Christmas Challenge - Snowflakes!

Another stamp, but I really really like this one!  And the colors look so pretty!

First, I did a base of Essie No More Film, which is kind of a bluish purple creme.  Very twilight sky.

Ooooooo, twilighty.  

Then I added one coat of Essie Pure Pearlfection to add the sparkle it needed to simulate snowfall.

Yes, I get the irony of adding sparkles to a color I define as "twilight-y".  :-|  That lady is so rich now.  Ridiculous.

It's going to be 80 this Sunday.  I'm delusional at best, and snow sad at worst.

The snowflakes came courtesy of Konad plate m69.  I had the least room on the pinky, naturally, so I stamped right in the middle, and then went out and turned it for the other nails.

I love this.  So much.

I think it came out even better than what I thought it might.  The images transferred really well, and the blue/purple is just the perfect blizzard sky background for the sparkles and snowflakes.

Monday brings a Christmas Movie inspired manicure.  To be honest, I haven't picked my movie yet, as there are so many good ones!

Christmas Challenge - Red & Green

I can't even lie - I, like the hoards of people in charge of retail decorating, love Christmas-time and start to decorate early.  I love the decor, the cocoa, the freezing temperatures and snow...all of it!  But I live in TX so I get a lot more of the decor and cocoa and a lot less of the freezing temperatures and snow.  Wah wah.

But what I can share in, while lamenting my lack for need of a parka, is this Christmas Nail Art Challenge!

I started today, so I took the easy way out and stamped a few looks to get ready to hunker down for some inspired creativity in the upcoming weeks.  Red and green called for the following lovely gift-wrap inspired stamping manicure.

A warning first, though.

The good news:  Black Friday means I got a new camera!  It has better resolution than my cell phone and isn't six years old!

The bad news: I'm not really sure how to work it, so the macro shots are going to be even more unforgiving than normal.  Management appreciates your patience while I adjust.

China Glaze Cranberry Splash and Barielle Date Night

With stamped images from Konad m65 and m79

I love the simplicity of a package tied beautifully, and these stamps really called out to me to represent that.  Cranberry Splash is part of China Glaze's new Holiday Joy 2012 collection and is THE quintessential Christmas red for me.  Barielle Date Night is flawless on its own, and I'm positive that I'll highlight it later, because it's this lovely pine green with shimmer, another quintessential Christmas color staple.  

See you with snowflakes later this week!

I Joined A Cult

I got my first order of Cult Nails, (http://www.cultnailsblog.com/), and I am a believer!  Praise to thee on lacquer highs!  I bring great offerings of basecoated nails looking for your help.

After I photographed this, I realized how much it looked like Butter London Big Smoke, but in a micro rainbow shimmer way.

This is one coat of Cult Nails Doppelganger over two coats of Zoya Ibiza.  I wanted to put this milky shade over something nice and dark so the chromatic glitters would really pop.

I faded out the light, and apparently the focus, so you could see it gives a milky dusty glow to your base.

Sunlight has the colors showing, and there's pink, green, blue, orange, everything!

Doppelganger was actually pretty thick, and you don't need very much.  I would swipe my brush inside the bottle to get everything visible off, and then paint what was left inside the bristles on.  It's definitely a different brush than I'm used to, but that's not a bad thing - just a different thing.

I loved it in the bottle, and I LOVE it on the nail.  Maria and Cult Nails are doing their thing, and I'm all in!

Polish = Pun-ny

I thought OPI was king of the nutty polish names, but sometimes Color Club gets one in that makes me laugh.  Today we have an entry from the latter that I found most apropos for the color inside.

Color Club Nothing But Truffle

A perfect chocolately deep brown with shimmering gold flecks.

It almost looks like brownie batter.  Or maybe it's time for a snack break.

This has recently become my "go-to" brown.  It's super complimentary for my skin tone, the formula is flaw, and it's a gorgeous earthy brown.  I highly recommend it if you don't already have one in your collection.  Be careful around your cuticles because, like most dark polishes, it does not give up ground already established.

Smoke Signals

Man, I am ON the Butter London train.  Every single color I've tried has been not only fantastic formula-wise, but absolutely insanely gorgeous color-wise.  I bet that it helps that while I'm standing in Ulta looking through bottles I'll review swatches online on my phone.  I know I'm blocking the aisle a little bit because it's on an endcap, but KEEP MOVING YOU DONT NEED ANY MORE URBAN DECAY, LADY.

If I'm going to pay upwards of $10 a bottle (I only buy during Buy 2 Get 1 sales) then I'm going to take my time.  But I can't get over how cute the packaging is, and how great the polishes are; they're just fantastic.

Today is another winner from my beloved, Butter London Big Smoke.  It's a pearly midnight blue with shimmery cadet blue (ooo, fancy!) flecks to give it some depth.

I forgot to take a picture in the sun, or they were all shaky and I deleted them.  Who knows!

The sun is bad for you anyway.

This is two coats of Big Smoke, which was perfect opacity, followed by a topper of Seche Vite.  BL makes those great self-leveling formulas too, so you don't have to worry about moving your brush around too much to hide strokes.

It's got a deep rich tone all its own, so I was happy to add it to my ever-blossoming "blue" drawer, as I don't have anything quite like it.

Under The Sea

The waves keep coming with this aquatic theme I've had recently.  I don't know why that is, but I promise that I'm not doing it on porpoise

:D  eh?  EH?

Let's move on.

China Glaze Atlantis

3 coats and you can still see VNL, but let's call that the bottom of the ocean, k?

And to highlight all the glorious glitter goods:

ENHANCE THE GLITTER, CAPTAIN.

I won't lie - even though it's still sheer at three coats, I'd wear this by itself.  It's this gorgeous turquoise sheer that is absolutely packed with holographic glitter pieces.  It dries a little gritty, but a thick top coat will get it shiny and smooth.

Layered over a similar green, or even a matchy blue, I bet this will be even more stunning.

A England Dragon

A lot of beautiful things come from across the ocean, and A England is one of them.  A UK brand, I found a core group of devotees to this brand, and thought I'd give them a try.

This is another from their "The Legend" collection, which is full of vibrant shimmery and holographic winners.

A England Dragon

Grassy, sparkly, winning.

Sunlight makes it prettier, but it's gorgeous right here and right now.

This is one coat, folks.  ONE.  I topped with Out The Door to give it some shine, and this manicure was done.  I spent the next day wrapping and packing boxes for a volunteer gig at work, and didn't even get heavy tip wear.  I think this would make a perfect Christmas green, so I foresee a lot of use.

Happy National Overeating Day!

Don't lie, you're reading this with a forkful of pumpkin pie on its way to your mouth.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, BLOGOSPHERE!

Fall!  It's like it doesn't count any more because once they clear out the goblins it's Santa time, but I still love the season.  It's when the leaves are changing and the temperatures drop, and you can finally use your bed's comforter without waking up in a pool of sweat.

Ahhhhhhhh, fall.

I could not get this color to adjust out of this raisin like representation.  I promise it's a gorgeous shimmery brown.

This reflects the base much better, and it's got those lovely flakies on top.
Fall flakies...fotograph...fun...ner.

Zoya Fei Fei

Fei Fei is a person, y'all.  Or rather, a bunch of people.  I had no idea the origin of the name, because Zoya usually picks female names at random, most of which I can identify.  I really like this name though - clearly it's unique (to me), and it's got some history.

Today's polish might not have history, as it's part of a relatively new collection for Zoya but damnit, it's got pizzazz!

Zoya Fei Fei over Zoya Skylar

Still pretty, if demure.

Just look at all that goodness.

This polish is so multi-faceted that I cannot even begin to tell you.  It's like a duochrome glass fleck glitter bomb of very faded purple and steel blue.  In the shade, it's almost a metallic silver because it's this dense shimmery...I don't know.  But in the sun!  All that glitter starts flashing a million colors, and they pop out of that blue base and you will just be wowed.

I did one thing coat of Skylar (a sky blue) as a base just to make sure Fei Fei could throw as much color as possible, and topped with Seche Vite.  I think this would work just as well with no base color, but the top coat really helps even out the kind of gritty finish, and punches up the shine.

David Copperfield...ish

A nail art illusion, of sorts, is presented for review today.

Zoya Song and Essie Trophy Wife

So much glare and crappy photo taking.  And grease.  Good God, was I even looking at this?!
But it's the only picture I got in the "sun", so here it stays.

Much better.  Up, down, and all around.

I love the wave/drip pattern of this nail art.  It's got almost a puzzle piece aspect to it, which gives me an idea for a manicure on a day where I've got more than thirty minutes.  Blue and green is one of my favorite color combinations, even if it does remind me of my loathsome junior high days, and these two play off of each other perfectly.

China Glaze Diva Bride

I used to watch Bridezillas, back before it became a show used to hock whatever "hip" product brides should be using to better themselves before the wedding (weight loss pills, gyms, hair color, etc).  It's one of those train wreck shows that you just know is fake and scripted, but you can't tear your eyes away.  I always felt bad for the groom, because if this is the lady he chose with a camera in her face, I couldn't imagine her left to a non-taped room.  Yikes.  I really wasn't insane while I planned my own wedding; it just didn't bother me.  The only thing I can remember is having a breakdown about my feet killing me as the party wound down.

Ze flats!  Zey do notzing!

Getting back to business, China Glaze Diva Bride is a really great soft pink creme polish.  I got pretty great coverage at two medium coats, but if it really is your wedding day, you might want to do three thin ones, as it got a little bald in spots.

Soft polish, cool polish, cuticles are dryyyyyyyyyy.

Application is pretty easy, just go slow and give your base layer time to dry.  I don't think it would pull, but it does have a tendency to pool, and that's just as bad.  I think a topcoat could have helped move things into position, but I was ready to go to bed and skipped it.

Color Club Port-folio

Duo-chrome!
Foil!
Other things!

Color Club Port-folio

Tilted my nails out of the light so you could see the shade color - almost jelly looking.

The green shows up fast, and is foil-y.  It makes for a really pretty contrast.

Application was surprisingly easy, and the formula is incredible.  You could do one careful coat, but you'll probably want two, to make sure you get that great shift.  As you can see, it's very easy to go from one to the other, and the mix is so interesting together.  Initially I thought it would be heinous, but it really grew on me.

Another win for Color Club.

Color Club Wild At Heart

Have you ever heard of a man being "wild at heart"?  Because I haven't, and though I had never thought of it until I was writing this post, that is so lame.  Though I may not care for the gender bias overtones in the name, the polish is amazing and flawless and all things right with the world.

Not only is it a gorgeous deep true purple, it's packed with holographic shimmer and shine.  If that weren't reason enough to scoop it up, imagine completely opaque coverage in one coat, and bam! There should be a line to the door at  www.shopcolorclub.com

I was not bothered enough to clean up any mistakes.  Embrace the personality.

This is two coats, no topcoat, and no clean-up.  It only sat a few minutes, but the purple didn't stain.  You can see just how vivid and sparkly that purple is, and I can only imagine it in real direct sunlight.  This color and formula remind me of the other holo beauty from Color Club that I have, Revvvolution, but its purple sister.

China Glaze Senorita Bonita

I'll be honest - I bought this color for one reason only...Casa Bonita.

There is an episode of South Park where Cartman makes Butters believe that an apocalypse has happened so he can take his place in going to Stan's birthday party at Casa Bonita.  CB is this Mexican food restaurant with cliff divers (woooooowwww) and a fake jail (kewwwwwwwwlll) and sopapillas (oh man sweeeeet).

**update**  it's apparently a very real place!  http://www.casabonitadenver.com/

Anywho, I was searching around for new colors and liked the name, so in the basket it went.

Bonita!

It's a fairly standard electric pink shimmer, except this one leans a little purple in the right light.  It applies pretty well, though I would use three coats the next time, and has great depth with the shimmer.

I give it four out of five cheesy poofs.

This Was Not A Fiesta

Today's lovely is Ulta Pinata Yada.  It's got a million glitters inside, including micro blue, yellow, red and silver, with hexes in pink, red, orange and silver.  Everything is suspended in a clear base, and it dries to a pretty smooth finish.  You might get some of the hexes on top of each other, which would give some bumps, but nothing a coat of Seche Vite can't straighten out.

The Good:
This is a party on your nails.
The glitter payoff is huge* because the bottle is jammed with it.
Clear base acts like it's own topcoat to protect your base color

The Bad:
IT'S A FREAKING NIGHTMARE TO APPLY
I HATE ITS GUTS
I ALMOST SMASHED THE BOTTLE APART
*ONLY IF YOU SPEND FIFTEEN MINUTES ARRANGING THEM

whew.

Pictures!

Its beauty betrays its insolence.

Direct sun shows you that there is no sparkle, only color.  Or Zuul.

But for serious.  This is the first Ulta polish I picked up, hoping it could be a cheap alternative to Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday, which everyone goes gaga for in the nail-o-sphere.  But it was garbage.  I couldn't photography my right hand, because this ate through the base white (China Glaze White Out) in three spots.  :-|

I'll banish it to a dark corner of the case until the next time I'd like to have something eat away the base color with its toxic potency, and provide minimal coverage without being worked to death.

Continuing The Aquatic Theme

Essie Dive Bar.

If you don't own it, and you love inky blue/green/black shimmery colors, then you are missing out.  Go to your local wherever and get yourself a bottle.  Ever since I bought this polish, I have loved it.  I want to fall into it's super shiny depths and find things to layer it over, and let it layer over, because it is that gorgeous.  Again, never knew I was a vamp until I delved into the polish obsession.

Essie Dive Bar with sponged Zoya Mimi

Mimi looks way more hot pink here, but it's purple.  I promise.

You can see the progression of dark blue/black to emerald

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH IT'S AMAZING I LOVE IT SO MUCH

Dive Bar is almost kind of heinous to apply, as much as I love it.  It's crazy dark, though it doesn't stain, and the first coat is almost like Layla Holo polishes, it's so streaky and draggy.  The second coat takes care of most of the mistake of the first, but be careful because this thing is attracted to your cuticles.  It's got a lot of depth because of the color facets and shimmer, and is perfection on it's own.  I've just worn it enough that I wanted to see something on top.  (giggity)

Mimi is flawless purple perfection.  I'm still working on my sponging technique, because I would have preferred one of those soft upward trails of glittery goodness, and instead got a half nail of purple that's kind of see-through.  But that's okay!  I still love it.

Glitter Never Gets Old

As my love of holographic things goes, so does my love of anything shiny, really.  Throwing rainbows makes you a winner in my book, so it's easy to understand why my "sparkle drawer" is packed full.

Today highlights a relatively new purchase from a not that old Color Club collection, and an old standby.

Zoya Suri with accent in Color Club Sugarplum Fairy

In the shade, it looks more like silver glitter than anything else.

The sunlight makes it glitter and glow, and you can (just barely on the pinky) see some of the holo in Suri.

A blurred glitter shot gives a glimpse of the color amazeballs.

I never knew I was a dark polish person until I really started getting into manicures a few months ago.  Instead of making my carnival hands look stubby, I think (the right) dark polishes work wonders on lengthening my little fingers.

Sugar Plum Fairy is a great holo glitter in a lavender base, which I thought would make a perfect foreground to Suri's deep purple background.  I think I got this one right.

I did two coats of Suri on all the nails, except the accents, which just got one.  I did two coats of SFP, just to cover up as much purple as possible.  It dries just a touch bumpy, so two coats of topcoat will be needed if you're a smooth and glassy person.  Me, I just did one since I'll probably be swiping it all off tonight.

Misa Not Jar-Jar

Today's brand reminded me of one thing, and one thing only - that awful introduction we all got when Jar-Jar Binks appeared in Episode 1 of the Star Wars films.  Now, there's been some dust lately because Disney bought Lucasfilms, and the Internet is not happy.  While everyone is quasi-excited at the thought of more movies, the fate of those movies, after the slaughter of Episode 1 by Jar-Jar, is in heavy dispute.

Dear The Walt Disney Company -
Please don't cram Star Wars full of "likable" characters for marketing purposes.  Please?  Pleasepleaseplease?  I think the public has proven we will buy just as many Darth Vader masks as anything else.

Thank you,
 Everyone

Misa is a brand that until I ordered a few samples based on other swatches, I was not familiar with at all.  The colors look fairly vampy, and because my cuticles are little sponges, I try and avoid dark until I've got the application down.

But Bourbon On The Rocks and Uptown Glamour called to me, and they have a new home in my Melmer.  Today I'll show you the muddy rust brown Uptown, which gives this girl a reason to vamp:

Misa Uptown Glamour

Shade.  Never revealing the truth.

Happy burgundy sparkles!  And almost dead grass!

This is gorgeous on the nail. It almost looks like a dark tar brown, with just a touch of red ghost color.  Get it in the light or sun, and it explodes with gorgeous burgundy toned shimmer that really is glamorous.

I could have gotten away with one coat, the formula was so great.  It's not so thick that I think I need to thin it, but it's thick enough that it will stay where you put it on the nail.  It spreads easily, and dries in a flash but, like everything, this is shown under a layer of Seche Vite.

I'm Going To Start A Revvvolution

I will buy anything that has super holographic shine to it.  Anything.  I have gift wrap, stickers, rings, ornaments, frames, keychains, pens...all of it is holographic.  Super colorful reflective rainbows make me happy, so when I read that there was a gorgeous black linear(ish) holo out there, I snapped it up.

Viva La Revvvolution!

Color Club Revvvolution

In the shade, it's just a silver speckled black.  Still lovely.

But in the sun...

it becomes more gorgeous

than a bucket full of rainbows.

Not only is this gorgeous and perfect, the application could not be easier.  It's nice and light, not too thick, and stays where you put it.  Because the holo isn't glitter, clean-up is a breeze, and I had all ten fingers done in less than 15 minutes, including topcoat.

Now I know that in the polish realm, putting topcoat over a holo is a no-no, because you'll dull the sparkle.  But I have to say - to tone down the likelihood of chipping in ten minutes, and still retain this kind of rainbow?  Moot point, and I'm slapping the Seche Vite down.

Oh, What A Night

Does that get The Four Seasons stuck in anybody else's head?

No?  I see.

After the trees were gone, I wanted to see what else I could come up with using those fall colors, so I cleaned off my striping brush, and set back to work.  I used OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons as a neutral base, then dropped dots of Zoya Cheryl, China Glaze Riveting, and China Glaze Lighthouse and attempted to swirl them together.

Now I realize that I spend more time than not griping about how stuff doesn't turn out, and any new skill takes time to master blah blah blah.

Frankly this stuff is so time intensive that it blows when I hate it at the end.  If you love it, then please! feel free to try it at home and make it gorgeous and send me the picture.  But I drank a gallon of haterade before the post, so that's what I'm sticking to, as far as how I feel about it.

OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons, Zoya Cheryl, China Glaze Riveting and China Glaze Lighthouse

This was after a few starting over acetone swipes, too.

Blargh.

When these colors look good together, they look GOOD.  But this is not one of those times.  I couldn't get the swirls right, so it ended up looking more like finger paint, than anything arty.  Also, be warned that the shimmer in Cheryl, while making it gorgeous, is a beast to get out.  Especially out of the over-acetoned skin I was working with, so I just quit.

I want to go back to this and see how it would look in a water marble, which I think would be flawless, but I erased this turkey combo pretty quickly after I took the pictures.

These Trees Are Fall...ing Apart

Did you know that the reason leaves change colors is that the tree/bush/greenery is shutting down their photosynthesis process?  As the chlorophyll leaves, the other colors inherent in the leaves are able to shine through, without being overpowered by all that green.  Except red leaves, which are a result of the glucose in the leaves being amplified by the cooler temperature.

SCIENCE!  IT WORKS YOUR EYEBALLS AND YOUR BRAIN!

I've got another Manic Nail Art (tm) post for you today, in homage to those changing leaves

Essie Licorice, Zoya Cheryl, China Glaze Riveting and China Glaze Lighthouse

Let's pretend that all the craziness towards the bottom are falling leaves.
Or tree bark.  Or birds.  I don't know, just ignore it.

You try and get your fingers to all line up and still be in the shot.

It's blurry, but you can see the colors I dotted into the sponging.
I also thought the trunk on this one was awesome.

This was a lot cuter in my head, but I'm still relatively happy with how it came out, for my first time.  I used my medium striping brush to create "trunks" in Essie Licorice on all ten fingers.  I then sponged Cheryl over the tips, and dotted in Riveting and Ligthouse for other fall contrast.

I actually think I'm becoming ambidextrous by doing nail art.  Whereas a few months ago, my left hand was only for display and petting the dogs, it can help now!

Zoya Natty And Some Stars

It's fall, so sayeth the calendar people, so despite the 80 degree temperatures, I've been trying to walk away from all the gorgeous citrus colors in my Melmer.

Electric pink, I wish I knew how to quit you.

This fall is all about navy, greens and dark neutrals, so I reached for Zoya Natty.  It's a beautiful kind of dusty cadet blue that's ultra flattering with any skin tone.  My phone reminded me that the Taurid Meteor Shower would peak sometime in the next 24 hours, so I reached for my own flashes of light.

Zoya Natty with an accent of Essie Set In Stones

One manicure that I think is prettier in the shade.

I am going to have to find a softer sun time because the one I use now is heinous.

Natty is just about a one coater, it's so thick and lovely.  With careful application, you could get away with one, but I always do two because I've got a system and damnit, that's what works.  Believe it or not, the accent fingers are one solitary coat of Set In Stones.  It's that opaque and flawless.

I topped the whole thing with Seche Vite, and will no doubt find reasons to gesture at things all day.

In The Nude!

Boy I bet some you Googlers are going to be very disappointed in this post.


If I have learned one thing from putting macro shots of my nails on the Internet, it's this:

MOISTURIZING IS KEY

When you wake up and jump out of the shower?  Lotion.
After you wash your hands?  Lotion.
Just finished washing the dishes/dog/car?  Lotion.  And get some gloves, fool.
Going to bed?  HEAVY DUTY GREASE, GIRL!

I have little bottles of different brands stashed all over my house, in my purse, and in my office, so I always have one handy.  Sure, it means that anything I hand you has little slick spots on it, and sometimes I have to call my husband to turn the lamp off because ol' greasy hands here can't get a grip, but it's worth it!

I wish I had a true before shot, but in case you're curious about natural nails of art bloggers, which I don't call myself (yet, but aspiration is everything), here are mine:

Dark polish and buffed parts growing out leaves them looking like a sunset.

The sun highlights the ridges!  :-|

I guarantee you that nobody, without some kind of aid, has perfect nails.  There are ridges to be covered, hangnails to be clipped, and cuticles to be tamed.

So this is a reminder, to myself mostly, that those flawless swatch posts and nail art images are hiding an absolutely ordinary, but carefully tended to, set of hands.