Digit-al Dozen Does Texture; Day 5

For the final day of Digit-al Dozen texture challenge, I went with something not very typical for me as I don't use nail vinyls very often.  I may have used them 3-4 times and with varying degrees of success.  While these aren't perfect either, I do like how they turn out and they got me to thinking I should use nail vinyls more often!  Here's what I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats each of Pahlish Rusalka, Rusalka with accent of FingerPaints Midas Touch, no top coat.  This is another instance when one good coat of the texture polish would have made the texture more visible as the second coat seems to lose some of the textured look.  But I do love how Midas Touch was a pretty good match to the gold flakies in the Pahlish!  After I did these base coats, I watched TV for an hour or so to give all fingers a good amount of time to dry as I knew I was applying nail vinyls.  The last time I using nail vinyls, the base coat of the polish came off with the vinyl as they hadn't dried enough and I didn't want to run into that issue again!

Topped the non texture nails with a coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Applied nail vinyls to middle and thumb and then applied the opposite polish on the nail.  I was having a brain freeze moment here as they both pretty much ended up looking the same even though they both had different bases but if I had any tip here, it would be to apply the texture on top of the non texture polish as it applied and worked better with the vinyls.  The thumb has much crisper edges.  Next time, I would also go a little lighter handed on applying the texture polish.

I had painted a nail stud with the Pahlish Rusalka, Rusalka to make the mani all matchy-matchy; applied it to ring finger.

Applied a final coat of KBShimmer Clearly on Top to the nail stud and maybe to the nails that didn't have texture polish on them (can't remember) to finish.  After I took any final nail pictures, I did apply top coat to the ring finger to make sure the nail stud stayed on as I usually wear all my mani's at least for a day or so as I rarely just swatch or do nail art and remove; in fact, I wore this mani for 4 days as I was waiting for the owwie on my ring finger to heal a bit more (which is why there are the odd finger poses in the post).  And that nail stud stayed on, no issues!

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

An InLinkz Link-up

Hopefully you've enjoyed all these textured nails this past week! As much as I love texture, I think it will be a little while before I reach for a textured polish again as I think I'm textured out, as least for the near future!

Thanks for looking!

FREE Canada Day Vinyls Courtesy of Nail Polish Canada!!!

The kind folks from Nail Polish Canada want to make sure everyone has pretty Canada Day nails this Canada Day (seeing how we are celebrating 150 years!!!)  So several bloggers have been offered a promotional code for FREE Canada Day vinyls from Whats Up Nails!!!  How fabulous is that????!!!!

To get your free Canada Day nail vinyls, please go to the link here and use my unique coupon code to claim: S26W1D397Y46.  Offer is valid to first 10 people, open to those who live in Canada, follow instructions in the link. If by chance my code does not work, please visit another blogger listed in the link to see if they have any codes available......remember, Nail Polish Canada wants to make sure everyoneeee has beautiful Canada Day nails this Canada Day! Don't delay....they will ship so that you will receive in time for Canada Day!!!!

These vinyls are so easy to use, even this vinyl challenged nail fanatic was able to use them with ease and came up with these Canada Day nails!  

These are the stencils from Whats Up nails that Nail Polish Canada is offering!  For FREE!!!

I started with a base of two coats of Colors by llarowe Oh Canada, an Indie Expo Canada exclusive, and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.  Then waited about 25 minutes to make sure that my base nails were dry for the vinyl application.

 Applied the nail vinyl.  Note:  This pix was for illustration purposes only ----make sure that the vinyl is well secured on the nail by pressing down with your finger all the way around the vinyl outline to avoid polish seepage under the vinyl so your image is crisp!

I applied about two coats of Cbl Oh Canada in the void of the nail vinyl. (I was a little worried about how thick I was applying it so some areas of the flag aren't as opaque as the rest but overall, coverage was still good!  This was just my inexperience using nail vinyls but I think I did OK!)  Immediately after applying polish, remove vinyl using the tab extension.

 I added an image from CJS LC-08 using Mdu 9 and mixed it with some of Cbl Oh Canada to hopefully achieve the same colour as CbL Oh Canada in the stamping polish.

I did the other nail once I knew I could colour match the stamping polish OK, then top coated all with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

CJS LC-08

 

Added a few more images from same plate on accent nails using MdU 1.

Topped with KBShimmer Clearly on Top.

Thank you to Nail Polish Canada for asking me to share this wonderful offer to my fellow Canadian nail fanatics....I hope to see a lot of Canada Day nails around on social media around July 1st!  

 Thanks for looking!!!

Digit-al Dozen Does Whimsy; Day 4

These whimsical nails are for day 4 of Digit-al Dozen whimsy week!

Started with a base of two coats of Pahlish Menthe Glaciale, no top coat.



Added a coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC before stamping.



Stamped using an image from Big SdP C using FunkyFingers Gesso.



Dotted flowers using Love, Angeline Rhythm in Aquamarine which has the same colours but in glitter form which I think was a nice compliment to the creme.



Decided I wanted a little bit more bling so dotted some of the leaves on the smaller flowers then dotted centres with white as needed.



I was going to add some metal studs to the accent but then thought I would do some line striping using the same Love, Angeline polish.



Finally did something OK looking with nail vinyls!



Then got to thinking that some round studs might fit in the area left and they did so added them to make the accent stand out a bit more.  Go big or go home!



Topped everything off with a final coat of Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC.



Here's the other ladies Day 4 whimsy nails!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!

Practice Makes Perfect....I Hope!

A few days ago, I did my nails before heading to work because I had worked very late night the evening before. I was wearing a sweater that is gray with black and teal stripes and it gave me inspiration for this mani. Here's what I came up with.....please forgive my vinyl handiwork; it's still a work in progress!

Started with a base of two coats of Zoya Carey, no top coat.

Topped with Girly Bits What a Rush QD TC before stamping and vinyls.

Stamped using Marianne Nails n.95.  Applied nail vinyls from vinyl boutique, then layered on top using Ciate Headliner and Funky Fingers Dark Knight.  Messed up everything horribly; I had only wanted to do the ring finger as an accent but before I knew it, I had stamped it.  To salvage the mani, I did stripes on two of the non stamped nails but didn't really have the time to do something that needed so much time and attention so kind rushed them.  Plus this is my second time using these; hopefully sometime soon, I'll get better at this. They look OK IRL but a disaster in the pix lol!

Marianne Nails n.95

Top coated with Girly Bits What A Rush QD TC, not the best application of it as it kinda blobbed and bubbled.

I thought that the nails needed a little extra something something; added gold nail art balls to accent.  These are quite high; I'm usually not a fan of anything on my nail that is raised because it gets caught up in everything, but these didn't bother me at all.  I guess because they are rounded they don't snag on clothing and hair!

These nail art stones were provided for review from Lady Queen Beauty; they are available here.  They are  mixed wheel of five different sizes in gold and silver; lots of selection size wise when you don't know what will look best with your design!

NA0644 Nail Wheel and other nail art related products are currently available as part of their Flash Sale for $0.99!  LadyQueen Beauty has a wide assortment of nail art products and other beauty supplies; for further savings, use code NYLC15 for a 15% discount!

I'm not going to give up on these nail vinyls as I love the look of them; I will master their application (I hope lol!)  If I gave up so easy, there would be no stamping on my nails; there was quite a bit of trial and error back in the day when I first started stamping; I had to practise for days on paper to get an image to transfer fully and even know, it's still a work in progress learning new techniques, applying images where you want them to do, straight, etc. and even now, I mess up on a regular basis!  But practise I did and I hope to get these vinyls sometime soon too with more practise!

Thanks for looking!

**Please note that these nail art balls were offered for review from LadyQueen Beauty.  See disclosure policy for details.

Digit-al Dozen Does Autumn; Day 5

Here's it is; Day 5 of Digit-al Dozen autumn week!  I thought I'd save my favourite mani for last, being my first Halloween mani of the season!  Here's what I came up with!

I was trying to think of something a little different for this Halloween mani (not sure if I succeeded) but my thought process was assortment of colours which would fade to one another.  So the pinky was to be black, with the next finger to be black and white, to white, to white and orange to orange.  Does that make sense? To do this, started with skittles of Revlon Alluring Amber, three fingers of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and pinky of Funky Fingers Dark Knight; all two coats with top coat.

Earlier in the summer, I had seen these really cool nail vinyls used by my Digit-al Dozen nail pal CopyCat Claws here, which are available from vinyl boutique.  I thought they might add some cool interest and something a little outside the box for the mani. Unfortunately, my experience with nail vinyls is limited; I've only used them once or twice and just single lines.  So I was fully expect ting the voids to remain on the paper when I pulled off the vinyl part.  But that didn't happen as you can see below.  I ended up punching through the cuttings with a wooden cuticle stick (pain in the arse!) and found for the second one that if you start the punch out in the far side of them before you peel the vinyl off, they stick to the backing way better.  So the second one pulled away as it was suppose to, after I had punched them at the edge with a cuticle stick that is.  I can't say is this is typical or nail vinyls or just this style as again, I've only used nail vinyls a couple times and single lines at that.  Once I knew what to do to make them work a little easier, it was OK, but was a little frustrated on the first one because I was expecting the lines to stay on the backing when I peeled it and then it wasn't the easiest to get them to peel with so small lines once it was free of the backing, but prepunching the side wall just a little at the corner on the vinyl helped a lot the second time around.

I have limited experience using vinyls but this is when I applied it to the nail.  

Blobbing on the polish.  Do not do this!  I was of the thought that more is better but not the case; between my excess use of polish and not pushing the vinyl down to the nail side enough, I had flooding on the side wall of the nail.  

I was going to redo the nail, but after cleanup of the orange off the white stripes using acetone and brush, I decided I could live with it. This is after both nails have been vinyled, used same polishes as the bases. Not perfect but not bad for a beginner!

Added coat of top coat before stamping.

Stamped spiderwebs using an image from Bunny Nails HD-C using Funky Fingers Gesso, Dark Knight and MdU 53.

Top coated before more stamping.

Added spiders using MoYou Festive Collection-16 using same stamping polishes.

Top coated to finish.

The next morning, I thought a spider on the middle nail would add a little more to the mani so stamped using Chez Halloween003 using Funky Fingers Dark Knight and top coated to finish.

Here's the other ladies Day 5 autumn nails!  The ladies as usual have had phenomenal autumn nails!  

I still have a few more fall mani's to share and hopefully more Halloween nails over the next couple weeks!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanks for looking!