What a Flake

As the weather is finally cooling down, I've been pulling out some deeper colors to get ready for fall. 

Today is Essie Merino Cool, a really beautiful pale purple, covered with two flashy coats of Cult Nails Seduction. Seduction is a multi colored flake suspended in a purple jelly that gave a lot of depth to this manicure. 

Two coats of each, and a sealing coat of Wicked Fast, and I was out the door!

I Got The Blues

I'm really feeling this versatile shade lately.  From super light sky blue, which I won't bust out because it feels unnatural given that it's 30 degrees outside, to inky rich dark blue, which is the star today, blues are rocking my world.

I picked up Essie Midnight Cami on some can't remember it now website months ago when I became obsessed with the fall shade.  By itself, it's this gorgeous, deeply shimmered midnight ink blue.  Just gorgeous and so dark it looks black if you're not in the right light.  I've also been trying to go through my pile of hexes purchased also months ago, and I thought my giant pot of silver holo hexes would be a fitting topper to the blue.

The worst part about working with hex glitter is not getting them on, but getting them to stay put.  The method here was two thin coats of color, one thin coat of quick set topcoat, a super thin coat of non quick dry topcoat to adhere the hexes, and then two coats of Gelous for some building stay power.

Yikes.  My hands just feel heavier typing all of that out.  Time will tell, but I'd love all the glitter to stay in place one 24 hour period.  Or even just through a bout of hyper obsessive hand washing at work tomorrow, with the flu avoiding I've been trying to do lately.

Essie Midnight Cami accented with Silver Holo Hex Glitter

Forgive the alien skin tone - needed a lot of color adjustment on this one to atone for the awful shadow.

Simple and Satisfying

Is anyone finding it difficult to transition out of all the Christmas festivities?  As exhausting as they are every year, I find such a let-down when I'm putting up all the brightly colored lights and holographic tinsel.

Sigh.

I know I'll gripe about it next year, so let's move on.  I was looking for something that would look pretty and not be too much work, so I worked back to an old favorite.

Essie Go Overboard, a gorgeous deep teal creme polish, topped with Essie A Cut Above, which the site lists as pink, but I think of as a copper-y multi sized glitter.

Go Overboard is a really great single coverage shade.  A Cut Above spreads out really well, but I did two coats just to get more coverage, which really popped over the teal.

In an effort to get a few more days out of it, I thought I'd see how it looked with a matte topcoat.  Win!

The matte lightens up the background, and gives the glitter a mirror-like shine.  Flawless.

Better In My Head, Worse On My Nails

I'm not creative - I don't know if I've beaten that into your skulls enough just yet.  But I'm not.  I have a circle of friends and family that are absolutely filled to the gills with creative and precious ideas, and I admire them.
From afar.
With a Pinterest board of other people's pictures telling me what my house/clothes/face should look like.  But this is 2013!  Time to bust down walls and try new things!


I feel like I tried to put a monkey tail on a dolphin, and then got disappointed when her swimming became disjointed.


This idea, kind of a reptile scale shades of green thing, was way lost in translation.  It's a shame because Color Club VooDoo You Do is this really neat steel gray/green color that definitely shifts depending on your light.  I don't know that I'd call it a duo-chrome, but there's something there.  And of course, sweet sweet Essie Trophy Wife is a flawless super bright teal green that rocks AND rolls whatever nail it's working on.  But whoever invented clear hexes should be hung by their toes and flogged.  If I were smart, I would have thrown some onto a dark piece of paper; but why would I go and make it easy?

This just didn't work for me.  My own personal Frankenstein is presented below for your judgement.

Color Club Voodoo You Do and accent nail in Essie Trophy Wife

...what...is...that.

Maybe squishing all of them together will...nope.  Still crazy looking.

I want to re-try the whole reptile scales thing, I'll just have to plan it out a bit better and maybe, you know, go in with a real plan.

Great Balls Of Fire! It's Red!

*above quote was edited for content and to fit on your screen*

I also have to admit, much to my eldest sister's chagrin, that I have never seen "Gone With The Wind", or read the book.  I know, I know.  American institution and all that.  Listen, my attention span for 30 minute shows wanes most days, so a movie is almost always out of the question.  I'll get around to the IMDB top movies list, uh, one day.  Maybe.

Probably not.

I say all of that just to introduce today's swatch!  I'm trying to bulk up my red selection, and found another Essie stunner at CVS whilst lurking the other day.

Essie Scarlett O'Hara

A glowy shimmery red that tends more blue than orange.

An excellent primary color red, if you're looking to paint a clown nose or murder scene.  Please let them be unrelated.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Rug, She Inspires Me

First, a bit of a long-winded back story.  I live in an insanely allergy-laden area.  Add to that three animals, and a park across the street, and I'm in Kleenex hell a lot from March-October.  I've been on daily allergy pills, we bathe the dogs once a week, we clean like mad and yet...I'm red-eyed and sniffly at least once a week.

In a bid to effect real change, we pulled up 90% of the carpet in our house earlier this year in favor of a hardwood floor, so we could eliminate a lot of the pet dander and other yuck that comes inside the house and stays for awhile via the carpet.
The good side?  It helps tremendously with allergies.
The bad side?  You see all the crap that would have otherwise been hidden in your carpet, just laying on the floor all day every day.  You'll sweep and vacuum like a crazy person, and not get it all.  Human beings are just vehicles for dog hair, dirt, and skin flakes apparently.  Hork.

Another super downside is that you'll want to cover up that gorgeous new floor with rugs to save your dogs from having nowhere to walk again ever, and you'll be blissfully unaware of how freaking expensive bound pieces of carpet are.  PS, they are very expensive.

I found this rug at everyone's favorite, Target, and snapped it up because it was only $20.

Oh, savings, you call to me.

Now I have said AAAALLLLLLLLLL of that to tell you that this rug is where I got my color inspiration for today's manicure.  Aren't you glad you read about my house and allergies just to get to an art picture?

Yay, we're bonding!

Zoya Tao dotted with Zoya Purity, Zoya Kendal, and Essie Miss Fancy Pants

I can't look at this without thinking about Dippin' Dots.
Shout out 90's suburban mall crawling!

Precious.

I just used dotting tools from large to small and put dots of different colors where I felt they might look good.  I also got myself a new clean-up brush, which I am already in love with, and a new appreciation for the difference between natural and strange light.

Have a good weekend!

Halloween, The Final Slaughterin'

There's no coming back from this one.

Barielle Myrza's Meadow, Zoya Mimi, Zoya Arizona, and Essie Licorice

Those cuticles have been murdered.

It was the black nail polish, in the living room, with the pigment.

Myrza's Meadow is a great pukey-green with holographic glitter.  I mean puke-y in the nicest possible way, because I love it; I just don't know a better way to describe it.  It's super sheer though, and even on these little stripes of nail, I needed three coats to provide good color.

Arizona is a fantastic orange, and is good to go with one coat.  Nice, bright, citrus shimmer that levels well.

Mimi is a color cousin to Suri, but with bold tonal shimmer instead of the vague holo shimmer.  It's sheer with one coat, and good at two.

I did one thick-ish coat of Licorice on top of the tape, then peeled and added a coat of Seche Vite.

Despite the fact that this manicure was a freaking nightmare because I did designs on eight nails, so the taping took over an hour, I love tape manicures.  They give a really interesting cohesive look to what would otherwise be crazy colors jammed together.  I'm (clearly) still trying to get a look I'm happy with  using black, purple, green, and orange, and I just don't think it's going to happen.

I'm...okay...with this, but I haven't quite figure out how to get dark nail polish out of the bed of my nails.  As soon as it touches the skin, it's there until the next time I push my cuticles back and clean them out.  It's annoying, but it won't stop the tape love.

It's National Free Candy From Strangers Day!

Happy Halloween!   

I don't engage in costume selection and dress-up now that I'm an adult. It's not that I don't want to - I see a ton of great costumes every year that I know would be so fun to put together and go out in.  The problem is that my house is awesome, and it's full of all my stuff, and I can wear sweat pants and eat mini Twix there.  So the incentive to leave has to be incredible.

Instead of a costume that might jeopardize my candy bowl obliteration, I thought - why not a costume for the nails?  How about I subject them to freehanded designs and starting over a thousand times because I don't like what I "drew"?

Nails can't talk so I did it!

 I used a crapton of polishes.
Zoya Purity, Raven, Rekha, Cheryl, Harley, Song, Tracie, China Glaze Angel Wings,
China Glaze Lighthouse, A England Saint George &  Barielle Glammed Out Garnet

Ruby Red Slipper, Witch's Sock, Dorothy's Dress, Wicked With's Face/Hat, Yellow Brick Road
Emerald City, Tin Man, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, and the other Ruby Red Slipper.

Once I decided that I was going to do the Wizard of Oz, picking the things to be represented, and their associated colors was quasi-easy.  Deciding on the order and not messing up one wet nail while I tried to handle another was a gigantic pain in the ass.  I redid the dress nail five or six times, re-drew items for the witch a dozen times (I first tried to draw her warty nose.  awful idea.  just awful.), and I was irritated that the Tin Man's rivets smeared, but way too lazy to go fix it.

Now that I've sufficiently castigated myself for mistakes, how cute is this??  It's 100% not work appropriate, so I had to take it off that night, so excuse the crappy lighting.  My husband correctly identified every character, which left me confident that it made sense.  I think outside of my explaining it to anyone, it might just look like a mish-mash of stuff, but with the explanation, I'm pretty proud of my first foray into...ummm, interpretive nails?  Manicure fever?  I don't know. 

And for your viewing pleasure, some close-ups

    

Princess of the Cold

I follow Zoya on Facebook, sign up!  be a pal to them! and they're big proponents of showcasing designs that highlight their polishes.  They put up a photo of something at My Style where they had used an off-white and Electra, from Zoya's Ornate holiday line, to do a drip manicure.

Now let me first say that this is another new-to-me art technique that I was more than happy to spend a Saturday slaughtering.  The photo (which I now can't get to come up) was gorgeous, so I set to work.

First stop?  Basic white with Zoya Purity

So fresh and so clean clean.

Then I laid down one coat of Essie Pure Pearlfection, which I did not photograph because...why.  Then I set to work dragging piles of Electra down the nail in a rough "drop" pattern.  This is a lot harder to do than you would think for two reasons:

1.  I'm not a cyborg with perfect control of both my dominant and non-dominant hands.  One set of nails was clearly better than the other.

2.  Electra is a bar glitter, so forcing that into round shapes was a pain in the butt times one million.

It sparkles!  It sticks you with bar claws when you scratch your face!

I was pretty happy with it, truth be told.  It had a fierce amount of glitter in the sun, and it definitely had that "Winter Ice Princess" vibe to it.  But those piles of Electra that I formed to drag down quickly became never drying balls of sharp glitter rage.  It lasted about fifteen minutes before I cleaned the whole thing off.

Be well, sharp sparkles - we hardly knew ye.

Halloween Part Two: The Sloppiness Continues

I want to love new nail art so badly, but the perfectionist Type A creep in me is always huffy about how sloppy first attempts look.

Chalkboard Nails has a bunch of amazingly talented and creative tutorials, and as I was flipping through I saw the ruffle and knew I had to try it.  I have a dotting tool!  I have at least nine colors of polish!  I have an evening of time to kill!  This will be so great!

:-|

Zoya Storm for a black base and the Ruffles are:

Essie Mojito Madness, Zoya Reagan, Essie Licorice, Zoya Suri, and Zoya Arizona

Not quite a fail, but not quite a success.  Sucmess.

Gaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh why do I insist on painting before dry??  WHY WHY WHY.  That topcoat smeared the bejesus out of my ring finger nail, so after twenty minutes of quasi-careful dot application, it got all crapped up anyway.  I did a better job on my thumb, but I was still playing with pressure and surface, so it's not super great either.  The black got all up in my cuticles/skin and would not come out, so I put a topcoat on all of it and called it a night.  It is a second look, so that works for me.  I have to also say that after Zoya Aurora, Zoya Storm and its holo glitter is a bit of a disappointment.  Don't get me wrong, it's definitely there, but it's not near the gorgeous love that Aurora is, and it's a bummer.

I'll definitely be trying the ruffle manicure later, maybe using the fall greens, and really taking my time.  She does such a cute job, so I know that it's possible.

Dark Meet Light

When I first tried China Glaze Luxe and Lush, from the Hunger Games Collection, I wasn't super wowed.  It was great, but the pieces are so large and I'm so lazy, so organizing it on the nail would have to wait.  Cut to last night, after the crappy Halloween manicure, when I opted to give it another shot.

I'm so glad that I did.

Essie Bobbing For Baubles and China Glaze Luxe and Lush

So flake-y!
But in a different way than your friend who keeps bailing on you to hang out with her boyfriend.

The combination of the super dark blue of Bobbing for Baubles, and the highly reflective shards in Luxe and Lush just gives this a gorgeous look.  The flakes flash copper and gold mostly, but in the sun you'll get green and teal blue as well.  I also think that this is one of those flakes that will look different depending on your base color, and you'll need one; this is not pretty all by itself.  I tried that first, and not only is it a huge gummy mess, the opacity is shady because you have to blob it on and spread it around, guaranteeing yourself cuticles full of glitter chunks.

I promise that I will take more superepicfail pictures when things don't turn out so you can learn from my mistakes.  This blogging thing is still pretty new to me and it's not until I'm in front of the thing that I even think about it.

Confession:  I'm also using my cell phone camera.  WHICH takes okay pictures but is still the cell camera.  I'm sorry that I just let you down, Internet.

Halloween 1; A Lesson Learned

It's got kind of a horror movie feel to the title, no?

HALLOWEEN THE FIRST:  THEY NEVER SAW IT COMING

Now with more teenagers trying to get to the attic!

Always the attic.  Never, you know, the shed where they keep the garden shears or bags of fertilizer that could act as a blinding agent.

Anywho, today I have the first of my many Halloween manicure ideas, but this one is unique in that I hated it immediately.  I hate when I picture something and it doesn't come out well because not only is it a waste of time, it's a huge waste of polish.  And we can't have that!

Zoya Suri for the base and the accent nails also contain

Essie Mojito Madness, Zoya Arizona, and Essie Licorice

Meh.  Just a big steaming pile of meh.

I put the topcoat, Out the Door, on way too quickly after painting because I was involved in watching Law & Order: SVU, and I smeared it.  I wasn't crazy about the dots anyway, and that green in the marble looks like a shark fang to me.

And we all know that old internet colloquialism:

"What has been seen, cannot be unseen"

Although, speaking of unseen, these pictures do not reflect the very subtle holographic shimmer in Zoya Suri.  It's the most perfect dark purple, and that hint of shimmer really puts it over the top.  The first coat is almost opaque, and if you do thicker coats, you could absolutely get away with singles, though I always do two to be safe.  It's the first bottle I've had to re-buy, as I am already halfway through it.

After five minutes of frowning at my hands, I took to the acetone and erased the heinousness for another try.

Surprise Me

So after the disgust of the sponge gone wrong, I decided to stick with a base and glitter.  A "getting back to the roots", if you will.

My stash has grown considerably since a few months ago, so I'm having a harder time choosing new shades instead of sticking to my old favorites.  I am not the kind of person to gamble, as I hate losing money/time for what is not a guaranteed thing.  But I dug deep and found a polish I had bought a while ago and not sampled yet.

Essie School of Hard Rocks and Zoya Chloe

Man these macro shots are completely unforgiving.

If you have not gone to investigate the goodness that is the Zoya flake collection, then run to this link and grab what they've got.  Right now, they have stock of the two I have and love, Chloe and Opal.  Chloe is a gorgeous yellow to orange shift with green as well, pictured above.  Opal is a straight blue to green shift that just sparkles in every light.

Getting back to the above, how much do you love the soft forest green with the orange flake?  Because I adore it.  I'm so glad I committed to the unknown, because I have a new manicure love.  It's perfect for the green fall trends, and interesting enough that if I had to keep it a few days, I wouldn't be ready to swipe it off the second I got home.

How To Ruin Gorgeous Polish

I was a thrilled recipient of the three polishes I ordered from the Zoya Ornate collection this Friday.  I'm a huge holo fan for all things, not just nail polish, so I bought Storm (black creme base with holo glitter), Aurora (purple jellyish base with holo glitter), and Electra (clear base with holo bar glitter).

I swatched them quickly, as we were leaving for a mini cabin getaway that afternoon, and loveloveLOVED Aurora.  It's the most beautiful shade of Purple/Berry, and the holo glitter is reflective in all lights.  How did I ruin it?  Glad you asked.

Not wanting to be a cell phone picture taker, I brought out the legit camera to see if I could up my photo game with this lovely polish.  I present to you the best of what I took, which will henceforth be known as "Exhibit A":

Zoya Aurora

Like a crazy looking bird, my hand yearns for the sky.

It was my attempt to get some natural lighting and clean-ish background up in this piece, and to try and capture some of the gorgeous glitter.  Naturally, I didn't think about the fact that in order to get light, you must face IT, and not the ground.  D'oh.  You'll get to enjoy a picture of my patio/fall dead grass one day!

So that night, I'm jonesing for a new manicure, but I don't want to take Aurora off - she's just too good!  So I think "I'll sponge some black tips on, like that thing I saw on Pinterest once!".  Insert "Exhibit B":

Zoya Aurora with Essie Licorcie sponged on.

So crappy, and yet...so confident.

Yes, a massive failure in both technique of application, and photography.  This is my right hand, so you can see how I have held my pen for decades has smooshed an indentation onto my ring finger.  No amount of pushing back will help her out, poor thing.

I was disgusted and removed the awful that night, and gave myself a new paint job that I was skeptical about at first, but ended up loving.  Once I get some decent light, I'll photograph and post.