First Emily de Molly Stamping...Lead Light Technique

Hello polish lovers!

I know, I know...bad blogger.  I have been doing my nails and taking photos but not editing or posting.  I am going to try to get back into the swing of things.  I really need to find some of the new polish that has been released for summer.  I didn't find many of the spring polishes spoke to me or were anything new.

Today I have a mani that I did a few weeks ago when I got my Emily de Molly plates from MessyMansion.  I am addicted!  I have 4 of the 5 available and I love them all.  This was plate EDM03.

I started with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, which I will not show because I know I have posted about it before.  It is my favourite white, kind of dirty and gray for when you don't want it to be too bright.

I used Mundo de Unas black stamping polish...by the way I am loving all the stamping polishes of hers that I have tried so far...except peach...but that is for another post.

Once I stamped my image I used Sinful Colors GoGo Girl, China Glaze Keepin' it Teal, China Glaze Ride the Waves and OPI Need Sunglasses and a small dotting tool to fill in random spaces.

I have done a few more using this technique since then that I really enjoy as well.  I love the Frank Lloyd Wright-ness of this plate.  All the images are crisp and transfer perfectly from the stamper to the nail.

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

NPC Day 5: Jelly

Hello polish lovers!

This is going to be a quick one.  Day 5 Prompt is Jelly and I chose to do a pond mani using China Glaze Keepin' it Teal.  This is a very sheer teal green that is another in my collection that I will have to try with LeadLighting.

I used the ant image from Pueen 45 and Kleancolor Matte Black and layered and repeated the image at different angles, layered with coats of Keepin' it Teal.  I don't know if it was a total success but I don't mind the finished product.  This is 5 coats total and you still have slight VNL so that will tell you how sheer it is.

That is all for now.

Until next time, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

China Glaze City Flourish and Sea Goddess Collections, First Impressions and Review

Hello polish lovers!

Sorry I have been absent for a while but I think the last challenge had me on posting overload so I took a bit of a vacation when it was over.

Today I have 4 polishes from China Glaze Spring Collection City Flourish and 1 polish from the Sea Goddess Collection.

I will start with the City Flourish collection.

So I finally got around to creating a light box so I am hoping that will help with how uneven my lighting has been.
I purchased these colours when Sally Beauty had China Glaze on their 1 day sale in February, and have used them in mani's since but have not yet told you what I thought of them.

First up is In a Lily Bit.

In a Lily Bit is a lilac cream polish with a strong pink undertone.  The formula is thin but not overly difficult to work with and requiring minimal clean up, the first coat is streaky but is opaque on the second coat.  The polish is one of those neon pastels and does dry matte so it does require top coat.  This is 2 coats topped with Seche Vite.  I normally avoid this shade but the brightness stops the lobster fingers.

Second is What a Pansy.

What a Pansy is definitely my favourite name of the collection, although it is not my favourite polish.  What a Pansy is a mid-tone purple with strong blue under-tone.  The formula is thicker than In a Lily Bit and would be a 1 coat-er if the application was not slightly patchy, fully opaque in 2 coats.  This one does not dry matte and the above picture is 2 coats with no clean up and no top coat.

Third is At Vase Value.

At Vase Value is a light blue that shares its value range with For Audrey, and shows slightly more green IRL.  The 1st coat is streaky but is opaque in 2.  This dries with the same matte finish as In a Lily Bit and this photo is 2 coats with Seche Vite.

Last is Grass is Lime Greener.

Colour-wise, Grass is Lime Greener is my favourite of the collection...but of course it has the worst formula.  It is both patchy and streaky and uneven with 2 fingers requiring a third coat.  It is the most neon pastel of the collection and I do not have anything comparable by other brands.  It dries with the same matte finish and this is 2-3 coats(depending on the finger) topped with Seche Vite.

Next I will show you the 1 polish I purchased from the Sea Goddess Collection: Wish on a Starfish.

Cute name and a very pretty polish.  The Sea Goddess collection is the first China Glaze has released that is all texture containing glitter or shimmer.

Wish on a Starfish is a pink texture polish with a ton of gold shimmer.  This polish has a great formula, in that it stays exactly where you put it and requires no clean up.  Unfortunately it requires 3 coats to be fully opaque and not show VNL.  Drying time is on par with other texture polishes that I own(which I think is way too long and part of the reason I seldom use them).  It would be interesting to put 1 coat over a pink base and top coat, just to see how much the gold shimmer really shows.

Overall I really like the China Glaze polishes for Spring.  The colours are totally appropriate in their Easter Pastels, but bright enough to not look washed out.  I know I will be using them all spring and a few into the summer too.

That's all for today, I will be back probably on Friday for my next post.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 20: Pop Culture

Hello polish lovers!

I know this is late but you are going to be getting 3 posts tonight so I am caught up for the new week.

Thursday's prompt was Pop Culture and I immediately thought about Pop Art, which is an art movement that was heavily influenced by Pop Culture.  So for my mani I decided to go for comic book nails.

I started with 2 coats of China Glaze Electric Pineapple, a bright chartreuse yellow.  Once this dried I got out my stamping plates and Barry M Greenberry.

My thumb and pinkie are from MoYou London Pro Collection 07 and the rest of my nails are from a MASH set, I don't know why MASH has their lettering on their plates backwards, you end up with them backwards on your nails as well which looks weird.

Anyway that is all for this post but I will be back as soon as I edit the rest of my pics for the next 2 prompts.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 19: Game Night

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Game Night nails for you.  So in my house game night is either Scrabble or Trivial Pursuit.  Since we played both of those games on Family Day, they were particularly fresh in my mind.

I chose Trivial Pursuit nails for this prompt.

I chose China Glaze First Mate for my main colour, since it is similar to the background of the game board, and a 1 coater, and I am still in love with it.  My ring finger is 3 coats of China Glaze Oxygen a cream jelly formula.

Once this was dry I added striping tape to create my pie piece shapes and used OPI Pink Friday, Barry M Turquoise, OPI Need Sunglasses?, Orly Prince Charming, Barielle Shades Central Park and Color Club Wham! Pow! to fill in the different categories of questions.  I went with the original colours as apposed to the new ones, the have replaced brown with purple now.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my Pop Culture nails.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 18: Sci-Fi

Hello polish lovers!

Time for my Sci-Fi nails.  For this prompt I decided to go way back and chose my first fan-dom.  I always loved the Star Wars movies...when I was little it was mostly because of the Ewoks...this was only increased when they came out with the 2 Ewok movies, Battle for Endor and Caravan of Courage and finally with the Ewok cartoon.  So I decided to do Wicket, my favourite Ewok, and the trees of Endor.

On my accent nail I began with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and on my other nails its 2 coats of China Glaze The Grass is Lime Greener.  For Wicket I used Color Club Wham! Pow!, Butter London Tea & Toast, Orly Prince Charming and black and white stipers.

The trees are A England Dragon and BM407.

Of course I had to matte it.

Anyway that is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my Game Night nails.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 17: Animation

Hello polish lovers!

Sorry I didn't post yesterday but it was Family Day here in Canada(Ontario to be exact) and we all spent the day together.

So yesterday's prompt was Animation and I took the opportunity to try out some nails that I have been wanting to do since last summer....Adventure Time nails!

They definitely did not turn out the way I wanted them to but I don't think they were that bad for a first attempt.  They all started of a base of OPI Alpine SNow.

I think LSP turned out the best but I will list the polishes that I used here for you:
LSP-OPI A Grape Fit!, and Need Sunglasses with a black striper.
Finn-OPI My Vampire is Buff and a black striper.
Jake-OPI The "IT" Color and black and white stripers.
Princess Bubblegum-Color Club Flamingo, China Glaze In a Lily Bit and the Grass is Lime Greener, OPI Need Sunglasses and a black striper.

That is all for now but I will be right back with my Sci-Fi nails.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 16: Doodles

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Doodle mani.  I decided to recreate the design that I used to put in all my notebooks when I was bored in High School.

I started with 1 coat of China Glaze First Mate.  This is a new polish for me and I am kind of obsessed.

Sorry about the size of the watermark, I pushed the wrong button.

First Mate is the perfect navy blue, blue in all lights, it is not like some navy's where you have to be in certain lights or it looks black.

Once this was dry I used a small dotting tool and China Glaze At Vase Value and began creating my doodles.

In case you hadn't noticed I have been using the new polishes I got quite a bit recently, but they are so spring like and I am so ready for winter to be over.

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

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 15: Round and Square

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my mani for the Round and Square prompt.  I used this as an opportunity to try out 4 of the new China Glaze Spring Collection, City Flourish.  I missed out on most of the Avant Garden collection from last spring( I have Mimosas Before Manis, Budding Romance and Keep Calm, Paint On) so I was excited when I was able to pick up a couple when Sally's was having their 2 day sale last week.

My pinkie is In a Lily bit, a light pink based lavender creme, opaque in 2 coats.  My ring finger is At Vase Value, a light and bright blue creme, opaque in 2 coats.  My middle is What a Pansy, a deep blue based purple creme, opaque in 2 coats.  My index is Grass is Lime Greener, a bright almost neon green pastel creme, streaky and requires 3 coats to be opaque(yet still my favourite colour of the collection).

Once this was dry I got out my Pueen Sumptuous stamping plates and found many images that would work for the prompt...so I did a different image on each finger nail.

The images in order from left to right are: 02, 16, 13, and 20.  They are all stamped using Konad White.  I think my favourite is my ring finger, I love that blue.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with my Doodles nails.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 8: Still Life

Hello polish lovers!

I told you I would be back!  So lets get started...I began with 2 coats of China Glaze Lemon Fizz, a soft butter-cream yellow(I have a few by different brands that look to be similar colours if anyone would like a comparison).

Once this was dry I got out my trusting dotting tools and a detail brush and got started.

The vase is Color Club Pucci-licious, the stripe is Color Club Silver Lake, the leaves are Orly Mint Mojito(light green) and OPI Jade is the New Black(dark green) and the roses are Barielle Shades Euphoric(lighter raspberry) and OPI Visions of Love.

I was kind of going for a Van Gogh look for the vase of flowers but its hard to make nail polish look like brushstroke-y oil paint.  I really love how the full roses look, better than the buds in the vase.  The last time I did roses I used a small dotting tool and dabbed in C's while this time I put a dot of the dark colour in the center of the wet polish and used my thinnest dotting tool to swirl the two colours around.

The roses are my favourite freehand that I have done recently, and I cannot wait to show you my mani for Camoflage...but that is later in the week.

I will be back tomorrow with my Inner Geek nails...I will give you a hint...EXTERMINATE!!!

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 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!

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 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!

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!