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 Art A-Go-Go, Day 5, Contrast

Hello polish lovers!

Quick Day 5 challenge post, this was a bit of a fail for me.  I was trying a polish that I haven't used with stamping before...and don't think I will again.

I started with a base for 3 coats of Ciate Loop the Loop, very streaky, non-self-leveling, but a pretty butter-cream colour.

So the colour that I went with for the stamping is Sephora by OPI in Caffeine Fix, looks brown in the bottle but a thin coat shows purple.  That is what I was hoping for when I stamped.  I used MASH plates 38 and 50 for this design.  I wanted both the colours and the images to contrast, unfortunately Caffeine Fix didn't stamp cleanly and also smudged when I top coated, which I very seldom have happen, but does occasionally occur.

Disappointing, definitely, but stamping is a learning process.  It stamped decently well on the thin lines of the plants, so that is something to keep in mind.

Anyway, that is all for today, I will be back tomorrow with my Day 6 mani, Neon.

Until then, polish happy!

Nail Art A-Go-Go, Day 4: Monochromatic

Hello polish lovers!

Today is Day 4 of the Nail Art A-Go-Go Challenge and our prompt is Monochromatic.  I decided this was a good time to show a polish that I picked up at Sally's recently, OPI's Gargantuan Green Grape!  But wait, I have shown GGG before, haven't I?  Well yes, but this is the original formula...which is actually green, as apposed to light blue.  I don't know if OPI re-released the original formula, or if they managed to find old stock, but I was just happy to finally have the colour that I thought I was getting(blue version bought online...damn old photos that aren't accurate).  If you want to see the blue formula, you can see my post here.

Without further ado, Gargantuan Green Grape!

Love, love, love, love, love!  I know this is not a great formula, it takes 3 coats to be opaque, but I love the colour.

When this was dry I used OPI's Jade is the New Black for my stamping(I discovered it worked well over light colours) and BM406 plate.  I like the image, it is very organic and reminds me of seaweed.  I used the regular polish brush to create dots on the nails at the center of the images spirals.  I topped with SV, as usual.  Oh, and the Nubar Diamont Top Coat does work for stamping without smearing.

That is all for today but I will be back tomorrow with Day 5, Contrast.

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!

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!

Nail Art A-Go-Go Challenge, Day 1: Achromatic

Hello polish lovers!

Today, as promised, I have my first mani for the Nail Art A-Go-Go Challenge I am participating in.  Today's prompt is Achromatic, which means grey-scale or lacking colour.  I started out with 1 coat of OPI's Black Onyx (yes I finally broke down and got a good black, this is really opaque and none streaky).

I was really pleased with my first use of this as a base for this art.  Once Black Onyx was dry I decided to use part of a plastic bag and some different grey's to create a variation of the Saran Wrap technique.

The colours I used were all Color Clubs, Lady Holiday, a light grey is part of the Harlem Lights collection, Shabby Drab, a mid-toned grey with a slight purple undertone, and Silver Lake, the bright silver(also an awesome stamping polish).

I love the dimension the silver gives these nails and ended up liking them so much I did my other hand and wore them for a few days.  When I do these again I think I will add some splotches of the black on top of the grey to give it even more dimension.

That is all for today, I will be back tomorrow with Day 2, Jewel Tones.

Until then, polish happy!

Still Obsessed with MoYou London Plates

Hello polish lovers!

So I have still not decided on a set schedule for this blog, which is why I have not posted in a while(that's a lie, I have been feeling really lazy lately and although I have been doing my nails and taking photo's, I just haven't wanted to edit).  Starting tomorrow, though, I have decided to do the Nail Art A Go-Go Challenge for February.  It is a 28 day challenge so I will have a new mani everyday for the month of February.  I have completed the first week of prompts and will continue to try to work ahead.  I love the idea of this challenge because it is a lot of Art related prompts, and as a former Art major, I find this irresistible.

Anyway, on to today's mani.

For my base I started with Models Own Bubblegum(still obsessed with a neon that stamps beautifully).

Bubblegum is completely opaque in 2 coats and does not require a white base.  It is much more neon in person, don't know why it is so toned down in my photos except for the inability of my camera to accurately capture most neons.

Over this I decided to stamp with another of the MoYou London Pro plates, 15. which is Pop Art-y, with Warhol and Lichtenstein, which I love.

I, again, used Color Club's Abyss for stamping.  Putting the green polish over the pink, caused the colour to look more blue, but I am okay with that.  I decided on the Warhol Mickey Mouse image for my accent finger.

Something else that I have been working on is going through all my polishes to see which ones are good for stamping, over both white and black.  I have completed the polishes in my Melmer and will begin on my rack polishes soon.  Once I am finished I will list on my blog all of the polishes that stamp over light and dark polishes.

I will be back tomorrow with the first prompt for the Nail Art A-Go-Go Challenge, achromatic nails.

Until then, polish happy!