Northern Lights Mani and my failed first water marble

Hi there! I just got my first goodies from another blogger/blog sale, and boy was it worth it! I bought some beautiful polishes from ABOP and couldn't wait to play with them. The first one I played with was Misa Wishing On A Star and it is GORGEOUS! look!

I wanted to do a mani that didn't cover the base, because it rocks. I also wanted to do something that would bring out the pretty flecks of color in the base. You tell me if I was successful!

I first tried to water marble with these colors. Need I say more? Total FAIL...pic below...

Two coats of WOAS over a base coat ( I use whatever, LOL!), and sponged on Revlon Silver Dollar and then a bit of OPI Austen-tatious TURQUOISE (hahaha...got it right!) over the tips of the silver sponging. By the way, the OPI is not as bright over a light base....

Then several coats of top coat, I love the result, what do you think??

And last but not least, my failed water marble. After 3 tries, all miserably bad....I went online and watched a lot of YouTube videos on how-to LOL! I think my water was cold, and that seems to be the only thing I did different. My polish didn't spread out much after the first drop, and ended up in a big blob on my nails. I take all input on how to improve on this skill! ABOP convinced me to try it on my accent fingers first, and I thought this polish would rock in a water marble...*sigh* (it really would have been cool)

BLEGH!!!!

Request for Forgiveness

OK, I just realized that I did it again...mis-quoted the name of a polish. I apologize if I messed anyone up, but I have word recall/word find issues and that is that. If you are not sure of a polish I named or it is really important to double check the name of a polish....just e-mail me and ask, I will look on the bottle!

Purple & Copper Curlicues

I got this color combination idea from DizzyNails (check it out!) and loved her awesome mani. I, however, do not have that beautiful copper glitter, so I had to make do.

3 coats of Orly's Charged Up, and it really did take 3 coats! But So worth it. This is with not final topcoat yet, so ultra shiny!

As always...have not cleaned up yet. Oh, I am trying for the first time one of those bonding base coats, we shall see how it holds out. I thought this color was just yummy...

I stamped using a new Bundle Monster plate using SH Cinnamon Chrome polish, and many topcoats, LOL! The picture on top is inside under an Ott lamp and the one with blue jean background is in the shade, natural light. I loved this color so much I even did my toes with it, only I topped it with 2 coats of SH Ice Queen- a clear base with tiny silver glitter, larger pink, blue and lavender chunky glitter. I love that polish on a dark base...just not on a light color :0)  (that was a mani fail I didn't post LOL!)

Oh, and here is some failed playing around before I removed the previous mani...I definitely need to get some advice on doing this! blegh!



Teal Me Away Glittery Gradient

I felt like some blues, so of course it couldn't be a plain blue mani, Oh, No...

I started with 2 coats of SH Blue Me Away

I will say this now...please forgive/ignore the messy cuticles and such. For some reason lately, every time I clean up, I mess up the whole nail. After the base coat, I decided to sponge a gradient, and play around a bit. I used all the polishes below.



I sponged on OPI Austen-tatious Teal, sponged on a little SH Black Out at the tips. After I rethunk this...I added more OPI ATT over the tips to really make it show. Then, because I simply couldn't stop, I dabbed on a little bit of Sinful Colors Nail Junkie with a detail brush on all the tips and up the nail a bit. I personally think the color combo is a bit edgy, but I still LOVE it!! The pictures don't do it justice, because when I move my hands, you can see the purple, a teal metallic and then of course GLITTER!

I might try posting a video later, but for now, click on the pics if you want to see the sparkly details. It was so funny at work...a burly male customer commented to me "nice nails". Now, I personally take that as a high compliment when a guy says that. Not in a flirting way...just to comment! So I think that makes this mani a success in my book!

Silver & Purple butterflies! (and other silliness)

The mani I am wearing at the moment turned out awesome! I was in the mood for some more SH Blue Me Away...but my order from Amazon came in- 3 SH Chrome nail polishes! I ordered more, since they are so awesome for stamping and I love metallics.
So "new toy playtime"  won out over the pretty blue *sigh* maybe later this week...

I started with Revlon Silver Dollar, one coat over a base coat...

I figured I could get away with one coat, since I was doing a full nail stamp after.

This is one of the new BundleMonster plates...can't remember the number. I used Sally Hansen Purple Diamond Chrome, and like the last SH Chrome...awesome for stamping...downright frigging awesome!

I thought I would toss this in for JQ from Fripperydigits, who is a weaver. She was actually the inspiration for this mani too, LOL! I had the opportunity to get some wool fleece (plural?!) for just the cost of shearing. Since I am a spinner and can blow $30 pretty fast on a small bag of lovely wool and alpaca fibers, I Jumped at this opportunity. I got the total fleeces from 4 sheep for cheap. Below is the best of the batch, uncleaned but lovely to my eye!

I can't wait to get this washed and carded and start making yarn out of it. This fleece was SO soft, even in this state (off the sheep less than 48 hours). You can dye wool and people hair with Kool-Aid drink mixes and it's pretty darn fun, actually! Have a great day and please leave a comment if you visit!

Purple Franken Flowers

I got the franken bug again and made a very cool looking purple, glitzy franken. I will show you the finished bottle first, then the craziness that went into it!

This is a bit blurry, but it was the best picture to show off the holo-type glitter I put in it. Here is the mani I did with it.

I did 2 coats of my purple Glitz franken, and little dot flowers with Revlon Silver Dollar, yellow dots in the middle for an accent. I got a little carried away with the yellow...a bit runny, so not as clean-cut as I would have liked :0(

Here is what I used to create this polish...

I added the holo micro-glitter after I decided I needed more Bling!...I DO love my glittery bling.... I loved what the Revlon Gold Coin did to the mix, but it wasn't as pronounced as I would have liked, hence the holo glitter.

For the first time, I experienced the SV shrinkage issue, but it took me half a day at work to figure out what was bugging me about this manicure. The little bit that is left in that bottle will be recycled into a franken, so that is OK, only about a fifth of the bottle left.  By the way, my last manicure left my nails stained yellow green, even with a base coat...bummer!

Day-Glo green/yellow!

I picked up this little mini from Sally Beauty Supply and it was tiny but cheap and I wanted bottles for frankens LOL!

No name on it, I thought it would be sheer, it was. It took 3 coats, but WORTH it! Look!

That is 3 coats with topcoats sandwiched in between... So I let this site overnight to enjoy that almost glow-in-the-dark green/yellow glory! It really grew on me, I can tell you. But since I didn't think my boss would appreciate something that "in your face", I tried to tone it down with stamping.

I used SH Aquamarine Chrome polish...man, these ROCK for stamping. I got the idea from Sammy on her blog, http://nailasaurus.blogspot.com/p/stamping-polishes.html

Thanks, Sammy!

A little bit of smearing because I didn't wait quite long enough for drying :0(

But this is friggin Awesome in my book!!

I was tagged!

Thanks Paulina!!

Paulina from http://aplaceformynails.blogspot.com tagged me and it is called "Where do I store my cosmetics?" http://aplaceformynails.blogspot.com/2011/07/tag-jak-mieszkaja-moje-kosmetyki.html
I took pictures of my not very clean OR organized stashes of goodies to show you, and I will name 10 other lovely ladies to tag as well. Kind of interesting to see what products are found across the globe, really!

My nail supplies are in my craft room/guest bedroom in a sterilite container:

I tried keeping my colors separate from the topcoats, but my collection of colored polishes is growing too much, LOL!
In my bathroom, I keep any makeup and skin care items. Not as many items as I used to have, mostly because my skin has become more sensitive and so many things make me break out or itch. I make my own mineral make-up and use very little to clean my face. The scary big bottle of "super Cholesterol" stuff is leftover from a de-tangling project and I am too cheap to throw it in the garbage, hahaha!

So now that I have shown everyone my messy collection (and there are stashes of tiny items in the medicine cupboard also!), I am going to tag 10 other people. If they want to participate, they can/or choose not to, also, I totally would understand! Please mention it in your blog, if you do :0)

http://anotherbottleofpolish.blogspot.com/
http://fripperydigits.blogspot.com/
http://splashingsofserendipity.blogspot.com/
http://ditchthemittens.blogspot.com/
http://swaafie.blogspot.com/
http://www.dizzynails.com/
http://nailasaurus.blogspot.com/
http://thenailbuff.blogspot.com/
http://deez-nailz.blogspot.com/
http://www.emeraldsparkled.com/

Weird Little Piggies

OK, I am known in my family for my weird toes...so it is a stretch for me to do this, but I need to get over it, LOL! I have 3 older brothers and they would always tease me about my middle toe and that it was "flipping" everyone off.....yah, I know, family of five and I was the youngest.
So I am showing my toes in humility, mostly because I want to show this off...Doing toes is HARD! especially when you are a little bit *clears throat* Older :0)
Here goes with the toes- 2 coats of Dollar Tree Sally Hansen In The Red Creme. It is not really a red creme, though. It has this kind of cool almost blue shimmer that lurks. I was disappointed at first, but it is a rocking cool color, really.



I used a dotting tool to make the white dots with a french mani white, and then used SH Black Out for the black dots. Finally a thick coat of SV. Please ignore the messy/dry toes, they are hard to clean old polish off also!

Polka Dot Party!

I went off to my Mother-in-law's house over the 4th of July, as my dog, Nova is freaky scared of loud noises, to the point of breaking things trying to get away from the sounds...so we went and hid out in the country until this morning and so that meant *gasp* doing my nails somewhere other than my house, LOL! I think I did pretty darn good, and I had FUN!
I started out with 2 coats of my dusty blue franken, and hmmm...what next?! Polka Dots! I used Sally Hansen's Green with Envy, and Revlon's Silver Dollar.

I didn't have much faith in my ability to dot in a straight line, so I tried doing random dots and it got a bit crazy...but fun :)
Next time, I will go for a bit more of a straight line or patterned look, since it really seemed pretty easy, once I got started. (excuse the pics, I took them under natural light near dusk)

I really discovered that I like my blue franken with the SH Green with Envy....I think they look awesome together and it's definitely a combo I will got for again!

Lacy Lavender mani

This mani is what I wore through most of last week....Felt a bit tame for me, but I did like it and it was easy.
I started with Essie Lilacism 2 coats and it is so pretty on its own I almost stopped there.....almost, LOL!

I always sandwich a speed dry clear top coat in between coats/layers, by the way. I tried going without once and had to re-do everything...just smeared it instantaneously! After this, I stamped with a french mani white with one of the newer Bundle Monster plates that I have been drooling over-so Lacy and pretty.

(eek...ignore the messy cuticles, please?!)

After the stamping I just HAD to play a bit, since it seemed to need a little glitz, and I did random dots in the center swirls with Pure Ice Busted, but just on my ring finger and thumbs. Perfect counterpoint, I thought, what do you think of this combo?

Here are the colors I used...

Missing Pictures are back now!!!

WOW...lesson learned...I was editing my Picasa web albums and I deleted my pics from the last 2 posts....have to fix this when I come back from the Holiday. Happy 4th, all you Americans out there and Happy weekend for the rest! I will be hiding with my dog, trying to keep her from crawling through a wall!

**I got my pictures posted back up. sorry about that!**