NCC Week 8 - Icicles

Three posts in a day?  Yep!  The theme for week 8 of the Nail Challenge Collaborative Let It Snow Challenge is Icicles.  Here it is!

 Simple....straight forward.  Let's start with the base.

Without Topcoat

With Topcoat

This is Girly Bits Stormy Skies.  I love this color sooo much, but it was work to get it here.  It is very thin, but buildable.  This is 4 coats.  The top pic is without topcoat and shows how rough it is on it's own.  I personally like polish that have texture, but if you don't, not to worry.  Only one coat of Sech Vite turned this from a matte, somewhat gritty, polish into a smooth sparkling oasis of blue.  Next time I use this, I intend to use undies so as not to waste this gorgeous beauty on four coats.  Might just try it over some blurple to see what happens :)

Next I stamped with BM-319, first with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep, and then again with Orly Dazzle.  Finished with top coat and done!  Not my most creative mani, but I have been wanting to use this particular stamp for awhile, and it just seemed to fit this theme so well.  Check out all the other frosty tips!

Day 21 of Crumpets 31 DC - Melt or Merge

The theme for day 21 is Melt or Merge.  I decided to do a needle dry marble.  I was inspired by this mani HERE.  Isn't that gorgeous?  Mine didn't turn out as well, this swirl takes a steady hand, which I don't have.  Still, I like it...a lot.

I spent a lot of time researching on YouTube how to do this...too much time.  I was nervous about doing this technique, for some reason.  I finally decided that I had to just had to get over my fear and jump in with all 10 fingers.  There was no reason for my trepidation!  This was really easy.  I wanted use some of the new Zoyas I got during their 3 Free sale, so I chose some of the purples.  Here's how I did it.

I started with one coat of Orly Coffee Break as a base.  After it was fully dry, I added thick coated lateral stripes of the following (left to right).

• Zoya Neeka
• Zoya Adina
• Orly Coffee Break

While still wet, I drew a big spiral (outside - in) through the polish with a needle.  If I was to do it again, I would use an orange stick or my smallest dotting tool as it would have dragged more of the polish (I think).  This mani took awhile to dry, because of the thickness of the coat, but it was worth the wait.

Without Flash

With Flash

 You can see that, on my middle finger, I did not place a thick enough coat or waited to long to draw my spiral.  When you do it right, any lines made by the needle get filled in with polish flow.  On my middle finger, you can still see the indent from the needle.  I think my favorite is my pinky, which surprisingly was the first one I did.  I think I started to over think it after that (tee hee).  Now on to the other "melties" and "mergies"

 

AIS Accent Nail

The theme for Adventures in stamping for the 20th was Accent Nail.  This was really simple, but I think it looks spectacular!

Without Flash

On day three of this challenge, I talked about how I had looked for a long time for a bright pink with gold glitter.  After I found China Glaze Strawberry Fields, I keep finding the same color scheme and I have a hard time passing them up because I was looking for it for so long (well long in my hoarding life).      I couldn't pass up this one though.  It is a Layla Soft Touch Effects polish, which means that it is matte, and you know how I love those mattes!  Here's how I did this one.

• Two coats of Layla Soft Touch Effects 05, also known as Cherry Diva
• Stamped on edges with Sinful Colors Black on Black and Bundle Monster BM-310

 

•  Stamped on thumb and ring finger with Essie Good as Gold and Bundle Monster BM07

I really like this polish in it's natural matte state, but Stamping always needs a top coat, so it just had to be done.  Top coating this really brought out the gold sparkle.  If you want to see a swatch of this matte and all the others in this line, check A Polish Addict HERE.  One last pic.

Thanks for the look!












 

Day 20 of Crumpets 31 DC - Texture

I had sooo many ideas for this day.  I totally love texture!  I love running my finger tips over my nails and feeling something other than just a smooth surface.  I was determined that I wouldn't use any of the OPI Liquid Sands for this, because it seemed too "easy".  I ended up using it anyways :)

I ended up liking this enough to do my right had so I can wear it to work.  So bumpy and beautiful!  Here's what I used.

Without Flash

With Flash

 I started with Milani Hipster Plum.  This is the first time I wore it and I have to say that I may be in love, for several reasons.  First, this is one coat!  I love one coat polish, it saves so much time, however most one coater creams are a bit thick and hard to work with.  Not this one!  The only negative was that it tended to be a cuticle flooder.  The flash pic is a good representative of the color, but I had to show you it without flash in order to catch the glossiness of this polish.  Click on the top pic and you will see my camera and light bulb reflected, almost like a mirror!

 

Next I stamped with Ozotic Scatter 910 and Bundle Monster BM-209.  I have deep feelings for this pattern, as it was the first one I used to "enhance" my stamping by adding color with a dotting tool to the circles.  This was when I realized that stamps could be used as just the beginning of nail art and change the whole look of what a stamped manicure could be.  That is exactly what I did with this mani.

Without Flash

 I added dots of OPI Liquid Sand Stay the Night and Milani One Coat Glitter Purple Gleam.  Some of the dots did not have the "height" I was looking for, so I went back after dry and added another dot to increase the depth of the texture.  I thought about not adding a top coat so there would be a contrast between the high gloss of Hipster Plum and the matte glitters, but decided against it since the topcoat always makes stamping "pop".

Here's a little comparison of these two "matte glitters" on my swatch stick.  The OPI has less glitter, is a bit more "matte" and is smoother than the Milani, but they are very close in texture.  One last pic to show the texture a bit better, then on to the other texturized manis.

Day 19 of Crumpets 31 DC - Favorite Polish

I am determined to get this posted before midnight this time, so it is going to be a quick one.  Day 19 is your favorite polish.  This was hard, so I bent the rules (once again) and chose three polishes for some nail art.  I was inspired by THIS POST at Sweet Sugar.  If you haven't checked out her blog, you should!  I love me some Sweet Sugar!

The polishes I chose are, in no specific order:

• OPI DS Classic - This was my first holo polish.  For not being linear, it has tons of holo sparkle.  It is very close to my skin tone, so I think of it as a holo nude.  Lovely!
• A England Saint George - I feel in love with this as soon as I saw swatches and knew that it HAD to be mine!  Another holo, this time in a teal.  The holo in it is not as pronounced as the OPI, but it is sooo gorgeous, plus it is one of my favorite colors!
• OPI Every Month is Octoberfest - I would have a lot to say about this vampy and complicated color, but I already attempted to express my love for this color at my post HERE.  

One more pic and then I'll let you check the other faves. 

 

Day 18 of Crumpets 31 DC - Oldest Untried

Today's theme is "your oldest untried".  You can't have this as a theme and not expect me to babble about my polish (tee hee).  I have only been a polish hoarder for about 5 months.  I'm such a newbie.  I have a lot of untrieds, but I have no idea which is oldest.  Truth be told, when I started collecting my stash I was just trying to get some nice base colors to stamp on.  My first haul was probably about 10 drugstore polishes.  It is all a blur after that.  Don't even remember what those first 10 were, except for Sinful Colors Social ladder.  I remember that one because it was the first time I had seen a glass flake in a polish, but I have used that one several times.

As usual, I have made up my own interpretation of the theme.  I am going literal.  I used the oldest polish (think released before I even had a hankering after those little glass bottles) that I have not used yet.

This beauty is Orly Satin Illusion.  I had to do a lot of searching to find when this was released and finally found that this was part of the Satin Hues Collection released in....drum roll please...1997!  Let's do the math...that makes it roughly 15-16 yrs old!  This was released the year my son was born (tee hee).  I purchased this just recently from Of Life and Lacquer's blog sale.  By the by, Cynthia has 20% off her blog sale until 1/20/13 after which she will be closing it.  I think she still has a couple of these Satin Hues left.  Check her blog HERE.

Now that I have gone off on a blog sale tangent, let me tell you about this unique polish.  First of all, the bottle is HUGE, .75 fl oz!  I expected that, since this polish was so old, it would be thick.  No, it applied thinly, with the first coat being sheer and the second coat still showing VNL.  Once I had three coats on, it was opaque, but I was confused.  When I swatched on my nail wheel, it looked blue with a golden green shimmer under all the matte goodness.  But on my nails, it looked much greener.  The only thing I could figure is that my nail wheels are a milky white plastic, so I tried again with a white undercoat and two coats of Satin Illusion.  There was the color I so loved on my nail wheel.  Here is a comparison of the two looks.

Two Coats - White Undie

3 Coats - No Undie

The no undie look really shows the lime green shimmer in this polish.  With the undie, this shimmer still shows, just a certain angles...kinda like a duochrome.  That is how I would describe this, a satin duochrome!  I wish I could have captured it better, but you get the idea.  I LOVE this polish!  Now on to the art.

I stamped with Bundle Monster BM-225.  I wanted a sort of gradient on the stamping, so I used SOPI Opening Night, a dark blue shimmer,  and China Glaze First Mate, a navy creme.  See below to see how I placed them to attain the "gradient".

Yes, that is my terribly messy stamping cloth under that plate!  Here is how it looked without a topcoat (thumb only).

 Look at that gorgeous matte/shimmer!  Then, because of the stamping, I added a topcoat.

Okay, now that I have gone on too long, with to many pics, hopefully you have time to check out all the old untrieds. 

50 Followers?

I have almost reached 50 followers!  I can't believe it!  Thanks to all you who read my babblings and look at my "art".  I anticipate doing a giveaway shortly after I reach 50 followers.  I have been collecting things and am excited to provide the chance to win some goodies, if I can just figure out the whole rafflecopter thing.

I also am looking for some feedback as to how to improve so I may ask you, my beloved readers, a few questions over the next few weeks.  Right now I am looking to get a "second opinion" about my pics.  Just a couple questions.  Do you like the flash/no flash swatches with my base coat colors?  Do I crop my photos too tightly?  Do I make them to big on the blog?  Do I provide too many pics?  Not enough?  Are they of good quality?  I look at these pics so much when taking, editing and posting, that I feel like I lose my objectivity.  In my opinion, the quality of my pics is more important than anything I ever actually say about them. 

Your feedback is greatly appreciated!

Day 17 of Crumpets 31 DC - New Tech

I have no love for this day.  More dental work, more pain, fighting kids, husband laid off, a computer that is being slower than molasses (which fits my mani) and an untried technique.  Normally I am so happy to do my nails.  Not today.  Today I just wanted to stay in bed all day.  It is warmer there....and quiet....with no expectations.  Plus I had to remove Day 15, what I think is the best mani I have ever done.  I had to say goodbye to this lovely look.

BOO HOO

So I left my nails till late with a technique that requires patience - spun sugar.  Basically you place some polish in a palette or a plate and let it "dry" and thicken until it causes those polish "threads" that you usually try to avoid with thickened polish.  You have to keep checking it, because to early and it just blobs.  Too late, it won't "thread".  I think of it like candy making, getting things to the softball/hardball/crack stages.  Once it is thick enough, dip with an orange stick or dotting tool, "place" the polish in one spot and "pull" the threads across your nail.  I really like how it looks when it is done right, like the one done by Katherine of Manicure Addict, found HERE.  Texture is my thing, and these are all about texture.

I wasn't sure what colors I wanted to use, until I realized this would be a great time to swatch a couple of Indies I got shortly after Christmas.  Be patient and I will show you what I came up with, but first I want to show you these awesome indies!  Let's start with Contrary Polish Hay Ride.

Without Flash

With Flash

This is the first Contrary Polish I have owned.  It was purchased from my favorite indie purveyor, LLAROWE.  I have a couple more coming soon, though!  The thing I like about Contrary Polish is that, unlike a lot of indies,  it's not all about glitter bombs.  Carrie produces well pigmented polishes filled with micro glitters/shimmers.  I gravitate towards these types of polishes and sooo many of hers are on my wishlist (although that list has recently been reduced :)  Hayride is from her Limited Edition Fall 2012 collection and is currently still available at LLAROWE.  It is a lovely pale tan color with gold shimmer and bronze and brown micro glitter.  So lovely and complements my skin tone perfectly.  This is one coat on my ring finger and two on all the others, without top coat.  I should have top coated, as the shimmer/glitter really pop with a good topcoat.  Click on the pictures for a closer look!

The next indie is Glitzology Sherwood Forest, obtained from Stacy's Etsy store HERE.  Now Stacy knows how to do a glitter bomb!  I got four of her beauties during a sale she had recently.  I hope to show you the others soon, but Sherwood Forest was my favorite!  I am showing it on my swatch stick because I forgot to photo it alone without the "sugar strings.

I can't remember if this is one generous coat or two thin ones.  Stacy describes Sherwood Forest this way.  "Sherwood Forest consists of sage green and holo gold glitter, along with sage green bars, emerald green hexes, holo gold squares, and brown hexes."  Now I am not a glitter bomb person, but this is pure perfection in my book!  Perfection of color and size balance.  I love it!  Here is how I used it.

I applied one coat to both my thumb and ring finger.  Although I wore this with an undie, this gorgeous glitter could probably be worn on its own with three careful coats.  Mmmm, imagine it over a delicious yellow gold polish!  Anyways, I'll stop gushing about this and tell you about the rest of it.

With two colors "threaded" and only brown to add.

Using the spun sugar technique, I applied Wet & Wild Poison Ivy, a dark shimmery forest green that ended looking more black when applied this way.  Then I added Sally Hansen Ivy League, a shimmery lime green.  Didn't even realize till just now that these both have Ivy in their names!  Ivy growing in Sherwood Forest....tee hee.  Last, I added Milani Chocolate Sprinkles, another shimmery polish, this time in brown.  The first picture above is without topcoat.  I decided to add topcoat to bring out the beauty of Hay Ride.  Mistake.

Even though I gave the "threads" at least 20 minutes to dry, adding topcoat destroyed all the wonderful "bumpiness" of this mani.  To late I realized that I had read somewhere not to use topcoat with this technique.  If I had it to do it again, I would add topcoat to the base before adding the "threads".  Check the first pic again for a much better representation of the technique.

Now that I am done with this post, I am reminded of why I blog.  I started this grumpy, discouraged and in a bad mood.  (Could you tell?)  Now that I am done, though I am not completely happy with this mani, I am in a much better mood, even smiling as I type!  Thanks for the chance to ramble away my bad mood and thanks if you actually had the courage to read this whole post after the miserable way it began!  Now go check all the other "newbies".

Day 16 of Crumpets 31 DC - Color Opposites

The theme for Crumpet Tarts 31 Day Challenge is color opposites.  I looked at several of color wheels online and a couple of them had lime green and purple as opposites.  What could be better!  So I came up with something that should never be seen in nature (except maybe on a frog).  Shield your eyes for my neon leopard print!

Let's start at the beginning.  This is three coats of China Glaze Tree Hugger. 

I love this color, but it is soooo sheer.  Even with three coats I still had balding on my thumb.  I stopped at three because I knew I would be stamping over it.

Next I stamped with Bundle Monster BM-221 and Konad Special Black.

Then I pained the center of the spots with Zoya Aurora.  I love this, although it came off right away because it just isn't office friendly.  Just a couple more pics.

Check out all the other opposing color manis.