Stamping Test

I have used quit a few polishes lately that were one coaters.  Naturally, I wanted to see if they would be good stamping polishes.  Since I am Going Naked this week, I thought it was a good time to do a test before I change my REBUILD.  Here are the ones I tried

Zoya Noel, Confetti Rock the Night Away, SC Midnight Blue, CC Revvvolution, CG Agro

I decided to do the same as my last Stamping Test and used the Zebra image on the Konad M57 plate.  I was very hopeful for these polishes, but was quit disappointed.  The test images are in the same order as the polish pic above, starting with the pinky.  Looking at both pictures, I guess I did this backwards, OOPS!

Thumb:  CG Agro_This one worked ok.  It looks pretty crisp, but there are some bald spots.  Could be operator error

Index Finger:  CC Revvvolution_ I am sure that I have seen this one stamped before.  I kind of feel the same way about it as I do Agro.  It might work.  Maybe with a different image?

Middle Finger:  SC Midnight Blue_This one actually stamped pretty well.  It's just not as dark as I had hoped.  

Ring Finger:  Confetti Rock the Night Away_This is such a great one coater.  I had high hopes for this one.  As you can see, it does not work at all :(

Pinky:  Zoya Noel_I remember this one being so awesome when I first used it.  High hopes for this one too.  Failed, again :(

Of these 5, I would say that Agro and Midnight Blue stamped the best.  Revvvolution might work out, but I think it will take some trial and error with that one.

Will be on the look out for more great stamping polishes :)

Don't forget to check out my current giveaway HERE

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Going Naked!

Alrighty!  I broke a few nails, BOOOOO!  Two on 1 hand and one on the other.  There was no way to keep one hand as my photo hand.  So I decided it was a good time to go naked for a week or two.  We will see how this goes.  My plan is to do some nail strengthening treatments and see how it goes.  All of them say you can use them over or under polish, but I haven't had a whole lot of luck doing that.  I trimmed my nails down to nubbins, this is what they look like now

Not too bad really.  But my nails are always the weakest at the sides.  It's weird.  And I get a little peeling on my pointer and middle fingers.  I had used the Seche REBUILD for about 2 weeks, which helped with the peely's then moved on to Seche RETAIN.  I am going to start from the beginning and go back to the REBUILD.  Here are the products I plan on using:

This is my game plan

Seche REBUILD:  Apply every day

Biotin:  Take 1 pill a day (I started this about a month ago)

Mango Cuticle Oil (w/jojoba):  Apply at least 2 times a day

Burt's Bee Cuticle Cream:  Apply at least 2 times a day

Hard as Hoof:  Apply 3 times a day

Tru Blue Paraffin Hand Lotion:  Apply at least 3 times a day

This seems like a lot of work, but each step only takes about a minute.  As you can see, this is my PLAN.....we will see what actually happens and I will keep you updated on my nail and hand health.

If you have any recommendations, I would love to hear them :)

Don't forget to check out my giveaway HERE

Giveaway: Sinful Colors Zeus and Neptune

Today we celebrate 100 followers, YAY!! I started this little blog last month and have gotten a lot of support from the nail polish community. I am grateful to friends I have made and new friends to come. I want to thanks Marci from Marci's Nails for being the big 100.

On with the prizes!  I have for you 1 Sinful Colors Zeus and 1 Sinful Colors Neptune.  I am so glad I was able to get these, they were here and gone so fast around here.  If you missed out on these, enter enter enter!
You must be a GFC follower, this giveaway is open internationally and you must be 18 yrs or older.  I will verify entries, please be honest and good luck!

China Glaze: Material Girl

So, it's Sunday.  I don't have an Adventures in Stamping Challenge for you.  This weeks theme was "inspired by music"  I am not gonna lie.  I didn't even try to come up with some thing.  I was so busy these last few days it just wasn't gonna happen.  But, I do have a pretty glitter mani to share.  This is Material Girl from the China Glaze Eye Candy Collection.  I only did 2 coats and it covered very well.  SUPER shiny and sparkly in the sun.  I was very disappointed when it started to chip/peel by the end of the day.  I had 2 more chips the next morning :(  Needless to say, this mani lasted less than 24 hours.  Not sure if there is some thing different I can do next time.  If you have any suggestions, please let me know.  Thanks!!  Here is how it looks when it was all pretty

Base Coat:  Seche Retain

Base Color:  China Glaze  Material Girl

Top Coat:  Sech Vite

Deborah Lippmann: Bad Romance

Today I am just going to show you the new pretty I got this week.  I was able to snag this from a gal in my Polish Group.  She didn't care for it.  But I knew I would!!  I immediately did a quick swatch when I opened my package.  Instant love.  I did a full mani the next day.  She was opaque in 2 coats with no underwear.  As soon as I put on my SV, I couldn't wait to go outside and get some pics.  This one harder to photograph than I thought.  The sun was not cooperating.  When I was all done, I came in to watch a little tv and noticed that my polish wasn't as smooth.  A little dimply.  Not to the touch, just looking at it.  I think next time I will do 2 coats of SV and see what happens.  Here she is in all her glory.

 Now my glory!

Base Coat:  Seche Retain

Base Color:  DL Bad Romance

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

Stamping Test: Silver

Everyone is looking for the best polishes for stamping.  Konad polishes can get kind of pricey, if you don't know where to shop.  I believe that you should have a black and a white.  All other colors can be duped.  I purchased my Konad polishes from HERE.  Honestly, it's not that much more than a regular polish.  Especially when you are buying OPI for around 8.50 and China Glaze for around 7.00 in the stores.  I have been doing a lot of looking around for good stamping polishes.  It's very well known that the Sally Hansen Insa Dri's are great for stamping.  I have purchased more than a few of them.  There are quit a few youtube videos doing comparisons for black and white dupes.  Honestly, I will stick to my Konad.  But, Silver is another story!!  Every one is looking for a great silver and gold.  I haven't found the gold yet.  But I did get a few of the most popular silvers and decided to do a test.  I have the following polishes:

Orly Dazzle, SH I.D. Silver Sweep, Pure Ice Silver Mercedes & SH I.D. Gone Grey

 ( I know, not silver, but I had JUST picked it up and wanted to give it a test)

I decided to use a Konad plate so there were no discrepancies, Konad is the best, there are other great brands, I have a bunch of them, but Konad really is the best.  I used the zebra print because it's a good full image where you can see all the lines.  I used a base coat of WnW Ebony Hates Chris.  The test images are in the same order as the pic above.  Here is how it went:

Dazzle has more shimmer in it, but it stamps really well.  Silver Sweep and Silver Mercedes are almost identical!  For the price, get the Silver Mercedes.  My Walmart has them for less than 2.00.  Last is the Gone Grey.  I didn't think this was going to stamp at all.  It was a little watery, but to my surprise, it stamped pretty good :)

There you have it.   A few different polishes to choose from for your stamping pleasure.  Hope I was able to  help you decide which polish is best for you.  Thanks for looking and Happy Thursday!

ASBMF #6: Ombre

I have another April Showers Bring May Flowers Challenge mani.  Number 6 on the list is Ombre.  I of course, have never done one before.  Surprised?  I would think not.  My stash is not huge and I don't have many variations of the same color.  Actually, I don't think I have any.  I don't buy a polish for the name or bottle.  If I have some thing like it at home, I will pass.  I gotta keep things under control over here. One of the gals in the group posted a link showing how to do an Ombre with just on color.  YAY!!  You can take a look at it HERE.  Super simple and fun.  I chose to go blue using SC Midnight Blue.  It's really pretty and a one coater.  I didn't want to have to do 2 coats of a polish I was mixing by hand.  I used my black and white striper polishes for the add ins.  They are nice and thick which means my one coater would stay that way.  I don't have a paint palette or tiny containers, so I just mixed mine on my plastic mat that I use when I paint my nails.  Worked just fine.  I had an empty bottle of SV so that gave me a clean polish brush.  I did exactly as the directions said.  Painted my middle fingers with the original blue.  Put some on my mat, added a drop of black, mixed and painted my ringer fingers.  Added more blue to my mat and added 2 drops of black, and painted my pinkies.  Did the same with the white, one drop added for my pointer fingers and 2 drops added for my thumbs.  I think it came out great, for a first timer.  What do you think?

Base Coat:  Seche Retain

Base Color:  Sinful Colors Midnight Blue

Added Colors:  L.A. Colors Striper polish in Black and White

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

Check out the other Gals doing the Challenge:

Hannah (Our Creator) from Polished Prisms

April from Munia's Nails

Heidi from DIY Polish & More!

Sue from Creative Nail Design by Sue
Sarah from All This Polish

Katee from A Girl and Her Polish 

Charlotte from Charlotte's Nails

Tess from Football and Fingernails

Karine at Karinea0a

Victoria from Manicurator

Ashley from One Nail To Another

Dani from Rustic Comfort

Amanda from Counting Down to Bliss

Kayono from Neues vom Kellerkind

Teal Tuesday: Accent Nail

Happy Teal Tuesday!  This week's challenge is Accent Nail.  What does that mean?  It means we can do what ever we want as along as there is teal involved, on our accent nail.  I don't think every one uses the same nail as their accent nail.  I have seen all types of mani's.  I prefer to use my ring finger.  Here is what I have for you today, super simple :)

Base Coat:  unknown, had my nails done at the salon

Base Color:  OPI INK

Glitter:  Finger Paints Art You Wondering?

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

P.S. This glitter is awesome, I am betting it's a one coater, I only had to use the sponge once and it was so opaque at the tip.  Can't wait to use it again.  I got it in Red and Blue :)

Say Hello to the other Ladies in the group:

Nails Beautiqued

Geeky Owl

Fancy Phalanges

Color Splash Nails

Gnarly Gnails

Simple-and-Beautiful

Persistent Glitter

No Holos

Adventures in Stamping: Double Stamping

This week's theme over in AIS was a tie between stamping over a gradient base or using 2 stamps.  Our leader decided we could do either or mix them both together.  I voted for the gradient base, but didn't end up doing it.  I went for a mani/pedi last night and I didn't want to take off fresh polish.  So I decided to go with double stamping.  I was looking through my plates and nothing stuck out at me.  Then I realized I hadn't done a zebra print in a while.  But how was I going to double stamp with that?  Here is what I came up with.  My pretty purple zebra with white stripes and a cute little flower in her hair :)  

Base Coat:  Unknown (not sure what the gal at the salon used)

Base Color:  OPI INK

Stamping Plate:  Konad M57

Stamping Polish:  Konad Special White (stripes) and Black (flower)

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

ASBMF #5: A Rainbow after the Rain

It's another mani from the April Showers Bring May Flowers Challenge.  This one is a rainbow after the rain.  I really wanted to do a rainbow.  But I don't have any yellow or orange polish :(  So I had to come up with some thing else.  I recently received a new polish is the mail.  A England Order of the Garter.  It's such a fantastic blue.  I thought it would make for a nice background.  I had to layer it over black, it's pretty sheer on it's own, but I only had to do one coat :)  Now to my rainbow issues.  I had this awesome idea to use rhinestones to do my rainbow.  After thinking about it I didn't want to use a bunch for one nail design.  And I am not a huge fan of tons of stuff on my nails.  I had some square rhinestones I hadn't been able to use yet.  So here is what I came up with.  What do you think?

Base Coat:  Seche Retain

Base Color #1:  Wet N Wild Ebony Hates Chris

Base Color #2:  A England Order of the Garter

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

Rainbow:  Square Rhinestones

Hunger Games: Smoke and Ashes

Happy Friday the 13th.  Any one superstitious out there?  We aren't here.  My husband was born on Friday the 13th, so it's a good luck day for him.  I never got into the whole bad luck thing.  I have broken a few mirrors, stepped on lots of cracks and even walked under a latter more than once.  Today's mani has nothing to do with Friday the 13th or even Spring.  Right now where I live it's been a little gloomy and overcast these past few days.  YAY!  My kind of weather.  Which means I can get out my dark polishes and have fun.  I pulled out China Glaze Smoke and Ashes, an untried.  It's almost black with some green glitters.  LOVE!  This was opaque in just one coat.  I didn't even do a 2nd coat for good measure.  I love this one!

Look at all that green glitter shimmer in the bottle!

Here is a better pick on the nail

Base Coat:  Seche Rebuild

Base Color:  China Glaze Smoke and Ashes (1 coat)

Top Coat: Seche Vite

ASBMF #3: Glitter Sammy

It's time for another April Showers Bring May Flowers Mani.  Today I am sharing a glitter sammy.  I had heard of these, but never done one or even knew how to do them.  After a little googling, I found out they are super simple.  Or so I thought!  The technique is layering glitter polish with a jelly type polish.  Of course I have a few glitters laying around, not jellies though.  I did a little more googling and discovered that a gorgeous red I have is a jelly, YAY!!  No need to buy more or try to make one.  I chose to use CG Snow globe for my glitter.  It took me 2 tries to do this and I am still not even sure it's right.  I did a coat of SH Extreme Wear Red Carpet, a coat of Snow Globe than another coat of Red Carpet and topped with SV.  Seems easy enough, right?  Well, the 1st time around I wanted to make sure I had LOTS of glitter, so I did 2 layers.  But I didn't wait for it to dry, so after I added my top coat of Red Carpet, it was super squishy and any little nudge left a huge hole in my nail.  Failed attempt number 1.  The 2nd time I just did one nice thick coat of the Snow Globe and let that dry completely.  As best I could.  This stuff takes forever!  Aaaaand I had to get my kids ready go pick up my son from school.  So had a couple dings.  I just smoothed it out the best I could.  I wasn't going for round 3 LOL  After I got home, I layered on the Red Carpet and topped with SV.  I think it looks ok.  It isn't perfect cause of the dings, but I refuse to go at it again.  I may have to get some more jellies in my collection and try this again.  Until then, this is what I ended up with.

Base Coat:  Seche Retain

Jelly Color:  SH Extreme Wear Red Carpet

Glitter:  China Glaze Snow Globe

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

Thoughts or suggestions?



Check out the other Gals doing the Challenge:
Hannah (Our Creator) from Polished Prisms
April from Munia's Nails
Heidi from DIY Polish & More!

Sue from Creative Nail Design by Sue
Sarah from All This Polish

Katee from A Girl and Her Polish 

Charlotte from Charlotte's Nails
Tess from Football and Fingernails
Karine at Karinea0a
Victoria from Manicurator
Ashley from One Nail To Another
Dani from Rustic Comfort
Amanda from Counting Down to Bliss
Kayono from Neues vom Kellerkind

Teal Tuesday: Splatter

It's Tuesday again, time for another challenge.  This week is splatter.  I know, another technique I have never tried.  Still haven't actually.  I waited too long to do this mani and just barely looked up how to's on you tube this morning.  I decided that it was going to take too long and be quit messy.  I have lots of house chores I need to get done today.  So I pulled out my Image Plates and got to hunting.  I have 4 that have some sort of splatter design in them, YES!!  I can stamp my way through this one.  Kind of cheating I guess.  But hey, at least I didn't dismiss this one all together, right?  Besides, I had received some awesome nail mail yesterday and had already painted my nails last night.  I didn't want to take a chance on messing that up.  Here is what I ended up with

Base Coat:  Seche Retain

Base Color:  OPI DS Sapphire

Base Splatter:  Kleancolors Metallic Aqua

Main Splatter:  Konad Special Black

Stamping Plates:  Bundle Monster BM 202 and Cheeky B38

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

Monday Challenge: Polka Dots

I have missed a Monday or two, but I am back this week with a new challenge.  This week we are doing Polka Dots.  Yet another mani I have not tried.  I wanted to do some thing a little different than just putting some dots on a plain base.  I also wanted to step away from the Spring colors and get back to some of my favs.  I have this wonderful blue called Blue Year's Eve from China Glaze.  I decided to pair it with some silver.  I used SH Extreme Wear in Celeb City.   It's a great one coater.  Not real good for stamping though :(

I applied 3 coats of Blue Years Eve, wish it was a one coater too, but it's not.  I did a coat of SV and then taped off my nails diagonally and painted the lower half silver.  I added my dots along the tape line in opposite colors then filled in with smaller dots and topped with a coat of SV.  This would have looked better if my blue was a once coater like the silver.  The thickness would have been more uniform.  All in all, I say not bad for my first try.  Thoughts?

Base Coat:  Seche Retain

Base Color:  China Glaze Blue Year's Eve

Accent Color: SH Extreme Wear Celeb City

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

EDIT:  I forgot to mention that I did not create this design.  I saw it some where and couldn't remember where.  But thanks to Nicole, now I know :)  You can see the original design over at Nail Polish Wars.  Thanks Nicole for bringing this to my attention and thanks for the great design :)  

Stamping Sunday: Easter Mani

Yay!  It's Easter!!  Hope everyone has a special day planned.  I know I do :)  This week's challenge over in AIS is Easter.  I don't have any plates with cute little bunnies or eggs.  So I thought I would do a little grass scene on all my nails. It was looking ok, then I decided to start over and do a little layering.  My grass was so cute, green and sparkly....then I started to stamp some flowers, bees and butterflies.  Let me just tell you, this is not the mani you will be seeing today.  It seriously looked I let a 5 year old stamp all over my nails.  It was terrible.  So I decided to go simple and more Spring-y.  I chose to do a pink gradient with a silver full image stamp.  This is by far the best out of the 3 attempts.  Is it Easter-y?  Prob not.  But I WAS going to go with a black mani and call it Easter at night LOL I was sooooo bummed with my first 2 attempts.  What do you think?  Don't the the polish missing on the side of my ring finger.  Got a little carried away with the acetone.

Base Coat:  Seche Retain

Base Color:  NYC Wall Street

Base Color:  SH HD LCD

Gradient:  SH Insta Dri Presto Pink and Flashy Fuschia

Stamping Plate:  Bundle Monster BM 224

Stamping Polish: Orly Dazzle

Top Coat:  Sech Vite

HAPPY EASTER!!

ASBMF #2: Lady Bugs

Today I have the 2nd challenge from the April Showers Bring May Flowers Challenge, Lady Bugs.  Yet another nail art task I have yet to try.  You are seeing my first attempt.  It's ok.  Not great, but I am happy enough with it to wear it for the rest of the day :)

The process I used was this:

1.  Red french tip (2 coats with sticker guides)

2.  All red accent finger

3.  Holo top coat over all red polish (2 coats)

4.  Stripe down center of accent finger

5.  Black dots on all red polish

6.  Black accent over french tips (by hand)

7.  Top coat over all nails

8.  Added black french tip on accent finger

9.  Added eyes to my lady bug

10.  Top coat over accent nail

Seems like a lot of work.  It kind of was.  I think it will go faster if I try this design again.  There are a couple things I would change, like adding the spots after doing the black tip on the accent nail.  I would also pay more attention to the placement of the eyes.  She looks a little cross eyed LOL  You learn by doing, right?  What are your thoughts on this design?

Base Coat:  Seche Rebuild

Red French/Accent Nail:  Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby

Holo Top Coat:  Made by Me :)

Black:  L.A. Colors Striper

White:  L.A. Colors Striper

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

ASBMF #1: Spring Pastels

I decided to join in on another challenge.  This is a Spring Challenge called April Showers Bring May Flowers, with 14 different themes.  The first theme is Spring Pastels.  I don't own a lot of pastels, they don't really look good on me.  But I do have China Glaze For Audrey, it's the first China Glaze I ever bought.  Also the one that led me to the discovery that I can't wear pastels.  Go figure.  But, I keep it around just in case.  So today is a day I needed it.  I know this is supposed to be a Spring Pastel, but let's face it.  I am not going to go out and buy a bunch of colors for one Mani Challenge.  So I went with what I had.  Pretty much nothing hahahaha.  Since I have just this one color, I decided to do some pretty flowery stamping.  Look springy enough?  It's does in my book!

Base Coat:  Seche Retain

Base Color:  CG For Audrey

White Stamping Color:  Konad Special White

Black Stamping Color:  Konad Special Black

Stamping Plate:  Flirt B65

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

Teal Tuesday: Tape Mani

Good Morning All!!  It's Tuesday and I have a teal mani for you :)  A Tape mani that is!!  This is yet another technique that I haven't tried yet.  I have seen a few designs on You Tube in past few months, so I had an idea of what I was going to be doing.  Here is what I used:

Most people use scotch tape and cute into strips or designs etc.  My husband was watching me and offered to let me use his striping tape.  I couldn't believe it!  That stuff isn't cheap.  This stuff is 1/16" so it's great for doing a tape mani.  This made it really easy and super fast.

I painted my nails with the NOPI Teal, the sticker came off the bottom :(  So if any one knows the name of this color, could you leave it in the comments for me?  Thanks!!

I had to do 3 coats of the NOPI to get it Opaque, I then did 1 coat of the SH HD Spectrum to give it a little more sparkle.  That stuff is AWESOME!!  Next I cut little pieces of the striping tape and placed them randomly on my nails.  I did one nail at a time to make sure I didn't mess any thing up.  Last step, paint over the tape with a 1 coat black, I used WNW Ebony Hates Chris.  Love this black!

Finally, a coat of SV and Voila!  My first tape mani :)  It's not perfect, but I think I did a pretty good job for my first time.  Thoughts?

Base Coat:  Seche Retain

Base Color:  NOPI unknown teal

Shimmer:  SH HD Spectrum

Top Color:  WNW Ebony Hates Chris

Tape: 1/16" Crepe Fine Line Tape

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

Links to the rest of the TT Gals

Nails Beautiqued

Geeky Owl

Fancy Phalanges

Color Splash Nails

Gnarly Gnails

Simple-and-Beautiful

Persistent Glitter

No Holos