Digit-al Dozen; Fashion, Day 3

There's not too many mani's I do without some type of stamping but this was one.....a pretty simple dotted mani for Day 3 of Fashion Week for Digit-al Dozen.

Started with a base of two coats of Zoya Darcy, topped with HongKong Girl Fast Dry Topcoat.



I had a hard time opening my bottle of Darcy which seemed odd because I just got it not too long ago and hadn't even opened the box that the Zoya Stunning for Summer 2013 collex came in.  When I finally got it open, this is what I found.



This annoyed me.  I bought Darcy as part of the Zoya boxed set online. When I checked the other 5 polishes in the collex, four of them where loose too...the caps were barely threaded onto the bottle.  I was very surprised that this is how they would have been sent out to distributors.....what other explanation can there be?  I was glad that only one bottle had leakage and it was minimal; I was able to tighten the rest of them before there was more leakage or evaporation over time because it could be some time before I even use them.  I know it's only a polish leak but still....annoying!

Using three different dotting tools, added assortment of dots using Konad black special polish.  There's more than three sizes of dots in this mani; the dots can be made smaller or larger simply by the amount of pressure applied when dotting.  I'm sure a skilled dotter could achieve this same look with just one dotter!



Here's the pix I used for my fashion inspiration....I'm not big on fashion but I adore this purse!



I waited half an hour before top coating because I knewwwww that these dots were going to be trouble with topcoat smear....and I was right; while not too bad, there was some minimal drag....another annoyance!  Not terribly noticeable IRL....only in macro...but still annoying!  I used SV to topcoat but I'm sure that the same thing would have happened with HKGirl too as I've had smear with it too.



This simple mani was an attention grabber; I received many compliments on it....and it was easy as pie to boot!  I do have stamping plates that could be achieved pretty close to this but dots are another one of those images that are hard to get fully stamped...I usually have to go touch them up with a dotting tool after anyway to make sure the dots are solid, so it was probably faster using a dotting tool.

Here's the other ladies Day 3 fashion mani's.




Thanks for looking....and sorry about airing all my annoyances!

Digit-al Dozen; Fashion, Day 2

When I was looking for fashion inspiration, I tried to find clothes that I knew I could somewhat replicate using stamping plates.  This isn't necessarily what is high fashion or even fashionable, but just some type of clothes that I thought I could kind of copy....somewhat..... 

This was the pix I used for inspiration; I have no idea who the designer is although it looks like a nice summer dress worn by Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

Started with a base of two coats of Ulta Blue Streak, topped with HongKong Girl Quick Dry topcoat.

Stamped using white Konad special polish using Cheeky Jumbo 5, Musical Nails plate.

Like any of the stamping images that have a fairly large area to be filled with polish, this image was a little tricky; if you stamped down, there was scraper marks left on the solid polish area, so this is an image that is best scraped side to side or on a diagonal.  I wasn't very careful applying the stamping polish either, I should have made sure all the nooks and crannies in the V's were filled with polish as there was some voids left on scraping as you can see above.  Had I scraping down, they should have been filled, but I scraped on a diagonal and some where missed.  I also knew that this is an image I'd have a terrible time lining up straight too, so used an XL squishy stamper for placement....easier to place my finger in the stamper versus rolling the stamper onto the nails.  But it was hard to line up due the curved moon shape in the design and I was trying to stamp the straighter parts of the image (which is towards the middle of the stamping image) only on my nails  Hopefully this makes sense!  Looks like I did an OK job, although the thumb is a little on the crooked side!



After filling in the most obvious voids of stamping polish with a brush, topped with SV.  I didn't fill them all in, but I got the biggest, most noticeable ones....aka, the ones that were bugging me the most!  And these smaller voids are only noticeable in macro; they aren't noticeable at all in real life.

Here's a closer look at Cheeky Jumbo 5, Musical Nails.











I'm not sure how some of the images on the Musical Nails plate relate to music, but there are some great non-musical images on this plate regardless!

Here's the other ladies Day 2 Fashion mani's!


Thanks for looking!

Digital Dozen; Fashion, Day 1

It's fashion week for Digital Dozen.  Here's the first mani I came up with for the challenge!

Started with a base of two Dance Legend #3, Shock.  No topcoat.

This is the pix used as inspiration for my nails.  It's a Marc Jacobs pink holographic print floral neck dress from the Fall 2012 Collection.  Looking at the pix a little bit more, I think some chunky glitter would have been appropriate too!  (I guess I'm not very fashionable as while I don't mind this dress, I'm not a fan of this hat at all!  But I suppose I could have added an accent of a maroon fuzzy flock nail!)

While Shock is stunning on its own, of course I had to stamp it!  Used Big SdP X with an accent of Betina B-13 with black Konad special polish.  (Be prepared for far too many pix now!













While this pix is blurred, it does show the incredible holo on the nails!




Topped with Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Fast Dry Topcoat (aka the black bottle one) to finish.


















I'm terribly sorry for so much picture overload....it's just I can't help myself so many of the pix show such amazing holo!

Here's the other ladies fashion mani's!



Thanks for looking!

Nails from Last Summer!

I've had this mani stored in archives for a long, long time; since last summer.  Hard to believe that this much time has passed and I still hadn't posted it...so I thought before even more time goes by, I had better the pictures posted!

I recall at the time that I had just bought new FingerPaints colours at Sally's so was eager to try them out; remembering that one of these, FP Plum Startled, was getting lots of loving at the time.  So did skittles using them, alternating FingerPaints Plum Startled with FingerPaints Fall-ing For you; two coats each, topped with SV.  The picture below was taken in natural daylight.

This picture was taken in the shade.

Stamped using SdP 67 using CND Gold Chrome polish.

Dotted centres of the flowers with the opposite base colour.

Topped with SV.

I remember thinking that these colours would work well for a Mardi Gras mani; I'll have to try to remember this for next Mardi Gras!

Have a fantastic weekend; thanks for looking!

Wood Grain Look Using FUN 6

Another quick mani that I did not too long ago when pressed for time but wanted a change. Did the usual; pick a holographic polish, stamp using a full size image and voila, new nails in no time flat!

Started with a base of two coats of OPI DS Classic, no topcoat.

Stamped using FUN 6 with FUN black stamping polish.  This black stamping polish was opaque and cleanup was a breeze!  I have a mental note to order more the next time new plates are released.....it's my new favourite black stamping polish!

Topped with SV.

While this pix is a little blurry, you can see a little holographic glitter shine through.

A pix the next day in the sun.

Here's a look at the images on FUN 6 by FAB UR NAILS.

(This was another mani destined for The Hangnail Series lol!)

Hope you had a great weekend....a long weekend for those of us who are off on the Civic Holiday!

Thanks for looking!