Stained Glass Mani

A good friend of mine got married a month ago. Her and I got together for dinner a couple nights ago and were looking at the pictures I took at her wedding. One of them included the stained glass at the church which I thought was cool (cool enough to take a pix of it!); this is my loose interpretation of a stained glass mani.

Here's mani in progress. Started with two coats of GOSH Green Hawaii. Love the slight holo glitter in it and a good transition colour from summer to fall!

Canadian gals, even though GOSH is available here in Canada, before you all rush out to SDM to pick it up or look for it, I've never seen this colour here. I had seen it on a European blog, added it to my wish list and then swapped for it with a swap pal. Sorry :(

Stamped using Konad black special polish, using SdP 03.


Added a few jewel coloured rhinestones.



Topped with SV. After the topcoat dried, I added another layer of SV directly over the rhinestones only to act as reinforcement. These stones are on the larger size and because they are raised quite a bit, wanted to make sure they were secure and didn't have any rough edges to get caught on clothing etc as well. I was pleasantly surprised that no stones fell off while I was sleeping, nor got caught in the towel after my shower or my clothes while I dressed the next morning.

This is the stained glass pix that was my inspiration for my (very loose) adaptation of the stained glass mani. I love stained glass!



I know this is out there and probably not every one is gonna be a fan but it looks uber awesome on my nails and is not nearly as flashy or tacky as these pix appear! (Hard to believe, eh? lol!) To me, these nails would be a great accessory to a fun summer outfit....I couldn't stop staring at them all day...they are fun for a change! And yes, I did wear them to work!

Thanks for looking!

Flakies

This mani was from last week when the weather in my area was kinda dreary and I was sporting some darker polishes.

Here's mani in progress. Started with two coats of Color Club Gossip Column.

Added one coat of Golden Rose No. 14. I received this from an awesome swap pal from the Netherlands. Here's a bottle view in case it's a polish you're not familiar with.

This was taken in artificial light.

I wore the mani like this until the next day. After work, I decided to matte it. But before I did, I took a picture in the natural light (and touched up my tips using Gossip Column as I had a bit of shrinkage). This is natural daylight, overcast skies as no sun was around for about 4 days!

Then I matted the mani using Essie Matte About You. This is one coat.



While I was looking at my nails, I thought, hmmm, Nicole by OPI Top of My World has blue sparkle in it....I wonder how it will change up the mani? So I added one coat of it.



The difference was subtle and I decided I liked it better matted, so again, added one coat of Essie Matte About You. There is a slight difference in the look due to the added glitter from Top of My World (which, by the way, is part of my recent giveaway here) but just slight.



It's not too often I don't stamp a mani....while I thought some type of peacock or sea-themed stamping would be cool, I left it like this. There's always next time to add some stamping!

Thanks for looking!

Fall Nails

Here in Ontario, it's almost like September 1st hit and fall arrived. Well, not exactly the first, but since Sunday (which was the 4th) or so. Most of the week, up to Thursday or so, we had some dreary, cold, overcast days....put a damper on cracking open some holo polishes as simply little or no sun in these parts. While the weather picked up since then, I did this mani when the weather was dreary earlier in the week using my recently purchased Deborah Lippmann polish, Brickhouse.



Here's mani in progress. Two coats of DL Brickhouse.



Then stamped using fauxnad IP H19, with CND Gold Chrome for the stamping polish.



I should have left it like this, but decided to add a few random dots using Black Konad special polish...not loving this look so much, but too late to do anything about it...except change my polish again, which I'll do!



Have you done any fall mani's yet? I have a few planned but I'm holding out in the hope that we still have some summer weather over the next month or so!

Thanks for looking!

'Moves Like Jagger' Mani!

Lately, I've been obsessed with this Maroon 5 song. The first time I heard it, I actually thought it was a little lame with that whoo-ooo-ooo-ing. The next time, I thought it was so so, then after a while, I thought it was a little catchy, but when I seen the video, I decided I loved it...especially all those clips of Jagger and the those imitating him! LOVE!

So I decided to do a 'Moves Like Jagger' tribute mani last night and this is what I came up with.



If you've seen the video, you'll understand the pinky finger as otherwise, it may not make sense...and I really wanted to add a big old floppy hat to incorporate Christina, but couldn't find one in my plate stash.

Here's mani in progress. Base coats are OPI Brides Bouquet (white-three coats), Illamasqua Boosh (black-one coat) and OPI Red My Fortune Cookie (two coats).



The very first thing I did before I did any amount of stamping or even painting my right hand was free hand the flag....and my apologies to anyone who I've offended in my bad interpretation of doing it! lol! I thought if the flag doesn't go well, I'll have to resort to starting over and doing another mani so didn't want to invest a great deal of time painting my nails if I was going to take it all off anyway if it was a fail.



This was first attempt at freehand nail art...I had a hard time putting dots on manis initially and have no idea why I thought I could freehand something, but oh well, I tried. I think my downfall was using a too large brush from the start when I did the red lines. I moved to a smaller one when I was doing the blue lines and in hindsight, should have used the smaller brush from the get go....lesson learned for next time! The red used for the flag was OPI Red My Fortune Cookie and the blue is CND Anchor Blue.

When I was done, while not terribly happy with the flag, I thought it was decent enough, especially for my first time, so decided to proceed with the rest of the mani.



First placed the main images using fauxnad D08 (Mick), fauxnad E (hot dancing girl), H12 (black stripes) and SdP D-1 (Stones logo; chez delaney D series also has a similar logo) using Konad red, black and white special polishes.



Then added a few random stars and the music skull notes from the Hot Topic image plates using the same special polishes, as well as the CND Anchor blue for random stars.



Lastly topped with coat of SV. I was really disappointed that I got SV drag plus it terribly faded the white stamping of the skull music notes on the pinky...I normally take pix of my mani's before applying SV in case of drag, but forgot this time. It was really disappointing to have SV drag as I wait a little while for the stamping polish to dry plus I had just thinned it earlier in the week...oh well, what can you do...except more of a reason to change your nails again! But I'm actually going to keep this on until I see a friend Saturday night who loves the Stones...I'm sure he'll get a kick out of it!

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

Edit: My friend loved this mani when he seen it! He frequently rocks old vintage Stones concerts tees and I was hoping he had one on when he seen it (but didn't). My DD also requested I replicate it for her nails, which I'm going to do soon!

Canadian Star

Just a reminder about my Happy Birthday giveaway as posted here. Here's one of the polishes as part of the giveaway.



Nicole by OPI Canadian Star....appropriately named as it is the star of the collection (to me, anyway!). This polish is part of Giveaway Prize #1; this is the mani I came up with.


Now I want to apologize to Justin Bieber as my pix really don't do the polish justice...it is so sparkly, and glowy and wayyyyy much nicer in real life than my late night, artificial light pix show. This is three coats; even with three coats, it could use a fourth coat to cover the few remaining thin spots. When I put it on again, I'll use a purple/blurple base coat first and then a layer or two of Canadian Star on top. But I knew I'd be stamping it making the bare spots less noticeable, so left at three coats.



As I didn't want to hide the glowiness of the polish, I wanted to do some some simple stamping. My first thought was to stamp it using black or silver, but ended up using Konad violet special polish and some hibiscus images, using Konad m29 and fauxnad SdP 11.



While I think the hibiscus stamping images are very pretty....well, I can't help thinking about certain male parts when I see the images...especially the image on the thumb nail...am I crazy or just imagining things??? lol (Maybe click and enlarge the pix to see what I'm talking about). Just as BundleMonster has those female parts image plates, maybe these are the male counterparts images....or maybe it's just my inner dirty mind taking over....?

Anyhoo, before I make this all about male and female parts, ahem, I want to thank everyone who has left any comments as part of the giveaway. I've been reading them all and thank you for your opinion whether it's been good, bad or neutral. It's also been pleasantly surprising the variety on the favourite mani posts...there isn't really one post getting more favoured comments versus another...which just goes to show that everyone has their own opinion on what is cool....and what one person likes, the next may not necessarily like it...so thank you again if you took the time to comment!

And I'm truly sorry that none of you will ever be able to look at those hibiscus images without thinking about male parts again...if you didn't already and have an inner dirty mind like me!

Thanks for looking!

Pink Wednesday Mani

I've yet to post a Pink Wednesday mani. (To be honest, I wore this on Sunday but just getting around to posting it today due to forgetting my camera cord yesterday...does it still count? lol!) I'm not part of the 'Wear Pink Wednesday' group; just happen to have a pink mani to post and it happens to be Wednesday....



Revlon Sweet Tart, stamped with white Konad special polish using SdP 4. Here's mani in progress.

Two coats of Revlon Sweet Tart. This is a perfect pink for me! It's everything I want in a polish; bright, great application, good brush, and cheap! While Sweet Tart is readily available at drugstores (in my area anyway), I was able to pick up this for 2/$3 at a beauty supply place in my area a while ago, that carries an assortment of random polishes. (I was also able to pick up backups of some Revlon glitters, Galaxy, Slipper, Belle and Star, at the same great deal.)



Then stamped with White Konad special polish; using SdP 4.


Dotted using unnamed Sally Hansen Instadri pastel yellow polish.


Then a few random black dots using Black Konad special polish.

If you think it looks familiar, it's pretty similar to a mani I did here a while back. Right now, these are my favourite type of mani's (if you've followed me for a while now, you'll know I've posted quite a few variances of these); the full plate image, usually with some type of flower or swirl or something that I can add a few dots too). It's mainly a time issue; they are one plate, easy to apply as fairly forgiving if you don't line them up well, and the dots jazz it up for a bit of interest. And because I did this mani about an hour before I was heading out for the night on Sunday, it fit the quick change mani criteria I needed at the time!



Thanks for looking!

Funky Retro Nails

This mani was done about a month ago while I was on vacation. While I have some new manis to show you, I forgot my camera cord so I thought, no time like now to pull this from the archives!



Base is WetnWild Copa stamped using Konad special white polish, IP SdP B-19. Here's mani in progress.

Two coats of Copa.

Stamped.

Then added a few random dots.

I did this mani realllllyyy late at night while I was away on vacation and unfortunately don't have access to good lighting. The 'better' lighting pix were taken the next day outside.

Do you take polishes with you when you go away on holidays or away for the weekend? My family thinks I over do it....I take three bags....one of stamping polishes including a selection of image plates, one of stripers, treatments and accessories (ie base, topcoat, remover, thinner, stampers etc) and another of random polish colours and polishes for topcoats in case I want to add a little sparkle or something. Of course, its not like my recent holidays or my weekends away have been out of country when I really had to worry about space limitations or packing light. I think if I had a week abroad planned, I'd try out those Sally Hansen Salon Effects strips. I never plan out my manis so like to have selection of plates and polishes...but it is kinda silly when you think about how much I take along for the number of times I actually change my manis! But I like to have options! I liken it to taking 20 shirts with you on your 7 day vacation....just to have selection....at least that's what I do anyway!

Hope you had a great weekend....a long weekend if you are in Canada or US...and didn't have to work it!

Thanks for looking!