Pop of Colour!

These bright dots give a nice pop of colour to these nails but I have to say, I like them without the dots too!

Started with a base of three coats of Cameo Colors Lacquer Denim Days, no top coat.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Stamped using image from SdP 72 using Painted Polish Blanc Slate.

Topped with KBShimmer to finish.

Except I wasn't finished!  Added a pop of colour using MdU 65.

Then finished with a final coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

 Thanks for looking!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  Today is all about love and no one plays a greater part in love than Cupid!  So this mani features Cupid spreading the love to everyone on this, (supposedly) the most romantic day of the year! (Well, not in my house, but that's besides the point! lol)   No matter how you are spending this day, may you have a good one!

Started with possibly the worst water marble ever using OPI Small+Cute=Love, OPI Look at My Bow!, Funky Fingers Gesso and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Red My Lips.  The water marble actually turned out good but then I kept on touching things and had to smoosh out the polishes to cover the bare spots but used them anyway as I was just wanting a mish mash polish base and thought I could work with it. Topped with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC before stamping.

I had made a couple stamper decals in advance.  These were three days old and very brittle; I had used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails as the clear coat and the smaller one ripped when I was taking it off the stamper head and larger one which I ended up using was very brittle with little bits falling off it during cleanup.  Next time, I'll just paint on the stamper and clear coat about an hour before using it.

Sugar Bubbles SB032

Cupid! from Infinity 138.  You might see at the cuticle how the decal was falling apart.

Infinity 138

Stamped using images from SdP 72 (cupid on index), Infinity 51 (words on index), Sugar Bubbles SB032 (middle), Big SdP U (ring) and Wistonia Wedding Bliss (pinky) using Funky Fingers Dark Knight.

Infinity 51

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

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Autumn; Day 4

It's Day 4 of Digit-al Dozen autumn week; today's mani features apple picking and the apple bounty as fall is harvest time in our area for apples.  In fact, I'm going to an orchird this weekend to get some (the ones already bagged; no hand picking for me!)  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of assortment of polishes; starting at thumb, they are China Glaze Bahamian Escape, then alternating OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and My Vampire is Buff.  Two coats, no top coat.

Did gradient on the thumb using CND Anchor Blue and top coated rest of the fingers.  (Please excuse all the fibres!)

I had made a stamper decal using an image from BundleMonster BM-H11 and acrylic paints.

Applied stamper decal to the index finger.  Then stamped images from Nailways Vive la Vie - Eat An Apple (middle), Messy Mansion MM23 (apples on ring), SdP 72 (part of cup from an image on ring to represent baskets), Dash 18 (pinky), Emily de Molly EDM 07 (tree on thumb) and MoYou Princess Collection 11 (kids on thumb).  Stamping polishes used were FUN red, and MdU #7 and #22.

Added apples to the ring and thumb using same FUN stamping polish and sun from EdM07 using MdU 11.

Nailsways Vive la Vie - Eat an Apple

Dash 18

EDM07

Added a few birds using Funky Fingers Dark Knight from MoYou Explorer Collection-10.

This is how it ended up!  

Top coated with Girly Bits What a Rush QD TC.  I noticed streaks through the images on several fingers; and unfortunately, this isn't the the first time I noticed it either.  Originally I thought it was from the scraper but I checked the pix I had taken and the streaks weren't in the stamped images before top coating.  I surmised even though I gooped on a good amount of TC that the brush bristles or something in the brush was causing this streaking as never had before.  

So I touched up the images (except the basket on the ring finger which I didn't see) and exchanged the brush with another part bottle I had and reapplied the TC and all seems well in top coat world again!

I should also point out that I had bought the clear stamper with the void at the bottom of the stamper so you can see exactly where the image is being stamped for placement purposes.  It is such a game changer in terms of stamping (for me anyway!).  I have read concerns about the stamper not picking up well or with it being fragile on FB (in fact, it comes with a note about it being fragile) but I've had no issues as of yet.  I didn't need to prime it at all, have used it on several mani's now with no problems on a variety of plates and even had to scrape off excess images off it with my fingernail with no ill effect to the stamper.  I myself didn't find it that fragile.  My only issue is I wish it was a little more crystal clear when you are looking through as its like looking down a scope and the image is a little distorted and it doesn't seem that the polish picked up too well but still workable and as you can see, the polish picks up fine.  I bought my clear jelly stamper here. Edit Oct 19 2015:  I was having some problems picking up some images with the stamper even though I had used it with no issues before.  I thought maybe it was a little finicky in that it will work with some plates but not others, but after some trial and error, discovered that it works best if you roll it to pick up the image, with a good amount of pressure.  Once I did this, no issues at all even on the plates I couldn't pick up before.  I still place and stamp down the image onto my nail for placement.  

Here's the other ladies Day 4 mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Does Neon; Day 1

Welcome back to Digit-al Dozen week!  This month's theme is neon!  Personally, I think it is awesome that neon is the theme in the midst of the summer; I've been wearing so many neon mani's over the last few weeks that I have a good dozen or more to pick from to share now.  Picking just five to is going to be hard...but I'm sure the rest will be shown at some time!  This is one of my favourite mani's that I've done in a long time, sharing now for Day 1!

Started with a base of two coats of KBShimmer For Sail by Owner, no topcoat, with an accent of two coats of KBShimmer Foiled, again, no top coat.

Did a sponged gradient using KBShimmer In Yacht Water.

I even did a little sponging on my Cinderella hand!

Top coated with KBShimmer Clearly on Top before stamping.

I initially wanted some nice tropical florals on this but couldn't find an image for what I had in mind, so went with SdP 72.

Added a couple of studs on accent and topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish. I chose yellow and green as the polishes were leaning more this way (to me anyway) than blue and green even though blue was sponged on.  Plus the colours are brighter!

Here's the other ladies Day 1 neon mani's!

An InLinkz Link-up

I will have to forewarn everyone that even though I mix up my mani's quite a bit day to day when I'm wearing them, it seems like for the neon ones, I did a lot of sponged gradients and lots of studs (which is no surprise to me as I'm loving the look of both right now!), but might be a little boring for sharing for the week but hopefully I'll be able to find enough variety to share....don't say you weren't warned lol!

Thanks for looking!

Blue Valentine's

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I thought I'd share some themed mani's. Here's one I came up with not too long ago!

Started with a base of two coats of Different Dimension Wave if You Sea Me, two coats, no topcoat.

Before stamping, added two...yes...two layers of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.  I knew I would be stamping with white stamping polish and blues (and purples and reds for that matter) sometimes have a tendency to have the base colour bleed through so wanted and then effecting the stamping polish, so wanted to (try to) make sure I had a good shield of topcoat between the base and stamping.  

Stamped using SdP 10 with an accent of SdP 72 using Funky Fingers Gesso.

Top coated with KBShimmer Clearly on Top to finish....and held my breath to see if the white stamping would change colour....but it didn't!  Unfortunately, I don't know if it was because of the two coats of top coat in between or if this happen to be a base that doesn't have the issue as not every blue, purple or red do this.  But none the less, I was happy the white stamping held fast! 

Different lighting; can see a bit more of the shimmer in the base a little better.

A couple days after I did these nails, I was organizing my stash a bit and came across Sinful Colors Blue by You and thought it looked close to Different Dimension Wave If You Sea Me, so decided to do a comparison.

It's hard to compare as the light hitting the swatch sticks isn't the same but they aren't 100% dupes, they are thisssss close; the shimmer in the Sinful was more abundant and the shading is just a smidgen different. (Well, smidgen to me; there might be those who have a better eye for this who say they aren't even close!)  

Sinful Color on the left; Different Dimension on the right.

Different Dimension on top; Sinful Colors on bottom.

Thanks for looking!