Dotted Nails

I finally got some dotting tools for Christmas, but so far, I've only used them to add detail to stamped manis and that kind of thing. So, I decided it was time to do something mainly using my dotting tools, and recreate a design by Pam of Girly Bits. You'll have to scroll down the page a little to see her original design here.

For my version, I started with a base of Revlon Autumn Berry.

Next, I used dotting tools in two different sizes to add dots of China Glaze Foie Gras, China Glaze Westside Warrior, and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Gray by Gray.

I'm really happy with how this turned out, so I plan on doing more dot-based designs in the near future. 

Inner Child Nails

I've been feeling a little down this week, so I decided to let my inner ten year old do my nails. Seriously, I had a bedspread very similar to this when I was that age.

The base color for this is Revlon Colorstay Coastal Surf. I've been wanting a bright blue like this for a while, but it chipped on the first day!  Boooooo! On top of that I put a coat of ELF Twinkle, which has tiny, multi-colored glitter in it that you can't really see in this picture.

Right side up

Finally, I stamped the two unicorns from Chez Delaney plate D10 using Konad Pearl White and added an iridescent jewel. In this next picture you can see the sparkles in Twinkle.

Bonus Background Cat!

What polishes does your inner child love?

Pink Ombre Mani

I've seen lots of examples of ombre nails over the last year or so, but it didn't seem like I had enough polishes in similar colors to do it. My best possibilities seemed likely to be blue or purple, since I have the most polishes in those colors, but the shades are all over the place. I was surprised to find, that I had a perfect line up of pinks, even though I don't wear pink nearly as often.

From pinky to thumb (lightest to darkest), these are Revlon Scented Cotton Candy, NYC Wall Street, Color Club Gum Yum, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Presto Pink, and Wet 'n' Wild Lavender Pearlescent.

I think I probably should have reversed the colors on my middle and ring fingers, but Gum Yum is so much brighter that it sort of reads as darker than it is. In fact, it was so much brighter than the others that I put a thin coat of the much sheerer Wall Street over it to tone things down a little.

Have you tried this? What colors do you have enough of to try it?

Across the Galaxy

Today's mani is my attempt to recreate Deborah Lippman Across the Universe using less expensive polishes. I'm not often tempted by higher end polishes, which for me means anything more expensive than OPI at about $8, because I don't feel like there's enough difference to justify the price point. However, when someone else let me use her Across the Universe, I loved it. I've been on the lookout for a way to make it happen that would be a little more accessible for me.

This is one coat of Milani Teal over one coat of Revlon Top Speed Royal. It doesn't show up as well in the photos, but in person it actually looked a lot like Across the Universe. The main difference was that it doesn't have the effect that the glitter is floating in blue that the original polish has.

On the other hand, the glitter is really, really close. I think if I had a nice, dark blue jelly to layer this between, it would be perfect. A little Googling has revealed that Ruby Kisses has a couple of dark blue jellies, so I'm going to try to stop by the local independent beauty store and look for some of those soon.

Geek Nails: Coin 'n Carry Edition

Today's mani was inspired by the new biggest source of not getting other things done: Coin 'n Carry (this is a referral link to note that I sent you). The premise of the game is that you're a shopkeeper, who needs to make money and increase the popularity of your shop. To do that, you play mini-games that reward you with resources you can use to make items to sell in your shop. The mini-games are quick and fun, and the shopkeeping requires a bit of strategy. So, best of both worlds. If my blogging pace slows down, blame this. Here's a short demo video.

And now, on with the nails. For each nail, I chose something from one of the mini-games to stamp on. I was having trouble making my pinky design show up, so I decided to go back over it with my dotting tools. Now, it looks awful. Seriously. Don't look at it.

The base polish for all my nails is KleanColor Blue Pearl. The stamp designs and polishes are:

Thumb: Crab - Fauxnad B78, China Glaze Aztec Orange; Crown - Bundle Monster BM08, Sally Hansen Color Quick Gold Chrome
Index: Strawberry BM05, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Rapid Red
Middle: Diamonds BM09, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White
Ring: Lime BM04, Revlon Top Speed Emerald
Pinky: Hearts and Clovers BM 03, Revlon Top Speed Bubble and Emerald; Stars BM14, KleanColor Neon Yellow

I won't explain what games these symbols come from; you should come play and find out. However, I do want to note that there's a crown on my thumb because I currently have the month's highest score in The Claw, which involves grabbing sea creatures out of the water. The crab gives you the most points, and I attribute my success to muttering "crab grab" under my breath while launching my claw at it.

So, if you decide to come play, leave a comment or email me at the address in my profile with your shopkeeper name so I can add you to my friends. Just don't plan on beating me at The Claw!

Azalea Nails

These nails were an attempt to recreate a mani I did back before I started blogging.

I started with a base of China Glaze Laser Lime from last year's Tronica collection (the holo's a little more obvious in person), then stamped it with Bundle Monster plate BM16 and Revlon Top Speed Bubble. I used the small cluster of flowers a few time on each nail, then the full nail image for the accent nail. I did have a bit of trouble getting close to the cuticle for some reason.

So, this is the older mani I had in mind.

My manicuring and photography skills have gotten a bit better in the intervening year, but I actually like the way I did the stamping better on this old one.

Black Glitter Mani

Wow! Has it really been a month already?! Needless to say, some things have been going on in my non-digital world have been getting in the way of my blogging, but never fear, I've still been taking nail pictures. So, I have a nice big back log of pictures to get me started back up with regular posting.

In the meantime, I want to let you know about a shift I'm going to be making in the text of this blog. I've decided to devote less text to reviewing the basic polishes I wear. Most of my polishes are stock color and drug-and-beauty-store brands, and there are many more thorough blogs out there with complete reviews of those polishes. So, I'm going to focus on stamping and nail art techniques. I'll continue to list the polishes I use, and you should feel free to ask if you do happen to have questions about a particular polish.

I have some cool stamping and nail art to show off in the next few weeks, but I'll ease back in with a quick accent nail mani.

 The primary color for this mani is two coats of Revlon Black Star. For the accent nail, I covered one coat of Black Star with two coats of Nyx Girls Frizz Spots. Frizz Spots is actually way more holo-tastic, but it didn't photograph well.

Drug Store Stamping Mani

I was very excited to see a pack of Konad style nail stamping plates with a double ended stamper and a scraper at my local CVS a few weeks before Christmas (it was actually in the gifts section, rather than beauty). I was even more pleased when I discovered that the designs on the plates were pretty unique in my relatively small stash. However, G of Nouveau Cheap got an entirely different set of plates in her pack. While, the plates in my set were identical to those shown on the package, G's were much more similar to some that I bought on eBay some time ago and have seen elsewhere since. For me, this was definitely worth the $10 price tag, but buy at your own risk.

The base color for this mani is Revlon Royal Cloak. I was drawn to this color because it is really unique. It has a medium blue-purple creme base with light, pearly shimmer and flecks. It was hard to really show what this looks like in a photo, as the flecks are subtle but visible in person.The application on this polish was fine, with nothing either particularly good or bad to report. I believe I used two coats (I wore this a while ago, and I didn't make a note. The shame!).

On top, I stamped a stylized heart design one of the Salon Express plates using Konad Special Stamping Pearl White. This polish seems to work best over a dark color and created a nice crisp image.

So, did anyone else pick up this pack? Were your plates like mine or something else?

Fall Water Marble

I will admit to being intimidated by water marbling. I've loved the look since I first started reading nail blogs and became aware of it. It just seemed like it would be too difficult and messy. However, Colette of My Simple Little Pleasures helped me get over my fear with her fantastic series of tutorial videos. I started with her Blues and Purples water marble tutorial, which illustrates the basic technique and dipping several fingers at a time. She has some more advanced designs on her Youtube channel that are beautiful, but I'm not quite ready for those. So, without further ado, my first water marble.

For this pattern, I used one coat of OPI Bling Dynasty, a brownish gold shimmer as a base. Then I used Bling Dynasty, CND Cedar,  a really old reddish brown I have hanging around (hence the old fashioned bottle in the picture), and Revlon Hot for Chocolate, a dark brown creme, for the water marble.


There are some flaws in the pattern that resulted from my inexperience with the technique, but I loved it anyway. In these fall colors, it reminds me a little of the marbled endpapers in the front of old books. I also learned a few valuable lessons:

1. Use a cup deep enough that your fingers won't easily hit the bottom of the cup and mess up your tips.
2. Nail polish melts styrofoam. I can't say for sure that it impacted the outcome of this manicure, but I have my suspicions. Paper cups will be used in future.
3. Now I know why Collette has tape around her fingers in all her tutorials. I mean intellectually, I understood why before, but now I know. Along with paper cups, tape will be used in future.

Revlon Facets of Fuchsia

Today's polish allowed me to take a much more expensive one off my wishlist. I'm sure many of you have already seen it, but I think there's room for one more review. Before you look at the picture, I should mention that my tips and cuticles look a little beat because the picture was taken a few days into the mani. I waited because we were having some rainy weather, and I really wanted get some pictures in the sun.

 This is Revlon Facets of Fuchsia, which consists of a black jelly base with small fuchsia glitter and large hex shaped fuchsia sequins. This polish was surprisingly easy to apply and to remove. It had a great texture, neither runny nor too thick. For these pictures, I wore two coats of Facets of Fuchsia over one coat of Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme. Subsequent research has revealed that three coats of Facets of Fuchsia produces a very similar look.

For those that don't know, this polish is almost exactly identical to Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance. I wasn't sure exactly how close they were until I read this review by Jackie of Candy Coated Tips. As you'll see in her pictures and cleverly written review, the two are almost indistinguishable. The main difference is the price: Facets of Fuschia is around $4 at Target rather than $18 for the Lippmann polish.

Citrus Mani

Despite the heat (today's high was around 95), it's starting to look like fall. I'm starting to look forward to fall colors and clothes, but for the moment, I have to face the fact that summer is going to be with us a while longer. At least that means more colorful, summer nails. Not that cooler weather will hold me back from wearing bright colors when I feel like it! Today, I have a juicy, summery mani to show off.

I started this one with a base of Color Club I Always Get My Mandarin from their Wicked Sweet collection of scented polishes. It's a slightly yellow medium orange with green and blue shimmer sufficient to give it a slight duochrome effect. The formula of this polish was quite thin in both consistency and pigmentation. It tended to want to run and pool around my cuticles, and after three coats, you can still see a bit of nail line. That said, it looks good sheer, so I was really fine with that aspect. It also has a nice, light orange scent, which I could still smell even after stamping and top coat.

On top, I stamped the citrus shapes from Bundle Monster plate BM04 with Revlon Top Speed Emerald. I originally wanted to do the stamping in a darker orange, but I couldn't get any of the oranges I have to work. So, I went to my go to green stamping polish and made them limes instead.

The shimmer in this polish was very hard to photograph, and I really didn't get a good picture of it. However, this shade picture shows how it can look greener in some lights.

When I got this polish, I found it in the kids section of TJ Maxx. Apparently, they thought only kids would want scented polish. Silly TJ Maxx.

Geek Nails: Swamp Thing Edition

Ever since Sammy of The Nailasaurus did her Week of Geek featuring nail art tributes to various topics of geeky fandom, I've been brainstorming ways to do some theme nails of my own. Since I'm not at all handy at freehanding nail art, I have to think of ways to use color and stamping to reflect my favorite characters.

Today's geek nails are inspired by one of my favorite comic book characters: Swamp Thing, created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. In comics, Swamp Thing is both a human soul seeking to find a life in an inhuman body and an earth elemental with a deep connection to life of all kinds. I could wax on about the character for an entire post, but this is the wrong blog for that, so on with the nails!

 

I started with a base of OPI Stranger Tides, which is a murky, light olive green. The formula on this was a little tricky, as it was thin and runny. It badly wanted to pool around my cuticles (which is pretty obvious in some of these pictures). It took three coats to be opaque and even. That said, it is a great color and dried quickly despite the three coats.

On top of Stranger Tides, I used a makeup sponge to add random dabs of Revlon Hot for Chocolate to give the background some texture. Finally, I stamped a cluster of flowers from Bundle Monster plate BM15 three to four times to cover each nail using the slim brush dark green from KleanColor Nail Duo Bright. This polish comes in a two ended bottle that has a base color with a regular brush on one end and a nail art color with a thin brush on the other. The polish worked great for stamping, but the shape of the bottle was a pain, as there was no easy way to put the brush down between stamps.For my accent nail, I stamped a rose using Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Ton of Bricks. It didn't really pop as much as I wanted, so I added a red rhinestone on top.

Finally, I used Essie Matte About You topcoat (over my normal Out the Door topcoat) to give my nails a matte finish, since neither swamps nor swamp monsters are well known for their glossiness. It also seemed to change the color a little, minimizing the yellow undertones.

Pre-mattification

The roses on my accent nails are a reference to one of my favorite Swamp Thing story lines. In issue 52, Swamp Thing's wife Abby has been arrested in an attempt to trap him. Using a rose that Abby has carried into the courtroom, Swamp Thing grows a new body covered in roses and puts Gotham City on notice that he's taking over until she's released. He then covers Gotham in impenetrable plant life until she is, in fact, released. This story was written by Alan Moore, who's run on Swamp Thing is the best in the series. If you want to give Swamp Thing a try, I highly recommend reading his take on the character, which ran from issue 20 through 64 and is available in trade paperback form.

Revlon Blue Lagoon

Surprisingly enough, I have another (mostly) unadorned polish look to share with you today. I did these nails while still recovering from the jet lag of returning from the west coast to the east coast, so I was looking for something easy and uplifting.

Revlon  Blue Lagoon is a sky blue creme base with super tiny particles of silver shimmer. I totally love this color, especially for summer. It looks like a beautiful sky, and I couldn't stop looking at my nails while I was wearing it. Unfortunately, the shimmer is only really apparent in bright, outdoor light, but when you do see it, it's gorgeous as well. This felt like such a light, cheery mani, I finished it up with a flower-shaped clear/silver rhinestone on my ring fingers.

I can't give a review of the application on this because I used a new base with it. Specifically, I used Seche Base Ridge Filling Base Coat. One of my nails was peeling a little, so I decided to use this to fill in and even things out. It worked fine for that purpose, but it seemed like it also stuck like glue to my polish, making it hard to get even coverage. I also got some bubbling that appeared 12 to 24 hours after I did my nails (you can see it a little on my middle finger). I have no way of knowing where to place the blame for that, so I'll have to wait until next time I wear this to find out. I really hope it's the base rather than the polish because I really love this color!

EDIT: Fortunately, I've since read on All Laquered Up that Blue Lagoon didn't bubble when ALU's Michelle tried it. I'm guessing that means I can officially blame the bubbling I got on the base coat. You can read the ALU review here.

Nail Night Mani - Across the Universe

The second best thing (after the great company) about nail night is getting to try out polishes I don't own. We all pile a bunch of polish on the table, peruse each others offerings, and try something different. This week, I got to try out a polish I'd only seen online, and yall, I think I'm in love with Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe.

 

Lissa, this beauty's owner, advised me that it takes at least three coats to get it fully opaque, so it would be good to put it over something else. I started with one thin coat of Revlon Top Speed Royal. Royal is a bright medium blue - royal blue - and is thick and easy to control. It could almost be a one coat polish, though I'd do two to make sure the color was even if I were going to wear it by itself. As the name implies, it dries very quickly. On top of Royal, I put two medium coats of Across the Universe. This polish has a dark blue, transparent, jelly base full of small light blue glitter and large, green and blue, hexagonal glitter. Due to the thick jelly texture of the base, the glitter appears to float in it. It was also easy to apply. The messiness of the application here should be attributed to me paying more attention to chatting than polishing rather than anything to do with either polish. Here's a closer picture to show the depth you can see in Across the Universe.

I finished off with two coats of Out the Door, which was enough to make it smooth and glossy. In the interest of fair warning, it did take quite a while to dry in spite of the top coat. I LOVE this polish, and I think I'm going to have to get some for my very own. 

On a final note, I know that the name of this polish is a reference to the Beatles song, but for some reason whenever I think about it Under the Milky Way by The Church pops into my head instead. So, I'll leave you with that (I couldn't actually find a video of the original version of this song, which is what's in my head, so you'll have to settle for this audio only version).

 

Moon Flowers Manicure

I love morning glories, and I bought some seeds to plant around the fence in my yard a while ago. While I was shopping for them, I found some seeds for moonflowers. They appear to be similar to morning glories, but they're white and bloom at night. Life being what it is, all of these seeds are still sitting in a drawer, but I have a beautiful mental image of what it will look like eventually.

For this manicure, I started with OPI Steady as She Rose from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection. For some reason both this and Mermaid's Tears made me do floral manicures, maybe because they're delicate shades. Steady as She Rose is a pale greyed pink. On the nail, it has hints of lavender as well. The formula was a little thin, and tended to want to run away and pool up around the edges of my nail. In part because of the puddling issue, I used three thin coats to get it opaque. It dried pretty quickly and very glossy.

On top of Steady as She Rose, I stamped a little vine pattern from one of my Bundle Monster plates using Revlon Top Speed Emerald. I'm going to have to grab a back up bottle of this polish because it is perfect for stamping leaves and plants. On top of the vines, I used a toothpick to add dots of Wet and Wild French White Creme for the flowers.

I absolutely love this manicure and was almost hesitant to take it off. However, it was time for Nail Night, so my next post will show the results of our first Nail Night at one of my nail mentors' house.

Fireworks Mani

One of my other hobbies is playing video games on my Nintendo DS. My spouse got it for me largely so I could play what was, at the time, the newest version of the game Animal Crossing. The finished mani in this post reminds me of the celebratory fireworks that happen a few times a year in that game. (Sorry in advance for the hideous state of my cuticles. I'm spending today moisturizing and getting them back into decent shape.)

I started with a base of China Glaze Hologram from the Tronica collection, which is a silver polish with a holographic finish. The formula was just the right texture: thick enough to easily control the placement, but thin enough to go on smoothly. I used three coats to maximize the sparkle, but it was basically opaque after two. I really like all the Tronica polishes that I have, and this one is no exception. Here's an indoor picture that shows the holo effect a little better. It still doesn't really show the full sparkly awesomeness.

For the stamping, I used a round flower pattern from one of the older Bundle Monster plates. I stamped the pattern randomly twice on each nail, once in Revlon Top Speed Bubble and once in Revlon Top Speed Royal. The Revlon Top Speed cremes are great for stamping, and these went on easily.

And now, for comparison purposes, one more mani picture with a picture of an Animal Crossing fan (it was surprisingly hard to find a good picture of the AC fireworks online).

First Silver Shatter Mani

I've been excited about this polish for a while. It's the new OPI Silver Shatter from their Pirates of the Caribbean collection. This polish and Mermaids Tears were the two I've had my eye on, and I surprised myself by wanting to try Mermaids Tears first once I had them in hand. Once I'd tried that, this had to be next. Since finding out about it, I thought it was a little odd that OPI decided to release Silver Shatter with a collection full of pale, muted polished. I've always thought it would look better with a darker color that would give it more contrast, so I went with that look for my first try.

I started with a base of Revlon Plum Night. This polish looked like a creme in the bottle, but in fact it's a dark jelly. It's a thickly pigmented dark purple with a brown tinge. Once it's on, it looks almost black. It was thick and opaque in two coats, but I had to use a light touch and be careful not to drag thin spots in the polish with the brush on the second coat. Silver Shatter is thinner than the other crackle polishes I've used, which made it easier get a thin, consistent coat. I actually don't think that is a good thing, as I feel like thicker, more random coats make for more interesting crackle patterns. I'd also read that Silver Shatter changed its color depending on the base coat, and I think that's why it looks almost gunmetal over Plum Night. I want to try it again over something a little lighter and compare the colors.

Sleeping Beauty Manicure

It's been a rough week here at Digit Decor headquarters. However, there have been some bright spots: being appreciated for my work, having really great in-laws, and fabulous nails. I did these before the proverbial excrement collided with the whirling blades of my week, and I was in a cheerful, springy mood. There is some particular variety of rosebush that is planted lots of places in my town that has these very bright, yet dark, pink flowers that are in bloom right now. They were the inspiration for this look.

The base color is OPI Mermaids Tears from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection. First, I love this color. No, seriously, I LOVE it. It looks almost mint green in this picture, but in person, it's closer to a light sage. I think OPI described it as a sea green, and it does a good job of evoking that to me. The application was ok. The texture of the polish is a little thick, meaning it didn't spread out as easily as some things, but it wasn't bad. I still got uniform, opaque coverage in two medium coats, I just had to pay a little more attention to do it. Overall, a definite winner for me.

Next, I stamped little bushy plants over about the bottom 1/3 of my nail using Revlon Top Speed Emerald. I finished it off by using a toothpick to apply pink dots of Revlon Top Speed Bubble. I tried to make the dots big enough compared to the leaves to read as flowers rather than berries. I've mentioned it before, but I find that the Revlon Top Speed cremes work really well for stamping because they're thick, very opaque, and really do dry quickly.

This is one of my favorite manicures that I've done in a while. I think I'll get the plates back out and do some more floral stamping this weekend, as those often turn out to be my favorites.

Blue Hearts Manicure

I was feeling sad when I sat down to do my nails last night, and I wanted to do something that would both reflect my mood and cheer me up. This is what I chose.

I started with a base of my absolute favorite silver polish, the appropriately named China Glaze Cheers to You. This is a great polish, which goes on in two easy coats and is super shiny and sparkly. Next, I stamped a pattern of three small hearts on the side of each nail with Revlon Top Speed Royal. I've used a couple of shades this brand for stamping and they work well. They do dry quickly though, so no dawdling on the stamping.

I didn't take a picture of my other hand, but the design is on the same side of the nail. I've read about using two stampers to reverse designs and create mirror images on each hand, but I've never tried it. Frankly, it sounds hard! Does anyone have any experience with this they could share?

Fault Line Manicure

Today's nasty weather has thwarted by attempts to get one really good picture in sunlight of my China Glaze Fault Line manicure. So, I'll have to give you several to get the overall effect. I've been waiting for this polish for a while, and I'm not disappointed.

First  picture in natural light. Overcast, grey, drizzly natural light. I used a base coat of Revlon Top Speed Lily. I've been picking these up because they seem to work well for Konading, but it was a little harder to work with as a base polish. It's very thick, but you definitely still need two thick coats or three thin ones to get it good and opaque. I didn't worry about that much for this though, and I really like the color. Once the base color was thoroughly dry, I added a medium thickness of China Glaze Fault Line. It was also a little hard to work as it started drying instantly, still on the brush, which made it hard to get a consistent coat. However, I love the final product.

This picture was taken indoors under incandescent light, and shows the color of Fault Line most accurately.












This one was taken indoors with flash, to show that Fault Line is actually a shimmer not a creme, which is part of what drew me to it.












So what do y'all think? Is anyone else totally loving crackles at the moment? I'm totally psyched about the upcoming OPI silver shatter.