Digit-al Dozen Does Holo; Day 5

My final Digit-al Dozen mani for this month's holo challenge!  There was never any doubt in my mind that I couldn't complete the challenge this month; I mean, I wear holo on a pretty regular basis! However, I was trying to post winter/holiday mani's to be seasonal.  Unfortunately life got in the way of me keeping up with my posts so they weren't as timely as I would have wanted.

I did these ugly Christmas sweater nails but I think these are too pretty to be called ugly sweater nails!   Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats each of SuperChic Lacquer Awkward Turtle with accent of Rescue Beauty Lounge No More War.  

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped with What's Up Nails B026 with accent of What's Up Nails B022 using FunkyFingers Dark Knight.

What's Up Nails B026

What's Up Nails B022

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

Here's the other ladies day 5 mani's! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Holo; Day 4

I'm late with posting the day 4 holo challenge mani but what else is new it seems!  Better late than never, as the saying goes!  

Today's holo mani is more snowflakes with scattered holo polishes from Glam Polish.  You will see that even my camera kinda freaked out a bit on this mani; it didn't focus that well...or user error, who knows!  Regardless, it was pretty and sparkly!  Here's what I came up with!

Started with two coats each of Glam Polish Someday My Prince Will Come with accent of Glam Polish Remember the Monster? on index.

Top coated with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Did a sponged gradient on middle, ring and thumb using same two Glam polishes.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped gradient nails using image from Marianne Nails professional n.31 and accent nails using B. Loves B.05 Let It Snow using FunkyFingers Gesso.



B. Loves Plates B.05 Let It Snow

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.



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

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Nail Polish Canada Holiday 2018 Nail Art Contest

Nail Polish Canada is again hosting a Holiday Nail Art Contest!  Here's my entry!  Please go here to vote for me your favourite nail art mani!  You can also use this link to enter your own nail art mani for the contest!  On behalf of all the contestants, thanks for voting!

Started with a base of Zoya Shawn, Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Can't Beet Royalty, OPI Onyx.

Topped some nails with Polished For Days Seraphine.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

I had made a stamper decal using an image from Marianne Nails n.118; applied it to thumb.

Stamped using Lina 4 Seasons-Winter 02 (pinky and index), UberChic UC Christmas 02 (middle) and Powder Perfect Christmas 1 (doubled stamped on ring).  Dotted holly berries.  Used Mdu 1, 9, 48 and 106. Added China Glaze There's Snow One Like You on ring finger tip.

Topped with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Added words on thumb from Powder Perfect Christmas 1 using MdU 1, then various dots using MdU 1 and 106.  Individually stamped snowflakes on ring finger and thumb with images from Infinity Nails 75 using MdU 1.



Finished with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Ok.  I was a bit obsessed with my thumb image!  I love how it turned out!

I also thought that this would look kinda vintage like if matte top coat was added (plus bring out the flakies from the Polished for Days), so added a coat of My Indie Polish My Perfect Matte.  I can't decide if I like it best matte or glossy??!!??

Again, here's the link for the Nail Polish Canada 2018 Nail Art Contest; please make sure you vote for your favourite mani!

Thanks for looking....and for casting your vote!  Thank you as well to Nail Polish Canada for hosting the contest!  Good luck to all!

Digit-al Dozen Does Holo; Day 3

Raise your hand if you were like me: searching through your stash to pull all the Christmas/wintery looking plates and polishes around the last week of November?  Yep, that was me and thankfully I did because I rediscovered this Noodles Nail Polish and used it here for day 3 of the Digit-al Dozen holo challenge!  

Started with a base of two coats each of Digit-al Dozen Kiss Me Under The Light of a Thousand Stars with accents of Noodles Nail Polish Arctic Nights.  As an FYI, Different Dimension made available Kiss Me Under The Light Of A Thousand Stars again (as it was initially part of a LE trio) and it is in stock last I checked (today).  It is my favourite go to 'neutral' right now and I was really happy to pick up a back up bottle recently.    I say neutral as it goes with so much and is just happiness in a bottle to me!  I also love that removal is so easy as well.  I have reached for it time and time again when I can't commit to another polish.  Go, Go, Go, Go!

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using an image from Ejiubas Ejb-03 using Mdu 3.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

Here's the other ladies day 3 mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Holo; Day 2

I couldn't believe I hadn't wore Cbl Santa Baby before (even though I've owned for three years- yikes!)  So the very next night, I thought I'd search for stash for some similar Color by llarowe holos to do a ugly pretty Christmas sweater mani.  And discovered more holo's that I hadn't worn before!  Here's what I came up with!

Started with Color by llarowe skittles; polishes used starting at thumb and going clockwise are Young Turks, Santa Baby, Last Harvest, Talk To The Hand and Orange Crush.  All are untried except Young Turks and Santa Baby (that I had just worn the night before so virtually untried!)  I was going for jewel tones and wished I had have picked a darker blue but oh well, another time.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

I'm not sure if I'm alone in this problem, but a lot of these cute sweater images just don't fit my nails right (and it's not only sweater images!).  To explain, like for instance here, I was able to get both reindeers centered on my nails nicely as these images are fairly small but a lot of the images, the main image (in this case the reindeer), the duel image is far too large so I can only get one of them on my nails or one and a half so a lot of these type of images, I just can't wear on my small nails (first small nail world problems, I know!)  But I found this image on Moyra 36 Winter is Coming that was perfect for placement (well, except on my small pinky!) but I'll take it!



Moyra Stamping Plate 36 - Winter is Coming

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

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

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Holo; Day 1

It's Digit-al Dozen week!  This month's theme is holo. Finally a challenge that isn't so much of a challenge as I wear holo on a pretty regular basis and can do any type of nail art as long as holo is involved in some way!  Thankfully this also means I don't have to research or google about the theme (yes, a lot of planning goes into manis sometimes!)!  As it's getting close to Christmas and because we have now transitioned from fall to winter, I'm pretty sure all my manis will be winter or holiday related.  Think.  Because this is the first posted mani and I'm not quite sure what the remaining posts will be.  Other than they are holo!  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of Colors by Llarowe Santa Baby with accent of CrowsToes Bunny Slope over OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, no top coat.  CbL Santa Baby is pretty much Christmas in a bottle; the perfect hue of red (and holo!) for the season!   

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using images from Creative Shop 42 (thumb), Marianne Nails Professional n.31 (middle and ring) and B. Loves B.10 Merry Christmas (pinky and index) using FunkyFingers Gesso.



B. Loves Plates B.10 Merry Christmas

Stamped a couple random snowflakes on middle and ring using isolated images from Marianne Nails Professionals n.31.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

Here's the other ladies day 1 mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Gray Skies Call for Gray Nails!

We are having another overcast day here in the GTA.  But what else is new.  I heard on the news today that November 2018 had the most overcast days in a November ever. I'm not sure how accurate that is but it seems we haven't seen the sun very much.  Anyway, I thought the gray skies would be a good day to share these gray nails!  While I really liked how these turned out, there's nothing that wrecks a mani more than smeared stamping.  Grrrrr!  But it is what it is and by no means was the minimal smear obvious in real life, it just ticked me off!  Oh well.  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of Zoya Kristin, no topcoat.

Did a sponged gradient using Zoya Kristen, Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Retro Grape and OPI Black Onyx.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using an image from Dashica Big SdP A using FunkyFingers Gesso.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.  Now for those who check out my posts regularly, I use KBShimmer Clearly on Top most of the time and rarely have issue with it.  I know I had left time to allow the stamping polish to dry and when I thought about this, checked my supplies, etc. I determined that my bottle of KB topcoat was on the low side and I hadn't loaded it with top coat enough to float over the nails but rather spread what I had, causing brush drag.  I rarely have smear with KB tc and have used it for a long time with no issue.  I started a fresh bottle right after this and put this one away to top other others later and haven't had issue yet.  So user issue.  It happens.  But this just goes to show you when people say what is the best top coat that doesn't smear...is that it's not necessarily the top coat that causes the issue but user issue like I had here.  I should have known better but thought I was tilting the bottle to fill the brush well enough but it's apparent that I wasn't lol.  Some brands that people call their holy grail go to products have smeared for me.  There's a lot of factors that need to be considered and just trial and error what works for you!

Thanks for looking!