Miscellaneous Manis-the Good & the Bad!

Well, I got a bit behind on things again-lots of forest fires in our state/nearby states and the smoky air seems to be taking its toll on my energy...Blegh!

So I will barrage you with some of my recent Yuks and Yays...
First is bad...very bad, but I couldn't put my finger on any one thing---it was everything, hahahaa!

Started out great, Loving this cool neutral! Should have left "well enough" alone...

OK, Bad move...stamping sucked and then I wanted to try out a new polish of mine over this stamping...just yuk! It stayed on for a full day-that was all I could take of this combo!

OK, Next one...Operator Error, not the polish's fault. Lovely Contrary Polish, Purple Smoke. STUNNING polish, actually...

 



Lovely shimmers, Grurple came to mind, because it is grey, blue and purple all at once, but my application sucked and I rushed things-bubbles from too thick of coats. I will try 3 very thin coats next time-this was 2 thick layers. Even though my application stunk, I didn't want to remove this one...lovely...

Girly Bits Cu Blue-O MY this makes me literally drool...I'm not a fan of Jellies, but this color  talked to me (screamed, actually) so I bought it. copper sparkles peek out of a yummy deep blue. This is 2 coats and I really could care less that I have VNL. On my accent finernail is Finger Paints Fall of Surprises and was was too intense/dense, but I had not tried this one before, so maybe I am forgiven?

This pic below was the best I have taken in a long time..in the car, after work, hahahah! Are you drooling?
I bought Girly Bits Cu Blue and Contrary Polish Purple Smoke from Llarowe.

This next one was fun...but a pain to remove...but sooo fun and pretty!
2 coats of NYC french mani white, 1 coats of Pretty & Polished Sand Art, 3 (yes, 3!) coats of SV....

You might not be able to tell....I am still playing around with my next, new polish(accent finger)--testing and trying to decide if I need to tweak it before I make enough to bottle and sell...

(Can you see the shimmer on my accent/ring finger?)

Let me know what you think of these- I love some of the indies and I love trying my own brand and comparing them to what is out there...There are some very talented people out there making polish right now, but do your research, a friend of mine has had some bad experiences with indies-not many, but some....
*hugs* take care all-enjoy your weather and clean air if you have it!!

 

Mari Moon Chameleon

I will apologize ahead of time for the messiness of this mani. I wasn't feeling very good and basically did it as quick and easy as possible...so in other words-MESSY! I really needed to re-do the gel nails underneath and file down some length, but that wasn't gonna happen!

One coat of Sally Hansen Black Out, Poshe in between, with one coat of Mari Moon Chameleon over the top. This polish is stunning, my pictures don't do it justice! Every way I turned my hands, I kept seeing different colors. Here are a few!

 Purple, Woot!

WOW, that green is stunning! and the most prominent color of the polish.

In this last picture, it almost looks like a beige sparkle, but I couldn't catch the purple/plum shade that was paired with this color...it was elusive, lol! The company sure pegged this color right on! At some point, I want to get a better picture of this, but I was not up to the task that day. I bought this at Llarowe's site, and I love it!
One more little bit of fun...a picture of one of our alpacas, Tom Sawyer. He is a bit over a year old and that fleece he has is longer than my fingers (and they are long fingers!). Later this spring, we will be shearing Tom and his cousin. Tom is the talker of the two boys and it is fun to work with him. At least he wasn't the one that kicked me!

Awwww, his nose is so soft.....

New Icing polish and mani

I HATE the mall...there is only one here in my town, but I really dislike it. I am fairly allergic to perfumes and that is the biggest reason I avoid malls like the plague...
BUT I went looking for something specific and got pulled into some stores by the lure of nail polish, hehehe!

So I bought 2 Icing polishes, one of which I used for this mani.

2 Coats of this gorgeous, sparkly beige polish.

I checked out the name for the blog and promptly forgot it, if you are curious, e-mail me and I will find out for you :0)

Gorgeous golden/green glitters in a beige base. Don't think it is a duochrome, but not positive...
Stamped with Sally Hansen Black Out using Bundlemonster plates...the newer ones.

I love this color, but I have to admit it probably doesn't look very good on me. Colors that are too gold in their tones tend to look pretty blah. I am bordering on lobster fingers, and that rarely happens to me. Go figure.

Take care everyone and if your weather is unseasonably nice, enjoy. Our Montana weather is sneaky and evil and last week it was in the 40's and 50's last week-that is unreal for Montana in January! I am waiting for the inevitable slam of harsh weather...it has to happen, ya know....

At any rate, drive safe, stay warm and enjoy your post-holiday hauls if you were able!

Chocolate Crocodiles!! + some furballs

Oh, wow...this was not my favorite stamp to start with, but it is growing on me like...never mind, can't think of anything not gross lol!

At any rate, our local Walgreen's was having a sale on Sinful Colors polish...why? NO clue! This stuff is normally $1.99 a bottle, and the sale made it $0.99/bottle...yeah, I had to restrain my spending urges, cause I was feeling down....So I only bought 3 bottles, Mouhahahahha!
Even worse, then I saw Sally Beauty Supply was still open-Woot!? Bopped in there and they had a 'buy a Poshe TC, get the cuticle treatment for free'-Man they pushed all my cheap buttons!!Since my cuticles have been growing their own hair, it was a no-brainer :0)
OK, I bought one polish for me and 2 for a swap I am working on. I kept Sinful Colors Nirvana...YUM....

3 coats with top coat, but only to dry it faster....chocolaty goodness like this gets marred too quickly!
2 coats would have been enough...but I had some blips to cover.

Stamped with Sally Hansen Chrome nail polish and BM 224 I think....

Not snakeskin, but definitely reptilian...I finally decided it reminded me of crocodile skin...I can live with this, snakes might take longer....
Not the best stamping. not the best pictures-and it looks WAY better in person. As I looked at my gnarly fingers all day, I decided that it was fairly work-appropriate-the color, that is. Most workplaces probably wouldn't like the stamp...but it was perfect at my work. So as I said...it grew on me.

On to the furballs! First, I love my pets. Almost as much as I love my kids and they have complained about this many times. We have 2 cats, 1 dog and 1 ferret...oh and I can't forget 1 lone gerbil that we somehow inherited from my oldest daughter. All are rescues-or have rescued me. My cat, Goliath falls into the second category-he rescued us, when my first dog was very sick and old....He had been abandoned by his previous owners and it took my daughter 2 weeks to catch his wily butt.

Who could NOT love a 15 pound noisy furball that looks like this? He is my big, mean and protective baby. He and his fellow kitty, Dove have stayed with us :0)
Nova (Latin for "new") was at a pet shelter and I know she was abused to some degree...but she is happy now and is my sweet pup.

Ya, I know, she wants another doggie treat, lol

Take care, everyone...I will be gone for a week starting this weekend...family reunion...But I promise I will be back! 



Subtle French Mani with Flakie franken

After my last manicure, I felt like I should go subtle...but I think I went to subtle! My 18 year old told me it was boring, LOL!
A few posts pack, I posted about adding flakies to sheer-ish polishes. I used one in this mani.

In some of these you can see the subtle flashes of flakie goodness, but it doesn't come right out and bop you on the nose, LOL! I added some accent flowers with a dotting tool and  tiny gold balls. Very lady-like very calming...BORING was right LOL!
Then I was stupid and realized I still had to give my dog her medicine, because she is terrified of most loud-ish noises...TERRIFIED...so not worth missing a dosage. Here is the damage...

It was worse, but I licked a finger and smoothed the heck out of it....this I could live with for a day (french mani's never last long with me, the white starts looking "dirty").

Several weeks ago, we installed a new door in our house and my hubby took a picture of me using a router to cut a spot for the faceplate on the door. I didn't plan on putting it up here, simply because I look like hell, the house was messy behind me and really, who wants to see a 40-something lady sweating over a doorknob installation?! Ah, well, It might explain something about me...I LIKE doing stuff like this, I can change the oil on my car and even replace a few parts, and I am the one that explains things to the mechanic. My husband is pretty proud of this, I think and my sister-in-laws a little weirded-out, LOL. That's OK-I like doing things for myself and I don't have issues about husband and wife "jobs" in the home. Legacy of being the youngest of five with 3 older brothers.

*sigh* yah, not a petite lady...lol! Have a great one!

Ho-Hum Starburst Mani

I went garage-sale-ing this weekend and found 2 polishes in some bins for cheap, so I bought them thinking they would be cheap for frankening or just the bottles. One was an Essie and one was a Maybelline that I decided to put on last night. Turns out, it's too pale for me, but it is still a cool color. I had no idea how old this thing was, but for the price, I was willing to try.

I put 2 coats of Maybelline Mo' Money Mauve and it was supposed to be a speed dry, but it was NOT. Then I decided it was too pale and something had to be done. So I did a scotch tape star burst with OPI Mother Road Rose-a truly awesome color in my stash. Here ya go....

These colors look amazing together, I thought. You might be able to see some of the colors that made me like the Maybelline polish...alas...just too darn pale for my taste! And the formula-could be it's age-is terrible. I added some polish thinner, but it still took forever to dry. I thought I would wake up to pillow-case nails, lol! (anyone else here missing the "mauve" in the color?!)

Frankenbeige Mani

I have learned the hard way I probably don't want to franken any more browns, lol! I took way too many colors in an attempt to make a different shade of brown and almost tossed the mess. But then on a whim, I poured a bunch of french mani white in with the leftovers and WOW, I found one I really love! It went on in one coat like a dream...

Then I decided to stamp with my new bundlemonster plates...again...so many choices, but I went with this one...



I stamped with Sally Hansen's Black Out and then put on some of Essie's Matte About you...I really liked it-very different for me. These are my right and left hands respectively. I had to trim my nails shorter after wresting with the lawnmower for the first time after my shoulder surgery. What do you think of this look?(stamping, not the short nails, lol)