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!

Long Overdue LVX First Impressions and Review

Hello polish lovers!

Sorry for the long absence but I was involved in some pretty intense renovations...they kind of tried to destroy my nails so they are shorter than I like them.

As the title says, this is a long overdue first impressions and review of LVX polishes.  I was at Marshalls one day and found some of these polishes, all from last year's Spring and Summer lines.  At first I only bought 2 because I had never found the brand to buy in store before and I didn't know what the quality was like.  I also don't think I could pay $16 for a single polish....it would have to be pretty damn amazing and last more than a week with no chipping for me to even think about it.  Fortunately the ones I found at Marshalls were only $7 which is much more do-able for me.  The first 2 I got were Celeste and Viridian.  (WARNING:  These photo's were taken months ago when my dominant hand was not usable so the clean up is not as good as normal, also please excuse the awkward hand position...really difficult for me to photograph my left hand.)

Celeste is a gorgeous soft grey'd out light blue...opaque in 2 coats and lasted on me for 4 days before it began to chip.  This was the first I tried and made me go back to Marshalls for as many other colours I could find.

Viridian, sorry the sunshine kind of washed it out and made it much brighter than it is IRL, this is a gorgeous medium toned green, the kind that my camera kind of looks at and cries about, could not get a colour accurate photo to save my life.  This was also opaque in 2 coats.

On my next trip to Marshalls I found Modena, Citrine, Azalea, Chambord and Indigo Bleu.

Azalea, pretty pink based lilac, similar to Pantone's Radiant Orchid colour of the year.  This had the best formula of the great formula's and was opaque in 1 coat.

Chambord is a deep raspberry colour, opaque in 2 coats and very pigmented.

Citrine is the only one of the bunch with a weak formula but it is a yellow...a mustard-y yellow but yellow none the less.  This was 3 coats to become opaque but applied smoothly like all the other colours.

Indigo Bleu was just as pigmented as the other colours but stained quite badly on removal.  You have to make sure not to re-use your cotton round or you will never get it off your cuticles.  The gorgeous purple/blue depending on lighting is totally work the extra mess though.  This is also 2 coats.

Modena is the last swatch I have for you.  An amazing bright poppy red.  2 coats, clean up was difficult, this one stains worse than Indigo Bleu, and not just your cuticles but nails too.  Definitely need to double up on base coat before I use this one again, but sooo pretty, and I am not a lover of reds.

I was later able to find Fantom, a white, and Cerulean, a royal blue at Winners, but have not swatched these yet.

Overall I was incredibly impressed with the quality and pigmentation of these polishes and hope that I manage to find more on other outings.

That is all for today.

Until next time, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 26: Graffiti

Hello polish lovers!

I am back with my next challenge mani, Graffiti.

When I thought about this prompt I immediately thought of the type of graffiti that was shown in the documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, as apposed to tagging and spray painting.  When I watched that documentary I immediately fell in love with the work of a street artist using the name Space Invader.  Most of Space Invader's work is tile work depicting classic 8-bit arcade game characters, like the space invaders, Pac-Man, the Pac-Man ghosts, and others.  I knew I would not be able to recreate the 8-bit look with polish(although small square studs would have worked, Ah hindsight, always 20/20), so I attempted to capture more the feeling of his work.

I started with a base of 2 coats OPI Lost on Lombard, a brick red crelly.  I only have the mini's from this collection, San Francisco Fall 2013.

Once this was dry I got out BM422 for the brick pattern and Kleancolor Black(I did not use Konad because I wanted the stamp to look more like a shadow and so did not want the lines too opaque).  I then started in with my dotting tool a small striping brush and the following colours:  SHID(Sally Hansen Insta-Dri) Blue-Away, Cobalt Blue, Kleancolor Black, Grass Green, Sinful Colors Snow Me White and Barry M Blood Orange and Key Lime.

Unfortunately I did not use SV but my Nubar Top Coat and did not wait quite long enough for the polish to dry to stop it from smudging.

That is all for this post but I will be back soon with Pointillism.  The last post for today.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 23: Oils

Hello polish lovers!

Its another double up day, I have recently come down with a cold and it is just not making me want to do nail art much....mostly because it is impossible to blow your nose with wet polish.

Anyway, yesterdays prompt was Oils, difficult to do with polish since polish has a lot of the opposite characteristics of oil paint.  Most difficult is the differences in drying times and the difficulty to create brushstrokes.  So for my interpretation I did not want to deal with brushstrokes and used, instead, Jackson Pollack as my inspiration.

I started with a base of 2 coats Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

Once this was dry I got out a variety of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes, (Lightening, Rapid Red, Cobalt Blue) a new Kleancolor, Grass Green, and my Konad Black.  I decided to stamp for this and used BM416 making sure to stamp each colour in a different direction so that the overlap was random.

I quite like this effect, this is the first time I have stamped over a stamp multiple times.  I like that each nail is random and the colours almost appear to be fighting.

That is all for this prompt, but I will be back in a few with today's prompt of Abstract.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go. Day 22: Surrealism

Hello polish lovers!

Today's prompt in the challenge is Surrealism, and I have fallen in love with these nails.  I was originally going to do Dali's The Persistence of Memory but I remembered a painting that I fell in love with in Art History, I loved how graphic it was.

Source

This is Rene Magritte's Son of Man.

And here is mine.  My base colour is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Blue Away.  I used Sinful Colours Snow Me White and Color Club Silver Lake and a Q-Tip for the clouds.  The Son of Man itself is Nubar Midnight Matte for the suit and bowler hat, OPI My Vampire is Buff for his face, Snow Me White for his shirt, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Rapid Red for his tie, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lickety Split Lime for the apple.  The shadows are Midnight Matte added to the original colour, and the highlight is Snow Me White added to the original colour.

Matte

I ended up liking this so much I did clouds on my other hand and wearing it all day yesterday and today.

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

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 21: Snow Day

Hello polish lovers!

So the prompt from yesterday was Snow Day and I was immediately transported to my childhood where my mother would have a stock of 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles in the cabinet for just the occasion.  When the weather was really bad(and in Ontario in winter the weather is frequently bad) if the schools were closed we used to spend the day doing puzzles.

I started with 2 coats of Color Club Silver Lake, a light toned grey with slight brown undertone, opaque and non streaky in 2 coats.

When the base was dry I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Rapid Red and MASH plate 43 and then stamped over my accent nail with BM319 and Konad Special Black Stamping Polish.

Unfortunately I did not wait quite long enough before top coating so a few fingers have some slight drag marks.

I will be back in a few with today's prompt of Surrealism.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 14: Sweets

Hello polish lovers!  Happy Valentine's Day!

Today marks the half way point in this challenge, Yay!

Today's prompt is Sweets, very appropriate for the date.  So I decided to create Valentine Message nails.

Dreaded thumb shot.  So from pinkie down through the nails the colours used are: Barielle Shades Joytini, LimeCrime Once in a Blue Mousse, Orly Mint Mojito, OPI Pink Friday, and LimeCrime Crema de Lemon.  This is 2 coats of each polish except for Joytini, which needed 3.

Once this dried, I again reached for the Revlon Parfumarie in Bordeaux(so good for Valentine's stamping) and BM425 for my text.

Even though these are pretty simple, I received numerous compliments on these nails while I was at work.  Sometimes simple is good.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my next prompt, Round and Square.

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 13: Hearts

Hello polish lovers!

Today, the day before Valentine, our prompt calls for Hearts.  Tres Appropriate!

I began with 2 coats of OPI Pink Friday, a lovely light blue toned pink.

Once this was dry I got out my stamping plates and Revlon Perfumerie in Bordeaux(stamps awesomely).  I used a different image on each finger from Pueen 29 and 41, with an accent in Wet n'Wild Ebony Hates Chris(should have used Konad to make it more opaque).

I think my favourite image is the overlapping hearts, they are just so cute.

Anyway, that is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with my Sweets nails for a special Valentine's Day mani.

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!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 7: Primary

Hello polish lovers!

I know I didn't post yesterday but I was just feeling like being lazy, so I edited the photos but didn't post.  So this is going to be short and sweet since I will be posting again soon.

Today's prompt was Primary, and that is exactly what I did.  I started by painting one third of my nails Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening, the middle third Formula X Omni, and the final third Formula X Flashy.  They are all bright primary colours, and this reminds me of a child beach ball.

For my stamping I used Essie No Place Like Chrome and the crown image from the MM05 plate.

I didn't realize until I was editing the photos that I stamped this upside down but I kind of like it that way.  This mani reminds me of a Renaissance Fair with a jousting match.

That is all for now but I will be back with my Still Life mani soon.

Until then, polish happy!

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!

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!

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, Day 4: Traditions

Hello polish lovers!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until then, polish happy!

Christmas Challenge and Moyou London First Impressions

Hello polish lovers!

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

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

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

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

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

And now on the the Moyou London plates.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And here is what I did with my first attempt:

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

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

Until next time, polish happy!