A Scary Snake!

I'm not sure what possessed me to do this mani other than when I was looking through my plate stash, I seen this cool snake image on BFF 31, then thought it might be a cool use of one of the bottles of  ILNP flakies that I just got but haven't used yet.  The next thing I knew, it was on my nails!

Started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls on all fingers.  Added a thin coat of ILNP Success on ring and index fingers.  I made three stamper decals using images from BFF 31 (the tail is from the tiger on the same plate) using combination of acrylic paints and ILNP Success.  Note that the snake head image was shrunk first using the UberChic Luxe Stamper, then restamped on Konad regular to make the stamper decal.  I actually made a regular size decal one too but there was no way it was going to fit on my nails; even the shrunken version didn't all make it on my nail.

 Then stamped ring and index finger with an image from Yours YS05.

Yours YS05

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

The next day when I was out and about, I noticed that the flakies were much more visible and shifty in the daylight, so took another pix; I'm glad I did as these ones look the best, I think.  I also wanted to apply matte top coat before I took them off....but forgot.  Next time!

This isn't something that I normally wear on my nails but I didn't mind it!  I really like the effect that the flakies added and am really happy that I finally got some ILNP flakies, even though you don't seem to see them being used much lately.  Always late to the party but at least I made it!

Thanks for looking!

Prince Tribute Mani

I was as shocked as most to hear of the sudden passing of Prince last week.  So when I sat down to do my nails last night, while I was humming Little Red Corvette....then Purple Rain.....then When Doves Cry, I did this mani.  

Started with a base of two coats of Lippmann Shoshanna; shown with no top coat.  

While I really wanted to do a water marble base, there's not enough purple Pipe Dreams and I was experimenting with some other polishes and wasn't have that great success.  So decided to go with some sponging for added interest using L'Oreal Pop of Plaid and Essie Shade On.  

After topping with top coat, stamped with Chez Divers 005 using Funky Fingers Gesso.

Added some silver glitter using Konad glitter stripper.

Added image from MoYou Roxy Collection-06 using Funky Fingers Dark Knight.

Made a couple stamper decals.

MoYou Rockstar Collection-13

Added stamper decal which was an image from MoYou Rockstar Collection-13.

Stamped an image from MoYou Back to the 70's-01.  Modified it a bit by removing mouth and added a bit more hair to make it more like the hairstyle I see Prince rocking.  Added some funky purple glasses.  Stamped rain drops on pinky using UberChic UC 3-03, then stamped image on pinky using an image from Fab Ur Nails FUN 4.

MoYou Back to the 70's-01

Added couple of purple doves using an image from MdU 1. 

MdU 1

Added Little Red Corvette decal on thumb, added 1999 from MoYou Zodiac 16, lips from MoYou Bridal Collection-01 (ticked I didn't use smaller lips as I had pulled the image but forgot about it) , Kiss from Chez Divers 001, and music notes from Chez Musique 001.  

MoYou Zodiac Collection-16, 

Top coated it all with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC to finish.

RIP, Prince.

Thanks for looking!

40 Great Nail Art Ideas Does Animals

It's 40 Great Nail Art Ideas challenge; this weeks theme is animals.  I thought for today's mani, I would do a tribute mani to our family fur baby, Spike.  Although its been two weeks now since he has no longer been with us, we still expect to see him greeting us at the door when we get home, watch for him to be sitting at the patio door to be let out, check the area where his water and food bowl was kept to see if he needs any. I guess this will pass in time, but all this is still fresh in our minds and we still look for him and think we hear his bark every now and then. 

R.I. P. Spike

Started with a base of two coats of Lippman Run, Run Rudolph, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and one coat of Funky Fingers Dark Knight.  Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

Stamped using images from Uber Chic Furry Best Friends using Funky Fingers Gesso, Funky Fingers Dark Knight and Konad red special polish.  The letters are from Nailways Back to Basics 123 ABC using original clear jelly stamper (which is only stamper I could get to pick up images for the letters as well as placing images on the thumb).  

UberChic UC Furry Best Friends

Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC to finish.

Here's the other ladies animal mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

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!

Dabbling with Sharpie Markers

I've resisted getting into Sharpie marker mani's; I find that I have enough nail art supplies (polishes, plates, stamping polishes, numerous varieties of studs and rhinestones, striping tape, vinyls, stickers, loose glitter and flocking powder, nail art brushes, hole punches, stencils, foil, dotters...did I forget any?) spread out in my space and didn't want to add yet another component to them. But then I seen some on sale and thought why not?  So I watched a few YouTube or IG mini tutorials and went for it.  This is what I came up with. Oh, and be forewarned, this post is probably a lot of what you shouldn't do relating to Sharpie marker mani's!

Started with a base of two coats each of Pahlish Bespoke Mauna Loa II and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, top coated with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

I had scribbled on the bottom of a glass cup a bit, then added a spray or so of rubbing alcohol, then using a brush, put some of the ink on my nail.

After that colour had dried, did it with a couple more colours until I got a design that I was happy with.

Top coated it with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC, then stamped with an image from UberChic 6-02 using Funky Fingers Dark Knight. But as you can see, the vibrant inks faded to a very faint hue.

When I top coated the stamping, the inks blobbed and went even more yellow.  This wasn't the bright, vibrant Sharpie marker colours I had seen in videos, so went and watched a few more to see hopefully see what I was doing wrong.

I seen or read on a couple blog posts about applying the Sharpie marker directly to the nail, then using some alcohol on a brush to disburse it, so tried this method instead.  I did get them to look a little bit more vibrant. I had also read that the inks shouldn't be top coated until really dry so waited about an hour to topcoat them, but it still faded them a bit, not as bad as a couple pix above, but still not the vibrant look I was looking for.

I guess I'll have to work on this method a bit more.  I did get some tips from the Digit-al Dozen gals who have successfully done this method, but from what they said, you have to use pretty vibrant markers and "some" fading is normal unless top coated with proper gel topcoat.  I am not getting into another product, so I'll have to live with whatever I have already.  But I'm somewhat disappointed that only the more vibrant colours work well with this method because I bought the Sharpie pack with the lighter pastel colours thinking they would be cool, but by the sounds of it, and from what limited experience I have, they will pretty much wash out.  I think they might be OK for direct marker on holo/glitter which I've seen too, but I like the disbursed look with the alcohol.  

Thanks for looking!

After Last Week, Hope You're Not Tired of Gradients!

Last week at the beginning of Digit-al Dozen week, I was thinking that it might be kinda boring only sharing pink and/or purple gradients for the entire week as I had already uploaded the mani's and knew what I was going to post (except the Friday mani BUT as it turns out, the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas weekly challenge happened to ironically be pink and purple so it too was going to be same colours).  So during the week, I did a few other mani's with the intention of sharing them instead to change things up a bit.  But when I went to actually post them, I got to thinking heck, there's nothing wrong with only posting the pink and/or purple ones, so I'll post what I already have uploaded!  But now, I have these other gradient mani's to share....... so this is one of them!

Started with one of my favourite grays, Colors by llarowe The Good Old Days;  two coats, no top coat.

Did a tri gradient using Colors by llarowe The Frenchy Klein and Colors by llarowe Believe in Miracles.  I know that the colours don't blend to a gradual gradient as a typical gradient but when I did them to blend a bit more, the darker colours pretty much overpowered the gray, so did them with less of a fade than a more graduated gradient.  If that makes sense!

Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC before stamping.

Stamped using an image from Sugar Bubbles SB 040 using Funky Fingers Gesso.

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

Thanks for looking!