At Least My Tips Have Flowers

It is a little early for flowers here in Minnesota, but the theme for Adventures in Stamping is spring flowers, so at least there are flowers on my tips.

Cult Nails recently had a sale, so I scaled down my wish list a little.  This started with Cult Nails Baker.

This is three coats of Baker.  I don't know why I love this orange leaning peach, but I do.  It is so full of gold flakies.  I feel like this is the teenage sister of China Glaze Fast Track and hope to do combo or comparison post on these two soon.

Maria describes Baker better than I can, so here is how it is described on the website HERE.

A rich butterscoth/tan creme provides the base for Baker.  But, what tan doesn't look better with just the right amount of a golden glow?  Baker adds a touch of gold shimmer which makes it anything but ordinary.

Yep, this certainly isn't ordinary, which is why I love it so!


 
 
Next I stamped with Revlon Reality Star (another magnetic polish great for stamping) and Bundle Monster BM-324 on my ring finger and BM-318 on all my other fingers.

 
Then I used a technique I found at Messy Mansion HERE.  Go check it!  It will change the way you stamp!  Basically, you use your stamper to create nail "decals".  It is a great way to reverse images, apply only portions of a stamp and place stamps exactly where you want them! 


This method is sorta similar to stamping onto plastic baggies, but I have never been able to get that to work as I couldn't get the whole thing to peel off the baggie.  Plus with this technique, you can use a really thin top coat so that the "sticker" isn't very thick.  It peels right off that rubber stamper like....I don't know....something that peels easily....a banana peel?  You can kinda see where I didn't get all the edges on the "decal" flat on my pointer finger, but it isn't even noticeable IRL.  I used Ulta Celebutante for the flowers.  Once you have the "stickers" placed, you just add another layer of top coat to even it all out.

 I can't tell you how easy this was.  With my one Konad stamper and two sided Born Pretty stamper, I was able to get 3 images going at the same time.  I love this!  I think this is going to revolutionize my stamping!

If you try this technique, let me know!  Thanks for looking!
 Tina 
 

Where'd Day 2 Go?

So I had day two of the Tri-Polish Challenge scheduled to post on Thursday....It disappeared.  Checked today and saw it didn't post, so I though maybe I scheduled it and forgot to publish (I've done that before), but no...it was GONE.  Nowhere to be found.  So I'll post again.  If this seems a bit brief, that's why.  Did it before, don't feel like doing it again.  Frustrated.  Here's my second take on green, purple and coral, sans coral.

 Don't really like my pics without my thumb.  Oh well, it is slowly growing.  I started with a two coats of Zoya Gemma.  Want to see Gemma on her own?  Check it HERE.  Then I taped off about half of the nail and added one coat of Zoya Lotus.  You'll get to see her on her own next week.

Stamped with Bundle Monster BM07 and China Glaze Gold Fusion.  One last look and then check the others.

My First Fashion Friday

Welcome to my first Fashion Friday!  Let's get right to it.  This was my inspiration, an Albert Ferretti Embroidered Virgin Wool Coat.

 Pretty, ain't it!  And here is what I did.

I really like these!  It was what inspired the whole Fashion Friday thing in the first place.

I started with two coats of Dandy Nails Bound To Fall.  This was purchased by me at Sandy's Etsy store HERE.  (There ya go FTC).  I can't begin to say how much I love this grey polish filled with dark grey/black speckles and iridescent flakes.  The flakies flash a beautiful blue, which you can just barely see in the macro above.  It applied smoothly with no dragging and balanced distribution of speckles and flakes.  It looked like I had granite on my nails....or maybe a sparkly felt.

Next I stamped off center with Bundle Monster BM-213 and Konad Special Black.  Shall we look again?

What do you think?  Good representation of the inspiration?  Most of these Fashion Friday manis' will not be an exact copy of the fashion, more like using it as a spring board for the nail art.  Anyway, welcome to Fashion Fridays!

Thanks for looking!
Tina   

Don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY  

Light of the Moon IDIOT Giveaway

It is another bitterly cold Minnesota morning, so I thought I might warm your heart with another giveaway.  Why?  Let me count the reasons.

1. My first giveaway was painless and easy!
2. Sunday saw my 100th post.
3. Monday was my birthday.
4. I'm an idiot. 

Wait....What?  Yep, you read #4 right.  Let me show you the prizes and everything will become clear (maybe).

Prize 1

• Julep Pomegranate Body Scrub - This came in the wonderful Spring surprise box I just got.  I'm just not a "body scrub girl".  I want in and out of the shower as quick as possible and this would just languish in my bathroom, so I'm finding it an appreciative home.
• StrangeBeautiful Dose Lacquer - IDIOT for not reading descriptions close enough.  I saw these on Beautylish.  Pill shaped polish bottles?  How could I resist.  They were decently priced (I thought) for three colors, especially when I used my $10 credit.  Then the package arrived.  WTF?  I guess I didn't read the description close enough.  These are adorable, but miniscule.  I mean, I love minis, but I think each bottle would last through 2...maybe 3 manis'.  If I had the polish space I want, these would go in a place of honor as a display....little pills for my polish addiction....but sadly, there is no such thing now, so I thought someone else might enjoy them as much as I wish I could.  There is a nice creme purple, a gorgeous dusty purple and a deep red. 

 Prize 2

• Contrary Polish Better Together - IDIOT for not realizing I already had this in my cart!  This is a blue leaning grey loaded with turquoises glitter.  During my last Llarowe restock rush, I was desperate to get every single one of the Contrary Polish Love Lyrics Spring 2013 collection.  I had missed out on them a couple times already.  In my self induced panic, I added two of these beauties to my cart without realizing.  I swear I double checked my cart (because I have done this before, IDIOT) and thought there might have been a mistake when I received the package....nope, there it is on the invoice....quantity 2.  My IDIOT, your WIN.
• Duri Gossip Exclusive - Almost dupe IDIOT.  I have been wanting to add a Duri to my stash and did so in a cart complete for free shipping.  What I didn't realize was that it is very similar to Contrary Polish Mystery, which I just happened to be swatching on my polishicles at the same time.  I looked at these moody browns and decided I didn't really need them both.  Mystery won the chance to stay.  Gossip is really lovely and barely lost out.  It is a plumish brown with a pinkish silver shimmer.  It has been swatched on one "nail" from a polish wheel.
• Zoya Kate - Stash duplicate IDIOT.  This was another one of those "Okay, I need one more polish for free shipping, what do I want?" moments.  It was in my wishlist on Pinterest, but not on the site.  Did I already have this in my stash?  I'll keep looking to see if I want something else more and check my stash before purchase.  Yeah right.  Of course it is already in my stash.  I swear I switched this out for something else before I confirmed purchase, but I guess I didn't.  I gotta stop filling polish carts late at night.  Another win for you!

So, is it clear now?  The question is, why did I go to all this trouble to prove what an IDIOT I am?  Just to entertain you, of course! 

Enter the giveaway through Rafflecopter below.  I only ship to US addresses (sorry to my international followers).  Must be 18 or older to enter.  Full rules under the Terms & Conditions.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

See you a little later with day 2 of the Tri-Polish Challenge.  Good luck!

Tina
Light of the IDIOT Nails (tee hee) 

My First Tri Polish!

Today sees the first day of the Tri Polish Challenge.  It is a challenge organized by The Crumpet's Nail Tarts that will be ongoing indefinitely.  Here's how it works.  Each month Crumpet's Nail Tarts will set 3 colors for the challenge.  I then pick 1 polish for for each color and must use those exact three polishes throughout the challenge.  You have to create 4 looks with the exact same polishes, which are posted the 3rd and 4th Tuesday and Thursday of the month.  Confused?  Check out Debbie's post about the challenge HERE.

The colors for this month are coral, green and purple.  What a lovely combo.  Since I don't have a huge selection of corals in my stash, I started there.  Once the coral was picked, I looked for a coordinating purple.  Then, because my first two choices were Zoyas', I chose another Zoya for the purple, making it a Zoya month!  Here are the colors I chose.  You can find all of these gorgeous colors at Zoya's website HERE


Zoya Willow

The Zoya website describes Willow this way:  

"Soft pale coral orange with a subtle hint of tan and delicate silver frost. A light shade that borders on nude and flatters summer skin."  Such a lovely color!  This image appears more pink than IRL, which you will see throughout the rest of the month.


  
Zoya Lotus

The Zoya website describes Lotus this way:

"A very soft, dusty blue-toned amethyst purple with colorful shimmer that reflects pink, red and gold. A dreamy smoky shade for purple lovers that looks both soft and luminous."  Perfect description! 

Zoya Gemma

The Zoya website describes Lotus this way:

"Light muted olive green with an overlay of blue and violet duochrome shimmer. Unique, hip and cutting-edge yet subtle enough to suit any wardrobe."  Does it look familiar?  It should, it has graced my tips previously HERE and HERE.  I have a deep abiding love for this work appropriate green!


Today's mani was inspired by Color Happy Nails HERE.  Go send her some love and check out her other great manicures!

 These are Bria's lovely nails, and these looked so Eastery, so I had her grip one of those plastic Easter eggs (tee hee).  And look how nice her cuticles look!  She has been taking very good care of them!

 I started with two coats of Zoya Willow and Seche Vite top coat.  I have heard people complain of Seche Vite shrinkage, but until this polish, I never had any problems.  This shrunk like a wool sweater in hot water!  Going to conduct an experiment in the next few days to see if I can figure out what caused this.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Next, I taped off triangles in the middle of the nails and dotted with Gemma, Lotus and Ozotic Shattered 910.  Not as gorgeous and the inspiration, but lovely none the less.  Check out the colors the other tri polishers chose.

It's Not Easy Being Green For Frogs....But a Duck?

Does it surprise you that the theme for Adventures in Stamping is St. Patrick's Day?  No?  Me neither.  Luckily I am one of those weird people that like green polish.  Seriously!  Green coordinates with so many other colors and can be so varied.  I think the only color I like better than green on my tips is brown.  Tell you anything about me?  Anyways, here is what I came up with.

Why am I hiding my thumb?  This is why!

Yes....after over a month of no breaks (thanks to OPI Nail Envy) I broke my thumbnail pulling on my damn work shoes.  I think if the pressure would have been pushing towards my thumb, rather than away from it, it would have stayed intact....but no.  Oh well, if you notice my thumbs absence, know that it will only be for a short time while she recovers.  I hate when nails are uneven, but I just can't bring myself to shorten all the rest of my little tips to match, so she is going to have to go into hiding for awhile (tee hee).

  
I started this enchanting mani with my first PicturePolish.....the stunning Mallard.  This enchanting polish was made in collaboration with The Polishaholic, one of my fav nail bloggers.  I know I gush about a almost every polish I wear, but this has a special place in my heart.  First it is this deep, vampy green gelly.  Reminds me of the pine forests of northern Minnesota, shadowy and deep.  Secondly, it has flakies, the kind that originally turned me on to flakies, the green to orange bending ones.  Plus, how perfect is the name for this?  Even my hubby commented on how much it fits.  AND, one of my litmus tests for polish is how many people comment on my nails at work, especially perfect strangers.  This one passed the test.

I wore this lovely for 2 days with nothing on it, because I didn't want to adulterate it's beauty.  This was my one and only for two whole days, so these pics are two coats, and the finished ones are three, since I added a coat before stamping to cover up tip wear.  Speaking of tips, my only wish is that this was a better tip wrapper, but I find that most gellies don't do good with tip wrapping, so...what is a girl to do?  I thought about adding a glitter gradient to the tips, but just couldn't cover this ducky up (tee hee) so you will just have to put up with semi nude tips.  

Since this was for AIS, I had to add some stamping.  This polish is just too sophisticated for shamrocks IMHO, so I looked for something else.  This image from Bundle Monster BM01 reminded me of a Celtic cross, so I went with it.  Stamped with my go to warm gold, China Glaze Magnetix Gold Fusion.  Now for some green spam.

Sigh, now to take these off and figure what to wear for my B-day!  Thanks for looking!  Hope your St. Patty's day is/was lucky.  Oh, before I forget.....Come back tomorrow for a little surprise! 

Moving On to New and Better?

Earlier this week my email started to get filled with messages from Bloglovin' indicating that I had new followers.  "What the hell," I thought, "Did someone put out the word about my blog on Bloglovin'?"  Then I read other blogs and realized what was going on.  You all know what I'm talking about....the death of Google Reader.  Now I have never used GR for my own blog perusal.  I personally follow all my favorite blogs by email (so I don't miss a single post) and the ones that don't allow for that option, I read through my blog roll, so I am not panicking.  (Why is there a K tacked on to panic when you add ING?  Thank goodness for spell check!  I digress.  What was I talkin' about?  Oh yeah, obituaries.)  

Thanks to all who already changed to Bloglovin'.  I love you all!  It means so much to know that I am not just talking to myself here in my little corner of the blogosphere.  If you haven't already switched, I added a button over there on the right.  I have always had this option, but it wasn't very obvious because there was no button.

On to new and better!  The Let It Snow challenge is over so I have been looking for my "next thing".  You may notice that I am a challengaholic (spell check really hates that word tee hee).  "Why?", you may ask.  Because I am lazy.  Does that make any sense at all?  Joining challenges pushes me to keep painting and posting.  Maybe some day soon I will not need this push and will do it "all on my own", but for now I like the challenges.

That being said, let's see what you can expect over the next few months here at Light of the Moon.  The first is my own little challenge to myself called "Fashion Fridays".  My Pinterest boards are filled with fashion inspiration for manis'.  It is time to get them off the boards and onto my nails.  This feature will start this Friday and will go until I run out of inspiration or steam.  Most likely the latter.

I am also going to try to do Monkey See, Monkey Do Mondays.  This is feature run by some of Crumpets Nail Tarts.  I am really excited about this, because there is sooo much nail inspiration out there, girls (and guys) that I really want to copy and give kudos to.  I did this a lot at the beginning of this adventure, but have noticed that I haven't done it as much recently.  That is a good thing, it means that I am doing my own ideas.....but I miss linking all the wonderful, talented bloggers out there, so this is my way of getting back into that habit.

Finally, I am doing ANOTHER Crumpet's Nail Tarts challenge, one that I think will push my humble boundaries, the Tri Polish Challenge.  I was going to lay out everything here, but this is getting a little long, so I will summarize.  Each month Crumpets Nail Tarts will set 3 colors for the challenge.  I then pick 1 polish for for each color and must use those exact three polishes throughout the challenge.  You have to create 4 looks with the exact same polishes, which are posted the 3rd and 4th Tuesday and Thursday of the month.  Confused?  Check out Debbie's post about the challenge HERE.

Do you think that is enough (tee hee)?  Thanks to all who got to the end of this post, those of you who follow my blog and especially those who comment.  I love your comments!  See you again soon!

Tina

Guess What Day It Is

There is so much going on here at my little blog that I want to talk about, but that's for later.  Right now we have NAILS!  Specifically, Bria's St. Patrick Day nails and the last day of the Let It Snow Challenge.

Please forgive the roughness at the cuticles.  I am having some issues with top coat shrinkage that I am trying to figure out.  When I come to my conclusions, I will let you know what I find.  In the meantime, let me tell you what I used for this bright, fun mani.

 I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lickety Split Lime.  This is the first Insta-Dri I have not been entirely happy with.  It is great for stamping!  But as a base, it was runny and flooded the lateral nail edges horribly.  How can something so opaque be so thin at the same time?  I have other lime green polish that I probably would have used, but we started this mani about 30 minutes before Bria's bedtime and I needed a base that would dry quickly.....All the Insta-Dris' do that.

Next I sponged Pretty Serious Liquid Leprechaun on the tips.  Don't you just love that name?  And perfect for a St. Patties day mani!  This technique gives you no idea of the beauty of this gorgeous green and gold jelly/glitter polish.  I am tempted to stop right now and swatch it so you can see, but that's what Google is for, right?  Go now and see the beauty of this fine glitter fest!  Wait!  Come back!  Don't you want to know what is next (tee hee)?

Finally, I stamped with Bundle Monster BM03 and China Glaze Magnetix Gold Fusion.

  
Bria loved these!  I am so happy that I have a girl that lets me paint her nails. I don't think I would have worn this mani to work, but it is perfect for her!  Watch for my work appropriate Irish mani later today.

One last word before you check the other manis'.  Thanks to the Nail Challenge Collaborative group for this challenge.  I really have enjoyed it!  If you are interested in a more manageable challenge than a 31 day, check this Facebook group HERE.  They have another challenge starting in April.

Oh Come ON!

Some of you may know that I live in one of the coldest states in....well, the states (tee hee) Minnesota.  I have lots of relatives that live in Alaska, and we are often colder than they are, if you can believe that!  So when I saw that the theme for day 15 of the Let It Snow Challenge was longing for spring, I really "warmed up" to this mani.

My birthday is next week!  I remember, when I was little, praying the night before my birthday that the snow would melt and daffodils and tulips appear for my special day.  Never....Happened...Not ONCE!  Oh well, at least I can have flowers on my tips.

 
This started with three coats of LynBDesigns Quintessential Kiwi.  I can't tell you how much I love this polish!  Not only is it green, one of my favorite polish colors, but it is chock full of glitter.  Jenna describes this color this way.  "First I started with a sheer and creamy spring green base. After that I added fine cut black and brown glitter, small black hexes, a mix of green stain glitters. It's perfectly opaque in three coats."  Plus, Jenna gives you the option of adding fragrance.  I figured, "what the hell, why not?".  So glad I did!  The only problem was that I kept catching myself sniffing my tips (tee hee).  It has a kiwi fragrance, and I was a bit afraid it would be too fruity for me, but it is perfect.  This applied beautifully, with no fishing for the glitter.  It took three coats for full coverage with average to short dry time.....well worth every coat!

Just a "by the way", one of the reasons I love Jenna, other than that she is a geek like me (tee hee) is that she also has a blog where she shows off other indie polish!  How generous is that?  Check her blog HERE!

Next I stamped with Revlon Decadent and Bundle Monster BM-224.

Decadent is one of those burple colors.  Using it for stamping means that from some angles it looks purple, and from others, a shimmery blue.  You can see this in the above pic, especially on my ring finger.  
  

Finally, I dotted the middle of the flowers with Jade Diamond Supernova, a glittery, yellow gold polish obtained from my favorite indie/foreign polish procurer, Llarowe.

What do you think?  Look like springs in the air?  Only one day left of this challenge!

Thanks for looking!
Tina

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Finally 2 Fingered!

From the first time I opened nail mail and saw Butter London Two Fingered Salute, I have been dying to wear it!  I have practiced at least 3 different designs on my lovely nail pebbles (don't know what I'm talking about?  Check THIS post), but for one reason or another, it never ended up on my tips.  Always some challenge or indie that called to be worn.  Not anymore!  Today is the day!

  I created this for the Adventures In Stamping group.  The theme was a plate ending in 6.  It started with two coats of the fore mentioned Two Fingered Salute.

Without Flash

With Flash

Butter describes this color as a "Muted, patinaed green crème with copper microglitter."  I think they describe it to a T!  They also describe a two fingered salute as "A hand gesture, similar to “giving the bird” in the States. Naughty, naughty!"  Tee hee!  I absolutely love this, it really does remind me of one of those old, patina-ed copper domes you see on some Catholic churches.  Gorgeous!  

The I stamped with Revlon Copper Penny and BM216.

  This is a french tip stamp, but I used it vertically on half the nail.  Then I added Julep Minka on the bottom of the "diamonds" with a dotting tool.

I really like how this turned out!  Even got a couple of compliments from patients, which is always a good indication that I am not just high on my own polish fumes (tee hee).  One last photo, because I can't resist.
 

 
Thanks for looking! 
Tina