Spooky Spiders!

Maybe colourful, not so spooky!  Here's what I came up with!

I purposely wanted a mix of Halloween-ish colours but not all in the same finish, so went with this hodge-podge base but like it!  Polishes used, starting at th thumb and going clockwise, are MLF Lacquer Trick or Treat (Sept 2020 Polish Pickup), Girly Bits Stayin' Alive, Potion Polish Warts n All (LOVE THIS POLISH!!), Girly Bits Funky Town and Emily de Molly High Degree, no top coat.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped spider web and spider from MoYou Festive on the thumb using Painted Polish Midnight Mischief and the rest with DRK-A using Painted Polish Blanc Slate.

Added spiders using MoYou Festive 16 to all fingers except the thumb using Painted Polish Midnight Mischief.

Topped with a final coat of KBShimmer Clearlry on Top.

 Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Colours; Day 5

I was away for the weekend and didn't have a chance to share my day 5 mani for the colours challenge this month before I left.   But colour(ful) it is; here's what I came up with!

Started with a skittle base of Nine Zero Polishes; starting at thumb and going clockwise:  Pineapple Punch, Blueberry Acai, Matcha & Mint, Mango Sunrise and Watermelon Juice; all two coats, no top coat.  The shard flakes are as they fell from the brush after shaking; some I had pretty good coverage and others, not as much.  

 Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

 Stamped with image from DRK-A using FunkyFingers Dark Knight.  This wasn't the image I had planned on using but wanted something that I could see the shard  through and it was close by.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Hopefully you have enjoyed all the colour mani's this month!  Thanks again for looking!

Ever After Polish Diamonds Are Forever

I got this stunner at Indie Expo Canada as part of the VIP bag and while I wore it just a couple days after the event, I haven't gotten around to sharing it!  This is Ever After Polish Diamonds Are Forever, an IEC LE.

Started with a base of three coats of Ever After Polish Diamonds Are Forever, no top coat.  I did a quick check of the Ever After site and this polish is still available here.  

Topped with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

I didn't want to cover the gorgeous glitter base so picked this image from DRK-A using MdU 1.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

For those of you who didn't know, a date for Indie Expo Canada 2018 has been sent; mark your calendars for June 9 and 10, 2018!

Thanks for looking!

Bright Nails!

I did these out of character for me nails a couple days ago to match a fairly busy lemon/lime blouse I was wearing that had white, black and yellow accents.  Not sure if too over the top but I loved how these turned out anyway! Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of Misslyn Lemon Green, two coats.  This was a perfect match for my blouse!

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top before stamping.

I recently received the new FUN plates; this is FUN 26.  The image that first caught my eye was the first image on the second row on the left hand side so I knew I was going to use it.   

I thought the image from FUN 26 (shown on ring finger) would be too busy on all nails although originally I wanted to stamp only with it.  So I had the idea to do an assortment miss mash of images and see how it worked, so I went with it!  Plates used were FUN 26 (ring), Delaney Linges & Traits (pinky and index) and DRK A (middle and thumb).  I was kinda ticked at myself for having crooked lines on the index which can happen with a squishy stamper...and wouldn't you know it, it stamped straight as can be on Ms. Cindy. Grrr! I used MdU 2 for stamping polish and didn't do that great of a clean up job by the looks of it, so sorry!  But other stamping polishes didn't pick up that well for some images but MdU did the job!

 

Added a few yellow dots using CND Bicycle Yellow.

Then added a few white using Funky Fingers Gesso.

 

I didn't mind this, but then got the bright idea to add a few big yellow dots on ring; maybeeeee a bit over the top, but I loved how it looked anyway!  Then topped with KBShimmer to finish.

 

I really liked a few of these nails; the thumb, middle and ring are my faves and they gave me some mani inspiration for future manis!

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

CANVAS lacquer Nuit Blanche All Nighter

I have another mani featuring a polish sent for review from CANVAS lacquer; this time it's the gorgeous CANVAS lacquer Nuit Blanche All Nighter**!

Started with a base of two coats of CANVAS lacquer Nuit Blanche All Nighter with an accent of two coats of Orly Cashmere Cardigan; topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top. 

CANVAS lacquer Nuit Blanche All Nighter is a "purple jelly packed with small white hex, silver, holographic microglitter and turquoise hexes: as described on their shop....unfortunately, some of the larger turquoise hex glitters did curl; I contacted the ladies at CANVAS lacquer to let them know; they have decided to remove this version from their store, so it will no longer be available. Anyone who has purchased a bottle already are asked to contact them directly as they will be be offering a discount on the next purchase.  You can read their blog post about it here.  

Personally, I had no issue with this minor issue; it wasn't noticeable.  Like a lot of glitters, this was a top coat eater; before stamping, I only did one topcoat as I knew I'd be adding another layer after stamping.  If you were going to wear this alone, I would suggest a coat of Gelous followed by another coat of top coat for a smooth as glass finish; or your normal way for addressing top coat eaters.  That's what I do but I do know others use other methods.  But my finished nails two days later are smooth, no issue, even with the curl. 

Like I said, I knew I'd be adding some stamping; after searching through my plate stash for what seemed like hours and hours (this was the night I tweeted I was up til 1:30 am because I spent so long searching for the perfect image to use!), I decided upon an image from DRK A which would allow the base to shine through, then stamped using Mundo de Unas 16 that I picked purposely to match the accent polish and I think it's pretty close!   

Added a gold gem to the accent nail (I really need to watch a tutorial on adding these for some tips!) and top coated again to finish.

CANVAS lacquer polishes are available via their Etsy shop here; there is a 10% discount until December 31st using the code HOLICAN10.  Anyone who is local to the GTA can purchase CANVAS lacquer products by stopping by a local pop up event on December 6th from 11 am to 6 pm at 224 Wallace Avenue, Unit 104 in Toronto.  Please check out You Can Keep It! Holiday Pop Up for more information!  

Thanks for looking!

**polish provided for review; please refer to disclosure policy

Valentine's Day Mani

Quickly before I forget, a winner has been chosen for the CNF giveaway posted here!  The email has gone out and the winner has 48 hours to respond...so if you entered, please check your email!  Thanks! 

Is it too early for a Valentine's Day mani?  I hope not because I have quite a few to share already and with World Cancer Day, Groundhog Day, Olympics, Chinese New Year and the Super Bowl all happening between now and February 14th, I'll be doing well to get the ones I already have posted before February 14.....not to mention any new ones I put on my nails between now and then! So this is the first of a few that will be shown over the next few weeks!



Started with a base of two coats of Kiko Sugar Mat 452 on all fingers except accent which is WingDust Collections Muskoka Sunset, which I think accents the hot pink Kiko nicely with the hot pink glitter in it!  I have to thank a very generous nail friend overseas for this awesome Kiko polish which was received as part of a group Christmas Secret Santa exchange.



Closer look at Kiko Sugar Mat 452.  There is golden shimmer in there too but it wasn't that obvious until the polish was top coated but you can somewhat see the sparkle in the bottle.



Stamped with an assortment of plates using white Konad special polish; BM-317 (index), DRK-A (thumb and middle), and MJ (no number; one of the original MJ plates; pinky).



Topped with SV to finish (the golden shimmer in the Kiko is more obvious once top coated as you can see below).



While I was liking how this turned out, I thought the ring finger needed some stamping, so added an image from Chez Divers 001 on accent and topped with SV to finish....really this time!



Hope you are having a great week...and thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen; Fashion, Day 4

I'm not terribly into fashion, so when I was surfing the net for inspiration for another fashion mani, I Googled famous dresses.  Didn't see anything too exciting (or at least something I thought I might be able to stamp close enough to resemble one!) so then did a search for Oscar dresses....a pix came up on the results (even though it wasn't worn at the Oscar's!) that I decided to use for inspiration; here's what I came up with.

This was the dress I used as inspiration, a Carolina Herrara dress worn by Lucy Liu at the 2012 Golden Globes.

Started with a base of two coats of Sinful Colors Sugar High, topped with SV.  The base isn't as close in these pix as I wanted; obviously there are some screen colour variations as when I was doing this mani last night using a pix I had picked on my iphone, the base was bang on but these pix, my base isn't nearly light enough. Or could be my camera/lighting.

Stamped leaves from plate MM07 using Sally Hansen Insta-dri Jumpin' Jade. (Really liking the mani just like this!)

Plate pix of MM07.

While I fully intended to use the assortment of single roses in different sizes from this plate, when I did a test stamp on a nail on my right hand, I wasn't liking how the rose looked.  Decided upon an image from DRK-A and then stamped random roses throughout using FUN stamping polish in Mango Shake and a franken made by mixing Konad pastel orange and pastel pink special polishes. ( I dabbed a bit of both directly on the image plate, mixed up a little using an orange stick, then scraped and stamped.)

Topped with SV.  (See the shimmer in Jumpin' Jade once it's top coated; it's most noticeable on the middle finger...love it!)



Here's the other ladies Day 4 Fashion mani's.





Thanks for looking!

A Couple Fails

I'm sure we all have them; nail fails....these are a couple of mani's that just didn't float my boat but thought I would share anyway. 

DS Shimmer should fix everything...and while it saved this mani somewhat, it still was a fail to me.  Started with a base of two coats of Quo by Orly Social Butterfly.  This is two coats; no topcoat.  I was disappointed from the get go with this polish; I was sooo hoping that the beautiful shimmer in the bottle would show up on my nails, but it never.  If you click on the pix, you can see the shimmer in the bottle and that was really what I was hoping to see on my nails, but nope.

Then it dried matte-like....and while I'm generally a fan of matte, I wasn't into this AT ALL.  Maybe because I was still missing the shimmer....

The failures continue....stamped using Konad special polish in royal purple using an image from DRK-A which would have been OK except my stamping *skill* (and I say that loosely!), alluded me and had a mis-stamp of some sort on most fingers.  Look quickly and then look away!

The thumb was particularly bad but my strategic camera pix placement hid most of it! I tried to save the mani with OPI DS Shimmer (which is the first pix), because, let's face it, DS Shimmer makes everything awesome.  It helped a little, but still, fail to me.

Another mani I had high hopes for, but was less than thrilled with the results.  Boring, mis-stamped...*sigh*

Started with a base of two coats of NYX Girls Muted Lavender; no top coat.

I've seen lots of mani's stamped successfully with Color Club Wild at Heart, so I thought I'd try it myself; but no holo shimmer in the stamping and stamping fail on several fingers again.  The plate used was Pueen 18. 

Finished with SV which is the first pix shown.  Let's say it all together now.....F A I  L.

Well, I guess they can't all be winners...and don't I know it.  The only good thing about fails, is that it's just polish...easily removed and there's a new canvass for the next mani...which hopefully isn't a fail!

Have a great weekend!

Edit:  I thought I'd share this too....for those of you who are like me and don't have access to Color Club nail polishes and were looking for the 2013 Halo Hues, Nail Polish Canada now has them in stock!  While I was able to get the 2012 collex at a local retail store, Designer Cosmetics, I've called them umpteen times since they've been released, so often I'm sure they were sick of hearing from me and they have never been in stock (not to mention that this would only help out those in the GTA anyway)....but they are now available at Nail Polish Canada!