Summer Challenge: Day 1!

In case you haven't been reading or following any of the blogs that I follow (what's wrong with you?!) then you probably don't know anything about the summer challenge.  Started by Debbie from The Crumpet, it's a reallllllly long, and hopefully reallllllly awesome challenge, and it's my first!

click here to get all the deets on the Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge fb page!

Today's theme: The Olympic torch starts its journey.

I must say, I haven't kept up with the Olympics for a while, the last one came about the year I graduated high school.  I can't tell you what I was doing (such a hazy memory of that time..) but I can imagine I was celebrating like I had just won the Olympics.  I used to love watching the gymnastics and a few other various parts on TV when I was a little kid though.  Then I got pissed when I found out this awesome show only runs every four years! whaaaat..

So my mani is pretty basic, I'm really only using the colors for the rings for this one. Red, green, blue, black, and yellow which I have substituted gold for.  Aren't I just cool? ha..

This is Sally Hansen Double Duty base coat, two coats of Maybelline Color Show Tenacious Teal on my index, middle and pinky fingers. For my thumb and ring fingers I have painted diagonally with Pure Ice Black Rage, and for the other half Color Club Disco Nap.  On top of these I have sponged Sally Girl no name gold glitter, it's really a simple clear base with small and medium sized gold glitter pieces.  I focused on sponging the entire nail on the thumb and ring fingers, while only about halfway on the rest.  Then, I have taken a dotting tool and made dots in Pure Ice French Kiss, Siren, and Black Rage on my teal fingers.  Topped off with Seche Vite.

So, I hope that I do get to watch this year's Olympics, and incorporate something better than just colors into my manis.  Oh yeah, there are a few more Olympic themes left, as well as a lot of other cool creative ideas to get your lacquered-crazed brains a-goin =]

Here are the ladies who participated in the challenge today:

my messy colorblock

So for this mani i tried to color block! Didn't turn out how i hoped it would but oh well..

i started with Pure Ice Flirt Alert for my thumbs which is very opaque which i looove about their cremes. Opaque in two coats and of course i used my LA Colors bade coat for all these. Next, I alternated between Pure Ice Wild Thing, (another great creme for such a low price!) and Color Club Age of Aquarius a really great creme neon aqua/teal color. Both opaque in two coats. The only thing about Pure Ice cremes, the colors are great and the cremes are thick in a nice way, but you have to be careful or you'll have bald spots.  I almost left my nails like this, because I liked the combination of these colors. Next, I placed tape diagonally slanting to left on my thumb and to the right on the rest of my fingers. The opposite was done on my other hand. Then, I tried to alternate the colors for the slant. After that i used a small dotting tool to create dots adjacent to the slanting in the third color on each nail. That should have been enough! But i wanted more definition....lol So i used the smallest brush i have which is from the cheapo set of artist brushes from wal mart dipped in Pure Ice Black Rage to create some sloppy lines lol that wasn't how it was supposed to happen! But I didn't have my actual nail art brush at the time. Topped off with Poshe of course! I originally wanted to do this mani for Teal Tuesdays, but after it was all said and done I didn't really feel very proud of it lol  But I'm uploading it here and now because what is the point of this blog except to document what I've done?  I'll learn from my mistakes =] Anyway better luck next time.

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!