Summer Challenge: Day Four!

Oh, hey there!  I've been absent..
Not to get into a lot, but my grandmother has just had surgery, so I've just spent my last two days off over at her house helping her out and stuff...and putting off getting together summer challenge stuff!  Family is important though, and that's why i was not only watching over my grandmother, but my two young cousins (8 and 9) and let me assure you, I was not on a manicure rest!  I have been painting, removing, pressing tiny girly looking adhesive nails on, peeling them off, putting different ones on, peeling those off, painting again...and none of it on myself!  Well, okay I did find the time to do my own nails last night, and I think this manicure can double up on my summer challenges!  Not too sure, I may actually want to do a different one for the future challenge day.  I did miss Wednesday's challenge, the theme was summer dots.  I already did a dotting mani earlier that I feel is the perfect summer dot manicure so can I just cheat and lead you to that one..?

Okay, so today's challenge is orange freestyle themed.  And I feel like it could double over onto June 29: Underneath the stars.  If you don't agree, then I hereby surrender myself to the crumpet, and shall take my punishment accordingly.

Picture spam alert! I not only got my camera issues fixed, but I am quite proud of how this turned out!

inside:

outside:

blurry inside:

blurry outside:

emphasis on the thumb inside:

thumb outside:

blurry outside again, just 'cause =]

Galaxy nails! I have been wanting to do these for quite some time, but haven't been able to sponge correctly or use the colors I felt were right for it.  Some of these are obviously blurry to show the awesomeness of the holographic glitter=]
Specs:
Base coat: Sally Hansen Double Duty.
One coat of China Glaze Smoke and Ashes from the Hunger Games collection (the PERFECT galaxy base, in my opinion)
Index, middle, ring & pinky:
sponged on Revlon Dreamer in the middle in oddly shaped circles and stuff
sponged on one side China Glaze Tree Hugger
on another OPI My Address is Hollywood
on another Revlon Not so Blueberry (which is scented, and I'm not sure but I might be okay with that.  Maybe.)
sponged in the center Maybelline Color Show Porcelain Party
sponged the tips with CG Smoke and Ashes, and a bit around the sides til I was happy
To pull it all together, China Glaze Fairy Dust.  I really mean it.  This mani would not be the same without it.  Ever since I first saw it I knew it would be the perfect topper to a galaxy mani.  I've been lookin' around a lot, okay?  I see people all the time free-handing their own stars or dots in white on their galaxies, and I just think it totally takes away from it all, for me that is.  It just looks more realistic with the shimmering holographic bits in there, I think.

For my thumbs:
First, I sponged on Maybelline Color Show Porcelain Party, so the other colors would show up better.  This is an explosion of some kind.  I sponged on Revlon Fearless, and then alternated between that and Kleancolor Neon Yellow and Neon Orange, slowly making my way toward the tip of the nail, finishing with Revlon Fearless.  Then I topped that off with CG Fairy Dust.

Okay, so it isn't all about orange, but I have really been wanting to try this one out for a while, and it turned out even better than I expected!  So I needed an excuse to post it and tie it into the summer challenge lol

What's your favorite galaxy mani?  Am I offending you with my dislike of free handed stars instead of glitter?  Am I breaking the rules of the summer challenge too hard (um because there aren't any, get your facts right!) Wanna whine about it in a comment?  You can whine about anything down there, you know.
I'll read it, and respond in a timely manner with my thoughtfully thought thoughts =]

peacock marble

If you've been keeping up with either my blog or Cuti-Clue-Les' (whom btw has totally redone her background recently and it looks awesooome) then you will know that I have just discovered a new love: water marbles.  Oh my god.  I think I could do water marbles forever and ever, and never get tired of them!

For color inspiration, because I always feel like I'll throw together something awful, I look to fashion magazines.  Yeah.  I read 'em.  So what?  Anyway, the writers/staff at these mags might not know exactly how I feel on every subject, especially my stance on being submissive to men, (sometimes Cosmo, I really do love ya, other times I feel like you're trying to subliminally message me into becoming an oral machine..) and the fashion stuff is always craaaaazy expensive and normally just impractical for my life.  I don't work on a runway!  But they're normally pretty good at puttin' colors together=]  I swear, since my nails became my obsession, magazines have just become these idea books for me, they're also really great for patterns and designs.

Anyway, so I got this month's Marie Claire, and found a page with a girl wearing this weird peacock dress.  It had all of the peacock-ish colors and a couple feather designs I think, but mostly the colors were just there all together, swirled and going in different directions..  I thought that would be cool to recreate!  Everyone is loving the peacock design right now, put your own spin on it if you're interested but kind of unsure!

Some of these are still blurry, sorry!  I promise I got my camera issues fixed, but these were taken the other day..
Anyway, I started with a base of Maybelline Color Show Porcelain party, then did my marble with Pure Ice French Kiss, Maybelline Color Show Tenacious Teal and Kleancolor Neon Yellow, as well as Finger Paints Art You Wondering, which didn't show up so much in pictures.

I really just love marbles now, they're so fun and easy!  Once you have your colors, you're good to go!  I use the tape method, so clean up is a breeze, and I get better with each one I do!  If you have been put off by a marble mani, or are unsure of whether or not to try one because of maybe things you might have read about them or whatever...don't be!  Practice is the only way to get better.  Basically what it comes down to is, if I can do it, then there's gotta be a way that you can do it too.  If you have any questions at all, let me know!

And I did not forget about yesterday's summer challenge that I missed, but I do however feel that I can make up for it tomorrow.  Have a fantastic day=]

Aqua Zebra!

I will never regret the day I bought my stamper =]

So, my Cheeky plates had a few different animal print designs, and I feel like a lot of people do those, so while it might be a little overdone, the still young and fun girl inside of me (way down in there, stifled by work and sleep and soon school! I feel old..) just could not wait to get some zebra tips.

I started out with Gelous as my base coat, then for my thumb and ring fingers I layered two coats of a super pretty no-name aqua color that I bought at Maurices a few months ago.  Application is really good for this one, opaque in two coats, and it dries semi-matte.  I have another polish that I bought at the same time from Maurices and they are my only colors that dry semi-matte..I'm iffy about that type of finish.  Are you trying to be matte because you know how cool it looks?  Why are you still satin-y and almost shiny?  PICK ONE!! Eh..

For my index, middle and pinky I used Kleancolor Neon Aqua.  I do love this blue!  Again, the application is really great with these polishes I have found, and I'm almost 100% positive this is opaque in two coats.  I keep feeling like these neons from Kleancolor are going to show my nail line, but this one did not.  Anyway, perfect color combo in my eyes =]

Sorry about the mess! I was excited because it actually went really well, unlike my first attempt at stamping which I am sure I will eventually post lol  I used Pure Ice Black Rage and one of the zebra print designs from my Cheeky plates.

So You can't tell from the picture of my left hand before I cleaned up, and I didn't post of my right beforehand, but I did miss a couple of spots.  On my left hand it wasn't a big deal, I remembered that with my bottle of Seche Vite came a little strip with some tiny rhinestones that look like diamonds along with about 25 little pink breast cancer awareness ribbons.  I think some of the money went toward that cause, and that's why I bought it.  I mean I was going to get the bottle anyway but I only had to pay maybe a dollar more for this one.  Anyway, so I fixed my left hand, and then finished my thumb with Seche Vite (I didn't have nail glue, so this was the only way I could think of to get the rhinestone to stay) and the rest of my fingers I finished off with Hard Candy's matte polish (I think it's called Matte-ly in love?)

For my right hand, there were a couple of extra problems that I fixed the same way.  As you can see, my thumb has a missing part of the zebra design on the right side.  I knew that my stamper hadn't picked up all of the design (my fault, not Konad's lol) and I thought I could make that work for me.  BAM! Two rhinestones.  Then on my ring finger the same thing happened in the left corner, so I fixed it the same way.  Sorry for my middle finger being in the way lol I finished my thumb and ring finger in Seche Vite, and the others in Hard Candy's matte.

Also, my pinky was just beyond repair and I did not feel like taking it all off and putting it all back on again.  I felt accomplished, nothing was gonna bring me down!

You can probably tell that I did not wait for my stamping to dry before putting my top coats on.  If you're a beginner like I am, please please please please wait for your stamping to dry for a bit lol  You won't regret it!  You might however if you have to look down at your nails and see veiny streaks all over.  I do a little teeny bit, but I know that I'm just going to get better at this, and I think I did pretty well for my first zebra stamping attempt.  I still only know of my Pure Ice Black Rage as being my go-to polish for stamping, but I don't see why Pure Ice's other cremes wouldn't work as well.  I will find out though=]



Sweet Stampage has commenced!

I am so excited for this. My Konad double ended stamper came in the mail yesterday! I already received my Cheeky plates, the ones they came out with for this summer. The part of my mind that brainstorms has been lost in some sort of dreamy haze. I'm going to be able to create so many cool things now!

Okay, so this is the mani from my previous post which I knew would be the perfect background for SOMETHING.. The plates that I used were Ch6, 9, 10, 16, 17, &20 For my pinky I used Pure Ice Black Rage for the lollipop, but the first four fingers I was just trying to experiment with what polishes might work with the stamping plates.  I have read that you don't have to buy the special Konad ones for them to still work properly, but that they don't always have the full effect with most polishes.  Anyway, the first four I used China Glaze Smoke and Ashes from the Hunger Games collection and it worked oookaaayyy, I like that I can tell there's a shimmery part to it, but only if it's up close so that kind of  made it pointless.  Plus the little flecks get caught up in the plates and they're hard to remove..so I decided to use the only true black creme that I have, and I knew it would be thick enough, and it is!  I really love the cupcake on my index finger!  But I think I should've placed them all more to the left side like with my ring finger, to really pop against the Neon Yellow and Orange.  Overall I'm in love with this handy dandy tool, and I am pumped for some more Sweet Stampage =]

Does anyone have any suggestions on any polishes that work well with the stamping plates, something that I could maybe pick up at Wal Mart instead of going over the internet?

Also, I think I'd like to begin reviewing products that I love, and I will definitely be reviewing my Birchboxes that I get from now on.  I have been a subscriber for exactly a year now, and I haven't regretted it one bit.  I love the products they send me, and the points system they have.  I love buying products totally in points that have accumulated =]  And after I've opened the boxes I use them to store my nail polish.  I don't have anything fancy like a super Helmers or a shelf that my boyfriend has promised he would make for me..but my collection is still relatively small.  I have about 70-75 bottles of polish, and that includes minis(about 15? idk..)  That's not including base coats, top coats, other bottled nail products that aren't actually nail polish..

What an amateur, right?  Anyway, I'm not up there with the big polish bloggers yet, but I'd like to think I still have something to offer the blogosphere! And while I keep posting my collection shall keep growing =]

On a funner note (god, what a long blog lol..) I will be participating in the crumpet's summer challenge!!! If you check out all the challenges, you might think it will be a doozy.  And it probably will be!  But I really think it's going to be fun, I'm already having fun brainstorming and getting started =] It starts May 19 and ends Sept. 8.  Check out her facebook page for the challenge group, and request an invite if you wanna get it on it!  It's long, but there's no pressure or strings attached or anything...I actually think it will be less stressful than a 31 day challenge but what do I know.. Is anyone else gonna do it too? =]

Kleancolor Candy Cast mani#2

I am so loving this mani right now! I feel like Katy Perry went into a candy store with wet fingers...take that in the least disgusting way!

here it is:

This is a layer of my cheap base coat, two coats of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails French White, one coat of Poshe. Then starting at the right corner on my left hand and the left corner on my right: Kleancolor's Neon Pink, Neon Amethyst, Neon Aqua, Neon Lime, Neon Yellow, Neon Orange, one more layer of Poshe :) I am sooo super happy with how this turned out!

It's so bright and fantastic.  Plus, I knew my stamper would be in the mail soon, and I thought this would be the perfect background to start with.  It came, and it totally was!  I don't have pictures up yet, but I will soon.  I went a little stamp happy, so not all of them are perfect, or in the spot I really want them to be in lol but I was really surprised at how easy it is to do.  I'm also learning along the way.  A tip: probably best not to use glass flecked polishes...I can still see some shimmers in a couple of my plates lol I don't think it will affect them much, and I'll try to clean them more thoroughly.  I really hope that I can because I know I'll probably be using darker colors for stamping but I want to keep my stamper and scraper stainless!  The black polishes I used are staining my scraper I do believe...the pink plastic part.  I think I need to soak them maybe?  A cotton ball soaked in polish remover just doesn't seem to be doing it..

I know tomorrow is Teal Tuesday and I really want to participate in some sort of nail challenge or nail of the day thing other people have going on...Any ideas? anybody?

Kleancolor Candy Cast mani #1

I couldn't wait until tomorrow to post this.  I'm spammin' up your feeds! kidding..

Anyway, this is what I did to my nails when I realized I quickly had to think of something else to do, before I showed up at work with nails matching the same colors as a friend's.  (Funny, she didn't even have to work that night.. I'm losing my mind..)  Now, I realize this is not my best work. It would've been a lot cooler if my dots were smaller.  Eh.. So, I wanted to use more of my Kleancolor minis that came in.  I'm also planning on swatching these because I'm planning on being adventurous this summer!  Anyway, here it is:

BAM! these colors are so in-your-face, I love it!

(BTW on the upper right corner of my thumb and middle fingers are hearts, not even bigger dots lol)

As you can tell and probably already know, neons are just weird to photograph.. These pictures are almost dead on, especially in the refrigerator.  The ones outside are just less bright.  Actually in the fridge the colors appear to be all a liiiittle darker than they really are..or maybe just more saturated..I don't know, they're cute on my hands though!

And of course my clean up sucks on my thumb again..I really need better brushes.

This is one layer of LA Colors base coat, two coats of Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails French White, then starting at the base of my nails with a medium dotting tool, Kleancolor's Neon Orange, then Neon Yellow, Neon Lime, Neon Pink, and then above that on my thumb and ring finger I tried to add some Neon Amethyst dots.  A niiiice layer of Poshe on top =]

For this one, I realized after the polish was on that I should've been positioning my hand differently so that the dots would be more in line, and not dropping off the side like when I'm writing on a piece of un-lined paper..

And I think I should've used smaller dots.  This blog is really going to help me learn from my mistakes lol

So when I got home from work this morning of course I did my nails again...because if I think I've messed up, or it could've been done differently, or made better in some way, I'm definitely gonna do my nails again.  Moisturizing is really the key lol

Later I'll post about what I did to my nails this morning, and hopefully my Konad stamper will be at my door =]  I really think what I have going on right now would be the perfect background for some sweet sweet stampage.

Thanks for reading!



Dot Experiment

As I said before, my dotting tools are here and I have begun the fun!
My skills are still needing improvement, both in the steady hand area and placement and whatnot of said dots...
this ain't my old high school pointillism assignment!  Though it could be, and that's an idea I'm putting into my head..someday it will become real.

Anyway, here is the mani that I had to completely redo because I realized I was basically subconsciously copying off of a friend, and that's just lame!  This is my cheap-o base coat (i think it's LA Colors..) plus two coats of Sally Hansen's HaN French White on most of my nails, and then for my accent nail I used Kleancolor Neon Aqua for my bases.

Next, I grabbed a dotting tool and started dottin'!  I went over my white nails with mediumish sized blue dots in the Neon Aqua, and decided that could not be enough.  I went back with a much smaller dotting tool and used Finger Paints I have no idea what red I used still.. and randomly put them in white spaces.  I even made a little heart at the tip of my accent nail, by making two dots next to each other with a tool and then just drawing them together to make the heart bottom. I went over it all with a nice coat of Poshe, and viola!

 

Sorry about the messy clean up, I really thought I got it all and then my camera tells me otherwise...

I still haven't really swatched my Kleancolor mini collection, except for my blue accent nail above.  From what I can tell from doing that one nail, it's a nice creme, opaque in two coats with a nice shiny finish.  I don't have any full-sized Kleancolor polishes but the brush is surprisingly nice and wide for the little bottles.  I will definitely be wearing these colors this summer! 

Anyway, I'll post more about my even better Kleancolor dotted manis tomorrow!