Thursday is the Chinese New Year so the theme for Adventure in Stamping follows. It gave me a chance to try a new indie polish. My model is my lovely sister. I have been doing her nails for months. We get together once a week for family night. The kids play games with their uncle while I paint their aunt's nails. It has been great for our family! My sister and brother-in-law were out of the country for many years and missed a lot of my kids younger years. They have no kids of their own, and I value the chance that my kids have to get to know them better. Anyway, I usually forget my camera, but now that I have a new IPhone, I have a decent enough camera, so here it is.
I love this! It is exactly what I had in my mind when I started. Not often that happens.
I also happened to wear this same polish this week and luckily remembered to take pics under my daylight lamp so you could get a good look at it. This is Native War Paints Fiery Kisses. My swatch is three coats, but I only used two on my sister's nails for full opacity. It is a gorgeous red creme filled with gold flakies and a smattering of blue shimmer. It is just my type of red, dark and cool, rather than warm. The formula was great and dry time was phenomenal, but I did have trouble wrapping my tips with it. It slid right off the edge and pooled on the tips, which was weird because I didn't have pooling anywhere else. I still highly recommend it.
We started with black stripes a little off center on all the nails. I made some nail decals using Maybelline Bold Gold and Chez-Delaney Asiatique. I backed the decals with blace and centered them at the top of the stripes. Then I stamped with another image from the same plate and Bold Gold on the accent nails.
I ended up loving these. Very simple, yet definitely very Asian. It was one of those rare instances where everything came together really well. You will, hopefully, be seeing more of my sis' nails since Bria has not been able to keep her nails painted with her new job.
Thanks for looking and commenting!
I am sneaking in an Adventures in Stamping post at the last moment, so I am going to make this quick. The theme was "over blue". Simple enough, right?
I ended up being so happy with these! My favorite polish (well one of them) stamped with a favorite color and stamp. They ended up being pure elegance, IMHO.
I started with two coats of Girly Bits Cu Blue. Thank goodness this one is still in stock! If they ever decide to discontinue it, I will have to stock up, it is just that gorgeous! It is a cobalt blue filled with copper shimmer. It is hiding a bit in my pics.
Next I stamped with MoYou Pro 06 and Revlon Copper Penny. This is another that I would have to stock up on if it was discontinued. It is one of my favorite stamping polishes, right up there with black and gold.
You can see my comparison of Cu Blue to Lapis Lazuli HERE. It really feels like the gorgeous stone on my nails.
You can purchase Girly Bits Cu Blue HERE or check the international sellers HERE.
You know the mood rock had to come out for this! As always, thanks for looking and commenting. My readers make my day!
Quickie today as I am still sick and this should have been posted on Sunday :( This one covers THREE challenges, #31DC2014 black and white, AIS geometric and NCC geometric.
This was inspired by someone, somewhere, but I am too miserable to figure out where or who. I will try to find it when I am feeling better and link back, or if you know, link in comments :)
Started with a base of Cult Nails Tempest and Finger Paints Black Expressionism sponged with Pahlish Eleven's Hour is Over Now. You can barely see it over the black, but it did add some sparklies.
Stamped with Emily de Molly EDM03.
That's it. There may be another post later tonight, if I have the energy. Don't forget to check out the other geometrics from The Nail Challenge Collaborative.
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Quick post. Have to take Bria's boyfriend (wincing just thinking about it) home. Today I have a two-fer. Negative space for Finger Buffet and "over stripes" for Adventures in Stamping.
Mixed feelings about this one. Like the concept. I think the two colors are too close and I chose the wrong image to stamp.
Started with two coats of Essie Cabi-O-Lait, added striping tape and then Crows Toes Birthday Suit. Looks like I let it dry too long.
I applied top coat, reapplied striping tape, then stamped over it with PUEEN SE03B (top left corner) and my go to black, Finger Paints Black Expressionism.
I think the image was not recognizable enough. I should have chose an argyle pattern or something.
This turned out the opposite of what normally happens. The DMPs don't look too bad, but IRL it just looked like a mess.
Oh well, lesson learned. I will definitely be visiting this idea again, hopefully with better results. Thanks for looking and commenting!
Yellow is the only color I do not like on my tips. Today the prompt for Adventures in Stamping is "over yellow". Almost skipped it, but that's what challenges are for, stepping out of your comfort zone.
Yellow tends to make my skin look brown. On top of that, I got a new cuticle pusher. It works well...too well. It is plastic with a sharp edge and my cuticles paid for it. Please forgive their tortured look!
Not only is this not my favorite color, it is also not my favorite execution. Should have used white over the whole nail instead of doing a stamp gradient. Almost didn't post this, but I figure I went to the trouble and I know everyone has a bad nail day. Might as well show you the bad as well as the good.
I started with a gradient of Cult Nails New Day, NOPI Ladies in the Limelight and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening over a white base. I actually like this.
Then I used MoYou Pro 06 and did a stamp gradient with Konad Special White and SH Lightening. Don't know what a stamping gradient is? Check THIS post. Like I said, should have just used white.
You can see the yellow over the gradient a bit better with the flash. By using the yellow I covered up the purdy (as purdy as yellow can be) gradient.
Despite its downfalls, I still think it was a valiant attempt. Thanks for looking and commenting!
Hoping onto Adventures in Stamping today with stamping over green. Please forgive my short post, but I have tons to do!
Not my best stamping. I should have done decals for the french tips. Oh well.
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| With Flash |
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| Artificial Light |
I started with four coats of LynBDesigns The Credible Hulk. Yes, four coats. Such a pretty grass green holo, but it is a jelly holo, which means it is thin and needs a lot for full coverage. I would suggest undies and a couple coats of The Credible Hulk for depth. I love this green though, so I think it is well worth the extra coats.
Next I stamped with PUEEN 15 on ring and thumb and some french tips with Messy Mansion MM19. Here comes the spam!
Despite my sloppy stamping, I ended up really liking this. It surprises me how often I am doing accent nails recently. They go against my "orderly and balanced" preferences, but this really does go together well...I think? Let me know what you think! Do you like accent nails? Speak to me people! See you soon!.
The green day is here! I have a huge stash of green polish. There are so many variations of this lovely color, olive, emerald, lime, pine, forest, blue leaning, yellow leaning, grey leaning....you get the idea! I have yet to meet a green I did not like! Needless to say, Saint Patrick's Day is a favorite for my nails, but today, Bria got the green treatment for Finger Foods Buffet.
I knew I wanted to do a plaid this year, but Bria found a themed stamp she really wanted to have used, so we compromised with an accent nail mani.
She chose China Glaze Running In Circles for the Base. We used 2 coats of this glittery green foil polish, although it looks like I should have added one more coat for the DMP (dreaded micro pics). I knew it was a not full coverage, but I figured there would be enough on top to cover the fact, which it did IRL, just not DMP.
For the plaid I used a unnamed dark green Elf polish filled with some dark green sparkles for the wide stripes. This polish is a tiny bottle and I used to use it for stamping a lot. Now that it has sat around in my stash unused, it has thickened and smells HORRIBLE. I mean, I don't mind chemical smells in polish, but this smells like rancid chemicals. It was cheap. It is going in the garbage. End of story.
Next I added thin stripes with Maybelline Bold Gold and a striping brush. Obviously I need more practice with the striping brush, but I think I did pretty good with a wiggly and tired girl.
For the accent nails, Bria chose this image from MJ XII. We tried several dark greens for the stamping, but they were all overwhelmed by the base, so we ended up just using Bold Gold instead. It looked a bit one dimensional, so I made the mistake of trying to use a dotting tool to fill the shamrocks with the afore mentioned Elf. I had added some thinner, but even so, it was so thick that it just wasn't cooperating in making those tiny hearts for the leaves. In the end I gave up and used Wet & Wild Poison. Much better, but still a PITA to do. Thank goodness I only did these as accent nails! I think I might have lost my sanity trying to do this on all her nails!
I know these are out of focus, but I loved Bria's lovely face in the background! Don't forget to check out all the other St Patty's day manis!
It is late and I really should be slinking off to bed, but I really want to post my mani for today's (almost yesterday's) Stamping Sunday challenge at Adventures in Stamping. The prompt is Guilty Pleasure. I have a lot of guilty pleasures...butter loaded popcorn and nail polish (of course), to name a few. But the nail art has to be stamped, so I decided to go with my love of....ZOMBIES! I don't know why I am obsessed with zombie movies/shows, but I am. The Walking Dead, 28 Days Later, Resident Evil, Sean of the Dead, Planet Terror, Zombieland, Army of Darkness, La Horde, I Am Legend, Night of the Comet, 28 Weeks Later, Helix (sort of a zombie tv show only they are easier to kill)...I love them all. I like the more cerebral ones, obviously, but as long it isn't a total gorefest, I will like it. I have yet to see World War Z, but hope to soon. Here is my zombie mani.
Do you see my little joke? Yep, it is a valentine zombie mani (tee hee).
I started with two coats of SinfulShine Who's the Gloss. This grey is filled with purple and pink shimmer, giving it a dusty purple look. So purdy!
Next I stamped with FingerPaints Black Expressionism and Sugar Bubbles 001 (zombies and tombstones) and MJ XIX (till death do us part). I used the stamping decal method to get the mirror image so the two zombies are reaching out for each other.
This one just makes me smile :) What is your guilty pleasure? Thanks for looking!
Tina
