Two winter manis with BeautyBigBang holiday plates

(Press samples and affiliate links ahead!)

Hello!


I promised I'd be back with two more winter-themed manis using my BeautyBigBang holiday set, so let's take a look!


For my first mani, I started with a base of Shinespark Polish Canis Major, and then stamped an image from BeautyBigBang11 with MoYou London Ginger Rust.

Here's how it came out:

BeautyBigBang 11 over Shinespark Polish Canis Major 

BeautyBigBang 11 over Shinespark Polish Canis Major 

I love the rich, velvet brocade feel to this, with the deep jewel-tone base. This makes me think of beautiful renaissance girls dressed in long court gowns.


For my second mani, I started with a base of Zoya Vickie (from their Kisses Pastel Jellies collection), topped with Zoya Leia. I stamped an image from BeautyBigBang13, using Kaleidoscope White.

Here's how it came out:

BeautyBigBang 13 over Zoya Vickie + Zoya Leia

BeautyBigBang 13 over Zoya Vickie + Zoya Leia

Yeesss!! I love how this came out! I love how it has a silvery look perfect for winter--a snow princess going out to skate on a frozen pond would wear this lake. And I love how easy it is to get French tip looks with images like this, because your placement doesn't have to be absolutely perfect.


You can find these plates in BeautyBigBang's store, and use my code, MISHKA824M, for 10% off your order. :)


Happy stamping,
M. xoxo

Before & After: Milani Hi-Tech

Hello there!!

OMG, stop the presses. Milani has some pretty incredible holo polishes.

I know these have been around for ages, but I never realized how gorgeous they are! I read about them somewhere a long time ago, and they did say they are nicer than they look in the bottle. But that's not saying much, at least when I was looking at this in the light at my CVS, where the polish looked really unattractive. I found it very hard to believe that this was holo at all, let alone a nice holo. But finally the right sale and coupon circumstances combined to allow me to get this for $1.50...and I figured, hey, what the heck--peridot is my birthstone, and this polish is that color, so why not.

As soon as I got it out of the CVS, I could tell a difference even though it was an overcast, dark day. I guess something about the type of lighting my store uses killed any hint of the holo--but believe me, it's there. This polish even shows holo in the crappy light of my house--and when it's in the sunlight, it's really beautiful. It's more like the China Glaze Kaleidoscopes than the OMGs in texture...It's like a combination of a linear holo and a scattered holo (if that makes sense). Better to let the pictures do the talking:

Milani Hi-Tech in sunlight

More sunlight cause I love the sparkle

Sparklelicious, baby

I wore this for almost two days without stamping it because I loved it so much. In fact, I think the only reason I did stamp it finally was because I went to a baseball game with some friends, and I wanted to decorate them in the team's colors (green and yellow). While Hi-Tech is a peridot green color, it flashes gold, so I decided that would work for the yellow part. Here is the manicure I came up with:

I used the Konad plain french tips plate to stamp guides on my nails which I then painted over to darken with China Glaze's Holly Day (this is how I always do my French manicures--plates as guides and then paint over with polish to darken and straighten any crooked lines). I used the same polish and plate BM-202 to stamp the...blobby thingies?

I'm not sure I'd wear this is a 'just because' manicure, but it worked for a baseball game manicure, and I think it might make a good St. Patrick's Day manicure too, possibly. :)

Thanks for looking,

M.

NOTD Before & After: China Glaze's Fast Track

Hello!

Today I bring you China Glaze's Fast Track, which I believe is the unsung little step-sister of the Hunger Games collection. Riveting and Electrify are flashy and eye-catching; Luxe & Lush is a flakie, and that's all that needs to be said about that; Smoke & Ashes has a night-sky feel that calls out to you, even if it's a bit disappointing after it dries. Agro and Foie Gras grab the attention of the 'ugly pretty' lovers...And Dress Me Up is a beautiful pink neutral that grabs both the pink lovers and the neutral lovers and even has -me- almost willing to wear it.

Unfortunately, one that tends to be forgotten, but that shouldn't be in my opinion, is Fast Track, a taupe-y neutral with a gold flash. I myownself overlooked it the first 5 or 6 times I considered what to buy from the collection. When I did finally get it, it was in an 'eh, why not?' sort of way; I'm not a big fan of neutrals, but every girl needs a few, and this looked like it would at least have a little sparkle to it.

I was pleasantly surprised with glass-fleck-like flakes of glitter that make the texture of this polish complex. When you look at the polish, it seems to have flakes of white, silver and gold; this gives the polish depth I didn't expect. Neutrals can be necessary but boring--but Fast Track is definitely not boring.

See for yourself:

China Glaze Fast Track in sunlight

China Glaze Fast Track in the shade

Like any over-looked Cinderella in a fairy tale, Fast Track deserves to be dressed up on occasion and taken out. Here is what I did with her:

I decided to do a Funky French chevron design with China Glaze Champagne Bubbles on one side, and Barielle's Make It A Latte on the other; Make It A Latte also has gold flecks, so I thought these would be a good match. I delineated the areas with gold nail tape, which I'm still learning to work with effectively (pay no attention to that pinkie!). If you look closely you can see I overdid it with the topcoat to try to keep the nail tape in place (ugh that cuticle on my middle finger!!).

I love this polish alone or with decoration. I hope I've made you like it a little, too. :)

Thanks for reading,

M.

NOTD Before & After: China Glaze Tantalize Me (or, Shrinkage: The Prequel)

Hello!!

Today I have a before & after that developed with the help of one of my group challenges; today's challenge was 'summer chevrons'.

I had been wearing China Glaze's Tantalize Me, which is a nostalgic (for me) shimmery lilac sort of polish with a light blue flash that makes me think of my youth:

China Glaze Tantalize Me  in the shade

China Glaze Tantalize Me in the sun

While wearing it, I received some lovely nail mail containing Whimsical Ideas by Pam's Hatched, which I of course wanted to use as soon as possible. Thoughts began swarming through my head...chevrons...pretty lilac...Hatched...it all jumbled and scrumbled around together and came out lookin' like what you see here(*******WARNING! SHRINKAGE BELOW!!!******):

I made chevron French tips with the Hatched, which is a pretty eggshell color with small and medium hex glitter in purples and blues. I accented the chevron line with matching nail tape, and then covered that with two coats of Seche Vite. For the very first time ever, I got horrible shrinkage, which you can see in the pictures above! I am thinking I didn't let the Hatched dry for long enough before adding on the Seche Vite...I'm not sure. I just know that people have always talked about this, and I've always been like 'I don't know what you people are talking about, nothing like this has ever happened to me you must be crazy'. Nope. It's real. It's here. And it will kick your butt so hard you won't be able to sit for a week. Aarrrrgghhhhh..........

Thank you for checking out my post, and please visit the other bloggers that participated in today's challenge, shown below. :)

M.

NOTD: Ice Cream FAIL

Hello!

Today the theme in my Summer Challenge is Ice Cream Sundae. I had what I thought was a good idea for this, and was looking forward to doing it. I thought I had it covered, so I didn't worry about starting it early, and did some other things day before yesterday (you know, like chores and work and stuff?! Where have my priorities gone...sigh...), and left this until late.

My idea was to make my nails look like a bowl of chocolate ice cream with whipped cream on top, with a little cherry twist. I started with a base of Orly's Buried Alive for the brown 'chocolate', and then  put Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in White On over the tips, to look like whipped cream. I covered it in topcoat, waited a few minutes and headed to bed, with beautiful white-tipped nails.

When I woke in the morning, the white had turned to a beige color. At first I thought, okay, well, homemade whipped cream has a beigey look to it, no problem. Then, as the morning went on, it turned to a banana yellow. I knew I wasn't going to have time to redo the mani, so I figured I'd better stamp it and finish it up before it turned safety-cone orange. So I stamped (using Mash 45 and Konad red), and snapped, and when looking through my pictures realized I had an over-exposed one that made the nails look almost white again. Here it is, along with a color-accurate version:

Closer to what I wanted them to look like (if the stamping had been better)

What they actually look like

Then, to top the whole thing off, I realized the stamping on the ring finger looked janky at best, and the stamping on the middle finger could have been better placed. Plus, the gorgeous brown just looks dark and washed out. *sigh*

I could have just started over, but it's right on that line between something that is totally embarrassing and something that's almost okay...and I had a lot on my plate, so I figured I'd post it as a cautionary tale to warn others that sometimes the polish you put underneath something will bleed up into it! So if you need that to not happen for some reason, you might want to test the polishes together beforehand.

It's not quite what I had envisioned, but I do think it has a sort of FAIL cuteness about it. :)

Thanks for looking! And don't forget to check out the other bloggers who participated, shown below.

M.

NOTD: MSMD Gilded Mermaid nails

Hello!

I've recently seen several versions of 'Mermaid Nails' that I adore, and wanted to try my own version of them. You can see two of my favorites by clicking here and by clicking here.

I wanted a blue-green base that had texture, so I started with two coats of Orly's Halley's Comet:

Orly's Halley's Comet (well, mostly...the ring finger is actually Essence's Choose Me)

On top of that base, I put a generous layer of Spoiled's Pet My Peacock glitter, trying to get both a random spray of glitter, but making sure there weren't any super obvious holes. Then, I covered all of that with a layer of LA Color's Radiation, a sheer greenish blue, with gave an opalescent look to the glitter and tone down its sparkle just a little bit. I decided that I wanted my version to be a 'Gilded Mermaid', so I stamped my 'scales' with China Glaze's Passion (by far the best gold polish I've found for stamping by the way), using Mash Plate 46. To give a final subtle sparkle of a different kind, I went over all of it with China Glaze's Golden Enchantment.

Then...Ah, then.


Then I decided to put on gold French tips...This was not my finest decision-making moment:

Gilded Mermaid nails...that are maybe a little too gilded.

I don't often do this, but the tips bugged me so much, I removed the whole thing and started over. Here is the look without the tips:

Mermaid nails in the light

Mermaid nails in the shade

And I think I do like that much better. The gold tips just make it a little too...I don't know what the right word is, but just a little too.

Strangely enough, when I was trying to decide if I would still like the gold stamping without the gold tips, of if I should go with another color to stamp the scales, I took this picture, which shows the layers, textures, and colors really well, I think:

Some texture for ya!

At the end of it all, I'm pretty darn proud of them, especially because I've never done a glitter sandwich before. Next time, however, I think I might go for the smaller, typical scale lines, rather than these thicker ones. But I loved the deco sort of look to these!

Thanks for taking a look. And don't forget to check out the other ladies that participated in MSMD Monday, shown below.  :)

M.

NOTD Before & After: Color Club Sparkle And Soar

Hello!

Today's manicure uses Color Club's Sparkle and Soar, from their recent Take Wing collection. I've said it before and I'll say it again--I love this color. The blend of gold and orange glass flecks makes it look light it sends out light, and it sparkles and shines in every light. Here it is before I decorated it:






























I wanted to play on the range of colors you see in this polish...I used China Glaze's Radiant Rust (a color you don't really hear much about, but which I think is quite nice) to put on funky french tips, and then stamped little flowers using Sally Hansen Insta-dry in Lightning (this is a very good yellow for stamping, btw, it even shows up on very dark colors), using Konad plate m60 (I also used Konad plate m19 as a guide for the french tips):

I used bigger flowers for the accent nails (actually, I tried to do a double-flower stamp thing on the ring finger, but I messed it up!), put a rhinestone in the center of those flowers, and covered it all up with Seche Vite. This is a perfect spring mani for me, since I'm not really into the lighter colors that you normally associate with spring. I'm really happy with how this came out (except for the double-stamp), and I hope you enjoy it too. I could see doing this in almost any color scheme, and with any of the other colors in the Take Wing collection as a base.

Hope you like it too!

M.

NOTD Before & After: Color Club's Fly With Me

Hello!

Today's manicure started out with Color Club's Fly With Me, one of the colors from their new collection. It's a very pretty green with glass flecks that gets notice in a good way:

 Ahhh...sooo preeeetttyyy...

I didn't want to take away from the color too much, but I wanted to add a little zip. So, I stamped it using Sally Hansen Instra-Dry in Night Flight, using one of the new MASH plates (Mash-44) that I reviewed recently (if you're interested in my review of the MASH plates, you can find the image plate review by clicking here, the review of how well they stamp by clicking here, and the YouTube video of the plates by clicking here):

Here is how it came out:

On the accent nail, I used one side of the design, and put it vertically onto the nail (the design is originally horizontal). Then for the other nails I used only the two bottom stripes from the design, and placed them horizontally across the top of the nail. I'm not sure if this quite counts as a 'funky french'? It sort of has the placement of a french manicure, so I'm going to go with that. :)

I like this manicure, but I think I might like it even better with other colors. For example, a red base color with gold stamped accents...Or black with silver...or white with Black...I also think a well-placed rhinestone or two would add nicely to it. Hmm...maybe I'll add some.

Thanks for looking!

M.