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".

Simple Lilac Purple with Glitter

This is actually a lilac purple, not a cornflower blue, but I just can't get purples to photograph right. I have no idea why. I got a new Finger Paints Endless Wear polish called "Hue Knew?". It's supposed to be a non-uv/led gel polish. I'm not very familiar with gel polishes, but I'm trying it out to see how it differs from regular polish. So far the only real difference is its thicker and a little gloopy. Wear time seems about the same as my regular polish. It still chips, but maybe not as bad as regular polish? I'm not sure. I wish I had some experience with gel to compare it to. I added a couple coats of OPI "In True Stefani Fashion" on middle and ring just for fun.

Valentine's Day Swirls

Yeah, So an unplanned hiatus happened. It's not really over actually. My net is very limited at the moment, so yeah. Sucks.

But in happier news I won a Give-Away! I've never won one before and am super giddy. The chances of me winning were so slim too. I only got one entry in it because I found out about it so late. I'm without internet and just happened to see it on the last couple days it was active. I didn't have time to do a challenge mani for it, so I only got the one "click here for a free entry" click. After winners were picked they only had 24 hours to email and claim their prizes. About 4 or 5 days after it was over I happened to be at the mall and had an email from the sponsors. I figured no way I was still in the 24 hour period, that maybe the email was old and I got passed over. But no! The first few people didn't respond and I got chosen at the time I happened to be at a wifi spot. Seriously, it was like it was meant to be!

Anyway, back to these nails. I painted them China Glaze "White on White" and then with some foil glue. I had this idea that since the glue dried tacky I could brush loose glitter over it and have it stick. There were... complications. The tiny tub of glitter was stuck shut and as I was prying it open... well... it popped. Like a little glitter volcano all over my bed. (its cold outside so I sit in my bed and paint my nails instead of doing it on the porch like normal in the summer.) So I got glitter on my nail like a planned, but I also got lint and cat hair too. Soldiering on, I stamped with OPI "Time and A-Gwen" and Fab Ur Nails FUN 3 stamping plate, both of which were part of my give-away gift. Despite the cat hair-glitter fiasco, I really like how this turned out.

So I don't know when I'll get a chance to post again. I'll try to at least get pics up, if not text. I'm still here and still painting, but access to net is ugly right now.

Koi Fish.

I almost named this post "Jelly Fish" for no other reason than it made me giggle. After my fail of a seahorse, I still wanted to try making an image go across all my nails. Other than a little mess up on the middle finger (it's a bit twisted) I really like it! I painted my nails white (when my bottles of white get low I pour them all into one bottle, so this is a mixture of Sally Hansen "White On", Wet n Wild "French White Creme" and Milani "White On The Spot") I then stamped with Cosmetic Arts "TGIF" using Messy Mansion plate MM29. I colored in the Koi using OPI "Y'all Come Back Ya Hear?" making sure to leave uncolored white patches. Then I filled in the water with a frankened blue jelly I made. I love this so much more than my seahorse from the other day!

And here is the Koi fish for comparison in-case you're not sure what a real one looks like.

LeadLight Flowers

I got a new Watermarking software for my pictures!

Well, we made it past St. Patrick's Day. I love the holiday, but it's time to hang up the green polish for a little bit. Maybe next year I won't start my celebration right after Valentine's Day. Today we have a neat technique that I'm sure has been floating around out there for a while, but I only just discovered it when Messy Mansion posted about it a couple weeks ago. I may do a tutorial on it soon, but for now I'll let Messy Mansion explain it herself. Now she calls it the Leadlight technique after her new polishes coming out and that's what I call it too, but it also goes by "glazing". The term Leadlight makes me think of stained glass windows with the lead strips that hold the colored panes in place. I'm not sure what Messy Mansion had in mind when she came up with the name. The basic idea is a light color background that you stamp a dark color over. Then use sheer or jelly polishes to fill in the colors. The colors will stand out over the light color, but won't obscure the dark color lines. I've used a white background (Sally Hansen "White On" and Wet n Wild "French White Creme". I was running low on white so I poured them both into the same bottle) I stamped with Wet n Wild "Black Creme" using MoYou Pro 06. Then I filled in the flowers and leaves with Sinful Colors "Irish Green" and OPI "Guy Meets Gal-veston" and "Y'All Come Back Ya Hear?". All three are strongly pigmented jellies that I don't get a chance to use all that often.

So what do you think? I think this is a good substitute for those that just can't seem to get the hang of stamping decals, tho not a replacement for them. You have the limitation of only being able to color over light colored backgrounds. Other than that, it does seem to be a viable option for art in its own right.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

And a simple design to finish off my St. Patty's day celebrations! I wanted a very simple cream base so the glitter I added to the accents would stand out better. OPI "Jade is the New Black" as a base color. I don't have many OPI's as they tend to be more expensive than my regular fare, but this was a gift. I never understood why OPI is so popular, but I think I get it now. I was very pleased how this dried even before I added the topcoat. And application was a dream too. If only the decals had behaved as readily. Messy Mansion MM04 is wonderful to work with, but I'm still getting the hang of decals and these ones put up a fight. Wet n Wild "Black Creme" filled in with Sinful Colors "All About You" and "Gold Medal". I thought they came out wonderfully, and at a distance they really don't look all that bad.

But close up? Ugh. Bubbles in the paint. A lot of bubbles in the paint. The more it dried, the bigger the bubbles got. I'm at my wits end with this problem. Then as the ring finger dried it got these weird ridge-like wrinkles in the topcoat. Please, any advice would be greatly appreciated! Leave tips and tricks in the comments section.

31 Day Challenge: Day Eighteen ~ Half Moon

There is a way to do Half Moons that I simply adore. I was super proud the day I came up with this idea. Use french tip stamping plates, but instead of stamping on the tips, stamp it at the base! Not exactly a groundbreaking idea, but I loved coming up with it. I also decided to use some of my untrieds (polishes I haven't really used before) so the base color is OPI "Stranger Tides" and accent is "Uh-Oh, Roll Down The Window". An unfortunate name for a pretty olive green. Window is stamped over Tides and Tides over Window. The stamp I used is BundleMonster BM216. Fun, huh? A very simple way to do Half Moons, but it dresses it up so much more than the simple moon of color.

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.

Nail Polish Lexicon ~ Crackle Polish

OPI "Gold Shatter", Avon Mosaic Effects in Black, Sally Hansen "Distressed Denim" and "Cherry Smash",
L.A. Girls Cracked in White, China Glaze "Haute Metal", "Cracked Medallion" and "Oxidized Aqua".

I love crackle polish. Yeah, I know, the fad is pretty much over, but that doesn't change the fact that I still like it. Last year it was all over the place and each brand was coming out with different colors all the time, but now? You can find it on clearance some places, but I can't think of any brand that carries one in its everyday line. I could be wrong tho. Any way, what is a crackle polish? A Crackle polish is special effect topcoat that when it dries cracks, allowing you to see any color polish you put on before it. Confused? Ok, well here is a close up of a finished nail with crackle on it.

I painted this nail with 2 coats of Orly "Liquid Vinyl" and let it dry. That's important. You have to let it dry or the crackle will mix with the under coat and either not crack right or the base coat will crack with the crackle and you won't see it below. The crackle I used with this nail is OPI "Gold Shatter". There is something about the glittery crackles that I adore, but don't freak out, they go on pretty sheer but as they dry and crack the color gets stronger. The solid colors are good in black and white, but the colored ones you have to be careful about what color you pair with it. Like this one...

This is Mystery Polish "Hot Rod" with Sally Hansen "Cherry Smash" Crackle coat over it. I thought it would make a neat Christmas polish, all green and red, but the dark green made the red look muddy and gross. So from now on I'll only use this red over lighter colors.

One other note on crackles, when they get old they get chunky and thick. I'm not sure how well nail polish thinner works on them or if it affects the crackle, but I don't think it hurts it much. When my white gets a bit thicker I'll give it a shot and let you guys know if it hurts it. Hmm, I didn't start out with the intention of making this a Lexicon post but it kinda turned into one :)

Nail Polish Lexicon ~ Jelly Sandwich

For quite a while I was stumped by the term "jelly" and "jelly sandwich". I kept getting it confused with Gel nail polishes and tips. The main trait of a jelly is it is very translucent with a weak or watery color. To make it opaque would take a crazy amount of coats if you could get it opaque at all. I used to hate the few jelly bottles I had thinking they were lame polishes and the color too weak to do anything with. I've since apologized to them :) Now that I'm using them correctly I think of the colors and squishy (no idea why) or like Jolly Ranchers or some other hard candy.

The most popular use of jelly polishes are layering them with other polishes, usually glitter. Layering them is what is known as a jelly sandwich. This gives depth and dimension to a manicure. Check out a few samples after the jump.

Liquid Sand

Ok, so textured polish is all the rage right now and I figured I'd like to give it a shot. But most of these polishes are stupid expensive. So imagine my glee when I stumbled across someone selling polishes at a local farmer's market for 2.50 a bottle!! I got 9 Orlys (I only had one bottle of that brand so I figured now was as good as any time to fill up on that brand) and this OPI. It's from the Mariah Carey collection and its a lovely purple gritty glitter called "Can't Let Go".

I'm kind of torn when it comes to this "textured" fad in polish right now. It's cool to have new things and effects in polish, but the sandpaper-y feel bugs me. I'm not sure I can get comfortable wearing it. Check out close ups of this polish after the jump.

Vera Bradley Nails

So we sell these purses where I work. Vera Bradley is a pretty popular brand, and I'll admit, I have a few myself. So when new colors come in, we kind of get swamped at the store of people wanting to get a peek at them. Last Sunday we had our Vera rep come in to give us a sneak peek at the new colors (love em!) and I decided to paint my nails to mimic one of the patterns. I really think Vera should licence out (loan out? give permission to? oh you know what I mean) so that Sally Hansen or some other company can make nail polish strips in Vera patterns. I told our rep that but I don't know if that idea will get passed along. I'd buy them, but you can't go by me, I buy anything nail polish related. Anyway, the top photo is the Vera pattern "Plum Crazy" and the one below is "Lime's Up" that I did last summer. The insert is the pattern I based the mani's off in case you are not familiar with Vera Bradley.

"Plum Crazy" is OPI's "Louve Me Louve Me Not". I then painted with a regular thin paint brush and dotting tool in Sinful Colors "Unicorn" "Sweet Nothing" "Hazard" and Sally Hansen Xtreme wear "Green With Envy".

"Limes Up" is Sally Hansen Xtreme wear "White On" "Blue Me Away" "Green With Envy" Insta Dri "Lightening" and stamped with Salon Express SE20 in Wet n Wild "Ebony Hates Chris".

Purple Hearts

I just got back from a convention this weekend, so only making a quick post of what I'm wearing right now before crashing for a nap. I work in a place that's very focused on holidays, so I'll be sporting Valentines mani's for a few more days. Here is the latest. OPI's "Louve Me, Louve Me Not" stamped with Claire's white using the hearts found in Claire's new stamping kit. Topped with Out The Door's "Northern Lights" holographic top coat. I don't think the glitter was a good choice, but the white on the purple was rather stark, so I wanted something to soften it. For some reason I thought glitter would do it. I still like it, but maybe next time I'd stamp in pastel purple instead of white. Stamp lined up really well on index and middle, but then I got impatient and ring and pinky got placed a bit high. Ok, nap time now....

Claire's Stamping Kit

Claire's Nail Stamping Kit.

There aren't too many places in my mall that carry nail polish, but the ones that do I tend to haunt when killing time. I've always thought of Claire's as kinda of a pre-teen little girl place, but they have nail polish so I'll ignore the plastic earrings and locker stickers of what ever teen idol is the flavor of the month to see what is new in the polish section. Good thing I did because look at what I just found!! There are plenty of stamping plates online, but as I don't do much online shopping, finding plates in an actual store is like finding a gold doubloon  in the center court fountain. 

Get a better look at all that comes in this kit after the jump.