Holographic Halloween Nail Art

Sorry I haven't posted in quite awhile but life is just always so very hectic and I don't see it slowing down any time soon.  I don't even know the next opportunity that I'll have to post.  lol  Anyways...
Although I'm not a fan of Halloween, here is some halloween-themed nail art I did.  The base coat is Essie Mesmerize, which is the perfect cobalt blue and then for the designs I used Nfu Oh #61.  Unfortunately the sun was never out when I had this on so all I have for you are indoor pics and therefore doesn't show the holographic beauty of Nfu Oh 61.

Pointer & Ring Fingers:  Konad plate M65
Middle Finger:  Pumpkin - BM222; Bat - BM13
Pinky Finger:  Spider Web BM13

On my thumb I had the skull from BM211 but I forgot to take a pic of that. :(

OPI - Do You Lilac It?

Today for you I have OPI's Do You Lilac IT? with Nubar 2010 on top, Konad m51 using Konad special polish in purple for the design & the little flower on my ring finger came in a packet I bought at Sally Beauty.  I must be in a purple mood lately because it seems as if all the mani's I've done as of recent are purple.  DYLI was opaque in 1 coat - yippee!  When I first saw Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure I knew it was a must-have, then I saw it was LE & going for $20 on ebay, I about died.  Sally Hansen for that much?  You have GOT to be kidding me!  Anyways, I found out that Nubar 2010 is an almost exact dupe so I got it for much cheaper.  This is the 1st time I've actually worn 2010 on a mani because it is so very special to me that I wanted to save it for that special color & to me this combo is perfect so here it is in all its glory!

Then I mattefied it using Essie Matte About You (sorry for the crappy pic):

And here is a pic of the Nubar 2010 - just look at that rainbow of beautiful flaky goodness!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Well, today is Valentine's Day & I just couldn't pass up doing a romantic mani!  I used Konad plate M19 to do the french tips with Konad special polish in white.  I don't have this technique perfected yet so I had to go back over it freehand with Wet 'N Wild in French White Creme.  Once that dried, I used one of those Sally Girl nail polishes that are really tiny that you get at Sally Beauty Supply for like $0.99.  The only thing I don't like about them is that they don't have names!  It was light pink in color & had a creme finish.  Once it dried, I added the kiss design from bm02 with an old Sinful Colors nail polish in Crazy Red.

And this is one of the presents I received from my hubby for Valentine's Day!  He is so thoughtful - I have the best husband!!!  He is so supportive of me with my whole nail polish/nail art obsession!  This is my first Deborah Lippman polish.  If I hadn't spent so much time & effort on the kiss manicure, I would have put this on straight away!  I cannot wait to wear this - it is absolutely breathtaking IRL.  It makes me think of a mermaid's tail. 

The other gift he got me was the full-size Zoya Color Lock System.  During their 3-free I purchased the mini version & fell in love - especially with their nail polish remover.  I'll get more into that later!  Oh & I received some products over the weekend to review so stay tuned!  Lots of fun things coming soon!!!

Happy Valentine's Day for those of you with someone & Happy Single's Awareness Day to those of you without!  May you all be happy & blessed on this beautiful day!

Skin, Cuticles & Zoya Kelly

I have horrible cuticles & dry skin.  I also don't drink enough water & that's probably the problem but I just can't drink it - ugh!  I bleed Dr. Pepper.  I've recently discovered 2 new things that are working on my skin and cuticle.
First, this wonderful lotion here:

I love Carmex lip balm so you know that I freaked out when I found out about this!  It says that it's non-greasy & it's actually true!  A little goes a long way & that lotion-y feeling is gone as soon as you rub in the lotion.  I now swear by this stuff!

Next is a tip I found on the laquerista's blog where you take an emery board and file the skin on the sides of your nails.  I tried it & found that it made a difference instantaneously!

Just so that this post isn't without nails, here is Zoya Kelly which is an awesome dark grey creme with a purple tone to it.  I absolutely love this color!  It is opaque in 1 coat & I've seen on Zoya's facebook that fans have used it to stamp with.  I can't wait to try that - maybe this weekend!  I only did an accent nail, using the leopard print from Konad plate m57 with Rimmel 60 Seconds in Grey Matter, which is awesome for stamping!

Until next time, have a grey(t) day!  :)

Matte-fied Monday with Avon Mirror Shine

Hello all & Happy Monday to you!  I know everyone hates Mondays & I do too so I try to think of Monday as a person, you know the underdog that is very nice but no one likes & it's for a reason that is out of the underdog's control?  So I try to give Mondays a break.  Sorry for going so off-topic - back to the nails!

Today for you I have Avon Mirror Shine in dark purple (cannot remember the name but will update w/it later) & I stamped using Avon Mirror Shine in silver (will also update this later w/the name) & I used Konad image plate m78.  There's two awesome things about these Avon chrome polishes:  they are 1-coaters & they stamp.  I've learned that usually if it's a 1-coater then it will stamp, I haven't found one yet that won't!

So here it is in it's shiny chromaticness (and I think I just made up a word!):

And here it is mattefied:

It's kind of hard to tell but both of these pictures were taken in the same amount of sunlight - indirect through my kitchen windows.

Which way do you like better?

Funky French Friday

I apologize - I know a lot of nail bloggers out there do a Funky French Friday but I just can't help myself!  So I was thinking I could do something different though - I thought about doing a theme called "Matte Monday".  What do you think?

Anyways, today I have for you the Petites Raspberry Ice for the french tips using Konad plate M19.  For the base coat I used Artificial Nails that I purchased at Sally Beauty Supply.  Enjoy, have a great weekend & see you soon!

A few different mani's...

This post is going to be a little pic heavy with a few mani's I've done for my mom. 

For the 1st one here, I can't recall what the base color was but it is a gorgeous vampy red.  I used Konad plate m64 and the white special stamping polish for the design.

For this mani, she wanted to try tone-on-tone so we decided to go with a sheer white nail polish by Wet 'n Wild that I borrowed from my husband's niece - it didn't have a name & for the design I used a fauxnad plate made by Bundlemonster, bm19.

And the final one for now, I used an old nail polish I have in my stash, Almay 'One Coat' & the color name is Cashmere.  This polish smells awful but on the plus side, it is a 1-coater (& it also works great for stamping!).  For the design I used Konad plate m78 & special stamping polish in black.

Enjoy & have a great day!

OPI What's with the Cattitude?

Some of you may not know this but my favorite color is blue, pretty much in any shade, but my most favorite blue is so hard to describe.  It's like a neon baby blue.  So when I saw this color, I just knew it was "my color".  Well, let me tell you how disappointed I was in this polish.  It took 6-8 layers to become opaque which angered me for 3 reasons (but are kind of the same?):  (1) the less coats it takes, the less time it takes, the happier I am; (2) I hate seeing VNL (visible nail line) & (3) OPI polish is too expensive to have to use that much polish; I mean, for $9/bottle I expect more than I do from the cheapo drugstore polishes.  It seems to me that creme polishes are the worst for this.  Anyways, this is OPI's What's with the Cattitude? from the Shrek collection.  The design is from Konad plate m73 & Konad black stamping polish.

After doing this mani, I found that using a white under these problem polishes not only makes it easier for these to become opaque but it also makes the color "pop".  If I ever again have 8 hrs to spend on a mani, I might try it.  We'll see...

Heart French Mani

Hello all!  Since we're now in February, I thought I would share a heart french mani with you as Valentine's Day is right around the corner.  For the base coat I used Artificial Nails that I purchased at Sally's, which gives your nails that "artificial nail look".  I also used Konad plate m80 and the special stamping polish in white.

Do you have any special plans for Valentine's Day?  I'd love to hear them!

Base, Color & Top Coat Mis-Match...or is it the weather?

Over the weekend I did mine & my mom's nails but 1st, let's look at my mom's:

I used CND Stickey as the base coat with 1 coat of Petites in Raspberry Ice.  I love polish that is opaque in 1 coat but they are so rare!  I have come to realize that the opacity is not based on brand as I initially thought but basically it's based on the pigmentation of the color itself. 

Anyways, this color is a hot pinkish-magenta with some shimmer & I love it!  I'd gotten some inspiration from Scrangie (who I consider to be one of the top guru's in the nail polish world) http://www.scrangie.com/2011/01/cover-girl-iceslicks-anti-freeze.html.  For my mom's mani I put 2 coats of Cover Girl IceSlicks Anti-Freeze on top of the hot pink and it is fabulous!  On a nail wheel I tried Anti-Freeze over China Glaze's Goth & it looks amazingly awesome (like outer space) but I just don't think black would be appropriate for my mom - she would feel very out of place.  This isn't the best pic because it was so hard to photograph but the blue glitter gives off an aqua/purple shimmer & I love it!  It took absolutely forever for the 1st coat to dry but once we got the 2nd coat on, we topped it off with Seche Vite.  You may ask, what's the problem?  Well, in less than 24 hrs after giving her this mani, it started to chip & there was shrinkage at the tips.  I even buffed her nails to get the shine off so that the polish would adhere better!  I think I'm going to start keeping a list of base coats, polish brands & top coats that don't play nice because after all this hard work, I don't want it to happen again.



So after I did my mom's nails, I did my own.  I used Nailtek Foundation II for the base coat & China Glaze Bahamian Escape (also a 1-coater!).  I added Konad to it from plate m50 using the Konad special polish in purple & topped it off with ole faithful Seche Vite.  And guess what - mine started peeling off within 3 hours!  That's just ridiculous.  My sweet husband even washed the dishes for me & I was in church most of this time so it's not like I was doing some type of manual labor that would ruin my mani.  Ugh!  I was so aggravated!!!  I was able to touch up most of it so thankfully it was hard to tell but then it started peeling again within just another few hours! 

Later I added a purple rhinestone to the ring finger as an accent.  This pic was taken after I'd touched it up for the second time & this time around the touch-ups are definitely more noticeable (see pointer finger in the top corner).  Btw, all pics are clickable so you can enlarge for more detail.

So I have a few questions for you:

Which do you like better, with or without the rhinestone?

What do you think caused these issues?  The interaction of these polishes, the weather, the user? ;)

Have you experienced anything like this?

Disco Leopard: Milani HD & Konad m57

Hello all - it's me again!  Today's mani I have for you is "down with the funk".  I used Milani's HD holographic polish in HD for the base color & Sally Hansen chrome nail makeup Carnelian Chrome for the stamping & the design comes from Konad plate m57.  The holo-ness in the Milani shows up really great in this pic (the sun was out for about 10 seconds) but not as much as I was hoping IRL.  Oh well, I guess I'm going to have to break down & buy some of the Nfu Oh holo's! 

I was definitely feeling the "jive" when I did this. lol
Have a great day readers!

Zoya Harlow & Konad m74

It's me again dear readers!  I have for you now the awesomeness that is Zoya Harlow (2 coats).  Harlow is part of their matte velvet collection which they describe as being "Rich saturated plum rose packed with sparkling metallic shimmer in a velvety matte finish. A perfect choice for fall or winter that combines rich color with a hot matte finish."  I just love this color and the finish is amazingly awesome in person.

                              
The other matte velvet colors in this particular collection are Posh which is a red & Savita which is a velvety beautiful purple.  Zoya has another matte velvet collection which consists of Veruschuka which is a green velvet, Loredana which is a medium gunmetal grey & Dovima which is a darker charcoal black.  I own all of these except for Verushchuka - I'm just not that into greens (yet).  These are in my untrieds so I'll have to put them on my to-do list fo sho!  You can purchase Zoya nail polishes from any salon or spa in your area that carries their product or you can purchase directly from their website at artofbeauty.com.  I have to say that my experiences with Zoya polish so far have been amazing but that's a whole other subject for another day - maybe for when I have more Zoya swatches to show you.  :-P

Anyways, back to the pic.  The design comes from Konad m74 and the polish I used was LA Colors no name black that I got at the Dollar Tree.  At first I didn't think it would stamp because after I scraped away the excess, nothing appeared to be left in the design but don't let that fool you!  A friend of mine had told me about it and it does work!  It doesn't stamp as black as the Konad special stamping polish in black does, it stamps more of a charcoal'ish shade, which is fine by me.  This also doesn't leave nearly the mess on my cuticle/skin area the way the black Konad polish does which is another plus!  Which reminds me, please ignore my horrible cuticles - it is the middle of winter so cut me some slack.  Anyone have any suggestions for cuticle care?  I'd love to hear them!

China Glaze Secret Periwinkle & Konad m64

Hello all!  Today I have for you one of my most favorite mani's I've ever done.  This is China Glaze Secret Periwinkle (2 coats) with design from Konad plate m64 stamped on top with the Konad special polish in white & of course topped off with Seche Vite fast-drying top coat.  I started to add white tips to this because it would look fabulous.  Maybe next time...

Color Club De-Luxe-Cious & Konad m65

Hello again!  Today I have for you Color Club's De-Luxe-Cious and Konad stamping from plate m65 in the Konad Special polish in black.  I had some application difficulties with De-Luxe-Cious but once I tweaked my application process a few times, I finally mastered it.  It would seem to dry on the brush before I could get it on my nail so I had a bit of cuticle drag. 

I believe this is 2 coats and then topped it off with the konad stamping and Seche Vite fast-drying top coat (which is my all-time fave).  I call this design dizzy nails.

Have a great day!