Bright Hibiscus Nails

These were the nails I was sporting last weekend at Indie Expo Canada 2019!  I did them on Friday night and ended up wearing them until Monday night because I either had no time to change them or was too tired!  I love how bright and vibrant they were!  It was too bad we had so much rain last weekend but at least my nails were bright!  Here's what I came up with!

I didn't start these nails until around 1 am so while I initially wanted to do a gradient, I decided to do something quick so went with a stamper smooshy base of Fancy Gloss Neon Yellow, Neon Pink, Neon Orange and Neon Orange-Yellow.  The great thing about these neons is that no base polish is needed so I stamp these directly on my clear base coat.  And this is one stamper smoosh and it did all the nails (probably because I use too much polish) but because the polish is so opaque, I don't have to layer and layer to cover thin spots.  This method is quick for me so I use it when I want an interesting base but no time.  

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top. 

Stamped using an image from UberChic UC 7-01 using Painted Polish Midnight Mischief.

 Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

If you attended Indie Expo Canada 2019, I hope you had a fantastic time!  It was wonderful to see polish friends from past events and meet new ones!  And shop.  Like, weren't we all there for that?  Let's just say from the crowds and haul pix that it's pretty clear that indie polish is still thriving in Canada!  

If you weren't able to attend and want to live vicariously through me, my IEC 2019 posts will be shared over the next couple weeks!  

Have a great weekend and thanks for looking!

GlamNailsChallenge; Butterflies

I decided to join the #glamnailschallenge for the month of June!  The June 2nd prompt was butterflies; here's what I came up with for it!

Applied Pahlish Sky High Test Batch and Sunny Side Test Batch on various nails and also used as a gradient.  Unfortunately, neither polish are 'great' to do sponged gradients with as they are pretty sheer.  They were good coverage for nail application, just not for sponging.  I ended up hand brushing one or two coats then sponged on more to make a fade.  You will also notice that a lot of the flakies transferred on the gradient nails too; it was because it was many gradient attempts to get them opaque if that makes sense.

Applied KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped with images from Lesly Butterflies using FunkyFingers Gesso with dot accents of Lina Feeling Shapely! 02.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

If you're on instagram and want to check out all the mani's, please go to #glamnailschallengejune!

Thanks for looking!

#FluidArtFriday/#FluidFridayFriends

It's fluidartfriday and I did these nails based upon the colour palette that was chosen for the #fluidartfriends group this week over on IG.  Here's what I came up with!

This is the colour pallette this week!

These were the polishes used.  I added a light pink shimmer as I like the shimmer look in my decals.They are Sally Hansen Miracle GelSugar Fix, Savvy Fairy Twinkle, OPI Another Ramen-tic Evening, Sally Hansen CSM Mardi Grape and Zoya Jana.

Even though I had a bottle of clear DYI fluid polish and used it successfully in the past, it just didn't seem to create as many cells this time round so I had to do a few different decals to get enough cell images that I was happy with.  

I cut out the parts of the decals that I was going to use. 

Applied them to my nail.  I made these decals Wednesday night and applied last night (Thursday); they were the easiest decals I have ever worked with for removal and pliability (is that even a word??!!).  I guess because they were fresh they moved nicely on the nail and were bendable; I had been making decals and using them weeks later so they were much more brittle and the cleanup was terrible!  I am really sorry about my nasty cuticles right now; I'm going through a bad spell lately and have been to doctor about them; I'm on the verge of eczema on my hands and nothing seems to be working and they are particularly poor right now; colour wise as well as all nasty looking from dry skin and me trying to remove it, etc etc.  The paper cut on my ring finger doesn't help lol.  And you can't see it, but I also scraped my knuckle on my index finger last weekend opening a gate.  Hopefully you can overlook the skin for the nail art design!  It's not going to stop me from doing my nails; I have been dealing with it for a while now and I guess if it is so offensive, please don't look at my medias out there.  If I knew how to photo shop, I would, but I don't, so I can't!  I can't do anything about it as no creams, etc. seem to be working, medicated or otherwise, but I do hope it clears eventually!  And yes, they are as sore as they look!  I've been trying not to do my nails as often but the nail fanatic in me still wants to do my nails!  So I've been doing them but haven't really been sharing them when they are at their worst, except today which is pretty much as bad as they have been.  It doesn't help using all the acetone to remove the decal parts but can't be helped.  What we suffer for our art!

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Of course I stamped them; double stamped using Painted Polish Stamped in Rose and MdU 2 using images from Marianne Nails XXL 6.  I wanted to do all nails with the floral design but it seemed to block the base too much so used another image on the rest of the nails.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Please check out #fluidfridayfriends on IG and see all the different fluid arts in the theme palette!

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Albums; Day 4

These groovy nails are David Bowie tribute nails for day 4 of Digit-al Dozen album challenge!  

Started with a base of two coats of Zoya Kristen, no top coat.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using image from Clear Jelly Stamper CjS-46 using MdU 2 and 51.  Note that as far as I can see, the lightning bolt on the plate is facing the wrong way so I stamped it on a stamper, then stamped it again on a stamper then placed it to correct the facing the right way.  

Clear Jelly Stamper CjS-46

Added a little Zoya OC Cooler to the lightning bolt for shimmer as on the album and stroked through the hair to make it looks feathered like in the picture.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

This is the David Bowie album that I was used as a basis for these nails although looking at it, I think my gray base should have been lighter.

While the nails were OK, you know me and my love of busy!  So I thought that the 70's were full of wild and crazy and pschodelic colours and it made me remember of a fluid art I had created a couple weekends ago that I thought would be a nice compliment to the mani.  So cut out decals for my nails from the fluid art and applied.  The fluid was made using Sally Hansen Celeb City and it didn't work out too badly.

Fluid art decal.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using images from MoYou Roxy 09 using MdU 2.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

 Here's the other ladies day 4 mani's!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Albums; Day 2

It's Day 2 of Digit-al Dozen album challenge!  

Do you recognize the album that these nails are paying tribute to?  If you didn't recognize it off the get-go, I'm sure you will once you see the album cover; it is an iconic album cover for sure!  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls with accent nail of Fancy Gloss Washed Out Jeans, no top coat.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top. 

Stamped using images from Konad Square 09 (thumb), Delaney Tissus 001 (index) and Konad Square 01 (rest) using MdU 112 and Konad red stamping polish.  Note:  used pretty firm clear stamper as that helps keeps the lines straight.  

Delaney Tissus 001.

Konad Square 09

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.  Thumb image is just appropriate filler and for interest.  I have loved that image from when I first seen it and bought the plate just for it!  While I can use it for a 4th of July mani, it was nice to use it another time too!

So did you guess the album???  If you guessed Bruce Springsteen Born In the U.S.A., you were right!

Here's the other ladies day 2 mani's!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks for looking!

Fluid Friday Easter Nails!

I'm interrupting blue nails to share some Easter nail art and because these are on a fluid base, sharing on #fluidFriday!  I think these nails are as adorable as can be; I wore them for a couple days which is unusual for me!  Here's what I came up with!

I made some homemade fluid hard polish using Garnier Fructis as suggested by @damningeden (although when I was watching YouTube Videos, Kyong Lee mentioned this product being used by someone else back in 2017).  I can't say for sure who came up with it, I just know this is how I found out recently. I had been experimenting with Nourishing + Coconut Oil Breakage Serum but not adding it to the polish directly, but rather by making a spray from it as I had seen it being used by various fluid artists on YouTube with acrylic paints a few months ago.  After doing some research, both products have the same silicone ingredient 'Dimethicone' in them (which is the silicone product that creates the cells) and I have tried both now by adding to the polish and IMHO, the Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine Anti-Frizz does work better.  But there is some trial and error with the formula and I'm not entirely convinced that the Nourishing + Coconut Oil doesn't work just as good.  I still have about a third of a bottle and will continue to try it out.  But this is a whole other blog post! 

Speaking of trial and error, the top swirl was my first attempt of making it fluid so I had to add a bit more product; the bottom one is better results and the one I ended up using for this mani.  Lots of cells!

This is my 'good' bottle of fluid art polish using China Glaze Be More Pacific.  I cut up the decal into nail size pieces and got ready for application.

Applied the fluid art pieces, cleaned up with acetone and brush.

Applied KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped with an image from Chez Delaney Animaux 004 using MdU 1, 68, 101 and Painted Polish Stamped in Rose and Stamped in Greenery.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

The stamped covered up a bit more of the fluid part of the decal than I would have liked but that's OK.  Still cute!

Thanks for looking!