Blue Matte Autism Awareness Mani

I hope you're not tired of  blue mani's yet!  After wearing a few lighter shades of blues, I decided upon a darker shade to mix it up a bit; this is what I came up with!

Started with a base of one coat of Lioele M04, which is a matte polish.

Stamped using Nicole by OPI Positive Energy using Dash 20 (ring and pinky), SdP C-11 (thumb), Big SdP F (middle), and Apipila P.01 (index). 

Topped with SV.

When I was sizing my pix while drafting this post, I hit X-Large by mistake and after looking at it for a bit, didn't mind how it looked as the larger size made it a little easier for the stamping to be seen; I'm not sure if this trend in posting larger pix will continue (I'd say it will depend on how well the cleanup is and how many hang nails I have!) but for now, I'm going to keep at this size; hopefully they aren't too offensive!

Hope you're having a great week; thanks for looking!

Light It Up Blue for Autism

I'm late in getting my post up for yesterday's World Autism Awareness Day but did do a mani for it; this is what I came up with!

Started with a base of Illamasqua Serenity.  This is one coat, no topcoat. One coat had OK coverage; I see a few thin spots but knew I would be layering it so left it as is.

Added a coat of Different Dimensions Light It Up Blue (for Autism).

Decided to add a second layer for some more sparkle interest; topped with SV.  (I had to lol at myself; I put on too much SV on the middle finger and it made my nail look like duck nails in the pix below!)

Different Dimenion Light It Up Blue (for Autism) also glows blue in the dark!

For the stamping, added images using Lilic's A01 (accent nail) and Big SdP F on the rest using royal purple Konad special polish.  I was really hoping that the puzzle pieces would show solid when I took another glow in the dark pix once it was stamped, but it looked exactly as above.  I'm going to check my glow in the dark pumpkins and see if I have one that might work that does glow blue as I think this will be cool!

Topped with SV.

Different Dimensions Light It Up Blue (for Autism) is available via Etsy here. 

April is Autism Awareness Month; I'm going to try to do my part and do a few blue mani's throughout the month in support of the cause which is near and dear to me....just in case you start seeing a lot of blue posted in the future!

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

Zoya Zuza

I have KarenD over at Frazzle and Aniploish to thank for my recently acquired Zoya polishes.  
I was really pressing my luck because I asked if she would mind a swap to include all 12 bottles in the Surf and Beach sets because they seemed to all be calling my name...nothing like asking for super huge favours, eh?  But being the awesome lady KarenD is, she said OK and shortly thereafter, they arrived at my door....this is a mani I came up with using one of them. 

Started with a base coat of Zoya Zuza, two coats.  These foily-like finishes are some of my favourite bases for stamping.  I find the coverage good and the application forgiving...which always helps!

Stamped with FUN dark blue stamping polish using Big SdP F.

Added a few dots using China Glaze 2030.  While the pix below doesn't have the finish coat of SV, the very first one does.

Thank you so much KarenD for making these polishes available to me!  I hope you like the polishes I sent you as much as I love these Zoyas!  Thank you again! 

Thanks for looking!

The Balm Hot Ticket Nail Polish

Some of my favourite colours right now are coral, orange and peach along with brights and neons in any shade....so when I seen The Balm Hot Ticket recently at PharmaPlus/Rexall, it caught my eye and I couldn't help but pick up a bottle.  Here's the mani I came up with. 

Started with a base of two coats of The Balm Hot Ticket Pink or Swim.  Not sure why its call "Pink" or Swim....I guess it sounds better than Coral or Swim.....

Stamped french tips using white Konad special stamping polish using QA13; also added additional stamping accent on ring ringer using Big SdP F.

For some colour contrast, added dots using Catrice Purposely Purple.....looking back at these pix, it seems I missed dotting the centre of one of the flowers on the accent finger.  Oops!  I wouldn't normally pair coral and orange, but didn't mind this combination.  Topped with SV.

  

The next night, I had every intention of taking this mani off, but I got sidetracked looking up my Essence plates after seeing a post about all the various ones over Adventures in Stamping on FB.  This took a little bit longer as my polish area is in a bit of disarray as I'm in the midst of moving it from one area to another and it's still being set up and organized.  Before I knew it, I there wasn't time to do whole new mani so I decided to just add a bit of stamping to extend it for another day by adding floral accent using QA16.

I isolated the single flower image and stamped it on my nails...any polish that I picked up in excess of the flower when I was stamping, I just removed before applying it to the nail.

  

Decided to add a few more random dots again using Catrice Purposely Purple.  Topped with SV.

  

Here's a bottle shot of The Balm Hot Ticket polishes....they retail for around $9 if I remember right.

 A few others that came home with me. 

Notice the peach in the centre?  Sooo into peach, coral, and orange lately....I've not wearing them everyday but they certainly are a seasonal favourite right now.  These are (l to r) Call Me Iridescent, Coral Reef-ined, and You're So Hot and Gold.  I'm not sure why the peach one is called coral...and the coral one is called pink...?

  

Thanks for looking!

Hippity Hop

This was my contribution to the Adventures in Stamping weekly challenge on April 1st which had the theme...no stamping. What a challenge! Do a mani and not stamp it? Maybe it was a joke?! Anyway, I wasn't nearly as creative as the other gals who did some awesome water marbling, freehand designs or decals, which proved fairly popular but I never thought of it to be honest...I just thought I'd do a little layering (with the thought I'd stamp it later and not just post it! ha!).

With Easter quickly approaching, I was eager to use a polish I received a couple weeks ago from Girly Bits called Hippity Hop to start some Easter mani's. Here's what I came up with.

Feel free to click to enlarge for a better view of the shimmer and glitter!

Started with a base of Ulta Cream of the Crop. This is three coats as it was pretty streaky and thin; three coats was needed to get good coverage and to even it out.

This is one coat of Girly Bits Hippity Hop over Ulta Cream of the Crop. 

While this was pretty, I was really looking for a more glitter goodness to add to this mani so added a second coat which can be seen below. Now we're talking!  For me, two coats was good...just enough to add lots of sparkle interest while clearly leaving the base polish visible.

Hippity Hop is just full of surprises!  Beautiful shimmer!  Blue, pink, purple, green AND holo glitter in  a variety of sizes.  Gorgeous!  I hope my pix do the polish justice!

Here's a bottle pix.

Hippity Hop is the creation of Pam, the founder of Girly Bits**, a fellow Canadian gal...you can check out her blog ...and order this polish... here.

I always had it in my mind that I was going to stamp this mani and thought this would be a good kickstart to some Easter mani's...but wasn't thrilled with the results. I think it was poor choice in stamping polish which wasn't very dark.

Image plates used were Big SdP A (thumb) Big SdP F (index) Big SdP A (middle) XL A (ring) and XXL Big SdP-1 (pinky) using violet pearl Konad stamping polish which was didn't stamp opaque at all...wished I had have used Sally Hansen Royal Purple Chrome or something that didn't look so wishy washy.  Thank goodness stamping failures are easily fixed with some cotton and acetone...and just another excuse to do my nails again!

Thanks for looking!

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

Autism Awareness Day Mani

Today is World Autism Awareness Day. This is the mani I came up with to support awareness for a cause that is near and dear to my heart.

Base polishes used starting from thumb are Essie Borrowed & Blue, China Glaze Bahamian Escape, OPI No Room for the Blues, Nubar Boyfriend Jeans and Nubar Dark Wash Jeans.  All two coats except No Room for the Blues which was three.

Image plates used are Big SdP F (thumb), Big SdP L (index), XL A (middle), Big SdP F (ring) and XL A (pinky) using an assortment of Konad special stamping polishes except pinky which was Sally Hansen Instadri Blue-Away as I was less than thrilled with the stamping on the ring finger.  I hoped that when I topped the stamping polish was SV that it would even it out a bit, but it never.

I've had this idea of a mani in mind for a while and had hoped that the new Lilic plate I ordered a couple weeks ago would have arrived to I could include the puzzle pieces on it as then I'd have five different images for all five fingers...but I guess its still in transit!

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

Stamping Polish Comparisons

As happy as I am with the stamping results using Konad black special polish, I'm not generally happy with the cleanup, which is rarely 100% plus it has a tendency to drag probably more than any of the other Konad polishes. I've been wondering if there are other black polishes that work well for stamping. I took note of various comments on my blog (thanks Bunny Nails for mentioning KleanColor because I never would have thought about this one!) as well as seen what some others were using for stamping polishes; either swapped or bought them and decided to see if there was an alternative to Konad.



For this comparison, I used (left to right below) black Konad special polish, KleanColor Black, Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris, FingerPaints Black Expressionism and Essence Stamping polish.



For this stamping experiment, I used FingerPaints Blue Raspberry Taffy (blue) and Misa Without Airs Orange (orange) as the base. Initially, I was planning to do an Aztec theme but when I discovered that the Misa had a shimmer, I wasn't too keen on finishing it for some reason....this is why the plates you're going to see are Aztec themed for the stamping comparison as I already had them picked out for the mani! This is two coats of FingerPaints Blue Raspberry Taffy from their Gumdrops and Lollipops collection and three of Misa Without Airs Orange. (As a side note, I did have skin staining with Blue Raspberry Taffy; if you decide to pick it up, you may wish to be careful with removal.)



Stamped images in same order; starting at thumb: black Konad special polish (Big SdP C), KleanColor Black (Big SdP C), Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris (Big SdP B), FingerPaints Black Expressionism (Big SdP F) and Essence Stamping polish (XL A)...in hindsight, I guess the fairest comparison would have been using all the same image plate...unfortunately, I didn't think of this at the time!



So you could see how dark the stamping polish is, I purposely left it without cleanup. I also wanted to apply the topcoat fairly fast to see if there was any topcoat drag so didn't want to take the time for cleanup at this point to see if they did drag while relatively wet...the only delay was the time taken to snap a couple pictures. I used SV, which is the topcoat I use 99% of the time. Pix below is with topcoat.



I didn't see any visible signs of SV drag on any nails.

The above pictures are on my left hand; on my right hand, I alternated the base colours but kept the stamping colours in the same order, just to see if there was any stamping colour difference, but the results appear to be consistent with the left (ie WnW is still faint).



These are my comments/observations generally on all the polishes I tried:

Konad: I generally buy Konad online for $6.99 as it is $10-$12 at local stores; however, its not that handy for me to buy (flea markets in other towns). Stamping results: Konad stamped crisp, clear and the darkest image of all polishes tested. Cleanup: While it seems I didn't do too bad of a job clean up in this pix and there doesn't seem to be any leftover residue of stamping polish on the skin, I know this always isn't the case from past results as sometimes no matter how much time I spend with clean it up, it stays in the small fine lines in my skin...it also took the most amount of time to clean up in this pix but at least it cleaned up well! Drag: no visible drag in this test (but prone to drag from past experience). I usually wait a bit before topping with SV to ensure stamping polish is good and dry before applying SV to hope to eliminate drag...but even then, sometimes it happens!

KleanColor: Pricing was $2 in my area for a bottle. Availability: There's only two stores that sell KC in my area; the one didn't have KC black in stock; second one did and its pretty close to my house. I'm guessing KC should be found easily online too at reasonable pricing if needed. Stamping results: Stamped dark and fairly crisp, just a smidgen less in darkness and crispness than Konad. Cleanup: No issues at all with cleanup. Drag: No issues with drag. (Additional comments: I wonder if the bottle was left with the lid off for a bit if the polish would thicken to see if stamping results would be better? Because this polish is thinner than Konad, slightly better results may be achieved if it sits on the plate momentarily to dry which sometimes helps with better stamping results. Also, would like to monitor for SV drag because it would be a great plus not to have to worry about drag when applying the topcoat. I also have to recognize that while there is missing pieces of the stamped image on my finger, this may be the design plate and not to say I wouldn't have the same results with Konad as it happens with Konad polish too...sometimes this is remedied by just scraping side to side or down to up.)

Wet n Wild: Pricing was $1.49 for a bottle. Availability: locally sold at Walmart; lots in stock. Stamping results: Stamped the faintest of all polishes; wasn't even dark. Cleanup: No issues at all. Drag: No issues with drag. Additional comments: I have to say I was surprised the most with the results...or lack thereof...from this polish as I've read so often about gals using this for stamping polish but the stamped image is not very dark at all. Terrible brush; wouldn't even want to use this polish as a base polish. Maybe if I need a black to ever franken with I might use this polish. This would be my last choice ever because its just not a good dark stamped image. In fact, if this was my go to black stamping polish...I'd pick another stamping colour.

FingerPaints: Pricing was $5.99 for a bottle (slightly less with Sally's card). Availability: locally sold at Sally's; part of core line; usually in stock. Stamping results: fairly faint for a black but passable. Cleanup; no issues at all. Drag: No issues with drag. Additional comments: Wild card here; I actually bought this as an alternative to black base for manis as I heard it was a one coater and was pleasantly surprised that it stamped OK....maybe a good polish to take on holiday as serves two purposes for base and stamping! On the thin side; maybe another polish to try again if the lid is left off to let it thicken again? The stamped image shadowed which is because its a thinner polish; may be remedied by the polish sitting a bit on the image plate before scraping which sometimes helps.

Essence Stamping Polish: I don't actually know pricing as I received this in a swap. Availability: Not available in my area at all. Stamping results: OK for a fairly thin polish; not as good as Konad or KC. Cleanup: no issues at all. Drag: no issues with drag. Additional comments: Surprised it stamped so dark given that it is a fairly thin polish. Small sized bottle. Probably will never have another bottle as not available in my area at all so probably out of luck once this bottle runs out!



Results? I guess it will depend if stamped image is more important or the cost of the stamping polish! I think that based upon stamping results, availability, pricing, quality of stamping image, etc, the best overall polish would be KleanColor Black....that being said, I'll probably stick to Konad strictly because personally, I'd rather pay the extra and order online for the crisp clear stamping results of Konad! Also, while Konad cleanup takes longer and sometimes stays visible in my clean up pix, keep in mind that this isn't nearly as visible to the human eye as people aren't looking at your nails in macro view and immediately after stamping! As I take these pix mainly late at night, by the time I shower the next morning, there's little stamping polish left visible. All this being said, and as this is the first and only time I've used KleanColor to stamp, I'm going to use it more for stamping to get a good feel with how it stamps...because its available locally and less than a third of the price of Konad...and if I can get it to stamp well and it has no drag, it may be my next go to stamping polish...unless I find something better in the next round of comparison stamping that is!

Have you tried these polishes? Are your results the same or not? Just curious.....its always interesting to hear what others think...just like one person may prefer Poshe topcoat and the next SV if you know what I mean! Do you use any of these for stamping? If not, do you have any other suggestions? There's still a few black polishes I've yet to compare being Beautiful Scratchers black, Sally Hansen Black Out, Wet n Wild Black Creme and CND Blackjack. I think Fab Ur Nails also has a black stamping polish; I'm probably going to order it too whenever I get around to placing my order as I want to try a few of those stamping polishes.

I have a few different white polishes to try as well; KleanColor white, Sally Hansen White Out, Beautiful Scratchers white, Essence stampy white polish...do you know of any others that work well and may be an alternative to Konad? I'd love to know your thoughts!

Thanks for looking!

I've Got the Blues...

...on my nails, that is!

China Glaze Bahamian Escape was one of the polishes my DD used last weekend when she did her nails....as I was putting it away, I thought why not do a mani in it too? This is what I came up with!



Two coats of Bahamian Escape.



Topped with one fairly thick coat of Island Girl Island Volcano. Island Girl polishes aren't available in my area but I was fortunate enough to receive a few of them from a gal who had visited Las Vegas, who cp'd them for me as part of a swap we worked out. I was really surprised how thick and goopy Island Volcano was...is this normal? I had to add quite a bit of thinner just to make it workable to put on my nails.



But I must have thought the end result was very cool as I took an awful lot of pictures of it!






Stamped with an assortment of plates using white Konad special polish...QA 17 on thumb, QA18 on index, Konad m79 on middle , Konad M79 on pinky and Big SdP F on ring finger.



Added dots in every colour under the rainbow using an assortment of polishes! Lastly, topped with a coat of SV.



When I finished this mani, I thought it looked more appropriate for spring or Easter, but oh well...I can always do something along these lines again if I feel like it then! While I did this mani a few days ago, my current NOTD is also blue...so I guess you'll be seeing another blue mani posted in the next little while!

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

2 for 1!

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!