NPC Day 3: Random Untried

Hello polish lovers!

So I am really behind this week on the challenge so I will be posting 3 times today.  First the Random Untried.  I took random to mean a polish that I only had one example of the brand and it is one that I received from a giveaway.  It is even more random in that it does not have a name, although the tag claims it is a limited edition colour.  The brand is Rue Beaute and it came in a skull shaped bottle with a silver cap.

When i took the brush out of this polish I noticed how sheer it was and so started with a base of OPI Alpine Snow.  It took 3 coats of the neon pink polish to get opaque enough that you could not see colour variance streaks.

I can see this working for the LeadLight technique for stamping but it is way too many coats for a base colour for me.  Once this was dry I got out another untried, Kleancolor's Matte Black, for the stamping, using MASH 45(please excuse the mess of my middle finger but matte polish dries very quickly and the entire image did not transfer, so I re-stamped...with not great results).

I think this polish is not going to become a favourite, but I will try it for LeadLight and let you see the results.

Back in a few with Day 4.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 27: Pointillism

Hello polish lovers!

Last post of the night, and the shortest, because I am tired and fighting a bad headache.

For the Pointillism prompt I decided, of course, to use my dotting tools.  I did not want to do anything representative, and so went to the basics and did overlapping dots.

I started with a base of 2 coats of Barry M Papaya(can you tell I want summer to come already?).

I then used a small dotting tool and SHID Lightening to dot all over my nails.

I repeated with SHID Lickety-Split Lime leaving an area bare.

And again with SHID Mint Sprint, moving out slightly again.

And lastly with Barielle Shades Girls Night Out, moving out again.

I then topped with SV(because I learned my lesson last time).

That is all for today(finally).

I will be back tomorrow with my final installment of this challenge, Art Nouveau.

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 2: Jewel Tones

Hello polish lovers!

I am back with another challenge mani, this one for Jewel Tones.  I have done jewel tone mani's before so I wanted to make sure I used different colours from last time.  This time I used green, red and blue.  I started with a base of 3 coats of Revlon's Chroma Chameleon in Topaz(forgive me as I somehow managed to completely not take any photos before moving to my second step).  I was really disappointed with how sheer this polish was, it also showed every brushstroke and did not self level.  I am glad I picked this up on clearance and did not pay the full price for it.  I used the colour specifically because it reminded my of peridot, a light-lime green semi-precious gemstone, the colour is not topaz at all.

Once the 3 coats were dry I added ruby red and sapphire blue lines down my nails.

I used 2 Nubar stripers for this, Dark Red Frost and Royal Blue.

This is one of the more simple mani's I have done but I like that simplicity, and the way the stripes make my fingernails look longer.

Anyway, that's all for today, I will be back tomorrow for the next prompt of Warm vs. Cool.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go Challenge, Day 1: Achromatic

Hello polish lovers!

Today, as promised, I have my first mani for the Nail Art A-Go-Go Challenge I am participating in.  Today's prompt is Achromatic, which means grey-scale or lacking colour.  I started out with 1 coat of OPI's Black Onyx (yes I finally broke down and got a good black, this is really opaque and none streaky).

I was really pleased with my first use of this as a base for this art.  Once Black Onyx was dry I decided to use part of a plastic bag and some different grey's to create a variation of the Saran Wrap technique.

The colours I used were all Color Clubs, Lady Holiday, a light grey is part of the Harlem Lights collection, Shabby Drab, a mid-toned grey with a slight purple undertone, and Silver Lake, the bright silver(also an awesome stamping polish).

I love the dimension the silver gives these nails and ended up liking them so much I did my other hand and wore them for a few days.  When I do these again I think I will add some splotches of the black on top of the grey to give it even more dimension.

That is all for today, I will be back tomorrow with Day 2, Jewel Tones.

Until then, polish happy!

Still Obsessed with MoYou London Plates

Hello polish lovers!

So I have still not decided on a set schedule for this blog, which is why I have not posted in a while(that's a lie, I have been feeling really lazy lately and although I have been doing my nails and taking photo's, I just haven't wanted to edit).  Starting tomorrow, though, I have decided to do the Nail Art A Go-Go Challenge for February.  It is a 28 day challenge so I will have a new mani everyday for the month of February.  I have completed the first week of prompts and will continue to try to work ahead.  I love the idea of this challenge because it is a lot of Art related prompts, and as a former Art major, I find this irresistible.

Anyway, on to today's mani.

For my base I started with Models Own Bubblegum(still obsessed with a neon that stamps beautifully).

Bubblegum is completely opaque in 2 coats and does not require a white base.  It is much more neon in person, don't know why it is so toned down in my photos except for the inability of my camera to accurately capture most neons.

Over this I decided to stamp with another of the MoYou London Pro plates, 15. which is Pop Art-y, with Warhol and Lichtenstein, which I love.

I, again, used Color Club's Abyss for stamping.  Putting the green polish over the pink, caused the colour to look more blue, but I am okay with that.  I decided on the Warhol Mickey Mouse image for my accent finger.

Something else that I have been working on is going through all my polishes to see which ones are good for stamping, over both white and black.  I have completed the polishes in my Melmer and will begin on my rack polishes soon.  Once I am finished I will list on my blog all of the polishes that stamp over light and dark polishes.

I will be back tomorrow with the first prompt for the Nail Art A-Go-Go Challenge, achromatic nails.

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!

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!

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 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!

33DC Day 14: Abstract

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Abstract mani for the 33DC.  I started with 2 coats of Ciate's Cream Soda, a lovely mid-tone gray with a slight beige tinge.  I added a coat of SV and let dry to get ready for stamping.  I then used Bundle Monster BM301 plate and Sally Hanson's Insta-Dri in Lightning.

I actually really like how this turned out.  The thickness of the SV made the stamping seem to almost float above the base layer.  I like the contrast between the gray and the brightness of the yellow.

It's a little subtle from far away but when you look close it was pretty cool.

That's all for this post, I will be back in a bit with my Falling for Nail Art Challenge.