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Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
You guys, it's already the second week of September! How the heck are we almost halfway through the month already? It's my third week back to work and I feel as if my summer vacation just started. I suppose that's because I was off and running for almost 3 months straight with lots of little trips and visiting with friends. My life is just as busy now as it was then but I'm still finding time to blog which makes me very happy. Typically by this time of year I'm a bit burnt out and end up pushing blogging to the very bottom of my to-do list. Not this time, this time I have a nail art look to share with you that I am very proud of!
I have been trying for months to do a marbled nail look that actually resembles stone marble. I thought I was on the right track with my Neutral Marbled nails manicure but once that was completed I realized it was too uniform looking and really wasn't what I wanted. I've come close to the effect I wanted with my Holiday Fluid Nail Art but it still wasn't quite right. Then I remembered the glitter topper nails I did a few years ago for a challenge and decided to try a spin on the technique I used for that manicure and it worked!
What do you think? I am so happy that I didn't give up because I am still floored by how this turned out. And it was so simple to do in the end, but quite messy if I'm being honest.
I started out with one coat of Sally Hansen Whited from the Crayola collab in the Insti-dri line. To protect my skin and help with clean up I used UN-Frog-gettable cuticle cover. I then painted a very thick layer of the Sally Hansen White onto my nail art mat and placed random drops of polish onto the wet surface. The polishes I used were all from China Glaze in the colors Elephant Walk, Cosmic Dust, Kiss My Glass and Stone Cold.
Using my squishy stamper from Creative Shop I placed it on the polish and gave a slight twist. This swirled the colors giving the marbled effect which I was able to stamp directly onto my nails. I've found that a squishy stamper works best for this because it allows you to really press down firmly on your nail without distorting the design. You will also want to press the stamper straight down onto your nail, and pick it straight up, there will be a lot of polish on the stamper and will most likely slip and slide if you try rolling it.
If there are any portions of your nail that seem to have too much solid color you can do the process again and use the edge of the stamper head to fill in that area rather than stamping the entire nail again. I ended up doing this to a few nails and it worked out really well.
I've been watching a ton of nail art videos on youtube lately, mostly from Naio Nails and she always does these extreme nails which inspired me to add some nail art on top of the marble. Now I do floral manicures all the time because they are my favorite but they are usually stamped and I haven't done any hand painted roses since 2013 and figured it was time to give it another go.
I tried to strategically place the roses over parts of the marble that were my least favorites which put them on the sides of my nails. Not the best placement I know because it seems sort of unbalanced to me but overall I really really love how this turned out.
I used acrylic paint in red, green and white to paint my roses. The pink and light green you see was created by adding a small amount of white to the red and green. The veining I did with a gold glitter striper from Jordana I picked up on clearance several years ago.
I have mixed feelings about the glitter. I think it was needed for the marble effect but maybe not quite so much. What do you think?
That's all I have for you today. Be sure to stop back on Thursday when I'll be unveiling a Minnesota Nice collab that is releasing this Saturday at Polishcon Minneapolis from 4 Minnesota makers. Also, I will be attending Polishcon again and hope to meet a few of you there. Until then, thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
Thursday, September 6, 2018
I'm reaching back into my bag of past Polish Pickup polishes today to bring you Going, Going, Already Gone from Great Lakes Lacquer. This blue-grey colored jelly polish with iridescent flakes and a sprinkling of scattered holo was released in April for the Across the Universe theme.
This polish hit the "Pillars of Creation" theme on the head with its subtle flashes of gold. With a smooth formula and beautiful consistency, this polish has that lit within look that I go gaga for. While this polish is a bit sheer on the first coat there is no shortage of flakes and full opacity is reached after the addition of a second coat.
This is one of those polishes that I have zero regrets about buying. I am typically not a fan of wearing blue polish on its own but this shade has just the right amount of grey for me, and what can I say about those flakes, they make this polish go from pretty to stunning. Here's a video I made of this polish in direct sunlight.
While this polish is no longer available, you never know when the Polish Pickup will do another flashback theme and you just might get the chance to purchase this. Or it may pop up in a destash sale sometime.
If you're not familiar with Polish Pickup I highly recommend you check them out on Facebook. I have gotten so many beautiful polishes and been able to try out several new to me brands thanks to this monthly themed shop. JReine, Bluebird Lacquer, LynBDesigns, Contrary Polish, Supermoon Lacquer and Northern Star Polish are just a few of the brands I've purchased from through the Polish Pickup. And in case you were wondering the theme for September is Horror Movies and the polishes go on sale tomorrow Sept. 7th until Monday, Sept. 10th.
That's all I've got for you today. I hope you enjoyed Going, Going, Already Gone as much as I did. If you've purchased from the Pickup before, what was your favorite polish? Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
I'm back this week with another installment of the Untried A-Z Challenge. This is a laid back challenge where every other week a new letter is chosen and you swatch a polish that starts with that letter. You can go by brand name or polish name, do one polish or a few, share a plain swatch or add nail it. It really is up to you with what you share and how often you join in.
This week bring us to the 18th week of the challenge and as you may have already guessed, the letter R. For the letter F I shared with you 2 polishes from KBShimmer and will be revisiting the brand again. This week I've gone with a not completely untried polish, but one that I have yet to actually wear, Run! It's the Coppers!
Released in 2014 as part of the Early Summer Collection, when this perfectly copper colored linear holographic nail polish arrived at my door I immediately painted one nail so I could bask in all its beauty. Sadly that was it for this polish and it was tucked away in my helmer, collecting dust until I pulled it out again 4 years later. I know, I know, I have hung my head in shame over this.
The application was an effortless experience. The formula is one of the best I've worked with allowing for the polish to flow evenly from the brush onto the nail with complete control. I did notice a slight VNL after the first coat and a second coat achieved full opacity.
I did notice minimal brushstrokes once the polish dried but I had to really look for them. In fact, my camera picked them up more than what my eyes actually did.
I really like this color, but it's a bit much for a full manicure even for me. I'd love it as an accent nail but ended up using it as a base for some Autumnal nail art.
Now, this didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned but that's partly because I had to switch tactics in the middle of it. I thought I had a specific image for stamping but I was wrong and ended up going with an image that I'd consider a distant cousin of my original idea.
This image is from the Totally Negative 02 plate from Lina and while it still looks a little like leaves, it falls short of what I wanted. The gradient I did using another KBShimmer polish called Oh My Ganache from the 2016 Fall Collection and Run! It's the Coppers!
I absolutely love the accent nail however and am quite proud of how it turned out. I decided to dust off my freehand skills and painted the tree with acrylic paint. Seeing the success I had with this has inspired me to try more freehand looks and will have another one to share with you next Tuesday. Or if you just can't wait until then I shared a teaser pic on my Facebook page. In the meantime be sure to check out the other polishes in the challenge this week and as always, Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
Friday, August 31, 2018
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