Digit-al Dozen, Bling; Day 4

Does this look blingy?  Struggling with the theme of bling, I googled bling to see the definition and to make sure I'm following the theme; in the process, seen bling means flashy too; I think the holo in this mani is pretty flashy...so decided to post this mani as part of bling week!

Started with a base of Jade Holografico Uau! two coats, no topcoat.  This is a polish I lemmed for so long!  I missed a couple restocks on llarowe and I thought I'd never have it in my stash but was able to snag it eventually one of them!  I adore this polish; can't wait to do some Halloween/fall mani's with it several months from now too! I've since picked up a few other orange holo polishes; I could do a comparison some time but don't think I'd have anything to add from what The Crumpet mentioned/compared here.

The first mani that came to mind when I had this polish on was the stamped butterfly wing design.  I'd never used this design before and going over my stamping plates, there are a few different butterfly wing options. 

Apipila 03

NailCraze 01

Vivid Lacquer 002 and 004.

I looked at them all and was trying to figure out what plate(s) would work best for my nails as well as trying to figure out how best they should be placed.  It was a bit of a challenge to be honest; some of the large designs looked too big even for my largest nails but the smaller images, too small for the larger nails like the thumb and middle. After some analysis, I ultimately decided to use the NailCraze plate.  Even when it was stamped, it seemed a little on the large size for my nails or I lined it up wrong, who knows.  Anyway, here's what it looked like after stamping.

Not perfect by any means.  But no worries!  Grabbed a fine brush and just painted in the lines and filled where I thought it should be!

Another pix with different lighting.

Added assortment of white dots with a dotting tool using white Konad special polish. 

I had been given a bottle of HongKong Girl topcoat by one of my local supply places.  It was mentioned by a gal on one of the boards that it dries pretty fast, has high gloss finish, no shrinkage or image smear issues with stamping, so I thought I'd try it.  I must say that I've been sampling it for a few mani's since and haven't had any smear issues nor any shrinkage that I can recall.  But I rarely do anymore with SV either.  I don't think it dries quite as fast as SV but any difference was minimal.

I wore this mani for a few days; here's a pix later when I was outside. These pix look a little better as less black stamping polish at the cuticles lol!

A rare pix of my right hand; for this hand, I used the Apipila plate.

I must say that this mani was very eye catching and flashy; I got a lot of compliments during the time I was sporting these butterfly wings.  This is sure to be a mani I'll be doing again; and maybe then, I'll have figured out how to place the wing stamping a little better...or I'll be filling in with a brush again!

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

Thanks for looking!

Digit-al Dozen Animal Week; Day 1

The challenge this month for the Digit-al Dozen is animals; this is the first mani I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of Essie Jazz. 

Now, this next pix will make no sense at all because I messed up the mani (this whole mani was a mess and to be honest, I almost didn't post it...)  because I did a sponge gradient but when I did, I did it upside down!  So the blue was at the tips and the brown was at the cuticles, which wasn't in the plan. And I had all five fingers done before I realized my mistake believe it or not! So I took both colours and sponged them on again; the blue is Essie Borrowed and Blue.  A couple fails here; there are big ol' fibres in both the middle and index finger and the sponging turned out all lumpy and gritty looking on a couple fingers.  I didn't mind the gritty look so much as I thought it would add to the look of sand which was my intention, but I still don't know if the lumps were part of my sponge, or from over sponging and not waiting for the base to dry fully.

Topped with SV.

Added in mountains from fauxnad m50 using Konad black gold special polish. I messed up the middle stamping so drew it in with a brush but ultimately removed some of it because it didn't make sense what I did! I had a really hard time stamping in these mountains straight...you may or may not be able to see the behind the mountain on the middle finger where the base is thin from me removing it and taking some base off in the process.  I was pretty fed up by this point and all I could think of was I sure hope I have another mani in archives to use for the challenge as this one is a disaster!  And the mountains have lots of stamping fails in general. *sigh*

Stamped in dinosaurs.  Plates used were hot topic (thumb), SdP 46 (brown one on index), unnamed OMG XL (middle) SdP 49 (ring) and VL 002 (small on pinky and black one on index).  The stamping polishes used where Konad black and brown and I mixed them for a custom one on the thumb.  Really messed up the placement of the dinosaur on the thumb but couldn't correct it easily so by default, it was left in.

Added sun using Konad yellow special polish from fauxnad m50.  Also added a couple birds from H18 using black Konad special polish.

Zoya Pixie Dust in Godiva was added at tips to mimic sand then did some free hand grass using green and apple green Konad special polishes.

Decided to add snow to the peaks of the mountains so free handed white caps to them using white Konad special polish.  Also added some random grass to the mountains using apple green Konad special polish too.

 My fave digit; I think because I like the look of the mountains the best! Too bad about mis-stamping the dinosaur is right into the mountains; not very good placement at all.  It was just part and parcel of this whole mani which was one fail after another! 

Topped with SV.  I prefer the look of the mani without SV as I think it gives it more character, but its very odd to me not to topcoat a mani, so did it.

Despite so many fails along the way with this mani, it didn't turn out too badly! 

Thanks for looking....and don't forget to check out the other ladies mani's which are spectacular!