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!

33DC Day 25: A New Technique for Me

Hello polish lovers!

Today I have my new technique mani for you.  It was really difficult to decide on a technique I had not done before...not because I have done them all(Goodness knows I am not even close)  but because most of the techniques I have not tried are because of how messy they are.  This really causes my OCD to come out and there is nothing worse than trying to clean polish out from your cuticles for half an hour for clean up.  This problem means that I was not yet willing to try water marble or splatter nails.  I have enough problems with the clean up for stamping and gradients.

Because of this problem I wanted to choose a technique that I had not done that required very little clean up, and so I chose the Saran Wrap technique.

For my base colour I decided on yet another of the Color Clubs from the unnamed sets.  This one is a bright, almost neon peach that I think is East Austin, based on swatches.

Sorry for how dark the colour is but there was NO SUN that day...I may as well have been living in a cave.  This is 2 easy coats of East Austin, perfectly opaque and basically no clean up required.

Once this was dry I added a light coat of my second colour, another unnamed Color Club that I think is All That Razz, and quickly balled up Saran Wrap to remove the colour and create a stone effect(if stones were bright peach and pink).

I don't know if I removed quite enough of All That Razz but I quite liked the effect, especially on my pinkie and ring nails.

I think this technique would make a great base for stamping, so look forward to something like that in the near future.

That is all for today but I will be back on Wednesday with my next 33DC mani Inspired by Instagram.

Until then, polish happy!

Falling for Nail Art: Baked Goods

Hello nail polish lovers!

Today I have my Falling for Nail Art Challenge with the theme Baked Goods.  I really had to stop myself from using my apple pie image for this one but I somehow managed to restrain myself.

For this challenge I started with a base of 1 coat of an unnamed Color Club lavender/periwinkle that I think is Pucci-licious, based on swatches.  I loved adding to my Color Club collection but not having names on the bottles is a giant pain in the ass.  If you think this is a different CC colour please let me know, also this colour is slightly less blue in real life.

This colour must have some neon pigment in it because it dried slightly matte.  Once the base was dried I started to add my design, of a cupcake, of course.  I used Lime Crime's Crema de Lemon for the wrapper, and then used a yellow striper for the shadows.  The frosting is China Glaze White on White with yellow and red stripers for the sprinkles.

I added the SV too early, since I am more used to applying it over stamping, and ended up with the red striper smudging and bleeding into the white.  Except for that I was actually quite pleased with how this turned out.

I have been doing so much nail art between the challenges that I have been leaning towards more plain nails, so I wanted to show you one of my favourites from last week.

The base is another of the unnamed Color Clubs, I think it is either Look Book or Style Icon, and this is 3 coats of the deep jelly like red that is the closest to oxblood that I have.  The studs are small gold rounds from the Born Pretty Store and the reason that one of them looks silver is because I took this photo after a day at work and apparently I wore through the top coat and took the colour coating off that one stud.  I really enjoyed how simple and sophisticated this mani was and I think it totally appropriate for Autumn.

That is all for today, but I will be back tomorrow with my next 33DC mani.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 24: Colour I Own the Most Of

Hello polish lovers!

So as I wrote on Wednesday I finally figured out a way to fix my photo compression on Blogger!  Unfortunately, the only way that I was able to do this was to switch to a Google+ account:(  So from now one any replies to comments will be with my name, Sandra Barry, and not Petite & Polish because Google will not allow me to change my name to the blog name.  The upside is that my photos will again look the high quality, colour accurate(as much as my camera will allow) and none fuzzy!

And now, on to the Challenge.  For day 24 we were to create a mani using the colour of polish we have the most of.  For me it really is a toss up between green and blue, so I decided to use both.  I started with a base of 2 coats of Barry M's Turquoise, which is really more bright blue, it has very little green in the formula.

I topped this with SV and once it was dry I added a gradient of Turquoise and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength  in Garter Toss, which is, I think, an even lighter mint green then Essie's Mint Candy Apple, I may have to do a comparison of my mints, that would be fun.

Again, I added SV and let dry before I began my stamping.  For my stamping I used Klean Color Metallic Jungle(don't ask me why it is jungle when it is blue, it should be Metallic Ocean!) and GALS GA33 plate for the image.

I really like how well all the Klean Color Metallics stamp and I would love to get more of them, since the only ones I have are a mini set I found at Winners(win for me!).  I thought the metallic added a bit of shine and sparkle to an otherwise creme mani.

That is all for now but I will be back on Sunday with my next Falling for Nail Art mani, the theme is Baked Goods, and I didn't stamp!  Although I do have an apple pie image and a doughnut image!  I restrained myself and the next mani if freehand.

Until then, polish happy!

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!

33DC Day 23: Geometric

Hello polish lovers!

My post for Crumpet's 33DC for the Geometric theme was to go clean and crisp.  When I think of clean and crisp I immediately head to black and white, and I did the same this time.

On all of my nails except my ring finger I applied 1 coat of China Glaze White on White.  As I use more of this polish it has become slightly thicker and the coverage is great now, one careful coat is totally opaque.  I am all for using less polish(When you do your nails as often as I do, its good to get one coat-ers, they last longer).  On my ring finger I applied 2 coats of an unnamed Color Club black that I have decided is called Where's the Soiree?  based on swatches.

I forgot to take a photo before I applied my stamping, which is unfortunate, I was doing so much better about that(I also realized when I was doing the editing, I made the same mistake with my next post).  So here is the finished product.

I don't know what is going on with my photos.  For some reason when I add them to the post they become totally washed out.  Its really strange.  The black is much more saturated than it is showing.

UPDATE: I changed my Blogger to a Google+ account and now everything uploads correctly.(another example of Google taking over?)  So I have re-uploaded the photos so colour is correct now.

I used Konad Black and Konad White for my stamping, and the image is from BM403.  I am getting much better at centering the image, except for my pinkie which was being completely uncooperative.

That is all for this post, hopefully the photos for my next post do not do the same thing, this is getting really frustrating.

Until then, polish happy!

33DC Day 22: 3 Colour Gradient with a Pattern

Hello polish lovers!

I am hoping to have better luck with this post than the last.  My computer was doing strange things to the photos.

So I have my 33DC mani for day 22 for you today.  This was a great theme because it was so open.  All I had to do was choose 3 colours, create a gradient and then create a pattern over top.  I gathered 6 colours together and made my brother choose three.  They were all Color Club polishes and he chose All That Razz, New Bohemian and a chartreuse green that I could not find a name for.  All of these polishes came from random sets that I purchased at Winners, they are full sized bottles but none are named(I had to search the internet for the other colour names), for some reason I cannot find this chartreuse, it is not the same as Sunrise Canyon, although it is the closest of the other Color Club greens.  If anyone knows the name of this polish, please feel free to leave a comment.

This is 2 coats and it is very similar in colour to OPI's Did It On 'Em, but the formula is much better, Did It On 'Em never wanted to go opaque, even with white base coat.

Once this had dried I created the gradient pattern with the 3 colours.

It looks rather rainbow-ish but I love how bright it is.  Once that had dried my brother stated it needed harsh lines in black to finish.  So I looked through my plates and got out GA15 with Konad Black stamping polish.

I, surprisingly, really liked how this turned out and can totally see myself wearing this during the summer.  There is something very 80s about this.

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