Spring is coming around the pike, and today I'm celebrating the colors of the flowers soon to come. :)
I started with a base of DazzleGlaze Sunsets of Tahiti, such a beautiful pink-to-coral multichrome:
DazzleGlaze Sunsets of Tahiti
Then I threw on a coat of DazzleGlaze Super Cool Sleepover:
And finally I stamped the crap out of it with UberChic Beauty 4-01, using Hit The Bottle Polishes Absynthe-Minded:
DazzleGlaze Super Cool Sleepover, Sunsets of Tahiti and UberChic Beauty 4-01
DazzleGlaze Super Cool Sleepover, Sunsets of Tahiti and UberChic Beauty 4-01
DazzleGlaze Super Cool Sleepover, Sunsets of Tahiti and UberChic Beauty 4-01
I love the way the pink and coral flash through the green, and the lines of the stamped images make me think of some beautiful tropical plant. Let's hear it for spring!
Are the winter doldrums getting you down? Do you have a little jungle fever? Wish you could get out of the house, maybe go someplace warm, maybe like...Africa?
Let's go on a little trip together, to the deserts and savannahs of Africa, and even back in time, courtesy of UberChic Beauty's Out Of Africa plate...
Of course I have a video review for you:
And here are still shots of the images:
UberChic Beauty Out Of Africa 01
UberChic Beauty Out Of Africa 01
UberChic Beauty Out Of Africa 01
UberChic Beauty Out Of Africa 01
UberChic Beauty Out Of Africa 01
How does it stamp? Just take a look at the detail in the beautiful lion's face:
For my sample mani, I started with a base of Native War Paints Extra Crispy Walkers:
Native War Paints Extra Crispy Walkers
Then I made some pyramid decals using Messy Mansion Carbon and Barry M Gold Foil; while I was waiting for them to dry, I stamped my texture using Konad Green Gold:
There's gold in them thar pyramids...
Native War Paints Extra Crispy Walkers + UberChic Beauty Out Of Africa 4-01
I adore this mani--something about the combination of the colors, with the flashes of glitter from the base polish coming out of the dark, and the two different golds working together to balance the dark. It looks like there are hidden jewels peeking out, like the hidden treasures you'd find in a pyramid.
You can find this plate (and some awesome new releases!) on the UberChic Beauty website; don't forget to keep up with them on Facebook as well.
Recently the lovely Amanda, my friend and fellow blogger over at Polish & Plates gifted me a bottle of Native War Paints Extra Crispy Walkers, because I'd admired it on her blog and told her what a huge fan I am of The Walking Dead (and of the zombie flambe scene that inspired the polish). And now since we each have a bottle of it, she suggested we do a twin post with it, and I jumped at the chance!
You may know that The Walking Dead is now on hiatus, scheduled to return with the mid-season premiere on *Valentine's Day*. And, you now know that I have in my possession an awesome polish that pays tribute to zombies. So, I think we can agree that what's about to happen was completely inevitable...
Zombies. Valentine's Day. Hmm...When I think of the combination of zombies and love, I can't help but think of The Zombie Song:
It's a touching, heart-rending (or, rendering) story about a sweet girl zombie who has fallen in love with a non-zombie guy--talk about your star-crossed lovers...sigh...
I started with my base of Native War Paints Extra Crispy Walkers, a black jelly polish with orange, blue, and green flakies and glitter; it looks like either a charred zombie corpse, or the ash and embers flying up as the zombies are being fried:
Native War Paints Extra Crispy Walkers
Then I set to decorate it, based on the artwork in the video...
...and the fact that part of the chorus is 'I'd never eat your brain.'
Here's what I came up with:
If I were a zombie, I'd never eat your brain
I'd just want your heart, yeah I'd want your heart, just want your heart.
I freehanded the girl (obviously, lol) trying to re-create the stick-figure look, but I wanted her to look a little more gnarly and I added in a red heart on her dress and a red headband; I also freehanded a slashed circle around the brain on my pinkie. I used UberChic Beauty's Love & Marriage 02 plate (review coming very soon!) and UberChic Beauty's Zombie Love plate; I stamped with Konad White and Red.
For the freehand portion, I used white and red acrylic paints, and did a test run of this brush from Born Pretty Store:
Nail art brush from Born Pretty Store
Nail art brush from Born Pretty Store
The handle turns into the cap.
The brush gave me good control, and finer lines where I needed them, bigger lines where I wanted them for the stick figure look. The brush was excellent quality; I love that it pulls apart and the handle becomes a lid to help protect your brush.
What do you think? Yes, the manicure is kooky and crazy and just a teensy bit sick and twisted. Okay, a lot sick and twisted. But I love it, and I never want to take it off! I'm going to recreate it for the premiere on Valentine's Day, luckily Mr. LOLH loves zombies as much as I do. :)
I love these colors together, and that glitter speaks for itself. The pop of blue is subtle but also pulls it all together, I think. What do you think?
How's winter treating ya? Are you starting to yearn yet for long, warm, sunny days?
I can't help you with that, but I can show you some polishes so bright and full of happy they feel like summer caught in a bottle, from The Lady Varnishes' The Color Kids collection, set to release in early February. Take a look at these beauties:
Lala Orange, Twink, and Rainbow Brite from The Color Kids collection
Lala Orange, Twink, and Rainbow Brite from The Color Kids collection
Let's start with Lala Orange, a squishy tangerine jelly with tons of opalescent flakies that give depth, shimmer and texture:
The Lady Varnishes Lala Orange
The Lady Varnishes Lala Orange
The Lady Varnishes Lala Orange
The Lady Varnishes Lala Orange
There's your sunshine in a bottle right there, my friend. I love how the flakies make this look like it's lit from within; it's what I'd like to believe the surface of the sun looks like in my own happy universe. This is three thin coats; formula and application were excellent. This is a wonderful polish for building and for stamping sammiches (or 'pond manicures'); I'll be getting tons of use out of this one, especially as summer approaches.
Next we have Rainbow Brite, a highlighter-florescent neon yellow with opalescent flakies:
The Lady Varnishes Rainbow Brite
The Lady Varnishes Rainbow Brite
The Lady Varnishes Rainbow Brite
Add captionThe Lady Varnishes Rainbow Brite
The Lady Varnishes Rainbow Brite
This polish makes me think of lemon Italian ices on hot summer days...I can feel the crystals melting in my mouth when I look at it. The flakies here give a similar look to Lala Orange, but there's more depth here; this is also a jelly you could use for all sorts of buildable nail art techniques. This is three coats, and formula and application were excellent.
Finally, we have the lovely Twink, a deceptively simple-looking top coat with opalescent and holographic glitters. I say it's deceptive because when you look at it in the bottle you might think "Oh, I've seen that before".
No. You haven't.
There are similar topcoats out there, but what makes this one crazy special is the array of teeny glitters and the shimmer they give; over a dark polish you have an instant endless galaxy. Take a look at it over Zoya Lidia:
The Lady Varnishes Twink over Zoya Lidia
The Lady Varnishes Twink over Zoya Lidia
The Lady Varnishes Twink over Zoya Lidia
The teensy glitters give this depth, and the glitters change color with the light. And over lighter colors, you get a softer, more ethereal effect; take a look at it over Zoya Sia:
The Lady Varnishes Twink over Zoya Sia
The Lady Varnishes Twink over Zoya Sia
So what do I think? These three polishes are warmth and light and summer. They're fun and flirty and juicy. I love that they capture the brightness of neons but that the flakies also give it a glimmer finish so there's a touch of femininity to them, too. I can't wait to see what the rest of the collection looks like!
These polishes are set to release at the beginning of February; you'll be able to find them and the other polishes in the The Color Kids Collection at The Lady Varnishes' shop site, here; don't forget that you can have scent added to just about any polish if you want (she has a ton to choose from), and they all come with gorgeous charms, wrapped up in little matching bags. You can also keep up with release dates and special sales on The Lady Varnishes Facebook page, here.
I have awesome news for you! Clear Jelly Stamper now has a softer, more flexible refill head available! The only minus for me with the original Clear Jelly Stamper (the harder head) was that it wasn't flexible, and it was a little fragile, so I was extremely excited to test this out, to see if it worked as well as the original despite the difference in material.
I did a video review showing this baby in action, which you can check out here:
And here's what I found: 1) Can you see through it as well as the original head?
As you can see, the refill head is just as clear as the original (refill head is next to the stamper, original head is inside the stamper):
I didn't find any difference in my ability to see through the head, or position the stamps.
2) Does it pick up as well as the original head?
I found that this stamper picked up just as well as the other stamper; in fact, because the head is more flexible, I was a little less paranoid about using the perfect 'flick of the wrist'.
3) Does it align as well as the original head?
I already mentioned that you can see through this just as easily as the original. But in addition, I found that the extra give of the soft head allowed me align with even more control than the original--I have curvy nails, and whenever I roll over my nails, I risk warping my image. With this stamper, I was able to press in rather than just roll, and I got better placement.
4) Do you have as much dry time as the original?
The original, harder head was made of material that allowed the polish to stay wet for longer than most stampers. This softer head doesn't have that advantage; the polish dried at about the same rate as other stampers.
5) Can you do techiques like shrink stamps with it?
No. This isn't a marshmallow head, it's just more flexible than the original, like other soft-but-non-marshmallow stamper heads. You can push your nail into it fairly easily, but I wouldn't risk trying to stretch it.
So what do I think? I think this head gets rid of the only concern I had about the original Clear Jelly Stamper, the firmness/fragility of the head. I'll still use the harder head when I want a longer dry time during application, but for the most part, I'll be using this softer refill head.
Clear Jelly Stamper also sent me three layering plates to review, CJS C-02, and CJS-01 and CJS-03; these stamps are designed specifically for use with the clear jelly stamper, because they're designed to be layered and/or mixed and matched:
CJS C-02 Christmas sweater madness!!
CJS-01 Flowers galore!
CJS-03 Snowfall serenade
On the Christmas sweater plate, there are some images designed to layer, but the plate is more about mixing and matching the elements you want to make the perfect Christmas sweater manicure; on the second two, there are lots of layers and pieces you can use to build multi-layered multi-colored flowers and snowflakes.
These are just over 2.25 inches square; this will give you a sense of the relative size of each image:
With spring colors and collections coming out, that flower plate called to me, so I decided to do my sample manicure with it (CJS-01; you can see me test the other two in the video). I started with Zoya Ireland:
Zoya Ireland
I stamped my flowers and leaves using Sally Hansen Lively Lilac, Pronto Purple, Irush Luck, and Poison Ivy; Wet n Wild Who Is Ultra Violet, Barry M Cotton and Almond; I also stamped a subtle background on parts of the nails using Zoya Easton and CJS-02:
Spring flowers with CJS-01 and Zoya Ireland
Spring flowers with CJS-01 and Zoya Ireland
I did have a couple of very minor snafus, one on the ring finger where I didn't overlap the purple on the white 100% perfectly and one on the thumb where I lifted the stamper too soon and got a bobble with my purple outline, and had to stamp again over it (notice the big flower on that thumb has SIX layers!). But considering this is only my second full mani with the clear stamper and I did a crazy number of layers, I'm pretty impressed with what this stamper and these plates can do.
You can find the soft refill had and all these awesome plates in Clear Jelly Stamper's store; she's coming out with new plates for the spring as well!
