Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 24: Abstract

Hello polish lovers!  Long time no post;p

Today's prompt was Abstact, and I used this as an excuse to do one of my favourite types of nail art, gradients.  I worn you, I decided to include a pic of what this gradient looked like before clean up!  So messy!  This was inspired by 2 of my favourite Abstract artists, Rothko(who did colour fields), and Bridget Riley(who did, I want to call it, optical illusion paintings).

I created a gradient using all OPI colours, Greenwich Village, Jade is the New Black and Ski Teal We Drop....here comes the mess...

I used a new type of makeup sponge for this, I usually use the really cheap Walmart ones but I bought these on clearance at Winners and they have a much finer texture and create a smoother gradient.  I use a Q-Tip and acetone to do the big clean and then finish with a small brush and more acetone.

Once this was coated in Seche Vite and completely dry I got out my MoYou London Sailor Collection 06 plate and Essie No Place Like Chrome to do some stamping.

I almost like it more before I did the stamping...I need to learn that sometimes less is more...only very occasionally, but this appears to be one of them.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with the next prompt of Watercolour.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

Hallow e'en Challenge Day 8: Hallow e'en!

Happy Hallow e'en polish lovers!

I love Hallow e'en!  Tonight when I get home from work I will definitely be watching Rocky Horror Picture Show(a yearly tradition), I already watched Hocus Pocus yesterday(Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker as witches? Yes please!).

So here is the mani I am rockin' on this most awesome holiday.

I started with 1 coat of OPI's Alpine Snow for my base.  Once that had dried I created a gradient using Alpine Snow, Essie's Fear or Desire, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightning.  Over that I put 2 coats of Fantasy Makers Glow in the Dark polish(I tried to get the China Glaze Ghoulish Glow but my Sally's was all sold out).  I then coated this in SV and let dry for a very long time before I did my stamping.

I used Bundle Monster BMH07 for the Trick or Treat image and BMH06 for the jack o'lanterns.

This does glow in the dark but it works best if you use a flashlight to charge the polish, and it doesn't stay very long.  But I enjoy the effect.

That is all for today, I will be back tomorrow with the 33DC Two Pattern mani.

Until then, have a Happy Hallow e'en, and polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art Challenge: Bump in the Night

Hello polish lovers! Long time no see!

For this post I have my Bump in the Night mani.  I got a little stumped on this one, couldn't really get any inspiration so I pulled out my handy stamping plates and this is what I came up with.

I used various Bundle Monster plates, BM305 and BMH08 over a base of Wet n' Wild's Ebony Hates Chris and stamped with Essie's No Place Like Chrome.  The only part of this that I like are the bats, they are cool.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my next Hallow e'en Challenge.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 13: Chinese

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my mani for the 33DC theme of Chinese.  I was originally going to use my Bundle Monster Chinese New Year plate but in the end I decided to freehand instead.  I started with 2 coats of my favourite white, OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls from the Amazing Spiderman Collection. I waited for that to dry and then started in with my Black striper.

I added random flower petals using Essie's Raisinnuts and dotted Barielle Shades Fancy Pantsy in the centers.  I really enjoyed these cherry blossoms.

Love, love, love.  I will definitely have to do this again.

Anyway, tomorrow I will post my Hallow e'en Challenge mani for Spiders and webs.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art: Creepy Crawlers

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Creepy Crawlers mani from the Falling for Nail Art Challenge.  There are certain bugs the, forgive me, really bug me and give me the shivers.  I decided to portray a few of these in today's mani.

I started with 2 coats of Essie's Bordeaux, the same polish I used for the blood in my Blood mani but now you can see what it looks like over the whole nail.

In the photo you can see a slight VNL but this was not noticeable in real life.  Over this intense red cream I free handed a number of creepy crawly bugs.

Nothing creeps me out more than things that have more legs than are absolutely necessary to get around with(except for the wacky wavy inflatable flailing tube man, that thing is just wrong).  The one of these critters that gets me the most is the millipede, no one needs that many legs.  On my accent finger I used Essie's No Place Like Chrome, a favourite for stamping, using Bundle Monster's BMH07 plate.  I used Wet n' Wild Ebony Hates Chris and Nubar's Black striper for the freehand work.

In slight shade

This shot gives you a better idea of what the web looks like, I love how the chrome stands out against the crimson.

That's all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my next mani for the 33DC, Chinese.

Until then, polish happy!

Hallow e'en Challenge Day 4: Blood and/or Gore

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Blood mani for you from the Hallow e'en Challenge I am involved in.  I know a lot of the other ladies are going pretty gruesome with this so I decided to go in the other direction and went gruesome-pretty.

I began this with 2 coats of Color Club's Beyond(Oh My Glob, love that holographic amazingness), this is one of the most holographic polishes I own, but I have to say I love all the Color Club Holo's that I have,  I am missing a few:(  I top coated with SV as usual and then pulled out my trusty dotting tools.  I created the dripping blood on my ring and pinky using Essie's Bordeaux and used that same polish and Bundle Monster BM311 to create the blood spray.  I love that Bordeaux is a jelly polish and because of this you can see the holograph from Beyond through it.  How cool is that?

This photo shows even more of the amazing holographic properties of this polish.  I am so in love, you better believe this will be coming out often this winter, and not just for stamping, although all the Color Club Holo's stamp really well.

I will be back tomorrow with my 33DC, Day 12, a pattern in my home.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art Challenge: Day 7 Cloudy Skies

Hello, polish lovers!

I am just about to expire from my Turkey Coma so I will take the opportunity to share my Cloudy Skies nails.  For these nails I went literal and used a variety of gray and white polishes to create a sponged design to look like clouds in the time just before it starts to rain.

The base for this is 2 coats of China Glaze Pelican Gray, which is a lovely soft gray, the lightest of the gray's used.  Over this polish I used a small ripped off piece of makeup sponge held in tweezers and Nubar's Velvet Silver, Essie's Cashmere Bathrobe, Milani's White on the Spot and more Pelican Gay to create the random cloud pattern.

Mattified

I, of course, had to matte this once I had coated it with SV.  I used my OPI Matte Top Coat(because I am obsessed).

That's all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my 33DC theme of Flowers.  I will say that I loved my flower mani and I hope you do to.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling For Nail Art Challenge: The Great Pumpkin

Long time no see, polish lovers;)

This post is The Great Pumpkin post!  I must start by saying that when I was growing up Hallow e'en was not complete without watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! so Yay!

I loved doing this mani!  I started with a base coat of Wet n' Wild's Ebony Hates Chris on all my fingers(love this black, opaque and not streaky in one coat).  I then created the shapes I would turn into pumpkins in OPI's Alpine Snow, waited for that to dry and then went over it with one coat of Essie's Fear or Desire.  You will probably see this colour in a lot of my Hallow e'en mani's because I think it is the perfect pumpkin orange.

Once Fear or Desire was dry I used a Art Club's Primary Yellow striper to create highlights and a mix of Fear or Desire and black for the low lights.  I used my Nubar black striper to paint the jack o'lantern's face and China Glaze's In the Limelight for the grass and stems of the pumpkins.  Everything is topped in SV.

I am really happy with how the freehand worked out for this mani, and I may have to re-do it closer to Hallow e'en.

That is all for today, I will be back tomorrow with my next Hallow e'en Challenge for Crumpets Nail Tarts.

Until then, polish happy!

Hallow e 'en Challenge delayed, Cool mani instead

Hello polish lovers!

So as my title suggests the Hallow e'en Challenge will not be beginning until October 8th, so that we will be posting each Tuesday and Thursday until October 31st.  The new schedule is



So this is the plan now, I have the first challenge done and will post on the 8th, I had a couple done from last years challenge list which I can use for my #fallingfornailart challenge instead.

So, to show you a mani that I did last week and absolutely loved.

China Glaze VIII with MM20 mattified

I love this stamping plate!  It is so pretty and girly!

I started with CG VIII, a great deep aubergine, 2 coats and topped with SV.  Once this was totally dry I added my stamping from various images on the MM20 plate using Essie's Good as Gold, which is an awesome stamping polish!  I coated with SV again and then used my OPI Matte Top Coat to finish it off.  I have to say this was one mani I did not remove until it started to chip.  For some reason I did not take a photo before I did the matte coat, so sorry about that, but I am super pleased with the result.

I will be back tomorrow with my next 33DC mani, which is Mexican(this was a bit difficult to decide on but I ended up doing a freehand that I liked).

Until tomorrow, polish happy!

#falling for nail art Day 3: Crunchy Leaves

Hello polish lovers!

Today is day 3 of the Falling for Nail Art Challenge and today's theme is Crunchy Leaves.  This leave a bit of room for interpretation and I love fall leaves, the various colours; red, brown, yellow, orange, and of course the sound they make under your feet as you walk down the sidewalk or through the grass.  The sound of Autumn.  Makes me think of crisp cool days and nights and hot apple cider(yum, I love cider).  Every year my family goes for a drive to Meaford to pick fresh apples, and I always get cider.  We are going next weekend, the apples we get are needed for the pies we make for Thanksgiving, which is only 2 weeks away.

But enough of why the fall is my favourite time of the year, on to the mani!

Crunchy Leaves

I began with a base of Gosh Rusty.  Can I just say I don't know why I have only worn this once before(welI do, its called polish addiction).  Rusty is a gorgeous rusty burnt orange that is just amazing, opaque in one coat as is seen on my ring finger, while two coats are on my other nails.  It is not overly streaky and dries quite fast.  Once it was dry I used Essie's Good as Gold for my stamping of Bundle Monster's BMH11, which are lovely maple leaves, so appropriate for a Canadian girl!

On my ring finger I created a gradient of China Glaze's Flying South.  This picture does not show the orange metallic glitter that is a part of this micro bar glitter beauty.  I have to say I picked up the polish specifically for this challenge because it is perfect to show the leaves falling off the trees and scattered across the ground.

That is all for today.  I will be back tomorrow with my next 33DC, which is tribal.  Until tomorrow, polish happy!

Essie, For the Twill of It Collection, swatches and review

Hello polish lovers!
Today I have a review of several of Essie's For the Twill of It, fall collection.  I have already swatched For the Twill of it in my comparison with Peace & Love & OPI in a previous post so today I have the three other colours that I got in my mini's cube.  First, The Lace is On.

Two coats The Lace is On, no top coat

The Lace is On is a nice fuchsia leaning towards magenta that is slightly streaky on the first coat but is a solid two coat-er.  The colour is not unique as I am sure I have a Rimmel colour that if not exact is very close to this.  The formula is good, opaque in two coats and only slight brush strokes are visible.

Second, Cashmere Bathrobe.

Two coats Cashmere Bathrobe, no top coat

 I love this polish! Could be opaque in one coat but I did two thin coats because I am like that and I love building up of the sparkles.  And speaking of the sparkles, Oh My Glob! so subtle but so totally there, I love it(sorry for repeating myself but this is definitely my favourite of the collection).  Perfect for fall, a deep charcoal base with a subtle silver shimmer fleck.

Last, but not least, Vested Interest.

Two coats Vested Interest, no top coat.

If I didn't love Cashmere Bathrobe to the depths of my perfect grey hungry soul, Vested Interest would be my favourite, but still comes in a solid number two in my books.  This is a unique colour, one that I do not already have in my collection, it is a greyed out green teal cream that is streaky on the first coat but totally opaque on the second.  My camera could not properly capture the depth of this polish and I had to try to correct through editing, which is why my fingers look like they belong to a ghost.

Since Vested Interest is the last of the polishes that I swatched that day I decided to use them for the base in this mani:

Vested Interest with Pueen lace stamping

This picture shows the true colour slightly better than the above.  You must be getting tired of the Pueen stamps but I can tell you that I never will.  They are all lovely and stamp very well.  The white in this is Konad stamping polish(from the kit I found at Winners, which came with white and black).  It works very well and is opaque even on dark colours.

I received some amazing nail mail yesterday and today as the Lucky 13 Laquer I bought arrived(review coming soon) as well as three more plates I purchased from Messy Mansion's Etsy page.  Cannot wait to get all that gorgeous on my nails.

Until next time, polish happy!