Brocade Mani (spam alert!)

Hmmm, this mani was inspired by ABOP's post here.... I don't have any deep dark pinks...so I winged it, so to speak :0) The end result of this experiment is shown in all of its hot glory below, hahahaha!
I started with a nail polish brand that I know nothing about-you will see the bottle. I picked up the set at Ross and the base color is Hibiscus!

The colors aren't "true" in the above picture... but close.

Above...under an Ott light. Below in the light box...

2 coats of Hibiscus...somewhere between red-garnet in my mind, but it is lovely and the formula was surprisingly nice. 1st coat was streaky 2nd was heaven...

The next addition was Essie Shine of the Times...Wow, the flakies are dense in this stuff!

Almost left it like this...but I really wanted to try ABOP's look....so I was brave....

I used one of the newer Bundle Monster plates and Sally Hansen Cinnamon Chrome (not 100% positive on the color name)
I started with a cool color, warm flakies in between, and stamped with a cool color again. I think it is a success but it bugs my OCD gene just enough that I am not sure if I'm crazy or not on this one...

It reminds me of rich, red brocade fabric. The stamping over the top give it a lot of texture and the shifting flakies add to that even more. I found these pictures online...

What do you think, success or not?! Let me know what you think!

Random Mani Spam-Fest part 2

Here are some more random mani pictures....Life is still incredibly busy, so nothing truly exceptional here....just enough to keep me sane (well...maybe)

They are listed from the top, newest down to the bottom, from at least a week or so ago...

Ultra subtle stamping over 2 coats of A-England Dragon. I used my Konad special stamping polish....I was either screwed with this purchase or got a bad bottle, because it is VERY sheer for color.

It showed up fairly well in the light box but was almost imperceptible on the nail in real life...ah well....

Pure Ice, Oh Baby over Orly Le Chateau...great combo, but too dark for the gorgeous sunny weather, so it only lasted a day, hahahaha!

2 Coats of  Spectraflair franken I made...so stunning in the sun!! I love a good blue polish....

And finally...Yes, I did wear this (below) at the hospital...it was raining for 2 days straight and I NEEDED sunshine!!

2 coats of Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow , with Finger Paints Asylum over the top....I love flakies over bright yellow!
Take care and enjoy the spring weather if you have it in your area!

A England Elaine and Flakies!

I broke down and bought some A-England polishes after my friend Saundie raved over the formula. Nothing spoke to me quite like Elaine, though. I adore a purple creme and Elaine is an amazing purple.
I did get A-England's Dragon, too *drool*  (it whispered...loudly).

Here it is-Inside under Ott lights.

Two lovely coats of A-E Elaine..one was close, but I had some cuticle drag at one coat, so I used two.

Outside, above and below-SUNSHINE! This was out on our deck and probably the most color-accurate pictures. Two coats of Finger Paints Asylum on accent fingers.

This picture is just an extra, hahahahaa! I swatched my A-Englands as soon as I got them in the mail :0)
From Left to right... Elaine, Dragon and a franken of mine I hadn't tried on my nails yet.

I bought my A-Englands on http://shop.llarowe.com/ and they got to me in terrific shape and FAST! I love shopping on her site-shipping is affordable and it gets to me quickly-however, my bank account does not love it, hahahaha. 

Butterfly Nirvana

Hope everyone had a fun and safe St.Patrick's Day if you celebrated! I'm not much of a party-er and stayed home and relaxed with family.

This mani evolved while I worked on it...I initially planned on stamping a chrome black right over Sinful Colors Nirvana, but I saw an untried and got maybe a bit carried away, hehehehe...
2 coats of SC Nirvana-love this color...

 Combined lighting from Ott light and fluorescent light bulb, above.

Just a tiny little Ott light I found-makes me look pale but maybe the most color-accurate picture.

Now with the untried...Sally Hansen Glass Slipper-ooh are those white Flakies I see?? Yup, I think they are. My friend Saundie bought this and was telling me how pretty it was. I had seen it, but didn't realize what it would look like on the nail...awesome polish imo.

 Above, with no topcoat...a little bumpy

Ooooh, you can see them better in this picture...tiny little flakie goodness in my eyes :0)

OK, it looks better from a distance, I know...close up the color accents on the butterflies are a bit wonky, but I still love them. This may be one of those times when I should have stopped while I was ahead, but I wanted a tiny bit more color on this mani. Nirvana is such a cool/odd color to put other colors with, I am not very confident in my color pairings with this one.

Here is a pic of the Sally Hansen Glass Slippers-looks like a plain Jane glitter polish to me!

Spoiled Designated Driver + Flakies!

No, I don't think I am crazy but if you have seen this color in the bottle...you might be giving this post the hairy eyeball...

I walked past the Spoiled display after Christmas and said, "meh" but then I thought I would step out of my comfort zone and get something totally different....check 'er out!

This is like the weirdest/coolest color to me, lol. I couldn't figure it out until I had it on for a few days...it looks like cooked squash! LOL, Now you can call me loony!

Look familiar?! ROFL! I fell in love with this color when I was learning how to spin (make yarn from wool). Same darn color. I just about snorted, I laughed so hard when I realized. You know you have a problem when you are seeing a potential franken in beautiful yarns or thinking of how to make a cool yarn that looks like your favorite polish...GAH, I am a nut!

Above, with 2 coats of FP Asylum.....too FEW flakies for the look I envisioned....

Ah, there we go. I added a nice coat of Golden Rose Scale Effect! I wanted the purplish flakes to jump out more. I Adored how this looked, weird as it might seem. It made me happy. Ah, so distracting driving in the sunlight...

The Good kind of Flake!

I finally  got to wear one of my new polishes from a swap with Buzzwheedle, and it didn't disappoint!

I had picked up Orly Le Chateau, from a clearance bin, thinking it was black. Got home looked closer and went "Oh, Cr*p!" it was teal! Deep, dark and wow... I think I might have made an error in covering this with flakies...but really?! Flakies make Anything better in my book (kind of like bacon).
Silly me...here are the pictures!

*Sigh* I am really loving this color. Wonder if it stains? Oh, what was that? Yes, 2 coats of dark teal blackness...

Now 2 coats of Golden Rose Scale Effects from the lovely Buzzwheedle, in all of its multi-colored goodness.

Wow. I really had NO idea there were so many colors in this polish. I know I wrote that in my last post...but really.
My really bad Internet splurge arrived and I now own 4 Zoya polishes. Anita at Splashofserendipity did a Fingerpaint flakie over a nude, so maybe I will try that next. Go check out her mani-it is lovely.

Have a good week...a winter storm is blowing in here, so I may wake up to 10 inches of snow! I will take pictures! Be safe  :0)

Whoo-Hoo! Swap results

I finally received my swap package from Buzzwheedle! She sent awesome and amazing goodies, and it was fun going through looking at the different countries the polishes came from. OK, I'm easy-it doesn't take much to make me happy!

At any rate, I will probably be doing manis with these fun polishes in the next few weeks. I already did my toes...but I will be  merciful and NOT subject you to my winter toes, LOL!
Here are a few pics of my new loot!

The total loot pile...no breakage and it was like my birthday a month early! (Yeeks, I turn 45 next month!)

*Sigh* look at those flakies! I never thought I would have this particular polish...and I didn't realize how many different colors of flakies this has!

This is Essence Choose me! and I totally fell in love with it....this is what is on my funky little piggies.

I had never participated in a swap before and I was so glad that I had. Thank-you Buzzwheedle! I hope to see you blogging again when you find more time :0) *Hugs* to you dear lady!

I had picked up 2 of the Fingerpaints flakies before I received my Netherlands package. The thing is...the Golden Rose Scale Effect is like mixing FP Asylum and Flecked! Hands-down, Golden Rose SE tops the Fingerpaints in my opinion, just because of the range of color to get lost in....

I'm off to eat some of my daughter's homemade bread with some honey...nomnomnom!  Stay safe, hug your loved ones, and paint your nails!

Matte Pink Flakies

I'm not doing anything fancy tonight because I HOPE my loot from Amazon will come in the mail tomorrow. I did some retail therapy last week-it was a pretty rough week at work, and ordered an inexpensive UV lamp and some shellac base coat. The awesome lady/cosmetologist that does my hair knows I am freaky about polishes and stamping. She told me my regular polishes will cure harder with a lamp...plus I think it will be useful for other things, like broken nails. At any rate, I am excited to start experimenting with this.
On to today's mani...after which I will show what happens when you miss a tiny bit of base coat-pure nastiness!
I started with 2 coats of Sally Hansen Twisted Pink...and topped with 2 coats of ABOP's Flakie Franken...a polish which Rocks!



This stuff is so blingy that my camera couldn't focus with 2 coats on, LOL! Normally I do one coat and it focuses fine....not so today!

Then 1 coat of Essie Matte About You- I have been dying to try this look....I have seen a lot of people put flakies and matte over blues and purples, but I have missed seeing pinks, so here we go :0)

Gorgeous, isn't it? Why did I wait so long to try this look? Not a clue, because I am loving it!

Now for the nastiness...my last mani stained in the weirdest way. I must have missed a tiny bit of base coat, or maybe it was just thin in one spot, but look...

Green dots of nastiness. I was able to buff most of this off, but imagine what that would look like if I used that dark green over the whole nail with no base coat? Blegh....My nails are still light yellow/green from a few months ago and my Day-Glo Green/yellow mani. Halfway gone and it was 2 months ago roughly....

Take care and be safe.