Layering, Gradients, Flakies and Dots --Oh My!

These nails have a whole lot going on!  Accent nails, layering, flakies, stamped gradients, three different polishes, three different stamping polishes, two different plates, a mix of newer indie polish, newer drug store brand and 'vintage' polish......sometimes it's not so obvious how much goes into doing nail art!  But I think they turned out pretty cool despite so much going on!  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of Maybelline Express Finish Exu-blue-rant with accent of Essie Expressie Air Dry.  Essie is just out and the Maybelline is probably on the 'vintage' side as far as polishes go.

Topped the navy nails with Fancy Gloss Rainbow Moonstone, a current indie polish - layering and flakies.  The gray were topped with Fancy Gloss Fire & Ice.  Those accent nails are drool worthy!

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Did a stamped gradient on the accent nails using UC 1-03 using Painted Polish Blanc Slate, Deux 2.0 and Stamped in Taro.

Stamped the rest of the nails using same stamping polishes, with an image from Creative Shop 171.

Creative Shop 171.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Rainforest: Day 3

Sorry I'm late for Day 3 of Digit-al Dozen rainforest nails; unfortunately, life got in the way!  Today, I'm sharing these gorilla nails; I was pretty happy how they turned out!  

Started with a base of Quo by Orly Nude, two coats.

Sponged on American Apparel Army Jacket, American Apparel MacArthur, Maybelline Go Go Green and Essence Walk On The Wild Side.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

My nails are fairly long here (for me, anyway!) and I was itching to cut them down but had planned this mani in advance a while ago.  (It may seem odd to plan in advance for some, but I know what the DD challenges are and some other things I participate in, so I go through all my plates every so often and pull them and gather ideas of what I'm doing to do, say even for mani themes months in advance!) So I had been waiting until they got a good length so that the thumb image from Bundle Monster S153 would fit.  I was in luck as it justtttt fit.  Added accent images from MoYou Literature Collection-08; both images using Funky Fingers Dark Knight.

Bundle Monster BM-S153

MoYou Literature Collection-08

Stamped pinky and middle finger using an image from Delaney Feuillages A001 using MdU 7.

Delaney Feuillages A001.  (I was into a lot of the images on this plate; I used quite a few of them to accent Ms. Cindy on quite a few days!)

Using same image and a clear stamper, placed foliage around the index and ring finger.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish.

Well, I thought I was finished but the next morning I thought adding more gorilla images would be cool, so stamped them on all fingers using same image from MoYou Literature-08.

Did a finish with matte to cut down the glare!

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

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

P.S. Immediately after these nails were done, I cut down my nails....too long! lol

P.S.S. I look that that thumb image and all I can see is sad gorilla...am I the only one?

Digit-al Dozen Does 4; Day 3

My apologizes for not getting my Digit-al Dozen posts posted sooner; I had the mani's done for our weekly challenge but didn't have time to do the posts due to being busy with life and work, then getting ready for PolishCon!  This is another mani with four polishes used in total.

Started with a base of two coats of Pure Ice Bikini; shown below with no top coat.

Did a sponged gradient using Pure Ice Bikini and Piggy Polish Sleeping Blue-ty.

Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

Stamped using Maybelline Navy Narcissist using an image from Star Nails.

Star Nails

So if you are counting, that is three polishes used so far.  For the fourth polish, added a few dots using FunkyFingers Gesso.



Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC to finish.



Here's the other ladies Day 3 mani's related to 4!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does NEW & Improved; Day 5

This is what I came up with for Day 5 of Digit-al Dozen week with the theme of new and improved although I'm a couple days late in sharing.  I did another new to me technique; being the dental floss method; here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of OPI Boyfriend Scales Walls; two coats then top coated (no pix as have shared before).  For the dental floss method, you use these dental floss picks.

I brushed paint across the floss and then you place it horizontally on your nail.  

This is what I ended up which is a total fail for the method as it is suppose to be crisp, clean lines.  But what I got instead was blurs of lines.  Every time I put the dental floss down on the nail, it kinda skidded and did this blur thing.  I think it might have been because of the top coat making it too slick but not sure.  Also, my dental floss had some play and wasn't a tight string and I think that also stopped it from making crisp lines.

I didn't mind this end result though; it reminded me of an abstract water colour or something.  This was sky and trees for my airplane base.  Polishes used are Nicole by OPI Blue Baby, SpaRitual Circle of Life, Kit Teal Tango, piCture pOlish Sky, Essence The Green and the Grunge and Maybelline Go Go Green.

Top coated with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.

I made a stamper decal using Messy Mansion MM35.

I had this big stamper that I got from Messy Mansion; its really the only stamper that I have that is big enough to stamp this image but unfortunately, it doesn't work that well which is why Messy Mansion was including them free with orders.

This was the stamped image.  I attempted to make a stamper decal by topping with Sally Hansen Hard as Nails; however, I couldn't get the image off the stamper at all.

Then I made a decal on the UberChic mat.

I cut the decal into sections so it could fit on the nails, then applied them.

I also made a stamper decal using Chez Delaney Back to the 50'x 001 and applied it to the thumb.

Finished by adding a coat of OPI matte. (I just looked at this and realized the ring finger image is upside down; I couldn't figure out why the plan propellers don't match up then seen the wheel in the air!  On the pix above, it is upside down too and should have been flipped.  Doh!)

As challenging as this week has been, it has been interesting using all the new to me techniques; when I was commenting on the other ladies manis, I also realized there are oh, so many more techniques I have not yet tried.  Hopefully, I'll go out of my comfort zone and try even more of these techniques at some time.

Here's the other ladies Day 5 mani's.

An InLinkz Link-up

This mani is also doing double duty for the things that fly theme for 40 Great Nail Art ideas; here's the other ladies nails!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

825 Days Old

I'm away having an extra long weekend, having taken off Thursday and Friday this week.  I actually have an internet connection and time to post which doesn't always happen when I'm away. So sitting down to do a post, I'm looking through the 75 mani's I've uploaded and are in archives for posts only to discover that due to my iphone sync nightmare with DD's phone a few months ago, I have no notes on most of those that I have archived to share for a post.  (I actually paid to recover them but don't have the printed notes with me). Anyway, I was able to find notes on this mani so will share now....this mani happens to be 825 days old now according to my iphone notepad!

Started with a base of two coats of Maybelline Color Show Styled Out; no top coat.

Stamped using an image from Dash 31 (not sure which stamping polish but I'm guessing back then it was white Konad special polish).

Added dots using Sally Hansen Instadri Lightening.

Top coated to finish.

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for looking!