Purple Star Burst

I did these nails almost two months ago but I had a selfish reason for not sharing them sooner.  One of the polishes used for this mani was on my list of lemmings and I had put out an ISO in a few FB groups and I didn't want anyone else to pick it up until I had secured my backup bottle.  Selfish, I know, sorry.  Now that I have one in hand, I can finally share this mani.  And who knows, maybe my reason for being selfish might not be founded to you but I'm betting after some see what I did here, there might be a few people ISO of bottle of this polish too!  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of Formula X For Sephora Reckless, no top coat.

Added a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush Top Coat.

Sponged on a gradient using Colors by llarowe Hellcat Oops.  I just love this polish for doing sponging like this and this is the polish that I was ISO.  I needed a back up bottle as I have used my bottle a few times now and am afraid I will run out!  

Added a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC before stamping.  *Swoon*  I love the look of this!

I had picked an image from Moyra 21-Retro to stamp on top but it covered a little too much of the base for me so thought I would leave the pinky and thumb stamp free.

Moyra Stamping Plate 21-Retro

Top coated the stamping with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

But it looked odd to me so I ended up stamping them anyway and hope that the base shows through the stamping anyway!

Sorry for being selfish; I hope that anyone who wants a bottle of this Cbl Hellcat Oops gorgeousness can find it and  hope I didn't create an unattainable lemming!

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Nails!

What I've been wearing today!  I've had such a hectic day, its the last hour of the day until my birthday is over but hopefully this post will be up before the day is over! 

Started with a base of two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls then top coated with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

Did a saran wrap smoosh for accents using American Apparel Lazuli, Crescent Heights and American Denim.

Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

I made a few stamper decals using MoYou Happy Birthday Collection-02, filling in with acrylic paints.

MoYou Happy Birthday Collection-02

Applied four of the decals.

Then stamped the thumb with the confetti from MoYou Christmas Collection-05 using MdU polishes in what I hoped was close to the acrylics that I used for the stamper decals.

MoYou Christmas Collection-05

Stamped in Happy Birthday on the thumb using an image from MoYou Happy Birthday-01 after shrinking the image.  But I had to do it sideways to get Birthday to fit as my nails aren't wide enough for the image even when shrunk.  Had I realized I was going to do have to stamp sideways, I would have placed the words separately to at least even out the words and not cut out half of the H.  Added 'me' using Nailways Back to Basics 123 ABC.

Added a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

It was looking a little bare so added a few random dots for filler and to make it more me!

Added a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC to finish.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes via texts, messages, FB posts and IG comments!

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Birthdays; August 2016!

It's Digit-al Dozen birthday time again!  This month, there are two members in the group having birthdays; Amanda of Lady Maid Nails on August 23rd and me on August 25th!  Usually the birthday girl picks a pix and we all do mani's using it as inspiration; because there are two of us this month, Amanda picked a few pix and then I picked one out of them, so we both had a hand in the inspiration photo!  The group is posting today in between our birthdays, so here's what I came up with based on the inspiration photo!

Inspiration picture

Started with a base of bright skittles; starting at thumb and going clockwise used Girly Bits You're My Hooper Hero, Kiara Sky Blue-let Proof Vest, Nicole by OPI Hit the Lights, Girly Bits Hoop! There It is and Maybelline Go Go Green.  All are two coats except thump and pinky which are three.  Shown with no top coat.

Added a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

For some pop art affect, stamped dots using an image from MoYou Pro Collection-15.  I didn't do the index as I had planned placement of some decals that I had made and the dots would have interfered with the black dots on the decal.

Added a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

I did Cindy the same polishes and stamped all hands; this is nifty cool looking to me; I can see exactly this same mani in the future  if I ever run out of mani indeas!

So after searching through my plates, I picked out a few images for some Pop Art and made stamper decal. And can you believe that there is no POP! stamping image????  But as you can see, it wasn't very well planned out! lol.  Two of the images, I double stamped to reduce them in size for my nails (stamped once to reduce then stamped a second time onto Konad stamper to make the decal) but needed to triple stamp them so they turned our correctly.  I didn't see this or realize until I peeled off stamper decals so had to do some improvising as I wasn't putting MOOB or !FFUPon my nails!!!  The plates used were MoYou Pro Collection 10 (face, pow and bang), MoYou Pro Collection-16 (boom shrunk) and MoYou Comics Collection-01 (puff shrunk) then filled in with acrylic paints.



MoYou Pro Collection-10





MoYou Pro Collection-16




I could use three of the five decals I had made, so applied them.  I didn't have time to make more decals so ended up using a couple images from MoYou Back to the 80's Collection-03 on index and pinky using FunkyFingers Gesso and Girly Bits Fire Engine Red.  The partial image on the middle was annoying me so did some touch up with brush but for some reason didn't notice the thumb until I uploaded pix.



Added a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC to finish.

Here's the other ladies birthday mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Amanda, I hope you had a great day yesterday!

Thanks for looking!

Turning a Fail to a Win!

Here's a mani that started out as a fail but was just up my alley when it was finished!

I was hankering for some texture polish on my nails as I haven't wore any lately so went with Dance Legend 44 Sahara Crystal Earth.  However, due to my application error (too thick coats I believe), the only nail that turned out with texture was the ring finger and it was blotchy and uneven at best.  (This is the fail part.) 

Determined to make the mani work, I stamped using an image from MJ JR 41 using FunkyFingers Gesso. (Crooked stamping on index; also a fail!)

MJ JR-41

While the stamping covered the application fail, it was still kinda blah to me, so added dots using Glam Polish Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! for a little interest.

While I started out wanting textured nails, the uneven look of my poor application bothered me too much so I ended up putting on a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC on it.

Thanks for looking!

Testing Out Acrylic Plates!

I had told myself that I wasn't going to do any more mani's when I was in cottage country because I've been having so many issues there that tick me off:  topcoat smearing, really poor cleanup and not the best lighting.   I'm rarely happy with the way they turn out so figured why bother.  Then I received my order of acrylic plates that I had ordered specifically to keep in cottage country so I can keep the rest of my plates at home and thought I would try them. This is what I did yesterday afternoon; not perfect by any means but I liked how they turned out and they look better IRL but still have top coat smear!  Grrrrrr!

Started with a base of two coats of Orly Lift The Veil; shown with no top coat.

Added a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

Did a radial gradient using Orly Lift the Veil, Orly Frolic and Essie Jewel in the Crown.

Sponge for the gradient; Orly Lift the Veil was very thin and a pretty pale colour so I did a big blob of it very last every time I reapplied the colours.

Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC before stamping.

Used an image from one of the acrylic plates, XY-F13.  Even with a clear jelly stamper, placement was not guaranteed!  Also, this jelly stamper was pretty hard so didn't hug my nail curves the best so placement at the sides was hit and miss.  Some I tried to line up again but not perfect by any means.  Used FunkyFingers Gesso as stamping polish.

This was me testing the image before use.  While I love how cheap these plates were, what I don't like is having to put them up to a light or a window to see what the images actually are.  As you can see (or is it, can't see?), you can't see any image on the plate very well.  I haven't done any reading up on use of these either; I used a plastic scraper as wasn't sure how my regular Konad metal edged one would work.  Also used pure acetone to get off plate and not really sure if this will affect the plates in the long term although there was no obvious distress to the acrylic plates for the times I did use it in cleaning off the plate.

Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC to finish.  Even though I waited about 10 minutes before top coating and it wasn't even that hot and humid, still had polish smear. Grrrr!

Thanks for looking!