Happy Halloween!

 Happy Halloween! 

These are my favourite Halloween nails to do; these are from a couple years ago as unfortunately, I didn't do any like this this year.  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of a few Halloween like polishes:  Nine Zero Eight Spotted Forester (thumb and ring), Painted Polish Gilded Poppy (middle) and Fingerpaints Mistful Thinking topped with Watcha Indie Polish Wicked West Witch (Little Box of Horrors March 2022).

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using UC Halloween 03 using MdU 13 and Painted Polish Midnight Mischief (thumb); Lina Spooklicious 03 using MdU 106, Painted Polish Stamped in Slate, Painted Polish Midnight Mischief then added bats from Marianne Nails n131 (middle); UC Halloween 01 using MdU 106 and Painted Polish Midnight Mischief (pinky); Lantern & Wren Boo Squad using MdU 106 and Painted Polish Midnight Mischief (shrunk images with CjS stamper) (ring and index).  Added bats on index from Lina Spooklicious 03 using MdU 106 and Painted Polish Midnight Mischief.

Lantern & Wren Boo Squad

Topped with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

I took a pictures outside and discovered that I had a thermal polish on!  

Hope you have a fabulous Halloween!  Thanks for looking!

Winter Is Coming

I woke up yesterday with a dusting of the white stuff on the ground and all around and realized that winter is just around the corner.  We are going to be having some unseasonably warm days today and Friday but it is inevitable, winter is coming.   Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of FingerPaints Blissfully Blue with accents of Cadillacquer Fragile.

Topped with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using images from Moyra 36-Winter Is Coming (how ironic is that?) on the thumb and index; the rest were stamped with images from Lina 4 Seasons-Winter 02.  Using Painted Polish Blanc Slate.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.  

 I had a bit of polish smear again.  I've had this a few times lately and don't understand why as I've been using same topcoat and application method for what seems like years with no issues.  But I think I've narrowed it down to the brush on the tc so have switched it out and hope the issue is solved.  Some mani's were so badly smeared I can't fathom sharing them!  But some like this one are just a smidgen so am sharing them anyway.

Thanks for looking!

Bright Nails!

I love how bright these nails are and also loved how they turned out!  What was also great is that they were easy peasy to do; here's what I came up with!

Started with a base Fingerpaints Wishful Thinking topped with two coats of Cupcake Polish Itsy Bitsy Teeny Bikini, no top coat.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using Creative Shop 102 using Midnight Mischief , no topcoat, then added a stud on the accent nail.

Creative Shop 102

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

Thanks for looking!

Updated Post Aug 23 2020 to include stamping plate pictures.

Bright Nails!

I love how bright these nails are and also loved how they turned out!  What was also great is that they were easy peasy to do; here's what I came up with!

Started with a base Fingerpaints Wishful Thinking topped with two coats of Cupcake Polish Itsy Bitsy Teeny Bikini, no top coat.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using Creative Shop 102 using Midnight Mischief , no topcoat, then added a stud on the accent nail.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

Thanks for looking!

Another Spring Mani!

Another spring mani that I did not too long ago!  

Started with some nice spring colours; OPI My Boyfriend Scales Wall, Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Wet My Thistle and OPI Another Ramen-tic Evening; all two coats, no top coat.

Topped a few fingers with FingerPaints Shower With Flowers, then added a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top on all nails.

Macro of FingerPaints Shower With Flowers.  Even bar glitter which generally I'm not a fan of!  I haven't worn glitter in quite some time; I had used a peel off base to remove some glitter in the past and while I can't say for sure, I think scraping it off damaged my nails so I've been very hesitant using it again so have shied away from glitter.  Even when I used it here, I did the long soak method.  

I had made stamper decals using image from SugarBubbles SB039 and a few OPI's; applied them after applying sticky base and waited a bit for it to dry to the touch.  Unfortunately, my base polish wasn't 100% dried on the middle and I really messed up the middle finger decal.  I kinda smooshed it back in place, filled in and drew some lines and tried to salvage it as best as I could and all in all, it didn't turn out that bad.  Nothing that a coat of TC couldn't fix lol!

Top coat helped quite a bit; topped decals with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

I had planned on leaving the nails like this but they didn't seem balanced as in no black on the ones that didn't have stamper decals on them, so stamped pinky and index with image from Moyra 117 Carved in Sand and shadow stamped thumb with EYNails N1 using 15 and 2.  I also used the image shrinking method with a clear stamper head to help with placement which was the first time I had attempted this with a clear stamper head and while not perfect, the line up wasn't that bad!  But the image needed to be shrunk to fit my small nails!

Moyra 117 Carved in Sand.

Finished with a final coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

I'm sure there's going to be a sprinkling of snow in the next few weeks but with any luck, the warmer temperatures of spring will be upon us in no time!

Have a great weekend and thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Texture; Day 5

For the final day of Digit-al Dozen texture challenge, I went with something not very typical for me as I don't use nail vinyls very often.  I may have used them 3-4 times and with varying degrees of success.  While these aren't perfect either, I do like how they turn out and they got me to thinking I should use nail vinyls more often!  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats each of Pahlish Rusalka, Rusalka with accent of FingerPaints Midas Touch, no top coat.  This is another instance when one good coat of the texture polish would have made the texture more visible as the second coat seems to lose some of the textured look.  But I do love how Midas Touch was a pretty good match to the gold flakies in the Pahlish!  After I did these base coats, I watched TV for an hour or so to give all fingers a good amount of time to dry as I knew I was applying nail vinyls.  The last time I using nail vinyls, the base coat of the polish came off with the vinyl as they hadn't dried enough and I didn't want to run into that issue again!

Topped the non texture nails with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Applied nail vinyls to middle and thumb and then applied the opposite polish on the nail.  I was having a brain freeze moment here as they both pretty much ended up looking the same even though they both had different bases but if I had any tip here, it would be to apply the texture on top of the non texture polish as it applied and worked better with the vinyls.  The thumb has much crisper edges.  Next time, I would also go a little lighter handed on applying the texture polish.

I had painted a nail stud with the Pahlish Rusalka, Rusalka to make the mani all matchy-matchy; applied it to ring finger.

Applied a final coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top to the nail stud and maybe to the nails that didn't have texture polish on them (can't remember) to finish.  After I took any final nail pictures, I did apply top coat to the ring finger to make sure the nail stud stayed on as I usually wear all my mani's at least for a day or so as I rarely just swatch or do nail art and remove; in fact, I wore this mani for 4 days as I was waiting for the owwie on my ring finger to heal a bit more (which is why there are the odd finger poses in the post).  And that nail stud stayed on, no issues!

Here's the other ladies day 5 textured mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Hopefully you've enjoyed all these textured nails this past week! As much as I love texture, I think it will be a little while before I reach for a textured polish again as I think I'm textured out, as least for the near future!

Thanks for looking!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!  Hopefully you had a fantastic Christmas and enjoying the holiday season!  

These nails were almost not to be even though I love how they turned out.  So several weeks ago, I made 4 decals on the stamper with the image on the middle finger.  I had been waiting for the time that I sat down to do my nails and was in the mood to do and wear this style of nails (hopefully I'm not the only person like this who has to be in the mood to wear a particular colour or finish or style, etc.  If you are, you get this!).  So anyway, made said stamper decals.  Hadn't been in the mood to do them.  Then maybe two weeks ago or so, I had nails longer than this and one nail had a little snag; before I knew it, that nail was down to nubs and the rest had to follow.  Well, I was in a real predicament for this design  then as these decals really needed longer nails.  Not to mention that I was tying up 5 stampers that were holding the decals.  So I waited a week or so for my nails to grow out a bit and decided a couple days before Christmas that I had to do them as the holiday season was going to be over before I would be wearing them!  So did my nails but then the decals had dried up and wouldn't stick even though the nails were topped with Orly Bonder.  So I had to coax them onto the nail the best I could but had to do some touch ups here and there on a couple of them.  I will have to keep this in mind for the future as I guess I'm used to doing stamper decals that are topped with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails and they are good to apply for a couple years!  These decals made on the stamper and applied direct are made more so to be applied right away so I'll have to keep this in mind and use them up right away.  Anyway, here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of one thin, quick coat of FingerPaints Blissfully Blue, mainly in case the stamper squishy missed any spot.  Then did squishy stamper method using it, and KBShimmer Sky Jinks and I'd Rather Be With Blue. 

Added some brush strokes of Nubar (to be updated) for interest.

Applied decals on the stamper on all fingers except ring.  The plates used were Creative Shop 36 (thumb) and Delaney Hiver A001 (index, middle and pinky).  The ring finger was stamped using image from Maniology M036.

Maniology M036

Added words to ring finger using Maniology M041.  I also stamped snowflake from same image on thumb.

Maniology M041.

I got to looking at my nails and was thinking why do all the trees have snow on them except the one on the index so hand painted in some snow (this is about the extent of my free hand skills!)

Love the thumb imagery!

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

The next day, I got to thinking this might be a mani that looks better with a matte top coat, so applied a coat of My Indie Polish My Perfect Matte.

Have a great weekend and thanks for looking!