33 DC Day 31: 3 Favourite Polishes

Hello polish lovers!

Sorry this post is late but I am working 2 jobs this month to make extra money for my trip in January and am in the middle of nine days straight, its a good thing all the polish work is done its just editing and composing the posts I have left to do.

So yesterday's prompt was art using your 3 favourite polishes.  It was hard for me to limit my polishes to 3 and to choose favourites.  In the end I decided on China Glaze For Audrey(most used polish), China Glaze Fois Gras(farvourite brand) and Essie Good As Gold(favourite stamping polish).

I began by coating all fingers except for my index with 2 coats of For Audrey, my index finger got 2 coats of Fois Gras.

Once this was dry I began adding my bumps to create a cloud mani, using Essie Good As Gold.

Once that was dry I added Fois Gras to all fingers except my index, which got For Audrey.

I coated in SV to complete the design.  I have to say I really love this colour combination and I will probably break it out again in the future.  This was my first time doing a cloud mani so a few of my soft curves are a little too straight, but that is definitely something I can work on.

I will try to be back tomorrow with Day 32, Shapes.  It may be late at night by the time I get it posted but sometimes that is just life.

On a side note my new Moyou London plates arrived today and I already have one on.  Perfect transfer and great image quality.  I got the sticky stamp as well and I love it!  I will post a more in depth review once I have used more of the plates.

Until tomorrow, polish happy!

Sally Hansen Triple Shine Dive In Review

Hello polish lovers!

I told you I would be back...and I am.  I am back with a polish that I swatched almost two months ago but was so involved with numerous challenges the photos stayed in my un-edited folder, gathering computer dust.  So you will remember I did a first impressions post on 2 colours from the Sally Hansen Triple Shine collection, I loved Kelp, even though it was more of a 3 coater, as I had VNL at 2 coats, and Fanta-Sea is really more of a glitter topper than a stand alone glitter polish, since 4 coats could not get it opaque.  Today I have another creme polish from this line, Dive In.

This, ladies, is a true 2 coat polish!  It is a bright blue/green and reminds me very much of the Caribbean waters, making the name of this polish very appropriate.

As you can see this photo was taken before I had my series of breaks that necessitated cutting my nails to less than half their former length.  I miss those nails, but I know they will be back.  My non-swatching hand is already coming along nicely, but my swatching hand has some catching up to do.

This photo has been slightly colour corrected, because for some reason my camera totally freaks out around any teals and refuses to show the colour accurately.  I had the same problem with Orly's Unreal Teal, which is one of the reasons I have not shown those photos yet...well that and it totally stained my cuticles on removal which seriously ticked my off.  Although it did not stain as badly as OPI's Swimsuit...Nailed It, that gorgeous sparkly polish not only got my cuticles but the nails themselves!

Anyway, on to this gorgeous colour. I loved this polish, this is 2 coats, no top coat and it is opaque and glossy and lovely.  I decided I liked it so much I put it on all my nails and used it as a base for some stamping.

I used the PUEEN24 plate and the brocade image to make some really lovely wallpaper nails.  I used Essie Good as Gold to stamp, I love stamping with that polish so much!  All of the Essie metallics are gorgeous stampers and are completely opaque in one coat.

In conclusion, Dive In is definitely the winner, in terms of formula, of the 3 Sally Hansen Triple Shine polishes that I have tried, although Kelp is so far my favourite colour.  I was really impressed with Dive In's opacity and shine and I believe I kept the finished product on my fingers with minimal wear for almost a 5 days before I had to take it off, not because it was chipping, but because I need to change my polish often.

That is all for today, but I will be back on Monday with day 31 of the 33DC, so close to the end on this.

Until then, polish happy!

33 DC Day 30: Same Pattern, Various Colours

Hello nail polish lovers!

Today I have one of the last posts for The Crumpet's 33 Day Challenge, one week left!  Its been nice to have outside ideas about what to do to try to get me out of my nail polish box, I will have to find more challenges to keep me going...although I will have a few reviews and more nail of the day coming soon.

Today's prompt was same pattern, different colours, which, to me, means stamping.  So I started by painting each of my nails a different colour.  My pinkie is OPI Alpine Snow, ring is Essie No Place Like Chrome, middle OPI Vant to Bite My Neck? and my index is Seche Risque.  These are all one coat except for Bite My Neck which was a little streaky so I did 2 coats.

Once this was coated in SV and dried I began my stamping, choosing to run the stamping in the opposite direction of the base colours, darkest stamping on pinkie, lightest on index(you get the picture).  You will notice that the stamping on my middle finger is a little wrinkled, that is what happens when everything is one coat except that finger and you don't let it dry quite long enough, but what are you going to do?

The pattern that I chose was Messy Mansion's In the Garden plate, an image of lattice and vines, which I totally fell in love with, like I do with all the MM plates that I own...she showed a prototype of a Book plate, which I cannot wait to come into production.  For these images I used the same polishes as for the base, except for the white stamping, which is Konad white, and also my favourite completed nail.

I found this was a great way to see how different polishes transfer the same image and how background colours can change how an image appears and the colour it appears to be, the stamping on my pinkie finger is a totally different colour from the base on my index finger, and yet they are the same polish...something to keep in mind.

That is all for today, I may post tomorrow or Sunday depending on how life goes...I have a Christmas Party Sunday night so it may have to be tomorrow.  I do have another of the Sally Hansen Triple Shine polishes I would like to review so maybe I will post that.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 29: Favourite Pattern and Last Falling For Nail Art Post

Hello polish lovers!

So today I have another double post for you with the 33DC and the Falling for Nail Art Challenge.  Today is the last Falling Challenge and I have really enjoyed the sense of accomplishment I have gotten from these challenges...and they really are a challenge.  Sometimes its finding inspiration within the theme and other times its just finding the time to complete the entry and get it blogged in time.  But anyway on to the manis.

First up my 33DC for my Favourite Pattern.  This was incredibly difficult to narrow down, and knowing me will change as quickly as the new year will come upon us.  I started with a base of Joe Fresh Evergreen.  This is a product line that is brand at the Real Canadian Superstore, and I was really impressed with it, especially given the fact that it was on clearance and I got it for 94 cents!  This is a lovely deep green with gold sparkles in it.  And it could be a 1 coater but I did 2 because, you know, I have a problem.

As you can see the bottle is quite squat and had a short brush, which I find easier to control.  The sparkle is even more pronounced in real life and was quite dense.  This was topped with SV and let dry until I was ready to stamp.

I finally decided to stamp using the paisley pattern from BM315 using Color Club Over The Moon, an awesome blue holographic polish, you can really see the rainbow in the bottle and it is not dulled by top coat.

The reason that I chose the paisley image is because it is the first image that I ever stamped that actually turned out correctly.  I love how the image is not overpowering and allows some of the base polish to shine through.  Some of my plates have images so busy that you barely see the colour, and to me part of the fun of stamping is having at least two colours on my fingers that go together and make a statement.

For my final Falling for Nail Art Challenge the theme was Thanksgiving, which, for me, was over more than a month ago.  So instead of more turkeys and the ubiquitous pumpkins, which I did on Sunday, I went with a very fall image that I fell in love with.  I am sorry to say that I totally forgot to take a photo of the base before I began my stamping, but know that I will definitely use this colour for a base again so that you can see more of it.  My base was 1 coat of Seche's Risque, a very dark aubergine creme that in most lights appeared a very deep rich black.  Once this was dry I used Essie's Good As Gold, one of my favourite golds to stamp with, and MM16 plate and the image of grape vines, leaves and grapes.  If you have not checked out Messy Mansions stamping plates you are doing yourself a grave disservice, check them out!

I will definitely be recreating this mani again.  I love the contrast between the deep purple and the shine of the gold! Love, love, love, love, love.  And on this high note I say good by to Plump and Polished's Falling for Nail Art Challenge for this year.

That is all for now, but I will be back on Friday with Day 30 of the 33DC!

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 28: Lines

Hello polish lovers!

I guess winter is now upon us...at least where I live:(  We have about 15-20 cm now and it is snowing again.  It really means that I cannot wait until January when I will be going on a Caribbean cruise with various members of my family.  Less than five weeks now until we leave!  I am really looking forward to checking out the different polish in the States, although my mother says there really isn't much where we are going in the Caribbean, but we will be in Ft. Lauderdale for a day, and our hotel is right next to Saw Grass Mills, so I will have my first CCO experience.  But enough on that, on to today's theme in the 33DC, Lines.

I started with a base of OPI's Alpine Snow as a prep for China Glaze's Sun Worshiper.

I love this colour!  This is probably the last neon I will have on my nails until spring or summer, unless I can't take it anymore in the middle of winter and break them back out again.  Unfortunately, the colour is the best thing about this polish, it is thin, runny, and unless incredibly careful, is prone to flooding the cuticles.  This is 2 coats over white, 1 coat was still streaky.  Over this I put SV, as usual, to aide in drying before I stamped.

So I decided to make this a skittle mani, not in colour, but in the line stamps that I decided to use.  I wanted to show a variety of lines, thick, thin, straight, curved, grouped, crossed and adjacent, which I think I did.  All of my nails are stamped with Konad black and my pinkie nail is BM316, index BM423, ring GA42 and middle BM315.  Topped with SV.

That is all for today, but I will be back on Wednesday for the last double up day, as it is the last Falling For Nail Art Challenge and Day 29 for 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 27: 3 Patterns

Hello polish lovers!

For the 3 Patterns prompt in the 33 Day Challenge I decided to go all out preppy.  I mean, argyle sweaters and Burberry bags and the like.  I wanted understated but statement making, if that makes any sense.

I started with yet another unnamed Color Clubs from my infamous sets.  This one, I have decided, is Give Me a Hint, and this is one coat.

An awesome greige, and its opaque in 1 coat!  I don't care what this polishes name is, I want to marry it! Even Barry M's Lychee(which I love) is a solid 2 coat-er.  I SV'd this and let dry before I started my freehand.  I decided to freehand the designs except for the accent which is stamped.

My pinkie and index fingers are Burberry patterns, I was really impressed with how much control I was able to achieve considering this is only the second time I have attempted this, and the first time on myself.  My middle finger is argyle, which I have done before but always manage to make look slightly awkward.  I used the same 3 stripers for these two patterns and then used Konad black and PUEEN22 for the lattice rose image, which I felt worked well with the overall preppy theme.

I really like how this turned out overall.  I will definitely need to bring back the Burberry pattern another time, maybe using different colours.

I will be back on Sunday with my next Falling for Nail Art Challenge, which is entering its final week.

Until then, polish happy!