Digit-al Dozen Does Nature, Day 3

Here we are at Day 3 of the Digit-al Dozen weekly challenge!  This month's theme is nature. I don't do too many mani's along these lines, so it's nice that there is a challenge that forces me to do something out of the norm! Here's what I came up with for Day 3!

Started with a base of Aly's Dream Polish #61 In Bleached; this is two coats, no top coat.  I know I've worn this before, but can't remember if I've shown it swatched; so here it is again!  

Decided to go with an earthy gradient; picked other Aly's Dream Polishes to use; I find they work well for gradients!  Unfortunately, they don't sponge on that well so did layering using a brush, but because of this, they don't fade into one another gradient wise.  This is Aly's Dream Polish #16, Deep Lime.

Lastly, added Aly's Dream Polish #9 Steel Blue.

Top coated with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.  

I did something that I had never completed successfully before here....if you look closely, you will see the heron faces both ways!  Have you ever had an image that you want to use on a particular finger (or thumb) but it doesn't face the right way; either because you want some variety in the same stamped image like I did here, or because an image looks better placed on your nails facing a particular way, but the transposed image doesn't exist? Even my last mani with the birds, in my mind when I was planning it, I wanted one image to face left, the next to face right; then alternate on the rest of the fingers but because not all the images fit on my nails size wise, had to just use whatever fit and too bad whatever way the birds were facing!  

Well, I thought there has to be a better way! So decided to double stamp the heron so it would be transposed so one image would face one way and the other, the opposite!  It took some trial and error with stampers and polishes and you have to be super fast but I did it!  So happy that I know now I can do this; will give more stamping options in the future!  This isn't a new technique; it's actually been around for a while, just I haven't had any success with it before!

Stamped using images from MoYou Suki Collection-09 and LS-21 using Mundo de Unas #2.

LS-21

Mo-You Suki Collection-09

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

 There have been so many awesome mani's already this week by the ladies in the group; please be sure to check the links below to see what they came up with for Day 3 too! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Merry Kissmas!

How about some fun holiday nails!  Well, aren't they all fun?  I was wanting to do something a little different rather than the traditional Christmas nails, plus try out a couple newly received polishes...just seems there's not enough time nor nails to use them all!  So when I was browsing through my holiday plates and seen an image from Bunny Nails HD-I, I thought, how cute; let's see what I can do with it using a few holiday polishes I wanted to try. This is what I came up with!

Started with skittles; polishes used starting at thumb and going clockwise are Smitten Polish Nose So Bright, Aly's Dream Polish Pale Yellow Olive, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Smitten Polish Between the Baubles and Nubar Green Tea.  Top coated with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using Chez Xmas 001 (holly on middle), Chez Divers 003 (thumb), fauxnad D (couple on middle), HD-1 (index and ring).  Stamping polishes used were black and white Konad special polishes and Mundo de Unas 9 (red) and 48 (green).  Added glitter on pinky using sponge method using ILoveNP Christmas in Bordeaux.  (I will point out that I had swatched it before I applied the polish because I wanted to see density and shapes of glitter better; my bottle had colour bleed and the base was tinged green.  I'm glad I had swatched it because I had planned on applying over white so see colour pop best.  When I seen the base tint change, had to come up with a complimentary holiday colour that would hide the bleed.  Too bad, it would be a great polish over white!) 

For some colour interest, filled in the leaves on the ring finger with Mundo de Unas 48 and dotted berries.

Top coated all nails except thumb to finish.  Even though I had top coated Smitten Polish Nose So Bright before stamping, the colour was starting to bleed through the white.  I knew it was going to change the white stamping polish even more if I top coated the thumb, so left as is.  I would have liked the stripes to be a nice, bright white for contrast but better than hot pink which was the colour on my right hand which I top coated. Next time if I'm going to do white stamping on it, I'll (hopefully) remember to topcoat several layers; or have to use a less pigmented polish.

None the less, I liked how this turned out; something a little different than has been on my nails lately! 

Thanks for looking!

Holo Gradient Using Aly's Dream

I have nothing of interest or catchy to open with for this post.  The truth is I was looking for a polish to do my nails and was looking for one that would easily remove because of the poor, sore state of my cuticles. I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing about the woes of my poor, sore state of my cuticles for the last month as they seem to be monopolizing my posts lately...and even made it to my newly started Twitter feed lol! The good news is (knock on wood and checking nails right now), I think they are behind me (although I'm pretty sure I have lots more pix to share so just overlook them...and I'll try not to bring them up again!!) So here's a pretty holo gradient that I did not too long ago.

Started with a base of two coats of Aly's Dream Bayouberry, no topcoat.

Sponged on a Aly's Dream Duchess Blue.  Didn't topcoat; just waited for it to dry while I looked for a plate to use.

Stamped using MoYou Tourist Collection-07 using white Konad special polish.

A quick look at MoYou Tourist Collection-07.

Topped with SV to finish.

Speaking of my Twitter feed....I started this a little over a  week ago if you haven't seen it on the right of the page.  I did it for a few reasons....believe it or not, I do more than paint and stamp my nails!  I realize that my blog isn't the most personal as I don't share a whole lot about what I do in life (and that probably won't change much as my blog was started and always will be for the most part, keeping track of my mani's). But sometimes I stumble across polish sales or great finds.  In fact, not too long ago, I found a whole bunch of Essie's for $2.  But I recognize I'm slow to post and I may never do a post to let people know via the blog that there are $2 Essie's for sale. But it's easy enough to tweet about it in a few seconds. Same with the recent tweet about the Black Friday sales and the blogger who is compiling the list; or the info about the recently released Bunny Nails plates. I also do quite a bit of travelling around Ontario doing different things and thought I may share some of the pix of my travels that may not be nail blog material but may be of some interest.  The feed may even highlight other blogs or items/posts of interest out in the blogesphere. Things like this. While I haven't done a whole lot of tweeting, the intention is that it will be a mix of what I'm doing of interest (that may not be too much when you consider one tweet was me making rice crispy squares!) as well as some polish and/or plate news/commentary.  I don't expect that I'm going to get a huge Twitter following; that wasn't the intention, but more so to add it to the blog page just as a quick update to see what's currently happening if that makes sense!

Thanks for looking!

Gradient Holo

While I reallllllyyyyyy wanted to do my 70's inspired nails a couple nights ago when I did this mani (yes, I'm still going to do them even though I'm very late for the FB AiS challenge), I know that are going to be very bright and funky (well, that's what I have planned in my head; hopefully, bright and funky translates onto my nails too!), I thought they wouldn't be that appropriate for a work meeting I had to attend, so decided to do nails somewhat more subdued.  My first thought was a neutral holo with subtle stamping which is how the mani started.... but I went a little further.....this is how they ended!

Started with a base of two coats of Aly's Dream Polish Unbleached (#61).

While this is pretty enough and like I said, I was just going to do some simple stamping on top of it, I decided to do a holo gradient so added two coats of Aly's Dream Polish Copper (#64) two on two thirds of the nail.  (If I had have had more time, I would have sponged these gradients on for a more subtle line of polishes and a more blended in look, but I knew I'd be stamping over it and didn't have the time to wait for drying, etc. for the sponging.)

Added two coats of Aly's Dream Polish Cherry Coke (#32) at the tips.  This has no topcoat, nor was topcoat used in between layers.

After waiting about 15 minutes (including 5 minutes under a hand dryer), I stamped with black Konad special polish using SdP 92. 

Topped with SV (after terrible cleanup, I see!).

Here's the mani in different lighting.  I'm still wearing this mani today; these pix are more accurate in colour but don't show the holo as well.

A pix taken outside the next day.  The holo is much more pronounced than shown though.  Not a very good pix unfortunately.

Aly's Dream Polishes are sold here! 

Even though these may not be ultra professional....or even a business neutral nail, I work in a somewhat relaxed business atmosphere so can pretty much do anything for work.  In any event, I'm sure these nails would have been more subtle than the bright and funky 70's I wanted to do!

Have a fantastic weekend...thanks for looking!