Dotty for Fall!

Here's another fall mani; I love how neutral it looks with even muted pops of colour; really different from the rest of the fall nails I've shared so far.  I was pretty happy too because every polish used for this mani is regular nail polish; nice to see that you don't always have to use 'stamping polishes' to create cool nails.  (Nail pictures have been taken in shade and sun; they are interchanged in the post in case you wonder why the polishes/skin tone is slightly different.)  Here's what I came up with!

 

Started with a base of Sally Hansen Insta-dri Sand Storm; two coats, no top coat. 

Stamped using UberChic Lovely Leaves.  The thumb is KleanColor Fashionista with Sally Hansen Insta-dri polishes Lightning, Lickety-Split Lime, Snappy Sorbet and an unnamed red.  The rest of the fingers stamped with KleanColor Military Green and Fashionista.  Shown topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

I didn't mind this but you know me; busy nails is my middle name!  So added dots using same Sally Hansen Insta-dri polishes; also added some more leaf dots to the thumb.  Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

I like the dot version slightly better than the muted neutrals but all in all, really liked how both of them turned out!

I still haven't seen any leaves turning colour yet; but I expect it will happen in the next few weeks!  

Have a wonderful weekend.

Digit-al Dozen Does Vintage; Day 5

I'm late again with getting my post up...but better than never as the saying goes!  I did the vintage video game Pacman for the last day of the Digit-al Dozen Vintage challenge.

I couldn't find my regular go-to black base polish, FingerPaints Black Expressionism (that may have to do with the fact the DD's go-to mani colour lately is black and I have a sneaky suspicion it's up in her bedroom), so did a coat of Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris which was a horrible mess of a polish.  Found another black polish, KleanColor Black and added it on top, topped with SV to finish.

Added images from Handy 31 (middle and words on pinky) and Handy 32 (thumb, ring and pinky). Used Mundo de Unas stamping polishes; no. 4 (light blue), 30 (darker blue), 11 (yellow), 15 (pink) and 13 (orange).



Handy  31


Handy 32


Hand painted the orange ghost on the index finger using Mundo de Unas no. 13.


I've had these cool googly eyes for a while and finally had a chance to use them.  For applying them, my first instinct was to topcoat them like a rhinestone but thought that wouldn't work, so top coated the ring finger and set the eyes in the topcoat to hold them there.  Added random dots using same stamping colours and topped with SV as well.



Ms. Pacman and Pacman barely fit on my nails and the cute bow I added isn't that visible so I took a pix so it can be seen a little better.



I'm not sure how long these googly eyes will stay on my nails; my bet with the hubs is at least one of them will be gone by morning lol!


Here's the other ladies Day 5 fabulous vintage mani's.  This week, there has been a wide variety of vintage mani's...always so interesting to see everyone's interpretation of the theme and the ladies always nail it!

An InLinkz Link-up

Hope you're having a fantastic weekend; thanks for looking!

Stamped Liquid V

Thanks to everyone who participated in my giveaway...and I'd like to especially thank and welcome those who started following AFTER my giveaway was over....as much as I appreciate everyone checking out my blog and joining to be able to enter the contest, its nice to see those join simply for the sake of wanting to check it out "just because".  Thanks too for your comments...I have been reading them along the way and do appreciate the time you took to add a few words!
  

I've been too busy verifying entries etc for the giveaway to do a new mani, so this post is taken from the archives.....I did this mani about a month ago now....Maybelline Fuchsia Fever with a coat of Lynnderella Liquid Valentine. 

Started with a base of two coats of Maybelline Fuchsia Fever. 

Love this!  The purple/blue shimmer is absolutely amazing!  Can you believe I found this for 50 cents when I was checking out a local supply place and spotted it in a random polish bin?  I was actually on the hunt for KleanColor Wild Rose after seeing Steffel's blog post  with it along with Liquid Valentine (she posted on March 13th and I did this mani on March 15th...I really liked her mani obviously!).....there's only a couple places in my area that sell KleanColor and I was at one of them looking for it.  I didn't find KC Wild Rose but I found Fuchsia Fever instead...I think that Steffel's version is so much nicer...but if you can't find the polish, what's a girl to do?

Layered with a coat of Lynnderella Liquid Valentine.

Enough said.

I wore this for a day or two before I decided to stamp it....but in the meanwhile, I had a really peely thumb nail so I decided to cut it...as you can see here.

Yikes....not pretty at all...that's why you've seen all these pix in past posts with my funny, short thumb! Or it was missing from so many pix!  Anyway, after a lot of thought and consideration...well, because its a sin to stamp on top of a Lynnderella, you know....I decided to give it a whirl using KleanColor black polish, CH11. 

Please excuse the tip wear!  It was great to see the layering of the Maybelline and Lynnderella through the stamped image.....minus the short thumb!  

I'll post the giveaway winners as soon as I can ...I live a busy life, have workaholic tendencies (when I'm not surfing the internet checking out nail blogs!)....it takes me time to check out YOUR blogs, be an active part of the nail art community...which I do try to do..take time to time to do my nails....and in between I have to sleep and eat!

Thanks for looking!

Pot of Gold At the end of the Rainbow

Green isn't one of my favourite colours...so I had to be a little creative coming up with a St. Patrick's Day mani without painting green on every nail. I thought of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow would be a little colourful...here's what I came up with.



Base polishes used starting at thumb are OPI What's Dune? over two coats of OPI Bride's Bouquet, then Catherine Arley 803, Catherine Arley 674, Catherine Arley 673 and Catherine Arley 800, all two coats except 674 which was three. Finally cracked open my Catherine Arley's after all this time.



Stamped rainbows onto the nails using KleanColor black with plate Big SdP A.



My stamping failed me at the top of the middle finger plus a few other spots so I took a fine brush and hand painted in the lines. Not a fantastic job, but passable....from a distance!



Then I hand painted the cauldron for the pot of gold....this is why I don't do free hand art! lol! I stamped a shamrock too using XL F using A-England Saint George but it stamped fainter than I wanted so I did hand painted another coat of the polish over the design freehand.



Added a dab of Color Club Gingerbread Man for the gold.



Then decided a wanted some gold coins; used Nubar gold glitters and put them in the pot.



To prevent the faint holo from fading even more, I used a light coat of Sally Hansen Clear Hardener which is suppose to not kill the holo...not that it mattered in this case as the scattered holo is so faint to begin with. It was interesting to see that I had a little drag on the areas I hand painted....not sure why as the coat of SH was thin plus a good amount of time had passed since I had drawn in the lines.




Thanks for looking!

Butter London Knackered

As soon as I seen the promotional shots of the Butter London Spring/Summer 2012 polishes, I knew I wanted them all! So imagine my excitement when I was contacted by Nail Polish Canada asking if they could kindly send me two for review*. They even let me pick which two polishes I would like to receive.....this is Butter London Knackered, one of my favourites from the collex!



Duochrome! Holo! Love!

Three coats with no base polish or topcoat as I wanted to get a good idea of what it looked like without one. I think the next time I use it, I'm going to layer it on top of a base as the polish is sheer; however, application was good and cleanup a cinch as it is on the thin side.

While I could go on about how Knackered shifts from purple, to green, to pink and silver....AND with the added bonus holo glitter mixed in, I think this is one of those times that it's best to let the pictures do the talking!











Nail Polish Canada is currently running a promotion** to win the entire Spring/Summer 2012 Butter London polish line for free (a $85 value).......please go here to check it out!



Of course, I couldn't resist adding some stamping! As I always SV a mani after polishing and before stamping, I forgot that I didn't in this case..so the base wrinkled a bit on a finger or two when I stamped it as not enough time had passed to allow the polish to dry without any quick dry topcoat. Oops! It was pretty none the less...I got a lot of compliments on this...wrinkles and all! It was great to still see the colour shifting and holo of Knackered even with the stamping on top.



Stamping plates used were DRK-A and Konad m20 using KleanColor black for stamping. (So far, so good using KleanColor for stamping as it stamped clear, dark and no drag!)

Canadian nail fanatics will know that Butter London is not that readily available in Canada so it is great to see that Nail Polish Canada carries Butter London (they also just launched Nfu oh this week as well....AND they ship to Canada and USA for anyone out there still looking for the amazing Nfu oh #51!)

Hope you have a great weekend and thanks for looking!

*products used were sent to me for review; please refer to disclosure policy.
**promotion is open to Canadian residents (except where prohibited by law) and ends April 30, 2012!

Stamping Polish Comparisons

As happy as I am with the stamping results using Konad black special polish, I'm not generally happy with the cleanup, which is rarely 100% plus it has a tendency to drag probably more than any of the other Konad polishes. I've been wondering if there are other black polishes that work well for stamping. I took note of various comments on my blog (thanks Bunny Nails for mentioning KleanColor because I never would have thought about this one!) as well as seen what some others were using for stamping polishes; either swapped or bought them and decided to see if there was an alternative to Konad.



For this comparison, I used (left to right below) black Konad special polish, KleanColor Black, Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris, FingerPaints Black Expressionism and Essence Stamping polish.



For this stamping experiment, I used FingerPaints Blue Raspberry Taffy (blue) and Misa Without Airs Orange (orange) as the base. Initially, I was planning to do an Aztec theme but when I discovered that the Misa had a shimmer, I wasn't too keen on finishing it for some reason....this is why the plates you're going to see are Aztec themed for the stamping comparison as I already had them picked out for the mani! This is two coats of FingerPaints Blue Raspberry Taffy from their Gumdrops and Lollipops collection and three of Misa Without Airs Orange. (As a side note, I did have skin staining with Blue Raspberry Taffy; if you decide to pick it up, you may wish to be careful with removal.)



Stamped images in same order; starting at thumb: black Konad special polish (Big SdP C), KleanColor Black (Big SdP C), Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris (Big SdP B), FingerPaints Black Expressionism (Big SdP F) and Essence Stamping polish (XL A)...in hindsight, I guess the fairest comparison would have been using all the same image plate...unfortunately, I didn't think of this at the time!



So you could see how dark the stamping polish is, I purposely left it without cleanup. I also wanted to apply the topcoat fairly fast to see if there was any topcoat drag so didn't want to take the time for cleanup at this point to see if they did drag while relatively wet...the only delay was the time taken to snap a couple pictures. I used SV, which is the topcoat I use 99% of the time. Pix below is with topcoat.



I didn't see any visible signs of SV drag on any nails.

The above pictures are on my left hand; on my right hand, I alternated the base colours but kept the stamping colours in the same order, just to see if there was any stamping colour difference, but the results appear to be consistent with the left (ie WnW is still faint).



These are my comments/observations generally on all the polishes I tried:

Konad: I generally buy Konad online for $6.99 as it is $10-$12 at local stores; however, its not that handy for me to buy (flea markets in other towns). Stamping results: Konad stamped crisp, clear and the darkest image of all polishes tested. Cleanup: While it seems I didn't do too bad of a job clean up in this pix and there doesn't seem to be any leftover residue of stamping polish on the skin, I know this always isn't the case from past results as sometimes no matter how much time I spend with clean it up, it stays in the small fine lines in my skin...it also took the most amount of time to clean up in this pix but at least it cleaned up well! Drag: no visible drag in this test (but prone to drag from past experience). I usually wait a bit before topping with SV to ensure stamping polish is good and dry before applying SV to hope to eliminate drag...but even then, sometimes it happens!

KleanColor: Pricing was $2 in my area for a bottle. Availability: There's only two stores that sell KC in my area; the one didn't have KC black in stock; second one did and its pretty close to my house. I'm guessing KC should be found easily online too at reasonable pricing if needed. Stamping results: Stamped dark and fairly crisp, just a smidgen less in darkness and crispness than Konad. Cleanup: No issues at all with cleanup. Drag: No issues with drag. (Additional comments: I wonder if the bottle was left with the lid off for a bit if the polish would thicken to see if stamping results would be better? Because this polish is thinner than Konad, slightly better results may be achieved if it sits on the plate momentarily to dry which sometimes helps with better stamping results. Also, would like to monitor for SV drag because it would be a great plus not to have to worry about drag when applying the topcoat. I also have to recognize that while there is missing pieces of the stamped image on my finger, this may be the design plate and not to say I wouldn't have the same results with Konad as it happens with Konad polish too...sometimes this is remedied by just scraping side to side or down to up.)

Wet n Wild: Pricing was $1.49 for a bottle. Availability: locally sold at Walmart; lots in stock. Stamping results: Stamped the faintest of all polishes; wasn't even dark. Cleanup: No issues at all. Drag: No issues with drag. Additional comments: I have to say I was surprised the most with the results...or lack thereof...from this polish as I've read so often about gals using this for stamping polish but the stamped image is not very dark at all. Terrible brush; wouldn't even want to use this polish as a base polish. Maybe if I need a black to ever franken with I might use this polish. This would be my last choice ever because its just not a good dark stamped image. In fact, if this was my go to black stamping polish...I'd pick another stamping colour.

FingerPaints: Pricing was $5.99 for a bottle (slightly less with Sally's card). Availability: locally sold at Sally's; part of core line; usually in stock. Stamping results: fairly faint for a black but passable. Cleanup; no issues at all. Drag: No issues with drag. Additional comments: Wild card here; I actually bought this as an alternative to black base for manis as I heard it was a one coater and was pleasantly surprised that it stamped OK....maybe a good polish to take on holiday as serves two purposes for base and stamping! On the thin side; maybe another polish to try again if the lid is left off to let it thicken again? The stamped image shadowed which is because its a thinner polish; may be remedied by the polish sitting a bit on the image plate before scraping which sometimes helps.

Essence Stamping Polish: I don't actually know pricing as I received this in a swap. Availability: Not available in my area at all. Stamping results: OK for a fairly thin polish; not as good as Konad or KC. Cleanup: no issues at all. Drag: no issues with drag. Additional comments: Surprised it stamped so dark given that it is a fairly thin polish. Small sized bottle. Probably will never have another bottle as not available in my area at all so probably out of luck once this bottle runs out!



Results? I guess it will depend if stamped image is more important or the cost of the stamping polish! I think that based upon stamping results, availability, pricing, quality of stamping image, etc, the best overall polish would be KleanColor Black....that being said, I'll probably stick to Konad strictly because personally, I'd rather pay the extra and order online for the crisp clear stamping results of Konad! Also, while Konad cleanup takes longer and sometimes stays visible in my clean up pix, keep in mind that this isn't nearly as visible to the human eye as people aren't looking at your nails in macro view and immediately after stamping! As I take these pix mainly late at night, by the time I shower the next morning, there's little stamping polish left visible. All this being said, and as this is the first and only time I've used KleanColor to stamp, I'm going to use it more for stamping to get a good feel with how it stamps...because its available locally and less than a third of the price of Konad...and if I can get it to stamp well and it has no drag, it may be my next go to stamping polish...unless I find something better in the next round of comparison stamping that is!

Have you tried these polishes? Are your results the same or not? Just curious.....its always interesting to hear what others think...just like one person may prefer Poshe topcoat and the next SV if you know what I mean! Do you use any of these for stamping? If not, do you have any other suggestions? There's still a few black polishes I've yet to compare being Beautiful Scratchers black, Sally Hansen Black Out, Wet n Wild Black Creme and CND Blackjack. I think Fab Ur Nails also has a black stamping polish; I'm probably going to order it too whenever I get around to placing my order as I want to try a few of those stamping polishes.

I have a few different white polishes to try as well; KleanColor white, Sally Hansen White Out, Beautiful Scratchers white, Essence stampy white polish...do you know of any others that work well and may be an alternative to Konad? I'd love to know your thoughts!

Thanks for looking!

I was the recipient of a RAOK this morning....

....I start most days by going to my local Tim Hortons for my morning coffee. This morning when I drove up to the drivethru window to pay, the cashier told me that the car in front of me had paid for my coffee! Wasn't that nice? I was expecting to pay for my coffee anyway, so I paid for the car behind me....I always wonder how far these things go as I've participated in this type of random act of kindness before but of course, you're never around to see how long it lasts. Anyway, it was a very nice way to start my day!

This is the mani I've been wearing for the last few days.



I've been challenging myself to see how many different combination of colours, stamping polishes, etc. that I could come up with using image plates that are full size but you can see the base colour well and then play with dotting, etc. (I've also been fiddling around with my camera settings as all my pix lately seem like I have lobster hands so sorry about the various colour variations; not all them are true to life).

Started with a base of CND Sweet. This is one coat.



Added a second coat of CND Sweet on ring finger and then a coat of KleanColor Pink holo on the rest.



Stamped, using white Konad special polish using CH12. (These pix going forward are very close to colour accurate).



For whatever reason, when I usually do this type of mani, I typically do a creme base with a holo accent finger; then add dot interest with the holo polishes. This time I did it different...holo base with creme accent and then did dot interest with the creme polish just to see what it looked like. So here's CND Sweet dotted randomly into the flowers petals.



Then KC Pink Holo dotted onto the accent creme nail.



Lastly, dotted flowers using light gray Konad stamping polish.



Topped with a coat of SV.



Natural light pix taken the next morning.



Just before I took it off last night, I decided to matte it using Essie Matte About You...this was very cool...maybe the version I liked the most! (please excuse the tip wear; this was after 3 days!).



Hopefully these mani's aren't boring you...but these type of mani's that you can use a stamp that you can see the base colour well, and then funky it up a bit are just up my alley lately!

But I'm sure this will be changing as St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner!

Thanks for looking!