Before & After: Where inspiration goes to die

Hello!!

Well, it's the last day of this month's 4 Tri-Polish challenge manicures...and both my brain and my camera decided to reject the pink, orange and turquoise combo this time. I thought about just not posting this, but I've always said that I will show you my failures as well as my successes, lol...So that's what I'll do.

I started out with a base of Zoya Zuza, which I've shown you before but will show you again so you get at least one thing good from this post, lol:

Zoya Zuza

Oh, yeah, baby, a beautiful turquoise, and not only that, it was back when my nails were long and strong!!

I wanted to do a sort of striped color rainbow with glitter on top of it. So I painted a white stripe down each nail, and then put my pink (Julep Avery) and my orange (LeChat Kiss-N-Tell) each over half of the white stripe. I did get a cool effect; where the pink overlapped with the blue, it created a pretty purple, and it looked...bright...but pretty, actually. However, it freaked my camera out, and I couldn't get a good picture. Then I added my glitter topper, and it made it even worse:

This is the best picture I could get after trying every setting on my white balance, and finally doing a manual adjust on the white balance using a Starbucks cup lid as my white base (and trying it in different lighting conditions). You should be seeing orange, then pink, then a small stripe of purple, then turquoise, but it's hard to differentiate the orange and pink.


I wasn't sure what to do, so then I decided to pull out a trick I use a lot when I have something horrible to cover up and not much time--yes, that's right: I pulled out my crackle. Oh, I know crackle haters gonna hate, but I must admit I still like my crackles, yes I do. And in a case like this, they can cure a multitude of ills. I put a heavy coat on my index and middle fingers to get the crackle effect, and put a think coat on ring and pinkie to get a solid effect:

You can see here that the rainbow effect was actually fairly pretty. :)

At least now you can see the different colors under the crackle, lol--apparently the silver polish gave the camera something to focus on so that it could get the other colors.

At the end of the day, I think it would make a lovely gift-wrap, and I don't actually mind it too much as a manicure. But it's not something I'm ever going to do on purpose again, hee hee.

To make up for this FAIL, I'll have another post for you at noon today, which will direct you to a guest post I did on another blog...So come back and check that out. :)

Thanks for taking a look, and please check out the other manicures linked below!

Big hugs,
M.

Before & After: Funhouse Of 1000 Corpses

Hello!!

Today's 31 Day Challenge prompt is to do a manicure inspired by your childhood. To be honest, my childhood doesn't inspire very many good memories and much of what I could come up with to represent my childhood took things to a darker place than I think this prompt is meant to go! So I decided instead to do a manicure inspired by 'childhood', rather than my particular childhood.

When I think of the magic of childhood, I think of bright colors and happiness. And I recently got a polish that just speaks all of that to me--ironically, it's meant to be a Halloween polish, Jindie Nails Funhouse Of 1000 Corpses:

Jindie Nails Funhouse Of 1000 Corpses

...and up closer :)

This polish makes me smile when I wear it, and it makes me think of cupcakes with sprinkles and those inflatable rooms filled with colored balls. It makes me think of circuses, and parties, and fun, all things that every childhood should be full of.

I know everyone is going to hate me for this, but...I felt that the perfect added touch would be two bright, pretty crackles I recently got in my Spoiled bucked (Spoiled Pretty Pink Punk and Inmate In Love). I know most people don't care for crackles, but I really love them; I just don't love them all the time. Anyway, I did a gradient with them, but putting the orange vertically across half of the nails, and then the pink horizontally on the bottom part of the orange stripe:

Bright, happy colors

...for a bright, happy life.

For me, this manicure has whimsy and fun. Sure, it's not something I'd wear to an elegant night out. But every woman has to have a multitude of sides, right?

Thanks for looking, and please check out the other child-ish manicures linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.

NOTD x 3: Going out with a bang!

Hello!!

Yes, you read that title right. There will be three manicures in today's post for you. The reason is this. Both of my Halloween challenges end today, and Wednesday is the Llama Nails alphabet challenge day, and this week just happens to be 'H'--I'm pretty sure there is a law that states I MUST do a Halloween manicure for the alphabet challenge if the letter that falls on actual Halloween day is 'H'. And I don't wanna go to jail before Christmas, too much stuff to do. So yep...that makes three manis scheduled for the same day.

First up: To end my CNT Halloween challenge, the last prompt is to recreate someone else's mani from previous prompts that you liked. One of my favorite manicures of the whole challenge was this one. I'm not really great with free-hand art, as you may have noticed, but I really wanted to try to make a version of it. Here's how it came out:

I don't remember planting zombie hands in that part of the garden...

That one on the middle finger is a zombie skeleton. Not at all a zombie hand that looks like a skeleton. Nope, not at all.

I was so happy with how this came out, I almost couldn't bring myself to take it off. It's not perfect, and I'm sure there are many others out there that are better. but I managed to do it, make it recognizeable, and even used gray polish to shade the black polish. It just goes to show that it's always worth giving something a try, even if you aren't sure you can do it. :)

To make it, I started with a base of China Glaze Elephant Walk, my go-to grey. I free-handed a moon with Pure Ice Silver Mercedes, and then free-handed the zombie hands with Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris. Then I tried to highlight/shade appropriately with Silver Mercedes and Elephant Walk. I used The Nail Junkie Black Cat to make the ground at the bottom of the nail.

The last prompt in my 'This Is Halloween' challenge was also to recreate someone else's mani from the earlier prompts. I chose this one from Lissa's Polish Addiction, because it was sleek but spooky. Yes, it's another free-hand manicure--let it never be said that I'm not willing to push myself, lol! Sadly, my results were not quite as good this time:

In my mind I decided that it would be cool to have a spooky night sky instead of her beautiful purple, and a blood-red house because...honestly, I don't know what the heck I was thinking, I really don't. I mean, it's not *horrible*, but it's not good. Nope...not good. The only good thing about this mani is that you'll never have to see it again. I tried to rescue it by turning it into an Amityville Horror manicure, and it did work better for that. But it still wasn't my favorite.

And last but not least...My Llama Nails 'H' is for Halloween manicure. This is the actual manicure I'm wearing for Halloween. I've done so much nail art with these challenges that I wanted to just chill out and layer some pretty polishes in Halloween colors. Here is what I ended up with:

Yes, I know crackle is not in fashion at the moment. Don't care. I love it, especially for Halloween, and I think it goes beautifully with shard glitter (also not a favorite of most polish fanatics...fine, more for me!!). To make this, I started with a base of China Glaze Code Orange, a beautiful pumpkin orange that manages to be just the right amount of bright. Over it I put Sally Hansen Vintage Violet crackle, and over that, I put a coat of Sation's Ego-Friendly, a very pretty polish that has small green hex glitter, lime green shards, black shards, and white pearlesent shards in a clear base. Not to harp on it, but I really do love how well the shard glitter and the crackle go together. And this combination of colors is fun, but not crazy bright.

Phew! That's a lot of manicures for one post! But it just seemed silly to do a separate post for each manicure. So, this way, I hope there is something here for everyone, to end the month with a big Halloween bang. :)

And don't worry, I've learned my lesson--only one Christmas/Holiday challenge for me come December. Well, probably. I mean, most likely. Okay, we'll see. :P

Thanks for looking! Please take a look at (1) the other CNT challenge manis, (2) the other 'This Is Halloween' manis and (3) the other Llama Nails 'H' manis, all linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.

MSMD Monday: Memorial Day Manicure

Hello!

Back right on time to do my Memorial Day Manicure!! Today I'm doing my very first Monkey-See-Monkey-Do manicure...I was lucky enough to be included in the group of excellent ladies who do this across the blogosphere. :)

Today I wanted to recreate a manicure I'd seen and admired for some time, which you can find here:

http://www.kewtified.com/2011/07/happy-independence-day/

This was originally a Fourth of July manicure, but I think it works for this, too. I didn't have the white glitter stars, so I had to shift it around a bit:

I used China Glaze Frostbite for the blue base, and Sally Hansen Xtreme White On for the white base. I used Konad white stamping polish and Mash plate 49 for the stars; I used Sally Hansen Cherry Smash crackle for the 'stripes'. For some reason this photographs more orange than it looks in real life. So, this isn't an exact replica, but I think it captures it pretty closely. :)

I feel like Wonder Woman with this on my nails, it's very fun and patriotic!

Thanks for looking,

M.

Review and NOTD Before & After: OPI Just Spotted The Lizard (or, obvious manicure is obvious)

Hello!

Today I have an obvious manicure for you. But then it gets very, very counter-intuitive.

The only polish I really like from OPI's The Amazing Spider-man collection is Just Spotted The Lizard. The other ones just don't do it for me, although I may end up getting the shatter at some point...Anyway, turns out, this is a dupe for Chanel's Peridot, which is even more exciting for me, because I love that color, but can't bring myself to pay that price. Thank heavens for reasonably priced dupes! :)

So here is the color as I wore it on its own:  

Seriously. How gorgeous is that? Green-gold-yellow-orange duochrome magic...

The formula on this applied like a dream. No complaints here! :)

As for stamping...I tried to resist. I did. I really, really did.

Okay, I didn't.

What else are you going to put on your first manicure with a polish called 'Just Spotted The Lizard'? Well, duh, some version of a lizard. And maybe some lizard-skin-like pattern, too. Sure, it's obvious. But who could resist?! If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it, I betcha you would have done the same! (Sorry, I really love that musical. But I'll try to control myself. See how happy this polish makes me?!)

So here it is stamped:

I used China Glaze's Agro to stamp with, Cheeky large image plate D for the lizard skin, and Shany plate SH-13 for the little lizards. I love how well the gorgeous multichrome colors come out even with all of the stamping. I bet it would work well even with mostly full coverage stamps...I'll have to try it.

And then after wearing this for a day, well...Yeah. Sometimes I can't leave well enough alone, and I got it into my head that when it came time to remove this, I wanted to try China Glaze's Jade-d glitter crackle over it. Probably because I just got it and needed an excuse to try it:

...And now the whole mani looks like real lizard skin that's been sitting out in the sun for too long. Yes, this is how you ruin both a beautiful polish and a beautiful glitter crackle all at the same time with an inappropriate pairing! The glitter hid the color of the polish, and the color of the glitter somehow washed completely out on top of that polish. Ah well, how do you know if you never try?

Thanks for stopping by,

M.

(the products in this review were purchased with my own money.)

China Glaze Crackle Glitters Collection

Hello!

Today is the official release of the China Glaze Crackle Glitters collection. This is what they look like:

Here is a closer-up picture of the colors:





They are called, from left to right: Glam More, Gleam Me Up, Jade-d, and Luminous Lavender.

I know it's not cool to like crackles anymore, but I can't help it, I love them and I always will. I think they are a great way to extend a manicure--just throw a pretty crackle on top of it once you're bored with it or it isn't looking so new anymore. I think they make for amazing color combinations, and I love to play around with them. So I have no doubt that I will be getting these; my favorite one is 'Jade-d', I can't wait to play with that, particularly over China Glaze's 'It's Alive!' (posted in my skittle swatches earlier this month). I can't be the only one excited about crackles still, can I?

Peace and love, and thanks for reading.

M.

First Before & After (& After) NOTD: Orly's Mysterious Curse/Royal Velvet

Hello!

One of the things I love on my favorite nail blogs is when people post before-and-after pics of manicures that they change up after a day or two in some way. So, I thought I would do this myself, since I often will try to get extra mileage out of my manicures. I've noticed that some people are apologetic if it's just a 'typical stamping job', but I don't think there is any such thing. I love to see the different combinations of colors and stamps, even if it is just one simple stamp put on a base polish. It inspires me...So I warn you now that I will likely do that often here. :)

Here is my first documented attempt. A few days ago I posted about how much I love Orly's Mysterious Curse (can also be found under the name 'Royal Velvet'). I still love it. I believe epic poetry will be written about it, and that future generations will mark its release date with a national holiday, celebrating with cupcakes iced in duochrome frosting...yum, I love frosting...nom nom nom...Wait...what was I saying?

Oh yes, the manicure. After wearing it for two days, I decided to try some stamping on it. I wanted something that played up the halloween-y goth-y feel of it, but didn't want to do something really obvious like webs and spiders. So this is what I did (notice I couldn't bear to cover all of the nails with stamping, lol):

Before:

And afters:

You can see the accent tips on the very edge of the nail better on this hand.

Close-up of the accent nail...Great paint job, such clean cuticles (NOT).

And I had to include this one even though it's a bit blurry 'cause it shows the duochrome a little. :)

I stamped a background pattern on the accent nails with China Glaze Avalanche using Cheeky Plate D. Then I used Sally Hansen's Silver Sweep to stamp the cross, using Bundle Monster plate BM-13. To finish it, I put a very fine line of Avalanche at the top of every nail right at the tip...I saw this look on some Pinterest board, and really liked it, but am not great at it yet.

I like how this came out. The background stamp gives it a little dimension, and makes the contrast between the silver and the dark blue less stark. The colors work well together, and the whole thing has a goth rock kind of feel to it, at least IMO. :)

One word of warning. While stamping doesn't kill the duochrome effect completely, it does lessen how much the nail shows the full purple color. So if you were to cover every nail with stamping, that would definitely alter the duochrome effect of this polish somewhat.

After wearing this for a day I wanted to add a little something to it, so I did this:

On my pinky and my thumb, I layered stripes of crackle polish, first a silver (Sally Hansen Fractured Foil) and then over most of it, but leaving a little showing, a purple (Sally Hansen Vintage Violet). I've like the idea of having an accent nail on the ring finger, and then some sort of complimentary accents on the thumb and pinky. It adds just a little flare to the manicure, and leaves most of the nails showing the main color. and I think these crackles went well with the colors I used to stamp--not perfectly, but that's okay, close enough. What do you think? :)

Oh, and...I love that you can see Mysterious Curse's shimmer in the light on these pics. :)

Thanks for reading,

M.