Summer Challenge: Day 2!

Today is the second day of the Purple Crumpet Fairy Summer Challenge!

The theme for this mani the Chelsea Flower Show!

I know nothing about flower shows, but I have plenty of floral stamp designs in my Cheeky collection, so here it is:

 Sorry for the blur! I could not get my camera to focus on these at all..I think i messed with the settings the other day and just messed everything up..

Quick note before the specs:  I've been using my Sally Hansen double duty base and top coat for a few days now, and for someone who changes their nails daily, this stuff seems to do the job!  My nails are no longer chipping off at the tips and looking a little rough..they just look normal when I take off my polish! anyway..

This is two coats of Revlon Fearless on all fingers except the ring, which has two coats of Maybelline Color Show Porcelain Party.  Then I used two designs that seemed to go well together, and stamped on my thumb and index fingers with Sally Hansen French White, and Revlon Fearless on the ring.  Topped off with Sally Hansen double duty, and then Seche Vite because I was sleepy=]

I am in love with this red.  To me, this is a true red. It could be a little bit deeper, just a teeny bit and then I would classify it completely as true, but I don't care I love it.  It's the perfect pin-up red, and the rockabilly girl that lives in my mind wears this all day long.  I really should let her out more often..

What do you think?  Check out the other lovelies participating, and join in if you want!

Debbie @ The Crumpet - http://thecrumpet.blogspot.co.uk/

Danielle - http://lbobeauty.blogspot.co.uk/

Neivys - http://maquiclubgirl.blogspot.com/

Jo @ Northern Nails - http://therockchicksrambles.blogspot.co.uk/

arlene @ http://euzefelus27-nailart.blogspot.com/

Helena - http://nailwish.blogspot.com.es/

Cuti-CLUE-les - http://cuti-clue-les.blogspot.com/

Katee - www.agirlandherpolish.blogspot.com

Alyssa at Fancy Phalanges - http://fancyphalanges.blogspot.com/

Sarah - http://www.ynails.blogspot.co.uk/

bec - http://lacquerdreams.blogspot.com.au/

Misha - www.enigmatic-rambles.blogspot.com

Sharon - http://whatcolorismycoat.blogspot.com/

Melissa - http://www.misadventuresofawannabemartha.com/

Laurie http://dressedupdigits.blogspot.com/

Lucie @ Lucy's Stash www.lucysstash.com

Emma @  http://manicurity.blogspot.com/

Caitlin - www.caitlinscreativecorner.blogspot.com

Jane- http://absolutevarnish.blogspot.com/

Vic @ Glowstars http://glowstars.net

Jackie- http://memasmanis-jackie.blogspot.com/

Rychelle @ Colorsplash Nails- http://colorsplashnails.blogspot.com/

Stella - http://mywetnails.blogspot.com

Missy @ http://missysmanis.blogspot.co.uk/

Kim @ http://apolishedaddiction.blogspot.com/

Christine @ http://lost-in-my-reverie.blogspot.com

tri-colored stamping, and another small haul!

For today's post, I tried stamping with different colors!  I saw a picture on fuckyeahnailart and thought about what I could do..


So maybe I should've used neons lol I like the way it turned out, even if it was slightly hard to tell exactly what was going on from far off:

Sorry, it's so hard to tell what this mani actually looked like from these photos!

I used Gelous as my base coat, Sally Hansen French White-2 coats, then using a floral all-over Cheeky plate, I alternated the combo of China Glaze For Audrey, Secret Periwinkle, and Sweet Hook.  I mattified it with Hard Candy's matte top coat, and called it a freakin' day =]


I must say my stamping skills are coming along! For this one I did not scrape off enough Secret Periwinkle before I stamped my thumb, and did not have enough polish on the stamper for my ring finger at the tip.  I like this design =]


And now, because I absolutely can't be on any sort of no-buy..
Another Sally's and wal mart haul!  Oh payday..

First up:Sally's.  I actually almost got two Hunger Games polishes because they're $1 off right now, but my mission was for more glitter.  Mission: accomplished.  For now..


I picked up China Glaze Fairy Dust, I'd been eyeing this baby for a bit, and heard many great things, like that it turns any mani into magic. We'll see =]


Also, CG Liquid Crystal from the Prismatic collection.  This is the only one that I have from it, and I really like it.  The color shifts from a light blue to a light purple with lots of different colored glitter and shimmers.  Very pretty =]

I got two Sally Girls, a gold and a pink glitter.  I like these, and I think that someday my Sally Girls will come in handy should I choose to start franken-ing =]


I also bought a huge thing of acetone, which was like three bucks I think with my Sally's card, and another nail file!


Wal-mart:

Sally Hansen Double Duty base and top coat.  My nails are getting longer, I need some more protection!  Revlon Blue Lagoon, Maybelline Color Show Tenacious Teal and Porcelain Pretty.


All together now:

All of these are two coats.


Whew. Okay I gotta stop now!  Next month, I plan on beginning the indie section of my stash!


What's your favorite indie polish brand?

My favorite bag from high school!

This mani was done on a whim, after I took a stroll down Kroger's cosmetics section and decided (on a whim) I NEEDED three Sally Hansen polishes.  Some no-buy, huh?  Here's one of them, Twisted Pink. stamped with Pure Ice Black Rage on thumbs and indexes in an awesome houndstooth print from my Cheeky plates, then mattified with Hard Candy's matte top coat.

The only thing about Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polishes from my experience is that they can be on the thick side, and this one wasn't good at leveling itself out..I don't hate 'em though, I can make it work =]

What inspired me to do this was I once had a purse that I had bought at Wal Mart that was basically this shade pink with black houndstooth all over.  I loved that bag=]  Now, I have no idea where it is..  

Zoya True Spring Collection! (super teeny tiny haul)

The other day I realized I had accumulated about 240 Birchbox points and decided I would use them to grab some full-sized Zoyas!  I have two minis that have been sent to me in my Birchboxes over the past year, and recently I received Bevin, which is an opaque sort of teal color, it's not dark but it isn't very bright.  It's dusty!  It really is very pretty=] No pictures of Bevin yet, because to me it's a kind of color that I just haven't been in the mood for lately.. no offense, Bevin!

So I was super excited when the mail ran a couple days ago, and I got my lovelies!  

This is Tru, which is a grape-colored purple, but it's deeper than that.  Not only is it saturated, it has shimmer to it!  The website says the shimmer reflects gold, orange and red, and from what I can tell that's probably pretty accurate, though I see more red than anything. I tried blurring the pictures some, but really I guess you can only tell the shimmer from the bottle pic in that last shot, which actually shows all of the shimmer!  I just loved taking pictures with this one.

Then there's Cho.  Now, I seem to keep collecting nude polishes, but they're always pink toned.  Cho is an opaque nude.  I was shocked!  this is completely opaque in two coats, how cool is that?  Cho basically looks like my skin on my nails.  Now, let me just say that I don't tan.  Not like I haven't tried or that I won't or that I'm a freak about sunblock, (I am) but my whole lifetime of trying to tan has just left me sore and befreckled.  This color is my nude =] I love it so.  It has really fine silvery shimmer in it, I love that added bonus.  Not only is it a super awesome nude, it's got super awesome shimmer!  I have no idea why I love nudes soooo much, but after Cho, I am definitely diving deeper into the nudey pool on the nudey beach =] (kidding) But I will be grabbing up some more beige colors from now on, just to have the variety. =]

Of course I couldn't just leave those manis be!

for my Cho, I left it as is for the most part, only accenting my ring fingers with China Glaze Fast Track from the Hunger Games collection.  I love that color!  You can't really see all of the shimmery goodness that Fast Track has to offer in this photo, and for that I am sorry.. but it's packed with gold shimmers and looks very much like liquid sparkly shimmery gold when you lift the brush out of the bottle.  God, I love it.

For my Tru, I did the same thing, only changing up the ring fingers.  I sponged some CG Fast Track onto the tips, and then Maybelline Bold Gold (I think that's what it was..) on top of that.  Then I used my cheeky plate with a little star design, and stamped twice using the gold color, so that it would fill up the rest of the nail space.  

For my second Tru mani, I went over my ring finger with NYC Starry Silver Glitter with a sponge.  I don't remember but I think I did two layers of sponging on that.  I doubt I will ever use a polish brush to apply glitters ever again! This glitter is freaking awesome!  I did not realize the glitter was holographic until I saw the pics.  It just looks like a light lavender purple and the darker blue circular glitter pieces (as well as super full of fine silver glittery goodness!)  But here you can see more, a darker purple, a lighter blue, and a green.  I also found another picture that shows red and yellow. Again, i tried to blur that pic so that everything could get caught up in the light.  I fail.

All of these manis and swatches are done with a coat of Gelous as base coat, then Topped off with Poshe.

I love these colors! I think if I had to I would pick up Skylar also from this collection, but I would much rather explore other collections since I am still verrrry new to Zoya.  One thing I know for sure, I NEED Zoya Zuza.  soo pretty!

My Birchbox should be here soon!  A few days ago I got an e-mail saying it was shipped, which I thought was weird since they normally go out on the 10th of every month, and that was like the 6th or something when I got that...and there still isn't any tracking info up yet!  Yes, I track my packages, I track them ferociously. Gotta know when my babies are comin' home!


Have a great day =]

Thank you, I'll Have Another

..But I was really rooting for Hansen (for obvious reasons)

In case you didn't know, or care (I pretty much didn't) yesterday was cinco de mayo!

..and that's not what I'm about to talk about.  Yesterday was the 138th Kentucky Derby. woo.  So it's sort of something that you can't go anywhere or do anything on said day without knowing that IT'S THE KENTUCKY DERBY!  But I never watch, any time I put money on the horse whose name I like the best, I lose, so I pretty much just don't care about that day.  And I had to work tonight, so it's not like I could celebrate Cinco De Mayo (I never have, that I can recall...but it sounds like margaritas are in order for the occasion)

But do I need much of a reason to do my nails?  No, ma'am.  I'm sorry, you probably don't like to be called ma'am, I know that I don't..

So when my thumbs were chipping like lead paint from the 60's yesterday morning, I knew as soon as I got home I would need to set my Pandora to MGMT and keep in mind the day's celebrator-iness.  Something that involved flowers, drinks, the color blue, and some sweet stampage.

This is two coats of Gelous, my lovely Gelous which has less than half of the bottle left and starting to get thick :(  Anyway, then two coats of China Glaze Tree hugger, and a coat of Seche Vite to speed things up. I was tired!

Then I used a few different floral designs mixed together and stamped my thumb, index, middle and pinky with Pure Ice Flirt Alert, and another design that signified drinks and celebration in Pure Ice French Kiss.  I topped it all off with NYC's matte top coat.  Lovely!

Did you guys do anything yesterday?

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=]