Violet Crystal Butterflies

Hey Everyone!! Thank goodness it is Friday!! 

Today I have some stamping I did over my Violet Crystal glitter mani. I used Bundle Monster Plate BM-307 and Konad Blue stamping polish to stamp the butterflies. The base of this mani was Gelish Medieval Madness with a glitter gradient using ArtsyFartsyCrafts Violet Crystal.

I was trying to make it a very spring like mani even though we pretty much skipped Spring and went straight to Summer here. It is quite hot out.

I used a coral striping polish to fill in the butterflies. I was going for a lead light technique look but I think my polish was a bit too opaque. I might have also just been a little bit more heavy handed with the polish in some areas because some of the areas look great.

I think I need a nap now. I just had lunch and I am thinking about all the stuff I have to do at home. I have a meeting to go to tonight after work and a cake to bake for my brother's going away party tomorrow. I definitely think I need a nap since just thinking about it all makes me tired. 

I hope everyone has a nice weekend! Hopefully I won't get too fried at the beach tomorrow. I hate the sun and heat but the party is at the beach so I must bring my pale self out there. Thankfully there should be some shade, I hope. 

That's all for now :)

Violet Crystal Medieval Madness

Hey Everyone!!! It's hump day woooo, woooo. It has been a little bit busy these past few days. The old saying when it rains, it pours has definitely held true for us this past week. Lots of stuff going on, most of which is the adult issues that I don't want to deal with ever. I would prefer being an irresponsible kid but of course we all know that isn't how it works. Since I have been doing a lot of work at the kennel, mostly on the weekend now, I have been using gel polish a lot. Today's mani is another gel mani. Fear not, I will have regular polish posts coming soon. 

I felt like I wanted a nice, light, spring mani however my gel polish collection is not as extensive as my regular polish collection. The good news is I have a ton of different glitters from ArtsyFartsyCrafts to help add some life and change up the colors I do have.

I wanted a nude or off white color and the only thing I have in my collection that fits that bill is Gelish Medieval Madness. I love the color but it wasn't exactly what I wanted. I think I was thinking more of an ivory or off white in my head. It still looked nice with this glitter so I was happy with it.

I used ArtsyFartsyCrafts glitter in Violet Crystal to give it a pop of color. This glitter is very fine .025" 1/40" glitter. It is probably the largest glitter I will work with on a mani unless I am going to strategically place the pieces of glitter. I tried doing a gradient however it just wasn't working out for me that day. It instead wants to be a gradient but didn't quite make it. 

This glitter is a really pretty iridescent violet color. It is much lighter on the nail then it looks online or even in the jar. When the glitter spreads out it shows it's true color. I was surprised the first time I used this particular glitter because it was so much lighter on the nail than I expected and it didn't show up the way I wanted on the base polish I picked. Against Medieval Madness it really shows how pretty it is. 

I love the versatility of Medieval Madness. It can be a great palette cleanser and you can do so much using it as a base. It is definitely one of my favorite gel polish colors.   

I did this mani around Easter because I thought it would be a great base for some Easter stamping. Unfortunately my stamping was all disastrous and then I ran out of time and had to go with this mani non stamped. 

The good news about having a gel polish base is that even though I had to remove 5 different stamping attempts I still had a great mani ready to go. I would have probably given up after two attempts if I had to keep redoing the base every time I messed up the stamping.

That's all for now :)

Racing into Our Hearts

Hey Everyone!!! Well, this was supposed to be posted yesterday however I didn't get it up in time. I wanted to get it up for the last day of National Greyhound Adoption Month, otherwise known as April. Since these dogs are amazing and gorgeous and they need to be adopted year around I don't feel the least bit bad about not making this post in April. As I blab about quite often I volunteer most weekends at the adoption kennel C works at for retired greyhounds. I also have one and will adopt more when the time comes that I can actually adopt more animals. I love them and was super excited when I saw a facebook post about this polish.

I have never tried Spellbound Nails polish before though I do believe I have heard of the brand. I am always worried about trying Indie brands that I don't know a lot about but this one is not only a greyhound polish but also a charity polish. A donation for every bottle of Racing into Our Hearts is donated to a greyhound adoption group called Allies for Greyhounds. That pretty much sealed the deal and made me purchase the polish. I know firsthand how adoption groups struggle and how meaningful donations are and lets face it, I will pretty much buy anything animal related. 

Racing into Our Hearts is a gorgeous butterscotch holo polish with dark flakies. It is holo and a greyhound polish which sold me instantly! I absolutely love the little heart sticker on the handle. Super cute added touch that made me smile. 

I had forgotten t o take a picture of the bottle so I had to take them really quickly this morning. This is in my dining room under the light next to the glass sliding door. You can see some holo in there even though the lighting wasn't strong.

I am not sure if all the labels are hand written but this one is. 

Now before I show you the mani I have to show you a brindle greyhound! This polish was inspired by the brindle coloring of a greyhound. I was a little skeptical of how close the coloring was when I received the package because I was in my car and not around a brindle greyhound. Our Charlie who is not a greyhound is brindle but he is more of a red brindle so when I put it next to him I didn't see the resemblance.

This is Paul. He is a very sweet boy who allowed me to use him as a model for this post. I love how he is sticking his tongue out in this picture.

He is such a patient boy. I was trying to get a picture with his face but he kept turning away. He was pretty much over the paparazzi since it was taking away from hug time.

I got a great picture with his coat and let me tell you it matched perfectly!! I was quite impressed when I got my polish right up next to a brindle grey. Quite impressed. I wouldn't mind a little bit more flakies but other than that the polish is awesome.

I added a waterslide decal I made with a random greyhound picture to my ring fingers for accents. The print is a little light for such a strong base but it was subtle and I loved that the greyhound looks brindle now. 

I used three coats for this mani. The first time I used the polish it was a little on the thick side so I used some thinner. It was the perfect consistency when I did this manner. I like polish on the thinner side personally. The application was great.

Sorry about the black on my pinkie. I was working on my swatch book for my stamping plates and didn't even notice the black until I went to take the pictures.

I love how pretty this shade is. Sometimes it leaned a little more gold but I believe that was due to lighting.

I would definitely buy more polishes from Spellbound Nails. This one was quite lovely and I do love that she does a charity polish and donates to a good cause.

I was only able to get one picture in the sun and it doesn't show off the holo nearly enough. The sun did not want to play yesterday afternoon so I was stuck with overcast sky lighting.

That's all for now :)