Hot Pink Stars

Hey Everyone!!! This week has been a pain in the butt. I am ready for it to be Friday at 5pm. Sounds like it is going to storm soon. I love the storms but C has to drive about 30 mins away for a job interview so I would prefer it not to be storming while he is driving. Apparently soccer is on, Again. I would really like to not be forced to listen to soccer in Spanish. I don't like soccer as it is much less when having to listen to it in Spanish. I am slightly cranky today. I don't have a car, C took it to go to the interview, and I don't have lunch. I should probably just get on with the mani before I get too cranky.

Today I have a fun mani I did using a neon jelly polish I made and ArtsyFartsyCrafts stars. 

I did a gradient with a kitchen sponge and Sally Girl Cool. I am getting better at the gradients I think. I found the key. I used to use makeup sponges but after watching videos on YouTube I found that using a kitchen sponge is much better. Ever since I tried that my gradients have come out much better. The makeup sponges are great for glitter though so I didn't buy a million of them for no reason.

I had made a neon pink jelly polish by using Sally Girl Cool and clear polish I had laying around. I added about 20 or so drops to get it the color I wanted. I painted that over the gradient and it helped it blend in and give the rest of the nail a nice pop of pink.

I finally decided to use the black stars for a mani. I wanted to do something different so I placed them at the tip instead of near the cuticle. I didn't get them all centered perfectly but they aren't too bad. I love the black stars with the hot pink.

This mani was super bright and fun. I loved it. I still need to work on my gradient skills a bit but I was pretty pleased with how this one turned out. Now I must do it in other neon colors. 

That's all for now :)

Dragon Scales

Hey Everyone!!! Yesterday I got it in my head that I wanted to make some polish jewelry pieces. I pretty much spent the day thinking up designs and being very antsy to get started. I only was able to start one piece being that I was at work and by the time I got home I was tired and not feeling well. Apparently I am going to make the pieces I planned out because I am ready to work on them! I always get these crazy ideas I feel I must do and then I work and work on them. Sometimes I actually finish them and sometimes I don't. I have a problem with not finishing projects too. 

Today I have the finish of the mani I showed you last week. I started with a base of Catrice Enter the Undergrowth and Darling Diva Pendragon. I turned that mani into a dragon mani. 

I used GALS stamping plate GA14 and Konad black stamping polish. I thought this image would give it a scale like appearance.

I used Matte Top Coat to give it a matte effect. I love matte top coat over glitter. 

I love this mani. I love the colors and with the stamping I can totally see dragon scales. 

My stamping did get a little bit smeared by the top coat but I think it was mostly my fault. It didn't happen on every nail. I really need to get better at top coating stamping.

I love this mani. I love Pendragon and had it on my wishlist for a really long time before I finally pulled the trigger. I am so happy that I did. 

I was also thinking this color combination would make a nice camo mani. I might have to try that at some point later on.

That's all for now :)

Pendragon Enters the Undergrowth

Hey Everyone!!! Happy Friday!!! I have a quick post for you today. I forgot to upload more pictures so this one will be short. I should be able to catch up this weekend so I have some posts ready to go. Generally I edit the pictures and get them ready then all I have to do is write the post up on the day that I am posting. It has been a little hectic this week so I wasn't able to edit more pictures. I will get caught up someday.

Today's mani is the base for a grand mani idea I had. 

I used Darling Diva Pendragon and Catrice Enter the Undergrowth from the 2011 Papagena Collection. This Catrice collection had a matte rubberize type of cap with lettering on it. Unfortunately for some odd reason the caps on my polishes from this collection got very gummy and sticky. I used some Goo Gone to try and get rid of the stickiness and it took off most of the lettering with it. 

I used two coats of Enter the Undergrowth as a base. 

I used one coat of Pendragon however I wanted more glitter. Instead of polishing it on I applied another coat with a makeup sponge. This saved me from having to do several coats and having a thick mani yet still gave me a nice amount of glitter. This mani was so blingy and shiny.

I will show you what the final look of this mani was in my next post ;)

That's all for now :) 

Sinful Colors Up in Flames

Hey Everyone!! Well, Tuesday was much better than Monday but it is still only Tuesday. I am definitely ready to win the lottery. I could use a nap too. 

Today I have a mani I did using three Sinful Colors polishes I snagged at Walgreens during their last .99 cent sale. These are said to be Walgreens exclusive polishes. They are also Shimmering Sand Textures though I top coated them for this mani.

I did a gradient base using Face the Facets, Orange Crush, Ruby Mine.

I used Konad black stamping polish and Cheeky plate CH52 to stamp the flames.

I am getting better with my gradients. I used a kitchen sponge for this one and really liked how the gradient came out. I think the sponge made all the difference.

I love how this mani turned out. I could have placed the flames a little better on some of the nails. Overall I think it came out really well and love how the image has flames coming from both the top and the bottom of the nail.

I love the shimmer and sparkle that these Sinful Colors show. They definitely pop with top coat on them.

I didn't use the right top coat to make them totally smooth but the texture is not as extreme as it appears in these photos. It was pretty smooth even though it looks like there is still some texture going on.

I love these three colors together and they go perfect with the flames.

This mani looked great in the sunlight too. I really love those three Sinful Shimmering Sand Texture polishes. I also love the flames with these colors. 

That's all for now :)

Summer Fun with OPI Brazil Colors

Hey Everyone! Today is one of those Mondays where you wish you hadn't gotten out of bed. Ah well, only another couple hours to go. 

This mani wasn't an epic fail but it wasn't as awesome as I thought it would be in my head. It is still very Summer like and fun. 

I used three of the OPI Brazil colors for this mani. From left to right Live.Love.Carnaval, Where Did Suzi's Man-go? and I Just Can't Cope-acabana.

I used the bottom pattern on Winstonia plate W111 for the stamping.

I started with two coats of Where Did Suzi's Man-go? as the base for this mani. I stamped using Live.Love.Carnaval and then used a dotting tool for the yellow.

This mani was really vibrant and fun. The colors all went really well together though it really needed the yellow to give it an extra pop. 

That's all for now :)

Gelaze Celtic Sun Stamped

Hey Everyone! I am typing from a very clean keyboard right now. I accidentally spilled water all over my keyboard this morning. I had to take off each key individually and clean under them to ensure I got all the water. Other than my T which is sticking a little bit the keyboard is tying so much nicer now. I don't even want to think about how much dirt and crumbs and stuff was under those keys. 

Today I have some stamping over one of my Gelish manis. For some reason I am missing a lot of pictures of various manis including a picture of just the Gelish polish. Things should be more organized now.

I started with a base of Gelish Celtic Sun. I used this one without using a white base which was somewhat of a mistake. I had to use four coats to get it dark enough for my liking. It is quite neon and very fun even though it doesn't pop as much as it would with a white base. It also looked very much yellow and non neon under certain lights which was weird.

I wanted to mix up a few different designs for this mani. I looked through my stamping swatch book for designs that reminded me of the 80's-90's when I was in my major neon phase. I think I picked some pretty decent designs and patterns that I am sure I probably wore at some point.  

I used Pueen plate Pueen 05 from the 2013 25F stamping set for my index fingers. I strategically placed the happy faces from Mash-31 on my middle fingers. I figured if I was showing anyone my bird it would be a nice happy face they got to look at. I used the swirly design from Bundle Monster BM-418 for my ring finger and BM-416 for the splatter design on my pinky.

I loved this mani. It was bright and fun and totally reminded me of my childhood. I would have kept it on longer but it started chipping. I am not completely thrilled with the wear time I get on Gelaze polishes. I think this mani lasted a total of 4 days one of which I spent most of the night in the car doing absolutely nothing that would affect wear time.

That's all for now :)

Contact High and Copa-Banana Flowers

Hey Everyone!! Happy Hump Day, WOOO WOOO! I have been looking online for some sort of rolling case to store all of my nail art stuff in. I figure if it is big enough I can put my gel polish in it too. Thus far I have found a lot of expensive options that may or may not work. I need to be more decisive because not being able to decide what I want is making things crazy. I need to get stuff organized fairly soon so I can clear out the mess I have made in the dining room. This has been my current project. I love how when I am actually searching for something specific on craigslist I can't find it anywhere near me. 

Today I have some nail art I did over the green mani from yesterday.

I started with a base of Wet N Wild Contact High and Sally Hansen Copa-banana.

I used Konad black stamping polish and plate M22. I used the two flowers on the left for this mani.

It looked really cute and then I used top coat. Why does my stamping insist on smearing when I touch a bottle of top coat? It drives me crazy.

The smearing was not very cute and drove me nuts. I do love the image though.

I am on a quest to stop the smearing. Even if I float the top coat and still get smearing. I just killed off the last of my bottle of Seche Vite so maybe a new less goopy bottle will help. I know I have since tried another top coat that was a free with purchase deal at Sallys and it smeared pretty bad too.

One day I will find the perfect, non smearing, top coat. One day.

That's all for now :)

Contact High goes Copa-banana

Hey Everyone!!! I'M BACK!!!! We shouldn't have any more long breaks now. Well, other than breaks of my nails which seems to happen frequently. It has been a pretty crazy time lately. The adoption kennel C worked for has officially closed. Last weekend was the final weekend and we watched the two awesome boys that were left get a home together. That made me both very happy and very sad. I love those boys and I am sad not to be able to work with the adoption kennel any longer. There was a sad moment when a girl dog was returned but happily she was adopted out by a great family the next day. C still has a job which is good. Since he technically didn't work for the group and his boss is really awesome he was able to make a position for him doing other stuff on the site. That makes things a lot less stressful. He is moonlighting with another kennel so I get to go play with the dogs which is great. I love them and want to bring them all home but they aren't even up for adoption yet and I can't possibly house 30 dogs so that isn't going to work out well. Summer has begun and though T will be busy with marching band this summer at least there are no more projects and craziness to be done. I would like to know why they are selling chocolate bars during summer when a. it is 90 degrees outside and b. there is no school making it harder for them to sell the stuff. H is here for most of the summer so we won't get much rest with two kids and lots of band activities but it should be good. My polish is finally out from hiding and even though my nails are short I am ready to go. I should be able to get to editing the pictures and stuff now that I am not running around like a headless chicken. Let's get to the polish, shall we?

Today I have a simple but cute mani using two new polishes from Summer collections.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Copa-banana is from  the 2014 Limited Edition Passport to Rio collection. Wet N Wild Megalast in Contact High is from the 2014 Limited Edition Summer Collection.

I used three coats of Contact High as my base. It is a bright green jelly polish. I absolutely love this polish. I love the color so much. This was the only polish I picked up from this collection and I stalked my local stores for it. I almost bought a couple of the other colors but I was trying to be conservative.

Copa-banana consists of matte pale yellow and black glitters in a clear base. There is a lot of glitter in that bottle. I used one coat and then a sort of blob and place method for the second coat. Basically I just wanted to make sure the glitter was more evenly distributed on my second coat. I actually snatched up a few from the Passport to Rio collection. I love matte glitter.

This mani reminded me of a melon or something. I liked it a lot. I love Contact High and really enjoyed the way it looks with Copa-banana over it. Very fun and summery.

That's all for now :)