Bright Colors With A Chevron Pattern

Hello friends,

A few months ago I bought chevron patterned tape just to try it out.  I'm not fond of the pattern, but the whole chevron thing is pretty popular right now. I used a few bright colors since fall is soon upon us and I want to hold onto the warm weather just a little longer.  I'm a July baby, so me + hot weather = happiness and bliss.
Ciao for now!

Pink and Purple Gradient Stamping

Hi friends,
I have a super quick pic for you today.  I'm running behind on some non-polish related things so I haven't had a lot of time to dedicate to my nails. Right now I'm wearing a blue polish. That's it, just blue.  No sparkles, no glitter, no rhinestones or stamping.  No gradient or water marble (I don't do those anyway). So it will be another "What's wrong with your nails? Are you ok?" sort of day.  I'm having a bad nail day, alright!

I hope to have more for you tomorrow.
Ciao for now.

Electric Nights - A Sparkly Purple Manicure

Hello ladies,
Today I wanted, no...I needed glimmery shimmer glitter. I felt a bit under the weather this weekend and glitter was an absolute necessity to restore me. Color didn't matter, finish didn't matter. I just needed glitter. So, I aimlessly grabbed a bottle of polish (which happened to be purple), and happily finished off the manicure with enough shimmery glitter to satisfy.
Ahhh, just what the doctor ordered. I am restored.

Ciao for now.

 

A Graduated Purple Manicure With Floral Touch

Hello friends,
I haven't done a gradient is a while. Todays manicure would have been simple gradient stripes, but, I decided to add a stamped floral print over my pinky and ring fingers. 

I forgot how much I enjoyed gradients. I'll have to do another soon.
Till next time, Ciao Bellas!

MdU Velvet, Zoya Caitlin, Zoya Isa

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello friends,
Are you excited about sitting around the table with friends and family? Or are you planning to enjoy a not so traditional Thanksgiving day?  We always visited family, or had family over for dinner, but things changed last year, this time, when my husband lost his fight with cancer.  This year, we're spending the day with others who may not have loved ones to share the day with. We decided to help make someone elses Thanksgiving the best it can be. So we're bringing food and cheer to seniors in a nearby  retirement home. My boys are looking forward to it, and I am too. We're thankful to be able to brighten someone else's holiday.

This is the second of two manicures I did for the occasion. The first one seemed more appropriate for Christmas. I think, subconsciously, I was jumping ahead a few weeks. So, I decided to do something that was decidedly in the spirit of turkey day by adding a turkey and colorful feathers to a rustic gradient background.  Initially, I told myself I wouldn't put turkeys on my fingers, but I ended up doing just that. And it worked!

Share your Thanksgiving mani details in the comments below. What colors did you use? Enjoy the holiday, and try not to get too stuffed.
I'll post again later in the week.
Ciao for now.

A Green/Gold Antique Fall Gradient

Hi friends,
Today I have a gradient in green/gold, that's similar to the earth-tone one from yesterday. I used the same center to edge technique with three colors. Again, I added a little stamp on the middle nail. Does this look antiquey (not really a word) to you?


Here's what I used.

Calypso by Sinful Colors, She-She by Dermelect,
Just Spotted the Lizzard by OPI, Forest by MdU

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I'm considering doing this technique using blue, orange or purple. Which would you like to see?

Ciao for now.

A Leathery Gradient For Fall

Good day lovelies,
I'm finally getting into the mood for fall.  I dug into my closet and stored away my summer/spring clothes and pulled out my fall/winter clothes and boots. I even purchased a few infinity scarves to accessorize my wardrobe. Actually, I bought more than a few scarves, (Burlington has a nice selection, great prices too).  But I won't get into that. (Can't go over my budget, I still have tuition to pay.) Of course, I had to pick up a few polishes as well. I've been really impressed with the Sinful Colors brand lately. You can't beat the price. I find myself reaching for those over my beloved Zoya and China Glaze. Often you'll find Sinful Colors in top 10 or top 15 lists of best polishes.

When I pulled out a few of my new fall Sinful Colors polishes, I couldn't decide which ones to use. So I settled on a gradient design so that I could use three. I didn't go for the cuticle to tip gradient, or side to side gradient. Instead, I went for a center to edge design that gives an aged look, or the illusion of shadows. Since I used earth tones, it kind of reminds me of old leather.  I threw in a couple of leaves for good measure.

Here's what I used.

Sinful Colors Rich  In Heart, High Spirits, Copper Pot, Mundo de Unas Copper

In direct sunlight

Tomorrow I'll have a similar design. I want to try this technique again. Any suggestions on colors?
Ciao for now.

31 Day Challenge: Day 10 Gradient Nails

31DC2015 Gradient Nails

I had a rough time with this one.  Three tries. THREE TRIES, DO YOU HEAR ME!! If at first you don't succeed, try try again, but after THREE TRIES give up.  That's my motto. Ain't nobody got time for that!

Attempt number one

Can you see the orange to red to purple gradient? NO! I didn't even bother to photo attempt number two. Not worth the kilobytes. So, I ended up with what you see at the top of this blog. Not bad, but not what I was going for. Maybe I should have added some glitter. Glitter fixes everything.

Here's what I used (I forgot to add the silver MdU).

Tomorrow is Polka dot day. Yay for polka dots, so happy. Have you ever seen a morbid polka dot design? Nope. Let's hope I don't make that a reality.

Ciao for now.

31 Day Challenge Day 5: Blue Nails

#31DC2015 Day 5 Blue Nails

Hi guys. Looks like I did it. I created a blue manicure without any teal involved. Hard work pulling my hands back from reaching for the mermaid teal, then the light sparkling teal, then the... you get the picture. As I shuffled through my stuff searching for inspiration for today's mani, I came across a package of french manicure tape. I had a few different shapes to choose from, but I decided on one with a hard angle. Just something different than a regular french manicure. I played around with the tape and after wasting a few I settled on this design. Let's see if I can describe how I did this.  Ok, I started with a simple light to dark blue gradient. I top coated with a quick dry top coat to make sure I didn't destroy the gradient with tape. Once the top coat was dry I added the tape and did another gradient, just over the nails with the tape.  This time,  light sparkling blue silver to dark sparkling blue. Off came the tape and on went a top coat of my favorite, Seche Vite. There you have it.


Here's what I used.

Come back to see tomorrow's violet manicure.
Ciao for now.

O.P.I. Paints review

It seems that everyone is jumping on the blendable nail polish band wagon. First, O.P.I. came out with their Color Paints collection, then Sephora with Formula X Infinite Ombre limited edition set.  Now, Morgan Taylor has Laquer Chrome Collection. What's next, China Glaze Silver Chromatic Backdrop Collection?


What's similar about these sets?  They're all two-step processes that start with a silver color base coat followed by one or more sheer polishes.

I purchased a mini set of O.P.I. Color Paints because I'm not so excited about the polishes.  I didn't want to commit to full size bottles.  The concept is nice, but I didn't look forward to testing them out.  But, test them I did, because I wanted to give you guys, my wonderful readers, a bit of information about them.  The O.P.I. Color Paints set has a silver base color called Silver Canvas Undercoat.  Then there are 5 color polishes-- Primarily Yellow, Chromatic Orange, Pen & Pink, Purple Perspective and Turquoise Aesthetic (what, no Green Screen?).

It started off simple enough.  The silver applied smoothly, and looked nice enough to wear on its own. Then I continued to make two failed attempts at creating colorful designs before I was satisfied with a wearable manicure.  I would like to show you the fails....no, I really don't want to show the fails. As a matter of fact, I didn't bother to take a picture of the second one.  But I can reveal my final attempt.  I was satisfied only after I stamped over the polishes with Konad Blue Pearl (I think that's the name).

I plan to continue to use the polishes, but probably as a single color over chrome and a simple stripe or two.  Then I'll throw a bunch of glitter over the whole thing and you won't see any of it anyway.  Glitter covers a multitude of ...errors

Unfortunately, I'll have to work with the multi-colored paint over chrome design concept one more time.  I accidentally purchased the Sephora Formula X Infinite Ombre set.  I placed a ridiculously low bid on EBay assuming that I wouldn't win, and by fluke, I won the bid.  So to be fair, I have to review it as well.  However, after Formula X I'm done with the base chrome concept and Morgan Taylors Chrome Collection won't be crossing my threshold.  Sorry Morgan.

Dear Diary -- July 10: A trip to the aquarium

Dear Diary,

Mom and Dad were in town for the holiday weekend and we took the boys to the National Aquarium at the Baltimore Harbor.  We had a great time.  I wanted to take lots of pictures, but soon after we arrived my phone died.  I had forgotten my camera and I didn't have a charger so I had to rely on my resident teen photographer.  I think he did a great job.  I didn't have to edit a thing.

His superb photography work inspired me to do a seaside manicure.  I used a few China Glaze polishes for my gradient, and a Sally Hansen Triple Shine glitter polish for a little sparkle.

For Audrey and DJ Blue My Mind by China Glaze
Broadway Boogie by Loreal

I couldn't resist a mermaid, sail boat and palm trees.

Now I have Jelly fish on the brain.  Hmmmm.....

Blue and purple peacock manicure

I recently purchased a set of Kleancolor polishes and was anxious to try them out. 

The set included six metallic polishes and six holographic polishes.  This was my first experience with the Kleancolor brand and I was reluctant.  For $14.68 (EBay) I got 12 polishes which amounts to $1.22 per bottle!  Honestly, my expectations were pretty low because of the price.

The six metallic colors in the set were vibrant.  The polish was a good consistency and they applied smoothly and evenly, without streaking.  I wasn't quite as impressed with the holographic set, but the metallics were great.

Metallic set



Holographic set

Right away I wanted to try the metallic polishes, so I did a simple gradient manicure to test them out.

For this manicure I used 5 polishes. 

'Metallic Aqua', 'Metallic Fuschia', 'Bubbly Bombshell', '
Twinkle', and 'There's No Place Like Chrome'

After my base coat, I applied a single coat of Kleancolor's 'Metallic Aqua' (the blue one on the left) and allowed it to dry.  I was satisfied with the single coat because I would be sponging a few coats over it. Otherwise, the formula for the metallic polishes is completely opaque in two coats.  With a cosmetic wedge, I created the gradient effect using 'Metallic Aqua' and 'Metallic Fuschia' (the purple one).  If you would like a detailed tutorial on how to do a gradient manicure please leave me a comment and I will demonstrate the technique.

Once I was satisfied with the results, I used two glitter polishes to give the manicure a little pizzazz.  I'm addicted to anything that sparkles.  I dabbed on the glitters similarly to how I did the polishes.  The purple glitter is 'Bubbly Bombshell' by OPI and the blue one, which has flecks of purple throughout, was 'Twinkle' by Milani.  I believe the Milani polish is an old formula and you may have a hard time finding it.  If you like it, I would suggest you try EBay.

Finally, I used Born Pretty stamping plate BP-04 to stamp a peacock using Essie's 'There's no Place Like Chrome' polish, which is a good silver stamping polish by the way.

Porn Pretty plate BP-04



Have you tried polishes by Kleancolor?  What are your experiences with the brand? Leave me a comment below.