New Year's Eve Nails

Hello polish lovers!

So apparently this post was supposed to go up yesterday( slap my wrist! Bad Blogger!).  This was totally my own fault as I was trying to get everything together for my trip and to make matters worse I somehow managed to pinch a nerve in my back so all I wanted to do was lay down and apply heat.  Anyway, this will be my last post before I go away on my vacation!  So excited!  I will try to have a post ready for the 13th or 14th, even if it is just a haul, because we know I am not going to turn down the chance to get polish.

Today I have my New Years Eve mani for you, and I will also share The Grinch nails that I mentioned in my last post, because they are awesome and I put way too much effort into them to let them go to waste.

I started my NYE mani by trying 2 of the polishes I got in the Formula X for Sephora set I got from my brother for Christmas.  I chose White Matter and Dark Matter(which is which is pretty self explanatory).  Once this dried I stamped black over white and white over black using my Konad polishes and Pueen plate PUEEN24.

I was going for a black tie looking NYE mani, like you would wear to a fancy dress party...I think it was a bit of a miss.  For some reason the stamp did not transfer cleanly.  I probably didn't clean it off enough after each stamp, but here is the finished product.

On a side note, this was my first time using the Formula X polishes and I have to say, I was impressed with the formula, the white was opaque in 2 coats and the black was opaque in just one!  Unfortunately I am thinking this is one of the polish lines where you need to buy their base and top coat because I didn't even go 24 hours before this started chipping off 3 fingers!  Strangely, none of the chips so far has occurred on my dominant hand, so as a test I will leave it on and see if it starts chipping tomorrow.

Now onto a mani I am super proud of.

I love this!  the base for The Grinch is Barry M Key Lime while be silver base is Wet n' Wild Fantasy Makers, Once Upon a Time.  The rest of The Grinch is various Art Club stripers.  No acrylic paint was used.  I was quite impressed with myself.

This lasted without chipping for more than 4 days...I wonder if the CND top coat I used had anything to do with it...I smell a Top Coat test in the future!

Anyway, that is it for now...I will be back in 2 weeks...maybe with some Caribbean photo's to share.

Until then, polish happy!

Christmas Challenge, Christmas Character Prompt.

Hello polish lovers!

I told you I would be back!

So this is my Christmas Character prompt mani.  I chose Frosty the Snowman.  I also did The Grinch, but I may show that in a later post.

This is 2 coats of China Glaze Frost Bite, which I felt was appropriate.  Once this was dry I went to town with my stripers and various polishes, which I will list below the photo, to create my scene.

OPI Alpine Snow, green striper, China Glaze Foie Gras, Mabeline Color Show Audacious Asfault, black striper, Pop Beauty Glam in unknown peach for flower, red striper for nose, A England Galahad and Essie Good as Gold.

This was really fun and time consuming to do, I ended up wearing it for a few days with my snowfall mani on the other hand.

Now that I am finally caught up I feel better.  I will be back soon with my New Years mani, and that will be my last post until I am back from Vacation.

Until then, polish happy!

Trying to get up to date.

Hello polish lovers!

Ok...I am sorry...I have been away for far too long.  It has been crazy busy here and although I have been keeping up with the Christmas challenge and painting my nails frequently for some reason finding time to edit the photos and post has been difficult, so I will be doing 2 Christmas posts today to catch up.

So first off is Christmas food.

I started with 1 coat of Revlon Parfumerie in Bordeaux, one of the scented polishes, a lovely cherry red.

I was actually quite impressed with the colour and the formula for this polish...unfortunately it started chipping after one day.

 Once this dried I added China Glaze Foie Gras, leaving a half moon of Bordeaux by the cuticles.  The white for the icing is OPI Alpine Snow and then used green and red stripers for the holly and berries.

The finished product is my Christmas Food, Christmas Puddings.

That is all for this post and I will be back soon with my Christmas Character's mani.

Until then, polish happy!

Christmas Toy Challenge Mani!

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my mani for the Christmas/Winter Challenge and today's prompt was toys...this was not an easy prompt for me...so once again I reached back into my memory to my favourite gift I received when I was a child.  I also got some inspiration from my Bundle Monster Create Your Own plates.

I started with 2 new polishes to my collection.

This is 2 coats of Pop Beauty Nail Glam in Golden Metal, a gorgeous gold foil.  My pinkie has 1 dabbed coat of Barielle's Goldfinger a chunky gold and holographic glitter that I fell in love with.  I also for some reason could not find any info on this polish online so I don't know when it came out or what collection it is a part of.

So my stamping is the original NES controllers and Tetris.  The images are from BM415-16.

I was so excited the Christmas that we got the original Nintendo, ours came with Super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt(you know, the one with the gun controller so you shot at the screen, and sometimes at the hunting dog that would laugh at you when you missed).  We got Tetris a little later, but I remember my Mom kicking all our butts at that game, with Dad it was Galaga.  Good times.

So that is all for today, the countdown is on until Christmas, and New Years.  We are leaving for vacation on New Years Day so I will be gone for almost 2 weeks, I will hopefully have a haul for you when I get back.

Until then, polish happy!

Christmas Challenge, Day 4: Traditions

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my mani for the challenge prompt of traditions.  This was difficult for me to narrow down...and also most of the traditions in my house revolve around food...baking is a huge part of our Christmas celebrations.  So I decided to go back to a tradition of my childhood, one that ended when my grandmother passed away when I was in grade 5.

Every year for Christmas my grandmother used to knit everyone a sweater and us kids also got mittens.  I loved those sweaters and she would always ask what colours we wanted this year.  I actually still have one of the last sweaters that she knitted, the yarn was different and so it stretched out and I still occasionally wear it.

I suffered a bad break to the index finger of my swatching hand so until it grows a little bit, I give to you...my left hand!  Since my left is my dominant hand I do apologize about the sketchy clean up, I always have problems with my middle finger, partially I think, because of the writing callus I have.  Because I am now taking photos with my non-dominant hand they are not as well centered and my finger position is not as good.

This is 2 coats of Barielle Shades Big Apple Red, a great apple red creme.

I stamped using Konad white and used BMH03 for the mitts and hats and BMH01 for the knitted heart.  At the last minute I decided to do a gold accent on my pinkie nail, this is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Wedding Glitters, 2 coats.

That is all for today, but I will be back soon.

Until then, polish happy!

Christmas Challenge and Moyou London First Impressions

Hello polish lovers!

Ok so I am a bad blogger.  I said I would post on Tuesday and I didn't.  Sorry, we ended up doing a bunch of Christmas baking and had a big family dinner and then made marzipan so my day really filled up.  So to make up for my broken promise today is going to be a longer post.

I will start with my Christmas Challenge post for Day 3 which is Holiday Colours(I will say I am totally lost for the next few prompts).  I started with 1 coat of China Glaze White on White.

I think this polish has thickened nicely as I use it and is now totally opaque in 1 coat where before it took 2.

Once this was dry I got out my smallest detail brush and OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress and China Glaze Running in Circles and created a candy cane stripe.

I used a white striper to clean up the lines and top coated in SV.  INRAW is an awesome holiday red!

And now on the the Moyou London plates.

I picked up a number of plates recently...using The Nailasaurus's promo code...yay for savings!  I purchased a variety of plates from a number of different sets...but most are from the Pro line because I found I was really into the patterns.

 This is Pro 07, I fell in love with the owl and the handwriting, to say nothing of the awesome hounds-tooth.  The handwriting was the first image I used and that mani will be at the end of this post.

 This is Pro 10, I love the amazing floral branches in the right hand corner, sorry the pic is fuzzy, didn't notice until I was editing.

 Pro 15, as a former Art major I could not resist the Warhol and Liechtenstein images.  I love Pop Art.

 Pro 06...I am unable to resist a good dandelion fluff...need I say more?

 Sailor 6, I love the repetition of waves and this has some great ones.

 Sailor 7, more great waves, you will see the Bridget Riley-esque one in an upcoming post.  Also fish!

 Suki 1, more owls! I couldn't not get one of the artistic plates...even though I think it will be harder to use.  I can see polish getting everywhere!  The patterns are clear and intricate and the peacock is gorgeous!

And last but not least Kitty 11..because I became addicted to having birds on my nails from the Messy Mansion plate and this is the next step.  I am totally going to do a cat gets bird mani:)

So, the quality...is the best of any of the plates I have tried...and this includes Konad.  All lines are clean and clearly deeply etched...but not so deep as to cause pressure smudging, you know, the smudging you get when there is too much polish on the plate and it squishes onto the clean areas.  I got none of that on any of the images I have tried so far.  I also found the variety of plates fantastic...they definitely have something for everyone...whether you are a Princess or Biker or anything in between.

I also got the white squishy stamper and scraper and I am completely in love!  The stamp is so soft that I don't have to wait as long before stamping because there is not as much pressure transfer.  Also because this is a rectangular stamper it is easier to line up my images and make them straight and centered on the nail.

Overall I am very impressed with MoYou London plates and would definitely get more.  You can get your plates here.

And here is what I did with my first attempt:

 The base is Color Club Evolution and I used Seche Hypnotic to stamp, it looked a lot like ink.  Any voids in the stamping was my bad for not putting enough polish on the plate and no fault of the plate itself.

Ok, sorry for the image overload but I am in love and I want to spread it around.

Until next time, polish happy!

Christmas Challenge Day 2: Winter Nature

Hello polish lovers!

Just a quick post tonight with my Winter Nature mani for the Christmas Challenge I am doing.  Today's post is not a complete fail but I should have used a darker mix for my sky before adding the stamping to make it stand out more.  Also excuse the fact I forgot to take photos before the stamping so you could see what the sponging looked like on its own.

I started with 2 coats of China Glaze White on White and then used various unnamed Color Club greys and a bit of makeup sponge in tweezers to create the sky, dark with snow.

I let that dry and then used Konad white polish and BMH02 to stamp on the stylized tree design.  I let that dry and used my black striper to create bare trees in the foreground and coated with SV.

Told you it would be quick, I will be back on Tuesday with a non-challenge post.

Until then, polish happy!

33 DC Day 33 Freestyle...The End is Nigh!

Hello polish lovers!

I am back with my last mani for the 33 DC!  Yay!  So today I decided to go freestyle although it is influenced by a number of photos found by the help of Google when looking for bee nails.

I began with a base of 2 coats of Lime Crime Crema de Lemon.  This is one of the best yellows I have ever used.  The formula is great, completely opaque in 2 coats with now streaking, and it self levels.  I also really like the colour itself, it is bright but not neon and yet still creamy.

Once this was coated in SV and completely dry I used BM422 for the honey combs and BM401 for the bees  with Konad black.  The swoops are freehanded with my Nubar black striper.

I really liked this final product.  It is definitely something I will do a variation of in the summer.

Of course I had to matte it and I wore it this way for about 4 days before I removed it.  Love it!

That is all for today, I will be back on Sunday with the next Christmas Challenge.

Until then, polish happy!

Christmas/Winter Challenge Day 1: White Christmas, Snow

Hello polish lovers!

So when I posted yesterday I had completely forgotten that today was the first day of the Christmas Challenge I am participating in.  So I just got finished editing the photos and here we go.

I decided that I wanted to capture my favourite part of snow...that is the falling aspect.  My favourite thing to do in winter is to go for a walk in the evening when the snow is falling and there is no wind and it is so quiet you can hear the snow touch the ground.  I tried to create what I see during those walks.

My first step was to find a dark blue...unfortunately I don't seem to have a creme dark blue(I will have to correct this)  so I used Seche Hypnotic.

Once this was dry I got out my smallest dotting tool and China Glaze White on White and began dotting randomly on the nail.  I waited a few minutes and then added a thin coat of China Glaze Ride the Waves, a navy blue jelly.

I then repeated this step using my next size dotting tool.

Before Ride the Waves

And again with my next size dotting tool.

And again with my next size dotting tool.

The final layer of white dots is not covered in Ride the Wave but allowed to stay true white.  I love how each layer of blue makes the previous layers look further back, great way to fake perspective on a flat surface.

I had to darken this last photo as the others were coming off lighter than it was in reality.  I really loved this mani, way prettier in person than it looks in photos.  I will have to recreate closer to Christmas, I really loved it.

So as I said last time, I will be back tomorrow with my last mani in the 33 DC, really this time.

Until then, polish happy!

33 DC Day 32: Shapes

Hello polish lovers!

I am managing to post tonight even though I am ridiculously tired and just want to curl up in my hot water bottle preheated bed and read a few pages of Going Postal(Terry Pratchett for the win!) before getting at least a solid 8 hours before work tomorrow.

But enough whining, I post for the same reason we all do...a love of nail polish!

Today's prompt in the 33 DC was shapes, which is very open to interpretation, so I decided to go with something freehand.  My base for this mani is yet another of the unnamed Color Club's that I have been using so often.  This colour is possibly Abyss, but it is one of those neon turquoise colours that does not photograph true to colour.

Once that had dried I got out my Nubar black striper and placed 3 triangles on each nail.  I waited for that to dry and then used another unnamed Color Club in a similar but lighter blue and a large dotting tool to add circles, some of them overlapping the triangles, which was an interesting effect.

So Friday is the final day of the 33 DC and I cannot believe I got all the prompts done...almost on time!

Until then, polish happy!

33 DC Day 31: 3 Favourite Polishes

Hello polish lovers!

Sorry this post is late but I am working 2 jobs this month to make extra money for my trip in January and am in the middle of nine days straight, its a good thing all the polish work is done its just editing and composing the posts I have left to do.

So yesterday's prompt was art using your 3 favourite polishes.  It was hard for me to limit my polishes to 3 and to choose favourites.  In the end I decided on China Glaze For Audrey(most used polish), China Glaze Fois Gras(farvourite brand) and Essie Good As Gold(favourite stamping polish).

I began by coating all fingers except for my index with 2 coats of For Audrey, my index finger got 2 coats of Fois Gras.

Once this was dry I began adding my bumps to create a cloud mani, using Essie Good As Gold.

Once that was dry I added Fois Gras to all fingers except my index, which got For Audrey.

I coated in SV to complete the design.  I have to say I really love this colour combination and I will probably break it out again in the future.  This was my first time doing a cloud mani so a few of my soft curves are a little too straight, but that is definitely something I can work on.

I will try to be back tomorrow with Day 32, Shapes.  It may be late at night by the time I get it posted but sometimes that is just life.

On a side note my new Moyou London plates arrived today and I already have one on.  Perfect transfer and great image quality.  I got the sticky stamp as well and I love it!  I will post a more in depth review once I have used more of the plates.

Until tomorrow, polish happy!