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!

Another Valentine's Nail Art

It has been a long time since I have been involved with Llama Nails, but they are having a Valentines theme this month and since I have so many ideas rattling around in my head, I figured I would join in.

For some reason I have been forgetting to photograph my base colors.  It is sad because this is such a pretty polish.  It is Zoya Veruschka, the smooth matte sister of Chita.  I love wearing green polish, so I thought this would be a good choice.

 

Next I stamped with Bundle Monster BM-317, PUEEN30 and Maybelline Bold Gold.  So many hearts and only 28 days in February!

I then filled in the hearts with Seche Vite top coat.  It brings out Veruschka's sparkle.  Reminds me of emeralds!

Since the I stamped a bit low with the "Love" stamp, I dotted some hearts on the ring and thumb with Seche and outlined them with Bold Gold.  It wasn't very delicate, but I still am happy with them.

Although this lasted several days on my tips, the effect of matte vs shiny did not.  The Seche wore down and Veruschka gained some shine from the buffing that happens through every day life.  Still looked pretty though.

My mood stone seemed appropriate for this, don't you think?  Thanks for looking and commenting!

AIS Sunday Stamping Over Blue

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!

 

Crumpet Nail Tarts Brown

It has been a few weeks, but I decided I needed to jump into Crumpet Nail Tarts Pick n Mix Challenge.  This week is Book/Brown.  Today I went for brown.

Although I am not wild about this in the pictures, I loved it IRL.  It looked very sophisticated and was a perfect edgy work look.  And, although winter is here with a vengeance in Minnesota, I felt it made for a good fall look.

I started with two coats of Cupcake Polish Too Haute to Handle.  This is a pink leaning nude holo.  Kind of a rose gold.  I really love this polish, but it does call for a nude holo comparison as this is not the only one in my stash.  The Cupcake store describes this as a dark gold, but I just ain' seeing it.  Also says that it is textured, but I didn't find that true with my bottle.  Still love it!  Application was a breeze and dry time was excellent!  

Next I stamped with Loja BFF-04 and Mentality Foxy.  This image stamped beautifully!  

Look at that holo!  But even with the rainbow the stamping shows up.  Sometimes holos overwhelm stamping, but not with this combo.

You can guess how I feel about this one.  Loved it!  Check out what all the other Tarts came up with.  Thanks for looking and commenting!

A Return of the Double Challenge Manicures

Heellooo!  As I type that, I hear it as Robin Williams doing Mrs Doubtfire.  Cracks me up!  You may (or may not) have noticed that I have been scarce, not only here but on all the other social media sites.  I have been a busy girl!  I am back, however, with one manicure for two challenge prompts, Nail Challenge Collaborative's stripes and Crumpet Nail Tart's three dark colors.

I have mixed feelings about this one.  I love the color combo and the design, but my execution of it is a little sloppy, at best.

I am using a flash pic here because in all the others, the maroon color was showing black.  Here are the colors I used.

• Cuticle - Spa Ritual Deep - A gorgeous blue leaning grey with a purple shimmer.
• Middle - Spa Ritual Freedom - Greyed purple with a blue shimmer.
• Tips - Spa Ritual Twilight - Dark maroon shimmer

I love these colors together, the perfect fall combination.  Of course, I see all my little imperfections, the biggest being that I wish I would have put a second coat of Freedom in the middle.  Twilight could have used a second coat too, to deepen the color.  My lines....weelll, let's just not go there.

In real life, all these little mess ups just weren't noticeable and I ended up loving it!  For some reason it felt very work appropriate, like it would have gone really well with a dark grey pinstripe suit.  I look at these pics, though, and cringe.  Damn DMPs!  Oh well, I enjoyed it while it lasted :)  Thanks for looking and commenting and don't forget to check out all the other stripes and dark colors.

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

 

My Life is a Train Wreck

A new month, a new challenge.  This month starts The Crumpet Nail Tarts Pick n Mix Challenge.  There is one prompt with two parts each week.  This week is two color gradient/teal.  You can do one nail art with two color gradient or one with teal or both on two different days or one with a gradient that includes teal.  Get it?  Sounds complicated, but it isn't, it just gives a lot of flexibility as to what you want to do.  Plus, the idea is to concentrate on your golden oldies and untrieds.

On top of the Mix n Match, I decided to continue to try and get some of the #31DC2014 prompts completed.  Plus Llama nails.  I am becoming the combo prompt queen!  Today's nail art is for inspired by a song (31DC2014), two color gradient (Crumpet Nail Tarts) and cartoon/anime.  Here we go!

These, once again, are Bria's sweet nails.  Why do I always do the complicated ones on Bria's tiny tips?  

I have recently discovered a children's program that was on for three seasons starting in 2006.  It is brilliant, funny and dark, which is right up my alley.  It is Ruby Doom.  I stumbled across it on Netflix and devoured two season within two days.  I Bingeflix!  This nail art was inspired by the following song.


 
Misery is a girl who's life is filled with, well, misery.  And she is in bed because she can only sing (well) when she is asleep.  

Anyway, I love this song and it fits my life perfectly right now.  I try not to throw my personal life into my blog too much, but since it relates to the song....Some of you know I lost my job.  Hunting for a new job after 12 years at the company is...well, let's say stressful.  Then my dog got sick.  After an expensive vet visit (which we can't afford because...well no job) we were given some pills and told to complete the course and see if he improved.  He seemed much better, until we completed the medication.  Then he started throwing up and having diarrhea again.  Took him into the vet today.  They did blood work and a rectal exam because he no longer will sit, only stand or lie down.  They found that he has kidney disease and a hard growth in his anal glands.  The growth may or may not be cancerous, but finding out would mean a biopsy, which, again, costs money.  And the kidney disease?  It has no cure and can only be managed with regular IV fluids.  All this to say that we are going to have to put him down.  If it was just one issue he was dealing with, we might pursue things further, but it would be for us, not him.  He is obviously (at least to me) suffering and he is old.  He was a stray, so our best guess is that he is 14 or older since we have had him for 13 years.    So this song fits right now.  Oh what the heck, throw in a sick dog.

I am keeping a stiff upper lip.  I continue to look for a job and give my dog as much love as I can, while I can, but I feel like my life is spinning.  That is why I continue to do my nails, and Bria's.  It is relaxing and brings me joy.  I may be posting less often, but don't expect me to disappear.  I hope you feel like that is a good thing!

On to the nails!

My two color gradient consists of Julep Millie, an indigo creme, and Arcane Lacquer Dreary days (fits, huh?).  Dreary Days is my untried.  It is a gorgeous grey filled with blue and black glitter.  These two go together perfectly IMHO.

I ended up really happy with this, except my middle finger.  Let me walk you through it.

I added Orly Diamond Days on pinkie and middle.  I don't know why I didn't add it to all of them, but I think I thought it would just be covered up with the stamping.

If you watched the video, you can figure most of these out.  The ring is my pitiful attempt at freehanding the bridge.  I tried to use an Eiffel Tower stamp, but it wasn't transferring, no matter what stamper I used. Oh well, you get the idea.  My thumb is for the line "Did that place you're in explode".  Love it!

I stamped everything but my thumb with MJ XX, my index with MJ XIX and ring with Vivid Lacquer VL 016.

I am kind of liking the multiple plate stamping right now.  The only problem with this is that the Mash plate image stamps backward and I didn't realize until we were done.  Unless you do a decal, it says BOOW instead of BOOM.

Bria, of course, loved this.  The more complicated, the better, in her opinion.  Plus she likes Ruby Gloom almost as much as I do.

Thanks for looking and commenting!