Argyle!

I surprised myself by changing out my mani this morning.  I really liked the last one with the Essie Shine of the Times, but I had a little free time this morning and decided to switch.



This is two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Purpelling stamped with China Glaze First Mate and the argyle pattern off the Konad M-60 plate.



The Purpelling could almost have been a one-coater, but I did two to make sure since I was originally going to leave it as plain purple.  Then at the last minute I decided to stamp, and the First Mate was still sitting right there beside my chair from a couple days ago, so before I knew what was happening, I had argyle nails!

On a side note, my cuticles have been atrocious these past couple weeks.  I really need to keep after them.  I've been using Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream, and it's very nice.  I just need to remember to apply it multiple times a day.  That's easy during the week when I'm sitting at my desk at work and it's directly in my line of sight next to my tea mug, but on the weekend I forget!  It makes a huge difference.

Shiny flakie love

A quick mani last night, but very striking. My first flakie polish!



This is one coat of China Glaze First Mate, topped with one coat of Essie Shine of the Times. Gorgeous!

I had to buy the Essie off Amazon, because I think it's discontinued.  In any case, none of my local stores had it.  I saw it on a couple blogs (Scrangie and the PolishAholic), and HAD to have it.  It was a mission.  So amazing!

DIY flower decals

I tried a new technique for me last night: making my own decals by stamping on a plastic bag.  And it turned out OK!  A bit fiddly, and it took quite a while, but it worked and it was fun!



This is three coats of OPI Gargantuan Green Grape, topped with my decals, then a final coat of Seche Vite to stick everything down.  The Gargantuan Green Grape is a beautiful light green, but was a bit more sheer than I would have liked.  Needing three coats meant that this mani got a little thick with the base color plus the decals.  Still, a pretty color!

I made the decals by painting a layer of clear polish (Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Flawless) onto a plastic bag, in patches a bit bigger than my nails, and letting it completely dry.  Then I stamped the flower design from the Konad M-64 plate onto the patches of clear polish.  Then I could color!  I used four colors of SH Insta-Dri to fill in the flowers:  Dreamsicle, Brisk Blue, Love Train, and Purpelling (orange, blue, pink, and lavender).  Then I waited for that to dry, and painted another layer of the clear over it all.

Then I waited for that to dry.

Then I waited some more, because when I tried to peel up the first one, the colors were still wet and it smudged... oops.

But finally I got each one onto a nail, trimmed down a bit, and melted in with a coat of Seche Vite.  A little cleanup with acetone, and voila!



This is a really cool technique, but it does take a long time.  In the future, it may be worth planning ahead and making the decals the day before so they can dry overnight and be ready to just peel and topcoat.  Although I wouldn't want them to dry out so much that they were crispy.

I really like the way this mani looks.  And now I can say I did it!

Saint Patrick's Day!

I'm all blinged out today!



My ring fingers feature two coats of Sally Hansen Go for Gold, topped with one coat of Pure Ice Family Jewels. The Family Jewels is cool, with small gold flecks and large holographic gold diamonds. I had to fish around and dab the large glitters to place them, but it wasn't too bad.



The rest of my fingers got two coats of Sinful Colors Exotic Green, with thin french tips of SH Go for Gold. Added a coat of Seche Vite to dry it quickly, then I stamped each nail twice with the shamrock on Mash-30 plate; once with Zoya Hunter and once with SH Insta Dri In the Groove.

All nails are topped with a final coat of Seche Vite.



I like how the large glitters throw rainbow holographic sparkles. It ties in with the "pot of gold at the end of the rainbow" vibe. Ha!

Citrus blast

Oh, such a fun one this time!



This is the mani I did last night, inspired by this one at the Nail Polish Wars.  The orange and yellow polishes I have are brighter, and I didn't do the glitter, but what a great look!



My version is two coats of Zoya Darcy and Finger Paints Tangerine Tint, on alternate fingers, topped with Seche Vite, then stamped with Sinful Colors Snow Me White and the Bundle Monster BM-308 plate.  Topped with a final coat of Seche Vite.



Both these polishes were a little streaky and runny, and I had to be really careful when painting.  The Zoya in particular seemed to really want to flood my cuticles.  But, a little acetone on a brush and it's all good!  Although now that I see these closeup pictures, it looks like I still could have done a little better job....



I love this look- next time I think I'm going to add a paler orange, a green, and a pinky-salmon. Then I'll have lemons, limes, oranges, tangerines, and grapefruits!

Duochrome flowers

Last night I recreated the pretty mani that I forgot to photograph in February.  I couldn't stop thinking about it, and had to give it another go.

This is two coats of Finger Paints Bombshell, stamped with WnW Black Creme using the random flower design on the Cheeky-44 plate.  Bombshell is a pretty gold to green duochrome, with the gold most obvious when seen straight on.



Then the green shows up when seen at a shallower angle.



I really like the Cheeky plates I've tried.  They stamp really well, and all the lines are crisp.  Plus, the designs are great!



So this mani was a success, twice!

Blue and gold

Another pretty stamped mani today.  I actually wore the blue plain yesterday, and stamped it last night, so yay- it's like getting two manicures for the price of one!



This is two coats of Sally Hansen Triple Shine Wavy Blue, stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Go for Gold and the "splat" design from the Cheeky-46 plate.

I adore this blue polish.  It's perfect.  Not too dark, not too bright, and just the right amount of sparkle.  I bought a backup bottle this afternoon.



Actually, I think these little shapes look like larval sea urchins.  Ha!  I'm a geek...

Black and white and green

I've wanted to try a black and white glitter for a while, and I finally found one last week.  Yay!



This is two coats of Sinful Colors Exotic Green, topped with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails X-treme Wear Pixel Perfect.  I did have to fish and dab a little to get the glitter where I wanted it, but that's to be expected.




So fun!

Playing catch-up

Well, I've missed a few!  This will be a summary post because while I've taken some pictures, I haven't had the energy to actually post them.

So, starting from the most recent and working back, here we go:

Currently on my nails is a gorgeous manicure that looks like goldstone...two coats of WnW Megalast Haze of Love, topped with one coat of Sally Hansen Triple Shine Dream Sequins.  Love this look.  Haze of Love is much less pink and more of a brick red color than it looks in the bottle, and it goes perfectly with the copper hex glitters.



Before that was Essie Sew Psyched, but I didn't take pictures.  It was just the plain color, no glitter or art.  I loved the color, but was disappointed with the streaky, runny formula that chipped almost immediately.  Meh.

Before that was another I apparently didn't take a picture of (BOOO!), two coats of Finger Paints Bombshell, stamped with WnW Black Creme using the random flower design on the Cheeky-44 plate.  Bombshell is a pretty gold to green duochrome, with the gold most dominant.  I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of this, it was awesome.  I'll have to do it again sometime.

Before that was another winner, two coats of OPI German-icure by OPI.  I stamped on this with WnW Wild Shine Black Creme, using the Konad M-64 plate.



I really liked this look, the German-icure is a wonderful deep burgundy brown.  The stamping was very subtle over it.



Before that was a simple look that I really liked, two coats of OPI Miss You-niverse, topped with one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust.



Fairy Dust really dresses up any plain polish color.  I love it.



And lastly, here's the manicure I did for the first weekend of Girl Scout cookie booth sales.  This is two coats of Sinful Colors Exotic Green, with tips, stripes, and dots of Sinful Colors Pistache.  These two greens look great together.



Whew!  Now I'm all caught up!