Tweety Bird!

I've been pondering this mani for a few weeks. Three coats of OPI Banana Bandana; stamped using two images from SdP C-14 with Konad special polishes in apple green, sky pearl and metallic pink.

Here's mani in progress. Three coats of OPI Banana Bandana. It was pretty sheer and needed three coats to cover all the bare spots. It's a soft yellow in real life; although in some of these pix, it leans on the lime/green side, but yellow it is.

Then stamped.

I thought I would add some white dots to make the flowers pop.



But in all honestly, after I did it, I regretted it as it washed out the coloured and I liked the look before the white dots. As it didn't have the look I was going for, I added another dot in the dot using the same colour of stamping polish to give the flowers a bit more colour. I messed up a couple of them but all in all, I was pretty pleased with this dotting as it wasn't the easiest to do. Dotting (to me) is harder than it looks!



Thanks for looking!

More Layering Using OPI I Lily Love You

I've been experimenting with layering a little bit; this is my latest attempt using FingerPaints Amethyst Atelier and OPI I Lily Love You. Used WetnWild Metallica for silver stamping with SdP Big C plate and then some random coloured dots.



Before I started this mani, I thought I would try a little experiment to see if it would matter what order I layer/stamp in. So here's progression both ways on my left and right hand as well as end result.

Here's the base; two coats of FingerPaints Amethyst Atelier (won't show right hand as you'll see enough hangnails with the other pix! lol!!) I don't know if there are any bubbles evident, etc. but I applied this in a room with a/c on full blast as it was too hot to turn it off nor could I stand the heat outside, so if you see any bubbles, you know why!

Then added one coat of OPI I Lily Love you.



Then stamped using WetnWild Metallica.

Lastly, few random coloured dots; here's end result.


On my right hand started with same two coats of FingerPaints (no pix; enough said earlier). Then stamped using WetnWild Metallica.



Then added a few random dots.

And lastly, one coat of OPI I Lily Love You.

When comparing the nails, the only visible different is that the white dot on the right hand has a very slight pink tinge from the base of I Lily Love You; otherwise, it didn't seem to matter what order base, stamping, layering, dots, was done. Just thought I would try it out anyway to see if it mattered but in this case anyway, not too much. (All these pix were taken outside either in direct sunlight or shade).

My layering experimentation is very limited but I know for sure that I will be running out to get a back up of I Lily Love You as it is just awesomeness in a bottle - the rainbows from the flakies are super cool-to me anyway!

Thanks for looking!

This Mani Has Gone to the Dogs!

How weird is it my new Big plates from Shirley finally arrived (stupid Canada Post mail strike!) and the first image I wanted to try out was the paw print plate! As soon as I seen it, I knew that my next mani would be themed around it and here's what I came up with.



Base coats are Misa Blush Hour with China Glaze Liquid Leather as accent.



Stamped using Konad black and white special polishes.



Images plates used were T28 (for dog faces) HB48 (for dog bones), HB014 (for two dog paws on pinky), SdP D-08 (for dog paw trail on thumb) and Big SdP D (for full nail of paws).

Thanks for looking!

OPI DS Amethyst

We've had some beautiful sunny days recently, which got me to thinking, why haven't I wore any holos lately? I took maybe 100 pictures or more of this mani and had such a hard time paring it down to a few as there were so many cool ones to show, so warning of picture overload!



After two coats of OPI DS Amethyst, I coated with one coat of the OPI DS topcoat. After letting dry for a bit, as its not really quick dry like SV, stamped using IP H27 with Konad special polish in royal purple. After taking a bunch of pix, I topped it with another coat of the DS topcoat.

These pix were taken in sunlight the following morning.







More pictures in artificial light; including a pre-clean up one. This special polish cleans up so much nicer than the black special polish. It really was a breeze!







Of all the pix I took, this one below is the most in real life. The DS is kinda dusty purple and the stamping is dark purple siding on navy, not bright blue as some of the pix portray. But the pix with the holo are so much cooler!



A couple pix of DS Amethyst by itself in various lighting. I'm so glad that these pix show better cleanup and application than my mani from a few days ago with Orly Frisky as it looks like a child applied it! LOL! Redemption! Still not perfect, but an improvement for sure!





Thanks for looking....and I hope you're having a sunny day too!

Weekend Manicures

I've been thinking about expanding my nail polish horizons and recently picked up a few glitters as I want to try out some layering *experiments*. I thought I'd do a layering mani over the weekend with Orly Frisky that I had picked up at Sally's Friday night.



This is two coats of Frisky topped with one coat of Anna Sui #107. Feel free to click on the pix to see the glitter/laying better, but beware of terrible cleanup and dry cuticles!!! Just look at the polish lol!



I found Frisky on the thick side but had no polish thinner on hand so had to grin and bear it. I suppose I could have used another polish, but I really wanted to try out this layering combination.



On top of the polish being on the thick side, my DD chose this same time to ask me 1000 questions (started to get on my nerves to be honest!) and my application skills went out the door. I terribly flooded my cuticles like no tomorrow. (Not reallllyyyy her fault, I know, but that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!).



This mani is so much cooler than the pix (and my terrible application!) appear.....I'll certainly have to try it again when I have more patience and some thinner on hand as I really liked the combination of these two polishes.



The problem with layering with glitters (for me) is always keeping in mind what stamp to use so that the glitter can be seen, so I eventually settled on SdP-A15 and kinda french tipped the band of flowers.



Stamping polish is Konad black special polish.



We had a dog named Frisky when I was a kid, and even if I didn't need another blue polish, I had to pick it just for the name!



I had no Internet access on the weekend and am behind posting, so I thought I'd also share another mani I did over the weekend too. Base coat is Orly Frolic, two coats. Again, polish was on the thick side and obviously I wasn't thinking when I started to apply it because I should have remembered that Frisky was thick and I had no thinner, but I never (*sigh*), and on my nails it went.



Stamped using Konad black special polish, using fauxnad IP SdP-D11.



Then added a couple random dots using some random silver glitter.



Thanks for looking!

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too!

Last night when I was looking through my image plates trying to come up with a mani, I seen that there's a few of the Winnie the Pool characters so decided to do a Winnie the Pooh themed mani. Here's what I came up with:



Unfortunately, there's no Owl or Rabbit (that I could find anyway!) so I took a little bit of artistic liberty and inserted another owl image that I had. LOL!

Base polishes used (starting thumb going clockwise) are CND Girlie Pink, Color Club Explosive, Orly Cashmere Cardigan, OPI Osaka-to-me Orange and Petite Color Fever Vintage Gray. They are all two coats, except CC Explosive, which was three.

Explosive dried a little dark and I was hoping that it would be lighter like the colour in the bottle, but it was the closest to what I thought Pooh looked like with the polishes in my stash (and because as I'm no frankener!)

Then added images, using Konad black special polish. Image plates used were all SdP: D-07, C-02, A-11, B-18 and A-02. Here's mani in progress.



And because my stamping was off (as usual!) and didn't quite get every image centred well, I added a few dots to try to mask this...and to add a little bit of interest. Used a dotting tool; dot colours are CND Anchor Blue, CND Raspberry Parfait, Konad red special polish and LA Girls Disco Brites Can U Dig it.

Sorry there's so many pictures...I had a hard time getting good images without getting glare and had difficulty in getting the whole image to focus..... I'm no photographer either! lol!



Thanks for looking!!

China Glaze Hyper Haute

When the China Glaze Tronica collex came out, I drove around to a lot of Sally's until I had the full collection. Hard to believe I did all that running around and had never yet worn any of them! Finally decided to try one of them out and decided upon Hyper Haute.



Stamped using fauxnad XL C using CND Silver Chrome. Here's a couple different pix using different lighting; the pix below is artificial lighting.

The pix below is natural daylight again. Was really happy with the crisp image using CND Silver Chrome for stamping. This is the closest picture to real life that the mani looks like.

Two coats of Hyper Haute all by itself again under artificial light.

It's too bad I cut down my nails last night before I did this mani as it would have been nice to see more of the cool image on them. That's the case with a lot of these XL plates...I'll have to keep this in mind for when my nails are a little longer! But I had to cut them down as they were starting to curve up and it was really starting to annoying me!

Thanks for looking!

How Was Your Weekend?

What a fabulous weekend! A long weekend at that due to the Canada Day holiday! Yahoooo!! I had a great time! Spent a lot of time at the beach on the lake, under the sun, or swimming in the pool. There was a nice cool breeze off the lake making the hot weather tolerable.



July 1st, during the afternoon at Canada Day celebrations, we sang the National Anthem, then released red and white balloons into the sky. Then ate fresh picked strawberries and vanilla ice cream. The afternoon was spent having a barbecue and then lots of games for adults and kids alike!

There was an awesome fireworks display the evening of July 1st that blasted shades of colour explosions over the night sky.



Every night of the weekend was clear and we made the most of it, sitting around the campfire, roasting marshmallows, looking at all the twinkling stars under the clear night sky. (Thank goodness that terrible lighting and thunder storm Saturday night happened in the wee hours of the morn!)



The weather was fantastic.....we were kept cool with nice refreshing drinks..loaded with ice. Kept us well hydrated in the hot weather!

I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of my weekend on my nails! LOL! Base coat was one coat of OPI Need Sunglasses? topped with two coats of L'Oreal Yellow Seahorse. I found the L'Oreal difficult to apply, but after adding a few drops of thinner, the second coat applied better. Here's base by itself.



Then stamped using Konad special polishes in orange, black, red, blue pearl and deep jungle stamping polishes using fauxnad IP's D-17, D-16, T37, T27, HB 44, SdP B-20, and SdP C-13. Added a little sparkle after stamping. Kinda makes the stars twinkle....I'll have to keep this in mind for another mani!

Hope you had a great one....or are still having a great long weekend if celebrating July 4th! So, how was your weekend?

Thanks for looking!