Chameleon Abstract feat Sonoma Nail Art My Three Glitters

Hey polished prisoners,

There's nothing I love more than finding an amazing drug store polish on the cheap except for when it's a HTF lemming.  When I was in Rite Aid some time ago I discovered Chameleon Polish by Scherr - a line of super pretty shifing duochromes that retail for about $3.99.  I picked up one on a whim and now I'm so glad I did! I bought Calypso a purple to gray/blue shifting color.   In a word it's gorgeous!  I wanted to do a simple gradient with Calypso so I sponged it over Essie's Turquoise & Caicos - one of my favorite blue polishes of all time, and added some simple stamping to turn up the flavor.  Here's how it turned out...

Mani-louge

Base coat: Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat

Top Coat: Out The Door (boo)

Base Color: Essie's Turquoise & Caicos

Gradient (dry sponge method):  Chameleon Polish Calypso

Glitter Accent Nails: Sonoma Nail Art My Three Glitters & CND Effects Gold Sparkle

Stamping polish:  Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl

Stamping Plate: SH23

Insert angry face her-  Out the Door smeared my perfect stamp! I'm all out of poshe and I've never felt more desperate!

I chose to add glitter accent nails because honestly I'm always slightly unnerved when all of my nails match.  It's okay every once in a while, but I prefer a little variety within a mani.  SNA's MTG's provided the perfect touch without overwhelming the gradient. 

The gradient before stamping.  I think this is super pretty too!

Honestly there probably isn't a black and while matte polish that I've met that I don't like. However I will say MTG's is toward my top picks when it comes to these types of polishes.  It's funky and unique and I love that the glitters are squares. I added CND's Gold Sparkle just for a touch of sheen without going too overboard.

 

So this is pretty.  Yup - just plain ole pretty.  When I finished this mani I felt like I'd had a return to girly without the bling or gleam. I need to do more mani's like this one.  Do you like it? Am I the only one in the NP sphere still totally obsessed with gradient nail art? I hope not lol! Thanks for reading and see you next post! Toodles...

Toxic Rain - On Sundays I Stamp!

Hey polished prisoners,

It has been too long! Let me apologize for my absence it's been a flurry of activity recently that has left me exhausted and uninspired of late.  Also for some reason I have had fail after fail recently.  Every time I went to polish my nails they ended up smudged or ruined in a way that I couldn't even start the nail art.  It actually happened this time too but I decided to persevere.  Finally I smashed my ultra large bottle of CND Stickey - the base coat I live by.  Horrible!  I'm hoping with this post my string of bad luck ends.  So here we go!

The theme for Adventures in Stamping this week was toxic or poisonous.  How deliciously appropo with Halloween around the corner.  I've actually done a toxic mani before which you can check out here, and it was somewhat the basis for this mani.  I wanted to create acid rain, chemical bubbles, and nasty neon drips lol! This sounds so gross when I read it aloud, but I think I accomplished what I set out to create.

Mani-louge

Base: Revlon Posh

Freehand Drips & Dots: CM Nail Art Striper in Hot Yellow

Stamping polishes: Revlon Posh and Konad Special Polish in Yellow

Stamping plates: Konad M13 and Shany SH23

So what do you think? Welp it feels a little spooky and evil but I like it!  Somehow it appears my AIS posts always save me when I'm in a rut.  Thank goodness for that and thanks for reading! I'll see you next post.  Toodles!

Gradients and Dots - On Sundays I Stamp!

Hey polished prisoners,

It's another Sunday and another foray into Adventures in Stamping!  You guys know I adore these challenges so much.  This weeks' theme was sort of like it's almost fall or fall inspired.  I was pleased when I saw this one if for no other reason that I'm sick to death of the heat and stickiness that defines DC in the late summer months.  Lord bring on the fall with it's hoodies and pashminas!  In any case I chose to use a gradient with rich fall colors to create my look and then garnish it with another type of gradient stamping. Here's the result...

Mani-louge

Base color: Essie's Buy Me A Cameo

Gradient: Essie's Buy Me A Cameo, Barielle Wrap Me In Ribbon, and Sally Hansen Haute Chcolate

Stamping polishes: China Glaze Millennium & Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl

Image plate: SH23

For this challenge I really wanted to veer away from colors that are typical fall - oranges, browns, golds, but I definitely wanted to incorporate neutrals.  For me fall is all about doing lots of neutrals and using rich vampy colors to add interest to outfits usually in the vein of accessories such as the aforementioned pashminas though coats, handbags, and shoes feature heavily into the equation.  I tried to stick with the same concept on my nails and I was pretty pleased with the results. The hardest part for me honestly was picking a polish. 

The gradient before stamping.

I have so many great fall shades in my collection especially of late it was difficult to make a decision.

 I really love how this came out!

So here we are smack dab in mid-August coming into the fall.  Personally I'm so excited not just for the cooling down of weather, but also for all the new collections soon to be released including KBShimmer, and a few others!  Maybe what I love the most about fall is that it's the big signal for change and personally these days I could do with a bit of that.  Welp I hope you enjoyed this one and thanks so much for reading.  See you next post! Toodles...

What's a Jewel To Do? On Sundays I Stamp!

Hiya lacquer ladies,

I hope your weekends are going well!  I've got a bit of news on my end as I've recently joined a nail art interest group called Adventures in Stamping - yay! I'm sure several of you have heard of it or are participants yourself.  We take a theme every week and then create nail art around it using stamping of one kind or another.  I love this concept so much and it's a great way to expand out on ideas, meet other lacquer ladies, and share helpful tips and cool techniques.  This means every Sunday I'll become a tramp, a stamp tramp that is (wink wink).  Lord save us from the Jezebels hahaha! Now onto the art...

The theme for this week is Precious Stones, i.e. designing around the concept of precious stones or using jewel tones.  This concept for me was oddly easy.  My birthday is right around the corner (August 1) and my birthstone, peridot, has been on my mind quite a bit lately as I've been thinking of buying a pair of solitaire earrings in the stone.  I will admit peridot is a tough color to pull off.  It just doesn't have that "classic" appeal I that I so love in stones such as pearls or sapphires (at least not IMO).  Nevertheless, I have endeavored to embrace myself and in so doing the stone of my birth lol.

Look at all this bling! Well it's my birthday stone so I'll bling as I want to...

I started by taping off my nails at a diagonal and painting with Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in Ivy League for the majority of my nails.  The accents are painted with Zoya's Jules and Butter London's Tart With A Heart.  What I love about TWAH is that it has so many small flecks of iridescent glitter including those that throw back a peridot colored green which made it perfect for the theme.

I love the effect of TWAH layered under Ivy League! Green and gold is one of my favorite combinations.

Next I stamped on lace, leopard, zebra, and grid accents using Konad Special Polish in black from plates SH21, M57, CH11 respectively.

CH11, SH21, and M57 plates

 I added several pearls, microbeads, and yellow, clear, and green colored rhinestones to each stamping, and I also used my LA Colors nail art stripper in gold glitter to add little accents throughout each nail.

Lol I promise not all of my mani's are blinging, but I mean come on Shelly it's precious stones themed.  How could I NOT bling it up?!?

So what do you think? I wonder if I hadn't said that my stone was peridot you would have known anyway? Do tell because I really would like to know.  In any event this was so fun I can't wait to see what next week's theme is!  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!

Lavender and Gold Floral Konadicure

Hey stamp scamps,

What happens when you have an unending lust for stamping mixed with a desire to layer stamps to maximum effect? Only pretty things darlings!  As I mentioned before I just got in my order of the Shany 2012 stamping plates and boy was I ready to play.  I was going for light fluffy and pretty with a hint of shimmer yumminess.  I used Funky Fingers Sugar Plum Fairy as the base.  This polish is a pale lavendar color with light blue undertones and a golden shimmer.  It's beautiful but like the FF polish before required thinning and two coats to reach opacity.  I stamped first with China Glaze TTYL using SH20 floral pattern.  I then stamped over that with CG Passion using plate SH13.  Finally I added butterflies using Dashica's Shimmer Purple stamping polish using plate CH3.  For the accent nail I did a simple gradient using Sugar Plum Fairy as the base and Orly's Close Your Eyes.  CYE's is a gorgeous deep plum colored polish with paler purple and gold shimmer throughout.  I finally put a simple coat of CND Gold Sparkle over it and abracadabra I had my pretty layered mani!

I used a new method for my gradient nail this time which made the transition between colors look a lot smoother.

I love the contrast of fresh green with lavender sort of like flowers peeking out of greenery

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Love the flashes of gold from cG Passion!

You can really see the holo jump out on this one.

What do you ladies think - very feminine right?  What I like the most is that the Shany plates have so many freaking cute designs! These plates, like the Bundle Monster one's, really give you a big bang for your buck for about $12 you get well over 100 images.  Honestly, I love stamping enough to find this quite a good deal.  If you're interested in the plates check you can find them here on Amazon.com.  They are also eligible for super saver shipping, yay, so you can grab a couple things and get it shipped on the cheap!  Thanks for reading and stay tuned for a massive indie polish haul.  My clicking finger got trigger happy in a major way when I spotted some of these little babies!  Toodles.