Rainbow Star Stamped Manicure (fail-ish)

Howdy, everyone!  Today (well, late last night really) I tried my hand at some stamping.  I rarely do anything with stamps, mostly because my plates kind of suck.  I've got some new ones coming from Born Pretty Store (btw, feel free to use the code in the side bar for 10% off your order with them) so I'm hoping those will be a bit better.  If you'd like to see some examples of excellent stamping, I urge you to check out Kimber's Lacquer Korner.  She's a real expert at it and I'm in awe of her skillz!

Anywho, on to my stamping attempt.

I started here with 2 coats of Tidal Wave by Sinful Colors, a barely-there-baby-blue creme.  To create the rainbow effect for the stamping, I dropped 3 different polishes on the plate before scraping it in several directions.  Llarowe posted a little tutorial on her facebook about the technique last week, so I thought I'd give it a shot.  I used China Glaze Sunday Funday, Barielle Cosmic Kiss, and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Limestone.

I'm reasonably happy with the result.  In fact, since this was my THIRD attempt at stamping last night, I'm freakin' thrilled to have accomplished this much.  Seriously, new plates cannot get here fast enough!  As you can see from my thumbnail in the above photo, the images on these plates really aren't large enough to cover all my nails, even when I manage to line it up perfectly...which really doesn't happen that often lol
 

How about you guys?  Are you master stampers?  Or novices like me?  Any tips?

Before I sign off for the evening, I want to remind you all to enter my Birthdanniversary Giveaway.  I've got 3 prize packs up for grabs and only about 20 people have entered so far, so those are pretty good odds!  The giveaway is open through July 18th, so don't miss out!

Thanks so much for reading!

Happy Independence Day! Or The Inevitiable July 4th Manicure

Hi everyone!  May you all have a lovely 4th of July, if you live in the States....if not, have a lovely Thursday!

This is my stars and stripes manicure.  Red, white and blue is such a classic combination, isn't it?  :)
 

I've got a polish list coming, if you're interested!  Stay safe and have a great holiday, everyone! Thanks for reading :)

Polish List:
Sinful Colors~Snow Me White
Pure Ice~Freedom
Zoya~Liberty
China Glaze~Ride the Waves
NYC~Big Apple Red
Wet 'n' Wild~Stars & Stripes
Wet 'n' Wild Fergie~Hollywood Walk of Fame

Pigtails and Purple Nails

Howdy, everyone!  College football season is really heating up and my Wildcats are still in the thick of it!  They beat Oklahoma State today 44-30.  It's really such an exciting and inspirational season for K-State fans and I can't wait to see what happens in the next month!  But anyway, on to the nails, which is what you all are waiting for lol  

Here I started with 2 coats of Purple Pulse by Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure.  PP is a gorgeous purple frost with blue and red flecks.  On my thumbnail, I used Wet 'n' Wild's Fast Dry in Stars & Stripes.  My index finger is stenciled with Diamonds Are Forever by Revlon.  I stamped and free-handed the "KSU" on my middle finger using Sinful Colors' Bad Chick.  On my ring finger, I sprinkled purple flocking powder over a still-wet base coat and tamped it down so it would stick.  The flocking powder is from Michael's Recollections line.  And, finally, my pinkie has an animal print using Diamonds Are Forever again and a black striping polish.

I though this turned out really fun and you can't blame the slow start on me this time, as this was done Friday night long before midnight lol

Here's a shot of my right hand:

My cuticles are starting to get a bit ragged.  I'm really kind of a slacker when it comes to taking care of them...I have to be more diligent about it or I'm gonna end up with sandpaper around my nails!

Oh! Here's a picture of my pigtails that I wear every game day as well:

Thanks so much for reading!

Happy Accident

Howdy everyone!  We're halfway through the week, how's everyone feeling?  If you're like me, you can't wait for Friday.  I actually have the day off Friday and I'm thinking I might go get a massage.  I received a gift certificate to a local spa for my birthday from a friend and I'm thinkin' it might be time to cash it in.  

I wanted to put up some photos of my nails today.  This is a good example of how mistakes can often become happy accidents.  I was trying out a new stamping plate and instead of getting the whole design, I only got a partial.  At first I was frustrated, but then I decided I like the abstract feel of the partial stamp anyway so I stamped all my nails that way.  Here's how it came out:

I started with 2 coats of Peachy Keen by China Glaze (another from my weekend Ulta spree) and stamped over top with Luxe from Orly.  Luxe is my favorite gold of all time.  It reminds me of the look of gold leaf or foil and the effect is just marvelous.  I thought the color combo worked well here, too.  It reminds me of that marble with the gold veins running through it.  So you can see the original pattern of the stamp was a bunch of stars.  I'll give this pattern another try with a thicker polish and see if I can get a clearer outcome in the future, but as far as oopsies go, this turned out alright.

I'll be posting my first manicure for the Nail-aween Challenge tomorrow so be sure to stop by and check it out!  Thanks for reading!

28 of 31: Nails Inspired by a Flag

Howdy, everyone, hope your weekends are going well.  Mine is shaping up well, went to see Pitch Perfect this afternoon and was thoroughly entertained.  I highly suggest it if you're a Glee fan.  I thought I was going to be able to type this post up on my shiny new SmartPhone, but apparently the phone is smarter than me and I couldn't figure out how to Enter to start a new paragraph.  Quite frustrating.  Anyway, I'm already a day late on this post so we shall get down to business :)  

Today's challenge was to design a manicure inspired by a flag.  Being in love with me city as I still am after almost 5 years, I chose to use the Chicago flag for my inspiration.  

 There's quite a bit of symbolism involved in this flag, if you're interested in it, check out the wikipedia article here.  I thought it was a great design to reproduce in a manicure.  The colors and the simple shapes translate well in polish.  Here's what I came up with:

I started with one coat each of Wet 'n' Wild's Wild Shine in French White Creme and MAC's Vestral White.  For the blue stripes, I used China Glaze in For Audrey.  The stars are done with a red striping polish. I got to wear this out and about in the city today and I got a lot of compliments on it.  I applied my Seche Vite a little too soon though, so there are some spots in the white where it turned a little pink.  Other than that, I'm really happy with it.  Here's another look:

I'll be posting my supernatural challenge nails here in a bit, so check back to see them!  Thanks for reading!

19 of 31: Galaxy Nails

Howdy, everyone!  I've got some galaxy nails for you today.  I've done galaxies once before and so I wanted to try something with a different color palette this time.  I went for the darker side of things...whaddya think?

 I don't think I can even begin to list all the colors I used.  I know I started, once again, with 2 coats of Sonia Kashuk in Rock Star but after that it gets a little fuzzy lol  I had a lot of trouble with this manicure and had to start over once.  I'll include a list at the end of this post if you're interested in knowing exactly which colors I used.  Galaxy nails are really one of my favorite manicures ever.  The way the colors sponge on and look kind of like a mess until that top coat goes on is just magic every time!  There are tons of tutorials for this technique online and it's pretty easy to do, so grab as many colors as you want and give it a try...you know you want to!

Colors used:
NYC Long wearing in Luxury Lime Creme
Milani 3D Holographic in 3D
Milani Jewel FX in Gold 
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in For Sher-bert
Sally Hansen Diamond Strong in Something Blue
Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine in French White Creme
Wet 'n' Wild Megalast in I Need a Refresh-Mint

I think that's everything!  Thanks so much for reading and check out tomorrow's challenge; water marble!

Sparkley Red, White, & Blue

Howdy and Happy 4th of July to all the U.S. readers!  Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays...I mean, who doesn't love a government sanctioned day of blowing stuff up?  I got to celebrate the day by going to see Magic Mike this afternoon.  I liked the movie, I know it's getting some mixed reviews, but I found it entertaining.  Could have used a bit more Dancing Channing, but certainly a fair amount of eye candy involved.

 I also went to a White Sox game with my uncle and cousin who are in town...it was a fun time, but man! is it hot out there!  I moved from Kansas to Chicago partly so I wouldn't have to endure 100 degree summers any more.  How silly of me!

 Anyway, on to the manicure for the day!  Of course the 4th of July calls for something red, white, and blue with a good amount of sparkle thrown in.  I found this mani from Nailside and decided to do a version of it myself.  I think it turned out pretty well.

I started with 2 coats of Wet 'n' Wild's Fast Dry in Saved by the Blue; a bright royal blue shimmer.  For the striped nails, I used my 1/4 inch art tape and taped off lines then painted Revlon's Diamonds Are Forever which is a super shiny silver metallic polish.  

For the "fireworks" on my thumb and ring fingers, I tapped off sections and painted on a coat of Wet 'n' Wild's Wild Shine in Red Red, which definitely lives up to its name by being a true cherry red creme.  While that was still wet and before taking the tape off, I added a quick layer of Julep's America-the Beautiful, a red, blue and silver glitter with silver stars.  After that dried, I taped off another section and painted on Diamonds Are Forever.  I topped those nails off with some stars from a Cina Nail Art kit and from Wet 'n' Wild's Fast Dry Stars & Stripes.

My pinky finger got some of the stars from the Cina kit as well and then I finished all the nails off with a coat of Wet 'n' Wild's Wild Shine in Kaleidoscope, a small holographic glitter in a clear base.  Kaleidoscope is one of my favorites for a topcoat, it looks like a disco ball on your nails!  In fact, if I didn't know or didn't care how difficult glitter is to remove, I might try to do enough coats of it to cover my whole nail.  But I'm not sure I have the patience for clean up.

Sorry for the long-winded detail here.  I keep this blog mostly for a record of the manicures I've done, so I know how I did them, in case I feel the need to recreate some of them in the future.  I definitely appreciate everyone who comes to take a look and I hope you all enjoy reading my posts.  However, I totally understand if all you do is look at the pictures lol  In any case, thanks as always for stopping by!

Galaxy Nails

Good evening (or morning as the case may be)!  Is everyone as ready for the end of this week as I am?  It's been a very productive week for me both at work and at home, but I'll be happy to see the back end of it.

Tonight, I have a fun manicure that turned out so much better than I thought it would.  I know everyone has seen "Galaxy" nails and there are as many different ways to do this manicure as there are people who've done it.  For my manicure, I used this tutorial that I found via Pinterest initially.  If you don't know what Pinterest is, I urge you to click that link and check it out!

Anyway, here is my result! 

Aren't they fun??  I cannot wait to see these in the sunlight!  For my version (following the above tutorial), I started with two coats of China Glaze First Mate, which is a really deep navy.  Then I used one coat of Sinful Colors Frenzy; a small purple and light blue glitter in a clear base.  Over that, I sponged Wet n Wild's Wild Shine in French White, Sinful Colors Olympia and Cinderella, China Glaze For Audrey and O.P.I. Grape...Set...Match.  Whew!  I sponged a little First Mate back over the edges and finished the sponge part with a little Wet n Wild's Wild Shine Black Creme in the corners and where ever I thought a little more depth was needed.  Wet n Wild's Fastdry Beautiful But Dangerous went on top of all the sponging, followed by a few dots of white "stars" using a tiny brush.  Finished with a coat of Seche Vite, this manicure is out of this world!  (See what I did there? Tee hee!)

The depth and color in this manicure is fantastic and I'll definitely be doing these again with some different colors.  And my current best manicure tip is to get yourself a bottle of pure acetone: it's unrivaled for cuticle clean-up!  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Celestial

Hello and welcome!  I hope everyone had a great week.  Today marked the beginning of the NATO Summit craziness here in Chicago, well, not really the beginning as protests started a few days ago.  However, I think Saturday ought to be the really "exciting" day.  How I wish I didn't have to go to work!

Anyway, to take my mind off of the craziness, I went polish shopping today!  Wet n Wild has a new Stars & Stripes line which consists entirely of larger glitter polishes.  I bought 6 bottles at CVS :)  They retail for $1.99 and CVS had a buy one, get one 1/2 off sale so it was totally worth it!

I started this manicure yesterday with two coats of Sally Hansen's Nail Prisms in Lapis Amethyst.  I did a subtle gradient over that with Sally's HD Hi-Definition Nail Color in Laser.  Lapis Amethyst is a bit more subdued than the Turquoise Opal I used in my last post; the duochrome isn't as evident in this one.  Laser is a gorgeous glittery royal blue and purple shade that I got for half-price at Walgreen's on Wednesday.  I liked the effect of the polishes together but it was missing something.  And, today, I found it:
 

Introducing Wet n Wild's Fast Dry Nail Color in Stars & Stripes.  I literally gasped when I saw this on the shelf this morning.  I have quite a few glitters, but I did not own a star-shaped holographic mylar glitter with little stripes of holographic mylar glitter in the same bottle...now I do!  I really love this polish!!  Here's a closer view.

You can see the holographic effect on the stars on my pinky in this one.  This manicure is so sparkly, I can't wait to check it out in the abundant sunshine we of the Windy City are supposed to have tomorrow.  And speaking of Saturday, if you're in the area, come check out Pets @ Paulina at Roscoe, Lincoln and Paulina by the Brown Line stop.  The merchants of Paulina Station are sponsoring nine different pet adoption groups.  They'll be there with foster animals and applications for adoption.  Even if you have reached your pet quota, stop on by and say hi!  Thanks for reading!