Valentines mani update!

My last manicure started to chip :( so even though I loved it, I had to rejuvenate it. I also wanted to try out my striping tape. I removed the hearts from my ring fingers and painted them fame fatal red by essence. Then I put 3 strips of striping tape along the base of the other 4 fingers and 5 strips vertically on the ring fingers. Then I painted the four fingers with fame fatal over the avon viva pink pink/orly quo paint the town red sparkle originally on the nails. I painted Avon viva pink on the ring fingers. After pulling off the striping tape and topped with seche vite. Photos below are of the previous manicure and new photos taken in natural light when it's cloudy out.

Previous Manicure

Valentines Manicure Mega Post

Hi again.  Today I have a mega post for you.  This post will quickly touch on two Valentines manicures and go more in depth onto the third, which is my current manicure. 

The first manicure is one I did for my friend while watching movies the other night.  Keep in mind, this was done in the dark.  My friend is more of a vampy kind of Valentines person, rather than a cutesy girly pink person.  I gave her my swatch bin, and she picked out Center stage by Jessies Girl as a base.  Its a dark blood red colored almost jelly finish.  This was the first time I'd used this polish and the formula was less than ideal.  It was very thin and streaky, yet didn't come out of the bottle too well either.  So not a lot made it onto the nail and it dragged into thin yet chunky streaks.  it took three attempts at thicker coats to get the full opacity without streaks.  Thankfully, she had decided on a reverse feature nail.  She decided on one coat on each nail except the ring fingers of Quo by Orly Paint the town red, with the ring finger left sparkle less.  She loves the manicure and it totally suits her in every way.

The second manicure is one I did for myself that night.  I started off with Viva Pink by Avon.  Its a darker bubblegum pink cream polish.  The formula on this is fantastic.  Its just the right consistency and almost completely opaque in one coat.  I used two coats on my nails.  Then i took Step to the Beat of my Heart by Nicole by OPI, from the Justin Bieber collection, and brushed thick coats onto my ring fingers, trying to get a bunch of hearts.  Due to trying to place the hearts in the thick clear jelly base (with aqua irridescent glitter) it made that nail thick and slow drying.  Even after the top coat it was less than ideal.  It was bumpy and wasnt really the look I was looking for.

So for my manicure that i'm sporting now, and LOVE, i used the same base Avon Viva Pink.  I took off the ring fingers on the last manicure and repainted them, and added a third coat to the rest of the nails to refresh them.  I decided to give my original idea another shot, and try to get it to match my vision.  After my viva pink nails had dried, i poured out some of the Step to the beat of my heart onto a piece of plastic wrap and used a dotting tool to pick up and place the hearts.  I placed them in rows entirely covering my ring fingers and topped the whole thing with a coat of seche vite.  I topped the ring fingers with 2 coats of top coat to make it flat.  For the rest of the nails I sponged on a little Quo by Orly Paint the town Red from the base of the nail upwards towards the tips, and topped with one coat of Seche Vite.  I am loving this manicure and I think I'll try to keep it until we go away for Valentines day on Thursday.  The photos for this were taken in the sun! Yay, the first sun we've had in awhile, so I was super excited to get some I could photograph the nails in. 

My First Jelly Sandwich Manicure

I decided today to do a jelly sandwich manicure.  I'd never tried this before, and I dont have a lot of jelly polishes, but I thought I'd give it a shot and I really love it.  Although with any glitter in play, the little glittery bits on the skin are annoying to get off, so I opt to let them come off naturally with hand washing.  Okay, so I watched a youtube video by PackAPunchPolish on this technique before I started.  I then picked my jelly polish.  I chose OPI Mod-Ern Girl.  I started with one coat of basecoat and then one coat of Mod-ern Girl.  At this point it was almost totally sheer.  Then she had said you need a glitter polish with large pieces, so I grabbed my new Quo by Orly polish I picked up the other day, Paint the Town Red.  Since Mod-ern Girl is a orange leaning coral, I thought the red would go pretty great with it, and I was right.  After one coat of the glitter, I put another coat of Mod-ern girl.  The look still wasn't entirely what I was looking for though, not enough glitter, and not jelly enough looking for my tastes.  So i put another layer of glitter, and another coat of Mod-ern Girl.  I topped it with Seche Vite.  I am so far LOVING this look, although with all those coats, the polish is quite thick and I don't know how long it will last before it starts to chip or peel off.  I will definitly try this technique with other colors and glitters in the future. 

Some fooling around with valentines nails

I had a few quick minutes to kill so I tried this out. Base is Sally Hansen salon manicure bittersweet with essence fame fatal hearts and Avon pink dots. I'll be taking it off right away but just trying it out :)

Wizard of Oz Dorothy Nails - Orly Quo paint the town red and Sinful Colors Cinderella! Oh my!

I just popped into shoppers drug mart and saw this gorgeous puppy in the clearance section for only $4.99 (original price $10.99). I just couldn't believe it, Orly Paint the Town Red. A little google on it shows it was in a Canadian only released collection of glitters.  I am completely entranced by this polish, the combo of large circle glitters and small glitters just catches my eye and I can't look away. It makes me think of Dorothy's ruby slippers from the wizard of oz. It is super sparkly and I can picture several great manicures with this including the Sparkly red French tips I plan to try sometime.  I decided to go with a bit of a Dorothy theme by starting with a pale blue (sinful colors cinderella, two coats) to mimic her dress.  Then i put one coat of Paint the town red over top and topped it with one coat of seche vite.   I was a tiny bit disapointed in the density of the glitter.  From the look in the bottle I expected it to be very dense and full coverage, but it ended up being more sparse.  It did give a good glitter payout though, enough to only need one coat.  I love the way the nails make me think of Dorothy's dress and shoes.  I am really loving this manicure more and more as I look at it.  Its a great combination.  

Manicure update

 So it's really nice sometimes to make an older manicure look completely new, without having to start all over. Today was one of those Days for me. I decided to redo my manicure from yesterday and turn it into pink zebra French tips. I used French tip guide stickers to create a French tip at the top and used Q-tips with remover to clear out the polish underneath it. After removing the polish underneath I added a second French tips sticker leaving a very slight gap in between the tip and the bottom. I used Sally Hansen so Celeb City to create a silver paint over the center gap between the two stickers. Once it dried up all the stickers off leaving a nice silver border on the French tip. I topped it with three coats of Seche vite. While this manicure is a little bit time-consuming with removing all the polish underneath the sticker, it is very worth it in my opinion. The photos are taken with and without the flash. Ignore the bottoms of the cuticles on some of the fingers in the flash picture where the little bits of pink are left behind, it was pretty hard by the end to get that little bit out.

Pink and black zebra manicure

So this manicure is one of my all time favorites so far.  I started off with one coat of Revlon Tulip.  I like this polish, the fomula is decent and not too thin or thick.  One coat makes it opaque.  Opaque enough if you plan to put something over it, like stamping, at least.  Its not streaky or anything even after one coat.  Then i took some Sally Hansen Black Out and used Konad plate M57 to stamp a full nail zebra print.  This polish works wonderfully for stamping.  It was crisp and clear and the full image transfered easily onto the stamper, and then onto the nail.   Then i put a thin layer of OPI I Juggle... Men.  I haven't really used this polish before, but I really like it.  It a transparent polish with a blue/purple holo sparkle.  It really gives this manicure that little bit extra. I finished it off with Seche Vite.

Rainbow cheetah manicure

Just a quick post today, I did this manicure today. I started with a basecoat of Sally Hansen air, which is a gorgeous light shimmery blue and then added a coat of OPI Katy Perry teenage dream to give it a pinky slightly glittery finish. Using Sally Hansen salon manicures bittersweet, which is a light chocolate brown which leans a little bit to the pinky side,  I used Konad M57 to stamp the cheetah print on top. I used some Art Deco by LA colors in blue, red, yellow, and pink to draw the little dots on to the cheetah print and I topped it with Seche vite top coat. 

OPI Yodel Me on my Cell and loose Glitter Manicure of the Day

Okay, so thanks to oily nail beds which make my nailpolish peel off a day or so after I put it on, I've had to paint my nails again.  Darn.  lol.  Anyways, I decided to do a glitter manicure again.  But this time do the loose glitter from the base of the nail towards the tip.  I did a basecoat and then two thin layers of OPI Yodel Me on My Cell from the Swiss collection.  I love this polish, the application is good, its pretty opaque even in one layer.  Then i sponged some top coat down at the base of my nails radiating upwards toward the tip.  Then using a makeup brush i brushed on a little lime green glitter on each nail.  Then i sponged on top coat again and sponged some pink glitter with holo flakeys on the ring fingers over the green glitter.  Then i sponged topcoat on the other fingers and sponged purple glitter over the green on the other fingers.  Finished off with two coats of topcoat and I love the effect it has.  Its not too thick so it shouldn't chip or flake off but knowing my nails it will peel off in one piece per nail over the next 24 hours.  The photos are with and without flash.

Striping Tape...

So I've never owned striping tape.  I've wanted to for as long as I've been interested in my nails, yet they don't sell it around here.  I've tried regular tape, but try cutting it into thinner strips, man that's hard! The strips are never straight, are hard to place, and even the next day they tend to pull off the polish.  I've also used french tip guides, but they are curved and thicker.  I was browsing Ebay today, and I came across this.  It is a pack of 10 different colors of striping tape.  Going for a whopping $1.41 with free shipping.  I know the quality can't be marvelous, but for a first try of something I think that's a good price to pay for what basically evens out to an experiment. I can't wait for it to arrive so I can try manicures like this one featured on the facebook page of Man Glaze.
This was created by the Crumpet and shared to the facebook page of ManGlaze Original Matte Nail Polish, which I follow.  I love this manicure for so many reasons and once I get my striping tape I plan to do my own version of it.  I am thinking maybe tropical colors, Tropical cocktail colors, Caribbean turquoise, Palm tree green, Sunset colors.  Or maybe monotone with various shades of the same color, maybe Pink or Blue.  I am brimming with ideas.  The reviews of this seller say the shipping is super fast so I'm really hoping it comes quickly.  I'm still loving my manicure from yesterday, and for once it isn't chipping off, so theres no new manicure of the day today.  Yesterday I painted a sunset and water scene with a palm tree silhouette on my friends nails, but I forgot to take pictures, so I can't even show you what I had planned. Anyways, I'm off to watch Ghost Hunters and relax a little since it's back to work tomorrow. 

My first Ever Joe Fresh Polish - Starry and a shot at Konad Stamping

Hello again,

Today I was out grocery shopping and I saw this Joe Fresh polish on clearance at Extra Foods.  I've never tried Joe Fresh polish before, with it being a supermarket brand and never being overly drawn to the colors.  However, being on clearance for $1.94 was enough of a reason to give one a shot.  I grabbed this holographic silver one called Starry.  I expected it to be like every other holo polish I had and just be a sheer top coat style.  But happily I found it was full coverage, even after one coat.  The polish had a fantastic formula, and applied like a dream.  I then used Sally Hansen black out and Essense Off To Miami to use one of my Konad plate for french tips, which I haven't done in forever, since I'm usually not too great at it.  Anyways, it turned out excellently and I am very happy with it.  I capped off each with the color to prevent chipping.  Pictures below are without and with flash.

Manicure of the day - essence off to Miami and space queen

I started off with a Basecoat of Sally Hansen insta dri. I then added two coats of off to Miami, which has a great formula and is full opaque with two coats.  Its a gorgeous coral color that looks great with any skin tone.  I topped that with one coat of space queen, which is larger holo glitters in a sheer peach jelly.  Space queen applies a little thick and I don't think you could ever build it up to opaque on its own.  The peach of the jelly base doesn't show too much, so you could use it over any color.  Both Off to Miami and Space Queen are by Essence.  I topped it off with Sally Hansen Insta Dri.