Chinese New Year Nail Art

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!

Barielle Jetsetter Collection Swatches

Time just keeps slipping away from me!  But with the snow storm today, we are staying home and snuggling inside, trying to keep warm.  What a perfect day to post my Barielle Jetsetter Collection swatches!  Let's just jump right into it!  All swatches are two coats with top coat, unless otherwise noted.

Kiss Me Kate in Artificial Light

Kiss Me Kate with Flash

Kiss Me Kate in Artificial Light

Barielle has a lot of these nude colors, but this one is my favorite that I have tried so far!  It has a vintage pink feel to it that works so well with my skin tone.  Formula was great, self leveling and easy to apply.  Watch for a comparison post of this with Barielles other nudes coming soon so you can find one that would be perfect for you!

Rain in Spain in Artificial Light

Rain in Spain with Flash

Rain in Spain in Artificial Light

Next we have the delicate Rain in Spain.  This periwinkle blue is paler than others in my stash and, once again, has become a favorite.  The formula on this was perfect, thin but not a flooder.  

Autumn in Seoul in Artificial Light

Autumn in Seoul with Flash

Autumn in Seoul in Artificial Light

This is three coats of Autumn in Seoul, one of those coppery browns I love so much.  It was fully opaque in two coats, but felt the need add a third coat.  However, I messed it up.  I scratched....something....before it was fully set, so there are wrinkles.  This was in no way caused by the formula, which was smooth and easy, but by my itchy....something.  I just can't remember what I itched (tee hee).  In the DMPs there are some brush strokes showing, but IRL they don't show at all, just a nice metallic brown.  I admit that I am partial to these colors, so I have some similar shades.  I will do a comparison post soon!

Gondola Ride in Artificial Light

Gondola Ride with Flash

Gondola Ride in Artificial Light

Gondola Ride is the first of two greens in this collection.  I know some are not wild about green, but I happen to love it, so two in one collection is a dream come true.  Gondola ride is a lovely sage green creme that freaked my camera a bit.  The first picture is most color accurate, a light green with a slight blue tinge.  The formula was much thinner than all the others and required three coats for full coverage.  Other the thinness, the formula was good, no flooding and a good self leveler.

Irish Eyes in Artificial Light

Irish Eyes with Flash

Irish Eyes in Artificial Light

Irish Eyes is a moss green.  Once again, my camera was a freak.  The first pic is color accurate.  It is slightly darker with a yellow lean.  Another good formula, smooth and self leveling.  Tomorrow I will have a comparison of the two greens.

Midnight in Paris in Artificial Light

Midnight in Pariswith Flash

Midnight in Paris in Artificial Light

Finally, my favorite of the collection, Midnight in Paris.  The formula on this was Fabulous with a capital F!  Smooth, easy and gorgeous.  Although it has a metallic shimmer, there are little to no brush strokes, whoo hoo!  The Seche Vite top coat did cause some shrinkage at the cuticle, but that may be because I did not give the polish enough time to dry before applying it.  I feel like I have similar colors in my stash, so I will be doing another comparison with this one.

Overall, I enjoyed this collection and there are definitely a few new favorites here, Kiss Me Kate, Rain in Spain and Midnight in Paris.  Another great collection from Barielle!  All of these, plus other fabulous colors, can be found at their website HERE.  But that couldn't be all, could it?  No!  Bonus nail art!

I love this....except for the horrible shrinkage from the Seche Vite!

I started with a base of Barielle Moda Blue, a favorite from the Me Couture collection, which you can see HERE.  Then I stamped with Midnight in Paris and Messy Mansion MM12.  The difference in tone was so close that you could only see the shimmer in direct light.  At least I know it is a good stamper!

Finally I double stamped with Irish Eyes, Rain in Spain and Chez Delany Diver 002.  If I was smart, I would have put a stud in the middle, but nope.  Sometimes you can't see the obvious until you see the pictures :(

Despite the missing studs and obvious shrinkage (I think this is the worst case of shrinkage I have ever experienced) I still ended up liking this look.

So, what do you think?  Like this collection?  Which is your favorite?  Thanks so much for looking and commenting!  See you tomorrow with some comparisons!

A Little Nail Art for a Break from Comparisons

Are you tired of comparison posts for the BLOG SALE yet?  I know I am and there is more coming, so I took a break and did some nail art!  

This is my favorite time of year.  I love October and November better than any other months of the year.  The air turns crisp and so do the leaves.  Pumpkins show up on doorsteps and in pies.  Pumpkin spice all the stuff!  Latte, creamer, cream cheese and candles.  Whatever it is, I want it.  No, I need it!  I have been on the lookout for Ben & Jerry's pumpkin ice cream, but haven't found it yet and I am on my own personal crusade for pumpkin spice oreos.  Just imagine ginger cookies (instead of chocolate) with pumpkin Double Stuff.  My mouth is watering!

Of course this means pumpkins on my nails too!  I recently (like early summer) purchased some Chocolate Vanity plates through a AIS group buy and one was almost strictly for this image.  I love Mickey in the pumpkin!

Pic from Chocolate Vanity Source

Isn't it cute!  I am sure the Pooh and Valentine images will get use also, but that pumpkin!  Love it hard!

I used the stamping decal method to reverse color the image then applied to the nail over Two coats of China Glaze Lug Your Designer Baggage.

If you are a brown polish lover, like me, this is a must have IMHO.  Rich chocolate brown filled to the brim with warm flakie goodness?  Yes please!  It applies so smoothly and makes me want to lick my fingers.  Sorry if I just grossed anyone out!

I added a funky french tip with Messy Mansion MM19, again using the decal method.  Wish I would have placed them closer to the tips, but the first one was high, so they all had to be high, right?

Despite the flaws I can so clearly see, I LOVE this!  The perfect non-scarey Halloween manicure!

What do you think?  Do you like brown polish, or are you like my sister and think it looks like something that should come out of a diaper?  Is this your favorite time of year too?  If not, what is?  Are you happy to see some nail art?

As always, thanks for looking and commenting!  You guys are what makes blogging worthwhile!  And don't forget to check out my BLOG SALE.  NEW POLISH was added just yesterday and there are a bunch of discontinued indies just waiting for new homes!

Blog Sale

 

Buffalo Bill Nail Art

Life is getting in the way of nails around here :(  I had my water marble (you can see it HERE) for several days and finally forced myself to change it.  As I sat at my desk with a list of the prompts I had not completed yet for the #31DC2014, I spied a nail decal left over from THIS nail art.  It was done months ago but must have been hiding out under a polish bottle or something :)  As soon as I saw it, I knew I was going to do the book and movie prompt together, plus the skittles prompt for Blogger Braggers.

Yup, Silence of the Lambs was a book before it was a movie.  I have seen manis inspired by this movie before, but I wanted to concentrate on Buffalo Bill instead of Hannibal Lecter.

I started with two coats of LynBDesigns Battle Dress, a shimmery nude polish.  This is an older swatch pic, which is why my nails are shorter.  I need to go back to this length :).

The well is on my index finger, which of course had to include the bloody scratches and finger nail.  I sponged with Julep Daria (a dark grey) and Nails Inc Old Compton Street (a light grey texture) then stamped with LLC-B.  Scratches are Orly Naughty.

The middle finger is a decal using MoYou 67.  I double stamped the ring finger with Messy Mansion MM36, Mentality Prim and Mentality Foxy.  "It puts the lotion in the basket or it gets the hose again".

The pinkie was splattered with Orly Naughty, what I think is the perfect blood polish.  I did not clean up the cuticles on purpose for a more gory effect.

Finally I free handed Buffalo Bills hand tattoo on my thumb.  Did you know that the three tattoos he has are tattoos from three notorious serial killers, at least that is what I read somewhere during my research and you know everything on the internet is real :)

That's it kiddies.  I have the mood stone, not particularly because I love the nail art, but because I love my interpretation of the movie onto my nails.  Kinda like my Donnie Darko manicure you can find HERE. 

As always, thanks for looking and commenting!