Canadian Nail Fanatic

Yet Another Valentine's Day Mani

2012-02-13T22:25:00.001-05:00

Another Valentine's Day mani....

Started with a two coats each of China Glaze Haunting, Orly Mirror Mirror, and Duri Taming of the Shrew.

Topped Mirror Mirror with a coat of Zoya Luna and Duri Taming of the Shrew with Zoya Jade for a little sparkle interest.

Stamped using SdP A20 (thumb), SdP 33 (index) Big SdP L (middle and ring finger), SdP C20 (on pinky) using red, black and white Konad stamping polish.

A rare shot of my right hand...pretty much same designs and plates, just a little different (I kinda like how it turned out better!)

Added a couple random hearts from QA18 using Konad black and white special polish, then topped with SV.

Is it just me or have there not been a whole lot of V-Day mani's out there in the blogesphere? Maybe because there are so many polish collections being released now and everyone is swatching them....not sure? Have you done one yet? If not, do you plan on doing one? Anyway, I hope I'm not boring everyone with mine! I think I even have a couple yet still to post!

Thanks for looking!

Another Valentine's Mani

2012-02-11T19:30:00.002-05:00

Are you sick of them yet? lol!

Started with a base of Duri Taming of the Shrew. Seems to be my go-to red base of late.

Added a coat of Essie Ruby Slippers for accent nail.

Stamped! Used white Konad special polish using SdP D04 on thumb, Big SdP I on index, Lilic A02 on middle, CH29 on ring finger and QA18 on pinky. Also added a couple isolated hearts from the QA18 plate over top of the cute couple.

I received these Lilic A01 and A02 plates earlier in the week...aren't they cute?

Finished the mani by topping with SV.

Thanks to SarahLouise over at Spellbinding Nails for the heads up about these plates. I purchased these plates here. **

Hope you're having a great weekend...thanks for looking!

**Please note that I paid the invoiced amount in full for my plates. I do not endorse nor promote this website/etailer other than I am passing on the info of where I got them to those who may wish to know. I have no affiliation with any company and received no compensation for promotion of these products, nor am I promoting them...just letting fellow bloggers where they may be obtained should they be interested!

More Traditional V-Day Mani

2012-02-10T10:20:00.000-05:00

A good friend of mine just went to the salon and got a hot pink Valentine Day mani...complete with hearts and everything...I thought I'd try one out myself!

Started with a base of two coats of OPI Don't Know...Beets Me! with accent nail of OPI Bride's Bouquet.

Stamped using Konad white special polish using Big SdP L. I isolated one of the dangling hearts and stamped it alone on the pinky just for something different.

I had picked up a new Konad stamping polish called Magenta at Christmas so decided to see how it stamped on the accent finger, again using another heart image on Big SdP L. While it was hot pink in the bottle like the OPI base, it didn't stamp as dark as I would have liked.

It didn't stamp terribly well as you may be able to see from the first pix; my error as I did my right hand and it stamped better as you can see below on my pinky....looking at the pix below, it seems that I stamped all the images way better onto my right hand using my left hand; that's just how it goes some times!

Added a few more hearts here and there to fill in a couple bare spots, topped with SV and done!

A pretty traditional, hot pink Valentine's Day mani! My friend said it was her kind of nails (cause she's not a fan of all of my mani's!).

Thanks for looking!

V-Day Mani Using Cheeky Plates

2012-02-07T23:11:00.005-05:00

Just a quick mani I came up with so I could try out a couple of the polishes from the OPI Holland Collex as well as the Cheeky plates.

Not your typical Valentine's Day mani! lol! Certainly not a typical mani that I would do either! Base polishes used starting at thumb were Maybelline Zip Fly, Essence Vampire Love Into the Dark, OPI I Have A Herring Problem, OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam!, and Orly Pixie Dust; all two coats.

Where's all the pretty silver sparkle in Zip Fly? Don't hardly see any on my nails! I think it all stuck to the side of the bottle!

Plates used were CH15 (thumb), CH15 (ring finger), CH29 (adorable couple on index), CH27 (kiss word on index), CH3 (heart on middle), CH16 (heart on index beside kiss) and then Big SdP B on pinky, stamped using Konad white special polish.

A couple pix of the Cheeky plates:

For comparison sake, Cheeky (bottom left) against BM (bottom right) against SdP image (upper design; grapes and leaves); while I haven't measured them, I eyeballed the images and I'd say the full size image is pretty close width wise to the second series of the BundleMonster plates, but not quite the same height, and not even close when compared to SdP, H, A or T series which are larger.

Not the smallest size of images I've seen, but I do wish they were larger like the A, T, H or SdP series. The plates have a paper backing...and are fairly thin and flexible...more than any other plates that I can recall. I'm only guessing this would be a problem if you didn't store them flat. Blue plastic protective covering comes off easily too! Always a plate plus!

I checked on Amazon and these plates are still sold out; if I do hear that they are available again, I'll post the link. Cheeky only ship within USA, which may pose a problem for international gals unless you're like me and willing to drive a distance to pick them up...or have a kind USA gal ship them to you!

Thanks for looking!

Edit: FYI, I've emailed Cheeky to see if/when they will be reselling these plates as I know there is some interest. I've also asked them to consider international shipping for all those stampers outside of USA...or those Canucks who can't drive to US (still can't believe I did that!!)! I'll update once I've heard back!

Edit: Cheeky did reply to my email. They indicated that they should be back in stock in approximatley one month. They will be available through Amazon US, UK, and DE; but unfortunately not Canada.

My Cross Border Shopping Haul!

2012-02-05T23:22:00.025-05:00

You may have seen those Cheeky image plates available on Amazon....try as I may....and despite the seller saying they should be available for shipping to Canada...I couldn't check out my order with a Canadian shipping address....even called Amazon to try to troubleshoot my order. Anyway, when the listing said they were down to their last 15 in stock, I couldn't delay any longer as I didn't want to miss out, so I placed my order and had it delivered to a UPS Store in Niagara Falls USA which offers this type of mail acceptance service......which necessitated a 276 km round trip to the States on Friday to pick up my order!

While I was there, I couldn't resist a few side stops so Big K, Walmart, Rite Aid, and Walgreens while I was there....and I may have a picked up a few polishes....

I also stopped by Dollar Tree, Marshalls and Big Lots but didn't find anything terribly exciting there. My biggest haul was at Big K (I'm not sure if its called Big K or K-Mart); they had Jordana and Milani glitters, Sally Hansen Gem Crush, new L'Oreal colours and some Maybelline's that I haven't seen in my area. Picked up a few Pure Ice's at Walmart...I was hoping that the new Nicole by OPI Spring Kardashian colours would have been there, but they weren't.

On my way home, I missed the street I was to turn on to head back to Canada....I hadn't been there in about a year and a half and even then, I'm usually a passenger, not the driver so wasn't terribly familiar with where I was going....but thank goodness I did, because I found Rite Aid and Walgreens across from one another. Both had different Sinful Colors displays...and I lucked out and found Borghese on sale at Rite Aid...75% off...so was able to snag Stellar Noir for $2!

These were some of my most interesting (to me!) finds:

Top row, l - r: Jordana Sequins, Jordana Cosmic, Jordana Gemstones, Sinful Unicorn.
Bottom row, l-r: Borghese Euro Green, SH Gem Crush Glitz Gal, Milani Teal, Milani Hot Pink, Borghese Stellare Notte.

I've been lemming Sinful Unicorn since I seen it on Lynderella's blog under Happy Holo-Daze....was thrilled to find it!

I had the funniest experiences both times crossing the border...when I was entering the US, the border guard asks for my passport, where I'm from, who does my vehicle belong to and then says, "How long will you-WHAT is on your nails?" Seriously, it was too funny! So out goes my hands out my vehicle window to show the young fellow my Flintstones mani...I'm guessing the bright colours caught his attention....the people in the car behind me where probably wondering what this lady was doing flinging her hands out her car window to the border guard! Then I explain to him that I'm heading to the UPS Store in Niagara Falls to pick up nail art. On my trip back into Canada, something very similar happened, only this time, it was a lady...who couldn't quite comprehend what a gal who doesn't own a business was doing buying all these nail polishes, but she too complimented me on my cool nails....however, it didn't stop her from sending me over to pay duty on my polish purchases though....small price to pay though for all those pretties I wouldn't have otherwise been able to get!

To top my weekend off, I went to my local beauty supply place and low and behold, found these:

OPI Holland Collection!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just picked these up today and haven't quite figured out which one I want to wear first (heck, who am I kidding....I know which one I'll be wearing first!) but haven't figured out how it will be turned into a Valentine's Day mani....yet. With any luck, I'll be using some of the images from my new plates!

Thanks for looking!

Edit: While I'd usually provide the link to where these plates could be purchased, they are currently sold out at this time.

Yabba-dabba-do!!!!! It's The Flintstones!

2012-02-02T22:30:00.001-05:00

We're into February and while I'd typically be doing Valentine's mani, this is what I decided to do last night instead.

Started with a base coat of OPI Osaka-to-me-Orange and OPI Bride's Bouquet.

Stamped using black Konad special polish using Konad m57 on the orange nails. Taped off a small section on the white and then stamped on the white base as well. Unfortunately, not all the stamping turned out that well on the white as I didn't stamp large enough of an area but I wanted to make sure I had enough space for Fred and Wilma.

Stamped Fred and Wilma, again black Konad special polish, using SdP 58.

Filled in a few spots using the same orange polish, OPI Osaka-to-me-Orange...tried to cover the mis-stamp over Fred's head but wasn't too successful! lol. Filled in a few spots using white Konad special polish.

Topped with SV.

My daughter thought this mani was adorable; I did her nails tonight just before doing this post. I only wish there was Barney, Betty, Bam-Bam and Pebbles to go along with it....and Dino! A Dino image would be awesome!

Off to do my nails....probably will do something Valentine's Day related! Thanks for looking!

More Layering

2012-02-01T16:35:00.000-05:00

I've been experimenting with layering for the last little while. Just here and there, adding a topcoat or some glitter or the like.....no super fantastic layering combinations like I've seen out there on the blogesphere as I'm just not that creative to envision this...but more so, just a little accent to give a little umph to the base polish...and trying to pair it with a stamping image that you can still see the results! Sometimes that's more of a challenge than the layering of the polishes; while I have lots of plates to chose from, my time is sometimes limited to pick out an interesting or appropriate image that will still highlight the polish combinations. Anyway, here's what I came up with last night.

Started with a base of Misa Pay Days are Happy Days; two coats.

Layered with a coat of LA Girl Rock Star Double Platinum. I've been itching to try this polish out; so happy I did! Glitter and Holo = win/win!

Using Big SdP H plate, added french tips using Konad Black special polish and Big SdP N for the full plate accent nail. Both the tip and full plate image of these designs are available filled in or outlined.... I'm sure there's a technical name for this! But it is neat that there are both options for both the french and full plate designs in this design.

Decided to add another image for nail filler; stamped with Konad black special polish using an image from plate XL F.

Topped with SV.

Hope you're having a great week! Thanks for looking!

How's Your Weather? This is What I'm Seeing...

2012-01-30T22:30:00.001-05:00

We're had some nasty weather over the last few days; in fact, its snowing right now as I type this post. The snowy conditions was the inspiration for this mani.

Started with two coats of Spa Ritual Circle of Life and OPI Bride's Bouquet on accent finger; all two coats.

Added Color Club Starry Temptress topcoat; one coat on most nails but two on the accent nail.

Stamped with Konad white special polish using Big SdP K on thumb and assortment of snowflake images from XL K on rest of the fingers....except the pinky; on it, I used a couple of the snowflakes from the full size image from SdP K on it. I adore the snowflakes from XL K....a couple of these snowflake images are very cool!

For the stamping accent finger, used the same Big SdP K design with Konad special blue polish.

What?!! Based on the bottles, I expected the blue special polish to stamp pretty close to Spa Ritual Circle of Life, but it stamped much lighter. See bottle comparisons here:

What can you do? I wish it would have stamped closer to the colour of Circle of Life but it is what it is. *sigh*

Added a few more of the smaller flakes from Big SdP K here and there to fill in some bare spots.

Topcoat of SV to finish it off.

I'm not looking forward to my commute to work in the morning due to the snow we're having right now....in fact, I'd say its the most we've had all at once all season....and it's suppose to turn to freezing rain in the early hours of the morning. Maybe I'll call in sick (cough, cough!!) lol!

Thanks for looking!

Winter Dragonflies?

2012-01-28T21:10:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure why it took me so long to use this image as it was one of my favourite images of the latest set of Shirley's plates that I received before Christmas.

This pix was taken in my bathroom...while the lighting wasn't the best, you can see the accent polish and rhinestones a little better so I thought I'd include it!

Started with two coats OPI Do You Lilac It?

Added a couple accent nails of Fashion Bug Red Multi which I picked up at Fashion Bug during one of my past cross border trips to US; one coat.

Stamped using Konad royal purple special polish using Big SdP M.

Added a few rhinestones on accent nail.

Then filled in the wings of with the same accent stamping polish, Fashion Bug Red Multi.

I also added some more rhinestones on my thumb for another dragonfly but wasn't really thrilled with it.

I've used this image now a few times with different colour combinations...and am sure I will use it a few more when spring and summer finally arrives!

Hope you're having a fantastic weekeend; thanks for looking!

This is the Only Sunshine I've Seen Lately

2012-01-25T14:04:00.002-05:00

It seems that lately, my nail polish selections have been a little on the neutral or darker side...I'm thinking it's because of the blah weather we've been having lately....so I decided to brighten my day with China Glaze Sunshine Pop!

Sunshine Pop is from the China Glaze Electropop collex....I picked up most of the collex at my local beauty supply shop; I don't think I've seen them at Sally's yet. This is two coats. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well the coverage was for a yellow; while it may have needed three coats, I generally leave at two as I know I'm going to be stamping over it and only wear my polish for a day or two anyway! I was happy to see the shimmer come out which hopefully you can see from these pix or perhaps click and enlarge...this was the greatest downfall of Chanel Mimosa; it looked beautiful in the bottle but lost its shimmer on the nail. I'm also wondering how close this is to Mimosa...I should have checked my bottle to see how close they are...I'm sure comparisons of the two will soon be popping up in the blogesphere soon anyway!

Stamped with Big SdP N using white Konad special polish.

Added some dots using other Konad special polishes.

Then a few more dots, topped with SV (the pix below doesn't have SV but the very first one does) and voila! The brightest set of nails I've sported in a while! lol!

In hindsight, I wouldn't say this is the most unique yellow polish I have...I'm wondering again how close it is to Chanel Mimosa...and it seems to be another colour that gives me the dreaded lobster hands....while I thought of putting this up for swap, I think this may be fun to wear during the summer! I'm sure my daughter will love to wear it during the summer too. It just seems kind of out of place with my winter wardrobe and the dull, dreary days we've been having...but with any luck, the sun will shine soon!

Hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods...and thx for looking!

I almost forgot! I've been having trouble replying to comments on my blog and leaving comments on lots of blogs I follow for the last week or two...its kind of random...some blogs, I have no issue; other ones I can't...including my own. It happens on any computer I use, but I can leave comments if I view on my iphone...so if I regularly check out your blog and haven't been commenting...or if it seems I'm ignoring comments on my blog...I'm not! This is the reason...I just read yesterday another blogger having same troubles...so hopefully I'll be able to figure out the solution soon and rectify it!

Happy Chinese New Year!

2012-01-23T10:49:00.025-05:00

It's the Year of The Dragon!

This is the mani I had on yesterday.

Started with a base of Wet n Wild Black Creme and accent finger of Duri Taming of the Shrew.

Added coat of Essie As Gold as it Gets.

As I wanted the gold flakies to stand out, I decided to add a coat of Essie Matte About You. Really liked the end result on the accent nail; will have to keep this in mind for another mani! I applied Essie Gold About You on my middle finger first; unfortunately, it was really goopy and I applied it too thick, which can really be seen in this pix after it was mattified.

Then stamped, using black Konad special polish and CND Gold Chrome using fauxnad m27. When I was looking through my plates, I was surprised that there were so many dragon images...but thought that this one was the most appropriate. In hindsight, I think I should have stamped the images sideways like on the thumb as the dragon was too long for the width of my nails and I cut the tail off most of the images...some of the stamps kinda look like wolves now! lol!

Added a few accent symbols...unfortunately, I don't know what they say so take them with a grain of salt! And that blob on the middle finger is suppose to be a fan; however, it didn't transfer too well. I couldn't remove it and redo as my nails were mattified.

After looking at my mani for a bit, I decided that I ultimately wanted to add a topcoat so topped with a coat of SV. I'm glad I did because I liked the result better than left at matte.

Lastly, I woke up Saturday morning to see this:

Thanks so much for making this happen! I never thought in a million years that a 1000 people would ever want to check out my little blog!

Have a great New Year if you are celebrating today...and if not, I hope you enjoy my mani anyway!

Thanks for looking!

Edited to reflect that I forgot to add CND Gold Chrome polish.

2 for 1!

2012-01-21T21:30:00.000-05:00

A couple more mani's from the archives...this first one is from early December 2011.

I had just picked up Essie Bobbing for Baubles; this was two coats. I see this is another mani that gave me lobster hands...I love how KarenD coined the phrase "rosy glow" for lobster hands in the comments of my post a couple days ago.....rosy glow just sounds so much nicer!

Then stamped with Big SdP F using China Glaze 2Nite.

While this was pretty enough when I did it late at night...it really didn't reach its full potential until I was sitting in my car the next morning when I was out doing errands. I looked at my nails and bam! Hello, holo!...so I grabbed my camera quickly and snapped a few shots.

Here's another holo mani...this time taken back on February 11, 2011...yikes, almost a year ago! Started with a base of Nubar Hollywood Pink.

Then topped with one coat of OPI What's Dune?

Lastly, stamped using Konad Gold Black Pearl special polish using fauxnad plate XL B.

Hope you are having a fantastic weekend....and thanks for looking!

Orly Pixie Dust

2012-01-19T07:00:00.002-05:00

I really liked the shimmer of Orly Nite Owl; I went through my stash after I wore it to see if I had another colour with the same or similar shimmer finish.....I shouldn't have been surprised to discover it was another Orly....Pixie Dust.

I've had Pixie Dust for a couple years or more now. I can't believe it took me this long to wear it (althought it does seem to give me lobster hands judging by these pix; good thing that never makes or breaks a polish in my eyes!) This is two coats.

Stamped using Big SdP A using white and black Konad special polishes.

Added a few dots, SV and done!

This mani was easy peasy to do (too bad that nasty hangnail wrecks the pix, though :(

I got a lot of compliments on this when I was out and about....a comment I heard quite a bit was, is that 'those nail stickers'? I'm guessing no one was that familiar with stamping.....but, this may actually be a cool design for nail stickers, come to think of it!

Thanks for looking!

Nubs No More!

2012-01-17T21:07:00.001-05:00

This is my NOTD...16 days after I shortened my nails on January 1st. Not long by any means, but enough length to no longer be classified as nubs...or at least what I think nubs is on me!

Started with two coats of GOSH Gypsy Blue.

Did an accent nail with one coat of Claire's Off to See the Wizard.

Stamped using SdP 59 with pastel blue Konad special polish.

I then isolated two of the flowers on the same image from this plate and stamped them on the accent nail using white Konad special polish.

Added a few white dots.

Lastly, added a couple blue dots in the centre of white flowers on the accent nail; topped with SV.

Thanks for looking!

Hey Canucks...Have You Been By Winners Lately?

2012-01-16T13:30:00.004-05:00

Since maybe October or so, Winners has really stepped up their game and started carrying some brands that are harder to find for us Canadians...at least in my neck of the woods! Barielle, Color Club, Duri, Cosmetic Arts, just to name a few. Some gals reported seeing Nubars at their local store, but when I went looking for them, I wasn't able to find any (not recently...seen random bottles maybe a year ago or so).

Here's a few of the things I've bought in the last month or so...not all the same time and not all the same location.

The only tip I have is if you want it, pick it up the first time you see it. Don't be like me...I seen one of the Art Club sets at one store on on December 23rd and passed-they had three of them and I wasn't sure if I reallllyyyy wanted them. I ultimately decided I did; went back on December 26th and they were all gone! I was able to find them at another location after. The crazy thing about Winners is that not every location carries all the products (which was a plus on the other hand because I found some sets at one location and others at another...I guess they spread the love around) and quantities are usually limited! And they do add new stock every couple weeks, so I try to visit at least one store on a regular basis to see if there's anything new and exciting...if I do find something, then I go check out a couple more stores if I have time.

I only hope this continues...I remember seeing lots of polish last October but quantities dribbled down after Christmas...I do hope they keep their stocks up all year round!

Edit: I was wondering if there's any interest in these type of posts?

While this is more of an FYI Canadians; look what you can get type of post, I do remember that when I did my birthday giveaway questionnaire, there was a few responses that had requested seeing hauls and the like. I've always avoided these type of posts (mainly too embarrassed to admit freely to the world the amount of polish I buy!) but I don't mind sharing if there's interest. And if not, that's OK too...not like I'm going to stopping doing my nails any time soon...or hope I'm not!

Please let me know your thoughts!

Orly Nite Owl

2012-01-12T14:25:00.001-05:00

This is another one of those mani's I did with veryyyyy short nails. I was pretty pleased how it turned out considering there isn't a whole lot of nail to stamp! lol!

Started with Orly Nite Owl as the base, two coats. This is such a beautiful polish that I haven't seen a lot of love for in the blogesphere for some reason.....a neutral with an edge!...maybe because it was released in the same collex as Orly Fowl Play which seemed to get all the attention! The shimmer is so what I seem to be into lately.

Stamped using QA 7. I've numbered the images on the plate I used for the mani for reference.

Used Konad black special polish using Image #1 on most of the nails and Image #2 on accent ring finger. I actually didn't do too bad lining up the tips for once! Yeah me! Not perfect, but decent! Unfortunately, the little dip in the centre of the tipped image accentuates any lining up errors. Oh well....not perfect but better than I've done in the past.

The above look was actually what I had planned in my mind when I started the mani...I was kinda going for 'simple elegance'. But then I got to looking at it and in my mind, it seemed more simple then elegant..... even plain. So added more stamping using Image #2 on the thumb and ring finger, the small flower on Image #3 on pointer, and the large flower on Image #3 on pinky with Konad white special polish.

This is more like it! But ultimately, I decided to add some accent stamping on top of the white on the thumb and middle finger using the small flower on Image #3 on the middle finger and the large flower on Image #3 on the thumb using black Konad special polish.

Waited a few minutes, added a coat of SV. The topcoat just really makes the stamping polishes pop as I've said before, especially the black, if you compare the ring finger on the pix above with the pix below.

I was pretty pleased with how this turned out...this was some pretty cool stamping (to me anyway!) on my nubby nails. But looking at these pix, I seriously need to work on my cleanup....black Konad is the worst to clean up!

Thanks for looking!

2 for 1!

2012-01-11T17:30:00.003-05:00

As I do my nails nearly every day...I'm guessing around five days a week on average... but don't post nearly that often, I have a lot of manis in archives. And because my blog was started as my reference of manis I've done, I decided I need to kick my butt into gear and get some of them posted before I have something nasty happen like a computer breakdown (*shudder*) or I lose my SD card or something......(knock on wood)!!

So this is the first of my 2 for 1 postings....two mani's; one post. These two mani's were the first I did after I cut my nails down on New Year's Day.

First was OPI Fly from the Nicki Minaj collection. I seen a full display of these at Trade Secrets when I was out finishing my Christmas shopping the week before Christmas, but because I wasn't entirely finished my shopping for my kids, I passed on them to make sure I wasn't spending on me before I had whatever it was I wanted to get for them (always put your kids first over polish!). (And some gal in the GTA will be very happy I had spotted them! While I was browsing at a store in the mall, some fella came in asking about the collex for his girlfriend as a Christmas gift....this particular store didn't have them for sale; however, I overheard the conversation and directed the fella to where I had seen the full display only hours before! Hopefully he was able to pick them up for her!)

So when I had some time (and money!) to go shopping the week after Christmas, I thought I'd revisit Trade Secrets to pick up them up. But by this time, every Trade Secrets in my area was sold out of them...any of the colours I was looking for anyway! So I was surprised to see them at my local nail/beauty supply place on December 31. I learned my lesson and picked them up while I could. The colour I wanted to try first was Fly.

I then decided to add Lynnderella's Connect the Dots. You don't so much as apply it as dab it on here and there....me anyway! I just find I'm able to control a little better where the glitter ends up when I dab it and move it around.

As soon as I was done, I thought this mani looked awfully familiar...then remembered this was pretty much the same mani as my first time using CtD's...except base was Sally Hansen The Real Teal....oops!

The Real Teal has this gorgeous shimmer that Fly does not have and they are clearly different shades; however, because CtDs HAS the shimmer, they look mighty close when layered...not dupes but close. This was hilarious to me because when I was thinking about it, I have a large stash with so many untrieds which means I could try out some cool layering combinations...and then I go ahead and do almost the same mani as I've done before using CtD's not terribly long ago...I guess I just can't get enough of the teal and CtD combo! LOL!! Anyway, I do love this combo and this was one rare mani that I wore for more than a day.

After I removed CtD's, this was my next mani...again using Lynnderella's.

Started with a base of two coats of Misa Working Hard or Hardly Working.

Layered with one coat of Nubar White Polka Dots.

Lastly added Lynnderella Lucky Numbers. Again, not by applying a coat but more like dabbed it here and there to try to even out the glitter placement over the whole nail like CtD application. I'm not sure how much my pix show this, but while Connect the Dots has awesome white shimmer, Lucky Numbers has the same but in red....LOVE! I'm getting more into this shimmer type of finish...beautiful!

I'm going to try to post more of these 2 for 1 mani postings occasionally until I get relatively caught up in my postings....of course, if I posted more frequently, this won't be necessary...I'll see how it goes!

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

2012-01-08T21:50:00.001-05:00

Today is my Dad's birthday....he shares the birth date of this famous fellow....

Elvis!

I did this mani last night because I knew I'd be visiting with my dad this afternoon and Elvis is one of his all time favourite artists. My dad thought the mani was very cool!

Started with a base of OPI Bride's Bouquet (white); accent is OPI Yoga-
to Get This Blue; two coats of each. Topped with SV. No picture of just base polishes as I've used Bride's Bouquet and shown it a lot and the next pix shows the accent blue well. Stamped using Konad black special polish using FAB II (Elvis head), Konad m58 (guitar), SdP D-11 (boots and cowboy hat) and BM 08 (crown on pinky).

Then added full finger image plate on accent finger using plate FAB IV with Konad white special polish. My FAB UR NAILS plates arrived late last week and it was great that I was able to use a couple of them for this mani!

Stamped a few accents using Konad red and royal purple special polishes. Image plates used were Hot Topic (skull music notes), SdP C-12 (small and medium size crowns from the image) and Konad m73 (music above cowboy hat and above). I had stamping fail here as only half the lines under the stars went on the nail...this was because I took too long in trying to position the stamp on my nails and the polish dried up. Oops! In this case, the only way I probably could have corrected it would be to remove all the stamped images because those lines are on top of Elvis' head and I doubt I could remove the stars and lines without disturbing the head image...but ultimately decided it didn't look too terribly bad so just left it. Lastly, topped with coat of SV.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Hope you had a great weekend...and thanks for looking!

Barielle Now That's Hot!

2012-01-06T13:00:00.005-05:00

This post is going to be a mish mash of things...this wasn't the mani or type of post I planned on posting next (or ever to be honest!) but Fingers commented on my last mani about how do I get the white Konad stamping polish to not smear and pondered if perhaps I post the pix I take before top coating my mani. I did reply to her but this mani/post may perhaps demonstrate it better in more detail (ie ramble!) with other comments and suggestions thrown in for good measure!

First of all, a few of my goals aren't going as planned. My first day back to work after the long weekend (Jan 3rd) was a 13 hour day due to having to stay late to handle an emergency. So much for less working. Last night, I went to bed at 2:40 am...so much for getting more sleep. As I type this, my lunch is leftover scalloped potatoes with a healthy helping of butter...so much for eating healthier! And well, this post is probably going to be long with a lot of pix...so much for shorter posts and less rambling! The great thing is that I have goals....which can be worked upon!

Winners has been a great source of polishes lately. One of my purchases just before Christmas was Barielle That's Hot Pink. This is the mani I came up with using it.

Started with two coats. I really liked the application of this polish...the smaller size brush was easier to apply on my small nails and while the polish seemed a little runnier to apply than a lot of other brands, this is actually my personal preference as I find I put less on the brush and then seem to apply it better...plus any cleanup is easier to remove as the polish is a little thinner.

Stamped using plate Big SdP J with black and white Konad special polishes on alternating fingers. I purposely tried to position the stamped image different on each finger for interest.

Now (and here's some rambling!) its probably evident that my fingernails are considerably shorter than my last few posts. I cut them down a few days ago because my middle finger kinda was growing funny. I filed it to try to fix or save it but then, it looked even funnier so I thought better cut them down so they can grow out. Well, these are my version of nubs! My nails even look kinda funny to me as they seem so short! But being the kinda gal I am, I couldn't resist still layering and stamping even with my nubby nails so I've still been doing lots of mani's with my nubs. And because this blog is about my nails, fails or not, with a little length or nubs! I did think about not posting them as I do still have lots of pix in archives and they probably won't take terribly long to grow out, but then I thought why not post some nubs with cool stamping (well, what I think is cool anyway!...this may not be the general consensus!! lol!) to highlight that you don't need really long nails to do some cool 'nadding and short nails are just as great! I personally know that I have specific image plates and themed mani's planned for when my nails are shorter as some of the full size images don't fit my nails when they are longer. I also think some stamped images just look nicer on shorter nails...just my opinion!

Anyway, after stamping the base, I used Konad black special polish and went over the white band of dots in the stamped image with black for a contrasted band look.

Then, went over one band of the stamped black dots with white Konad special polish. Also added more dots for interest, again using black and white Konad special polish.

Fingers...pay attention here! I've had my share of fails with white Konad special polish (well, if I'm honest, more than stamping polishes!!) and there are still lots of times when I get stamping polish drag when I apply my topcoat. Another problem I've encountered with white stamping polish (actually it will happen with regular polish too) is that if you apply SV topcoat while it is still kinda wet, the polish disperses and kinda fades so its not a crisp, clear stamped image. An example of this is my "Moves Like Jagger' mani and the white Konad special polish used on the pinky finger for the skull music notes. Before I put SV on, the white stamping was crisp and clear as a bell. As you can tell in those pix, when I top coated it with SV, the white stamping polish dispersed and as a result, the stamped skulls are not as clear. It was because of this mani that I started to make sure I take pix of my finished mani's before top coating, just in case it happened again. But I did find that if you wait a little longer for the polish to dry, whether its stamping polish or regular polish used for some dots, the polish does not disperse or smear when you put SV on it. Waiting this extra time is also key if doing any kinda of dotting work...I find the little blobs of polish does take a while longer to dry and again will smear if topcoat is put on too early. I've learned the hard way what happens with dots if topcoat is applied too early...they smear! So dear Fingers...time is the answer! Drying time of the stamping polish seems to be key...you will just have to learn like I did...there are some times that I can immediately go over a mani with SV right after stamping...there are others that I can tell that the stamping polish is a little thicker or wet, or the dots are wet, so I wait a few minutes (maybe 5 minutes?) then apply SV. I know this goes against the grain of applying SV on wet nails, but so far, it seems to work. I sometimes have a little SV shrinkage, but after reading lots of tips, have found that wrapping tips with base coat and wrapping tips with SV during both applications of SV (over base coat and over stamped image) 99% of the time eliminates shrinkage problems. I find that Konad white and black special polishes are the most finicky for drag or smearing...but I've also used WnW black creme and Essence's brand of black stamping polishes and they all smear. (This was through my phase when I was sampling different options for black stamping polishes as the clean up using Konad black special polish is a pain...but my personal preference is Konad as I find it stamps the crispest and darkest.)

When I first started stamping, I swore by Konad's topcoat. But I found I had a lot of smearing or drag of the stamping polish when it was applied. So for a little spell (before I started blogging...you won't see any pix of this), I just left my mani's without topcoat as I had smearing so often. But it bugged me that my mani's didn't have that crisp, clear stamped image that can only be achieved with a topcoat. This was around the time I turned to the internet to look into Konad more; when I googled it, I found all these awesome blogs out there with stamping! I did a lot of checking out of blogs and reading to see what others were doing and one tip that I read time and time again was to only swipe your topcoat lightly once over the image. Swipe and apply with one sweep. So I started to do this. But quite frankly, if the stamping polish underneath isn't dry, it still smears or drags one swipe or not...and too much of a blob or a heavy coat of the topcoat causes bleeding or blurring of the stamped image (I know from experience!). At some point, I read about Seche Vite (SV), and while I have love and hate issues with it too, I've found that a new or well thinned bottle of SV seems to work the best for me. For not only top coating my base polish before stamping but also applied as final topcoat over stamping. The other thing I've found is that if you wait long enough for the stamped imaging (or dots) to dry, you can go over the image more than once without it smearing or dragging. This is handy if you have a little too much SV on your brush and you need to go over the SV more than once so you don't have a big blob on your nail, or if you have bubbles (I find I can sometimes swipe them away)or if you have a spot you missed and even need to go over that general area again. I've even found that with a little practise, I can swipe away a little bit of a stamping polish drag by kinda going over the SV in the opposite direction (across the nail) with the SV brush without any on it. I've even waited for SV to dry after a polish drag, took out a clean up brush and removed the drag with acetone and then reapplied SV again (I'm getting better at this...sometimes its still a fail...see my recent birthday mani and you can still see some smudging on the thumb under where it says Happy Birthday, but I've since done it and it has worked better).

Another comment that I have about applying SV on top of your base coat before stamping is that in the event that you make an error, most of the time, you can lightly swipe a dampened cotton pad with acetone over the stamped image and remove the stamped image without effecting the base coat underneath. But use a light hand...and don't double swipe the same area using the same cotton pad if there is some residue on the nail; use a clean portion of the pad. Hand sanitizer with rubbing alcohol also removes image (but I've found the odd time that it removes the base polish more than acetone so I've switched back to acetone with a light hand). It doesn't matter if the stamping polish is wet or dry; the acetone will still work...just use a light hand with your swiping.

I personally find that black Konad polish drags more than white, but have had issues lots of time with white. I had the weirdest thing happen with Konad white back when I first started my blog....it literally changed from white to another colour in front of my eyes. I'm not sure what ever caused it...if it was a base reaction or SV or what. You can see this here. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the Misa base...I haven't had this happen since this last post...but it was like magic...white to green in seconds...I also had it happen before this post when it changed to purple but I can't seem to readily find the post right now.

After waiting for dots and stamping polish to dry, applied SV.

You should be able to see here the difference with SV on top of the stamped image and without...just in case, Fingers, you wonder if my pix are taken before topcoat. Most of my posts are kinda like tutorials (well, in my mind anyway that how I post them!), so I usually have a finished mani, then the base, then mani in progress, then finished product and sometimes a second pix with SV on top...I'm not a betting gal, but I'd say at least 95% of my posts show at least one pix with the stamped image topcoated...in fact, I comment on it occasionally how the topcoat makes the stamped image *pop*. Topcoat is also a great way to even out dots as my dots look like pimples a lot of the time...it smooths them out so my mani's are pimple free!

Another reason I do my posts like this as I remember just getting into stamping and trying to figure out how gals did their mani when I was surfing blogs. So I try to post pix step by step versus just one of the finished product. I also recall reading that they used a particular plate as it was indicated but didn't know which image was on which plate...which is why I try to say x image is from x plate, etc etc...unless its only one or two images/plates...or I forget, which it probably is the case most often! But I do try because I remember driving myself crazy looking for specific images and trying to figure out what plate they used! I thought if I look for this info, maybe someone checking out my blog may be looking for the same info..maybe? And don't get me started how crazy I used to go when a blogger just posted a mani and had no reference of the plate used or the stamping polish...which I still see on blogs now! Thank goodness I'm more versed with image plates so I usually have a good idea of which plate/brand it is...but this literally drove me nuts when I first got into stamping! And still does sometimes if I don't recognize an image now and then!

I cut and pasted a bit of the images above for a better comparison of mani before topcoat and after. (ughhh....not that I want to supersize my cleanup skills or poor cuticles, but for the interest of comparison of mani with and without topcoat....)

This image is without topcoat.

This image is with topcoat.

The other thing that I want to stress is that this is how I stamp and what I've found works for me but no means does it mean that other polishes, basecoats or methods won't work better........ I know others find other topcoats work better and lots of people use WnW black creme for black stamping polish...I've used it too, its just my preference is Konad. The odd time, I try out other quick dry topcoats just to see if I'd be liking anything better too. I have them all (Sally Hansen in the red bottle, Deborah Lippmann, Posh, Essie, Orly...probably more)...just find the SV works best for me. I usually indicate in my posts if I've deviated from using SV (odd time use a non-quick dry topcoat especially if using a holo polish) or if I only put one coat of polish on, or four, which happens sometimes. And by no means am I a polish guru or know everything about stamping...there are bloggers out there that stamp way better than me and with far more knowledge about polishes, bases, cuticle care, stamping etc etc...and I still am working on my issues like clean up and super dry cuticles so always am scouring posts looking for tips! Heck, I still have lots of stamping fails (even this mani, I can see some where I didn't get the stamped image 100% on the nail)...but the great thing about polish or stamping fails.....it's just polish...easy enough to remove and redo with a bit of remover and a bit of time!

I'm sorry to have rambled so much...but hopefully this will demonstrate to Fingers how I do white and black stamping without getting it to smear...and well, anyone else that this may help out too!!

Thanks for looking!

Is it Spring Yet?

2012-01-03T12:08:00.004-05:00

Not that I'm complaining about the weather we've been having!! Really, winter has barely arrived in our area....a little snow but hardly anything significant....and fairly mild temperatures except the last couple of days. But after doing so many Christmas mani's...and then a few on the darker side (for me!), I was in the mood for something a little lighter and brighter...more appropriate for spring not winter...this is what I came up with.

Started with two coats of Zoya Robyn.

Stamped with Konad white special polish using Big SdP M.

Lastly, added a few random dots in OPI Banana Bandana and Elephantastic Pink.

I hope everyone had a fantastic New Year's! Did you make any resolutions? I have a few goals...polish and non-polish related:

Polish:

* reorganize my polish area (started but not finished)
* do polish spreadsheet
* organize a blog sale
* eliminate number of untrieds
* only buy the polishes I love...not for the sake of having the whole collection
* more swapping....reduce stash and save cash! (um...maybe this won't reduce stash)
* more frequent blog posts
* moisture my cuticles more often
* better polish clean up
* organize blog/get better banner/wallpaper
* shorter posts/less rambling
* don't take 87455907 pictures of mani's...cuts into my sleeping time and they aren't all that different anyway
* look into a way to have more colour accurate or polish finish accurate pix...it is terribly annoying to have a gorgeous polish or layering combo that just doesn't translate well in the pix, or if the colour is not true to life. Better lighting or camera...or figure out how to use camera ....

Personal

* exercise more (who am I kidding...just get exercise!!)
* eat healthier
* work less
* have more family/me time (will only happen if I work less!)
* save/plan for retirement
* connect with friends and family more often (see number three)
* take family on out of country vacation
* look into buying pop up travel trailer; take kids to see more of the beauty of Canada versus what we have here in Ontario (which is pretty cool...but want them to see Bay of Fundy, the Rockies, plus lots of places in Ontario we've never been!)
* get more sleep (see number three)
* try a new restaurant at least once every couple months
* less volunteering of my time during the summer...so can relax and spend more time with family
* take at least two weeks of vacation (um...workaholic here...have lots of vacation time but rarely take any...usually only a few days or week)
* declutter house

I'll have to remember to come back to this post to see how many of these goals I've accomplished!

Have a great 2012!

Happy New Year's Eve!!

2011-12-31T20:55:00.004-05:00

This is my New Year's Eve mani.

Wayyyy more exciting than my plans...sitting home with the hubs watching tv.

Started with two coats of Wet n Wild Black Creme. One coat is pretty opaque but I find for me that two evens it out a little better.

Stamped using China Glaze IDK using fauxnad image plates QA 17 (random stars on accent finger) and QA 18 (full size image of stars on rest of fingers).

I learned about these plates after either seeing KD image plates on Spellbinding's blog or getting an email from SarahLouise...can't remember now! The KD image plate seller had a few of the QA plates but when I was surfing ebay, I seen another seller more local (US) AND for a better price selling the whole set so ultimately, after asking if the seller would ship to me in Canada, I ended up buying them from here **. If you go to the bottom of the listing, you'll see better pix of all the plates. I've used these QA plates a few times since I got them (maybe five plates now) and any I've used work well. I picked up the XL K plate as well. I believe the listing indicates that there is no international shipping; however, I emailed and asked anyway...no harm in asking is always my motto! The seller agreed and for a reasonable price (under $6 I think). When I emailed back saying my order had arrived safe and sound, the seller replied indicating that international shipping will be considered if requested.

The plastic covering on these plates is a breeze to remove as well. The other great thing about this ebay seller is that they also have 20 of the A series image plates for $45. I think of how much I paid for them when they were only available from Europe...ouch!

This is how my package arrived...super cute eh? The seller even sent a couple extra image plates and stickers!

Have a fantastic New Year's Eve...regardless if you are like me and staying in or out revelling in the New Year!

All the best to you in 2012!!!

**Please note that I paid the invoiced amount in full for my plates. I do not endorse nor promote this website/etailer other than I am passing on the info of where I got them to those who may wish to know. I have no affiliation with any company and received no compensation for promotion of these products, nor am I promoting them...just letting fellow stamping addicts where they may be obtained should they be interested!

Giveaway Winner Revealed...Plus New Plates!

2011-12-29T15:45:00.002-05:00

Did you enjoy the Christmas Eve post? This was the little project that I was working on that I alluded to a few posts back....I did a theme or two every time I changed my nails for most of the month of December and I think I did three on the day of Christmas Eve to finish it off...and still had more thoughts in my head of mani's I wanted to post for more of the poem but just ran out of time! I had plans of doing posts for each of the manis shown but chances are, it may not happen, so if anyone is reallllyyyy wanting to know a plate used in one of the images, or a base colour or anything, leave a comment in this post, or the Christmas Eve post or shoot me an email, and I'll be glad to let you know!

I know some of you are anxiously awaiting the results of my giveaway which ended last week but first I wanted to show you my Christmas gift to me that arrived a few days before Christmas.

Some of you may know that Shirley over at Dashica Beauty Shop ** released a bunch of new image plates a few weeks ago; my order arrived December 22nd. I was thrilled when I got to looking at them when I seen a bunch of the full size images are perfect for allowing the base coat of the polish to show through which is right up my alley right now...this was one of my many, many suggestions to her...I'm sure she got tired of hearing from me with all my image plate suggestions!

As I'm getting more and more into layering and different polish finishes but am a stamper at heart...these full size images allow the best of both worlds! I love to use full image plates when stamping as they are so simple and quick to stamp onto your nail especially when you don't have much time to do your nails.....which is my life most of the time to be honest!

Started with a base of Spa Ritual Solitude.

Added one coat of KleanColor Holo Chrome. Hello holo! Wowzers!

Stamped using Konad black special polish using image plate SdP 47.

Added random dot of L.A. Girl Disco Brite Platforms for colour interest. Topped with SV. This image is perfect for layering, don't you think? To me, the polish and layering possibilities just using this image are endless...never mind the numerous other images that there are on these plates. Fantastic!

Now onto the giveaway winner.....thanks to everyone who entered this giveaway and for checking out my blog! There were 234 comments left on the giveaway post...there was the odd duplicate and some gals commented several times with updates...but once everything was tallied, there were 435 *ballots*. I used random.org to pick a winner...unfortunately, I'm not computer savvy enough to figure out quickly how to take a screen shot of the results, cut, paste and post it, but I did take a pix and this is who was chosen:

Congrats rock-or-not!

An email has gone out to rock-or-not and hopefully she will reply in the 72 hours or this post will be updated. Thanks again to Beautiful Scratchers who donated some of the image plates for the giveaway...the rest of the plates and polish were paid and supplied by me!

Edit: I did hear back from rock-or-not and her package will be mailed out soon!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas! It's a very busy time of year for my family but hopefully, New Years long weekend will be a little more relaxing!

Thanks for looking!

**Please note that I paid the invoiced amount in full for my plates. I do not endorse nor promote this website/etailer other than I am passing on the info of where I got them to those who may wish to know. I have no affiliation with any company and received no compensation for promotion of these products, nor am I promoting them...just letting fellow bloggers where they may be obtained should they be interested!

Twas the Night before Christmas...

2011-12-24T21:52:00.002-05:00

Twas the night before Christmas,

when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.

And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer.

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.
His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.

He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.

And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

From my family to yours, have a Merry Christmas!

Last Call for Giveaway...And Another Christmas Mani

2011-12-21T19:04:00.000-05:00

A quick post for a quick mani! This literally took me less than half an hour start to finish...maybe you can tell!

Started with two coats of OPI Smitten with Mittens and OPI Bride's Bouquet topped with Arezia #645. Unfortunately, the white has a tinge of red from the SV coverage from the SwM's but it was too late for me to redo this...plus it was the second mani I had done that night and I was ready for bed!

Stamped using CND Gold Chrome with Konad m9 for belt and Konad special black polish using T34 for Santa's face.

Added dots along tips using Konad special white polish.

Decided a wanted glitter on the white so added random clear topcoat to just the white polish area and then sprinkled on loose glitter. Took a dry brush and dusted off any loose glitter. I really like the extra that sparkle adds...I don't know why I don't use it more often! (well, I do know why...because glitter is everywhere for days afterwards!)

Topped with SV. I know this mani is nothing that hasn't been seen before, but it was simple, quick and perfect for this time of year....especially when its getting down to the wire with Christmas right around the corner!

Speaking of down to the wire, please remember that today is the last day to enter my giveaway as seen here! I'll close off entries around midnight tonight (unless I fall asleep, which is a good possibility) so last call if you are interested in entering! I'll post the winner as soon as I get a chance.....I picked up a few items to send along to whomever is the winner today....I couldn't resist when I was out and about picking up a few stocking stuffers!

Thanks for looking!

Another Christmas Mani

2011-12-19T12:22:00.001-05:00

I did this mani quickly late last night...not terribly detailed because it was late and I was getting tired, especially after cramming alllllll my Christmas shopping into Saturday and Sunday. My brain was saying yes, continue to shop Sunday night as the stores were open late.....but my feet were saying no more, no more! I should have learned my lesson from when I went to the US last year and wore boots doing all that walking...that massive shopping trips call for running shoes!

Started with base of Color Blast by Orly in Reflection. (I didn't take pix of base, sorry). Topped with a coat of Cover Girl Goddess. I kinda goofed up here, probably because I was tired because I should have hand painted in the moon on my pinky before I topped with Goddess....but I forgot, so after I hand painted it in, I put another thin coat of Goddess on my pinky.

Stamped using Konad black special polish using T45 (reindeers), D-01 (sleigh), D-07 (words Merry Christmas) and SdP C-19 (Santa).

Topped with coat of SV. Here's my not often seen right hand, which I stamped slightly different using Christmas themed stamps.

Is your Christmas shopping done? I'm done...I think. Now just need to find the time to do some wrapping!

Thanks for looking!

Christmas Poinsettias

2011-12-16T12:55:00.001-05:00

I think this may be my Christmas morning mani...think...obviously won't know until the day arrives but this screams Christmas to me!

Started with two coats of Nubar Cloud White.

Stamped using Konad red special polish using image from SdP D-12. (Some of these pix, the stamping leans a little orange on my monitor anyway but it clearly was red in real life). For the accent finger, I isolated two of the smaller poinsettias on the plate (as its a full size image) and stamped them separately just for something different! I was also thinking maybe red polish with white stamping may be a cool accent...maybe next time.

Anyway, added dots in centres of the flowers using Color Club Gingerbread Man.

Put a little gold glitter using Orly glitter stripper near the centre of the flowers. Have you ever seen the poinsettias with the glitter sprinkled on top? That's what this looks like to me!

Topped with SV. I got a lot of compliments on this mani...from a few men too!

The next day, I took a pix outside....looks like I had mani crack too using SV like nailxchange posted about a while back...not so obvious in real life, but you can see it clearly on the thumb in this mani.

Its getting down to the wire for my most recent giveaway...if you are interested in checking it out, please go here!

Thanks for looking!

My First Tape Mani...

2011-12-13T11:59:00.002-05:00

(well, if you don't count the time I used tape to do french tips once before, that is!). And I cheated too, using scrap booking scissors! Here's what I came up with.

Started with a base of Finger Paints To-Teally Chic; two coats.

Then got out my newly purchased scrap booking scissors. I was by Michael's not terribly long ago picking up a few stocking stuffers. I had one of those 50% off one item coupons and picked up a set of these. I think the total was around $15...I thought my DD could use these for scrap booking too when I'm not doing manis.

After I cut the tape, I put it on my nail like so.

Then added a coat, maybe two of Nicole by OPI Snow-man of My Dreams. I removed the tape right after applying the polish as I remembered reading that if you let the polish dry, it will pull off along with the tape when its removed.

Stamped with Nicole by OPI Positive Energy using XL C, then topped with SV.

Have you used crafting scissors for a mani? If not, do you think you will give it a try? I'd love to know your thoughts!!

Thanks for looking!

Christmas Candy

2011-12-12T12:06:00.000-05:00

My group order of Lynnderella's recently arrived but when they did, I was kinda torn...while I love to stamp and so wanted to start doing a few Christmas mani's, I was really wanting to use the Lynnderella's....so I thought, why not do a mani combining them both? This is what I came up with.

I had bought Essie Marshmallow specifically to use as the base for Lynnderella Snow Angel...unfortunately, I couldn't find it. So I used two coats of Essie Waltz with three coats of Essie Tennis Corset for the undies for Snow Angel and two coats of Essie Bonded for the undies for Lynnderella Ruby Red Ruby.

Then added one coat of Lynnderella Snow Angel and Ruby Red Ruby.

Topped with a coat of Gelous and then SV. By this time, the white was 10 coats thick so I waited a bit to do the stamping, but even then, I had a few squishies when I did the stamping.

Stamped using an assortment of Konad special polishes (red, green and royal purple which stamps almost navy blue)using IP's BM222, SdP C14, SdP 21, and fauxnad D.

Lastly accented with a few snowflakes and stars from plates T37 and T45.

This pix was taken the next day outside...you see the stamping a little better as there is no light glare.

Hope you had a great weekend....please check out my current giveaway here if you are interested and thanks for looking!

First Time Using RBL

2011-12-07T13:40:00.003-05:00

This is Rescue Beauty Lounge Mismas. I only have a few RBL's; whatever I've been fortunate to swap for....which reminds me, I seem to recall that Frazzle and Aniploish has RBL Ann and Locavore offered in a giveaway that I forgot to enter so I need to get over there as soon as I post this and enter! (I just have to decide which one I'm going to tick off in the ballot...and I can't remember if I already have Ann; I meant to check my stash to see which is why I haven't entered already! But I *think* maybe it's RBL Catherine I have, not Ann...or is it Catherine H?....maybe to be safe, I'll enter for Locavore!! Maybe I need to get working on that polish spreadsheet....!)

Two coats of RBL Mismas. This was super shiny even without topcoat. I remember taking these pictures and being freaked out as I could see my image mirrored in my nails....I sure hope the image isn't visible if you click on them as you'll see this gal in her pj's and housecoat pointing the camera!

Anyway, on top of Mismas, I added some glitter using NYX Girls Grand Royale, then a little NYX Bejewelled at very tip edge for a little something different. Experimenting I was. I think there might even be a little NYX Silver Glitter mixed in there too.

Then stamped using Nicole by OPI Give Me the 1st Dance using GCOCL K04.

A bit of housekeeping...blogkeeping as you will...December is always a busy time of year and to top it off, I'm working on a special project. I will be posting regularly and checking out all the awesome mani's in the blogesphere but you will see a little bit of everything posted for the next little while including unposted mani's of the past; I have Christmas mani's already done but not yet posted; have LOTS OF NEW plates on order so you may see those mani's pop up as I get them, probably some new layering manis as I now have received my group order of Lynnderellas...and a few other things mixed in for good measure, I'm sure!! My nail length is going to be all over the place as one post could be a mani from a couple months ago and the next what I'm wearing that day....plus I keep on growing them, cutting them, filing them funny, cutting them...you get the drift!

Thanks for looking! And don't forget to enter Frazzle and Aniploish's giveaway here that ends tomorrow..... but please don't enter for RBL Ann or Locavore to better my chances-joking!!! lol! (decisions, decisions!)

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow....

2011-12-05T12:52:00.002-05:00

NOT!!

While I have snowflakes on my mani today, I'm not especially looking forward to the snow. Not that I mind snow itself, its just that I'm not a fan of driving in it. Not that I mind my driving in it...its everyone else on the roads who don't know how to drive for the conditions that irritates me! The worst offenders are those who drive way too slow when there's a minimal amount of snow on the ground to those who drive way to fast when its slick. My commute to work goes from 30 minutes to 2 hours when it snows...even an inch or two. My area has only seen a few flakes so far which haven't even stayed on the ground! I'd really like to see snow on Christmas Eve as its always magical to me having a nice gentle snowfall then...but after that, I can take it or leave it.

Anyway, onto the snowflake mani I'm wearing today which looks like this.

Two coats of Cosmetic Arts in.....something. I'll call it cornflower blue for lack of a name! Cosmetic Arts polishes have been popping up at various Winners in my area. So great to have more polish options and Winners is a mecca for polishes lately!

Topped with a coat of NYX Girls Turks & Caicos. I started this mani on Saturday night. When I went to bed, it looked this this.

Sunday morning, I took a pix outside (it was overcast); you can see the glitter from Turks & Caicos a little better in the daylight.

Sunday night, I stamped it using Konad white and sky blue special polishes using IP's SdP C-12 and SdP 8.

This morning, I took another pix outside so you can see how the glitter looks underneath a little bit better in the daylight.

Are you looking forward to the snow...or not!

Thanks for looking!

Halloween Mani Using Plates from Giveaway!

2011-12-02T13:15:00.000-05:00

As you may recall, my recent giveaway includes five image plates provided by Beautiful Scratchers (BS). This is an unposted mani I did at Halloween using S8 from the plates.

While I had emailed Beautiful Scratchers to buy them, as they are a local GTA company in my area, Jenna delivered a set of them to my office along with some new metallic polishes that I had seen on her esite. When we met, she was good enough to offer a set of her new image plates as a giveaway for my blog so this is why I'm able to offer them as part of the giveaway!

From what I gathered in our conversation, Jenna actually created these stamping plates - you will not find these exact designs on any other plates or be able to buy any place other than Beautiful Scratchers. I acknowledge though that there are similar designs (ie more than one pumpkin or Hello Kitty image out there!)

Jenna has also created a whole bunch of stamping polishes. I found her company about two or more years now while surfing ebay looking for alternatives to Konad special polishes (they too expensive, frustrated as some didn't stamp well as well as looking for more colour options). This was well before I started blogging or even surfing the net for stamping sites. I guess I wasn't smart or creative enough to realize that other polishes might well for stamping!

Since that day a few years ago, Jenna and I have met up a few times as I've bought more of her products. I've also been lucky enough to get samples here and there of new colours she had been working on developing (like the hot pink which stamps well, unlike Konad's hot pink, which is why I just bought a full size bottle). I always adore meeting up with Jenna as its great to speak to someone in real life who has a passion about stamping like me!

The polishes that I used for this mani are Wet n Wild Black Creme (thumb), Icing The Golden Age of Glitter (on black base); Revlon Alluring Amber (orange base); Icing Pumpkin (orange glitter on orange base), Misa Green with Envy (green base); Misa Disco Green (green glitter on green base), CND Eclectic Purple (purple base), Claire's Diva Purple (purple glitter on purple base) Wet n Wild Red (red base), Generation Red glitter (glitter on red base). Stamped using BS IP S8 using Black Konad special polish and Nicole by OPI Positive Energy.

My giveaway is here. This image plate as well as the rest of the Beautiful Scratchers plates and polishes can be seen here. I again acknowledge and thank Beautiful Scratchers for donating this as a prize for my giveaway!

Thanks for looking!

Giveaway!

2011-11-29T14:05:00.015-05:00

**GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

Here's another mani I did using Red Angel plates which are part of my current giveaway, the details are below!

Base is OPI Don't Know...Beets Me, two coats.

Stamped using Konad white special polish using RA-102.

Added a few black dots using Konad black special polish.

Then a swipe of random silver glitter.

Lastly, a few more black dots and topcoated with SV.

Now onto the giveaway**! There is only one prize for this giveaway which looks like this:

A 21 piece set of Red Angel image plates, which can be seen here; five image plates (S2, S3, S6, S7 and S8) graciously donated by Beautiful Scratchers as seen here (my next post will include an unposted mani I did using only these plates at Halloween) and 11 polishes which are China Glaze Snow Globe, Glittering Garland, Twinkle Lights and Ring in the Red (from the 2011 Let It Snow Collection); China Glaze Ick-A-Bod-y, Mummy May I, and Zombie Zest (from the 2010 Halloween Collex in case you missed out), and lastly, Sally Hansen Glow in the Dark, Orange Pumpkin, Goulish Green and Black Cat....love these for the names if nothing else!

Here's the 'rules' of the giveaway, which are simple. Please read in full before you post your comment, which is your entry ballot and provide all info in one comment reply!

The rules are as follows:

1. You MUST be a follower of my blog under Google Friends Connect. In the comments section below, outline your GFC follower name and our email address that you may be reached for one entry.

2. If you post about the giveaway or add it to a sidebar on your blog, or tweet about it, or post the giveaway on your Facebook, provide link in the comment section and get another entry for each.

3. If you add Canadian Nail Fanatic (CNF) to your blog roll, provide the link and get another entry.

4. That's it! The giveaway will be open until Wednesday, December 21st. I will tally the info and contact the winner shortly thereafter; the winner will have 72 hours to respond or another entry will be chosen (I've increased the hours from 48 to 72 as I'm sure that time of year will be hectic and I don't want you to miss out if you happen to win!!).

5. The giveaway is open internationally and there is only one prize.

6. Good luck!

**Please note that I paid the retail price for the Red Angel plates, which are new. The Beautiful Scratchers plates being offered in this giveaway are new and were donated by them specifically for a prize for this blog, which is graciously acknowledged and appreciated. I do have my own separate set of these image plates that were paid in full by me. All of the polishes offered for this giveaway were bought new by me specifically for this giveaway. Please note that I will mail the prize postage prepaid to the winner, take pictures at the post office, keep the postage receipt/customs declaration and pack it well for travel; however, I cannot be held responsible for undelivered or lost packages, broken polishes in transit or any associated custom fees to enter your country. I have no affiliation with Red Angel, Beautiful Scratchers, China Glaze or Sally Hansen.

Illamasqua Now Sold in Canada!

2011-11-28T10:25:00.006-05:00

Over the weekend, I went to Sephora at Yorkdale Mall to pick up the new nails inc. duos with the flakies (Windham, Donmar and Old Vic collections) and while I was browsing the store, low and behold, they had Illamasqua nail polish in stock. While I've been lucky enough to swap for a few of them, this was the first time I ever seen them offered for sale in a retail store so I was awfully surprised to see them sitting there. While they didn't have the newly released colours from the Theatre of the Nameless collection, or Raindrops either, it seems like they had a good selection of what I assume is their core line: Milf, DWS, Viridian, Collide, Phallic, Jo'mina etc. I picked up Illamasqua Viridian, this is the mani I came up with.

I used my new plates from Red Angel, this is IP RA-102.

Stamped using Konad white special polish; used some silver glitter for a bit of interest.

Here's Viridian before stamping; two coats.

I was at Sephora at Eaton's Centre in August and didn't see any Illamasqua's sold in store then; not sure if they are in stock there now or just at Yorkdale. They retail for $18.

Lastly, I knew my LAST post said that my NEXT post would be my giveaway; but I'm still getting everything together (really just trying to decide what polishes to include!) so my giveaway should be announced any time now! Sorry for the delay. Edit: Here's the link to my giveaway, up now!

Thanks for looking!

Edit: If you are checking out my blog from Illamasqua's Facebook site, thank you for stopping by! I seen shortly after I posted that I was having all these hits from Facebook and seen that Illamasqua had put my post on their wall!

New Red Angel Plates!

2011-11-23T13:00:00.001-05:00

I was surfing through Amazon a couple weeks ago and stumbled upon Red Angel stamping plates here. While I loved the designs, their website indicated that they only ship to the US. I emailed them anyway and asked them if they would ship internationally but they emailed me back indicated that they only ship to the US.

The thought that new image plates existed and I couldn't get them was driving me crazy!!! Not to be defeated, I emailed them again, begging them (I think the word I used in my email was grovelling!) to ship internationally being the nail fanatic that I am! I happened to mention that I wanted two sets of image plates, one for moi and the other for a giveaway for my blog. They emailed me back, thanking for my interest in their image plates and that they had set up an international shipping option just for me! (Well, I'm sure it was for me and everyyyyonnnnneeeee else that I knew who would will want to order them!). So international gals, if you are ordering these plates, you have me to thank! They also asked for some pix of my stamping for their Amazon site, so you may see my nails up there...they have my permission! I felt it was the least I could do after they relented and decided to ship to me...and anyone else who is international!

My plates arrived on Monday and since then, I've done a little sampling. Here's a couple manis I came up with.

While I would generally post a few pix of the mani in progress, I think this post is going to be long enough! The base colours used were OPI Bride's Bouquet, WnW Black Creme and OPI Don't Know...Beets Me. Stamped using Konad white and black special polishes using IP RA -13 and RA-109.

I did this mani last night using the Red Angels plates. I call this Dancing Fairies in The Grass! (I wish there were two more fairy images so there'd be one for each finger! Could probably take from other series plates for the next time.)

Base is OPI Sapphires in the Snow, tips are Orly Prisma Gloss Gold and Nubar Golden Glow, using image Plates RA-111, RA-112 and RA-113, stamping polish is CDN Gold Chrome.

The fairy on the pinkie finger isn't too obvious so here's another pix so you can see it does stamp well.

And a couple more images to share regarding the plates. The images are the same size as Bundle Monster as you can see here.

I guess I've been a little spoiled with A series, SdP series, H series, etc but these images don't quite fit length wise on my nails nor width on my thumb (but I kinda posed my thumb so you can't tell!)as you can see here. But they are a smidgen bigger than Konad full size images.

Here's a pix comparing all the plates for size wise.

The plates starting from left are SdP, Bundle Monster, Red Angel, Konad and one from H series.

This image, left to right, shows SdP, Bundle Monster and Red Angel.

So far, I've probably sampled 10 image plates and haven't had an issue with any of the images. Good news too...the plastic is a breeze to peel off! You may recognize some of the images from other image plates but there are plenty of new designs for old die hard stamping addicts like me! After I did some sampling, I emailed them yesterday with a couple suggestions if they were to consider doing any more image plates. One was to make the full size images slightly larger as I did have issue getting them to fit on my nail (and I have small nails both in width and length). The second was to re-evaluate their international shipping rates for anyone who may be wanting to order. They emailed me back promptly, thanking me for the suggestions, adding that they will consider both of these suggestions at an upcoming company meeting.

Red Angel image plates are available via Amazon here. A 21 set of image plates retail for $11.99 USD and if you live in the US, shipping is $3.99. (I seriously cannot believe that 21 plates are available for $16!) If you are international like me, even paying the $15.99 shipping rate, the total is still close to the same price of Bundle Monster image plates when you tally in shipping, or less than the price of 5 (or less) Konad plates. This set is fantastic if you want to see if you want to start stamping as the initial investment isn't that high if you decide that ultimately stamping isn't your thing, or fantastic for someone like me who's always on the lookout for new stamping plates-it's an all around win-win situation for anyone interested in stamping!

I seem to have mentioned that I bought a second set of plates** for a giveaway.....watch my next post for the details!

Thanks for looking!

**Please note that I paid the retail price for both sets of these plates including those being offered in CNF's giveaway. While I did a lot of grovelling to get them, I'm not affiliated with Red Angel in any manner!

Edit: January 18, 2012: I've been contacted and told that that Red Angel plates are no longer shipping internationally. I went online to Amazon and seen that the international shipping option was removed; I also email them and unfortunately, they confirm that they are no longer shipping internationally.

This is terrible news if you happen to live outside of USA...I've also read that since the initial release of the plates, the fairy wings have been removed off the fairies, some of the plate designs have changed and heard about stamping issues with some plates.

I sure hope for all of us stampers that they get their issues sorted out regarding the plates....so we can hopefully one day see some new designs from them (I'm guessing from their FB page that they planned on doing this at least at some point because new plate designs are alluded to) and start shipping internationally again!

I'll update the post if there are any change of events I become aware of!

Revlon Modern Grace

2011-11-22T11:06:00.001-05:00

By sheer fluke, the mani I did after wearing Orly Cashmere Cardigan was Revlon Modern Grace. I try not to wear the same colour one day after the next, but for some reason, my eye was drawn to Modern Grace, which happened to be sitting at my table as I had just bought it over the weekend. By gosh, I think I *may* have stumbled upon dupes. This is Revlon Modern Grace.

Below is Orly Cashmere Cardigan. It's obvious that they aren't dupes, not by these pix as Cashmere Cardigan obviously looks lighter. But close.

Because I just posted Orly Cashmere Cardigan, you can compare by scrolling down to see how close they are. I haven't compared these polishes on nails side by side or even bottles beside one another, but it sure looks like they are close! Close but not exact. Cashmere Cardigan is lighter. Come to think about it, I'd say this also looks mighty close to OPI Parlez Vous OPI or maybe even Zoya Caitlyn, which I have too. (I'm not going to do a comparison post as I know there are others out there in the blogesphere who can do this soooo much better than I, who have a more keen eye for comparisons, shade variation, better photo comparisons etc etc...I'm looking at you KarenD!!) But this is good news for anyone who may have missed out on Cashmere Cardigan a few years ago....no need to search for it as Revlon Modern Grace is on the shelves now (at least in my area!).

Anyway, here is the mani I came up with using Revlon Modern Grace.

Stamped using Konad white special polish using fauxnad SdP D-17.

Added dots to the flower centres using Konad black special polish.

Then a couple whirls of random silver using striping pen. This is one of those times that less is more and I probably should have left the mani alone and not added the dots and glitter.

I really need to be more on the ball about buying dupes, or rather, close to's! My stash is overflowing and I don't think I need a couple polishes that are thisssss close...never mind potentially having 4 bottles thisssss close!

Thanks for looking!

Sparkly Tips and Stamping

2011-11-21T10:58:00.011-05:00

I recently seen a pix of a funky french tipped glitter kinda mani here and really liked it so thought I would give it a try. I didn't want to copy the mani 100% so decided to use silver and then added stamping. Here's what I came up with.

Started with two coats of Orly Cashmere Cardigan.

Put a thin layer of Sally Hansen Celeb City on the tips (like I was french tipping them). Right below the line of Celeb City, I added Orly Tiara. On top of this, added OPI Servin' Up Sparkle.

Then stamped with Konad special polish in Royal Purple using XL E.

Lastly, added a few pieces of loose glitter, Glam and Glitz, Magic Potion 146 which is holographic hex glitter, in the centres of the flowers as well as here and there on the tips. Lastly, topped with a coat of SV.

While I didn't capture the look of the mani that I had seen posted, it was good practise and I'm sure I'll be trying something like this again at some point as I think the mani in the post is so cool!

Thanks for looking!

Who Needs Stamping...

2011-11-16T18:27:00.015-05:00

...with polish this unique!!

No stamping on today's mani.....I was the lucky recipient of Lynnderella Connect the Dots, thanks to a swap recently. This is the mani I came up with.

Lynnderella polishes were created by the uber talented Lynnderella (Lynn) and have been seen on blogs fairly often recently as they are pretty awesome polishes, but oh, so elusive. Until recently, unless you were in the inner circle of Lynnderella and fortunate enough to be the recipient of one of her custom made polishes, you were pretty much out of luck in obtaining any of these creative, gorgeous, super unique polishes. However, recently she started selling them online and you can buy the polishes via her blog. Unfortunately, her e-store is only available for very brief periods of time until she closes her doors until the next sale....on top of this, delivery is not available outside of USA. Unless you are lucky enough to swap like me, or be part of a group order organized by a gal in US, unfortunately, these aren't that readily available for international sales. (There's also a five bottle minimum order).

This is Sally Hansen The Real Teal with a coat of Connect the Dots on top. I can't really say its a 'coat' of CtD as I had to kinda blob on the glitter ....there is a little bit of learning curve to applying the polish and I'm not sure if I've mastered it yet or not! But I absolutely adore this polish.....it is truly unique and there is nothing like it that I know of in my little part of the world. Every finger is different and little pieces of art...so cool!

Here is Sally Hansen The Real Teal. This is gorgeous all on its own. Click to enlarge to see the beautiful shimmer.

The first couple of times that Lynnderella opened her estore, I missed out on any part of a group order or anything. Then I was lucky enough to swap for a bottle and it arrived last week. About a week or so ago, her estore opened briefly and I was able to jump on part of a grouporder so I have a few more of these beautiful polishes on the way. Lucky for us international girls, there is now an etailer, Llarowe, who does ship worldwide that will be selling Lynnderella polishes starting December 2011. I hope to order a few more then, along with some other polishes not that readily available to me like Hits, A-England, etc.

I haven't seen a mani that I personally didn't like with Connect the Dots. It looks fantastic over top of pastels, skittles, neons...I've even seen it used as a gradient/kinda french tips and it was awesome as well. It is truly unique and I feel fortunate to own it!

Do you have any Lynnderella polishes? What's your favourite? I'd love to know your thoughts for when I (hope to) order in December!

Thanks for looking!

My Weekend Mani....

2011-11-14T12:25:00.001-05:00

This is a very simple mani I did Friday night and am still wearing it today!

It's too bad that my camera can't capture this mani well but hopefully, you get the jest of what it looks like.

Started with two coats of WetnWild Black Creme.

Stamped using SdP 6 using Nicole by OPI Give Me the 1st Dance. I think my camera has a hard time focusing on the sparkly glow of this polish.

I used this SdP 6 image plate about a month ago on this mani.

Started with two coats of Borghese Castello Blue. I have to thank my friend KarenD over at Frazzle and Aniploish for tracking down this polish for me. By the time I decided I *needed* it, it was gone from my area; however, lucky for me, KarenD kindly tracked down a bottle.

Added a coat of Faces 299. I was going for a icy look as the image on SdP 6 kinda looks like snowflakes to me.....don't know if I achieved it.

Then stamped using SdP 6. Nicole by OPI Give Me the 1st Dance is on my fingers and Nicole by OPI Positive Energy was used on the thumb. While it had a sharper stamped image, I was going for a frosty ice look but just wanted to see how it looked using the different polish.

Hope you had a great weekend; thanks for looking!

Lest We Forget

2011-11-11T11:17:00.016-05:00

Today is Remembrance Day here in Canada; Veterans Day in US. Here's the mani I'm wearing today.

Started with OPI Red by Fortune Cookie and Color Blast by Orly Reflection; two coats each. I used this red polish as I know that black stamping shows up well on it and it is slightly darker in real life more similar to the above pix; sometimes using a darker red polish, the black stamping isn't as visible.

Added full accent nail using SdP-D09 with Black Konad special polish.

Using Red Konad special polish, added three images for the poppies on accent finger; these are individual flowers found on Big SdP E in a variety of sizes; I used the second to smallest. I think its fantastic there's size options on some of these images found on some of the Big and XL plates...you can use the one that suits your nail size best or add a bunch of the same design in a variety of sizes.

Filled in the centres of the flowers on the full size nails using Black Konad special polish.

Lastly, added a coat of SV.

Please remember those who gave their lives and continue to serve so that we enjoy the freedom we have today.

Thanks for looking.

Essie Hot Coco, Layered and Stamped

2011-11-10T10:21:00.009-05:00

This post will be short...just like my nails!

Two coats of Essie Hot Coco.

Yawn. Oh, so not me. So I added one coat of Anna Sui #709.

Now we're talking! Hello holo glitter! I seriously wish my camera could do a better job of picking up what the mani looks in real life (or maybe its user error?!)...the glitter is seriously more interesting than this....*sigh*.

Stamped! Used CND Gold Chrome with fauxnad IP SdP 38.

Thanks for looking!

Lise Watier Festive Chic

2011-11-09T16:39:00.018-05:00

A couple weeks ago, I was walking through the cosmetic section at Sears and seen the new Lise Watier collection on display. It includes two polishes; Festive Chic caught my eye so I bought a bottle.

This polish is seriously gorgeous...not sure if it translates well in the pictures as the finish looks gritty versus the gorgeous shimmer that's in the polish, but gorgeous this polish is.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to stamp on it; ultimately decided upon China Glaze OMG using SdP 30. Not sure if this was the best choice, but the mani kinda looked funky cool anyway. Unfortunately, this camera lighting option reallllly gives me lobster hands lol! Thank goodness they aren't this red looking in real life!

After I had this polish about a week, I read that it was selling for $14 a bottle versus the regular $12 as the two polishes had a built in light. I never noticed this when I bought it; I checked my bottle when I got home and sure enough, it's there.

I had seen the rounded notch in the bottle when I bought it, but honestly thought it was just a way to better grip it...honestly! There's a little rubber button on the top of the lid you press in to turn it off and on.

My two cents is that I'd rather keep the $2 I paid extra for the light and put it towards my morning Timmies....the light served no purpose for me in fact, the way my polish station is set up, its more of a hindrance...this is why....

My main lighting is in front of my table; when I'm polishing the light casts a shadow on my nail (this is a pix of me faux polishing but you get the drift anyway)...hardly helping me do my nails....plus I don't know many people that polish their nails in the dark and need a light to apply it better anyway! On the plus side, I was impressed by the amount of light such a little light cast...I'll have to keep this in mind if the power goes off when I'm doing my nails....I'll keep my Lise Watier bottle at the ready to guide me to the candles!

Here's Festive Chic beside OPI La Boheme....not dupes by any means....but probably La Boheme is probably the closest polish I have to Festive Chic in my stash.

I bought my bottle at Sears but have since seen them at Shoppers Drug Mart. Retail for $14; built in flashlight included!

Thanks for looking!

China Glaze Rich and Famous

2011-11-07T01:45:00.001-05:00

I liked the way the NYX mani turned out so much, I decided to do something along those lines again, only in a different colour!

Started with a base of two coats of China Glaze Rich and Famous.

A coat of OPI Pink Me I'm Good about half way down the nail. I really need to do a full mani with Pink Me I'm Good...its gorgeous!

NYX Gold Sparkle on tips.

Stamped using Konad black special polish using fauxnad IP XL E.

Decided to add a few white dots to give it a colour pop.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend...thx for looking!

New (to me anyway!) NYX Bottles

2011-11-04T13:53:00.003-04:00

It's hard to believe that I closed my weekend place almost a month ago already...I miss it already! The very last weekend I was there, I went without the family, leaving me with a bit of free time on my hands. I remembered a post from a fellow GTA gal, nailxchange, about possibly finding the elf concealer brush (used by some gals in their polish cleanup) at Giant Tiger. I drove to both the Giant Tiger locations in Peterborough and Lindsay to see if I could track one down. (In hindsight, I'm sure this was not an economical thing to do seeing how I probably spent $25 in gas looking for a $2 cleanup tool....but I did.) Anyway, it was all for naught as I didn't find the brush at either location. But when I was driving through Lindsay, I seen a Rexall on the main drag and thought I'd see if they have anything new. I checked out all the polish displays and came across the new style of bottles in the NYX display. While I had seen these on some etailer sites, it was the first time I seen them in real life.

I picked up two colours, NYX Aqua and NYX Be Jeweled; this is the mani I came up with.

Started with one coat of NYX Aqua. Yes, one coat!

Added one coat of NYX Be Jeweled about halfway or so on my nails.

Lastly, added NYX Gold Sparkle on tips. (This is the old style bottle; I've had it for a while.)

Stamped using Black Konad polish using XL plate E.

Lastly, added some of those really tiny balls in the centres of the flowers. I bought a set with a bunch of colours from ebay a while back, super cheap.

This was the first time I've used them and they were a little tricky coaxing onto the nail as they are so tiny...and as small as they are, I found they actually stick out and get caught on clothes and towels even with a topcoat. They stick out and get caught on stuff more than rhinestones, which is pretty annoying.

Topped with coat of SV.

I did this mani on October 21st in between Halloween manis. I'm only pointing this out as you may notice that my last post, my nails aren't this long. I've actually filed them down twice since October 21st as they are just too unmanageable for me at the length posted here. The Day of the Dead mani was after filing them once about a week before then and I cut them down again last night because they seem to be growing awkward...or I filed them funny the last time, not sure! Anyway, they are now even shorter today than as in the Day of the Dead which I did November 1st. So you may see a bunch of mani's with nails at different lengths over the next little while as I post the mani's that haven't been posted yet....so you'll know why! (I'm not even sure if anyone cares about this or even notices as I can't imagine that anyone is checking out my nails that carefully, but just thought I'd explain anyway!)

Have a great weekend!

Day of the Dead Mani

2011-11-02T15:43:00.014-04:00

I was scheduling appointments in my daytimer yesterday and seen that November 2nd had a notation that it is Day of the Dead. I don't know much about Day of the Dead to be honest....all I really know is that I've seen some really cool tattoos and makeup with this theme! So I do apologize in advance if I've offended anyone if I've done something taboo by doing this mani as its not really a holiday/tradition I'm familiar with! Anyway, I thought, why not try out a Day of the Dead themed mani?...this is what I came up with.

Here's mani in progress. Colours used are OPI Bride's Bouquet (white), Misa Hanging with the Girls (yellow) and WetnWild Black Creme (black). Two coats each.

Stamped using black and white Konad special polishes using Big SdP B (middle finger; full image plate of flowers), D03 (skulls on ring and index fingers), S8 (tombstone on thumb) and H12 (skull on pinkie).

Then just added a series of dots to make flowers and dots.

Polishes used were Konad special polishes in yellow, apple green, black, blue and CND Raspberry Parfait.

Until this morning, I only had one implement to use for dotting...the end of a brush I use for cleanup. I usually make small and large dots just by adjusting the pressure when I'm applying them...well, this mani proved I have no dotting skills (!) when I needed to do more than one or a few so I went out and bought a dotting set so hopefully will have more uniform dots when and if needed! (or it could be just that I was getting tired as I started this around midnight!)

This mani took me about an hour and a half. Looking back, I have no idea why it took so long...I mean, its just a couple of stamps and a few dots!

Lastly, added a coat of SV after about 10 minutes of applying my last dot....wanted to make sure they were all dry so I had no SV drag!

Thanks for looking!

Belgrave Place

2011-11-01T14:30:00.000-04:00

This is another nails inc. polish I picked up from Sephora a while back.

nails inc. Belgrave Place, stamped with Nicole by OPI Give Me the 1st Dance using a Sdp plate (I'm sorry, I didn't jot down the number but its one of the plates on the first series released...if anyone realllyyy wants to know, comment and I'll look it up.) Below is two coats of Belgrave Place.

I had in the back of my mind that I was going to layer and stamp my nails, so I initially did an accent nail using Cover Girl Disco Dazzle.

Cover Girl Disco Dazzle looked like a polish I had picked up at a random beauty supply place...here's the two of them together...but I don't know exactly how they compare as I didn't swatch them both. If anyone has used Midie, please let me know your thoughts as they have a lot of glitter polishes and I may have to go back and pick up a few more for layering!

I liked the layer of glitter so much, I decided to add Disco Dazzle to all my nails! I loved this look....will do again for sure! This is very blingy and holo sparkle goodness!

For anyone in the GTA, Sephora Yorkdale is now carrying the core line nails inc. polishes...good news if you are looking for them and don't want to travel downtown Toronto to Eaton's Center, which was the only location previously in our area carrying the core line of nails inc. polishes. I was also by Sephora at Square One last week (picking up the new Sephora by OPI holiday polishes!!) and seen the magnetic polishes there...it was the only ones they had but if you were looking for the nail inc. magnetics and don't want to travel downtown or to Yorkdale, maybe call your local Sephora and see if they are in stock!

While I was happy to try out the stamping, I really liked the result of nails inc. Belgrave Place with the coat of Disco Dazzle without stamping best and will hold myself back from stamping it next time!

Thanks for looking!

Happy Halloween!!!

2011-10-31T11:43:00.019-04:00

The matte version of this mani is the one I'll be sporting for Halloween tonight while handing out candy to all the trick or treaters who come to my door.

Started with two coats of Misa Green with Envy.

Added one coat of Color Zone glitter (unnamed).

Decided to add french tips using Icing The Golden Age of Glitter. The last time I did them free hand, I wasn't that happy with the results (its a mani I never posted..yet!) so I decided to try taping them.

This is how they turned out. On the index finger, I crinkled the tape (and left it, not realizing it would matter) and a little bit of the glitter oozed under so its not a sharp line...I'll have to keep this in mind for the next time that the tape has be flat on the whole surface.

I didn't SV my tips at this point; just used the small end of the double stamper to place the stamping images. Used Konad black special polish. This is my left hand.

This is the right (this pix already has SV topcoat on).

After waiting a few minutes, added a coat of SV to the left hand. A great example of how black stamping polish *pops* with topcoat if you check it against the pix of the same hand above.

Used IP's D03 (skull, frankenstein face, large spider), BM209 (witches hat), T28 (ghost, cat, pumpkin) and A37 (fang lips).

I did this mani Saturday night; last night, I added a coat of Essie Matte About You.

Have a great Halloween...be safe if you're out with the Trick or Treaters...and don't eat too much candy if you're at home like me handing it out!

Thanks for looking!

Playing Around with GITD Polish

2011-10-30T00:18:00.013-04:00

Another Halloween mani, this time with Glow in the Dark Polish.

Here's mani in progress. Started with two coats of OPI Bride's Bouquet.

Added two coats of Sally Hansen New Lengths Glow in the Dark.

In the dark.

Stamped using Konad black special polish. This is my left hand.

This is my right.

And how they look with the lights out.

Added a couple more accent stamps; this was the finished mani.

Image plates used were T23 (small pumpkin, spider web with dangling spiders), S8 (pumpkin, spider web, tombstone and ghosts), T29 (witch, cat and Happy Halloween), and BM 224 (haunted house).

My youngest son got a kick out of these glowing fingers...and of course, my DD has asked for a mani along these lines a Halloween party she's attending.

Hope you're having a great weekend...thanks for looking!

Unusual Halloween Mani

2011-10-28T07:08:00.005-04:00

I had been wanting to do a mani using a spider web as a french tip; this is what I came up with a couple nights ago.

Hmmmm....still kinda on the fence about this one to be honest! Here's mani in progress. Started with three coats of OPI Pink-ing of You.

Then stamped tips with Konad black special polish using IP H25.

Of course, my french tip stamping skills alluded me once again, so right from the get-go the mani was a fail to me....I tell ya, I'm pretty much at the point that I'm going to throw out every french tip plate I own if I can't conquer this! I *think* my problem is that I try too hard to line it up and think too much about positioning it....here's my right hand (stamped with my left hand....while not 100% still wayyyy better than the other...why? ) For the life of me, I can't grasp this! My middle finger is the very tip only of the image...I had stamped the web on one finger and there was still some web left on the stamper so I put it on this finger.

At this point, way too much time spent on the mani and far too late at night to start again, so went ahead and added spiders from T29.

Not feeling this at all. Nothing makes sense to me about this mani at this point. So I did what I thought best to possibly save the mani ....added holo glitter polish...the cure to end all mani curses! A coat of Cover Girl Goddess still sitting at my mani station....and even this was a fail as I applied too thick of a coat....just having one of those days, I guess :(

While the end result was OK, I still wasn't terribly excited about this. I even thought about not posting but then I thought manis all can't be good ones; the blog is about keeping track of my manis, fails or not, and perhaps someone may get some inspiration for some mani similar to this that may be a win! I think in theory, the mani has possibilities, its just the execution failed! lol! Oh well, like I say, just another reason to change my mani...which I already did as this was what I did on Tuesday night.

Thanks for looking!

Jack-o'-Lantern Nails

2011-10-26T13:48:00.012-04:00

Another Halloween mani I came up with recently.

Started with two coats of OPI Osaka To Me Orange.

To add a little shimmer interest, topped with one coat of Nicole by OPI Fresh Squeezed.

Added the pumpkin faces using image plates S8, D03, and A37 as well as the scary shark face (well, looks like shark to me!) from A37 on the thumb nail. This image only has one eye and I transferred the eye from the mirror image on the same plate to give the thumb image two eyes (hopefully this makes sense!!); stamped using Konad black special polish.

Added a little greenery using the leaves on IP T41 with Konad special polishes in Green and Apple Green.

Lastly, added some eyeballs for the faces using Konad special polishes in white, yellow and red (these work well for dotting as they are so heavily pigmented).

My DD thought this was the bomb and I ended up doing this mani on her nails as well.

What do you think....do you think its the bomb...or did it bomb? lol! I wore this mani last weekend and while it's probably more age appropriate for my DD, I had a lot of fun wearing it! I think I may do something along these lines for Halloween night when handing out candy as I'm sure the kids trick or treating can relate!

Thanks for looking!

Another Spider Mani with New Plates!

2011-10-25T13:09:00.013-04:00

Kudos to all the fabulous bloggers who have been doing some amazing Halloween nail art! It's been great to see so many creative Halloween mani's out there. This is a mani I came up with recently (probably not that terribly creative! lol)

I wanted to come up with a Halloween mani that wasn't the traditional orange, purple, green, black, etc. that I have already done (just not posted the mani's yet) so started with a base of two coats of CND Flashpoint.

Stamped using IP T43 with Konad black special polish. (You may see that the dangling spider is missing from my thumb nail...it didn't stamp clearly so I removed it with acetone and a brush.).

Then I thought I'd try my hand at stamping a french tip to cover up the tips of my nails....my first choice would have been a spider web french tip (which I still want to do), but instead I seen my new Essence plates sitting out on my nail station so decided to give them a try. I was super lucky enough to these in a amazing swap I had with Ivana Thinks Pink. So this is how my french tipped stamping turned out.

Hmmmm, not so good :( As you can see, a couple of them were a super nail fail. My stamping nail nemeses is doing french tips - I can N E V E R get them to line up. So of course, I had to hide the tip stamping and decided to add a spider here and there using Beautiful Scratchers IP S8 using Nicole by OPI Positive Energy.

(Here's the Essence plate I just received....so excited to have these as part of my stash...thanks Ivana!!!)

And to be honest, in real life, the nail fail wasn't so obvious - its not like my mani's is blown up in macro for everyone to see like on the blog post! Plus, at the end of the day, its just polish and a bit of time and more reason to do your nails the next day!

Thanks for looking!

Don't Look If Spiders Creep You Out!

2011-10-22T19:35:00.001-04:00

Here's my first Halloween mani this year.

Two coats of my new favourite orange for season...Revlon Alluring Amber. I picked this up in the same display as Royal Cloak. Perfect orange for Halloween.

A quick coat of Color Zone glitter (found in a three pack at local Winners) added as an experiment in my ongoing quest in doing layering mani's with stamping. I could easily wear this any day; really liking it even without stamping.

This is what the set looks like. While I bought this in Peterborough a couple weeks ago; I have seen them around the GTA in at least two Winners near me; they also have a couple different sets of three; one with a glow in the dark polish; the other a pink and purple with a hearts in clear glitter.

And a close up of the glitter.

Stamped using Konad black special polish using fauxnad IP S8. This plate is one of the new plates available at Beautiful Scratchers.

The next day before I took the mani off, added a coat of Essie Matte About You. I think this is my favourite....love matte glitter!

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend; thanks for looking!

Birthday Giveaway Winners Revealed!

2011-10-21T11:50:00.001-04:00

Thank you to everyone who entered my Birthday Giveaway...and thank you to everyone who has waited oh so patiently for the results (or maybe impatiently and were just to polite to say anything!! lol) The votes were reviewed, tabulated, and then entered into the appropriate giveaway of your choice...or choices as in the case of a lot of gals.

Here's the results: Giveaway #1 (Nicole by OPI - Biebers) - Precious Pearl

Giveway #2 (Icing Sheen Polishes) - Kejal

Giveway #3 (LA Girls Glitter Addict) - Riikka

Giveway #4 (Oops! Jealous Polishes) - Olivia Nobody

Giveway #5 (Oops! Jealous Polishes) - Oana

Congrats!!!! Emails have been sent out and those who had their names drawn will have 48 hours to reply or another draw will occur for that applicable number(s).

Thanks too for everyone who took the time to comment....this was an easy extra vote and it was interesting to see that only about 50% added a comment...and some gals really put some thought into it....I thank you for taking the time to do this if you did. There were a lot of requests for posts and whatnot along with suggestions; I'll probably address in a future post.

And here's a mani I did recently....while I've been chomping at the bit to start Halloween mani's, I had a funeral visitation to attend recently and couldn't very well go with ghosts and goblins on my nails, but my next mani should be Halloween related (I hope!). In real life, the flaky isn't so obvious and this was actually pretty subdued; it just looks so glowy because of the intentional angle of my hand pose.

Started with two coats of SpaRitual Spirit Child.

And ended with a coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure.

Another look.

Congrats again to Precious Pearl, Kejal, Riikka, Olivia Nobody and Oana!!!

And as always, here's my super sophisticated selection process!

*for some reason, I can't get it to load, so will edit post or repost another time but don't want to delay any more on posting this...so at this point, you'll just have to trust that those were the names drawn!*

Edit: October 24, 2011: Unfortunately, I did not hear back from Riikka and its been well over 48 hours and she hasn't replied to my email; I hope she's doing something fabulous like being on holiday to miss out on the prize! Anyway, I did double check I sent email to the address she had requested and I had, so the bad news for Riikka is I had to draw another name for Prize 3; the good news is that Lulu (@ greeklulu) has had her name drawn and will have 48 hours to reply. The other 4 gals contacted me within the 48 hours as required.

Welcome if you are a new follower-I had a few of you start to following after the giveway ended so thanks for checking out my blog! Please don't be disappointed if you didn't enter this giveaway....another one is in the works thanks to a generous etailer! Details to follow soon!

Thanks for looking!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

2011-10-12T13:42:00.024-04:00

Well, it's Wednesday...while I don't participate often by having pink mani's on Wednesday, I thought that I could detract from doing fall and Thanksgiving manis...(and before I go full force into Halloween!!!) for a very worthwhile cause and do a Breast Cancer Awareness mani as October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Here's mani is progress; started with three coats of OPI Pink-ing of You.

Then stamped using fauxnad D08 (this is the middle image that also includes Michael Jackson's feet; I just didn't polish or scrape that portion of the plate). I can't recall any other ribbon available like this on image plates (I know Sdp plates has a similar ribbon, which I have, but it's not exactly the same and I prefer this ribbon to the other plate); so let's hope that Konad or someone else will do a ribbon stamp (and in different sizes) as there are so many themes that I could think of to use it. Until then, at least this stamp is available. D Series plates can be obtained from Chez Delaney.

I actually didn't do too bad of a job of lining the image up but the middle finger was slightly off so decided to do a second stamp beside it to fill in the gap. The stamping polish I used is from Beautiful Scratchers. I have a sample bottle from when the colour was being developed but believe the colour is Metallic Ice Pink.

Lastly, added a few random dots using CND Raspberry Parfait and OPI Bride's Bouquet.

This pix was taken the next morning in daylight...only shown as you see the stamping a little better.

I don't think I need to go into great details why its necessary to promote the need for Breast Cancer Awareness as I'm sure we all know of at least one person who is or has battled this disease. If you need more information, please go to the Canadian Cancer Society or browse the internet for more information in your area.

Last but not least, I should soon have the post ready that will announce those who had their names drawn for my Birthday Giveaway. I'm terribly sorry that it has taken this long and wish I had a better excuse other than life got in the way but that's the case. Between working incredibly long hours, dealing with the family, closing my weekend place and everything else in between that goes along with life, I just haven't had as much time as I wanted to tabulate everything...but I will do soon!

Thanks for your patience...and thanks for looking!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-10-10T12:41:00.011-04:00

This is the long Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada and this is the mani I've been wearing all weekend.

The base colours used were Essie Barbuda Banana layered with one coat of Savvy Femme Couture Banarama (yellow nails); D2W Red Chic 2 Volcanic Lava layer with one coat of Savvy Femme Couture Orange You Happy (orange) and Miss B Rainbow unnamed brown colour.

I searched my plate stash and couldn't believe that there are no turkey image plates so during the week, I sourced all my local supply places and finally, at one store, found a couple of old packs of water decals. Stamped with Konad special polishes in Cool Red, Deep Jungle, Pastel Orange and Yellow using SdP D20 (maple leaves), fauxnad F (other leaves) and T41 (pumpkin and leave swirl above the turkey) image plates along with the water decals.

I've been having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend...the weather all weekend has been absolutely beautiful. I had my Thanksgiving turkey dinner on Saturday as we are in the process of closing up our weekend place for the season so wanted to have Sunday and Monday free to do the things we need to do (not that we want to do it because the weather has been so awesome!). Both my parents and my in laws joined us for dinner and everyone seemed to have a wonderful time.

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians....and hopefully you will enjoy this mani even if you aren't celebrating!

Sampling My Franken!

2011-10-06T07:05:00.004-04:00

I frankened a stamping polish!

I've been thinking about manis I have kinda tucked in the back of my head and was looking for a stamping polish that had the glow of Nicole by OPI Give Me the 1st Dance, but a darker, more charcoal colour. I couldn't think of polish in my stash that had the look I was wanting (maybe Chanel Graphite, but do you really want to be doing a whole lot of stamping with a $30 bottle of polish? And speaking of Graphite..I'll have to check my bottle to see if I accidentally duped it...hmmmm.....) So anyway, I decided to attempt a franken. It's in the bottle I'm holding in the pix below.

I already knew I liked the sparkle of the stamping from Nicole by OPI Give Me the 1st Dance and knew it stamped well, so poured about a third of a bottle into an empty one. Then added WnW Black Creme a few drops at a time until I got the desired colour I was looking for. Voila! A franken stamping polish is born! I was pretty happy with the results. And while I was at it, I decided to attempt a red version....my first attempt looks a tad darker than I'm wanting, more raspberry than red at this point, so its still a work in progress. I bought more polishes to use for frankening to see what else I can come up with....also switched the silver base to SH Celeb City as it has the same glowy sparkle but a fraction of the price....it doesn't stamp quite as well as Nicole by OPI, but the results are decent enough...especially when you're only wearing your mani for a day or two!

Because I spent half most of my free time making the frankens, I quickly did this mani to test drive my stamping polish. Started with base coat of OPI DC Charged Up Cherry; two coats.

Stamped using Big SdP C with my charcoal franken (I'll call it Franken #1 as I'm not terribly creative!). Its a plate I've used before but was mainly just wanting to do a mani quickly to see how the franken looked for stamping.

Lastly, jazzed it up a bit with some dots using Konad black special polish.

The next morning at the crack of dawn, I took this pix. This is pretty much how it looks IRL. I love how sparkly and glowy the stamping polish is....can't wait to use it again!

I know this is pretty simplistic compared to the beautiful polishes that more serious frankeners come up with, but it seems like it will be perfect for what I have in mind for stamping...and I hope I can replicate the glowy results in other colours!

Thanks for looking!

China Glaze Velvet Bow from 2011 Let It Snow Collection

2011-10-04T22:00:00.000-04:00

I have a swap pal in the Netherlands...we're in the middle of getting polishes together for our 4th swap. She messaged me a week or so ago saying she's been looking for a classy looking brown/red polish...not to lean too red or too brown. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of these colours is my stash as I'm just not a fan of these dark, vampy colours on me....I made a couple suggestions like Essie Mack and Essie Masquerade Belle. Then I remembered I just picked up the China Glaze Let it Snow Collex and thought one of the polishes from it, Velvet Bow, may fit what she's looking for so I swatched it for her.

While this is appropriate for the fall weather we've been having, this isn't a colour I wear on a regular basis, especially on its own, so I started looking through my stash to see what I could layer it with....then I remembered picking up the CND 2011 Fall/Winter set that included 24K Sparkle and thought it may funky up Velvet Bow at bit. This is one coat.

It still looked kinda dark so I decided to stamp over top of it...and this is more my style of what I would wear if I had to wear a dark vampy colour!

Used CND Gold Chrome polish for stamping using fauxnad IP's SdP B10 (trailing rose and french tip roses) and SdP D19 (single rose on pinky and index). I funkied it up (is funkied a word? lol!) by placing the rose image upside down and right side up....I think if I was to redo this, I would place all images right side up like the thumb but don't mind how this looks at all. I shortened my nails recently and filed them more square than I usually do as I'm wanting to try some more funky french mani's so did a french tip with a band of roses on IP SdP B10 to practise my french tipped placement.

I so adore the old English roses feel of the cascading of the leaves on the image on the thumb. This pix you also get a better look at how the CND 24K Sparkle looks as it doesn't seem terribly noticeable in some of these pix. I wonder what it looks like on lighter colours? (Plots another mani!)

Do you think China Glaze Velvet Bow fits the description of a classy brown/red, not leaning too red or brown? If not, do you have another suggestion for my swap pal? Nothing too htf as I have to go searching for it!

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and thanks too for looking!

PS: I haven't forgotten that my Birthday Giveaway has ended....I've been busy verifying the number of eligible votes and everything else that goes along with hosting a give way and will announce the results soon!

More Fall Nails

2011-10-03T13:08:00.014-04:00

This is what my corner of the world looks like now....the leaves are in full colour almost everywhere you go!

I enjoy this time of year....nothing I like better than going for a long drive with the roof down looking at the awesome colour display Mother Nature gives us this time of year. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible over the weekend...when it was sunny, it was really windy and when there was no wind, it was overcast and raining...but hopefully the leaves will stay around a couple more weeks to see the beautiful fall display.

Base colours used starting from thumb and going left to right are: Optic Lusion Pango Charms, Optic Lusion Skipper Dazzler, Sally Hansen Bronze Ruby, Dare2Wear Red Chic 2 Volcanic Lava, and Nubar Arencia.

Unfortunately, unless you've been collecting polishes for a while, I'm surmising these are pretty hard to find (with the exception of the Nubar), unless you stumble across them at a dusty like I did, or swap for them.

Stamped with CND Gold Chrome using fauxnad IP's HB 21, and SdP 14.

While this looked nice enough, I thought it was lacking something, so added a coat of CND Gold Sparkling topcoat which gave the mani just a hint of holo glitter. It's very faint in the pix and maybe next time, I'll use a second coat.

I know from reading some blogs out there that I'm not the only one who enjoys this time of year. Its a toss up to me between fall and spring which season I like best...I love the fall colours but always look at spring as a time for new beginnings....and summer means swimming, boating and other activities I love to do (just not a fan of the excessive heat some days)and winter...well, I really love the scenery after a snowfall (just don't like to drive in it!). I guess I like each season a little for different reasons but I do think fall is probably the best all around for me! Or maybe spring...or....

How do you like fall?

Minnie Mouse

2011-10-01T07:30:00.001-04:00

I've had the idea of this mani in my mind for a while now...along with a lot of other ones!....but sometimes I just have to be in the mood for a certain mani....sometimes its just a matter that I don't have much time to put what I'm thinking about together (actually, this happens more often than not!) or my nails aren't long enough....or they are too long....or I want to wear holo but it's not calling for sunshine....sometimes I have a work function that dictates more tame nails versus whimsical or colourful (although I am pretty lucky that I can pretty much wear anything 99.9% of the time).....in any event, I decided to put together a Minnie Mouse themed mani a couple nights ago and this is what I came up with.

Base colours used are WetnWild Black Creme (1 coat), OPI Red My Fortunate Cookie (red-2 coats) and OPI Kiss on the Chic (pale pink-4 or 5 coats; I lost track!). While I was looking for the pale blush hint of pink for this mani, if I had have known it would take so many coats to be opaque, I would have picked another polish or put a base of a nude neutral on for underwears....and in hindsight after seeing the end result, I would have chosen a white base on these fingers just to keep it with three colours versus four...oh, well...there's always next time!

Stamped using Konad white and black special polishes using IP's SdP 16 (Minnie Mouse face), XL F (flowers in variety of sizes) and CG 06 (full length Minnie).

Added a few dots using Konad white, black and red special polishes. I was pleasantly surprised that the red dot showed up so well on the black base. I'm really digging the look of the nails with red and black bases...the bold look of the red, black and white together...I'm sure will be used for another mani in the future!

As some of the dots were pretty heavy, I waited about 15 minutes to allow them to dry before topping the mani off with a coat of SV as I didn't want to have SV drag. Nothing more disappointing than having polish drag on your newly finished mani because of this...unfortunately, I've been there many times :(

I'm not sure if you can tell from these last two pix, but topping the mani off with a top coat really makes the stamping *pop* (just look at the two Minnie faces on each pix to see the difference with and without SV) as well as smooths out the stamping image. Topcoat also makes the image stamping last longer...I am only pointing this out in case you don't already top your stamping as I never when I first started out!

Tonight at midnight is the end of my current giveaway.....if you have not already checked it out and want to, please do so here!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend....and thx for dropping by!

Are White and Skittles OK After Labour Day?

2011-09-29T16:00:00.002-04:00

After the last 3...or is it 4 or 5? dark manis, I thought I had better break out some brighter colours...and colourful this is!

Starting at the thumb and going left to right, colours used are: OPI Purple with a Purpose, Misa Hanging With the Girls, OPI No Room for the Blues, OPI Jade is the New Black, and OPI Don't Know...Beets Me! All are two coats. The Misa yellow polish, I could have done a third just to even it out a bit, but knew I was going to stamp over it so left it at two.

Not exactly neon skittles or anything and somewhat darker, subdued skittles for fall (except that yellow which looks really bright!)....but is there such a thing as subdued skittles? :) Maybe pastel skittles, but I don't think this would qualify as subdued lol! In fact, these skittles got a lot of attention when I was out and about doing errands this morning. Everyone loved it and I got a lot of compliments on it....and I think I may have turned a few gals onto stamping who were facinated with what was on my nails! It was kinda odd being at the teller in not one but two banks telling several ladies gathered around the booth the basic concept of what is stamping and how to do it, where to buy supplies locally and online, answering all their questions, giving them names to google, you tube etc etc. Not the first time I've done this either....my nails are a travelling billboard for stamping! lol!

Stamped with Konad white special polish using Big Sdp I plate.

After I did the stamping, I thought it lacked something.....and while I really wanted to stamp an image over top of this in a solid image in a colour like black, at 1:40 am when doing my nails last night (correction, this morning!) , I guess the creative side of my brain was already asleep so I ultimately decided to add a coat of Cover Girl Goddess which happen to be sitting out at my nail station.

Thank you to a awesome swap pal for introducing this great polish into my life as it's a perfect holo glitter when you want a little holo sparkle, but not too much.

I'm not sure if I'll have another post before my birthday giveaway ends on October 1st so last call to go here if you want to check it out! And thank you again to everyone who has commented on the form...I've been reading them all and your feedback is appreciated!

Thanks for looking!

Misa Working Hard or Hardly Working...Does it Work for You?

2011-09-27T13:03:00.017-04:00

I just realized that my last few mani's have been on the dark side...black sparkle, grey/black matte, dark purple sparkle and now grey. When I did some of these mani's, there was some beautiful sunny weather so it's not like the weather is dictating what's on my nails. It just seems that these are the colours that my eye is gravitating to lately so I hope these dark mani's aren't boring you!

This is the mani I did a couple nights ago. Base is Misa Working Hard or Hardly Working; two coats.

While this grey is a good neutral base for stamping and I would consider using it again, I had a hard time managing the brush for the application. I'm surmising I just got a bottle with a bad brush as I've used Misa polishes several times before and never had a problem.

Stamped with Konad black and white special polishes using IP Big SdP I.

Just to be a little different, added LA Girl Glitter Addict Uninhibited on the thumb. This is one of the polishes included as part of my current giveaway here.

Just before topping the mani off with SV, added accent dots using the black and white special polish.

Here's a rare pix of my right hand. Just thought I'd share as its a slightly different look.

So does this mani work for you? lol! It does for me!

It's getting down to the wire for my giveaway which ends on October 1st. If you're interested in checking it out, please go here!

Thanks for looking!

These Roses Smell Like Roses!

2011-09-26T11:34:00.018-04:00

You may have heard or know from your own polish purchases that Anna Sui polishes are rose scented...which is why this rose mani smells like roses! This is my #1 Anna Sui lemming, #003.

When I first opened the bottle of polish, it looked like the Anna Sui was a little on the sheer side so I first did a one coat of Sally Hansen Black Out. I was pretty pleased on how well one coat covered for a base coat and will keep this in mind instead of using the harder to get (for me), more expensive Illamasqua Boosh.

Topped with one coat of Anna Sui #003. I took a couple pix; here's one in the sunlight where you can see the tiny holographic glitter, which is more obvious if you click and enlarge pix.

This pix was taken in the shade.

Stamped with Nicole by OPI Give Me the First Dance using SdP A04. This pix is in the shade.

While I purposely chose this silver for stamping versus my regular silver stamping polish, Nicole by OPI Positive Energy as I didn't want that chrome-like finish, I had a hard time removing the polish around my cuticles as I had ran out of acetone and there was so much glitter-like particles from the stamping, so cleanup wasn't the best. I took this pix the next morning after most of the glitter had worn off.

Here's a bottle pix of Anna Sui #003...unless you are in bright sunlight, the holo isn't that obvious.

Hope you had a great weekend and thanks for looking!

Precision Twilight Zone Layered

2011-09-25T06:45:00.001-04:00

This mani is from a few weeks ago when I was yet again experimenting with layering and stamping. Started with two coats of Precision Twilight Zone. This is a dark purple polish with holographic glitter.

Bottle pix (overexposed; it really is darker in real life as you can see from pix above).

Added a coat of OPI DS Shimmer.

I wish I could edit pix or photoshop or something as I would photoshop out that hangnail. Sorry! They are always magnified in macro :(

Then experimented with some stamping using fauxand IP A43 with Konad pastel violet special polish. The thumb is double stamped as I tried another stamping polish first but now I can't remember which one. I didn't use it anyway as it was too faint.

Lastly added some dots with Konad princess special polish in Chic Blue.

Thanks for looking!

Fall Leaf Nails

2011-09-23T06:45:00.007-04:00

Have the leaves started turning in your area yet? Just this past week or so, they started to turn where I live. So fall was the inspiration for this mani.

A little different eh?

Started with a base of Orly Iron Butterfly, which was from their Matte Metallic collex. This is one coat....I was just too tired to do a second as it was 1 am when I was doing this mani, which is around my usual time for finally getting time in my day (or night?) to do them lately.

Stamped using CND chrome polishes in Copper, Silver and Gold. All of these chromes work really well for stamping.

I really liked this combination of using a matte base with the chrome polishes and have already thought of a few different manis that I could recycle this look, using other plates and themes.

Used fauxnad image plates T41, D03 (not chez d plates, another D series), fauxnad m56 (Canada flag image but just used the maple leaf portion) and SdP D-14.

Unfortunately, matte polishes tend to chip. By 10 am the next morning, I already had chips and lots of tip wear so this mani was short lived.

Hope you have a fantastic weekend. Thanks for looking!

French Tipped Stamping Attempt....Again

2011-09-21T16:15:00.018-04:00

My stamping nemesis is french tips. I can never get them 100%...or even 90% for that matter! One problem is that I feel that the french tip stamping looks nicer on square-ish shaped nails, which mine are not so they always look off. I never get them all on straight nor a uniform width. Nev-er. My nails are getting a length that I thought I'd soon should be filing them down a bit but before I do, I have enough length to again attempt a french tip without having it go halfway down my nails...one of the downfalls of having small nails. This is what I came up with.

Base coat is two coats of Quo by Orly Celestial Star. While there was good coverage with two coats, with the pix you can see some VNL which does not appear in real life.

I was iffy on the stamping right from the get go so did my thumb nail first using Big SdP H. I thought if I fail at it, then I can do something else on the rest of the nails. But I lined it up pretty good.

So proceeded on the rest of my nails. Did the pinky and middle finger. Doing OK. Onto the index finger. Of course. Index finger is too thick. *sigh*. Can never get them all matched. *sigh*. Decided on using Big SdP A as an accent on the last nail, as this image is the same design as the tip but in a full nail image.

At this point, I've gone too far to remove the design and its far too late at night to start another mani. So I thought I'd add some flower accents to be a distraction against the stamping. Used the flowers in SdP E. Silver stamping polish used is Nicole by OPI Positive Energy. The silver foil contrasted well with the blue foil. To finish it off, I added a couple swirls of holographic glitter.

The great thing about polishing and stamping is that you can try, try again.....practise makes perfect and just another excuse to change your mani!

Thanks for looking!

My New Old Favourite Pink!

2011-09-20T06:45:00.008-04:00

My latest polish finding obsession has been trying to track down the Le Chat/Dare to Wear Dollhouse Collection. I remember visiting a polish supply place in the spring that had the box sets of D2W so I thought I'd go back to see if the Dollhouse Collection was there. Unfortunately, they no longer sell the box sets but while I was there, I browsed through the polishes and seen some older Cosmo polishes. This polish caught my eye.

Cosmo One Track Mind. Absolute hotness! Love! Love! Love! this polish!! This is two coats. If you are a lover of pink, this is absolute perfection. Great application, fabulous colour and a bargain......did I already say I love this polish? Needless to say, I'm going back to buy several backups. While I have several Cosmo polishes as they have some great sheer polishes that I thought would be perfect for layering experiements, this is the first time I've actually used one. I don't think it will be too long before I try some more colours....I got several polishes in coral, pink, magenta, and red when I was there....I can only hope they are all this stunning.

I chose the pink base just to showcase a polish in my giveway as I had not yet posted pix of it and wanted to do so before my giveaway ends. While it pained me to cover this up, I did with a coat of LA Girl Glitter Addict Uninhibited.

Still pretty fabulous! I wore this combination for three days which is a long time for me lately. I didn't want to take it off....and when I did finally take it off, it was just as the day I polished my nails...no chips or fading.

There's still plenty of time to enter my latest giveaway which ends October 1st. If you haven't entered yet and would like to check it out, please go here!

Thanks for looking!

Color Club Boho Collection Spotted in My Area!

2011-09-18T12:28:00.001-04:00

I was so jealous of all the gals who went to the Cosmoprof convention. It was fabulous to see all the blog postings showing the upcoming collections including the new ones from Color Club. (Sign me up if you need a Canadian delegate!!)

Color Club is pretty reclusive in my area...only one or two places sell them or if they are finally sold as box sets at Winners wayyyy after they have been released. There is one store in my area that sells them randomly and when I went to the mall earlier this week, I stopped by to see if there was anything new. All four of the new Color Collections were there and all the shelves were fully stocked as they had just arrived at the store...I was like a kid in the candy store! I got most of the Back to Boho Collection, and all the Beyond the Mistletoe, Backstage Pass and Foiled collections. (Foiled looks like they will stamp well; have to try this soon!)

While there were some awesome polishes to choose from, I thought I'd try out Shabby Drab first and because it was calling for some sunny skies, decided to use a holo polish for stamping. Here's mani in progress. Two coats of Shabby Drab. Wonderful application and beautiful dusty colour, perfect for the cooler weather we've been having.

Stamped using China Glaze LOL using SdP 34.

I got to thinking that this looks mighty familiar....so went thru my stash and came across Zoya Caitlyn. These are the bottle shots. Verryyyy close. When I did a test swatch, Caitlyn was just ever so slightly darker.

Here's a pix the next day in sunlight. The holo is a little more visible.

It seems like there are lots of collections set to be released soon. What one are you waiting for?

Thanks for looking!

Layering and Stamping...

2011-09-16T07:00:00.002-04:00

....and far too many pictures of it! This past weekend, I thought I'd do my nails while sitting on the deck, along with reading a book in between coats. I was away for the weekend but my weekends are usually pretty busy even though I'm suppose to be at the cottage *relaxing*. It was the first time in a long time that I could just sit there, relax, enjoy the view and read. It was a perfect day; not too hot, not too cold and sunny. This is what I ended up with.

Mani in progress; two coats of Misa Glitz, Glamour, Smile for the Camera. Judging from these pix, it seems to have me the dreaded lobster hands! Oh well! I never let this bother me or discourage me from using a polish and certainly not in the case, as it is very pretty.

Then layered with one coat of OPI I Lily Love You.
;

I took a couple pix; the one above is in sunlight; the one below is in the shade.

Then stamped with SdP 38 using Konad special polish in black.

Lastly, added a few dots using Nicole by OPI Postive Energy (and if you see a few dots on my thumb in the other pix, it was because I was undecided if I was going to use the black stamping polish and I was trying out the end result look before I finished the mani!).

I took a couple pix; the one above is in sunlight; the one below is in the shade.

My weekends away are drawing to a close for another year as we usually close up the weekend after Thanksgiving (and that's in October in Canada!). I sure hope that this weekend has good relaxing on the deck, looking at the view, reading a book, doing your nails-weather again!

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

Stained Glass Mani

2011-09-14T07:03:00.005-04:00

A good friend of mine got married a month ago. Her and I got together for dinner a couple nights ago and were looking at the pictures I took at her wedding. One of them included the stained glass at the church which I thought was cool (cool enough to take a pix of it!); this is my loose interpretation of a stained glass mani.

Here's mani in progress. Started with two coats of GOSH Green Hawaii. Love the slight holo glitter in it and a good transition colour from summer to fall!

Canadian gals, even though GOSH is available here in Canada, before you all rush out to SDM to pick it up or look for it, I've never seen this colour here. I had seen it on a European blog, added it to my wish list and then swapped for it with a swap pal. Sorry :(

Stamped using Konad black special polish, using SdP 03.

Added a few jewel coloured rhinestones.

Topped with SV. After the topcoat dried, I added another layer of SV directly over the rhinestones only to act as reinforcement. These stones are on the larger size and because they are raised quite a bit, wanted to make sure they were secure and didn't have any rough edges to get caught on clothing etc as well. I was pleasantly surprised that no stones fell off while I was sleeping, nor got caught in the towel after my shower or my clothes while I dressed the next morning.

This is the stained glass pix that was my inspiration for my (very loose) adaptation of the stained glass mani. I love stained glass!

I know this is out there and probably not every one is gonna be a fan but it looks uber awesome on my nails and is not nearly as flashy or tacky as these pix appear! (Hard to believe, eh? lol!) To me, these nails would be a great accessory to a fun summer outfit....I couldn't stop staring at them all day...they are fun for a change! And yes, I did wear them to work!

Thanks for looking!

Flakies

2011-09-13T08:00:00.006-04:00

This mani was from last week when the weather in my area was kinda dreary and I was sporting some darker polishes.

Here's mani in progress. Started with two coats of Color Club Gossip Column.

Added one coat of Golden Rose No. 14. I received this from an awesome swap pal from the Netherlands. Here's a bottle view in case it's a polish you're not familiar with.

This was taken in artificial light.

I wore the mani like this until the next day. After work, I decided to matte it. But before I did, I took a picture in the natural light (and touched up my tips using Gossip Column as I had a bit of shrinkage). This is natural daylight, overcast skies as no sun was around for about 4 days!

Then I matted the mani using Essie Matte About You. This is one coat.

While I was looking at my nails, I thought, hmmm, Nicole by OPI Top of My World has blue sparkle in it....I wonder how it will change up the mani? So I added one coat of it.

The difference was subtle and I decided I liked it better matted, so again, added one coat of Essie Matte About You. There is a slight difference in the look due to the added glitter from Top of My World (which, by the way, is part of my recent giveaway here) but just slight.

It's not too often I don't stamp a mani....while I thought some type of peacock or sea-themed stamping would be cool, I left it like this. There's always next time to add some stamping!

Thanks for looking!

Fall Nails

2011-09-11T09:00:00.001-04:00

Here in Ontario, it's almost like September 1st hit and fall arrived. Well, not exactly the first, but since Sunday (which was the 4th) or so. Most of the week, up to Thursday or so, we had some dreary, cold, overcast days....put a damper on cracking open some holo polishes as simply little or no sun in these parts. While the weather picked up since then, I did this mani when the weather was dreary earlier in the week using my recently purchased Deborah Lippmann polish, Brickhouse.

Here's mani in progress. Two coats of DL Brickhouse.

Then stamped using fauxnad IP H19, with CND Gold Chrome for the stamping polish.

I should have left it like this, but decided to add a few random dots using Black Konad special polish...not loving this look so much, but too late to do anything about it...except change my polish again, which I'll do!

Have you done any fall mani's yet? I have a few planned but I'm holding out in the hope that we still have some summer weather over the next month or so!

Thanks for looking!

'Moves Like Jagger' Mani!

2011-09-09T10:55:00.024-04:00

Lately, I've been obsessed with this Maroon 5 song. The first time I heard it, I actually thought it was a little lame with that whoo-ooo-ooo-ing. The next time, I thought it was so so, then after a while, I thought it was a little catchy, but when I seen the video, I decided I loved it...especially all those clips of Jagger and the those imitating him! LOVE!

So I decided to do a 'Moves Like Jagger' tribute mani last night and this is what I came up with.

If you've seen the video, you'll understand the pinky finger as otherwise, it may not make sense...and I really wanted to add a big old floppy hat to incorporate Christina, but couldn't find one in my plate stash.

Here's mani in progress. Base coats are OPI Brides Bouquet (white-three coats), Illamasqua Boosh (black-one coat) and OPI Red My Fortune Cookie (two coats).

The very first thing I did before I did any amount of stamping or even painting my right hand was free hand the flag....and my apologies to anyone who I've offended in my bad interpretation of doing it! lol! I thought if the flag doesn't go well, I'll have to resort to starting over and doing another mani so didn't want to invest a great deal of time painting my nails if I was going to take it all off anyway if it was a fail.

This was first attempt at freehand nail art...I had a hard time putting dots on manis initially and have no idea why I thought I could freehand something, but oh well, I tried. I think my downfall was using a too large brush from the start when I did the red lines. I moved to a smaller one when I was doing the blue lines and in hindsight, should have used the smaller brush from the get go....lesson learned for next time! The red used for the flag was OPI Red My Fortune Cookie and the blue is CND Anchor Blue.

When I was done, while not terribly happy with the flag, I thought it was decent enough, especially for my first time, so decided to proceed with the rest of the mani.

First placed the main images using fauxnad D08 (Mick), fauxnad E (hot dancing girl), H12 (black stripes) and SdP D-1 (Stones logo; chez delaney D series also has a similar logo) using Konad red, black and white special polishes.

Then added a few random stars and the music skull notes from the Hot Topic image plates using the same special polishes, as well as the CND Anchor blue for random stars.

Lastly topped with coat of SV. I was really disappointed that I got SV drag plus it terribly faded the white stamping of the skull music notes on the pinky...I normally take pix of my mani's before applying SV in case of drag, but forgot this time. It was really disappointing to have SV drag as I wait a little while for the stamping polish to dry plus I had just thinned it earlier in the week...oh well, what can you do...except more of a reason to change your nails again! But I'm actually going to keep this on until I see a friend Saturday night who loves the Stones...I'm sure he'll get a kick out of it!

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

Edit: My friend loved this mani when he seen it! He frequently rocks old vintage Stones concerts tees and I was hoping he had one on when he seen it (but didn't). My DD also requested I replicate it for her nails, which I'm going to do soon!

Canadian Star

2011-09-08T14:00:00.005-04:00

Just a reminder about my Happy Birthday giveaway as posted here. Here's one of the polishes as part of the giveaway.

Nicole by OPI Canadian Star....appropriately named as it is the star of the collection (to me, anyway!). This polish is part of Giveaway Prize #1; this is the mani I came up with.

Now I want to apologize to Justin Bieber as my pix really don't do the polish justice...it is so sparkly, and glowy and wayyyyy much nicer in real life than my late night, artificial light pix show. This is three coats; even with three coats, it could use a fourth coat to cover the few remaining thin spots. When I put it on again, I'll use a purple/blurple base coat first and then a layer or two of Canadian Star on top. But I knew I'd be stamping it making the bare spots less noticeable, so left at three coats.

As I didn't want to hide the glowiness of the polish, I wanted to do some some simple stamping. My first thought was to stamp it using black or silver, but ended up using Konad violet special polish and some hibiscus images, using Konad m29 and fauxnad SdP 11.

While I think the hibiscus stamping images are very pretty....well, I can't help thinking about certain male parts when I see the images...especially the image on the thumb nail...am I crazy or just imagining things??? lol (Maybe click and enlarge the pix to see what I'm talking about). Just as BundleMonster has those female parts image plates, maybe these are the male counterparts images....or maybe it's just my inner dirty mind taking over....?

Anyhoo, before I make this all about male and female parts, ahem, I want to thank everyone who has left any comments as part of the giveaway. I've been reading them all and thank you for your opinion whether it's been good, bad or neutral. It's also been pleasantly surprising the variety on the favourite mani posts...there isn't really one post getting more favoured comments versus another...which just goes to show that everyone has their own opinion on what is cool....and what one person likes, the next may not necessarily like it...so thank you again if you took the time to comment!

And I'm truly sorry that none of you will ever be able to look at those hibiscus images without thinking about male parts again...if you didn't already and have an inner dirty mind like me!

Thanks for looking!

Pink Wednesday Mani

2011-09-07T13:23:00.013-04:00

I've yet to post a Pink Wednesday mani. (To be honest, I wore this on Sunday but just getting around to posting it today due to forgetting my camera cord yesterday...does it still count? lol!) I'm not part of the 'Wear Pink Wednesday' group; just happen to have a pink mani to post and it happens to be Wednesday....

Revlon Sweet Tart, stamped with white Konad special polish using SdP 4. Here's mani in progress.

Two coats of Revlon Sweet Tart. This is a perfect pink for me! It's everything I want in a polish; bright, great application, good brush, and cheap! While Sweet Tart is readily available at drugstores (in my area anyway), I was able to pick up this for 2/$3 at a beauty supply place in my area a while ago, that carries an assortment of random polishes. (I was also able to pick up backups of some Revlon glitters, Galaxy, Slipper, Belle and Star, at the same great deal.)

Then stamped with White Konad special polish; using SdP 4.

Dotted using unnamed Sally Hansen Instadri pastel yellow polish.

Then a few random black dots using Black Konad special polish.

If you think it looks familiar, it's pretty similar to a mani I did here a while back. Right now, these are my favourite type of mani's (if you've followed me for a while now, you'll know I've posted quite a few variances of these); the full plate image, usually with some type of flower or swirl or something that I can add a few dots too). It's mainly a time issue; they are one plate, easy to apply as fairly forgiving if you don't line them up well, and the dots jazz it up for a bit of interest. And because I did this mani about an hour before I was heading out for the night on Sunday, it fit the quick change mani criteria I needed at the time!

Thanks for looking!