I have had this mani done for weeks and I love it, but yesterday I had no inclination to post. Two weeks ago I couldn't wait you show, my readers, this beauty. Yesterday, nothin'. Can't explain it, just nothin''. Have to show it to you though! It was a new technique for me. Julia from Messy Mansion (one of my favorite nail stamping plate makers) calls it lead lighting.
The idea is that you stamp and then fill it all in with jelly polish and get a stained glass look.
Now I only own two jellies, one blue and one red, but I definitely am going to be adding more soon because I love this technique! So much easier than stamping decals.
I started with two coats of OPI My Vampire Is Buff stamped with moYou London Pro 06 and Finger Paints Black Expressionism.
No jellies? What's a girl to do? Search through her stash for sheer peach and yellow polish that I haven't worn in over a year, that's what!
I ended up using the following polishes:
- Cult Nails Baker (outer petals)
- Finger Paints Art Nouv-Yellow (um...yellow)
- Cover Girl Bahama Mamma (inner petals)
- Nubar Kiwi (green)
I was beyond happy with this, so I went a bit overboard on the pics. Sorry for the pic spam...well, not really :) Here it comes
So springy and delicate. So In love with this! Don't know why I didn't post yesterday! Check out all the other golden oldies!
Welcome to my first Twin Blog post. Not only is it my first, but I also get two twinsies, Katie from Lustrous Lacquer and Hanna from The Dalai Lama's Nails. The theme this month is animal print. Each pairing (or in our case, threesome) was assigned an animal and we got tiger prints. We each agreed that we wanted to do a nontraditional take on the theme, so don't go expecting any orange/white/black going on around here!
I thought about doing a pastel tiger with some white stripes, but I opted for a duo chromed stripey thingy (tee hee).
I started with two coats of Julep Blakely. Blakely is one of those hematite, teal, purple shifting duo chromes that I found really hard to capture under the stripes. But I tried, as attested by all the pics coming soon.
I stamped over Blakely with GA27, M69 and Finger Paints Black Expressionism.
Yep, not springy, but it doesn't matter, I love it! Don't forget to check my other twinsies to see their take on the nontraditional tiger and all the other animal prints!
I went into this theme knowing that I was not going to be happy with it. Why? I am not wild about ikat patterns. In my eyes, they just look messy. It just does not fit well in my desire for an ordered world :). Despite all the talented nail artists I follow, I have only seen a couple ikat manis that I have liked and it all had to do with color selection and precision. I don't have the precision chops, so I focused on color. I didn't want bright colors, so I went with a favorite combo that has not been highlighted much on my blog: Grey and Pink.
I must say that I hate my thumb. I may sound a bit hard on myself, but that is just the way I roll. The rest I can tolerate....actually, considering what it is, I ended up being happy with everything but the thumb.
I started with 2 coats of Barielle My City Apartment, then added the bulls eye with (center out) a random white, OPI Hands Off My Kielbasa and China Glaze Your Touch.
Finally I used a very thin brush that I created by cutting down an old brush. I decided not to go black, but instead a dark grey, so I used Julep Daria.
Guess what? This is all the pics you get. IIf I was to do this again (which will only happen if it is another prompt in another challenge), I would use the tiny brush to do all the colors so that it looks more "fringie" throughout. I would love to know what you think. Is this an ikat fail? Do you like the color combo? Do you like ikat manis? Have you done one yourself? Feel free to add your link to any that you have done in the comments!
*All products purchased my me with my hard earned money*
Another day, another mani! Today is the Nail Challenge Collaborative Untrieds. I love this theme! I have so many beauties that have not graced my tips and I am reveling in how the art is open to interpretation. Instead of finding a polish to fit the prompt, I have had the freedom to chose a polish that I really want to use and think, "How can this best be used?", rather than how can I make this fit the prompt. I have enjoyed it immensely and am sad that I only have one more after today. Let's get to today's mani.
This warm flowery mani really made me happy for some reason. Plus, not only did I use one untried, but two. Woo hoo!
I am not shy in expressing my Zoya love. The bottles, the wide variety of finishes, the quality of the formulas, Zoya does not follow trends but instead consistently releases fresh collections of 5 free polishes with an eye on creating high quality AND affordable products. Their remover is my all time favorite and they have special offers several times a year to make growing my collection even more affordable. It is no surprise that Zoya is my favorite non indie polish producer. I currently have over 50 Zoya shades in my wishlist right now! Luckily, their Earth Day promotion is coming up in April, so maybe I can put a small dent in my list! Now that the "commercial" is over, shall we get to the details of this mani?
I started with 3 coats of Zoya Kalmia. Zoya describes this as "metallic red-gold fusion enhanced by copper and gold shimmer". Boy do they know how to describe a color! I would have called it an orange leaning metallic tomato red. However you describe it, it is beautiful and applies better than butter! Although I used three coats, it is totally opaque at two. I just couldn't resist adding another layer of this golden brick red to my tips.
I then sponged the tips with Zoya Rica. This is described as a warm Coral with a "heavy gold metallic sparkle". I just couldn't capture the pink tinge in these pictures, but you can get a tiny glimpse in that top pic. IRL it provided a pink blush with that golden sparkle.
I thought about just leaving it as a gradient, but just couldn't resist adding some gold stamping. I wanted something that would allow the beauty of the gradient to shine through, so chose some peek-a-boo flowers from moYou London Pro 14.
I love this plate and have already used three of the 12 images in the past month alone! I used Maybelline Bold Gold for the stamping and, in my eyes, it seemed to highlight the gold hues in Kalmia, causing it to appear more orange. Isn't that interesting? Here comes the pic spam.
Such a bright, sunny mani, it brightened my mood every time I caught a glimpse of my tips! As always, thanks for visiting and commenting. Feel free to visit the others with their untrieds!
There are not enough hours in the day, so this is going to be "quick". Finger Foods...theme freestyle...
Stamping of course....and some microbeads 'cause I have been lovin' them recently.
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Started with two coats of Julep Valerie. Dark teal with blue and gold flakies? Love this polish HARD! Easily a one coater and probably can be used for stamping. Will have to try that soon!
Stamped with moYou London Pro 14 and Maybelline Bold Gold. Running low on Bold Gold. Note to self, make a CVS run in my spare time (yeah right!).
Added some micro beads to the flowers and swirlies. Wish the color wouldn't bleed with top coat. Pic spam.
There you have it! Whatcha think? To many micro beads? Did Valerie just go straight to your wish list? Thanks for looking and commenting!
I love when I can combine my personal challenges with (MSMD, Fashion Fridays, Swatchin Saturdays) with one that I have joined. Today it is Fashion Friday with NCC Untried.
This was inspired by one of my mother's dresses that I loved when I was little. Yes, it was the 70's and no, I couldn't find a picture of it. Instead, I scoured the internet for something similar. This is what I found....
I see anything that combines orange, rust, yellow and paisleys, I go right back to my childhood. Sitting by the pool at our apartment. Her's had a miniskirt and she would sunbathe by the pool while we swam. Rust paisleys remind me of summer. How weird is that?
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This started with two coats of China Glaze Desert Sun. This is my untried. I thought maybe I would have used it for a halloween mani, but nope...It has languished in my China Glaze stash for over a year. Sad polish! But now it sees the light of day in a design that brings to mind sunny days.
I stamped with BM-315 and Avon Forbidden Fudge. Sorry I outlined the wrong image! I am tired and too lazy to go back and re-edit. You know which image I used, right?
Finally I dotted with China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, 'cause there HAD to be some kind of yellow or it just wouldn't fit my memory. Now I am beyond tired and have to work in the morning. If you aren't to tired, check out the other untrieds!
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