First Emily de Molly Stamping...Lead Light Technique

Hello polish lovers!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NPC Day 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

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 25: Watercolours

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have 3 posts for you...then I will be caught up with the Challenge...just in time for it to end.  That's right, tomorrow is the last day of the current challenge so let us begin.

I will start off by saying I made 4 attempts to finish this mani in time for it to be posted on the correct day, the first looked horrible...not even a fail but just ugly.  The second was going ok until I attempted to clean up and destroyed it with an inopportune sneeze.  The third was my fault as I was now frustrated and did not wait long enough before attempting my gradient and ended up removing most of my base coat.  The fourth is the one I will show you, still not 100% happy but at least it is not a fail.

I will not show you the base alone, I have shown it before, Sinful Colors Snow Me White.  Actually one of my favourite whites as it is almost opaque in 1 coat.  I use 2 to ensure no streaks.

Once this was dry(this time) I got out my trusty sponge and some Barry M polishes: Papaya, Grapefruit and Turquoise, and created a gradient.

I was attempting to recreate the look of one of the first techniques they teach you when you are learning how to paint with watercolors and that is to keep a pool of colour on you page and slowly add another colour to create a slow transition.  I have to say, using a sponge is easier(as long as you wait long enough).

Photo taken with flash

Once this was dry I used OPI Matte Top Coat to make it look more like paint and less like polish.  I used white as a base instead of Papaya because I wanted the colour to look slightly translucent, as true watercolor does.  This is also why I used mostly Barry M Gelly's, although Turquoise is not a jelly and it was the most translucent(and also the most difficult to work with).

That is all for this post but I will be back shortly with Graffiti and Pointillism.

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 18: Sci-Fi

Hello polish lovers!

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

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

The trees are A England Dragon and BM407.

Of course I had to matte it.

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

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

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

Hello polish lovers!

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

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

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

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

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

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

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

Hello polish lovers!

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

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

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

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

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

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 12: Camouflage

Hello polish lovers!

I am back with my Camouflage nails for today's prompt.  Since I am a Canadian girl and it is winter, I decided to to snow camo.

I started with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls,  a perfect dirty white.

Once this was dry I got out my medium and small dotting tools and got to work.  The lightest gray is Barielle Shades U-Concrete me mixed with My Boyfriend Scales Walls to make a lighter shade, the next gray is Color Club Shabby Drab and the black is OPI Black Onyx(the black is done using the smaller dotting tool.

I really enjoyed these and will definitely have to do them again.  Of course I had to try matting them and I love that too.

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

Until then, polish happy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 6: Neon

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my mani for the challenge prompt Neon.  I love neon! Especially for summer, my toes, and usually fingers are dowsed in neon from June till September.  I am always looking for another good neon to add to my collection.

I am showcasing 2 of my newer neon's today.  I started with a base of Orly Glowstick, your quintessential highlighter yellow.

This has been colour corrected because my camera took one look, said AHHH!!! and ran in the other direction, like a little baby, from the neon awesomeness.  This very close to real life though.  I love the Orly neon colours, I have Melt Your Popsicle as well, awesome traffic cone orange! This is 2 coats over a base of 1 coat of OPI Alpine Snow.

Once this was dry I got out my dotting tool and used Alpine Snow, again as a base, dotting randomly across my nails.  When this dried I went over the dots with Models Own Bubblegum.  I have found with neon, if you don't use white base the colour below will leech and change the colour you are placing over your base.

 This is still looking slightly orange, again my camera's fault, cannot handle the neon.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with the Day 7 prompt of Primary.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail of the Day: Alpine Snow with MoYou London Stamping

Hello polish lovers!

Today I am back with my nail of the day...although it is one I wore a few days ago but I am trying to get my photo's built back up so I have changed my nails 3 times since I got back from vacation.

Having just come back from the Caribbean, I was feeling bright and floral, so that is what I did.  I started with 2 coats of OPI's Alpine Snow, one of my favourite whites...I need to get a backup bottle badly, fortunately I think it is part of the permanent collection.  I especially love when I use it for a stamping base and have a tan, it looks very good...more of a tan than I have now, obviously.

Once this was coated in SV and dried I chose the colours I wanted to stamp with.  I used Models Own Bubblegum, a neon pink that I discovered, through The Crumpet, stamps beautifully...I definitely need to get more of their neons.  I used my MoYou London Pro Collection 10 and the cherry blossom design for all fingers except my ring finger, which I stamped in Color Club Abyss and a different floral design from the same plate.

I love the contrast between the 2 colours, while the floral designs and the white base help to keep the design cohesive.  I actually loved the pink and green together so much, I used them for the next nails that I did as well(post coming soon).

While at my local Walmart today I found some of the new Sally Hansen Satin Glam polishes...mine had 4 colours, and picked up Silk Onyx, so look forward to a first impressions and review of the newest Sally Hansen line, coming soon.

Until then, polish happy!

New Year's Eve Nails

Hello polish lovers!

So apparently this post was supposed to go up yesterday( slap my wrist! Bad Blogger!).  This was totally my own fault as I was trying to get everything together for my trip and to make matters worse I somehow managed to pinch a nerve in my back so all I wanted to do was lay down and apply heat.  Anyway, this will be my last post before I go away on my vacation!  So excited!  I will try to have a post ready for the 13th or 14th, even if it is just a haul, because we know I am not going to turn down the chance to get polish.

Today I have my New Years Eve mani for you, and I will also share The Grinch nails that I mentioned in my last post, because they are awesome and I put way too much effort into them to let them go to waste.

I started my NYE mani by trying 2 of the polishes I got in the Formula X for Sephora set I got from my brother for Christmas.  I chose White Matter and Dark Matter(which is which is pretty self explanatory).  Once this dried I stamped black over white and white over black using my Konad polishes and Pueen plate PUEEN24.

I was going for a black tie looking NYE mani, like you would wear to a fancy dress party...I think it was a bit of a miss.  For some reason the stamp did not transfer cleanly.  I probably didn't clean it off enough after each stamp, but here is the finished product.

On a side note, this was my first time using the Formula X polishes and I have to say, I was impressed with the formula, the white was opaque in 2 coats and the black was opaque in just one!  Unfortunately I am thinking this is one of the polish lines where you need to buy their base and top coat because I didn't even go 24 hours before this started chipping off 3 fingers!  Strangely, none of the chips so far has occurred on my dominant hand, so as a test I will leave it on and see if it starts chipping tomorrow.

Now onto a mani I am super proud of.

I love this!  the base for The Grinch is Barry M Key Lime while be silver base is Wet n' Wild Fantasy Makers, Once Upon a Time.  The rest of The Grinch is various Art Club stripers.  No acrylic paint was used.  I was quite impressed with myself.

This lasted without chipping for more than 4 days...I wonder if the CND top coat I used had anything to do with it...I smell a Top Coat test in the future!

Anyway, that is it for now...I will be back in 2 weeks...maybe with some Caribbean photo's to share.

Until then, polish happy!

Christmas Challenge, Christmas Character Prompt.

Hello polish lovers!

I told you I would be back!

So this is my Christmas Character prompt mani.  I chose Frosty the Snowman.  I also did The Grinch, but I may show that in a later post.

This is 2 coats of China Glaze Frost Bite, which I felt was appropriate.  Once this was dry I went to town with my stripers and various polishes, which I will list below the photo, to create my scene.

OPI Alpine Snow, green striper, China Glaze Foie Gras, Mabeline Color Show Audacious Asfault, black striper, Pop Beauty Glam in unknown peach for flower, red striper for nose, A England Galahad and Essie Good as Gold.

This was really fun and time consuming to do, I ended up wearing it for a few days with my snowfall mani on the other hand.

Now that I am finally caught up I feel better.  I will be back soon with my New Years mani, and that will be my last post until I am back from Vacation.

Until then, polish happy!

Christmas Challenge and Moyou London First Impressions

Hello polish lovers!

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

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

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

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

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

And now on the the Moyou London plates.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And here is what I did with my first attempt:

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

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

Until next time, polish happy!

Christmas Challenge Day 2: Winter Nature

Hello polish lovers!

Just a quick post tonight with my Winter Nature mani for the Christmas Challenge I am doing.  Today's post is not a complete fail but I should have used a darker mix for my sky before adding the stamping to make it stand out more.  Also excuse the fact I forgot to take photos before the stamping so you could see what the sponging looked like on its own.

I started with 2 coats of China Glaze White on White and then used various unnamed Color Club greys and a bit of makeup sponge in tweezers to create the sky, dark with snow.

I let that dry and then used Konad white polish and BMH02 to stamp on the stylized tree design.  I let that dry and used my black striper to create bare trees in the foreground and coated with SV.

Told you it would be quick, I will be back on Tuesday with a non-challenge post.

Until then, polish happy!

Christmas/Winter Challenge Day 1: White Christmas, Snow

Hello polish lovers!

So when I posted yesterday I had completely forgotten that today was the first day of the Christmas Challenge I am participating in.  So I just got finished editing the photos and here we go.

I decided that I wanted to capture my favourite part of snow...that is the falling aspect.  My favourite thing to do in winter is to go for a walk in the evening when the snow is falling and there is no wind and it is so quiet you can hear the snow touch the ground.  I tried to create what I see during those walks.

My first step was to find a dark blue...unfortunately I don't seem to have a creme dark blue(I will have to correct this)  so I used Seche Hypnotic.

Once this was dry I got out my smallest dotting tool and China Glaze White on White and began dotting randomly on the nail.  I waited a few minutes and then added a thin coat of China Glaze Ride the Waves, a navy blue jelly.

I then repeated this step using my next size dotting tool.

Before Ride the Waves

And again with my next size dotting tool.

And again with my next size dotting tool.

The final layer of white dots is not covered in Ride the Wave but allowed to stay true white.  I love how each layer of blue makes the previous layers look further back, great way to fake perspective on a flat surface.

I had to darken this last photo as the others were coming off lighter than it was in reality.  I really loved this mani, way prettier in person than it looks in photos.  I will have to recreate closer to Christmas, I really loved it.

So as I said last time, I will be back tomorrow with my last mani in the 33 DC, really this time.

Until then, polish happy!

33 DC Day 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!