Fugly is Looking Pretty Normal Nowadays

I feel that in some ways, this mani is getting back to my nail roots; one of my early favourite things to do with manis was to add dots here and there for some interest but I haven't done it a whole lot recently it seems. However, once I stamped these nails, they needed something a little more so added the dots too for a little extra colour!

Started with a base of Nerd Lacquer Some Bastard Who's Presumably Responsible; two coats, no top coat.  There were no application issues.  

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

Added an image from Big SdP L using Funky Fingers Gesso stamping randomly for interest.  Well, tried to stamp randomly; I seen after the fact that the middle and ring finger were stamped identically lol!

Added dotted centers using CND Bicycle Yellow.

Top coated using Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC to finish.

Here's a close up of Nerd Some Bastard Who's Presumably Responsible.  You can see the base polish a little better; there's some gold flakies in there and black and bronze micro glitter for added interest.  This isn't a shade that usually appeals to me but sometimes there's an urge to wear what I called a fugly in the past but nowadays, it's no longer fugly but moreso a unique shade that I like to wear every now and then.

Thanks for looking!

Pansies!

One of my favourite types of glitter is micro glitter.  Also, really love big circular glitter!  Really big or really small; love them both!  Heck, who am I kidding; I love all the glitters!!!  But I do have a special fondness for micro glitter.  With it being so densely packed, it makes for an interesting stamping base (even though I didn't stamp on it here lol)   The use of peel off bases means that I've been wearing glitter more then ever!  So after buying a few of the Love, Angeline Harmonious Gemstones from Harlow & Co. earlier this summer....then buying a few more direct from Love, Angeline, has had me wearing quite a few mani's with microglitter of some sort in them!  For some reason, I have neglected to share any yet so thought I would now; here's what I came up with!   

Started with a base of two coats of Elevation Polish Grand Teton Station with an accent of two coats Love, Angeline Orchestrated Amethyst; both have no top coat.  I really liked that two coats of the microglitter had great coverage, no bald spots at all.  I have been using UNT peel off base for glitter lately (bought direct from UNT; they ship internationally and had free shipping but don't be fooled by that video; my experience has been that it only peels off like that when its still tacky which results in goopy, intermingling of polish and base coat, fyi).  You have to pop it off other products but it is the easiest product that pops off yet that I've found fyi.).  The only thing I would caution is that you wait a good 10 minutes for it to be good and dry. Otherwise, the glitter intermingles with the peel off base and then you got a goopy, bumpy, uneven mess. Which I have done more than once because I hate waiting for base or quick dry or glitter peel off or cuticle guard or whatever to dry.  

Topped all but the accent with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.  The Elevation Polish, which has the formula with the top coat already built into it,  is one of those colour changers that will change slightly when you use your regular top coat on it.  I always do this even though it has built in top coat, so it  made the polish slightly darker (in fact, if you look closely, you can see where I applied top coat and where I missed the polish and the difference).



Stamped using and image from SdP 98 using FunkyFingers Gesso.


SdP 98


Applied top coat....and had top coat altering event when the polish base leeches into the stamping polish which is one of my stamping pet peeves. Grrrr! While I had no plans other than leaving the stamping white and maybe a stud to accent, I thought I would add to the pansies a little more just to see how it turned out.



I did some "lead lighting" for back of better words, using 10.1 Kiwi Delight and Plum-tastic.



Added a bit of the Love, Angeline Orchestrated Amethyst to the pansies for interest.



Added a few dots (in hindsight, wished dots were smaller and closer together, but hindsight is wonderful as the saying goes!)


Added gold stud to accent.  Complimented the gold in the microglitter nicely, I think!



While I prefer the matte look usually of the microglitter, I have a terrible issue with losing studs if I don't top coat them, so finished with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.




I wore mani, after mani, after mani of microglitter (I do this will all things that hold my interest for a few days lol!) but it makes for not so interesting blogging so they will be shared at some time!  So far, I've been using the microglitter mainly as accents but I'm sure that will change over the next little while too!

Love, Angeline is available via Harlow & Co. or their estore here.  They do ship to Canada; the shop also has a wide arrangements of other nail items such vinyls and cuticle oils; they also have Mani Crush Fizzies which I have bought and like to use too.  As the Mani Crush Fizzies comes in a crushed state, I can control the amount of product I use; even when I've bought the mani bombs, I always crush them up to extend them (being the thrifter, that I am lol - hey, it all goes towards more plates and polish so worth it!)

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Neon; Day 1

Welcome back to Digit-al Dozen week!  This month's theme is neon!  Personally, I think it is awesome that neon is the theme in the midst of the summer; I've been wearing so many neon mani's over the last few weeks that I have a good dozen or more to pick from to share now.  Picking just five to is going to be hard...but I'm sure the rest will be shown at some time!  This is one of my favourite mani's that I've done in a long time, sharing now for Day 1!

Started with a base of two coats of KBShimmer For Sail by Owner, no topcoat, with an accent of two coats of KBShimmer Foiled, again, no top coat.

Did a sponged gradient using KBShimmer In Yacht Water.

I even did a little sponging on my Cinderella hand!

Top coated with KBShimmer Clearly on Top before stamping.

I initially wanted some nice tropical florals on this but couldn't find an image for what I had in mind, so went with SdP 72.

Added a couple of studs on accent and topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish. I chose yellow and green as the polishes were leaning more this way (to me anyway) than blue and green even though blue was sponged on.  Plus the colours are brighter!

Here's the other ladies Day 1 neon mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

I will have to forewarn everyone that even though I mix up my mani's quite a bit day to day when I'm wearing them, it seems like for the neon ones, I did a lot of sponged gradients and lots of studs (which is no surprise to me as I'm loving the look of both right now!), but might be a little boring for sharing for the week but hopefully I'll be able to find enough variety to share....don't say you weren't warned lol!

Thanks for looking!

Brrrrr! It's Cold Out!

It has been chilllllyyyy here for the last 24 hours; cold enough to have to have the fireplace on last night to warm up the room a bit! Good thing I have a sweater mani to wear!

Started with a base of Glam Lisbeth, two coats.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top. 

Stamped using Infinity 86 with an accent of Infinity 36 using Funky Fingers Gesso.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

Infinity 86.

Hopefully we will have warmer weather soon!

Funky French!

I think only other stampers can appreciate how happy I was with how this turned out!  Thank you squishy stamper!  So helpful for placing images because you can press your nails into the image and line it up better...for me anyway!

Started with a base of two coats each of Chaoes & Crocodiles Spun Sugar Magic with an accent of Butter London Marrow.



I thought Marrow needed a little umph, so added Chaoes & Crocodiles My Favorite Color is Unicorn (or My Favourite Colour is Unicorn if Canadian lol)



Stamped using Funky Fingers Gesso with an image from Big SdP B.



Added a few pearls.



Decided that one just wasn't enough; so added a second.  Not sure if these were the best embellishments to use but didn't mind them.



Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.  Didn't really like the look of these but thought otherwise the pearls would fall off in no time.



The holo was singing in the sun!



And Cindy even stamped decently!



Have a great weekend; thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Childhood; Day 3

A Sunday night staple at our house when I was a kid was watching the Disney movie of the week at 6 pm. You have to keep in mind that I lived in small town Ontario growing up; we only had a hand full of tv channels and there was no movie theatre without driving almost an hour, no VCR's, DVD's, netflix (heck, no one had a computer or cell phone then!), satellite dishes or cable service (in our area anyway). What few channels you got was from an antenna and rotor that you dialed to pick up what you could and if you were really lucky, the station wasn't snowy. (Maybe this is why we spent so much time outdoors playing as kids?) I think maybe satellite dishes were on the market when I was a teen if I think about it; those huge monstrosities the size of vehicles sitting in the back yard of a few homes (aka, you were rich!). Anyway, the Disney movies on Sunday night were never missed; they were watched after the special Sunday dinner of roast, then a bath before watching the movie which was the close to the weekend before school the next day.  I remember it is The Wonderful World of Disney; which is what today's Digit-al Dozen Day 3 mani is based upon.  Here's what I came up with.

For the base, I decided to use a recently purchased bottle of Pretty Serious Eye of Copernicus; then thought at the same time, I would see how close it is to Essie Starry Starry Night and Colors by llarowe Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Bottle pix; left to right:  Essie Starry Starry Night, middle is Pretty Serious Eye of Copernicus and ring is Colors by llarowe Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  They look pretty close to one another in the bottle.

For swatching, this is one coat of each polish; index is Essie Starry Starry Night, middle is Pretty Serious Eye of Copernicus and ring is Colors by llarowe Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  

Two coats, same order.  It is clear to me that the other two polishes aren't dupes to Essie SSN if this was the makers intent; in fact, they are closer to each other than Essie SSN. Both are too dark and blackened to be dupes IMHO.

Different angle just in case lighting is different to throw swatches, but nope.

For the purposes of doing my nails, I did the rest of the fingers in Colors by llarowe Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star as preferred it over the Pretty Serious.  I actually preferred Essie SSN but need to conserve it lol!

Top coated all with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.



Stamped using Mundo de Unas 11 using Big SdP D (stars) with accent using Big SdP Y.



Big SdP Y














Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.


Here's the other ladies Day 3 childhood mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!