Valentine 2014

Look at me, all posting a holiday mani on the actual holiday instead of a week later (or two weeks in the case of this past Christmas!).  Not that this post went off without a hitch.  I was originally planning to have this up Wednesday and then do another Valentine design Thursday, since I had the day off from work.  But then word came of the impending snowpocalypse and schedules got switched, I ended up going in to work only to come back home when we shut down at noon because it was so bad out, and by then I...well, I just pretty much said screw it, ha!  So without further ado, here is what turned out to be my lone Valentine manicure this year.

For this design, I started with 3 thin coats of China Glaze White on White.  The design is from Winstonia plate W102.  The polishes used are all Konad Special polishes: red, pink, pastel pink and dark red.  I dabbed the 4 colors onto random spots of the design so that they would blend slightly during scraping.

At first, I felt like they needed something more, but the longer I wore them, the more I enjoyed them just the way they were.

Even though I'm not really one to celebrate Valentine's Day, I do seem to like doing Valentine themed designs. Maybe it's just because they are so many darn heart patterns in each stamping set I own.  I also find that I really enjoy the outcome when I use white as a background for nail art, and this design is no exception to that.  So this was definitely a win-win in my book.

DIFFERENTdimension Just Keep Swimming and Dueling Unicorns

Here are a couple simple stamping manicures I did towards the end of January, using some gorgeous holos from DIFFERENTdimension.

I bought these two polishes back in November and finally decided that they had been sitting in my untrieds for way too long.  This might be a bit picture heavy, because I can't resist showing some swatches of these pre-stamping, so this seems like a good spot for a jump break.

Second Blogiversary!

Wow, so I don't even know where my head has been (or where the hell January went for that matter!), because I just now realized that today is my two year blogiversary!  It did occur to me a few weeks ago that it was approaching, but then it slipped my mind again and the next thing you know, BOOM here it is!

Anyway, I just wanted to put up a quick post to thank everyone who follows my random ramblings here on the blog, and to thank everyone who might also follow on Twitter or Instagram and anyone who's ever commented or liked anything I've sheepishly shared.

I really appreciate the support and feedback you've shown the past two years!  Thank you again!

Color Club The Wanderlust Collection

I have a few manicures saved on my computer that I just never got around to posting before and this is one of them.  I think I mentioned these back in November yet when I posted my autumn pumpkins design.  The manicure itself is even older than that, I did this back in September using all 4 polishes from The Wanderlust Collection by Color Club.

The Wanderlust Collection is a Birchbox exclusive.  I stopped my Birchbox subscription quite a while ago, but I had some points built up on my account and I really loved the swatches I saw online when this collection came out.  I had missed out on it when it first was released, but it eventually came back into stock, so when it did I used my points towards buying the set.  I ordered two sets actually, since the bottles were minis, and I'm glad I did because I love all 4 colors.  The nude color I used for my base is called Mod in Manhattan and this was two coats.  

For the design, I just used two different sized dotting tools and randomly dotted the other 3 colors in the collection.  The neon coral color is called Reign in Spain, the lavender shade is called Pardon My French and the bright green is called London Calling.  Once the dots had dried, I topped everything with a coat of Seche Vite.

And here's a rare shot of my thumb because this was my favorite.  I did my thumb first and tried to repeat the general pattern on the rest of my nails, but they didn't quite have the same curve as on my thumb.  I chalk that up to my thumbnail being wider than the rest of my nails, so I had a little extra room to work with.

Application was super smooth for Mod in Manhattan.  I haven't worn the other 3 colors yet, other than in this design, but I really need to soon, especially that green!

Christmas Nails 2013 - Better late than never!

I realize I never did put together a post about the designs I made this past Christmas.  So this may be a little backwards since I just recently posted my New Year's design, but today is Russian Christmas after all, so I guess it's as good a day as any to finally put these up!  So, to those who are celebrating, Christos Razdajetsja!  Slavite Jeho!

Ever since I picked up the 2013 holiday collection of the JulieG Gum Drops polishes, I've been wanting to use Mistletoe to finally try out Nailside's abstract Christmas tree design.

First I painted my nails with a polish combo I've managed to use in some way for at least one holiday manicure each year since they first were released in 2011: 2 coats of China Glaze Poinsettia topped with one coat of China Glaze Ring In The Red.  I also added a layer of topcoat to my ring finger before starting on the tree itself.  For my tree, I started off a little different by first taping off a tree shape on my nail, then filling it in with one thick coat of Orly Dazzle and quickly removing the scotch tape.  Once that was dry, I taped off the same tree shape and then crisscrossed striping tape over the tree and painted on one coat of Mistletoe.  When I pulled off the tape, it gave the impression of having silver garland draped on my little tree.  I finished off the tree with a piece of diamond shaped holographic glitter I fished out of Cirque XX.  I had originally wanted to use a star glitter but the only stars I had available were too large.

I finished off the rest of my nails by stamping on an ornament pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM-H03 using China Glaze Millennium, then top coated the stamped nails.

For Christmas Eve and Christmas day, I kept it pretty simple by just stamping some holly leaves on all my nails.  Considering I started with a base of Amazeballz by Lacquistry, it really didn't need much else to be sparkle worthy for Christmas.

I had finally snagged myself a bottle of Amazeballz in an early morning restock earlier in the month and it arrived just in time to to use for Christmas.  I used 3 coats to get full coverage, but it was already almost completely opaque by the 2nd coat.  Once I had it on, I knew I couldn't bring myself to cover it up, so a simple holly leaf design stamped on each nail near my cuticle was enough to make me happy.  The holly leaf design was from Bundle Monster plate BM14, from the original 2010 set, stamped with Konad Special Polishes in red and green.

Besides being a belated Christmas post, this was also a little flashback to my nails prior to my recent New Year's chop, ha ha.  You'll probably be seeing some more flashbacks to longer nails coming up, as I have a few generic/non-seasonal designs from the past month or two that I never got around to posting yet.  Thanks for stopping by and Merry Christmas!  ;-)

Happy 2014!

I'm starting out the new year with nubs.  My cracked/patched left index nail broke off completely yesterday while I was taking off polish to do a New Year's mani.  I also had two patched nails on my right hand that I was sick of dealing with, so at that point I basically said screw it, and proceeded to just chop them all down.  My nails are never a consistent length anyway, so what the hell!  And I think my New Year's design turned out pretty cute in the end with the new nubs.

I kept it pretty simple.  I've kind of felt uninspired lately so I almost didn't do a New Year's mani at all this year.  But I decided to paint my nails with Zoya Tomoko (3 thin coats).  Then after they were painted, I tried to figure out what the hell to put on them, lol.  I knew I wanted to use the champagne flutes from Winstonia plate W117.  Then I came across a circles pattern on Pueen plate 36 that reminded me of champagne bubbles, so I combined the two.

The circles pattern was stamped on every nail except my ring finger.  For the accent nail, I stamped the champagne flutes first and then stamped random parts of the circles pattern around the flutes.  Everything was stamped using Konad Special Polish in black pearl.

I do love when my nails are longer, but I'm really enjoying this length as well.  Maybe that's why I can never decide on one length to keep them at all the time.  Anyway, hope you all had a great New Year's Eve and here's to a great 2014!  Thanks for following along in 2013.  :)

Winter Wonderland

A few weeks ago, OPI Ink & OPI Ink Suede had come up in a conversation and it reminded me that it had been a while since I'd worn any of the OPI Suede shades.  So I pulled out OPI Ink Suede from the drawer and used it as a background for a snowy, winter design.  And yes, I know it's meant to have a suede/matte finish, but I also love the way all the OPI Suedes look when top coated.  I think the way that top coat brings out the sparkle in the OPI Suede shades was perfect for this design.

I didn't want too much empty space between the snowflakes, so I first stamped a scattered sparkles design from Nailz Craze plate NC02, using Konad Special Polish in pastel blue.  For the snowflakes, I stamped with Konad Special Polish in white and used a mix of snowflakes from several different Bundle Monster plates (BM14, BM-319 and BM-H01) along with several snowflake designs from Winstonia plate W120.

When I finished stamping, I felt like it was missing something.  I ended up adding just a little bit of Sonnetarium Snowfall.  Instead of brushing the glitter over the entire nail, I used the tip of the brush to dab on just a little glitter in the spots between the snowflakes that seemed a bit bare.  Then I top coated the whole thing with Seche Vite.  

The light blue sparkles in the background didn't turn out as noticeable as I had originally thought they would, but I still loved the little touch of light blue to contrast the dark blue of the OPI Ink Suede and the bright white snowflakes.