs the most division titles in the NBA during that 33-year span (the Lakers are second with 16). They have made the playoffs in 19 of the last 20 seasons, and have not missed the playoffs in the 14 seasons since Tim Duncan was drafted by the Spurs in 1997.
source

*Other Bloggers taking the 30 Day Basketball Challenge* The Exotic Lacquer

See Challenge Day 1 *Lakers* HERE
See Challenge Day 2 *Thunder* HERE

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  Until next time please have a great nail polish day. (✿◠‿◠)

Guest Post: Embellished Nails

So today was supposed to be my guest post over at Embellished Nails. She went on a cruise for a while, and asked for some guest posters. So ahead of time, we all sent in our posts for her to set up. Mine went through...mostly. Unfortunately, I don't see the images, which, let's face it, is the best part of nail blogs!

So, if you care about the story behind these nails, head over to Emily's blog for my guest post.

Since the images aren't working over there, I'll put them here. In honor of Emily's cruise, these are my sailor nails!

Take On Dots

The love affair I'm having with dotting tools is hot and heavy, but they've got some fierce competition now.

Color Club polishes are scooting their way into my easy heart. I used one tonight as the base of my manicure, Rebel Spirit. This deeply dark brown is super pigmented and only takes two coats to reach its pure magic. I was sort of shocked to be honest since most of my Color Clubs came from Ross for a whopping $7.99.

I was truly tickled when it came time to clean up my clumsy right hand. Dark colors are absolutely dreadful to clean up, and usually require a few coats of cleanup before your skin looks clean. This dark brown, stuck on my cuticle area, came right off once I started cleaning up. So if you haven't already picked up some of the darker colors from Color Club, give them a shot.

Like I said already though, I have a serious love affair going with dotting tools, as expressed here.

In addition to Rebel Spirit, I used Unicorn (Sinful Colors), Sugar High (China Glaze), and Pelican Gray (China Glaze).

UPDATE 2/26/12

This manicure got great praise from you guys! I made a tutorial so you can recreate it yourself. The color combinations are endless! 

Valentine's Day Manicure: Day 3

Yesterday was awesome. The mountains we ski at got a few inches (5 the night before we came) of snow, so we went up to Breck to get some runs in. It was a great day, and powder is so much better than slippery, icy slopes. I even hit some jumps.

Then we went out to Denver for the bars.

Needless to say, I'm exhausted today. After thinking about what I wanted to do for my nails literally all day, I finally mustered up the energy to create my third Valentine's Day manicure.

I used the awesome franken polish Leslie gave me here over Something Sweet (China Glaze). I really love the way the glitter is sandwiched between the two colors, making it feel more smooth. It was really stunning on its own, but I couldn't help myself. I added black pinstripes to half of my nail using Time Off (Sinful Colors) and still wasn't totally happy, so I striped in the pink lines using Am-Ore (Color Madric). I added a heart on my index finger as well using the same colors, and finally tipped each nail with a very thin black french manicure. I think it all came together quite nicely.

Now if you'll excuse me I've got a date with the couch and a fluffy pillow.

Sinful Colors, Kissy

Good Sunday Morning,

My plan was to put on Cult Nails Toxic Seedweed.  I first wanted to put on a base so I would only have to use one coat of TS.  I choose Sinful Colors Kissy it has the same green blue base as Toxie Seedweed.  It's one of the new polish colors from Sinful Colors. After putting on two coats I fell in love and decided to wear it alone.  Kissy is a close twin to Zoya's Charla and all her other siblings you know the ones I'm talking about.

The formula was excellent.  I had know problems applying it and it covered well with two coats.  Love the shimmer in it.

With Topcoat

If you missed out on Charla and the others I suggest you pick this one up at your local Walgreen's.  You can't beat the price at $1.99.  I was told that Sinful Colors are going on sale, it starts today and ending on 2/18/12 for $.99 so hurry and pick it up! 

 

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   Until next time please have a great nail polish day. (✿◠‿◠)

Stitched Together

I'm sure there exists somewhere a Hallmark card about stitching two things together that somehow relates to hearts and Valentine's Day, so use your imagination to connect that to my second Valentine's Day manicure while I dose off to get ready for skiing in the a.m.

This manicure took painfully long to complete, and I blame it on my impatience to let things dry before taping them off. I had to take off and redo my left index finger 4 times before I finally got it right. Darn Pointer!

The lighter pink is Soul Mate (appropriate for this holiday) and the darker is Feeling Great, both from Sinful Colors. The white stitches are French White Creme (Wet n' Wild). The pinks were done with the tape, and the stitches were a tiny striping brush. I'm growing more fond of the brushes I have, but I'm not sure I'll ever use the longest brush. It seems so unwieldy, but maybe I just haven't found its use yet.

Goodnight!

A Bit of Glit

February 14th is just around the corner ladies, so it's time to start gearing up with some festive manicures.

Valentine's Day is probably the easiest holiday to prepare manicures for for several reasons. A) I can't think of a single girl who owns nail polish that doesn't have a pink, red, or purple in her collection. B) Hearts are the easiest thing to create, besides dots. They're basically just three dots, strategically placed. C) Cute is easy to do.

My first act in this series of pinks and cutes is a simple stamp over some girly glitter.

I started this off with Heavenly (Savina), and then added one thinnish layer of Candy Cane (Color Club). After sorting out the stamping plates that would go well with the colors and theme, I finally landed on one I was almost sure I'd never use, but actually quite like. Bundle Monster's BM09 plate has this sort of tattered "LOVE" stamp, so if any imperfections arose as a result of the transfer, no one's the wiser. It also grits up this glittering manicure a bit. Black on Black (Sinful Colors) stamps lovely though, so I imagine there aren't too many issues.I should have stamped it facing the other way for photographic purposes, but the unusual post-production rotation will have to suffice.

Collar-ful Argyle

It's a well known fact that dogs provide more than just companionship to their human counterparts, including a calming sensation and happiness when they're around. I bet you didn't know they also provide nail art inspiration?

She was staring at the treat Andy was holding above her head for me. Awesome pose!

Riley is our dog, and her collar was my inspiration for this argyle print. I used Steady as She Rose (OPI) for the base, and Time Off and Bad Chick for the pattern.

Riley's a mutt, we're not sure what she is. We're thinking she may be an Australian Kelpie mix, because that's really the only breed that fits her size and coloring. Originally, the humane society we adopted her from said she was a German Shepard mix of some sort, but weighing in at 35 lbs. now, there's no way she could be. We love her no matter what she is though!

Take the Load Off

Two days of skiing did a number to my limbs. All I wanted to do all day today was sit down and take a load off. Tired eyes and tired legs need the time off.

Bare all this in mind when reading these polishes names.

Elegant and simple, this manicure was inspired by my friend Tammy, who said she had seen something similar on Pintrest. I haven't been able to find the image she was talking about, nor do I know which colors they used, but I used Illamasqua Load and Sinful Colors Time Off.

I know, so clever. About as clever as I can get without overstimulating my tired brain into a state of malfunction.

Beta Nails

The title does not refer to testing nails. Denver houses one of the country's best night clubs, Beta. Andy, Bree, Chloe and I went to see Gabriel & Dresden last night. Before we left, I had to paint some sexy club nails, so I decided to use some stamps to get that look.

The base is Black on Black (Sinful Colors), and the stamp (BM-222) was done using China Glaze's Devotion. We were in a hurry to catch the bus to Denver (safety first as we all planned on having at least a few drinks), so the pictures I snapped weren't the best. Sorry about that.

Holo Glitter & Flakie Extraordinaire!

Last night I had only one piece of this manicure in mind...the flakies. I collected all five of the Finger Paints Effects polishes, and hadn't used them yet. I could've put them over black, but who hasn't seen that? (If you haven't, you need to look at blogs more.) So, inspired by my good friend Jen who I got to see today, I chose purple. Originally, all I wanted to add to the purple (Grape Pop, China Glaze) was one of the flakies, Twisted. As I was pulling Twisted out of the drawer, I grabbed Asylum instead, and thought that too belonged on the purple. One thing led to another, and after an hour of polishing, I created this agglomeration of glitter, holographics and sweeping joy. 

Heh...overboard? I just couldn't stop myself! So the final tally for polish usage came out to be five (not including my base and top coats). The holographic stripe is Hologram Glitter by Color Madric, and the black is Bad Chick from Sinful Colors. Both are striping polishes with the itty bitty skinny brushes. I can't get enough of those and dotting tools lately. My poor stamps are feeling a little neglected I'm sure. Don't worry guys, I'll get back to you.

Simple French

C'est une manucure simple. Is that close? Does that say "this is a simple manicure"? If not, that's what it's supposed to say, but since I've never spoken a lick of French, I relied on my Mac's dashboard widget to translate for me.

Why is it in French? No, not because I'm trying to broaden my horizons or plan on traveling to France (or Canada) anytime soon. It's in French because today's manicure is a simple French manicure. Oh Katy, you're so clever!

It's nothin' fancy or schmancy, but it makes my nails feel longer.

I used only two colors for today. China Glaze's Good Witch and Sinful Color's Bad Chick. I freehanded the French tips, but maybe I should've taped for more consistent, straight lines.

Simple, to the point, and easy to take off later to make way for a better manicure.