LDTTWC Day 2 - It's Vintage Darling!

Hey polished prisoners,

This was supposed to go up this weekend, but things happened.  Alas here we are now! I realized that I neglected to describe what this challenge is all about so let me rectify that now.  The Let's Do The Time Warp Challenge is sponsored by Neverland Nail Blog in conjunction with Nail Polish Canada, and is dedicated to a love of all things nostalgic.  There are two challenges per week for 4 weeks going according to Lindsey's schedule, and it's pretty much a my pace kinda challenge as long as I get the posts up within a week of Lindsey's.  It's pretty chill so I feel I can manage this one better than something as demanding at the 31 day nail art challenge.  Now today's theme is all about using something vintage as inspiration for a mani.  Whenever I think of vintage one thing pop's into my head - jewelry.  Yup!  I love vintage jewelry particularly things from the Victorian mourning period and Art deco pieces, but one of my favorite pieces has to be a vintage owl brooch that my grandmother owns.  I used it as inspiration for this challenge.

Mani-louge

Base: Revlon Quick Dry Base (I'm not loving this at all)

Top-Coat: IMN Out the Door (also still not loving this one either)

Base Color: Butter London Trustafarian

Owl Detailing: Nail Art Pen and Brush (no name), Cm Nail Art Brush in Black, Orly Liquid Vinyl, Dandy Nails Look Around, 2mm rhinestones in various colors, and 3mm black pearls

Indoors- shimmer shimmer.

Did you know I could freehand?  Lol it's been a minute since I've done it and I'm rusty.  I definitely want to gain more skills so I'm thinking of freehanding from now on at least once a week to improve myself.  Freehand Fridays????? Well in any case this is another challenge that almost killed me.  My perfectionistic tendencies and type A personality were out in full force - cringe.

I love the bejewled owl the most and the owl on my index finger the most.  So here we are day 2 coming to belated finish.  Stay tuned for the next one which should be out quicker!  Thanks for reading and toodles...

Blowing In The Wind: Dandelions feat Dandy Nails Eager Eyes

Hey polished prisoners,

I've got something a little magical for you today.  If you follow my instagram you know I recently picked up the four blue polishes Sandy of Dandy Nails recently released for the summer.  One of them called Eager Eyes is a beautiful medium blue scattered holo.  It's nail polish crack in a bottle! Yeah - that good, but then if you saw my Look Around post you'd know already I love Dandy Nails polishes.   I knew this polish would be the perfect base for a very simple but very pretty nail art idea that recently inspired me.  I saw this dandelion post on BeePolished and I knew I had to try my hand at it.  Here's the result...

The signature Lockdown greenery shot ;)

Mani-louge

Base color: Dandy Nails Eager Eyes

Flowers: Kiss Nail Art Striper in Black and White & No Name in Silver

I'm particularly pleased with this because I feel like the nail art is actually in motion i.e. I can sort of see the little seedlings blowing.  Here's a look at Eager Eyes, 2-3 coats, before I arted it up outdoors and indoors respectively.

The formula on this one was smooth and effortless.  Damn I love an effortless polish kwim? In terms of formula Dandy Nails has one of the best out there!

Look at all that yummy holographic.  Ugh love love love....

So thoughts - simple, but pretty right?  You guys know I'm always pulling out new polishes but you would be so proud of me.  I haven't done any buying at all in the last three weeks and trust me that is no mean feat darlings.  I'm trying to get through some of my well over 100 untrieds and conserve funds for upcoming collections.  Although as always it's very difficult for me to hold back with so many amazing things i.e. plates, polishes, etc coming out every day.  Let me tell you September and October are gonna be a hot mess! I love Halloween and fall so I'm fully prepared to get busy! Thanks for reading and see you next post! Toodles...

Panda Love feat. Dandy Nails Colorblind Squared

Hey polished prisoners,

What's black, white, and yellow all over? Girl, today my nails! Hmm we are keeping it pretty simple over here these days plus I'm a little mad that I had to chop off my nails (but this isn't that hand).  Honestly, if it hadn't been the middle and such a bad break I would have left them because in general I don't worry too much about all of my nails being the same length. Alas I needed something to soothe my ravaged soul so I brought out my feel good animal - the panda. They are so darn cute how could anyone be unhappy looking down at those all day?

OMG do you see that the panda's nose is a freaking heart?!! Adorable adorable....

Mani-louge 

Base color: China Glaze Happy Go-Lucky & OPI Alpine Snow

Accents: Dandy Nails Colorblind Squared

Stamping polish: Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl and White

Image plates: RA120 and MJ Med Plate

The panda is totally smug - he knows he's in charge lol!

I wanted to keep my color palette very simple on this one so I chose three complementing colors and just replayed them over and over within the design.  I chose Colorblind Squared, a matte black and white square glitter polish in a clear base since it fit the palette perfectly.  What I love about polishes like Colorblind Squared is that they literally go with everything and have the ability to add a little extra to my manicure without overwhelming the art which sometimes happens with heavier glitterbombs and wilder matte glitters.

It's a jungle full of panda love ;) I am so loving how bright and fun this is!

Isn't this such a happy looking manicure? This is my second time playing with panda's in my nail art.  If you look at my avatar you'll see a freeahand version with bamboo etc that I did a while ago that was also extremely cute.  I really really love the final effect of this one though - just a whole lot of super cuteness with a very monochrome theme.  I hope you enjoyed this one too and please let me know what you thought in the comments below.  Thanks for reading and see you next post! Toodles...

Holy Holographic: Dandy Nails Look Around + Color Club Twiggy & Nars Zulu Gradient Konadicure

Hey polished prisoners,

In case you didn't know I'll tell you now that I love love love green!  It's probably a tie with blue and purple as my all time favorite shades.  So when I saw Dandy Nails Look Around, a forest green holographic polish, I clicked Add to Cart at the speed of lightening.  Mine mine mine and now yours for the viewing.  You probably only need 2 coats for opacity, but I used 3 here.  The formula on this was amazingly smooth with even distribution of the holographic particles.  The only downside to this polish is that I disliked the brush in the polish.  It reminded me slightly of those NOPI "perfect brushes" that drive me insane. Other than that everything else was WIN!

For an accent I also painted my index and fourth digit with Color Club Twiggy and then used Nars Zulu to create a gradient. Finally I stamped these nails with Konad image plate M63 using Konad Special polish in black and stamped over that using Shany 2012 plate SH20 and Konad Special polish in pastel green. FYI, I also tested Look Around out as a stamping polish but it's a bit too thin to be quite effective. Now onto the nails...

All this green makes my head swoon!

Close up of my creation.

Color Club Twiggy before the gradient was added. I actually painted this over Essies Blanc first so that the color would really pop.

Bling bling!

I really love how the pattern turned out.  I'm surprised too at how Zulu became re-translated when I used it for a gradient.

 Sickening, no? I was worried about the shallowness of this pattern on the Shany plate but it came out very clearly. Wanna hear something outrageous? This is my first holo manicure ever! How is that possible?!? Even I don't know how, but now I want lots and lots of holos after seeing this mani come to life!  Do you ladies have any recommendations for holo's that make you forget to breathe? You can find Look Around and other great polishes at Dandy Nails. She's planning another sale during the last week of June. Thanks for reading and happy Saturday!