Shawl Inspired Nails

I have to admit that I often dress to match my nails, not the other way around like normal people. However, there are some exceptional outfits that require a coordinating mani.

One of my friends knitted me this beautiful, light, soft shawl. We both love purple, and he started knitting shortly before I started crochet. So, we've been learning and sharing our work as we both progress in our skills.

To go with my lovely shawl, I chose two coats Maybelline Colorama Grape Crush for the main color and added an accent nail with two coats of KleanColor Vegas Nights over one of Grape Crush.

I felt like we needed another picture of the awesome shawl. I've been seeing people out and about where I live with an index finger accent nail. I don't know why, but I feel like it looks so different when it's just two nails over!

Any thoughts? What's your favorite accent nail? Or your favorite outfit to match your polish to?

Summer Bright Water Marble

I've tried water marbling a couple of times before, and I have to say that I still don't have the hang of it. My biggest problem is that I end up with little dots where (I assume) there was a drop of water when I pulled my hand out of the cup. I'm determined to get this right some day, but sadly, today is not that day.

Left hand

I started with a base of Sally Hansen White On, then did the marbling with one drop Maybelline Colorama Cupid's Wing, one drop China Glaze Spontaneous, and two drops Sally Hansen Blue Me Away!. Cupid's Wing is a white shimmer, but it didn't show up much.

Right hand

 My right hand ended up with an interesting striped pattern. It's not what I was going for, but it looks pretty cool - it reminds me of Easter eggs. Since the shimmer in the marbling didn't show up, I decided to add a coat of Pure Ice Oh Baby! over the top. This was a fatal error. As you can see, it bubbled like crazy and didn't really add much shimmer. Grrrrr.

I'm not entirely certain what I'm doing wrong or if this is just a matter of practice. I would love some times from more experienced water marblers about how to make mine pretty and neat.

Douchrome Hexes Mani

Sadly, this one turned out to be a bit of a Monet, just like my last mani. I'm going to use the excuse that I was in a hurry when I did it, and I also promise that the next one's much better.

For the base color, I used Orly Mysterious Curse, which was the only one of the Dark Shadows collection that cause my eye. It looks very douchrome in the bottle, but somewhat less so on the nail.

You can see that the bluer douchrome comes out a little, but it's subtle. On top, I added some decorative confetti that I got at the Dollar Tree. They came in sets of six for $1 in cute little glass vials, so they'll be showing up more in the future. Sadly, I was in a rush by the time I was finished and slapped on my top coat, which I think is why it bubbled so badly.

China Glaze Instant Chemistry

China Glaze Instant Chemistry is the last of the three Magnetix polishes that I got a couple of months ago. (You can see the first two here.)

I definitely had the most trouble getting the pattern to show up with this one and the final result is more subtle. The color is really pretty, a very dark metallic berry, so I don't mind too much. On the other hand, if you really want to see the magnetic pattern stand out (and why else would you be buying magnetic polish?), I'd recommend going for one of the other colors in this collection.

It turns out that Pull Me Close was my surprise favorite from this collection. What did everyone else think?

Luna Moth Mani

I did a report on luna moths once when I was in elementary school because they are so beautiful. For some reason this polish combination just hit me one day when rifling through my polishes looking for something good. I was really happy with this one, but had a hard time with the photos due to some uncooperative weather.

The base color is China Glaze Bogie, which is actually a little purpler in person. I did the stamping with Sally Hansen Color Quick Green Chrome using Red Angel plate RA-119. I added the gems because they reminded me of the moon.

I'll leave you with a picture of my inspiration for this mani.

Orchid Swirls

As I've already mentioned, I received a number of new stamping plates for Christmas, which has put me in a stamping mood.

 The base color for this Banana Republic Orchid Blossom, a pale purple creme that tends more toward the blue end of the purple spectrum. The formula and application on this were fine. It looked a little patchy on the first coat, but leveled out nicely on the second.

On top, I stamped a full nail image from Red Angel plate RA-102 using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Bronze Ablaze. In the bottle, Bronze Ablaze looks darker and browner than it stamped, but it made a nice crisp image. I would definitely use it again to stamp on top of light colors. I'm also curious if it would look more metallic over a dark color or if it would just disappear.

Purple Glitter Mani

Sadly, today's mani is not one of my favorites, so let's just get on with it, shall we?

The primary color in this mani is Confetti Happy Birthday!, which has a purple jelly base with pink micro-glitter. This polish applied easily, but is lightly pigmented, so even after three coats, it's a little patchy. Also, on the nail, the glitter doesn't really appear pink, but does add a nice shine.

For my accent nail, I used one coat of Happy Birthday!, topped with two coats of Wet 'n' Wild Back Alley Deals. This polish has a sheer purple base with small purple glitter and larger fuchsia hex glitter. I had to be careful not to drag the hexes off my nail during application, but otherwise it went on easily.

This mani chipped really quickly, and I think I would have been happier wearing Back Alley Deals alone. Also, I got a lot of shrink with Happy Birthday!, as this photo was taken less than 24 hours after application. I seem to have that problem with almost any jelly regardless of what top coat I use, so I'd love some suggestions on how to avoid it.

Happy New Year! Mani

Happy 2012 everyone! Honestly, 2011 was a little rough for me, so I'm hoping that 2012 will be a good year. I'll be turning 33 in just a few days, and I'm wishing for the magic of fairytale numbers to bring me good things. If last night is any indication, it's already working!

My New Year's Eve outfit was built around a vintage duster-style dress that a friend gifted to me earlier this year. Naturally, I had to do a mani to match!

I was originally thinking about sponging the multicolored background, but finally just decided to brush it on in patches. Working free-hand, I placed the colors in similar locations on each nail to give it some consistency. The four background colors are KleanColor Neon Yellow, KleanColor Neon Purple, Color Zone Magenta, and Color Zone Traffic Cone Orange. On top, I stamped a full nail design from Bundle Monster plate BM20 using KleanColor Black. I stamped it twice on my thumb for width.

Here it is with the fabric that inspired the look as a background. I basically don't believe that you can be too matchy, so I'm super happy with how close the colors are.

As an added New Year's bonus, here's a picture of the rare occurance of me wearing eye makeup.

A friend gave me a set of the Paperself Deer and Butterfly Eyelashes for Christmas, which I added to my look for last night. Each full lash is made up of three smaller designs, so I decided to snip out the designs and use them separately, as the full lash seemed like it might be too much. These were a lot of fun to wear, and despite what the packaging says, I think they can be reused. They're currently on sale at Sephora, and I'm totally coveting the Peacock and Under the Sea designs.

Happy New Year!

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?

Scintillating Purple Mani

I'm on my way out the door to Nail Night, but first, a quick post. I've seen a lot of example of layering glitters on blogs, so I decided to try it for myself in this manicure.

The glitter I chose for the first layer is Finger Paints Purple Palette, a light purple, very sheer jelly base packed with small medium purple glitter particles mixed with some small silver glitter. This applied very easily, sliding on smoothly and not running at all. Given the sparkle, it wasn't easy to see through after two coats. I think it would be basically opaque at three coats due to the density of the glitter.

On top of Purple Palette, I added one coat of ELF Golden Goddess, which has a clear base with small gold glitter and larger gold holo hex glitter. The layering made the purple of Purple Palette look a bit lighter and added the extra bling of larger particles and a flash of holo. I finished with two coats of Sally Hansen Quick Dry Top Coat, which is thicker than Out the Door. After two coats, this was totally smooth. As you'd expect all this was pretty hard to remove.

This combo was SUPER blingy and caught tons of light. However, Purple Palette is pretty sparkly on its own. Overall, I think Golden Goddess would be put to better use over a nice creme or subtle shimmer. Used that way, I think it would look great as part of a holiday manicure.

Scherer Chamelon Blue Sky

I hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day. I seem to be having a relapse of my cold, but at least I can stay at home and rest up. The pictures I have to show you in today's post were taken earlier in the week when I was not feeling well, so I just put on a single polish with nothing fancy on top.

This is Scherer Chameleon Blue Sky, a metallic duochrome that shifts from lavender through blue to a jade green. The predominant color that shows up in sunlight and average indoor light is the bluish purple shown above. It does have a more intensely purple side, but I didn't manage to capture that in any photos. Below is a picture that shows it shifting a little more blue with hints of green.

Finally, in certain conditions (this picture was taken in my car, for example) it shows up bright green.

While the color on this was great, the formula was a bit of a nightmare. The best word I can think of for the texture is stiff. It wasn't exactly thick, it just didn't flow well. Initially, it seemed to be opaque in two coats, but in natural light, I could see all sorts of bare patches. You can see several in the second photo above. Finally, it didn't wear very well; it was all chipped up after about two days. These photos were taken less than 24 hours after application, and you can already see a few chips.

Between taking the pictures and writing this post I saw pictures of Nubar Indigo Illusion by Lauren of Dizzy Nails. While Indigo Illusion appears to have some warm undertones that aren't present in Blue Sky, the predominant purple and green shades look pretty similar. Indigo Illusion may be a better, albeit more expensive, substitute.

Purple Haze Mani

For this manicure, I decided to try a new technique: gradient color. I've seen many versions of this on a lot of blogs, and I love how it looks. For some reason, I'd gotten it in my head that this was going to be really hard, but I think it turned out well, particularly for a first effort.

I started with a base of Essie Nice is Nice, which is a pale lavender creme. The texture of this formula was nearly perfect. It applied very smoothly, with no tendency to run or pool. On the other hand, the pigmentation was very light. It took three coats (thin ones) to get rid of some bare patches and be opaque.

Next, I used a small piece of makeup sponge to dab an uneven layer of OPI Planks a Lot on top of Nice is Nice. After a little experimentation, I found that it worked best to start from the tip and work my way toward the cuticle. This helped ensure that the darkest color was near the tip. I also added some additional dabs of Nice is Nice to blur the edges. Finally, I repeated the sponging process near the tips with Finger Paints Purple Palette. I finished with two coats of Out the Door to eliminate the slight texture that came from the sponge.

I have gotten more compliments on this mani than any I've done in a while. It's fairly subtle (comparatively), with just the right amount of sparkle from Purple Palette. I could use some more practice to avoid making strips instead of having the color fade smoothly, but I can definitely tell you to expect to see more of this technique.

La Isla Bonita Mani

The stamp I used for this is from a fauxnad plate I got on ebay quite a while back. I have no idea what it's supposed to be. It's very small and consists of just a few wavy lines. Often when I'm stamping, I pick my design first, then come up with a color for it, but in this case, I'd already picked the color. When I looked at this design again with the color in mind, it looked like flowing water, and I decided to do little accent stamps across the corners of my nails so the size of the design wouldn't be a problem.

I started with a base of China Glaze Senorita Bonita. This polish is a bright purple jelly base with glass-fleck type shimmer in the same color. It is really a beautiful color and sparkly without being too blingy. In real life, it's a little redder than this picture shows and very vibrant. The base is a little thick. It had no problems with it running, but I did get some bubbling. That may have been my fault, as I tend to overwork thicker polishes trying to get thin coats. I used three coats to get maximum purple power.

This pictures shows off the stamping (and the bubbling) a little better. The stamping polish is Sally Hansen Color Quick Turquoise Chrome. I picked this polish up when I saw it on clearance because of my success stamping with Gold Chrome  and it didn't disappoint. Like Gold Chrome, Turquoise Chrome dried very quickly, but it made lovely, crisp stamps. I'd really like to get a few more of these, but they're a little pricey.

Senorita Bonita was the polish that seemed to get the most good reviews from the China Glaze Island Escape collection, and I can see why. Speaking of Island Escape, I'll leave you with a song because every time I read Senorita Bonita, I think of La Isla Bonita.

KleanColor Holo Chrome

I recently presented at a professional conference in Seattle, which is about as far as you can get from my hometown and still be in the continental U.S. I did my nails the night before I left, but my camera ate the pictures of that mani (boo!), so I'm skipping straight to the polish I applied while I was gone.

I didn't want to drag too much nail stuff with me on the plane, so I brought a polish I'd be happy to wear alone.

KleanColor Holo Chrome is a medium purple, translucent jelly base packed FULL of medium-sized holographic glitter particles. The glitter is large enough that you can see individual particles if you look at it, but small enough that they cover evenly and give that over all sparkle look. The application was good. It went on smoothly and wasn't too thick or gooey. I got almost opaque coverage from two thick coats.

The picture above was taken outside on a rainy day in the central Kirkland bus terminal. It was so grey that you really can't see the true amount of awesomess that this polish has to offer. So, here's a blurry picture taken in my hotel bathroom, which gives you a little better idea.

Seriously, outside in the sun, this stuff is just super glitter-tastic. I just have two caveats. First, it took two coats of Out the Door topcoat to make this feel smooth, but if you use a thicker top coat it might be fine in one. Second, Holo Chrome chipped pretty badly (you can see one chip in my pinky nail in this picture). As I said, I did use thick coats, so I wonder if doing three thinner coats would help.

Peaceful Purple Mani

Some time back, I got two of the Sally Hansen Color Quick polishes that come in a pen shaped dispenser with a built-in brush on clearance at CVS. I used Gold Chrome for stamping, and it worked really well, so I've been excited to try Purple Chrome for stamping as well.

I started with a base of China Glaze Virtual Violet from the Tronica collection. I was really excited when Tronica came out and grabbed several of them a few months ago. For some reason, Virtual Violet has been hanging around untried.  

Virtual Violet is a dark purple, which leans more toward blue than red, with tons of very small holo particles. The formula on this polish was great (just like the other Tronicas). It has just the right consistency to flow on smoothly but stay put, so application is very easy. It is well pigmented as well and was smooth and opaque in two thin coats. It also dried very, very quickly (one hand was dry by the time I finished painting the other).

This close-up shows the sparkly holo-ness a little better. I do think the holo effect showed up less in this one than in some of the other Tronicas; perhaps it's a side effect of the darker base. On top of Virtual Violet, I stamped peace signs from my Bundle Monster BM07 plate using Sally Hansen Color Quick Purple Chrome. Like Gold Chrome this polish was a dream for stamping. It seems a little thin when you're putting it on the plate, but it stamps crisp, opaque images every time. It does dry quickly, so you have to keep moving. I would definitely like to get this polish in a few more colors for stamping when I can.

The only problem I had with this mani is that the tips chipped pretty quickly (I took it off after two days, where I usually go three to four). I suspect that a third coat, or maybe even two thicker coats, of Virtual Violet might help with that. In conclusion, here's a picture of the peace signs right-side-up, just because.

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.

Purple Prism Mani

For my last manicure, I tried my first neon polish, China Glaze Shocking Pink, and had some trouble with it being thin and streaky. I only have one other neon polish in my stash, China Glaze Flying Dragon, so I decided to try it next and work on perfecting neon application.

Flying Dragon applied very differently from Shocking Pink, in that it is much more thickly pigmented. I used three thin coats, but I think my usual two medium coats would have worked just fine for this one. It also went on smoothly and evened itself out nicely. Flying Dragon is a bright purple base with blue and red micro-glitter. In person, it's dark enough not to come across as shockingly bright. Here's an extreme close up that really shows the nice glitter.

On top of Flying Dragon, I added some Fingrs metallic decals, which didn't work that well. They were neither flexible nor sticky enough to be easy to add. I finished with two coats of Out the Door top coat. As the pictures show, I ended up with some weird texture to the finished product, but I'm pretty sure that's due to my sleepy application of top coat over decals not anything to do with the polish.

I like the look of the components of this mani, but for some reason, I'm not in love with the finished product. Maybe it's bad decal placement? odd texture? my mood? I don't know, but I think I'd be happier if I'd stuck with Flying Dragon by itself.

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.