A Moon Mani for Light of the Moon Nails

This is the 3rd mani for The Nail Challenge Collaborative's Halloween theme.  I already have two other Halloween manis to show you, but they are going to be a little late.  I absolutely loved how this turned out, so it is going to be pic heavy.

 This is my light of the moon mani!  If you have checked out my new Facebook Page you have already seen this.  But for those that haven't and those who want to see how it was done, this is for you.

Artificial Light

With Flash and Out of Focus :)

This started with three coats of my favorite Halloween/fall polish, Crows Toes A Christmas Crow.  Yes, it is from her 2012 Christmas collection.  Yes it is my favorite fall polish.  Yes, I wear it year round, spring, summer, fall and winter!  It is just that kind of polish!  Two coats would have been appropriate, but you know me, I love me some depth when it comes to glitter, even though I planned on covering most of it up.  

I LOVE this polish....just like EVERY SINGLE Crows Toes polish I have in my stash!.  My feelings for this polish know no bounds.  When I apply this, it sounds like a crowd watching fireworks in my head....wait....the fireworks aren't in my head....the sounds are (tee hee).  It is a dark brown jellie (yum) filled to the brim with color shifting (oooooh) gold/orange/red/green micro glitters (ahhhh).  It looks like the sparks thrown off by a campfire or the night sky on a foreign planet.....which bring me to what inspired this mani.

Source

This little blog is called "Light of the Moon Nails" for two reasons.  One, I almost always do my nails at night, sometimes in the wee hours of the morning, and two, I have always been fascinated  by the moon, it's always changing, ever the same and oft surprising visage.  Waxing (and waning)  a bit poetical there.  Please forgive me.  What better way to show my adoration for the moon than to give it a place on my tips.

After the fire of A Christmas Crow came the moon made with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening, my go to yellow.

 

Next I attempted to do my first water spotting technique with Sinful Colors Cloud 9, a sheer shimmery orange.  It was a good idea and would have been great if I had done it successfully.  As it was, you can see some of the spotting on my ring and middle finger.  I then sponged on Julep Nan with a moistened/torn kitchen sponge.   Please forgive the lack of clean up, I am too lazy to take care of stray polish after every step, even if I am taking pictures.

After that, the hard....or more like messy....part was done and all I had to do was add some trees with my black striper, including an extra tall one on my middle finger.  Yes, that is supposed to be a tree, not a cross.  Now for some photo spam!

Well, what do you think?  I love it!  Of course I see all the little imperfections.  I wish water spotting would have turned out better.  I think the trees are horrendous, but I don't care.  This mani makes me feel all mushy inside, it is such a perfect representation of me and my blog.  I may have to do a moon themed mani for every season now!

Thanks for looking, reading and commenting!  Don't forget to check out the other Halloween manis.

Can You Guess My Fav?

You may have noticed that I haven't posted the last challenge for the Crumpets Nail Tarts 33DC "South America".  It is coming.  I am having a hell of a time getting what I want to transfer to my nails, but I have decided I am going to try again instead of posting something that I am not happy with, so watch for it in the next few days.

Today's prompt is "Art with your favorite brand".  Now if you went through my stash, you would think it was China Glaze, because I have a whole drawer full of them.  That is not the case.  I have so many of them because they are reasonably priced and easily accessible at my local Sallys.  Don't get me wrong, they do come out with some nice collections, but I often find they are a bit hit-or-miss.

Next you might think it would be OPI.  Oh yes, I love me some OPI, but they seem to recycle colors and even colors/finishes a lot.  Watch for the "Color you have the most of" prompt coming later on and you will see what I mean.

Nope, my favorite brand is Zoya.

Source

When I started my polish obsession, I never though this would be true.  The only place I could find Zoya was at Ulta, and their selection was small and uninspiring.  Then I started seeing promotions on blogs and checked out their website.  OMG, have you been there?  Have you seen the huge range of colors/finishes that even a rainbow would envy?  On top of that, I have yet to purchase a Zoya polish that didn't apply like a dream.  Plus their bottles....love the shape, the cap is my second favorite shape for holding and the brushes have never disappointed.  Plus, unlike OPI and China Glaze, most of their seasonal collections are available on their site for a long time, which means that I have been able to get some past years polishes without having to hunt or pay outrageous prices.  It also means that I can wait until I have some money saved up rather than having to miss out on releases because of money constraints or inability to get to Ulta before they sell out.  Yes, I am looking at you OPI Bond Girl Collection.  Plus they have great promotions throughout the year, which means adding to my collection affordably (spell check says that isn't a word....It isn't?  It is in my book).

What is there not to love about ZOYA?  Maybe the "art" I did with it (tee hee).

Just a simple little mani since I wanted to showcase the polish.

Artificial Light

Flash

This started with a gorgeous muted bright pink (there is such a thing) creme called Kate.  Zoya describes Kate as a "Soft medium dusty mauve with hints of rose-pink and brown."  How's that for a description?  I think it looks like pink grapefruit (tee hee).  Kate is one of the few polishes that I have worn more than twice.  She's beautiful and very office friendly.

 Next I topped with Zoya Chloe, a slightly pink tinted base with mylar flakies from the spring 2012 Fleck Effect trio.  Now this is one that is no longer on their site, only Opal is left from the collection.  I have to admit that I love flakies, and this has a multi hued warm shift to it that you will see in later pics.  Should have done a gif, but these were actually done before I started to do color shifting gifs, so you will have to put up with plain old pics.

 Next I stamped with PUEEN49 and a Konad glitter green stamping polish that I can't find the name of anywhere on the bottle.

 There you have it, my favorite brand.  I have so much love for Zoya and can't wait to add some more to my stash!  Have you seen the Zenith Holiday collection?  You bet Dream and Payton are going to be mine soon!  Lets take a few more looks to see if I can capture the color shift.

Mmm, there is some of the red/yellow/orange shift.

Oh yeah baby!  There she is in all of her glory!  Just needed the right (weird) angle.  It is much more noticeable IRL, just hard to capture on ....film?  What does one say in this digital camera era we live in.  If you know, let me know in the comments (tee hee).  And let me know if you love Zoya as much as I do!  Thanks for visiting and commenting!

Tina

 

Brains in the Attic

Good morning all!  This is going to be a rare a.m. post!  I have been overdoing it recently with three challenges going on, preparing to host a challenge next month, along with getting ready for my 1 year blogiversary giveaway.  All this means late nights, or in most cases staying up to the wee hours of the morning.  It all caught up with me yesterday and, although I had a couple of things to post, I went to bed at 6:30 and slept straight through till 4:00 this morning!  Early mornings are a rare thing for me and I would love to enjoy it by posting a long rambling post, but Bria gets up early and will be greatly upset if she can't go on Twitter before going to the bus, so I have to make this fast (tee hee).

 This is the second mani for The Nail Challenge Collaborative's Halloween challenge.  Brains in the attic!

It all started with two coats of The Lady Varnishes Bog of Eternal Stench.  This has to be one of my all time favorite Halloween polishes!  It is a "boggy" green jelly filled with brown green and copper micro glitters, green and copper hexes.  Pause for morning routine.....

.....I'm back.  Bria's OCD just won't let me get away with not letting her do her morning Twitter routine.  Really, it is just easier to let her use the computer for 40 mins than to throw her whole day off.  Oh, let me ramble a bit, I am not a morning person!  Even when I have had a full nights sleep and waken refreshed, just leave me alone!  I think that is part of the reason that I wait until everyone is gone for the day to get out of bed.  With Bria and hubby both trying to talk to me while I was trying to go through my blog reading on my phone....it just made me want to snuggle back in bed to read, but I resisted and put on my happy mommy/wife face until everyone was gone.  Even the dogs were trying to get my attention (as always).  Devin (my 16 yr old son) is the only one who understands me....or maybe is like me.  I'm lucky to get a few grunts from him in the mornings....and he waits till the last possible moment to get out of bed too.  Anyway, back to the nails!

I have a "thing" for odd greens, so I absolutely LOVE Bog of Eternal Stench!  Plus it is inspired by a favorite movie, The Labyrinth....David Bowie in package hugging leggings, whoo hoo!  By the way, the stamped pics are after 3 days of wear!  Hardly any tip wear even!  I started out by stamping gold spiderwebs from BM13, my favorite web design of all the ones I currently own.  The idea was to have black webs with a gold shadow, so I went with a subtle gold....but now I can't remember what it was :(  I have to get better at taking notes on my manis.  What the hell is with that longer middle nail!  I swear that thing grows faster than all the others!  Okay Tina, get back on subject!

After stamping with the black webs, I realized that the gold just wasn't going to work and the black did not show up enough, so I went back and stamped with Konad white.  

Next I used the stamping decal method with Apipila AIS plate, OPI My Vampire is Buff (scull) and a forgotten pink polish (brains).

I guess I must have liked this, because I took a ton of pics :)  These are just a few.  I can't believe I got a post done before getting ready for work!  Even with a morning routine break!  

What do you think of my Zombie snack in the attic?  Have you tried the stamping decal method?  Let me know!  Thanks for looking, commenting and generally putting up with my morning blabber :)

Tina

My Mind, It Is a Changin'

Earlier this week I used Maybelline Color Show Dotty and talked about how much I hate their packaging.  Then I happened to be in CVS with a 25% off coupon and saw The Mabelline Color Show Gilded in Gold Brocade collection and ended up with 5 of them, yes FIVE!  What can i say, I am a sucker for cheap polish.  I knew I wanted to get swatches up as soon as possible, because these are limited edition and I see them going fast.  If you make it all the way through the swatches, I will reward you with some nail art too!

The Maybelline Color Show Gilded in Gold Brocade polishes are not quite glitter bombs, but awfully close.  Each one of the ones I purchased seem to have different formulas, so I will discuss each one individually.  All swatches were topped with one layer of Seche Vite.  Let's start with the one I like the least.

Artificially Light

Flash

 

First, let me say that my pictures do not do these justice.  They are much more "sparkly" IRL.  This is Beaming Blue.  I wanted to show you how this could look with different uses.  Here is what is on my tips above.

• Pinkie - one coat 
• Ring - one coat over SOPI Opening night, a dark blue metallic
• Index and middle - two coats, no undies

As I said before, this was my least favorite.  It is a clear base filled to the brim with a duochrome shimmer that is blue in most lights and lilac at some angles.  I just could not capture the shift as blues always freak my camera out, however you can just barely see it in the shadow of my nails on the bottle.    It also has different sized blue hex glitter.  

The formula on this was okay, just a bit thick.  The glitters spread pretty smoothly with just a little bit of clumping and balding.

Artificial Light

Flash

 

Next is Lavishly Lilac.  This was the one that was hardest to capture in the pics.  If you look at the bottle you can see the gold shimmer.  IRL this polish is completely filled with it.  This is a lilac base filled with that gold shimmer, purple and blue hexes and magenta micro glitter.  Here is what is on the tips above.

• Pinkie - One coat
• Ring - One coat over Sinful Colors Who's the Gloss
• Index and middle - Two coats

The formula on this was not as thick as Beaming Blue.  The glitters spread well and with two coats there was no balding.  In the pics it looks sheer, but IRL the gold shimmer makes it very opaque.

Flash

This is Emerald Elegance and the name totally fits.  This is my second favorite of the ones I purchased.  It is a dark green jelly packed with green and gold shimmer and slightly lighter green hexes.  

For some reason, none of my artificial light pics turned out.  Well they were not up to my par as they didn't really show off the glitters and did not represent it in the least so you only get the flash photo.  

This was probably the easiest to apply.  It went on like butter.  All of the fingers are two coats this time as one coat was totally opaque.  Of course I applied two coats to get it more depth.  Can you just see this one paired with a red glitter or holo for a Christmas mani.  Maybe even with a gold added in.  You will definitely be seeing this again in December.  This has become my favorite emerald green polish.  Soooo glittery and deep.

Indirect Artificial Light

Artificial Light

Flash

And next we have Embellished Blues.  Be still my heart!  Who doesn't love a glittery dark denim blue?   I know I do!  This is a dark blue jellie filled with gold and blue micro shimmers and blue hexes.  Once again, I just wish I could have captured the true beauty of this polish, so if you like the pics, just know that you will LOVE the polish.  

Again, because of the darkness of the base, there is no reason to layer this, so there are two coats on all the nails.

Now here is the kicker, the formula of this unique and completely different from all the others I purchased.  It dries with a textured finish!  It is reminiscent of the Zoya Pixie Dusts!  In the pics I used top coat, but it really has that texture that is so popular right now.  

It went on with no problems and if I could only purchase one out of the bunch, this would be it!

Artificial Light

Flash

Indirect Artificial Light

Now we come to the final polish, Amethyst Couture.  I have mixed feelings about this one.  I love the color and mixture.  I have purchased a couple of purple glitter filled black jellies, and this is what I wanted them to be like.  The purple glitters are a plum color and it has a spattering of gold micro glitters.  The problem is that the base is too thick.  It doesn't allow the glitters to shine through like they should.  It also makes application a bitch.  The lateral edges of my nails are deep, so it was hard for me to get this polish to the side edge of my nails without getting polish all over the skin.

The outcome is that I really want to like this one, but I know it could be so much better.  Maybe if I add some thinner next time?  Ready for some nail art?

This started with a gradient of Emerald Elegance and Amethyst Couture.  This was done at about midnight, so I forgot to take a photo of the gradient on its own.  It really is a shame that you can't see how pretty this was on it's own.

I stamped with Maybelline Bold Gold and BM-208.  It makes my obsessive side so very happy to use all Maybellines in this mani!  

Next to the purple in these pics, the green looks a bit teal, but not IRL.   

So what do you think of this collection.  I happen to really like them.  Do a little web search to check out the other colors.  Hope you had a great weekend and see you again tomorrow.

Tina