Nail Polish Lexicon ~ Lemming

I have no idea where the term originated, but a Lemming polish is simply a polish you very desperately want to get your hands on. It's one at the top of your wishlist and you will probably spend more money that you should to get it. I have a handful of lemmings myself, one of which I just got a dupe of and am thrilled even if it's not exactly the same thing.

I've never bough Salon Perfect before, but when they released this polish I spazzed out a little bit. It is nearly an exact copy of Ninja Polish "Floam", one of my lemmings.

China Glaze "Whirled Away" was another attempt at fulfilling a lemming desire. Again I so want Ninja Polish "Sticks and Stones" but it is usually sold out so I got this to try and replace it. It is not nearly as close a dupe but it will do till I find something better.

Some of my other lemmings:
Nuf-Oh 61
Color Club Halo Hues
China Glaze OMG Collection
Finger Paints Special Effects Collection
Almost anything by Nerd Lacquer but especially "Don't Blink", "I Think You Call Me...Sexy", "Don't Panic" and "Gorramit".

Temporary Nail Tattoos

These are nifty little things. Fing'rs has a line of nail art products out now called "Heart 2 Art" with all kinds of fun things. Stamping plates, gems, striping tape and these cool little nail tattoos. They are not the nail polish strips that have been popping up the last year or so. These are literally just temporary tattoos cut in convenient nail sized squares. They were so easy to put on and each pack comes with 30 sheets. My nails are not all that long so I cut each sheet into quarters. And to top it all off it was cheap! I paid 2.50 bucks for the whole pack.

After the jump I'll show you just how easy these are to apply.

Pow! Bang! Kaboom!

I loved the old Batman TV show with Adam West and Burt Ward. Seeing the POW! words pop up during the fight scenes make me giggle to this very day. Now an interesting thing about these nails is that they are created using temporary tattoo paper. I'm gonna do a product review on them soon (tomorrow or the day after depending on when I can get to an internet hotspot). For now I'll say they are pretty awesome with very minor drawbacks. I used a basecoat of Sally Hansen "White On" to make the tattoos stand out better.

Sandy Chevrons

I promised I'd give my Liquid Sand polish a fair go and here it is. I've been on the fence for a while about textured polish. Well maybe not on the fence. I've been pretty negative about it to be honest. But with this mani, maybe I've judged it a bit harshly. Sure the gritty texture is weird, but it's less sandpaper and more, I dunno, softer? Like instead of grit it's more like teeny tiny balls. It's very hard to explain. Because I was so unsure about using texture, I only used it on the edges of the mani. First I painted my nails with Sally Hansen "Grape Race". Then, knowing I wasn't gonna top coat it at the end because of the sand, I top coated it after "Grape Race". I then cut some tape so it would come to a point and placed that over the purple. Paint over that in the OPI Liquid Sand "Can't Let Go". Peel off the tape while the polish is still wet for crisp lines. I was gonna stop there, but then I got the brilliant idea to outline the chevron with a white striper, so I busted out Stripe Rite striper polish in white. I'm really glad I did because without it you really loose the V shape. I'm actually happy how this turned out. I didn't think I would be.

Neon Stripes

Yep, neons again! But this time set in black to make them stand out even more! This wasn't an original idea of mine, I saw it in Nail It! magazine, a magazine all about nail polish and nail art, but in their version the black was a textured polish. I don't have many textured polishes (pretty much just a purple so far) so I used my favorite black Orly "Liquid Vinyl".

Step by step on how to do this manicure after the jump...

Pink and Purple Daisy Gradient

I haven't done many vertical gradients before. I usually like doing the top and bottom half of the nails in different colors. This was an attempt to do the left and right sides in different colors. I really like where the 2 colors joined. I did it so long ago I don't remember exactly how I got such a smooth gradient, but it turned out well. The 2 colors are Sinful Colors "Cotton Candy" and "Tempest", I think. It was months ago that I did this. I stamped with BundleMonster BM224 in Milani "White on the Spot". I then used the pink to dot the center of the flowers on the purple side and purple to dot the center of the flowers on the pink side. I really do like how it turned out. I might just do more vertical gradients soon.

Deer Hunting Camo

I'm not sure why I created this one. It was around Father's Day but nail manicures for Father's Day aren't very popular. This was a second attempt, the first being dark and muddy. Anyway I started out with a plastic wrap marble, but I'm not sure which colors I used, Sally Hansen "Lickety-Split Lime" and "In Record Lime" or China Glaze "Starboard" and "Tree Hugger". 2 shades of green were used in any case. Then I stamped the deer using BundleMonster BM214 in Wet n Wild "Black Creme".

If your interested in the failed first attempt here it is. Again I'm not sure which colors I used, but it might be Sinful Colors "Nirvana" and "Exotic Green" with the same stamp and black. The red targeting circle was freehanded (badly) in Bath and Body Works "Candy Apple Cream" I think.

Glitter Phoenix

Well because the extreme heat and humidity is playing havoc with my polish, I'm digging out some of my practice nails I made up while trying to brainstorm new manicures. Here is one I made while trying to make a fire phoenix mani. Several coats of Sally Hansen Gem Crush "Cha-Ching!" to get a full coverage, but its a fairly dense glitter so not as many coats are as needed as you would think. Then stamped with BundleMonster BM314 Phoenix image in Wet n Wild "Black Creme". The black doesn't show up very well until you topcoat it and then black becomes darker. I like it but even after topcoating the bird doesn't stand out as well as I hoped. And with a dense glitter base, removal would be a pain unless using a glue basecoat. I'm still having problems getting the glue basecoat method to last longer than 24 hours.

Grey Scroll

So its still super hot outside, and now we are adding some horrid humidity to the mix. I'm not changing my polish as much as I care for because it's taking forever to dry. I slapped this together real quick because my Neons were chipping up so badly. I did it late at night and had to work in the morning. So I took the picture after work and of course I broke a nail at work. So I tried to fix it as best as I could but it's not as perfect as it was. Anyway, the base color is "Mirror, Mirror" by Orly, a lovely grey with just a hint of a blue cast to it. I stamped BundleMonster BM314 in Wet n Wild "Black Creme". I was just gonna replicate a favorite mani of mine I did a few months ago, but that would be boring for you guys.

Hot Neons

My car died so I have to walk to the library. This last week has been crushingly hot and humid so no way was I gonna walk in that. So no posts for a while, sorry. But every year when it gets hot outside I get an urge to go Neon. I have no idea. It's kinda a throw back to my childhood when anything neon (or "hot" as I used to say. Hot pink, hot yellow, hot orange...you get the idea) was in style. I want to decorate this mani but I don't know how yet. I tried stamping white and black over it but it just dulled the neon-ness of the colors and I love the florescent look I'm rocking right now. This picture just doesn't do it justice. You can see these nails coming three blocks away! All but the green is Sinful Colors. Thumb is "Pink", index is "Summer Peach", middle is "Neon Melon", and pinky is "Dream On". The green ring finger is Warpaint Beauty "Bad Apple". As an added bonus they fluoresce under black or UV light. I'll see if I can get a pic of that, but taking photos in the dark is a pain in the bum.

UPDATE: As promised here is my attempt at photographing the neons at night. This was tricky, I had my UV flashlight in my mouth, biting down on the ON button, the camera in my other hand trying to shoot my nails. I should have gotten a picture of that lol :)

Happy 4th of July!

This is a mani I did for Memorial day last year, but I like it so much I thought I'd share it for 4th of July. China Glaze "Hey Sailor" and Wet n Wild "Saved by the Blue". I don't remember what white I stamped it with. I don't think it was Milani like I do now. Maybe I tried Sally Hansen "White On". It's not as good for stamping as Milani "White on the Spot". I used BundleMonster BM201 and BM220.

4th of July's Simple Stamping

A very simple stamping. The red is Bath and Body Works "Candy Apple Cream" with Sally Hansen "White On" undies. The blue is Wet n Wild "Saved by the Blue" and the stamped images are Milani "White on the Spot" using BundleMonster BM319 for the stripes and BM220 for the stars. I think if I do this again I'll do the pinky and ring in the blue and middle, index and thumb in red. It just looks backwards to me right now.

Purple Gradient

I was sporting naked nails for a while and just wanted to get some color on them. So here is just a simple gradient using Sally Hansen "Raspberry Ice" and "Grape Race". For some reason, purples just don't want to photograph well with my camera. They keep turning blue, so I'll try to avoid them for a bit.