Maniology Brand Ambassador

Use my Coupon Code at Maniology.com

FOXFIRE10 for 10% off!

 

I can't believe it! I've loved Maniology for YEARS. Back when they were BundleMonster. I discovered stamping in March of 2012. My first BundleMonster order was in April of 2012. So when they came out with the Brand Ambassador program I really wanted to join, but I'm not a big presence on social media. I don't TikTok. I barely Instagram. Ok, I Facebook a lot, but that's just friends and family. Heck, I can barely keep this Blog updated! (sorry!) So I dithered about it for over a year if I should apply or not.

Then my local library asked me to do a nail art program and I *really* wanted to include stamping. Yes, I'll cover other things that you don't need extra tools for, but I LOVE stamping and want to share it with everyone! But how terrible would it be for me to do a program, show everyone how to do this cool technique, then tell them they need all these extra tools for it. It would be nice to give them a coupon code to help them get started. Maniology does do a free kit for beginners (just pay shipping) but for those that want more I want to give them a code. Becoming a Brand Amabassador would give me a coupon code for friends. So I did it. Even though I'm not some big YouTuber or anything I decided to try. 

THEY ACCEPTED ME!!! I am now a Maniology Brand Ambassador. What that means is I have a coupon code, FOXFIRE10 , and anyone who uses it gets 10% off at Maniology.com. Full Transparency here, I also get a commission based on how much my code is used for. But MBA or not, I do love their stamping plates and tools. So you might see an uptick on my activity now, and it might be more directed at Maniology. 

Another Messy Mansion Celtic Knot

 With all the plates and polishes, all the nail art I own, I still come back to Messy Mansion for my St. Patrick's day mani. For a holiday I love so much I really need to get more plates for it. This is China Glaze "Refresh-Mint" with OPI "Gleam On!" Over it. Stamped with MM04 in Maniology (formerly BundleMonster) B441 "Alocasia".

In The Valley Of Kings

    Forgive the poor dry cuticles, I'm working on getting my nails back to picture perfect. Well, maybe like picture acceptable? Anyway, this was a challenge to use a plate I haven't yet played with. This is another BundleMonster (now Maniology) plate. BM-S250 which is now M063. A couple coats of Sally Hansen's "Coconut" from the Jelly Belly collection. I really like this polish because it is a "warm" white. Not really a cream or off white, but not super bleach brilliant white either. Stamped with Sinful Colors (I don't remember the name of it but it had "rock" in the title) and Maybelline's "Bold Gold" my fav gold stamping polish. I had a scarab beetle on one finger with a dot of blue for it's shell, but I disliked it so much I redid the whole finger. Sometimes less truly is more.

    This was a simple stamp, but I would like to try more with it in the future. I love the Egyptian feel to it and would like to incorporate more color to it.

Very proud of how straight the lines came out. No waviness at all!

The Spirits Speak

This is the plate that got me back into nail art. I'm so in love with this Ouija board plate (M071 and it's sister the Tarot card plate (M072) from Maniology. This is a very simple stamp of Sinful Colors black with Essie's "Dive Bar" blue duo-chrome over it. The stamped with BundleMonster/Maniology stamping white.

Draven

I was gonna do Doctor Who nails for the beginning of the new season, but this past week I lost one of my beloved cats. So he gets nails this week instead. Orly "Mirror, Mirror", Cosmetic Arts "Picture Day", Sally Hansen "Presto Pewter". The stamps are BundleMonster BM412 and MoYou Mother Nature Collection 02. I painted my nails the light grey, stamped the white wings (removed the body of the bird before stamping the wings) and then stamped the grey cat over them (removing the 2 paw prints from the stamp first as well).

Draven helping me take pictures from my Nabi post.

RIP Draven

Birthday Mani

My birthday mani for this year. I didn't have much time to do it this year so it was just a quick plastic wrap on index, middle, and pinkie. I did a graidient on ring and thumb of the same colors (China Glaze "Snow" and "Escaping Reality" and Cosmetic Arts "TGIF") with a Bundle Monster stamp BM307 in Pure Ice "Silver Mercedes"

Police Nails

My Uncle just celebrated 30 years with the police force and will be retiring soon. I just got Messy Mansion's plate MM28. Coincidence? I think not. The universe is obviously telling me I need to do a crime and punishment mani so here it is. I rushed the stamping a bit because I was running late for work, but over all I like how it turned out! Index, middle and pinkie are all painted an unnamed grey from Fingr's and stamped over with BundleMonster's BM414 using Wet n Wild "Black Creme". I then used MM28 again and Cosmetic Arts "Picture Day" to add some fun images. Oh, the DNA strands are from MM25. The ring and thumb are Sally Hansen "Lighting" stamped with MM28 again in "Black Creme". I really do like it. The grey fingers remind me of fingerprint dust. Many people don't know this, but I started taking classes thinking I wanted to get into forensic science. That was the vague plan anyway. Then one semester I took a microbiology class as just a prerequisite and fell in love with micro. So Forensics fell to the back-burner as Micro took front stage, but it still holds a soft spot in my heart.

Happy Pi Day!

Ah, Pi Day again. This year I'm happier with the results. I do seem to be craving spring it seems, the colors I chose look a bit Easter-ish to me. For those that don't know, the mathematical constant Pi is the circumference (the distance around) a circle divided by its diameter (a line that cuts thru the middle of a circle). It doesn't matter how big the circle is, the Circumference divided by the diameter will always equal 3.14159....(it's a very long number. No one has found the end of it yet). This number is also called Pi, named after a Greek letter.  There are a few numbers in math that do this, but not all of them share a name with a tasty dessert. Mmmm...Pie....

First the basecolors: Here we have on the index Sally Hansen "Grape Race", the middle has China Glaze "Seahorsin' Around", the ring finger has China Glaze "Running in Circles", the pinkie China Glaze "Wish on a Starfish" and the thumb Sally Hansen "Lighting".

Second the stamping: The black is Wet n Wild "Black Creme" and the freehanded Pi symbol is Sinful Colors "Gold Medal". Since the blue, green and pink were glittery I added a coat of China Glaze "Icecap" to the purple and yellow to match. The numbers on index, middle, and pinkie are BundleMonster BM311, the thumb is BM408, and the ring is isolated parts of BM425. The 2 stamps on BM425 actually read I <3 YOU and CUTIE PIE, but I just used the I <3 and PI. That was trickier to do that I thought it would be.

And yes, I am a big enough nerd that I scheduled this post for 3/14 at 1:59am. *giggle*

Green Gradient with Claddagh

This gradient I both liked and didn't like. The transition between all the colors is amazing, but the colors themselves look gritty and spotty. I liked the over all color tho. This is a 4 color gradient. The darkest is China Glaze "Holly-Day" then "Starboard", Sinful Colors "Pistache" and finally Cosmetic Arts "Picture Day". "Picture Day" is a stark white, but as I was sponging on the colors I kept going up and down the nail to mix the colors well. I like it, but again I'm not sure why it came out gritty looking. I couldn't decide what to stamp over it. I was gonna go with some clover from a MoYou plate. However when my new set of BundleMonster plates showed up yesterday morning I just HAD to stamp the Claddagh image! I suddenly like the mani a lot more! Stamped in Maybelline "Bold Gold" using BundleMonster BM418.

I love green, but I'm starting to burn out with it. 6 Green manis in a row (some didn't turn out all that well so I probably won't post them). I'm starting to crave other colors. I'm sure it's possible to do a St. Patrick's Day mani with other colors... I just gotta figure out how.

Purple Roses

My Valentine's Day didn't go quite as planned. In fact it went quite wrong. But even tho it ended with me alone, a french silk pie, and season 2 of American Horror Story, my nails were still pretty! The white lace didn't come out very sharp, but I am super proud of the purple roses! The base purple is Sinful Colors "Tempest" and I stamped with "Enchanted over the top. I LOVE that combination! The rose stamp is from BundleMonster BM323 and the white lace is Cosmetic Arts "Picture Day" and a Fing'rs unnumbered plate. The lace may have been too much, but the purple roses are fabulous! Time to move on to my fav holiday of them all...St. Patrick's Day!!

3 Purple Challenge

My purples always photograph blue. I have no idea why.

So  for 2013 the color of the year was supposed to be Jade. I'm not sure what that means, but I love green in all its forms. This year it's supposed to be Orchid so I'm anticipating seeing alot of purples this year. Keeping that in mind I really wasn't surprised to see that this week's stamping challenge was to use 3 purples. What I didn't realize is that I really don't have many purples that look good together. 2 purples would have been easy, but 3 was harder than I thought it would be. I finally settled on the base color Sally Hansen "Grape Race". The ring finger accent is Sally Hansen "Grape Escape" and the rest is Ellen Tracey no name metallic purple using BundleMonster BM322. I wasn't sure I liked how hard it is too see the Ellen Tracy on the other fingers, but its growing on me. I don't think the mani will last long, however. After only a couple hours a break in the paint formed in the middle finger that you can see in the picture. I can't believe it happened so quickly. That tells me it will chip easily. More than likely it won't make it thru work tomorrow.

Gradient Icicles

Snow is moving into the area again. It probably won't be as bad as it was on New Year's but it is coming. Here I wanted my nails to look like icicles and I'm not sure I got the image across all that well. It's Orly "Mirror Mirror" and Sally Hansen "Blue Me Away" in a gradient. I wanted the blue just at the tips. I then stamped in Claire's unnamed white stamping polish using BundleMonster BM319. Not exactly the look I was going for, but it worked out ok. I've been on a bit of a gradient kick lately and having fun with it :D

Sherlock

This week's challenge in my stamping group was to do a manicure based on a TV show you are watching. Now I usually do Doctor Who, but that show won't be back on till August. To be honest, the show I'm watching a lot of right now is Sherlock. The new episode will be airing next week and I'm super excited for it. Each nail is based on a different episode and I'll go through them one at a time.

First up is the index. "A Scandal In Belgravia" introduces us to Irene Adler, the Woman. I really think that this is the one woman that Sherlock could really fall in love with. I wanted to go with red and black, something seductive, for her. The base color is Essie "Fifth Avenue" and stamped with Wet n Wild "Black Creme" using MoYou Suki 07.

Next is the middle finger. "The Hounds of Baskerville" is a classic episode! I wanted to stamp a black wolf howling at the moon, but apparently I have NO wolf stamps at all. So my black wolf looks suspiciously like a fox. The base color is Milani "Mr. Sandman" stamped with "Black Creme" and MoYou Landscape/Mother Nature plate 03. Odd thing about this plate, it's from the Mother Nature Collection, but the name etched into it is Landscape. I think maybe that was the original name for it before they went with Mother Nature. Oh, and the eyes are dotted with "Fifth Avenue".

The ring finger is based on the episode "The Blind Banker". I painted it with "Black Creme" and stamped a couple times in Sally Hansen "Red-io Active" using BundleMonster BM206. I then freehanded the cipher over the top in Sally Hansen "Lightning".

Finally the pinkie. "A Study In Pink". The base color is Sinful Colors "24/7" and the skull is stamped in "Black Creme" using BundleMonster BM211. Very simple.

Diagonal Gradient MPP

My nail art group does a Monthly Palette Project each month. I thought for sure I had written about this before, but I can't find the post, so I'm gonna write about it again. Possibly for the first time. Anyway, they post a picture with some color options and we use the picture as inspiration for a mani. Here is the photo they used this month:

Unfortunately I don't have many of these colors so I had to come as close as I could. I used the 3 colors on the right. This month we also had to include a gradient in the mani somewhere. I thought I would test myself a bit further and try and put the gradient on a diagonal. It wasn't that much harder, I just had to focus on where I was holding the sponge so my lines would lay in the same spot for each coat I added. I painted my nails with Sinful Color "Unicorn", then I sponged on "Unicorn", China Glaze "Tree Hugger" and Salon Perfect "Scarlet Enchantment". I wish "Enchantment" was closer to the turkey red in the inspiration picture, but I think it turned out ok. I added just a little stamping to dress it up a little. BundleMonster BM314 in Wet n Wild "Black Creme". I like these mini challenges. It stretches the creative muscles.

Holiday Wrap Up Manicures

As promised, here are some holiday manis that I wanted to make into full posts, but time just got away from me or they just weren't interesting enough to warrant a whole post. I could hold on to them for next year, but I'm sure I'll forget all about them by then.

I finally got around to stamping the "prep" nails I did. Stamped with MoYou Festive 04 using Claire's unnamed white stamping polish.

This one and the next were a complete flop. Nothing I could do could make them turn out right. I'm trying to remember what polishes I used, and I think the base is either Wet n Wild "French White Creme" or Sally Hansen "White On". I was trying to mimic the Irish mani and my Grey and Pink dot mani using Christmas colors, but it just didn't work. The dots on the pic above are Maybelline "Bold Gold" and Pure Ice "Silver Mercedes". The dots on the pic below are...umm... I think Sinful Colors "Pine Away" and Salon Perfect "Scarlet Enchantment" with "Bold Gold" again. I was also trying a new topcoat so if you look really closely you will see the colors smeared. The topcoat never hardened so you can also see the impression of my bed sheets on them. Not gonna use that topcoat as a topcoat again. Its gonna be used to make frankens.

And here was a mani I intended to stamp over, but never did. I can't remember if I used a base color of "Bold Gold" or just used several coats of China Glaze "Angel Wings". So sparkly and pretty!

And here is a bonus picture. A Halloween mani using as many stamps as I could find! Fright Night Claw Polish "Phantom" with a white sponged at the tips that is prolly Wet n Wild "French White Creme". I wanted it to look like fog rolling in. I wanted to make a full scene of a haunted house, I just haven't gotten the hang of it yet. Stamped with a lot of BundleMonster plates (BM209, BM213, BM225, BM305) using Wet n Wild "Black Creme".

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! Here is a mani inspired mostly by a woman in my nail polish group who got the idea from Diana's mani. She stamped white fireworks over a sponged on color and the color bled thru the white. I don't have many colors that will stamp over black so I thought that was an awesome idea! Her colors bled up into the white, but I don't own any KleanColor polishes so I thought I would use a sheer white for the same effect. Well, my white wasn't as sheer as I thought it would be, but I still like it.

Ok, wait. I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me explain the mani a step at a time. First I painted all the nails with Wet n Wild "Black Creme". Then I sponged some metallic colors in spots. Index, ring and pinkie were all sponged with Ellen Tracy polishes I got for Christmas but as far as I can tell they don't have names. Middle is sponged with Sally Hansen "Red-io Active" and the thumb with China Glaze "Tree Hugger". The thumb didn't turn out as cute so there isn't many pics of it.

Then I stamped over the color splotches with Sally Hansen "French White Creme". The idea is the white isn't that strong and you should be able to see the color thru it. I guess it was stronger than I gave it credit for, because the color doesn't show thru at all. I used MoYou Pro 06 (favorite plate!). I don't have a stamp of fireworks, but the dandelion puff made a good firework. I used the smaller puff for the pinkie, but wish I had used the bigger one.

Finally the year. I've been itching to use the identifying numbers and collection names ever since I saw the MoYou plates had etched the names on the plates. On my thumb I used the numbers on the MoYou plates, but they were very small. So on the Index I used BundleMonster numbers and it looks so much better. And I used plate BM201 so I only needed to add the 4 from BM204 to the end of the 201. Did that make sense? I stamped with Claire's unnamed white stamping polish. Here's a pic of the plates, maybe it will make that more clear.

And there you have it! This mani was a lesson in carefully placing stamps, which I still need to work on. Not a bad New Year's mani, I think.

Silver Snowflakes

Finally I'm getting a chance to upload some mani's I've done over the last couple weeks. I always underestimate just how busy I get this time of year. It seems perfect that I'm sitting in the middle of a snowstorm posting winter nail art! Here is Sally Hansen "Deep Blue Sea" a dusty blue with silvery blue glitter in it, stamped with Pure Ice "Silver Mercedes" using BundleMonster BM323. One of my more subtle stampings, the silver snowflakes just didn't stand out too much from the silvery blue glitter polish. But still very pretty.

3 inches of snow outside and it's still falling! Be safe out there guys <3

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!

31 Day Challenge: Day Twenty-Nine ~ The Supernatural

What a fun prompt! I had so many ideas for this one I wasn't sure where to start. Before I eventually settled on a Phoenix image I really wanted to do a Kitsune, but nothing I tried looked right. If I ever do a fox mani, nothing less that perfection will do for my beloved foxes. Then I thought up mummies, werewolves, witches and demons, but we are coming up on halloween so I want to save those for next month. So Phoenix it was. I tried a few different fire effects for the background but nothing turned out well so I decided to multiple stamp the phoenix from Bundlemonster BM314. At the last moment I decided to put a gold one on the ring finger. No reason, it was just fun. I think I should have added more black ones for the background, but otherwise I like it. Sally Hansen "Red-io Active" for the red background, Wet n Wild "Black Creme" for the birds and Maybelline "Bold Gold" for the one accent phoenix.

31 Day Challenge: Day Twenty-Three ~ Inspired by a Movie

By now you know I'm a Sci Fi Geek. When told to pick a movie, it usually comes from that genre. One of my favorite tv shows was "Firefly". When it was cancelled after just one season (damn you FOX!) the creators (yay for Joss Whedon!) made the movie "Serenity" to wrap up loose storylines. If you're not familiar with the movie, it's amazing and you should check it out from your local library. Now. It's ok, I'll wait.

Anyway, the movie is set in a very Sci Fi/Western like universe. The name of the ship the crew lives on is called Serenity. It's very gritty but the way the crew has banded together to be a family...I love it.

Back to the nails, I started with a base coat of Orly "Liquid Vinyl" and wanted a bit of a galaxy mani, but I knew I was gonna stamp and freehand over it so it had to be subtle. I sponged a little Wet n Wild "Teal or No Teal" and Sally Hansen "Chop Chop Copper" in nebulas. I then stamped over it with Claire's no name white stamping polish. I usually use Milani "White On The Spot" but the cap is stuck on it and I eventually gave up trying to open it today. In the future this universe is set in, the USA and China are the 2 superpowers of the world and their cultures have kinda combined. So on the index I used BundleMonster BM207 leaf image. As Wash (the pilot) says in the movie "I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar." On the ring and thumb I stamped BM221. I'd like to say that I knew all along that that was the symbol for luck, but I have to admit, I just googled it right now. So happy that that worked out for the movie too! The pinky is just a fun little image from BM208.

On the middle finger I attempted to freehand the title of the movie and the image that is painted on the side of their spaceship. I actually really like how it turned out! I used a pencil eraser to make a circle of white so that Wet n Wild "Saved By The Blue" would stand out better. Then used a fine dotting tool I wrote the name. Kinda. I was just gonna do some squiggly dots that could be words when viewed from a distance, but instead tried to make it look like the word Serenity a little bit. I started in the middle of the circle with the letter E but left out the crossbar in the middle of the letter. After simplifying the letters NIT and dropping the Y all together, I went back and did the R E and S. I am so happy at how it turned out and I don't usually like my freehand manicures.

These "Inspired By" Challenges are hard, but I'm loving it. I have no idea what I'm gonna do for tomorrow "Inspired By A Book" yet. I hope I come up with something soon.