NNS: Pink Holo +M60

This week I guest blogged this mani over at The Crumpet... She's kind of awesome, check her out :) 

This is a new brand to my blog and I really dig it: NNS and it had no name that I could find so we're just calling it "pink holo". It's a medium pink with scattered holo. The holo looks like tv static but ... holo. This was two coats and then I stamped with my  Mash plate M60 using Julep Elizabeth which is a deep metallic purple.  I smudged my pinky but the rest of it turned out pretty well. I liked this mani and I dig the argyle pattern as well. Pink, purple and argyle?! can't go wrong with this one in my opinion. 

Christmas Penguin Mani

I am so in love with this mani! I used Sinfulcolors white and Wet N Wild Black Creme. I stamped using my Mash plate set (LOVE the bow)! Over the black base I also did China Glaze Golden Enchantment which is like Fairy Dust but with gold sparkle.  I also started printing and selling water decals through my etsy shop. I chose the cute penguins with a Santa hat on for my accent finger. The mani reminded me of a tuxedo and so it seemed natural to put a penguin decal on :-) What do you think? I love it, it's festive but not with your normal holiday colors. Total win! 

To purchase my water decals, you can click HERE.

Giveaway Preview: Cutey bracelet inspired mani

Today I have another preview of an item that will be included in my 1000 follower giveaway! Cutey.co.uk was kind enough to provide their Typhon bracelet. If you remember recently I reviewed their Momus bracelet and did my mani that matched. That post got lots of love, thank you for that! I tried to match the flowers on my little finger, but I put a silver background instead to cut down on streaking. I used a lot of different polishes in this mani: Orly, China Glaze, Sally Hansen Prism, Catrice, Wet N Wild, but how do you think it came out?
Big thanks to Cutey for providing the bracelet for my giveaway! Can't wait to show you what else is trickling in for it :)

Giveaway Teaser: Trinity Designs

I have a preview today of one of the sponsored items that will be in the 1000 follower giveaway! This is a make up brush roll from Trinity Designs. When you unroll it, it has 10 brush slots and a large pocket. It's machine washable on cold, dry laying flat and you can take a cotton set iron to it... and it's of course perfect for storing your make up brushes. 

I did a themed mani to mirror the colorful patterns on the brush roll. I used a combo of Wet N Wild polishes, Sally Hansen Pacific blue and stamped with Konad special black using a Mash plate.  A huge thank you to Cassia and be sure to check out her creative ideas on her facebook page as well!

One last thing, I kind of really like the skittle stamped look, can't believe I haven't done it before!

Nubar: Absolute

I've had Nubar Absolute for a while in my untried box. It's from Nubar's Prism collection and is technically a holo. The light teal has a slight holo to it, it is quite faint, even in direct sunlight. I applied three coats for mostly opaque coverage. I thought it looked a bit like water so I pulled out a stamping plate (think this one was a mash plate) and stamped a swan image using konad black polish. You can see it smeared a bit but overall it's a great image that is clear of what it is. I wouldn't say this is my favorite blue holo by any means because it takes 3 coats and is barely holo, but it is a really pretty shade and would probably be great layered over a medium blue.  I've been showing alot of my mani previews on Facebook if you'd like to be friends and get a sneak peek :) I'll also be previewing giveaway stuff there too :)

Sally Hansen: Midnight Sky and stamping

On my expedition to find the somewhat dupe for Chanel's Graphite, I came across Sally Hansen's Midnight Sky. It's like a charcoal glitter/shimmer... think Celeb City but charcoal. It is totally the counter part of Celeb city. This was two coats and a coat of SV
Then I stamped over it with Celeb City,  using my Mash plates. It was so shiny! You can see the textures of the two colors, they are very much similar and equally fantastic.  Since Celeb City stamps so well, I'm hoping Midnight Sky will stamp equally as well.  
I love Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear line because they're affordable, have great colors and finishes and I have great luck with them water marbling so I'm a bit excited that there's a darker cousin to one of my favorites now!

Girly Camouflage Mani

Recently I had to come up with a manicure for a party that was Army themed.  I wanted to do a camouflage mani because I had never attempted one before.  I picked out the colors first:

Base is Essie Da Bush
Stamps are: Revlon Espresso and China Glaze Trendsetter

Da Bush is a murky pale olive creme. I used two coats for opacity.  This color is pretty on its own but I needed to jazz it up for an Army theme because a plain color was too simple.




I grabbed my Mash plate and Revlon Espresso (a dark chocolate brown) and China Glaze Trendsetter from the new Metro Collection (A shimmery merky yellow with green undertones). To make the cami mani a bit more girly, I added a fimo flower on my ring fingers. The flower is white/yellow/orange with a merky green center- it was a perfect fit!

I got a request to do a YouTube of this mani/stamping style so I'll be posting that soon.  Really liked the way this turned out and the best part is I didn't have to free hand anything :-)

My Blog Sale still has some items left!

OPI: Cozu-melted in the Sun

This is a mani I did for my friend using OPI Cozu-melted in the Sun, Sally Hansen Celeb City, a rhinestone and my Mash plates. I started out with two coats of Cozu-melted, which is a peachy shimmer. It's almost a nude that has a touch of peach to it, which makes it quite hard to photograph.  Application was fine, no problems.













 I stamped with Celeb City (a micro glitter foil in silver), and topped the center of the flower with a rhinestone.  I wish I would have stamped in black or purple so the flower would show more because it was really cute. You can enlarge the picture to see the stamp better but like I said, it was super hard to pick up because the color is so fair that the stamping didn't stand out on it.


I like the mani color I would just change the stamp.

Skin Food: Red and Stamping

This is a polish that is an amazing red! It's Skinfood.. um... red. This was another mani that I did for a friend and I think she ended up liking it ;-)

I used ONE coat of Skinfood red... we'll just call it that because I don't understand the language on the back of the bottle.... ONE coat!!'

It's a rich rich red that has a little shimmer to it. She wanted me to stamp using a Mash plate. The design is quite complicated but looks ok, I have never used this design before.  I stamped using Sally Hansen Celeb City for some extra bling and sparkle.  Then I added rhinestones to the center of the flowers to try to make them stand out a bit in the busy pattern. 

Here's a close up, it was so shiny my camera was tripping out a little so it's out of focus.  Looked great on her though! 

OPI: Grape Juice and Stamping

Recently I had some of my girl friends over for mani and bbq/drinks night.  I was able to get a few of my untrieds done and take some pictures of their manis.  They chose such great stuff, I can't wait to share them with you all.

This mani is done with China Glaze Grape Juice.  It's a micro glittery glass fleck finish  medium purple.  This is from the summer 2009 collection.  Watermelon Rind is also from this collection and in my untrieds (I think I haven't swatched it).



Anyways, moving along, I stamped using my Mash plates and she chose of my favorite designs <3

Stamping with Sally Hansen Celeb City we added even more bling to it. I topped it with SV and requested the next friend in the mani chair :) I love when I ge to do my friends nails and we can all get together and chit chat about polish and fun stuff.
Thanks L for a great modeling job ;)

China Glaze: Flying Dragon Neon and Stamping and review

I felt like getting my neon on the other day so I went all out on a full mani with China Glaze Flying Dragon.  Flying Dragon is a neon purple that has pink and blue glitter throughout it.  It is also a top coat eater so beware! It does need a top coat because it dries matte and gritty.  But once you add the top coat, it comes back to life and shines!



I received a rhinestone wheel from Born Pretty to review so I thought I'd stamp some flower vines and deck those out in rhinestones.  The rhinestones are awesome.  I was sent THIS wheel. As you can see it has so many different colors in it, I love it! It usually takes about 2-3 weeks to receive products to the US from Born Pretty but their prices are great. My rhinestone wheel had all round rhinestones and a great size for this mani stamping.



(There's a coupon code on the side of my page of "KKJ61" for 10% off with them if you order.. great deal for already low prices.)


Here's a close up of the rhinestones and you can also see the shimmer in the polish.  The rhinestones are super reflective and I think it adds alot to this manicure.  I can't wait to do more round rhinestone manis!!

You can visit Born Pretty HERE for great nail art supplies.









*some products used were sent for review*

Wet N Wild: Sea of Dreams and nail art

Check it out! Sea of Dreams from Wet N Wild's Mermaid's Cove collection!This is kind of a big deal because in California, I have not heard of one person finding this collection. Dear Wet N Wild, step it up!!

Moving right along, this is a real gentle mauve/rose polish that has shimmers of gold and pink.  I did 3 coats to be opaque. 

Since the collection is ocean themed, I wanted to do stamping but couldn't bring myself to cover over all the pretty shimmers so I did an accent finger. 

Using Wet N Wild Metallica, I stamped a sea horse from my Mash plate onto my ring finger. Then, using a mega awesome blue I got in a swap from that amazing Tata, I outlined the seahorse.  This glitter is amazing! The brand is Hits and it's blue square glitter in a blue jelly base that's super pigmented and stays together, no clumping or second coat/touch up needed.  I need more of this polish in my life!

There's a close up of the accent finger, check out the glitter! The only thing that was bad about Sea of Dreams is that it's such a shimmer that you  can see the patch on my middle finger o_O   But that's ok, because it's such an easy polish to apply, dries quick and shines with a top coat. 

If you found this collection and are in California, where'd you see it? 

Update on the giveaway: I added nail striping tape so you can try out my nail striping manis, and will be adding at least one other polish when more followers join us :-)

'

Essie: Coat Azure and stamping

Here's Essie's Coat Azure. I don't have alot of Essies because I'm not too into pinks and neutrals, so I was happy when I started finding more actual colors.  This is from their Spring 2011 collection.  This color is super pretty!

It's a blue that has undertones of gray in it and reminds me of the tropics. Not like the "neon colored" kinda tropical places but "laying in a hammock on a deserted beach" kind of tropics.

Did you notice the shimmer? It adds a great touch to this polish to make it a little more unique than the usual blue-gray polishes. It is a soothing color in my opinion.

While I was painting my nails I was also listening to Lady Gaga... I'm pretty sure that's why I pulled out my leopard stamping plate and red stamping polish. LOL

 This mani looked better in person but I really don't like the red stamping polish...

I often look for a reason to use my red stamping polish because it is out of my comfort zone, but I never seem to like the red over any colors.  So here it is, stamped with my Mash plate in Konad special red polish and then I dotted with Color Club's Magic Attraction for fun. I love that glitter by the way! It's a silver holo glitter bomb! Boom! A crazy mani was born!

  You should stop slacking and enter my giveaway :)







 

Catherine Arley: #673 holo and stamping

I loved this mani so much!!! I used 2 coats of Catherine Arley #673. It's a linear holo that's purple and amazing to look at.  It's a bit more on the blue side of purple. The holo in it is gold, blues, green, copper... it really is great. The one thing I don't really like about Catherine Arley polishes are the brushes but that's being really picky and I can live with them for this result. 

So as you guys know from my holo posts before, I had a hard time stamping over it.. well I remedied that situation.  I stamped in another holo. I used my Mash plates and stamped a flower design using Color Club's Fashion Addict.  I wanted a holo that would blend into the holo effect but still be able to show the design.

Here's a close up shot in my light box. I tried to take pictues of this mani outside but I felt the holo wasn't showing well on camera and needed a controlled environment to shoot in. It is much easier to play around with lighting and shadows in the light box. 

I'm pretty sure that I will do this mani again :)

Color Club: Revvolution and Worth the Risque

Everyone seems to love holographic polishes these days, and I'm no exception. Frustratingly, however, it seems like all of my favorite brands have stopped carrying holos -- which, of course, increases their rarity and accordingly, their price! I happened to find two of Color Club's holographic polishes for a great deal recently, though, so I had to snatch them up!





Worth The Risque and Revvvolution are both from the 2009 Femme Fatale collection. I've heard that some people have problems getting the proper holographic versions when they buy them online, so I'm relieved that the ones that arrived at my house were lovely in their sparkly goodness.

As with most holographic polishes, these colors really sing in direct sunlight. As you can see, Revvvolution is a black holographic. In the shade, and indoors, it's a shimmery dark color. When you get outside, though -- watch out. It's not the strongest linear holo that I've seen, but the rainbow is bold and hard to take your eyes from. This was two coats, although I could have stopped at one.

Then, of course, I had to pull out my Mash plates to amp this mani up a little (told you I used the cute bow design again!). I tried Worth the Risque by itself (no pics) and found it to be a nice silver in the shade, with the odd flat finish that these holos seem to have. In the sun, it's a stronger linear holo than Revvvolution, but not more granular than, say, OMG. You can see that it stamped quite nicely over the black, completing the look.






Lots of holos lose their color when topped with anything other than a special topcoat, like OPI DS -- this one looked just as great when I threw a coat of SV over it.

Rimmel Marine Blue and stamping

Here's Rimmel Marnie Blue... go ahead and stare.. it's worth it.I picked this one up at the CVS mega clearance sale for cheap! It is a really pretty teal with a shimmer to it.  This is two coats and a clear top. I stamped from my Mash plate using Konad white special polish. I've been wanting to use this bow design for a long time but just never got around to it until Marnie Blue was on my nails and it screamed for the bow! I had a dotting tool and Wet N Wild Through the Grapevine handy so I used that as the center of the bow.  I really love this bow design and I used it again for a holo (stay tuned for that!).This is also a great stamp for short nails because nobody says you have to put the bow at the tip of your nail, you could do it diagonally or even in the middle or vertical if you wanted to.

I do want to take a moment to mention the brush on this polish. It is flat and short, which is fine, however the bottle neck is VERY small so it feels like it barely fits into the bottle when I dipped it in.  I actually missed the opening once or twice and got polish on the outside of the bottle. I wish they'd fix this.  Sally Hansen's Lavender Cloud has the same brush and a bigger bottle opening and it's much nicer to use.

I could live with it for now though because the color and formula are really great.  Here's a close up of the shimmer for you, it's quite the pretty teal. 

OPI Purple Skittles and Mash Stamping

For my first OPI skittles mani, I chose (L-R) Rumples Wiggin', Planks Alot, Funky Dunkey, Purple With a Purpose, OPI Ink.  I stamped with Wet N Wild Metallica.

 Here's my right hand, on my left I did the pattern in the opposite direction for funsies.

(It looks like my left hand because I accidently flipped it when I was editing it... but really it's my right)

 I stamped using Metallica because I wanted it to show but not dominate the purples... it kind of worked.  I really like the stamp I chose because it makes the purples all look swirly and more fun than just a boring image.





Here's a close up of my right thumb with OPI Ink under Metallica.

I topped everything off with a coat of SV. Overall I like this look and I think I'd try it with more of my purples to get a better contrast.

What do you guys think, have you worn this look before? It's brand new to me :) Also, what do you think of the next giveaway being a bunch of different crackle polishes? or a combo of crackle and art stuff?

Wet N' Wild Wild Card and stamping

I was wearing Wet N Wild's Wild Card for two days then decided I needed to change it up. I stamped french tips on using my new Mash plates in the swirly pattern that I love (WNW Metallica).  It was OK but then I added a butterfly because I love China Glaze's Adore (and it was handy).  I do like that butterfly stamp as opposed to the others, especially for a single stamp on the nail because it is larger and you can see more detail and know what it is.


As for Wild Card, I used 3 coats and it was opaque... 3 generous coats.  It's a muted purple with mauve/plum undertones with gold frost.  It's pretty especially if you are looking for something calm and not too bright for your nails but don't want to wear a neutral or a nude.  I think the tips would have shown better if I stamped them in white. Also, I'm still trying to get the hang of stamping tips so they're a little wonky and crooked. I like this color though and plan on water marbling with it (originally why I picked it up).  I have a new YouTube water marbling tutorial up as well. It's more to get you familiar with the process, I'll do another one later for technique :)

WINNERS of the 200 Follower Giveaway!

Congrats to Shichan for winning the main prize of the giveaway!
and to Balmaholic, Rock or Not and Kelsey for winning 2 boxes of the Sally Hansen Salon Effects! 


I've sent an email to each of you, reply with your info so I can send your swag! Congrats and thanks for following!!

 


My followers are so awesome that I'm starting my giveaway early... I wanted to make it so that non-bloggers have an equal opportunity to have more entries, so some items are a bit different than you may normally see. ALL entries will be verified before counted, AND the winner will be re-verified before I announce them. Duplicate entires will be deleted, so if you are not sure you entered, please email/tweet me and I will be more than happy to check for you. Be respectful, have fun and good luck!!
***This runs until Saturday 11:59 PM Pacific May 7th and is open internationally***   
What's up for grabs:

Sephora OPI Caribbean Cocktail, China Glaze: Naked, Anklets of Amethyst, Fairy Dust, Sexy in the City, Rose tea, NYC 105 Starry Silver Glitter (won this from a give away and liked it so much I bought one for this, it's so awesome!). Wet N'Wild: Morbid, Lust, Gray's Anatomy, Glitz, 2 unnamed City Colors polishes- a shimmery light seafoam green and a jelly looking coral.

~A ring made from nail polish (I made this and will have some for sale on my Etsy site)
~OPI Black Shatter
~Sinful Colors Unicorn
~Confetti Purple Pizzazz
~Orly Sapphire Silk
~3 packs of nail art stickers
~ Mash stamping plate with full images

And as like last time, more will be added as we go along. You must be a public follower to enter and you'll have 48 hours to respond to my email that you've won or I'll choose another winner....

China Glaze: Let's Groove

 Have you entered the giveaway? at 270 I'm revealing something I think you all will really enjoy :D

Ok, time to get our purple on....
Let me introduce you to a purple I love... meet, China Glaze's Let's Groove.  It's a gorgeous purple that has flecks of gold, blue, red, pinks in it.
I took pictures in my light box and under a day light lamp.

 
It's a deep true purple that's royal and awesome! This was ONE coat! I love purple and all but I wanted to try out my new Mash plates.

So I picked up M80 and stamped with Sally Hansen Celeb City. I love this combination.  I was debating on doing a french tip because I hardly every stamp those because I tape them off, but then I saw this cute design and thought it could hold up to the awesomeness that is Let's Groove.  You can click on the close up for an extreme close up to see the flecks :)


I think I'll wear this mani next weekend when we have family stuff to do, it's quite pretty if I do say so myself!