Mint Shimmer

I tried doing this cute woodland creature mani, but it just wouldn't turn out like I pictured in my head. So instead of trying to be overly clever, I just played. Here is 2 coats of China Glaze "Tree Hugger" followed by 2 coats of Pure Ice "Mint Dream". I adore the pearly, iridescent like sheen "Mint Dream" gave it. I then stamped with MoYou Pro Collection 06 in Wet n Wild "Black Creme". Very simple, but I adore it. Pro 06 is fast becoming my favorite stamping plate ever.

MoYou Madness!

So Excited!! The MoYou plates I ordered came in! Squee! Sorry, I need to get control of myself. I just love these plates so much. I just couldn't decide what image to play with first, so here I am rocking several at once. This hand is sporting MoYou Pro plate 06. I was afraid the images would be too big for my nails, and they are large, but as you can see that can be worked around.

A quick tour or what I did. Sorry for the poor quality of photos. I'm gonna eventually have to make a light box if I insist on taking pictures in my room at night. The thumb is sporting Milani "Mr. Sandman" stamped with Wet n Wild "Black Creme". This one and the index are my favorite of this hand. There is something simple and elegant about the light netural brown and crisp black lines that is so appealing.

The index also turned out super pretty. China Glaze "Tree Hugger" stamped with "Black Creme". Actually all the fingers except for the pinky were stamped with Wet n Wild "Black Creme". I want to do a mani of this image with all different colors. It reminds me of lava lamps, or amoebas. Something bubbly or science-y. The middle finger is rocking Wet n Wild "French White Creme". This stamp reminds me of the BundleMonster stamp I use all the time and love.

The ring finger is Sally Hansen "Red-io Active" and I really need to get the hang of larger stamper decals because I really have plans for this stamp. I'm thinking stained glass windows. The pinky is Milani "Mr. Sandman" again but this time it's stamped with Milani "Dark Coffee". This stamp screams henna patterns to me. I want to stamp this one so it overlaps my skin. Have the pattern on the skin and it drifts onto the nail.

And there is the full hand again. I want to keep playing but it's getting late and I still haven't come up with a Thanksgiving mani yet. 

TARDIS

A quick post as I'm walking out the door to see the 50th anniversary special in 3D! Rocking my TARDIS nails in Sinful Colors "Endless Blue" which I will always refer to as Tardis Blue. Pull to open plaque and St. John's circle done in Wet n Wild "Black Creme" and "French White Creme". I still have a nasty cold and the smell of polish makes me hack and choke right now, but I had to do something for today! Happy 50th Birthday Doctor Who!

Oh and this happened on Saturday. I'm still giggling that I got to go into a TARDIS!

Fake Nail Polish

Great, just when I get in the mood for polishing and posting, I get sick. What did I do to make the universe so unhappy with me :( Well, since another Doctor Who mani has to be postponed I wrote up a review on some makeup I bought for Halloween this year.

Zombie Nail Polish & Lipstick

Picked this up for Halloween and just now got around to playing with it. I don't have much when it comes to greys so even though I bought this for the lipstick that it came with, I was excited to have a new grey. It is made by Fun World, a Halloween costume/makeup company. It was very cheap, I think we only paid a buck or two for it. Good thing too, this was a disaster beginning to end. The packaging is very attractive and shows a model sporting shiny grey tips. Yeah, right.

The lipstick was fine, rather sheer but fine. I didn't use it on myself tho, I used it for dad's face make up for Nightmare on Chicago Street. Today, however, I need to talk about the polish. Despite what it says on the package, this is NOT nail polish. I don't know what to classify it as. I think its closer to acrylic paint than any thing else. First, when I opened the bottle it has nearly no scent. That is HIGHLY unusual for nail polish. Then when I painted it on a practice nail it beaded up and didn't want to adhere to the plastic nail at all. Then when it did dry it cracked and flaked off, just like paint on plastic would.

2 coats and it still didn't want to cover the nail. This polish is a HUGE fail. I'm glad I got some use out of the lipstick or this would have been a complete waste of money. For the sake of science I'll swatch it on my own nails, but I have no hopes for this "polish" and I strongly recommend against it.

Cybermen Nails ~ Doctor Who 50th Anniversary

I think I found the cure to my writer's block. Instead of doing nails I think I should be doing because that's what you're supposed to do, I'm gonna do what I want to do. I was gonna do all kinds of fall/autumn/Thanksgiving nails, but that's not really me. What I want to do is Doctor Who nails. So I'm gonna. Here is my attempt at Cybermen. I did a coat of Orly "Mirror, Mirror" but it wasn't really the color I was looking for so I went over it again with Pure Ice "Silver Mercedes". I then freehanded Cybermen faces with a dotting tool in Wet n Wild "Black Creme". I don't care if no one realizes what they are, it made me giggle to paint them. Here is a Cyberman reference picture.

Dalek Nails ~ Doctor Who 50th Anniversary

I am so excited for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary celebrations! Nov 23rd the BBC will be airing a special episode for the 50th, and while I'm still trying to pin down some tickets to the 3D showings in theaters, I will be buying the episode the second its available on iTunes! Until then I'm watching trailers for it on YouTube, avoiding spoilers on Facebook, and painting my nails. Here is what I've done so far:

DALEK Nails!! This makes me giggle so much. I considered using studs for them, but I like the dotted better. The base color is Milani "Dark Coffee" and the stripe and dots were added in Maybelline "Bold Gold" using a dotting tool. Very simple to freehand. For those of you that don't know what a Dalek is, here is a photo that I think is from the episode "Parting of the Ways" but I could be mistaken about that.

So much fun! I'm really gonna have a blast coming up with Doctor Who nails. If you don't like the show you might wanna avoid me for a bit, I've been babbling like a fangirl about it for a month :D

Matte Ornaments

Beaching Nails posted this picture just a few days ago, and I fell in love with how the nails look like those thin glass ball ornaments. I think they are referred to as mercury glass, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I was staring at them trying to figure out how she did it and I think I got it. A metallic polish with a matte topcoat over it. Testing my theory I painted my nails with Sally Hansen "Red-io Active" a strong metallic red then topcoated them with Seche Vite. I used the Seche because my matte topcoat tends to smear and smudge my nails, so I wanted to protect them first. Then I used my Warpaint Beauty matte topcoat to give it that brushed glass look. I think I matched her effect pretty closely!

Then I added some gold ornament stamping just to dress it up a bit. I used Maybelline "Bold Gold" and BundleMonster BM225. I wish I could somehow topcoat the stamping because after one day it's already rubbing off. Than and a top coat would make the gold brighter, but my matte topcoat smears stamping and shiny topcoat ruins the matte effect. 

Sorry for the bad pic, I took it after getting home from work
last night.

I really do like the over all effect tho. I'm gonna have to add this to my list of Christmas Mani ideas this year!

Writer's Block-ish

A couple false starts on mani ideas I did today.

Ever have one of those days where you try so hard to design something, but nothing wants to turn out? I tried so hard to create mani ideas today, but nothing jumped out at me as "awesome". I wanted to do something autumn-y so I pulled out a yellow, orange, red, and green polish. Those colors together made me think of fall leaves.

I stared at them. Flipped thru my stamping binder. Looked at the polishes some more. Put a DVD in for background noise. Pushed the 4 polishes around some. Watched a couple episodes of Doctor Who. Stared at the polishes again. This goes on for another hour or so. That is how my day has been. I want to paint my nails, but inspiration is being elusive.

Fine, so painting my nails today isn't working. I'll write a blog post instead. Seemed like a good idea. I've written 3 posts (this one will make 4) but after re-reading them, I'm gonna have to give up for the night. My thoughts are disorganized and the sentences either run on or trail off. I'll look them over again in the morning, but for now I'm gonna go kill some creepers in Minecraft.

Jack-o-Lantern

Well time really got away from me. I got slammed in Oct trying to finish Halloween costumes and I went weeks, WEEKS, with naked nails. In late Oct I broke nearly each nail when I went camping. Nubby nails is depressing so I didn't do much painting. Shame too, because I had so many ideas for Halloween nails. Then real life took a turn for the worse in Nov with medical issues in the family. So while I'm sorry for the unannounced hiatus, I'm trying to get back in the swing of things now. No promises tho, work is picking up and I'm working a lot of hours these weeks.

Enough of that sad talk. Let's get to the nails!

My mom is the best :) I was talking to her the other day about my collection of polishes and mentioned all my oranges are so red or fluorescent. That my only good pumpkin orange was a tiny bottle that didn't even have a name. That day while I was at work she hit a couple stores and got me 2 new oranges. "Sun Kissed" by Sally Hansen and this one "Clementine" by Sinful Colors. A week later a friend gave me "Tangerine Tint" by Finger Paints. I went from one tiny bottle to 3 full sized bottles. I love my friends and family! The detail of the Jack-o-Lantern's face is done in Wet n Wild "Black Creme" freehanded with a dotting tool. This was the last Halloween mani I did before real life got in the way, but I might do more just for fun.