Orly Luxe & Konad m57

Hello and Happy Weekend! Today I have for you some flashy zebra nails:-) This is Orly Luxe, which seemed like it was missing something on it's own so this is what I did to spruce it up.

So Luxe is a champagne gold foil. This kind of gold works a little better on me than the really brassy-yellow toned ones. I had some bald spots on my nails after the first coat, but the second covered completely. Its pretty thin and you have to use thin coats or it will run. Like most foils you can see any ridges or imperfections on the nail so if you have any of these and plan on wearing this alone, I recommend a ridge filler base coat.

I wasn't feeling this by itself, so I reached for my stamping plates and decided on this one, Konad m57. This is probably my favorite plate due to my love of all things animal print:-) For the black I used Sinful Colors Black on Black which is an awesome inexpensive glossy black polish.

So below I added a few pic of Luxe on its own so you can see the color and finish a little better.

Thanks for stopping in, and I hope you all have wonderful weekends:-)

China Glaze- Sunshine Pop (nail art fail)

Ok, so I was hesitant to even post this, this is soooo not me! I don't know if its as terrible as I think it is, but I cannot pull this off! I really wasn't feeling wearing plain yellow nails, so I though 'hey, lets try one of these fun leopard stamps with some color!' Oooops, overkill!!! It actually looked pretty good with just the leopard, but the dots went too far. I figured I would show it anyway, since it's all part of my learning curve!

As far as formula goes, SP wasn't as nice as the others, but not bad for a yellow. Some nails I got away with two, but others I needed three. I stamped on Sinful Colors Black on Black with Konad plate m57. Next I used my dotting tool, with several (I cant remember what ones I grabbed) colors. This is where it all went wrong. I have seen this done with white, and thought it was cute. I don't know if it was just not right over the yellow, or just not right on me... either was it wasn't a win.

Orly- Cotton Candy

Hello guys!!! Before I get started I want to thank you for taking the time to read my posts! I started doing this because it's a lot of fun and a way for me to kind of keep track of my stash and justify buying so much polish! I work full time and have two year old son, so this is something i do when I can sneak in some me time here and there. I am learning so much, and having a really great time! It makes me feel really good that you enjoy my posts and I appreciate each one of you! So thanks:-) I had to get that out, lol:-)
So as for polish... I have some new collections on their way, but in the mean time I have today's post then I'm going to do Anchors Away from CG 2011spring collection. I just got 8 of them and since they are spring, why not. Especially since they still seem to be readily available. But, for today...Orly Cotton Candy...

I found this at Sallys in the 'I Heart Nails' collection for Valentines Day. To be honest I have no idea if this is a color in their collection or a special release. It is a light pink creme leaning salmon-ish. It was kind of like a creme jelly hybrid, crelly if you will:-) I wasn't happy with it on me until the third coat. I was easy enough to control, but I saw some patchiness near my cuticles, i think from the brush dragging. It dried really nice and shiny. I love this type of color, its light and springy without being really pastel. I wore it plain for a day, then decided to add some gold flowers from Konad m57. For the stamping I used Orly Luxe.
This last picture shows how the color looked in most low light situations.
I liked this until I started thinking it looked like curtians that would have been on the Golden Girls or something...I couldn't shake that image so it had to go!

NYC Sidewalks & Konad m60

So I told you I got the stamping bug, right? Well here is the next design I tried. This one is a personal fave, it makes me smile:-) I feel spring-y just looking at it. I got a sweater in these colors from Gap a few years ago and have loved this color combination ever since.
I started off with a base, followed by two coats of NYC Sidewalks, a nice medium grey cream. The name really describes it perfectly. It is a really nice color on it's own but once again I couldn't leave it alone. I used another full nail stamp on the Konad m60 plate, the paisley/flower one. For the design I use Sinful Colors white, then used my dotting tool to add some accents with Sally Hansen Xtreme wear in Mellow Yellow. This is an awesome yellow cream. I really really like the way this one turned out!!

Essence Forget Me Not & Konad m60

Hello again, and Happy Friday!!! I got the stamping bug again so my next two posts will be konads! Anywhozle... today's polish is Essence Forget Me Not. This was part of a collection called Blossoms. This is the only one I found, I actually spotted it in a display of other brands, and could not find the others anywhere in the store. My local Ulta is the only store I can find Essence in my area, and they have a less than stellar selection. It is usually empty and never has new colors:-( So I guess I should be glad I found this one, and at $1.99, I was a happy camper!
I adore this color, it is so pretty! I used two coats and it covered beautifully. It is a cream with a small amount of shimmer that isn't always apparent. It doesn't have much shine to it but since I always use topcoat, that isn't a problem.
I wanted to do something extra to this so I grabbed Konad m60, and decided on the graduated polka dots! I have a thing for polka dots:-) With this I used the recent fave Navy Baby.

Isn't Forget Me Not so pretty?!? They are one of my favorite flowers, so lovely and delicate!

 I thought this was cute, I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I couldn't wear this more than a day because the dots weren't straight, but I know I am my own worse critic sometimes. I did put this on in between giving my son horsey rides around the house so if I wanted perfect, that probably wasn't the best time, lol:-)

Lepoard Print with Revlon Violet and Sally Hansen Purple Diamond

Hi again! Working away this week, with some new things I hope you will find as exciting as I do! I thought I would create a Facebook page to to interact with you guys a little more. It's a work in progress but I hope for it to be fully 'put together' by Thursday or Friday. I also plan on adding a twitter. I have been using my personal ones and I think my family and friends are getting a little overwhelmed with nail stuff! Not everyone loves it as much as we do! I know, weird! So anyways, I hope you will check it out!
Now onto polish! Today I have Revlon Violet stamped with Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Purple Diamond. I used the leopard full nail pattern on Konad plate m57. I have to say I didn't expect it to be this subtle, but I love it! Its animal print, tamed! Revlon Violet is a red leaning violet, it went on nicely, i used two coats. It could have dried faster but it wasn't terrible. Than I used Purple Diamond (love!) for the design.

This last one is obviously before the stamping. All these are taken in my lightbox, with one coat of Seche Vite.

Christmas flowers with Konad m20

Happy Christmas Eve to all of you who celebrate:-)  I am so excited, this is the first year my husband  has had off Christmas Eve since we have been together! Because it's on Saturday (plus we both have Monday off), we get to spend the next three days together with our families!!! Yay, that's my favorite part of the holiday's:-) Now if we could only get some snow...
Anyways I'm much happier with today's post than my last one! I really like the way this one turned out. I used Sinful Colors white as a base with Maybelline #1 (again, i cannot find a name) over the top to make it pearly. Then at a diagonal I used Sally Hansen Disco Ball which is a clear milky base with small iridescent glitter, on the top portion of my nail. Where the diagonal line was I stamped a strip of flowers from Konad plate m20, using my beloved Chanel Dragon. I seriously am in love with that polish, so beware it's not going away, hahaha!

Now I am not saying that this is perfect, the flowers on my ring finger are more up and down than angled, but that's being a little picky. I just really like it. I think the white is refreshing after so many dark colors and heavy glitters of late.

Chanel Dragon- fishnet style (Konad m57)

Hi guys:-) I was kind of torn on whether or not I should post this, but it gave me such trouble, that I would have felt like I wasted way too much time if I didn't!
I will start by saying the formula on Chanel dragon is possibly the most perfect one I have ever had the pleasure of using! I used a Sally Hansen base coat, then one coat of Dragon. It covered completely, did not streak, was super shiny, and didn't take forever to dry! I loooove this polish!!! I know Chanel is expensive, but for a beautiful red that will never go out of style, this is worth every penny!
Ok, after I had such a pleasant experience applying Dragon, I ruined everything:-(  Well not exactly... but here, I'll explain. I initially had planned on using the lace strip for my tips. I chose an old Sally Hansen Crystal Chrome color that I have in the stash, Petal Crystal. It didn't translate pink except in certain lights, most of the time it just looked silver. Anyways it kept drying before i could line up the pattern on the stamp and was pulling off the nail. So I ended up repainting Dragon on 3 nails after I had to take off the stamp, thus ruining the base. So... onto a new pattern- fishnet. This one worked really well until I got to my right thumb and middle finger. I completely missed squaring up the pattern on the nail. So again remove, reapply, wait... third time is the charm right? Well again I miscalculated... this time I said " it is what it is" and decided as soon as it dried and I got pictures I was going to get it off my fingers!
So it's not the result that I resent its the PITA that it took to get there! So, I feel like I'm doing a lot of complaining here, Sorry! Honestly this was the first difficulty that I've had with stamping. I knew it would happen, being new and all, I just wish it wasn't over such a perfect polish! Part of the reason for doing this blog is to keep a log of my learning curve and bumps along the way:-)I do promise though to show you Dragon again in all it's glory! So now that you know the back story...

Btw, the smudging on the thumb is the result of my impatience to apply topcoat, hehehe:-/

Orly- Meet Me Under The Mistletoe and Konad M20

Hello again:-) Thanks for stopping in! I thought I would do a very Christmasy mani using one of the most beautiful greens I've ever seen! Meet Me Under The Mistletoe is what a pine tree would look like if it grew diamonds on it:-) It just sparkles and shines like no other! Just to add to the festive feel I added a vine on an accent nail with some berries and a rhinestone.

Again these pictures are all in different types of lighting.

MMUTM went on surprisingly thin, it was very watery and I had to use a very thin coat so it didn't run all over. That was quickly corrected on the second coat that covered any bald spots. I ended up deciding to do a third coat to add some depth, but that might not be necessary depending on how your coats go on. The dry time was kind of slow and annoying, but so worth it!

For my stamp i used a viney flower pattern on my Konad M20 plate. I was going to do all my nails but I thought this looked a little more understated and pretty. I used Sinful colors white for the stamp, and Chanel Dragon for the berries. I did the berries over the stamp with my dotting tool. A coat of Seche Vite to seal it all up and that's that!

 This stamping stuff is so much fun! I already have like a million plans in my head for combinations of colors and patterns.

Konad m60- Argyle

Hello again:-) I really liked yesterday's polish, but as I was looking at my new toys (stamping plates), I just couldn't leave it alone! I had to stamp! So this is the same Red Carpet and I used Sinful Colors black on m60's argyle pattern. I originally was going to use the plaid on the same plate but I couldn't get the pattern to pick up cleanly. I'll have to play around with that one some time. I REALLY like this!!! It seems so festive! This stamping stuff is awesome, it's so easy to get really fun nails! What do you think?

As I'm looking at these pictures, I am reminded that we still do not have snow! I remember having snow on Halloween where I live, so this is weird! I will be so sad if I don't get a white Christmas. It feels like something is missing..:-(

Konad m20 nail art- Snowflakes!

Yay, I am so excited today! I have seen stamping before on other sites and had to give it a try. I ordered plates m57, m20 and m60 from nailbeauty4u.com , and also got the original Konad stamper and scraper. I decided for my first attempt at stamping I would try something Christmasy, so we have snowflakes! I am so excited that these came out cute, I had no idea how hard or easy this would be to execute. I am happy to report, not too bad! The full nail stamps might be a different story, but we'll see soon enough!
So I started with a base coat and two coats of Sinful Colors Midnight Blue on every finger except my ring finger where I used one coat Sinful Colors Snow Me White followed by a coat of Maybelline express finish polish in #1 (? I cant find a name on the bottle, but its a pearly white shimmer). Then for my snowflakes I used Sally Hansen Celeb City (silver foil) on each finger and the same sinful blue and white I had used for base colors reversed as snowflakes. The silver didn't show up as well as I would have liked on the white but other than that this is pretty much exactly what I wanted. I have always liked this blue very much, it covers nicely and is a great color. The white I don't usually wear alone unless I use an effect topcoat like glitter or shimmer as I did here, but it also covers nicely in two coats. This Maybelline color is pretty but very sheer so it works best over other polishes.

 For the stamping I brushed a small amount of polish onto the design, swiped off the excess using the scraper, pressed the stamper onto the design then pressed it onto my nail. Pretty simple:-) In between every 3 or so snowflakes I cleaned the plate using a cottonball with remover so that the polish wouldnt dry in the design. I also wiped the scraper on the cotton ball or a piece of paper towel I had under my area. You cannot do the stamping until your base is completely dry or it will ruin your base color. The designs you stamp will dry quickly but you have to make sure they ar also completely dry before sealing them with topcoat, or they may smear.
So how do you like? I am completely addicted so you can expect to see a barrage of stamping manicures in the near future!