Digit-al Dozen; Day 5, Black n White

Day 5 of the Digital Dozen black and white challenge. As difficult as I thought the challenge was, the funny thing is that I had 3 mani's done before the week started and did another 3 during the course of the week ....so if you are counting, that's 6 black and white mani's completed for a challenge that I thought at the beginning of the week was hard!  Plus, the more I looked at my plates, the more ideas I came up with and have at least another 5 ideas that I didn't do.  They will have to wait for another time, perhaps another challenge.  I do know that when I do my nails tonight, they are going to be insanely colourful after three days this week of black and white mani's.  Well, maybe not insanely colourful but some colour at least!

I decided to use black and white holographic polishes to mix up the bases again versus the cremes already done. Started with a base of  two coats of Glitter Gal Light as a Feather and Color Club Beyond, no topcoat.  I did a coat of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls before adding the GG in the hopes that it would be more white versus gray looking; not sure if this helped or hindered! 

I like this slightly blurry pix as the holo is a little bit more pronounced.

 

Stamped using FUN black stamping polish using Konad m72.  

Topped with HKGirl QD topcoat to finish.

I can't seem to catch a break in the cuticle department lately, especially on my middle finger so I was fooling around with taking pix. Unless there's some drastic improvement soon, I'm thinking this may have to be my new finger pose to eliminate the ouchies!



Lastly, I generally test out the stamping on my right hand before doing the left.  I had stamped a finger with white as my intention was to do white stamping on the black and the black on the white.  But the white was too white versus the GG polish which wasn't as white, so that's why I did black on black.  But I did double stamp the test nail and I thought it looked kinda cool so thought I'd share.  Another idea for a future mani.



Have you enjoyed Digit-al Dozen black and white challenge?  I'm personally amazed at the variety and originality the group came up with using predominately black and white only (with a few personal interpretations in the mix!).

Have a great weekend; and thanks for looking!

edited to correct polish name!

Digit-al Dozen; Day 4, Black n White

Back to black and white basics for Day 4 of the Black and White challenge.



Started with a base of two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (no pix as have shown before).

Stamped using assortment of images; MJ XXII (pinky), Handy 50 (thumb and middle finger), SdP D-20 (index), SdP 118 (ring) using black Konad special polish.



Added a little hat to the ring finger using an image from Handy 44. Then topped with HongKong QD topcoat.  For those who think or have heard it doesn't cause smear, well, as you can see, that's not the case.



See the wrinkles on the middle finger near the mouth?  This was because I had a really bad smear of black polish on the topcoat brush but I redragged it off to remove it.  In the process, there is an abundance of tc there...but I knew from past experience that the wrinkles would magically iron themselves out, which they did as you can see in the pix below.  There's also a fairly large topcoat smear on the index finger in the white void.  If you wait for the topcoat to try and take a very light hand with a brush, you can remove the smear with acetone, then topcoat again.



This is a little bland too for my taste; I wanted to add some silver stars or dots or something but was trying to keep it to black and white only.

Here's pix of a few of the plates used.

Handy 50  (I used the Charlie image on the top left hand corner.  It's a very cool image and says Chaplin along the side but I couldn't capture it on the nail as my nails are aren't very wide.  Perhaps on the thumb it may have fit but it was the only nail long enough to capture the full size image and even then, it barely fit on my nail!  It was bad timing using the full length Charle image so soon after cutting down my nails as I'm sure he would have fit on almost any of them otherwise.)


MJ XXII










SdP 118


Thanks for looking....and don't forget to check out the other ladies Day 4 mani's....I'm almost afraid to look myself to see what they have come up with today as I feel so unworthy because I'm just adding a few stamped imaged to my nails when they are doing off the charts freehand work and other awesomeness!

Digit-al Dozen; Day 3, Black n White

It's been a challenge to vary the designs for the black and white theme so they don't all look the same so when I sat down to do this mani, I thought I'd use texture polish to add a little variety to the mix versus the black and white creme's that I've used so far.  This is what I came up with. 



I was lucky enough to receive Barry M Nail Effect Lady as part of a lovely secret exchange package received recently.  It had been promptly added to my wishlist after lemming it severely upon seeing Crumpet's post here!  To minimize the number of coats I thought I'd have to do (to make it last longer!), I did one base coat of OPI My Boyfriend Scales walls and then topped with one coat of Barry M Nail Effect Lady on all fingers except accent, which is one coat of Kiko 646.  No topcoat.



Stamped using FUN black stamping polish using Big SdP P.



Topped with SV.



Here's a rare pix of my right hand; I actually think I stamped it better as the black and white contrast are more centered on the nail, so thought I'd share hangnails, bad cleanup and all!



I think this is a pretty effective mani and was checking my plate stash for more images that have this type of design but there aren't many images that have this half and half type of idea for an image.  I think we stampers need more!

Please be sure to check out of the other ladies awesome Day 3 mani's!

Thanks for looking!

Digal-Dozen; Day 2, Black n White

Day 2 for the Digit-al Dozen black and white challenge!  Did you check out yesterday's nails from the group?  It was interesting to see the diversity of the designs that the ladies in the group came up with simply using black and white! And the freehand skills are off the wall!  I'm always envious of anyone who can freehand because I have a hard time dotting (as you'll see in this post!) never mind freehand a design/image with a brush!  This is my Day 2 mani....no free handing here, you can see!

I've been experimenting with different white bases as my bottle of my go to white, OPI Bride's Bouquet, is almost empty and I haven't been able to find a replacement.  I did try NYX White and while I love the brightness of it, I'm not a fan of the formula or the brush, so still searching.  This time, I thought I'd try OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls; this was the first time I used it even though I posted mani's done later already.  It's an OK white but I wish it was a little brighter.  I much prefer the OPI brush and formula and it may have to do until I find something better.  This is two coats, topped with SV.

Stamped using black Konad special polish using SdP C-13.



Now, I know the challenge is black and white, but the rules for the challenge are open to our personal interpretation so I decided to add a pop of colour. (You have to keep in mind that I wear my mani's and do my entire nails each time I do them and this is just a little plain for my taste.)  So added a few dots.



Did you notice that the balls rotated each nail?  Trying to give the illusion of juggling!  I thought I was clever anyway!  (You can also see how I messed up the dots!)  I then decided to add some more colour so added a few more. All polishes are Konad special polishes.



Topped with SV.





Here's the other ladies Day 2 manis!

Thanks for looking!

Lest We Forget

Today is a Canadian Nail Fanatic first.....first time ever for two posts in one day (please don't get used to it as I doubt it will happen that often! lol).  I already posted the Digit-al Dozen Day 1 mani, which is a mani I did a few days ago in preparation of the weekly challenge.  But it's also Remembrance Day here in Canada; Veteran's Day in US.  This is the mani I'm wearing today.



Started with a base of one coat of Duri Taming of the Shrew, with an accent of Sally Hansen CSM Greige, no topcoat (or cleanup).  For the red nails, I was adding stamper decals but wanted a base coat of polish in case my stamper decal wasn't that opaque as I didn't want to see bare nail underneath.



Added a layer of Hare Swanky Soiree on accent, topped with SV.



I had made a series of stamper decals earlier in the week in preparation of doing the mani using red and black Konad special polishes.



Applied the stamper decals.  The full size decal is made from an image on Apipila P.01 and the individual ones are from Big SdP E.  The Konad double ended stamper also has a small poppy on it.



After I got all the stamper decals applied, I had a d'uh! moment.  The full size image on Apipila P.01 is clear underneath...which means I could have just stamped it onto a red polish base!  All this work (and terrible cleanup!) for nothinggggg!  Grrrr!  I had a plausible reason for making the stamper decal at the time but now for the life of me, I cannot remember why.  Practise, I guess???!!



Added one of the small decals from Big SdP E to accent.  I know one thing for sure is that I much prefer applying the smaller decals versus the full size ones which are a pain to size, clean up, etc.



I had a few of the small decals left so added them to my right hand, which I did a little different.



Please honour and remember those who died so that we have the freedom we have today.

Thanks for looking (for the second time today!)

Digit-al Dozen; Day 1, Black n White

This month's challenge for Digit-al Dozen is black and white.  How can something so seemingly easy be so hard?  For me, the colours black and white are easy enough; the problem is trying to come up with something different for each of them only using black and white so that they don't all look the same!  I guess we'll see how it goes as the week progresses as I haven't finished them all yet!  Here's the first mani I came up with.

Started with a base of one coat of FingerPaints Black Expressionism and two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales walls, no topcoat (with terrible cleanup, I see!)

Stamped using white and black Konad special polish using FUN 7 (thumb, middle and pinky) and OB29 (ring and index).

Topped with SV to finish.

A look at OB29.  Why is there no five....I guess you are suppose to be talented enough to stamp a little dot in the middle of the four or double stamp the two and three perfectly!

Here's the other ladies Black and White mani's including a couple new members too!!!  Can't wait to see all the awesome mani's everyone comes up with...and read their blogs to see if they had a hard time with the challenge or it is just me!

Thanks for looking!

Enabler Alert!

There's been a burst of colour shift/duo and multi chrome polishes released lately, not to mention holo versions too! KBShimmer, Crowstoes , ILoveNailPolish and GirlyBits just to name a few.  I decided to use an oldie but goodie duochrome that I have in my stash to help me decide if I need to order any of the newly or to be released ones.  After wearing this, I placed orders (or am waiting to order a few as they are being released today...refresh, refresh, refresh!)  This is Sally Hansen Garnet Lapis.  I took at least 150 pix of Garnet Lapis and uploaded 56 for this post to see which ones I wanted to post.....as I type this I'm not sure what the final count of posted pix will be but I'm sure the post is going to be picture heavy!  Here's the various faces of Sally Hansen Garnet Lapis, three coats, no topcoat, in different lighting.



























Stamped using assortment of images from Big SdP U using CND Gold Chrome.  I had a hard time getting the shift to be visible through the stamping but did manage a few.  Here's various pix in various lighting; I had a little polish smudge at the corners on a couple nails from not enough dry time...in fact, even when this was top coated with SV, it still took forrrrrrrrevvvvvvvver to dry.














The enabler in me wants to share that Dashica Beauty has discounted stamping plates 30% until November 12!!!  Email your order to dashicabeautyshop@live.nl; make sure you mention DASH30%OFF in the subject line and in your email for the discount.

This is great news; I've never known Dashica Beauty to have a sale so if you have never order any of the plates....or want to add to your plate stash.....now may be a good time to check it out!  I have 95% of the plates made (only a few of the last release I don't own) and I'm ordering them by the 12th to take advantage of the discount pricing.

Also, Dashica is releasing a new series of image plates called Infinity Nails.  Here's a preview of three plates of those scheduled to be released and there are plans for a total of 50 (!!!!!) .      

The scheduled release for these plates is early December.  I'll be sure to let Santa know that these will be on my wishlist and hopefully they will be under my tree come Christmas morning!!!

Lastly, followers will know that occasionally I do the odd random out of the blue giveaway for those who happen to see if when they read my blog posts regularly and happen to see it mentioned in my ramblings.  So this is one of those times!  There are a couple of the newer released Dashica plates that I haven't ordered yet and I'm going to add three Dash plates of your choice to my order for one lucky winner of this impromptu giveaway!  But there's even better news....especially if you like duochromes!  I happen to have extra bottles of a couple of the old Sally Hansen's prisms and I'm also going to include both Sally Hansen Garnet Lapis and Sally Hansen Golden Cinnabar as part of the giveaway!  So the winner of this giveaway will receive three Dashica Dash plates of their choice as well as both Sally Hansen prisms!!!!





The rules for this giveaway are simple.  Comment on this post only over the next 48 hours and you will be eligible.  The prize will be your choice of 3 of the Dash plates (these are the small rectangular plates...and you can pick any three from no. 1 to 60 (in case you want one of the previously released ones; must be in stock as I need to place my order by November 12!) as well as the two Sally Hansen Prisms shown.  I'll add the winners 3 picks to my order; and will ship to you when I've received them from Dashica.  I'll cut off the entries 48 hours from the time I publish this post and the winner will have just 24 hours to respond to the email sent (in case another needs to be drawn as my order has to be placed by November 12th!). You can see the plates here.  Just note in the comment section of this post your GFC follower name, your choice of the 3 Dash plates and an email address for contact purposes. Open internationally, see Giveaway Policy for any further details (except special 24 hour response needed). This giveaway is sponsored by me! I will not be advertising this impromptu giveaway any place but on my blog (edit and CNF's FB page!) and there's no need to announce it on your blog, or on facebook, or start following me on pinterest or any other forum as there's no extra entries to be obtained, just one comment will be permitted for an entry.  This is simply a thank you for those that regularly take the time to check out my blog! I do appreciate it!

Thanks for looking!

Edit:  The winner of the giveaway was turtlechick12; her package was mailed out and she confirmed receipt on December 28, 2013!