I think I jinxed myself! Back in October I stated that I felt I had hit a new high in my nail art. Now I feel like I have hit a new low. This is the third mani in a row that I have ended up kind of "meh" about. Not really a failure, but not what I imagined or even what it could have been. The prompt for the Falling Through the Rainbow challenge is "green". Shall we see?
I was going for a fall look, but I just ended up with a muddled mess. It started good, but ended bad. I am going to show you every step, so this will be pic heavy.
I started with one coats of Nina Beige A Vue. This is one of my favorite browns, not too dark and not too light. And did you catch that this is one coat? Please forgive the mess. I refuse to clean up for every pic, so you will have to accept it or leave :)
Next I added one coat of China Glaze Fast Track. This is another favorite that I find myself turning to often. It is a thin nude filled with with a gold shimmer. Sooo purdy!
Here's where it gets fun! Using some surgical clamps, I tore off a tiny bit of a kitchen sponge and added several different colors, changing the sponge bit between each one. You can do this with tweezers too, but the clamp makes it sooo much easier. I think I purchased these online somewhere.
First I sponged with Julep Chloe, a reddish brown shimmer polish. I hope to be swatching this on it's own pretty soon.
Then it was Revlon Muse who joined in the party :) Muse is a light "army" green creme that, when sponged on, looks a bit translucent.
Next came China Glaze Cast A Spell, a dark green filled with green glitter
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A little shimmer, a little creme, a little glitter, of course I had to add some holo! It came in the form of China Glaze OMG a UFO, a dusty green holo.
Finally came Mentality Hope, a gold metallic matte polish.
Add a little top coat and all the shimmery,, holo glittery goodness could have partied all night! I really loved this! Then made a bad decision. Stamping. Really? Stamping usually brings it all together and makes things better! Not this time!
I stamped with Sugar Bubbles SB 016 and Mentality Foxy. There were a few mistakes I made. The first mistake was that I didn't pay enough attention. I started with the image shown, then halfway through I used the wrong image, the one right next to it, and being the perfectionist that I am I had to remove it and stamp again.
Foxy, however, is a holo stamper and when I tried to remove it, it left behind a lot of holo shimmer, which muddled the sponging. Also, Foxy was too similar to Julep Chloe and kind of got lost in the sponging.
So what do you think? Did you like the sponging? Like my step by step pics? Is it a total fail? Let me know what you think! And visit the other greens!
So the prompt for the Crumpet Nail Tarts 33DC today is a new technique. When I first saw this I thought it would be hard, not to try a new technique, but to find a new technique. I have been at this for a year now right? And you know what they say, there is nothing new under the sun. I wasn't wrong, it was hard, but because I found so many new things to try! You know what they say, there is always more to learn.
This technique is called "colored drops" and I found it at Vampy Varnish HERE, but I took it a step too far.
The idea is kind of like a cross between a nail decal and watermabling....without the water.
You start by painting a layer of topcoat on a slick surface. This is my trusty silicone baking mat, but you could use a sandwich bag or even a spatula. While the top coat is still wet, drop other polish onto it and it will spread, much like when you drop polish into water, only on a smaller scale. Because the top coat needs to be wet for the drops to spread, don't use a fast drying one. After you achieve the look you want, let the decal dry, peel off, trim and apply to your nails with more topcoat.
For my base, I used three coats of NYC Tudor City Teal. I had never tried this brand before, but my three year old nephew picked it out for me. In real life it is much more green than it shows in the pics, a pale blue leaning green, a very pretty color actually. The formula, however, was not good. It has a gellie finish, which I usually like, but this sucker was a balding, streaking mess. This is three coats, and if I was going to wear it without any art, I would have added a fourth to cover patchiness. Four fricken layers! For a crellie that isn't exactly anything special. I like my cremes to be one or two coaters. Four layers? Ain't nobody got time for that!
In looking through my stash for finish changing polishes, I realized that I don't have many, so I picked some polishes that I know I would usually layer over something rather than wear on it's own (except Ninja Polish Divinity. It is one I am willing to do with three or four layers, it is so gorgeous!) I used Nfu-Oh 40, a blue/green shifting flakie, the aformentioned Ninja Polish Divinity, a purple/maroon/green/blue shifting beauty, Wet n Wild Frosted Over, a pearl/blue/pink/lavender shifting shimmer with a bit of glitter, Zoya Chloe, a pink/green/gold/orange shifting flakie and Glitter Days Sundown in Seattle, a lovely pink/copper/orange/brown shifting topper.
So there were several reasons that I consider this a fail. First of all, I piled on so many drops that I had a mini volcano mound of polish which, when dry, was very stiff. Getting these suckers to curve around my nail and stick down was a total hassle. Using a fast dry top coat (Seche Vite) helped, but I still had edges sticking up all over the place.
Also, to blend the edges, I had to add the most/thickest layers of top coat that I have ever used. After the first coat over the whole nail, I went back and added top coat to the edges, let it dry and then added more to the areas of the nail that only had the base color. When I was finished I looked like I had acrylic nails on! Seriously, my thumb, especially, was over a quarter of an inch thick!
As always, with new techniques, I learned a lot. If I do this again, I will not use flakies or glitter, they just add too much bulk. I also would try to do it directly on the nail, rather than as a decal, to avoid the bubbles, rough edges and general hassle of using a thick, stiff decal.
So what do you think? Was it a fail? Is it worth trying this technique again with the changes mentioned? Do you like the color combo? Tell me all about it! Thanks for looking and commenting!
Tina
I know I created this challenge, but I really had no idea what I would do for yellow. Thought about doing a bee mani, but I have seen it done so many times before. Then maybe some fall leaves, but I needed something quick and easy since I am in the process of getting my giveaway situated. I decided to take the opportunity to try out one of my new stamping plates and yellow polishes. Here is what I came up with.
I have never liked the color yellow on me, not for clothes or polish, but I have a surprising number of them in my stash. I think it is because I keep trying to find the "perfect" yellow, but I just don't think it exists. This, however, may come close.
This is three coats of Orly Melodious Utopia. I wish it could have been two, but like most yellows, it was a streaky, patchy mess before the third coat. It also was a bit of a cuticle flooder, as you can see in the pics. I didn't clean up because I knew that I would need to clean up again after stamping and I try to limit my cuticles to polish remover exposure. This is a lovely buttery yellow filled with pink shimmer that I could hardly capture in the pics. Look for it later in the stamped pics.
Next I stamped with OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees and MoYou/omgnails 217. I used OPI SSitP because I did not want a stark black.
Let me tell you a bit about the stamping plate. There are two MoYou companies out there, one just MoYou and the other is MoYou.uk. Apparently they were once all one company and then parted ways. MoYou has round plates and MoYou.uk has rectangle plates. You can find the MoYou plates HERE. This plate was one of the first I purchased from MoYou. I purchased it because I loved the intricate details on the images, but I wasn't sure how well it would translate to the nail.
As you can plainly see, I shouldn't have worried. Look at all that detail! I think they look like nail wraps, they are so good. The images are a little thin, so they may not work well for people with wide nail beds, but they are very long, so there is no need for double stamping the tips, even for you ladies with long nails.
Imagine this image stamped in white or cream over a lovely light blue. I may have to try that next! Oh, by the way, this was the only pic where you can kinda see the pink shimmer in Melodious Utopia. (Don't you just love that name?) It is so much more noticeable in real life.
So, what do you think, lovely readers? Do you like this yellow? Have you ever worn purely yellow mani? Are you loving this plate and wanting to get it, like yesterday? Let me know your thoughts! Don't forget to check out all the other yellows.
The prompt for today's Crumpet Nail Tarts 33DC is color you own the most of. If you pursued through my blog, you might think it was blue...or purple...or brown. Probably something dark, right? Nope, wrong. The color I own the most of is....wait for it....PINK. Yes, I couldn't believe it myself, but it is pink. How can this be? I think between raspberry, peach and pink, there are more variations of the color pink out there than any other color out there. Plus pinks go so well with my skin tone. It's surprising that I don't wear them more, but I just love my dark vampy colors.
So I decided to go with a water marble to showcase several pinks. The problem is that I wrote down what I used....somewhere....and now I can't find it. I remember Zoya Willow and Nina Spun Sugar. I know there were two others, but I can't remember what they were. Sorry!
I had a bit of trouble with this one, as you can see from my battered pinkie.
I like my thumb the best, so here are some close ups.
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So what do you think? Surprised that pink is the color I have the most? Think I should wear them more? As always, thanks for looking!
I am so excited to show you today's mani. I am lucky to have a daughter that loves to have her nails done so I can do "just for fun" nails without having to take them off right away. When I first set up this challenge, I figured I would be doing leaves or pumpkins for orange, but then Bria became obsessed with the video "What Does the Fox Say". Once I saw it for myself, I knew what would be done today!
Yep, those are cute little foxes on her nails, hiding in the forest. If I could have done a moose doing Morse code, I would have :)
These were actually inspired by THIS mani by Eeeek Nail Polish. Let's see if I can remember what I used for these....
I started with Jessica Burnt Sugar as a base on index, middle and pinkie and Essie Parka Perfect on ring and thumb.
I created the fox using OPI Schnapps Out of It, a dusty burnt orange, and OPI My Vampire is Buff.
Then I stamped with BM16 and China Glaze Kalahari Kiss. I am pretty sure that the stamping image is supposed to be tiger stripes, but it works for a wood grain in my book. Once again, so many plates and this is the only thing I found close to a wood grain.
I finally added some grass with a striping brush and a bunch of greens, Zoya Josie, Zoya Shawn and Models Own Edamame.
So, what do you think? Do you love it as much as Bria does? Thanks for looking, commenting and taking the time to check out the other oranges.
Tina
