NPC Day 9: Had to Have it, Still Haven't Worn it

Hello polish lovers!

Today's prompt in the challenge is Had to Have it, Still Haven't Worn it.  When I saw this prompt I immediately knew which one I would use.  KB Shimmer's You Autumn Know, from the Fall 2013 collection.  I had to wait through 2 restocks on Harlow & Co., in order to get this.  I immediately fell in love with the swatches I was online and was so happy when I was finally able to get it.  I did use it as an accent once but for some reason I never did a full mani.

I love this polish!  This is 3 coats.  You Autumn Know is a white jelly base loaded with gold, orange and purple hex glitters in 3 different sizes mixed with orange and purple micro bar glitter.  I am usually not a fan of bar glitter but this is soo small that it doesn't bother me.

So pretty.  Although this is from a fall collection the colours work very well for spring as well.  I think the reason that I had not worn this before is I am so hesitant to use glitters because I hate dealing with the removal process.  I am going to have to get over it, because this is so pretty and soft.

That is all for today, I will be back Monday with the Most Expensive prompt, if I do not post Sunday.

Tomorrow I am going to the Maple Syrup Festival in Elmvale, a small town about 20 mins from my home.  I went for the first time last year with my sister and loved it so I am really looking forward to this year.  Not only will I be coming home with many maple syrup products but last year there was a Kleancolor vendor so I am hoping he is back so I can pick up a few more for my collection.

Until then, 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 9: Inner Geek...Doctor Who!

Hello polish lovers!

I took today's prompt to mean what makes you geek out or what do you fangirl about, and for me, that's Doctor Who.  I love Doctor Who, although I have to say I took a break when Tennant regenerated into Smith, but Smith won me over, and has since become my favourite Doctor, although Tennant is still the prettiest.  Although I have seen Doctor Who enemy nails in the past, I only looked at Google images of photos of the actual villains for these nails and any similarity is not intentional.

So for today's prompt I decided to go with some of my favourite Doctor Who villains... because we wouldn't need a Doctor if there were no villains around.  All nails have a base of 1 coat of OPI Black Onyx.

On my pinkie nail I have done an Adipose...probably the cutest problem the Doctor has ever had to face(and it reminds me of the Tribels from the Star Trek universe).  Who's a cute little fat alien(literally)?  An Adipose is.  I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and a black striper to create.

On my ring nail I have a Dalek, the Doctor's worst enemy...the destroyer of Gallifrey.  I used Nubar Sunset Matte, Essie Go
od as Gold and a black striper to create.

My middle nail is a Cyberman, a machine with a human brain...but lacking humanity.  I used Essie No Place Like Chrome and a black striper to create.

And on my index nail I have The Silence...originally confessors created by the Papal Mainframe, a splinter cell tries to kill the doctor on more than one occasion, no one remembers them once they are no longer in site, but definitely one of the creepiest enemies....along with the Weeping Angels.  I used Barry M Lychee, a black striper, and Color Club Silver Lake with a detail brush to create.

I, of course, had to Matte this(because I have a problem).  I wonder how many other participants chose Doctor Who for their Inner Geek nails.

That is all for now, but I will be back tomorrow with my Night Sky nails.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 3: Warm vs. Cool

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my day 3 challenge mani, Warm vs. Cool.  I decided to go mostly with cool tones, which is more than half of my collection.  I did a base of 2 coats of Color Club's Baldwin Blues except for my warm, which is 2 coats of OPI's My Favourite Ornament(Oh My Glob! the gorgeous glitter!).

Once this was dry I coated with Nubar's Diamont Seal and Shine, Fast Drying Top Coat, which I have not heard any reviews on but is very fast drying...I will need to try it with stamping, I am a little hesitant because it is a thin formula so I don't know if it will drag stamping or not.  I will report back after I have attempted.  Perhaps I will do a comparison of a number of top coats, to check drying time and stamp dragging.  Anyway, I am getting off topic.

In keeping with my cool tones I decided to stamp with Color Club's Silver Lake, a metallic silver that works great for stamping, and the feather image from the Nailz Craze NC01 plate available here to see her Etsy store.

I completely fell in love with this design and have recreated this mani using SOPI Caffeine Fix and Essie's As Good as Gold for a warmer look.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with day 4, Monochromatic.

Until then, polish happy!

Vacation Haul...As Promised

Hello polish lovers!

Here is my vacation polish haul, as promised.  It is not near as large as I was expecting it to be but the polishes at TJMax and Marshalls in Ft. Lauderdale were incredibly picked over and I didn't find anything that I wanted, except a Sparitual mini 10 pack at Marshalls, unfortunately, the line up was so long I did not feel the wait justified the purchase.

I did go into Bed, Bath & Beyond and managed to find 2 polishes.  The first was Sinful Colors, Nail Junkie, a lovely teal jelly filled with small holographic hex glitters, that is opaque in 3 coats.

The second polish I picked up at Bed, Bath & Beyond was Color Club's Abyss, a a bright green-blue that works very well with Nail Junkie for an accent.  Abyss is very opaque, requiring only 1 coat, and I am happy to announce works great as a stamping polish (I currently have it on my accent finger).

The other 4 polishes that I picked up were all purchased in St. Thomas while on my cruise and they are from Del Sol, which is a shop that deals with items that change colour in the sun, with the polish being no exception.  Unfortunately the Canadian winter sun that shone today was not strong enough to show the colour shift so I can only show you the non-changed colours and tell you what they change to.  I think we will have to wait till summer for a full transformation.

Confetti, a violet base with holographic glitters, turns dark blue in bright sun.

VIP, silver/gold champagne base with holographic glitter, turns bright pink/red, depending on how many coats you use.  I had this on for half of the cruise and could not stop looking at how shiny my nails looked.  When I wear this again I may use a nude base colour because with 3 coats you still have visible nail line.

Heartbreaker, red jelly base with red and silver small glitter, turns purple in the sun.

Electrick!, the only non glitter that I picked up, is a shimmery ice blue that changes to an intense lime green in the sun. I don't know how opaque this is but I will definitely be wearing it on my toes a lot this summer.

That is the end of my haul, I know it is kind of small but I didn't want to buy something just because it was there, I did not want something that I already had by another brand, I wanted colours that added to my collection.

I did receive the 22 mini's from the Formula X for Sephora from my brother this Christmas, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I also received 3 SOPI's from my sister, Thyme for a Mani, a brown-y taupe creme that reminds me of a lighter version of You Don't Know Jacques(I saw it at Winners one day and am kicking myself that I did not pick it up).  I Think I Cayenne, a burnt orange shimmer, and BYOBOY, which is a dusty rose creme that I will definitely be using for retro roses this spring.

Anyway, that is all for this post.  I will be back soon.  I need to get back into a regular posting schedule.

Until next time, 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!

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!

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!

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: 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 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!

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!

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!

33DC Day 12: A pattern in my home

Hello polish lovers!

Today's theme for the 33DC is a pattern in our home and at first I was a little stumped.  Most of the textile items in the house tend to be solid or plaid and I wasn't really interested in doing plaid since I recently did Burberry nails for my sister.  I sat on the floor and looked around for a bit.  It finally hit me in the face...wood!  My dad was an amazing wood builder and almost everything in the house was made by him(most of the time with me acting as his second pair of hands and all around gopher).  The table that I do my nails on, my tv console, book cases, bed, and half of our house are just a few things that my Dad built over the years.  Even after he got sick and could barely make it up the hill to the garage, he was still making things.

So in a way this mani is a bit of a tribute to my Dad.

My pointer and ring fingers are 2 coats of OPI's My Private Jet(chocolate brown with scattered holo and silver flecks, yes please!) and my middle and pinky are 2 coats Revlon's Elegant(a cream-y nude, good coverage, good formula).  I topped this with SV and let dry.

Once dry I pulled out my handy stamping equipment and GALS GA12 and Klean Color Metallic Yellow and Metallic Brown for stamping.(Have I mentioned how original I find the Klean Color polish names to be?)

You can see a bit of the table behind my hand

You can see the wood grain better here.  I didn't have a colour that was a good enough match to that specific varnish but the house has both dark, light, in between, and red woods.

That is all for this post.  I will be back on Sunday with the next theme in the Falling For Nail Art Challenge, which is Creepy Crawlers.  I may do a post on Saturday but it depends how I feel when I get home from work.

Until then, polish happy!

Hallow e'en Challenge: Day 3 Monsters

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my Monster's mani from my Hallow e'en challenge.

I started with 2 coats of A England's Lady of Shallot (Oh My Glob, the gorgeousness of this polish when the sun hits it is incredible).  In the shade it appears almost black but when the sun hits it is magnificent! Lady of Shallot is a deep purple holographic with blurple qualities.  There are no words.  I topped with SV and let dry before I began my stamping(it was a shame to cover such an awesome polish). The above picture is from another mani but I had to share the gorgeousness.  For this mani my ring finger is 2 coats of OPI's Just Spotted the Lizard.

Shade

I stamped on all nails except my ring finger with Klean Color Metallic Yellow and used Metallic Navy for the ring finger stamping.  I used plates from the Bundle Monster Holiday set in BMH06 and BMH07.  I have found the Klean Color metallic polishes are great for stamping.  I managed to find a mini set at my local Winners and they are great when I actually want to stamp in colour instead of black, white, silver, and gold.

Remember, tomorrow is another double up day and I will have 2 posts.  I am really looking forward to sharing my Falling for Nail Art, Sweet Treats mani.  I will definitely have to re-create this for Hallow e'en.

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!