Anniversary Mani & a Possible Hiatus

This might be my last post for a few weeks, I just don't know. My husband and I just celebrated our 28th Anniversary and then got some rough medical news right after that.
Suffice it to say that if a loved one suddenly develops swollen feet & legs and problems coughing and breathing, especially at night...Get them to a Doctor as fast as you can drag them. Open heart surgery in a few days and hopefully many more anniversaries to come....

So here is my anniversary mani, before life got knocked wonky.

One coat of Revlon Silver Dollar-should have done 2 but you can't see the bare spots through that bling

Stamped using Sally Hansen Chrome Purple Diamond I think....can't remember shit right now (CRS)
Hang tight, take care of your health, and hug your loved ones.  Over the next few weeks, I will try not to drop the F-bomb or be cranky in posts...but there is a possibility...so I will warn you ahead of time.

Whimsical VS Voodoo Doll

WOW...2 diametrically different manis in my opinion...You will have to tell me which one YOU like best :0)

First- Revlon Whimsical.  I used a very pretty but PIA franken for the undies on this one. My very first franken and  a pain to apply evenly. 2 coats of carefully applied Whimsical over the pale blue franken.

I totally feel like an Easter egg with this mani...and I do love Easter (plus those malted milk ball candies that look like this!)

OK, Next... Nail-venturous Voodoo Doll. A friend shared her bottle of this polish with me and I really love it! Totally opposite feel than Whimsical...one is light and fun, the other is dark and mysterious.

2 coats of NV VD over a medium grey franken of mine. This polish is topcoat hungry!  2 thick coats of SV and still a bit bumpy...

So what do YOU think....If you had to choose between these two manis, which would you choose?

For some weird reason, 2 of my last 3 mani's have had "pop-offs"...the whole of the nail polish came off in one fell swoop...left my naked nail behind without even a backwards glance. I'm not sure what the deal was, but I think it was the polishes interacting with each other....It was Nirvana butterflies and the Voodoo doll manis! Cross your fingers for Whimsical...

Polka Dot Insanity!

I was just telling a co-worker the other day that I would never be able to pull off a polka dot summer dress...BUT a polka dot mani is a whole other can of worms!

Many very talented ladies have done this mani in a stunning fashion. This is just my version of it. Work was hectic and stressful this week, so I needed something fun and carefree.
Two coats of Revlon Silver dollar, with 2 sizes of polka dots. I used my dotting tool for the small dots and the flat end of a bamboo skewer for the large dots. I have been wanting to try this mani for almost 6 months now, hehehhe.

 GAH! look at the smearing! I hate it when I think I did a great mani and pictures show me this kind of stuff...grrrr

Right hand...I don't use this one much for photos....I am right handed and need that for clicking pictures!

Here is what I used:

Speaking of dots....here is a recent mani that was not so successful, but the first time I did a mani with this franken. Meh, ok, but nothing to rave about!

Take care and be safe :0)

Is this a dupe?

Quick post! (Stop cheering!) I picked this polish up, loved it...kind of hated the formula and then saw what looks like a near dupe for this one at boxofpolish (hint-One of the new Essence polishes!). She has gorgeous nails, and the gold/olive green is more pronounced, but look at this and then check out Kayleigh's blog! I love the stamping she did over the other polish without taking anything away from the awesome color :-)

Revlon's Mistletoe, 2 gloppy but pretty coats.....

Yesssss, I know my fingers look scary and crooked in the last picture. Maybe they are? Can I chalk that up to years of little kids tugging on them?! Nah!
At any rate, this is a Fast-drying polish, which I have never loved, but totally worth it! Bugger to remove, though....ultra-fine glitter in this polish! Tell me what you think...Dupe or not?!

October Pink Ribbon Mani

OK, this month I wanted to alternate between Halloween themes and October Breast Cancer Awareness manis......Pink...which is just about my least favorite color. Since I know several people affected by breast cancer and it runs in my family, it is a topic near and dear to me.

Unfortunately, this one counts as a Fail in my book. I think I rushed the crucial "what the h--- am I going to do?" phase...big hairy no-no, lol!

At any rate, you get to see it, because for this, the thought counts, even though my rendition sucks....

2 coats of OPI's I Think In Pink-super sheer impulse buy that I need to franken with some white...

I sponged on some white spectraflair franken, some SH Twisted Pink, and the ribbons are also done with that color. I sponged on Revlon Silver Dollar after the fact...*thwacks self on head*...I just missed my bling, lol!

 (sorry about the poor pics)

The nails with NO ribbon look pretty good, the ribbon part was the fail. Ah, well....if anyone has ideas on making a better/more precise ribbon, give me a yell!

*Oh, and still loving the gel nail polish as underwear...

UM Grizzly Mani

Today and most Thursdays during football season, we are allowed to have a University of Montana Grizzlies Jeans Day at my workplace. If we want to wear jeans, we have to wear the UM Griz school colors, lol. Works for me since I attended/graduated college there. And I will do almost anything to wear jeans and a nice T-shirt, lol!! Normally we have to wear dress slacks, nice blouses and dress shoes. Not ultra conservative, but not casual either. So here is my Maroon/Silver mani, those are the college colors :0)

Revlon Ruby Ribbon, which is a "suede" polish (2 coats), 1 coat of Sally Girl silver glitter over that, and one heavy coat of SV over the top.  *SIGH* sparklies are so pretty!

I am still wearing regular polish over my gel polish that was applied 9/22. So it has been a full week now and I will show you how they have changed over the nail polish removal, wear and tear. See the picture below and don't ralph at the staining :)



The red arrow shows the only cracking that is noticeable to picky me....a little notch in the nail wrap I did with the gels. VERY little...but I pick at stuff like that, so it is important. I wrapped all my nail edges with the base coat, 2 coats of sheer pink and again a base coat layer. Not bad! The green arrow shows how the whole thing is growing out. If you click on the picture, you can see the raised line of the gel polish a bit away from the cuticle. Also, they are losing their lovely shininess, but that is totally workable. After all, the goal was to protect my thin nails, provide a smooth base for regular polish and nail art, and maybe prevent nasty *^#%* stains from happening! So far, it's meeting my goals! I will probably re-apply the gel over this weekend, because I hate that much gap near the cuticle.

Take care, and be safe everyone!

Copper-Clad Leopard Print

Sorry it has been so long since my last post, but Fall is busy for our family! On to the mani I promised!
This one was SO cool! I did one coat of Revlon Copper Penny over the gellac base coat, and then a leopard print with Wet N Wild Black and dabbed in some SH Chrome purple....WOW!!!!!

One coat of Copper Penny....yummy polish

Viola! I have to say, this was one of the most popular manis I have done, and I loved it!. I have never pegged myself as an animal print girl, but I do have to say this one fit me to a "T". I used a nail art fine brush to dab those little purple chrome bits in. I have seen Nailnerd do this style with red, but that wasn't me (sorry dear lady!) But this is, lol!! Darn...may have to play with the tiger print next!!

I am still playing around with the Gel polish and mostly underneath regular polish as a protectant for my nails. This past weekend, our whole  family got together to help another family member work on their ranch....basically, making sure all the cows and calves were healthy before winter hits. I only chipped my right pinky, and a tiny one that I could just file down a bit. I thought that was amazing. It was pretty funny that my niece had her nails done too, so I didn't feel so goofy!



Wow!

I simply couldn't think of a good name for these, short of WOW! They did take extra time because of the scotch tape and layers, but so worth it in my book. The purple (and really, it is purple no fooling) I got from ABOP's blog sale and it is Quirius Eggplant. I didn't know it had that awesome blue flash until I put it on, and it's growing on me I can tell you! First the finished mani and then how I managed to pull it off, LOL!

Seriously sexy nails in my opinion. I like bling, but glamorous is really not me...and this screams GLAMOUR!
So here is the how. Let me show you this polish and see if I can capture what it actually looks like on my nails (not blue!)

OK...purple, right??
2 coats of QRS Eggplant, and let it dry really well for awhile...I rushed things and almost ruined it.

The I used scotch tape to make a diagonal line across my nails. I just do one at a time....much easier.
On the untaped side, I coated Nubar 2010 and pulled off my little strip right away. It works best if you cut the tape into thinner strips. When it is a big piece of tape, it doesn't seems to adhere on the diagonal very well--too sharp a curve going.
I coated my nails once with Orly Sec-N-Dry, let that cure for about 10 minutes and then cut thin strips of tape to make a little stripe of gold right over the edge of the diagonal line, and I have a picture below...

Pretty easy to see the problem areas on dark polish....the places where the tape is lighter, you may have some polish bleeding under the tape, so try and press things down pretty well. I used Revlon Gold Coin along that stripey area and pull them off before they dry. One at a time seems to work well....keeps messes down. I just snag the sticky edge of the tape on my work table-clean it up later when everything is dry. As long as the groove between the 2 pieces of tape looks even and straight, you should be fine. I can't draw a straight, even line to save my life...so this was my solution.

YAY! They turned out so awesome!

Coral Bling-O-Rama!

Holy Cow, I bought some polishes today and 2 of them are almost made for each other, I swear!
I picked up some Sinful Colors and brought those bad boys home to drool. And drool, I have! I decided to pair SC Timbleberry and It's All About You. SC Timbleberry is a pretty coral/melon-ish cream and SC It's All About You is the frosting on that cake! There are little bits of almost the exact same coral color in the golden-greeny goodness....make sure you click on the pics to see all the lovely details.

2 heavy coats of Timbleberry, except on ring finger...2 coats of Revlon Gold Coin. Then 1 coat of IAAY over the coral-ish...2 coats over over the Gold Coin/accent nails, though....

Before the layer of IAAY. My camera didn't capture the real coral goodness of Timbleberry, darn it!

Would you just look at that stuff?? Looks awesome over neon green, too, by the way! Tough choice tonight!

Commence Drooling. Nuf said :0)



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!!!!

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!