Lilac And Lavender Ombre Manicure

Greetings Lovely Ladies!

I'm loving the lilacs and lavenders lately.  Lastly, a little layer of floral stamping, leaves a lingering impression on this lightly holo ombre look.  I had to let loose with the L's because who can say 'lilac and lavender' without wanting to string a slew of L words after it?  Right?  Ok, it's out of my system now.

I'm doing a little (a lot) fall cleaning this week, in preparation for a visit from my Dad.  I don't mind my house being a bit out of sorts on an average day. Functional disorder is acceptable for me because we're a pretty busy family and I gave up any delusions of environmental perfection years ago. I have two boys so perfection doesn't exist anywhere in my world.  But when Dad and Mama D say they're coming to visit, my head explodes and I convulse into fits of panic because I know it's impossible to pull my house together enough to make them think that I run a tight ship and have it all together.  Nope, the truth comes out when they come to town. As much as I try to pretend, I don't have it all together, and most of the time I'm just floundering through each day trying to keep order and get the important things done in a reasonable amount of time.  I know they don't have crazy expectations and I'm sure they don't think my home sucks, (because it doesn't) but I have this thing about impressing them.  It's this unnecessary and unrealistic compulsion that I have to make them proud of me that I can't seem to put into perspective.  And it's just them.  Anybody else could come visit and I straighten up like everybody does before they have company.  But Dad and Mama D aren't just anybody. They're the two people in my life who I respect and look up to more than anybody else.  What they think matters.  And even though they are the most non-judgmental people on the planet, that somehow makes it even more important that I don't screw up.  It's a vicious cycle. 

To keep myself from driving myself crazy, I have to make a reality list of things to do and not do. I can include things like washing the dishes and scrubbing the floor and cross out retile the kitchen backsplash and add wainscoting around the walls.  I can add vacuum the carpet and take out the trash rather than repaint the walls, strip the paint off the furniture and re-stain the tables.  See how I have to keep things in perspective?  So, I will refrain from rushing out to buy new dishes, new curtains and new furniture and instead, settle for something more along the lines of picking up groceries and a jar of Dad's favorite instant coffee.

With reasonable expectations on myself, I can feel my blood pressure going down.  Ok, I can see where to start now.  Toss in a load of laundry, do the dishes, and vacuum.  Great start. Oh, I can't forget, Mohinder Suresh needs his fish bowl cleaned, and the plants could use a drink of water. 

I'm out of panic mode. Now I just have to stay sane and stick to the revised, realistic list.  Wish me lots of luck.

Ciao for now!

 

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!

The New Spicy Mustard Polish By Little Black Dress Nail Lacquer

Hi ladies,

Before I get started with todays manicure I'm going to ask you to do something for me. Follow @LittleBlackDressPolish on instagram. I'll wait while you do that...

Ok, you're back. I have one more thing to ask of you (last one), take a look through the Little Black Dress online store. You can find it here. Or you can use this link https://www.etsy.com/shop/littleblackdressnail. 

That took a little longer, didn't it?  Well, thank you so much. You've been great. don't forget to pass on the word!  

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's move on to today's manicure.

I used a couple of techniques to achieve this look. First, I applied a coat of a spicy yellow mustard polish and sponged an ombre effect using a green polish.  Last, I stamped a pattern using a gold MdU polish. 

When you were looking through the Little Black Dress shop, you probably ran across this Spicy Mustard Pantone Fall 2016 polish. It's one of the popular polishes chosen by the Pantone Institute for the fall season this year. This polish is a warm yellow with flecks of "spice". A perfect color for the season. 

I'll feature more of these popular seasonal colors in future posts so keep a watch out for them. You'll find sneak peaks of pre-released polishes, and you'll be able to purchase them here before they even hit the market. How great is that!.

Till next time,

Ciao Bellas!

A Nature Walk In Lieu Of A Much Needed Spa Day

Hi Ladies,

September is here! And I'm excited for the upcoming Labor Day weekend.  School started a few weeks ago, and I still haven't gotten into the swing of things. I'm trying really hard to keep everything running relatively smoothly, but I seem to keep running into little hiccups along the way. Already, I could use a vacation. Better yet, a few hours in a spa or a mindful yoga class or group meditation activity.  I'm dreaming of a spa day, but my cousin (the one person who I would enjoy a spa day with the most) is unavailable.  So, I'm going to wait.  In the meantime, I'm going to find time for a nature walk to clear my head. 

This manicure was inspired by the relaxing restfulness of nature and the peaceful cleansing it brings. 

I used reverse stamping for the leaves, and a chevron patterned stamping plate on which I painted shades of green and blue for an ombre effect.  I used a clear base coat.

I'm gonna go take that walk now.

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.

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

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.