Sally Hansen Triple Shine Dive In Review

Hello polish lovers!

I told you I would be back...and I am.  I am back with a polish that I swatched almost two months ago but was so involved with numerous challenges the photos stayed in my un-edited folder, gathering computer dust.  So you will remember I did a first impressions post on 2 colours from the Sally Hansen Triple Shine collection, I loved Kelp, even though it was more of a 3 coater, as I had VNL at 2 coats, and Fanta-Sea is really more of a glitter topper than a stand alone glitter polish, since 4 coats could not get it opaque.  Today I have another creme polish from this line, Dive In.

This, ladies, is a true 2 coat polish!  It is a bright blue/green and reminds me very much of the Caribbean waters, making the name of this polish very appropriate.

As you can see this photo was taken before I had my series of breaks that necessitated cutting my nails to less than half their former length.  I miss those nails, but I know they will be back.  My non-swatching hand is already coming along nicely, but my swatching hand has some catching up to do.

This photo has been slightly colour corrected, because for some reason my camera totally freaks out around any teals and refuses to show the colour accurately.  I had the same problem with Orly's Unreal Teal, which is one of the reasons I have not shown those photos yet...well that and it totally stained my cuticles on removal which seriously ticked my off.  Although it did not stain as badly as OPI's Swimsuit...Nailed It, that gorgeous sparkly polish not only got my cuticles but the nails themselves!

Anyway, on to this gorgeous colour. I loved this polish, this is 2 coats, no top coat and it is opaque and glossy and lovely.  I decided I liked it so much I put it on all my nails and used it as a base for some stamping.

I used the PUEEN24 plate and the brocade image to make some really lovely wallpaper nails.  I used Essie Good as Gold to stamp, I love stamping with that polish so much!  All of the Essie metallics are gorgeous stampers and are completely opaque in one coat.

In conclusion, Dive In is definitely the winner, in terms of formula, of the 3 Sally Hansen Triple Shine polishes that I have tried, although Kelp is so far my favourite colour.  I was really impressed with Dive In's opacity and shine and I believe I kept the finished product on my fingers with minimal wear for almost a 5 days before I had to take it off, not because it was chipping, but because I need to change my polish often.

That is all for today, but I will be back on Monday with day 31 of the 33DC, so close to the end on this.

Until then, polish happy!

33 DC Day 30: Same Pattern, Various Colours

Hello nail polish lovers!

Today I have one of the last posts for The Crumpet's 33 Day Challenge, one week left!  Its been nice to have outside ideas about what to do to try to get me out of my nail polish box, I will have to find more challenges to keep me going...although I will have a few reviews and more nail of the day coming soon.

Today's prompt was same pattern, different colours, which, to me, means stamping.  So I started by painting each of my nails a different colour.  My pinkie is OPI Alpine Snow, ring is Essie No Place Like Chrome, middle OPI Vant to Bite My Neck? and my index is Seche Risque.  These are all one coat except for Bite My Neck which was a little streaky so I did 2 coats.

Once this was coated in SV and dried I began my stamping, choosing to run the stamping in the opposite direction of the base colours, darkest stamping on pinkie, lightest on index(you get the picture).  You will notice that the stamping on my middle finger is a little wrinkled, that is what happens when everything is one coat except that finger and you don't let it dry quite long enough, but what are you going to do?

The pattern that I chose was Messy Mansion's In the Garden plate, an image of lattice and vines, which I totally fell in love with, like I do with all the MM plates that I own...she showed a prototype of a Book plate, which I cannot wait to come into production.  For these images I used the same polishes as for the base, except for the white stamping, which is Konad white, and also my favourite completed nail.

I found this was a great way to see how different polishes transfer the same image and how background colours can change how an image appears and the colour it appears to be, the stamping on my pinkie finger is a totally different colour from the base on my index finger, and yet they are the same polish...something to keep in mind.

That is all for today, I may post tomorrow or Sunday depending on how life goes...I have a Christmas Party Sunday night so it may have to be tomorrow.  I do have another of the Sally Hansen Triple Shine polishes I would like to review so maybe I will post that.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 29: Favourite Pattern and Last Falling For Nail Art Post

Hello polish lovers!

So today I have another double post for you with the 33DC and the Falling for Nail Art Challenge.  Today is the last Falling Challenge and I have really enjoyed the sense of accomplishment I have gotten from these challenges...and they really are a challenge.  Sometimes its finding inspiration within the theme and other times its just finding the time to complete the entry and get it blogged in time.  But anyway on to the manis.

First up my 33DC for my Favourite Pattern.  This was incredibly difficult to narrow down, and knowing me will change as quickly as the new year will come upon us.  I started with a base of Joe Fresh Evergreen.  This is a product line that is brand at the Real Canadian Superstore, and I was really impressed with it, especially given the fact that it was on clearance and I got it for 94 cents!  This is a lovely deep green with gold sparkles in it.  And it could be a 1 coater but I did 2 because, you know, I have a problem.

As you can see the bottle is quite squat and had a short brush, which I find easier to control.  The sparkle is even more pronounced in real life and was quite dense.  This was topped with SV and let dry until I was ready to stamp.

I finally decided to stamp using the paisley pattern from BM315 using Color Club Over The Moon, an awesome blue holographic polish, you can really see the rainbow in the bottle and it is not dulled by top coat.

The reason that I chose the paisley image is because it is the first image that I ever stamped that actually turned out correctly.  I love how the image is not overpowering and allows some of the base polish to shine through.  Some of my plates have images so busy that you barely see the colour, and to me part of the fun of stamping is having at least two colours on my fingers that go together and make a statement.

For my final Falling for Nail Art Challenge the theme was Thanksgiving, which, for me, was over more than a month ago.  So instead of more turkeys and the ubiquitous pumpkins, which I did on Sunday, I went with a very fall image that I fell in love with.  I am sorry to say that I totally forgot to take a photo of the base before I began my stamping, but know that I will definitely use this colour for a base again so that you can see more of it.  My base was 1 coat of Seche's Risque, a very dark aubergine creme that in most lights appeared a very deep rich black.  Once this was dry I used Essie's Good As Gold, one of my favourite golds to stamp with, and MM16 plate and the image of grape vines, leaves and grapes.  If you have not checked out Messy Mansions stamping plates you are doing yourself a grave disservice, check them out!

I will definitely be recreating this mani again.  I love the contrast between the deep purple and the shine of the gold! Love, love, love, love, love.  And on this high note I say good by to Plump and Polished's Falling for Nail Art Challenge for this year.

That is all for now, but I will be back on Friday with Day 30 of the 33DC!

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 28: Lines

Hello polish lovers!

I guess winter is now upon us...at least where I live:(  We have about 15-20 cm now and it is snowing again.  It really means that I cannot wait until January when I will be going on a Caribbean cruise with various members of my family.  Less than five weeks now until we leave!  I am really looking forward to checking out the different polish in the States, although my mother says there really isn't much where we are going in the Caribbean, but we will be in Ft. Lauderdale for a day, and our hotel is right next to Saw Grass Mills, so I will have my first CCO experience.  But enough on that, on to today's theme in the 33DC, Lines.

I started with a base of OPI's Alpine Snow as a prep for China Glaze's Sun Worshiper.

I love this colour!  This is probably the last neon I will have on my nails until spring or summer, unless I can't take it anymore in the middle of winter and break them back out again.  Unfortunately, the colour is the best thing about this polish, it is thin, runny, and unless incredibly careful, is prone to flooding the cuticles.  This is 2 coats over white, 1 coat was still streaky.  Over this I put SV, as usual, to aide in drying before I stamped.

So I decided to make this a skittle mani, not in colour, but in the line stamps that I decided to use.  I wanted to show a variety of lines, thick, thin, straight, curved, grouped, crossed and adjacent, which I think I did.  All of my nails are stamped with Konad black and my pinkie nail is BM316, index BM423, ring GA42 and middle BM315.  Topped with SV.

That is all for today, but I will be back on Wednesday for the last double up day, as it is the last Falling For Nail Art Challenge and Day 29 for the 33DC.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling For Nail Art: Turkey Time

Hello nail polish lovers!

Today's prompt in the Falling for Nail Art Challenge was Turkey Time.  I really had a difficult time getting up the motivation for this one since I am Canadian and we celebrated Thanksgiving over a month ago, and I didn't even do Thanksgiving nails then!  But I prevailed and this is what I came up with:

I started with 2 coats of Nubar's Sunset Matte, which I got in a set with Twilight and Midnight, all of which are awesome.  Sunset is an antique copper gold...so pretty!

Once this was dry, which didn't take too long, since it is matte, I used Konad Black stamping polish and used BMH13 for my accent finger and BMH12 for the rest of my fingers.

This has been top coated with SV to preserve the stamping.

I really enjoyed the copper gold colour combined with the crisp black, and the stamping came out amazing, it was almost a shame to take it off, but considering it is not Canadian Thanksgiving, I think I would have looked rather weird walking around with turkey's on my fingers.

In other news, I ended up cutting down my nails even more.  I am continuing to have problems with the break I had on the middle finger of my swatching hand, and I was getting tired of continually having to put Orly's Nail Repair on it, so I chopped them all down, not to nubs, but way shorter than they were.  My middle nail is still shorter than the others, I can't make myself cut the rest down that short, so hopefully it grows quick.  You won't get to see the new length until December though, when I start the Christmas Challenge that was posted to Crumpet's Nail Tarts.(I am already working on them since December always proves to be a most busy month)

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with the next 33DC theme.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 27: 3 Patterns

Hello polish lovers!

For the 3 Patterns prompt in the 33 Day Challenge I decided to go all out preppy.  I mean, argyle sweaters and Burberry bags and the like.  I wanted understated but statement making, if that makes any sense.

I started with yet another unnamed Color Clubs from my infamous sets.  This one, I have decided, is Give Me a Hint, and this is one coat.

An awesome greige, and its opaque in 1 coat!  I don't care what this polishes name is, I want to marry it! Even Barry M's Lychee(which I love) is a solid 2 coat-er.  I SV'd this and let dry before I started my freehand.  I decided to freehand the designs except for the accent which is stamped.

My pinkie and index fingers are Burberry patterns, I was really impressed with how much control I was able to achieve considering this is only the second time I have attempted this, and the first time on myself.  My middle finger is argyle, which I have done before but always manage to make look slightly awkward.  I used the same 3 stripers for these two patterns and then used Konad black and PUEEN22 for the lattice rose image, which I felt worked well with the overall preppy theme.

I really like how this turned out overall.  I will definitely need to bring back the Burberry pattern another time, maybe using different colours.

I will be back on Sunday with my next Falling for Nail Art Challenge, which is entering its final week.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 26: Inspired by Pinterest and Falling for Nail Art Challenge: Jewel Tones

Hello polish lovers!

Its strange that I did not work today and yet I am still doing this post so late in the evening.  I guess that is what happens when you use your days off to complete all of the nail challenges that I had left to do.

I am doing this as a double post because it is almost time for me to go to bed and it is easier for me to combine these 2 challenge posts than to separate them.

So first of my Inspired by Pinterest mani.  I was inspired by Lucy's Stash tutorial on basket weave freehand patterns, seen here.

I started off with a base of 2 coats of another unnamed  Color Club, a colour that was close to the inspiration colour, a greyed out purple(although the CC is more greyed out than purple), that, based on swatches I have decided is Shabby Drab.

This was actually very flattering on the nails and a gorgeous grey/purple creme.

Once this was dry I followed the tutorial and used Wet n' Wild's Ebony Hates Chris and a detail brush to create the design on my index finger.  I wasn't really impressed with the lack of control I had with the brush so when I moved on to the ring finger I decided to use a black striper instead.  I feel that worked much better for how clean I wanted the lines to be.

On my index finger you can't even tell what the pattern is supposed to be, but it is much clearer on my ring finger.  I will have to remember that I really have much more control over the brush if I use as striper rather than a detail brush.

I used a silver square stud from the Born Pretty Store and another unknown Color Club on my middle nail.

Now on to the Falling for Nail Art post for the theme Jewel Tones.

I started out with a base of 2 coats of Color Club's Editorial, a colour that appears to be a dupe of Chanel's Peridot(which I do not own, and therefore cannot do a comparison on), a green to gold duochrome, which my camera would not capture in any in focus shots.

Once this dried I used China Glaze's Tongue & Chic, a dark teal, and Bundle Monster BM422 to create a diamond pattern.

Please ignore the black smudge on my ring finger, I wanted to do a larger black diamond on its own but the stamp did not co-operate.

Anyway, this is the end of my double post for today but I will be back on Friday with my next 33DC mani.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 25: A New Technique for Me

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my new technique mani for you.  It was really difficult to decide on a technique I had not done before...not because I have done them all(Goodness knows I am not even close)  but because most of the techniques I have not tried are because of how messy they are.  This really causes my OCD to come out and there is nothing worse than trying to clean polish out from your cuticles for half an hour for clean up.  This problem means that I was not yet willing to try water marble or splatter nails.  I have enough problems with the clean up for stamping and gradients.

Because of this problem I wanted to choose a technique that I had not done that required very little clean up, and so I chose the Saran Wrap technique.

For my base colour I decided on yet another of the Color Clubs from the unnamed sets.  This one is a bright, almost neon peach that I think is East Austin, based on swatches.

Sorry for how dark the colour is but there was NO SUN that day...I may as well have been living in a cave.  This is 2 easy coats of East Austin, perfectly opaque and basically no clean up required.

Once this was dry I added a light coat of my second colour, another unnamed Color Club that I think is All That Razz, and quickly balled up Saran Wrap to remove the colour and create a stone effect(if stones were bright peach and pink).

I don't know if I removed quite enough of All That Razz but I quite liked the effect, especially on my pinkie and ring nails.

I think this technique would make a great base for stamping, so look forward to something like that in the near future.

That is all for today but I will be back on Wednesday with my next 33DC mani Inspired by Instagram.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art: Baked Goods

Hello nail polish lovers!

Today I have my Falling for Nail Art Challenge with the theme Baked Goods.  I really had to stop myself from using my apple pie image for this one but I somehow managed to restrain myself.

For this challenge I started with a base of 1 coat of an unnamed Color Club lavender/periwinkle that I think is Pucci-licious, based on swatches.  I loved adding to my Color Club collection but not having names on the bottles is a giant pain in the ass.  If you think this is a different CC colour please let me know, also this colour is slightly less blue in real life.

This colour must have some neon pigment in it because it dried slightly matte.  Once the base was dried I started to add my design, of a cupcake, of course.  I used Lime Crime's Crema de Lemon for the wrapper, and then used a yellow striper for the shadows.  The frosting is China Glaze White on White with yellow and red stripers for the sprinkles.

I added the SV too early, since I am more used to applying it over stamping, and ended up with the red striper smudging and bleeding into the white.  Except for that I was actually quite pleased with how this turned out.

I have been doing so much nail art between the challenges that I have been leaning towards more plain nails, so I wanted to show you one of my favourites from last week.

The base is another of the unnamed Color Clubs, I think it is either Look Book or Style Icon, and this is 3 coats of the deep jelly like red that is the closest to oxblood that I have.  The studs are small gold rounds from the Born Pretty Store and the reason that one of them looks silver is because I took this photo after a day at work and apparently I wore through the top coat and took the colour coating off that one stud.  I really enjoyed how simple and sophisticated this mani was and I think it totally appropriate for Autumn.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with my next 33DC mani.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 24: Colour I Own the Most Of

Hello polish lovers!

So as I wrote on Wednesday I finally figured out a way to fix my photo compression on Blogger!  Unfortunately, the only way that I was able to do this was to switch to a Google+ account:(  So from now one any replies to comments will be with my name, Sandra Barry, and not Petite & Polish because Google will not allow me to change my name to the blog name.  The upside is that my photos will again look the high quality, colour accurate(as much as my camera will allow) and none fuzzy!

And now, on to the Challenge.  For day 24 we were to create a mani using the colour of polish we have the most of.  For me it really is a toss up between green and blue, so I decided to use both.  I started with a base of 2 coats of Barry M's Turquoise, which is really more bright blue, it has very little green in the formula.

I topped this with SV and once it was dry I added a gradient of Turquoise and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength  in Garter Toss, which is, I think, an even lighter mint green then Essie's Mint Candy Apple, I may have to do a comparison of my mints, that would be fun.

Again, I added SV and let dry before I began my stamping.  For my stamping I used Klean Color Metallic Jungle(don't ask me why it is jungle when it is blue, it should be Metallic Ocean!) and GALS GA33 plate for the image.

I really like how well all the Klean Color Metallics stamp and I would love to get more of them, since the only ones I have are a mini set I found at Winners(win for me!).  I thought the metallic added a bit of shine and sparkle to an otherwise creme mani.

That is all for now but I will be back on Sunday with my next Falling for Nail Art mani, the theme is Baked Goods, and I didn't stamp!  Although I do have an apple pie image and a doughnut image!  I restrained myself and the next mani if freehand.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art: Fireside

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Fireside mani for the other challenge I am doing at the moment, the Falling for Nail Art Challenge.  The only thing that I could think of when I saw the theme for today was fire itself, so that is what I did.



As I said in my previous post I completely forgot to take pictures of my base without my freehand on it, which is unfortunate, because it is gorgeous, I will be sure to post again with it sometime.  I am on a bit of a Color Club kick because I just got 18 new colours and I want to test them all out.  The color I chose for my background is another unnamed but I have decided based on swatches that it is Apollo Star, an antique gold that is opaque in one careful coat(another one coat-er! I am in heaven).  Once this was dry I dug out stripers in Yellow, Red, and Neon Orange and created a reverse waterfall to create my fire.

Sorry Blogger is doing the same thing to my photos again, this is getting ridiculous! UPDATE: fixed.

At lease this time it didn't change the colours on my nails but for some reason it is making them look much lower quality than they are, I will have to look into this.

Anyway, that is all for now,  until next time, polish happy!

33DC Day 23: Geometric

Hello polish lovers!

My post for Crumpet's 33DC for the Geometric theme was to go clean and crisp.  When I think of clean and crisp I immediately head to black and white, and I did the same this time.

On all of my nails except my ring finger I applied 1 coat of China Glaze White on White.  As I use more of this polish it has become slightly thicker and the coverage is great now, one careful coat is totally opaque.  I am all for using less polish(When you do your nails as often as I do, its good to get one coat-ers, they last longer).  On my ring finger I applied 2 coats of an unnamed Color Club black that I have decided is called Where's the Soiree?  based on swatches.

I forgot to take a photo before I applied my stamping, which is unfortunate, I was doing so much better about that(I also realized when I was doing the editing, I made the same mistake with my next post).  So here is the finished product.

I don't know what is going on with my photos.  For some reason when I add them to the post they become totally washed out.  Its really strange.  The black is much more saturated than it is showing.

UPDATE: I changed my Blogger to a Google+ account and now everything uploads correctly.(another example of Google taking over?)  So I have re-uploaded the photos so colour is correct now.

I used Konad Black and Konad White for my stamping, and the image is from BM403.  I am getting much better at centering the image, except for my pinkie which was being completely uncooperative.

That is all for this post, hopefully the photos for my next post do not do the same thing, this is getting really frustrating.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 22: 3 Colour Gradient with a Pattern

Hello polish lovers!

I am hoping to have better luck with this post than the last.  My computer was doing strange things to the photos.

So I have my 33DC mani for day 22 for you today.  This was a great theme because it was so open.  All I had to do was choose 3 colours, create a gradient and then create a pattern over top.  I gathered 6 colours together and made my brother choose three.  They were all Color Club polishes and he chose All That Razz, New Bohemian and a chartreuse green that I could not find a name for.  All of these polishes came from random sets that I purchased at Winners, they are full sized bottles but none are named(I had to search the internet for the other colour names), for some reason I cannot find this chartreuse, it is not the same as Sunrise Canyon, although it is the closest of the other Color Club greens.  If anyone knows the name of this polish, please feel free to leave a comment.

This is 2 coats and it is very similar in colour to OPI's Did It On 'Em, but the formula is much better, Did It On 'Em never wanted to go opaque, even with white base coat.

Once this had dried I created the gradient pattern with the 3 colours.

It looks rather rainbow-ish but I love how bright it is.  Once that had dried my brother stated it needed harsh lines in black to finish.  So I looked through my plates and got out GA15 with Konad Black stamping polish.

I, surprisingly, really liked how this turned out and can totally see myself wearing this during the summer.  There is something very 80s about this.

That is all for today, until next time, polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art Challenge: First Frost

Hello polish lovers!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday as planned but we went to Toronto to pick up my brother so that he could come home for a shore visit.  I, because of this, have 2 posts today.

I will start with my Falling for Nail Art Challenge, First Frost.  I began with 1 coat of Seche's Hypnotic.  I love this polish, the blue is so intense and pigmented.  I really need to see how well Seche polishes stamp, since they are 1 coat-ers they should be really good.

For some reason this photo changed colour when I added it to the post, Hypnotic is much more a royal blue, it is not near this purple.  Once this had dried a added my stamping using Color Club Over the Moon, an awesome light blue holographic, and BMH02 and GA14 to create my frost patterns.

Sorry, when I try to change the size the photo goes really dark:(

This photo is much more colour accurate and you can really see how great Color Club Holos are for stamping.  I really loved this combination and I am sure I will use it again, numerous times, over the winter.

That is all for now, but I will post again soon tonight.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 21: Europe

Hello polish lovers!

For my Europe mani I was thinking about doing something with England(since I lived there for 2 years)  but even when I was there it didn't feel like Europe and I think that England feels kind of separate from the rest of Europe since it is an island and not on the continent.

So instead I went with a country that I wish I had gotten too but never seemed to find the time, France.  I specifically chose Paris, not just because of the Bundle Monster plate of the Eiffel Tower(although it didn't hurt).  I ended up loving this mani and I will definitely have to recreate it at another time.

It's the new length, I am still missing the old nails but I know they will come back.  I started this mani with 2 coats of Color Club's Evolution, which I think is a perfect blue for a French mani.  This was top coated with SV and let dry until it was ready for stamping.

I used Konad black stamping polish for the Eiffel Tower image from Bundle Monster BM419 plate(I left out the Paris lettering so that the tower stood alone.  All the other stamping is Konad white and the fleur de lis image is from GA29 and the stripes are from GA21.

Love, love, love this mani!  So clean and crisp.  It turned out way better than I was expecting and may be one of my favourites of the entire challenge so far.

Anyway that is all for today but I will be back on Sunday(if not before) with my next Falling for Nail Art Challenge of First Frost.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art Challenge: Spiced Up

Hello polish lovers!

I am back with my Falling for Nail Art Challenge for today's theme of Spiced Up.  I got a little stymied on this mani so I decided to use spicy colours and try my second attempt at a tape mani.  This time I used Scotch tape instead of striping tape and didn't apply the tape until later in the day after wearing the base colour on its own.

My base for this mani is 2 coats of OPI's Bogota Blackberry, a gorgeous cranberry colour.  Once this was totally dry I cut pieces of Scotch tape in a variety of sizes for the parts I wanted to keep cranberry.

The yellow stripe I did first is Barielle Shades Lemondrops, the orange is Essie's Fear or Desire, and the red is China Glaze's Roguish Red.  This mani went way better than my first tape mani(that was a disaster).

I love how bright and spicy these colours are.  This photo is a little more colour accurate but my camera had problems trying to get the colours properly.

That's all for today, but I will be back on Friday(if not before).

Until then, polish happy!

33 DC Day 19: Pattern in My Wardrobe

Hello polish lovers!

So today's challenge was to be inspired by a pattern in my wardrobe...I have very few patterns in my wardrobe so I decided to use my new infinity scarf.

I love the colour and pattern in this scarf.  Its black, burgundy, copper, grey and white in an painterly flower print.  I was really excited when I managed to find pretty similar colours in my polish stash.

I started with a base of 1 coat of OPI's Alpine Snow and then worked from lightest to darkest.  The grey is Butter London's Billy No Mates(I found it at Winners on clearance), copper is Essie's Penny Talks, burgundy is Seche's Bella(awesome 1 coat-er), and a black Nubar striper. I then coated with SV.

Of course I had to matte it for the finishing touch to make it seem closer to the scarf.

That is all for now but I will be back in a bit with my Falling for Nail Art mani.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 19: Following Someone's Tutorial

Hello polish lovers!

I finally gave in after a moderately bad break on my middle finger nail and cut all my nails down to about half of their original length:(  So there will only be a few more posts at my old length before the new shorter nails will make an appearance.

So for today's challenge I decided to follow The Nailasaurus's Nimbus Nails tutorial, found here.  For this mani I decided that rather than to use a white base, I would take the opportunity to use a new polish that I had not chance to try, OPI's Pink Friday.

Pink Friday is a light bubblegum pink with a slight blue undertone, which works better for me than more orange tone pinks which make my skin tone look sallow.

I followed The Nailasaurus's tutorial and began with my darkest colour, OPI's Vant to Bite My Neck?, a dark eggplant.  Then OPI's A Grape Fit!, a medium purple.  Followed by China Glaze's Purple Panic, Color Club's Warhol, and finished with China Glaze's Innocence.  I found that my nimbus spots were a little too intense so I put a coat of Innocence over the entire nail.  I think I need more practice but I like the idea of these nails.

I think I need to work on overlapping the halos more, I think next time I will use greens and blues.  That is all for today but I will be back on Wednesday for my double up day.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art: Harvest

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Harvest mani for the Falling for Nail Art Challenge.  I started with 2 coats of OPI's A Roll in the Hague.

 I really like this colour, it is a very intense orange creme from the Holland collection and it reminds me of orange tulips.  I used SV, as usual, to prepare for the stamping.

I used Essie's Good as Gold and the Bundle Monster's BMH12 for the basket weave pattern and then used Konad Black and BMH11 for the pumpkin, corn and wheat images.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with the 33DC following someone's tutorial.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 18: 2 Patterns

Hello polish lovers!

Sorry this post is late, but I worked yesterday and then went to my sister's for dinner and then out to see Ender's Game(not as good as the book, but good).

Here is my 2 Patterns mani for the 33DC.

I started with a base of 2 coats of China Glaze Cast a Spell, a darkened green glitter in a blackened base.  I love this colour!  Especially with the gold.  The two patterns are from the same plate, Pueen25.  I love the graphic quality of the fishnet image and the flowers are a nice contrast to that.

Tomorrow I have the next theme in the Falling For Nail Art Challenge, which is Harvest.

Until then, polish happy!