Can't Find OPI Spotted?

If you're a polish fanatic like me, you've been wracking your brain, thinking how you can get access to the newly released, exclusive to France, OPI Spotted.  I've had a couple leads but nothing concrete yet...and did have a source on one but it was just more money than I wanted to part with for a bottle that I'm sure will be more accessible to the rest of the world soon...or soon duped by a competitor.  I mean...how many companies now make shatter?....magentics?  I think it's only a matter of time before some competitor comes out with Dotted or something....here's to hoping anyway!

So when I was looking through my plates last night, I came across this image plate and got to thinking, I have Spotted!  Why am I wanting a bottle? This is what I came up with.

Started with a base of OPI DS Original.  This is three coats, no topcoat.  When I was looking for a polish last night, it dawned on me that with the gorgeous, beautiful sunny days we've been having this week, I should have been wearing a holographic polish every day!  But no, I've been sporting cremes. Usually layered with glitter. That's me...I'm the one wearing cremes in the summer and want to crack open my holographics in the worst snow storms of the winter.  But a holographic I did pick and it was DS Original.

Stamped using black Konad special polish using XL D. Didn't do too good of a job at the stamping at the tips as you can see on the index and middle finger here. 

But nothing a little black polish and a fine tipped brush doesn't fix as you can see below!

Added a coat of Sally Hansen Fast Dry top coat in the black bottle so as to not diminish the holo.

And just for fun, wayyyy too many pix of this mani because I can never pick just one!

Now, I know this isn't 100% close to OPI Spotted....or even 75% for that matter!  But it will have to do until I finally figure out a way to get it...or its been duped by another company which I'm sure is in the works already.  I think with a bit of dots and tweaking, OPI Spotted could be closer replicated with this image plate.  Or maybe OPI will realize that the rest of the world outside of France needs to have this and figures out a way to get it distributed.  Until then, I'm good.  Or at least resigned myself to the fact that I'll have to be good with it as this is probably the closest I'll get to OPI Spotted for a while!

Thanks for looking!

Mash Plates

There's been some buzz around the stamping world about the newly released Mash plates.  Mine arrived last week; this is what I came up with.

Started with a base of two coats of L'Oreal Now You Sea Me; no topcoat.  I haven't worn L'Oreal in awhile.   Not sure why...application was good and it looks beautiful after two coats.  I certainly have bought enough L'Oreal's that I could be wearing them on a regular basis.......

Decided to add a coat of Pure Ice Once Again! that I *think* I picked up at Walmart on one of my recent cross border shipping trips. I say *think* because I do think I did buy it at there.  It was sitting there with the other polishes that I had picked up.  But I got to thinking and my brain jarred back to a swap package that I had received not too long ago from KarenD over at Frazzle and Aniploish.  I was pretty sure she had sent along Once Again! as she knew my affinity for glitters and that Pure Ice isn't a brand readily available to me....and got to thinking that the bottles didn't look quite the same.....

So I plucked out the bottle from mailer and had a look at it and it looked wayyyyy different....and better than the bottle I had, as you can see below.  The bottle KarenD sent me was on the left (the really glittery one); the one I used for this mani is on the right (the milky, dud glitter one).

See?  They are both Once Again!

I got to looking again at the bottle I thought I bought and then noticed it had been previously used as there was a massive amount of polish on the bottle threads.  Now that doesn't surprise me because I thought I had bought it at Walmart and if you've shopped at Walmart before, I don't need to tell you what people do there to polishes.  Then I wondered if maybe this was a swapped bottle that maybe someone had frankened with?  Or maybe Puce Ice just needs to step up their quality control? Not sure, but none the less, even the bottle I *think* I bought gave cool enough results.  Some day, I'll have to compare how these two Once Again!'s look against one another but I couldn't do it at the time of this mani.  While I had received KarenD's package, she hadn't received mine and swapping etiquette calls that you don't use the polishes received until the other person has received their end satisfactory.  I'm sure KarenD wouldn't have minded, because we're only on our fifth gazillion swap now, (OK, maybe I exaggerated by 4.9999995 gazillion), but none the less, one of these days I'll have to do a comparison just to see.  The Once Again! KarenD sent looks so much sparklier. If the dud version looks this awesome, I can only imagine how the glittery one looks!

Anyway, stamped using Konad white special polish using Mash-45.

Pix of the plate.

Added dots to flowers using Konad pastel yellow stamping polish.

Decided to add a few dots to accent finger too.

Topped with SV. 

The current series of Mash plates, 26-50, retail for $12.99; a great price for 25 plates!  I believe shipping is only available to US and Canada....and shipping to Canada was crazy expensive so I had them delivered to US and went and collected them.....gives me an opportunity to check out all the US hotspots for any new polishes...or dud Pure Ices!!!   The plates have an assortment of full nail designs and single images and the ones I've sampled so far stamp well....if you are interested in checking them out, please go here!

Thanks for looking!

Betty Boop is Hot Hot Hot!

This weeks challenge over at AiS was Hot! Hot! Hot!  When I was coming up with a mani and looking through my plates, I got to thinking that some of these Betty Boob images looked pretty hot!  This is what I came up with.

Started with a base of Essence Modern Romance as neutral to cover VNL because I knew Revlon Sheer Blossom was going to very sheer...and did two coats over Modern Romance.

Stamped using black Konad special polish using the following plates:  SdP 18 (thumb), W206 (ring), SdP 1 (middle), SdP C13 (index) and W207 (pinky).

Added some funky french tips using CH22; the heart tip on thumb and dots on the rest.

Added a few accents using red Konad special polish.  Stars are W203, hearts are fauxnad K06, sexy is SdP D02, and kiss is OB28.  You can see I misstamped sexy and it pretty much only reads sex...this was my second attempt and I thought if I couldn't do it the after the first two attempts, I probably wouldn't get it right on the third......so just lived with it!

Thanks for looking!



Outta This World Plus Wishlist Giveaway from Nail Polish Canada

Cheeky released this image plate, CH46, from their upcoming and highly anticipated Summer Collection not too long ago.  Some of you may have seen this already posted on their FB page, but if not, here's what I came up with using it.

Started with a base of one coat each of FingerPaints Black Experessionism and Nicole By OPI Positive Energy.

Stamped the black using NOPI Positive Energy using CH46 (thumb, index and middle finger) and CH5 (pinky).

Added stamping to accent with image from FUN2 using black Konad special polish. 

Added a few more stars around accent finger from CH5.

Because I was going for this whole outter space thing, I dotted some superfine holo multiglitter on the small stars on all fingers but accent which was to mimic the twinkle of stars..... however, my camera didn't do a very good job in picking up the sparkle and unfortunately, all it looks like is blobby stars.  It was cool IRL..... pix, not so much.  Sometimes that happens....  :(

Topped with SV. 

The last I heard, Cheeky plans on releasing these plates in mid-June but no specific release date yet.  Some of you will know from various nail boards out there that these are test plates and Cheeky wants to make sure they are perfect before releasing.  So let's all be patient for their release...it will be worth it! 

If you want to see more of the Cheeky previewed plates, please go here!  If you are interested in checking out FUN plates, here!

And something fun I did yesterday was create a wishlist on Nail Polish Canada for a giveaway they are having.  (I obviously have high hopes of winning because I did a $300 wishlist!! lol!) All you have to do is create a wishlist too and you're automatically entered!  For more information, please go here! 

Hope you're having a fantastic weekend....thanks for looking! 

Sinful Sweet Dreams

I can't think of anything particularly post-related worthy to say about this, so I'll just comment that I did this mani almost two months ago when I did a bunch of blue mani's all at once as part of a tribute for a nail gal pal.  This is one of the mani's I came up with. 

Sinful Colors Sweet Dreams, two coats. It's hard to believe something this gorgeous sells for $1.99!  

Stamped with SdP 47 using white Konad special polish.

Added CND Tropical Coral for colourful accent dots.

Still thought it needed a bit more jazz, so added a little accent using random silver glitter striping polish.  Very subtle, but it's there.

I have a whole bunch of blue and peach/coral mani's in the archives yet to post; I did the blues as part of the tribute mani's and peach/coral seems to be one of my faves at the moment so I'm reaching for shades of it often.  But I'll try to spread them out so you aren't just seeing blue and peach all the time! 

Thanks for looking!

Layla Holo Tiger Stripes

When the Layla Hologram Effects were available for sale at Ulta a while back, I made the trek to the U.S. one bright and early Sunday morning to make sure I didn't miss out on them.  I had been calling them all week to see what day they would be on the shelf....and they kept on telling me they didn't know and to call back. (OK, reading this back makes me seem like some crazy polish freak!!)  Which it turns out was unnecessary as I was at Ulta yesterday and they still have one of every colour in stock so they are still out there if you are looking for them.  I'm guessing the $15.50 price tag has something to do with this.....   I wanted to try out these Layla's for a mani versus just stamping and remembering this mani here using my untried Essence plate, I thought I'd do something similar; this is what I came up with.

Layla Coral Glam, three coats.  I found my bottle to be a little lumpy but nothing a few drops of thinner didn't solve.  I did three coats because, as with a lot of the holo's, it was on the thin side.  Lumpy and thin...how is that possible?  But it was...

Stamped using Essence plate for stripes and A28 for tiger face using Konad black special polish.  Because SV has a tendency to dull holo's, I topped is using Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Fast Dry Top Coat that had been recommended on a friendly nail board. 

What's your thoughts on holo's?  Love?  Hate?  Give or take them?  Personally, I'm a huge fan of holo...I can remember the very first time I wore one.  It was China Glaze OMG that I scored at random beauty supply place.  I could never figure out why they were just sitting there when the nail community was so ga-ga about them.   But unless you've seen the magical holo in the sun, its just a dingy gray on the shelf which was good news for me because the OMG collex had already passed before I started to really get into polishes.  Anyway, I remember putting on OMG and then being oh, so facinated by the holo rainbow on my nails.  I was smitten!  I kept on staring at my nails....angling this way and that to see the rainbow....and my love affair with holo's began!

So, holo's....love 'em or hate 'em? And because my brain cannot fathom 'hate'em' and 'holo', please tell me why if you are a hater...just curious.....!

Thanks for looking!

The Crumpet's Daughter's Birthday

Today, over at FB Adventures in Stamping, we did mani's to celebrate The Crumpet's daughter's 9th birthday....this is what I came up with.

Started with a base of OPI If You Moust You Moust from the OPI Vintage Minnie Mouse collex.  I almost passed on this polish because I thought it seems similar to other pink cremes I already have in my stash....but I couldn't resist!  The pix below was taken outside in overcast skies; it is slightly brighter than this IRL.  This is two coats, no topcoat.

Added a layer of Deborah Lippmann Sweet Dreams.  One coat, no topcoat.  While this may seem uneven and bumpy from the pix/angle, its smooth as glass and so much more beautiful IRL!  I want to add Sweet Dreams to every pink polish! 

Another view.  This pix was indoors at a window; the one above was outside in overcast skies.  The weather was just terrible while I was away for the weekend; I have no great lighting source when I'm not at home other than whatever Mother Nature provides!

Stamped!  I didn't take a pix of this but used fauxnad XL K light pink Konad stamping polish and stamped confetti on the thumb and stars on the middle finger.  Some of this shows up slightly in the pix; just added for some layering interest.  Used Konad white stamping polish for main stampings, using fauxnad XL K (balloons and happy birthday cake), SdP 62 (girl), SdP 66 (comb and perfume), SdP 77 (flowers on middle finger and scattered elsewhere), SdP 32 (present and star), SdP 67 (bow), SdP 71 (castle and butterfly), SdP 65 (sunflower) and Sdp 57 (starfish and shell). 

Added a few yellow dots for flower centres and a few other random dots scattered using yellow Sally Hansen Instadri.

  

Topped with SV.

SdP's can be bought here and I got the fauxnad XL K plate here!

I hope the lil Crumpett enjoyed all the mani's in her honour...it was a lot of fun putting it together!!

Hope you had a great weekend and thanks for looking!