Sunday, January 31, 2021

Trees and Snow!

I love the combination of the blue base, the white stamping and the pop of holo dots!  I used this combo on an accent nail for a mani and thought that it would look cool for a complete one.  Here's what I came up with!


Started with a base of two coats of Morgan Taylor Making Waves, no top coat.


Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.


Stamped using image from MoYou Noel Collection-09 using Painted Polish Blanc Slate.


Added a few dots for interest and filler using Different Dimension Kiss Me Under The Light of a Million Stars.


Topped with a final coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.


Thanks for looking!

 

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Winnie the Pooh!



My BlaFri order from Mundo de Unas arrived last week and this plate immediately caught my eye and I knew it was the first plate I wanted to use.  Here's what I came up with!



Started with a base of skittles; the polished used are OPI In My Back Pocket, Essie Hay There, China Glas Boho Blues and OPI Lima Tell You About This Color.  The base is all the polishes in a stamper smooshy base on the thumb.


Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.


Stamped using images from MdU Winnie The Pooh 3 using Painted Polish Midnight Mischief.


My nails are a little long for the images; they look a bit better on Ms. Cindy.


MdU Winnie the Pooh 3


Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.  Had a bit of smear issue on the finger but not too noticeable IRL.


 I did these nails late at night one night when I didn't have too much time to do my nails.  Well, I had all the time in the world but wanted to get to bed earlier than usual.  Anyway, I thought simple stamping, just have to pick out a few colours for the base polishes.  I picked them all out relatively fast except the ring finger; I had picked a polish too dark; couldn't see the stamping.  Then did it too light; colour was off.  This simple mani still took over an hour start to finish simply because of this small item in not being able to find a suitable colour!

Thanks for looking!

Sunday, January 24, 2021

It's Frickin' Cold!


We are in the midst of some of the coolest temperatures we've seen this season;  cool but I'm sure not as bone chilling as others have had already.  Thankfully with COVID restrictions, no one is leaving the house much.  If there is any benefit to being under lockdown, this might be it.  Trying to look at the best light of the situation!  Here is my tribute to the weather lately mani!


Started with a base of KBShimmer Pansy-Monium and KBShimmer Thanks for Poutine Up With Me, no top coat.


Added a coat of Polished for Days Pixie Dust on the thumb for a little bit more interest.


Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.


Creative Shop 154



Stamped using Creative Shop 158 (middle, ring), Creative Shop 154 (pinky, index) and Marianne Nails n. 31 using Painted Polish Blanc Slate.


Added a few more snowflakes to thumb using Creative Shop 156 for filler.


That's where the magic ends....I topped with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top and had soo many smears!  This was through my topcoat smear phase; I don't have it happening now but went through a spell of mani's when it happened.  I think there was something on my top coat brush causing the drag because once I changed bottles and a new brush, it stopped.  It was really getting me; it was like I had forgot to 'float your topcoat'!
Thanks for looking!
 

Friday, January 22, 2021

Sweater Nails!

My, how the weather has turned colder in the last few days!  Chill. EE!  I'm sure cooler days (and nights) are to come in the next couple months or so, but the chilly weather makes me think of sweater weather and I even have a few sweater nails to share including this one! 

 Here's what I came up with!


I'm not sure why I picked out a tropical looking polish to pair with sweater images but I did.  I think I was going for the non-traditional look with the ocean blues, sheer polish, flakies versus the chunky sweater look.  This is three coats of Pahlish Ganymede Elegy with a couple more coats at the tips trying to cover them, with no top coat.


Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.


Stamped using Moyra 36 Winter Is Coming using Painted Polish Blanc Slate.


Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.


Thanks for looking!

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Purple Snowflakes

Here I am, still sharing snow flake manis!  This is from last year and with the light snow we've had the past couple days or so makes me feel the need to share another snowflake mani again!  

Here's what I came up with!


Started with a base of two coats of DND 572, no top coat.


Topped with a fiarly thick coat of Polished for Days Pixie Dust, no top coat.


Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.


Stamped using image from Lina 4 Seasons-Winter 02 using MdU 101, 111 and FunkyFingers Gesso.  I really like how the muted stamped image turned out.


Topped with a base of KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.


Thanks for looking!

Sunday, January 17, 2021

Bees!

I haven't been out much in the last few weeks but I was at Shoppers Drug Mart last weekend and while I was there, seen this display of Revlon Ultra HD Snap! polishes.  The display said they are one coat, quick drying.  While the colours weren't overly unique compared to others that I had in my stash, I was intrigued that a one coat yellow existed, so picked it up and tried it later that night.  Here's what I came up with!


This is two coats of Revlon Ultra HD Snap Marigold Maven, no top coat.  Yes, it is two coats, not one.  One coat just wasn't a good enough base to me; there were still patches and the coverage needed to be better, so did two as normal.  I suppose this is still pretty good as some yellows need three coats to opaque but I do have to admit that I was disappointed that I had to do two.  Maybe if you do one coat heavy handed, but it definately needed two for me.  But it is beautiful at two coats; nice and shiny,  opaque and levelled nicely.  The best part of this polish to me was the brush.  Loved the brush; application was good, hardly any cleanup and fit my small nails.  I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked the brush tbh.  But I really did!


I cannot say if it dried fast as claimed because I top coated it like normal; topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.


Stamped using Painted Polish Midnight Mischief using images from Creative Shop 177.


Creative Shop 177



Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.


While this is a pretty polish and it did give good coverage with two coats, myself, I probably wouldn't buy it again unless it came on same for $4.99 or something along those lines.  It is on the smaller size, 8 ml, and at Shoppers, the regular price was $8.49 (maybe even $8.99) so this is pricy given it's around half the size of 15 ml polishes, even if they are $13.99 or more.  I suppose if you needed polish in a pinch, say, you forgot to polish your nails and you needed it to match your outfit for an outing, or you were away for the weekend and wanted a quick polish change, it might be OK as it was shiny without any top coat so you could just polish and go and fairly quickly as it is suppose to be quick drying.  But for me, doing my nails, with quick dry top coat readily available, etc. already on hand and with other options, it would be a pass.  (Except I bought 3 other polishes including this one, so you will probably see more of them on the blog!)  But again, I won't be buying more until they come on sale or I need to use up Optimum points or something like that.  

Thanks for looking!

Friday, January 15, 2021

Pond Snowflakes!


It's been a hot minute since I posted a snowflake mani and I have quite a few still to share, so thought there's no time like the present!  This is yet another BlaFri sale purchase (IIRC the sale was a few days before BlaFri) but Zoya had a good promo and I took advantage of ordering a few of them too, including this sheer beauty that made me decide to do my first pond mani.  Here's what I came up with!


Started with a base of two coats of Zoya Juvia, topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.  Now to be honest, had I known that this polish was as sheer/jelly as it was, I wouldn't have bought it because I'm just not a fan of VNL on me.  But I already had it on and thought how can I make a purse out of a pigs ear with this mani.  So decided to go pond mani.


Stamped using image from Creative Shop 42 using Painted Polish Blanc Slate.


Added another coat of Zoya Juvia.  (If you have eagle eyes, you might see that the index mani stamping has changed.  This is because when I topped it with Juvia it smeared like no tomorrow.  So had to remove everything, polish, stamp, etc. so it is slightly different than the image above.)


Stamped again using Painted Polish Blanc Slate and Creative Shop 42.


Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.


 I think this is OK but I also think I could have created the same mani just using blue base, light blue stamping and then white stamping.  But good use of a sheer polish anyway!

Thanks for looking!

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Anyone Else Still Getting BlaFri Mail?

Some of my BlaFri sale purchases are still being received including an order I made with Rogue Lacquer that arrived earlier last week.  This polish was calling to be used first so I did this mani a couple days after it came home.  Here's what I came up with!


Started with a base of two coats of Rogue Lacquer The Gallery, no top coat.  Love all the interesting things happening here!  


Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.


I don't know about you, but while I love all the polishes with the gold fleck, I find it hard to pick a stamping polish because not only do you have to find a colour that looks good with the base, it also has to look good with the gold fleck.  And not every colour goes well with it.  Or at least not to me.  I ended up going with MdU 33 that is a light grey, and stamped it with Apipila 12, which gives the nails just enough interest but lots of void space so you can see the beauty of the polish base.


Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.


I still have a few BlaFri orders to arrive but I'm not stressed about it.  Mail is delayed with all the BlaFri sales, Christmas, just everyone shopping on line generally and I know packages will show up eventually.  In fact, as I type this on a Sunday afternoon (doing a bunch of post dated posts), I got a package delivered by Canada Post - they are still delivering on Sunday's even after New Year's, never mind Christmas!  Everything will get delivered in time!

Thanks for looking!