Before & After: Brrr...Cold!!

(The 3D nail gems in this post were provided for my honest review. All other products were purchased with my own money.)

Hello!!

This week's theme in the Kimber's Mish Mash Challenge is: Cold! I thought a bit about this, and came to two conclusions.

First, as I was swatching Mentality's Seduce, I decided that needed to be my base polish (Mentality review coming soon!). For now, here is a quick look at this gorgeous cerulean blue holo:

Mentality Seduce, 2 coats, direct sunlight

Second, I decided this would be the perfect time to pull out some 3D nail art gems that Born Pretty Store sent me for review. Here is the set; there are three each of 12 different gems, all in assorted colors:

And here they are next to one of my nubbins, so you can see the size of the gems:

I wanted to do something that looked like a snowy winter's morning, with snowflakes and icicles. I put a coat of Lynbdesigns Stella, a white flakie, over Seduce, to give the look of a soft snowfall. Then I set out to create my icicles...

For three of the nails, I used silver white hexes that look a bit like crystals to me; I positioned them down the nail and threw on a couple of teeny white beads. For the accent nail, I put one of the white nail gems at the top of the nail, and put two white half-pearls under it. Under that, I put two small white beads. Around the design I put more clear hexes:

I love how this came out; I think the silvery hexes have a soft translucent look that is reminiscent of how my California girl brain thinks icicles might look. The accent nail is bold and over-the-top which is what I think of when I think of 3D nail art. No matter what, it definitely captures the feel of 'Cold'!

So what did I think of the nail gems? As you can see, the white gems were one of the smaller sizes of nail gem. These worked really well for me, no problems adhering them to the nail, and it seems to be staying put fairly well. One potential worry for me with the bigger gems is that I have very, very curved nail beds, so the gems will not sit flat on my nails--if you have flatter nail beds, you will have no problem. However, since getting these, I've been paying special attention to how people use gems like this, and they generally surround them with other gems; if I did that, the gap along the side of the gems would be masked and wouldn't really be a problem. So, if you have flatter nails, or are interested in using the gems in a look that could mask a gap, this will be a good set for you. If you have very small nails, or very curvy nails like me and hope to wear the gems alone, you might want to look for a set that has only smaller gems.

Since my intention is mainly for 3D nail art looks, I'm happy with the set and would certainly pay the listed price for them. I love looking down and seeing something that looks like a real gem sitting on my nail--so pretty and different!

As always, I have an awesome coupon code that you can use at Born Pretty Store for all your nail art supplies (and anything else on their site):

I don't make any money from your purchase and am not affiliated, but if my code is used enough, Born Pretty will sponsor a giveaway for my followers. :)

Thanks for taking a look, and please don't forget to check out all the cold manis linked below. :)

Hugs and love,
M.

(The 3D nail gems in this post were provided for my honest review. All other products were purchased with my own money.)

Before & After: Lush Sugared Diamonds

(Some products in this post were provided for review.)

Hello!!

This month's theme in my Nail Challenge Collaborative is 'Technique'. This is a pretty broad way that can be interpreted any way you like, so for today, I'll be showing you a manicure that used a combination of techniques. It started off when I was playing around with InDecisive Lacquer's Sugar. This is not meant as a topcoat, it's a scattered gray holo meant to be worn on it's own--but I had to play with it and see what I could do with it. I liked the effect over InDecisive's Lush, so I decided to do a type of skittle mani with it. Here is what it looked like before I decorated it:

InDecisive Lacquers Sugar over Lush

Look at that sparkle...

Next I stamped on the Sugar nails with Lush, and on the Lush nails with Nfu-Oh 61:

And then finally I added in some silver diamond glequins:

I learned a couple of things doing this manicure...The main thing is to pick diamonds that are uniform in shape, otherwise you're gonna have issues and the whole thing is going to look sloppy-- even when you're going for sloppy bohemian, there is such a thing as TOO sloppy, it turns out.  Second...the side diamonds on my pinkie were a little too long and ended up being more like wings, lol.

Nonetheless, I like the look and the polishes are certainly gorgeous!

Thanks for stopping by. :)
M.

(Some products in this post were provided for review.)

Review: Incoco Nail Polish Appliques--Part 1, ease of use :)

(Incoco Nail Polish Appliques provided for review.)

Hello!

Today you are about to join me on a nail journey...you, my dear friend, will be by my side as I try my very first nail wraps.

I don't just mean that I've never tried Incoco Nail Polish Appliques before (I haven't), but I haven't tried any nail wrap of any sort by any brand, ever. It's true--and my shame is about to come to an end.

Incoco sent me three sets of Nail Polish Appliques to try out, and I'm going to focus on several aspects of the appliques, one with each set. For this set, I'll be testing out their ease of use. Because I have never tried any nail wrap of any sort, I am the biggest newbie in the world at this, so if this requires any sort of skill at all, I'm sunk. And so, if I can do it, you know you can do it, too. You ready? Let's do this thing!!

For my first attempt at nail-wrappery, I chose the Love & Liberty set, which features patriotic flag hearts in red, white and blue, on a white background:

Love & Liberty appliques, in the package

Love & Liberty, contents of the package

Close-up of the design :)

The package contained a sealed set of the nail appliques, an instruction booklet (every package contains instructions for their regular strips and French manicure strips, so ignore the French Manicure instructions you see in the picture, lol), and a strip of metallic paper, which I think is just for packaging because I couldn't find a use for it in the instructions.

The instructions are both inside the package and on the outside of the package, which I like, because if I there is a way to accidentally throw out the instructions, I'm the girl that's going to find it. So more is better as far as I'm concerned:

Instructions on the back of the package

Instruction booklet included inside the package as well.

As you can see, the instructions are extremely easy to follow:

1) Remove the clear cover from the top of your selected applique.
2) Peel your applique from the backing.
3) Remove the silver tab from the applique, and select which end matches your cuticle best.
4) Apply the applique, gently stretching as needed.
5) Use your nail file to remove the excess.

This also made me happy, because I was a little bit nervous about whether or not I was going to mess up all of the samples they sent me, and have nothing to show you! (BTW, that's the nail blogger equivalent of the nightmare where you realize you're standing in the hall at school completely naked). But, it turned out, these really are just that simple to use.

I decided for this post I was going to show you the results of my first attempt to put these on--no redoing a nail just because I got it too crinkled or messed up. You'd see exactly how hard or not hard it was for a complete noob to do this manicure. And that's what I'm going to show you, with one exception--in one case, I stretched too hard, and the strip ripped diagonally so I couldn't use it anymore. Since I couldn't really show you that, I'm telling you about it, and will show you the rest exactly as the ended up on the nail, first try. Here is the finished manicure:

What do you think? How did you do? Did you spot my two boo-boos? In case you didn't see it, I have one spot where I got a crinkle and have an imperfection because I...um...flattened it a little too vigorously. In another case, I got a little tear, but it was fairly easy to keep the edge together, so the tear was barely noticeable. Can you find them? Go back and have another look.

Did you find it that time? To make it a little easier, let me show you another view. The rip is on the bottom right side of my index finger, and the over-vigorous smoothing of the crinkle is on the bottom right-ish side of the ring finger:

I think this bears repeating: this was my very first time putting on nail-wraps of any kind, and these were so easy to use I barely had any difficulty at all, and what I did have is almost impossible to see. And these pictures show my nails at about 2X their normal size--I promise you that in real life you'd need to be told where the imperfections are and look very, very closely to see them.

Okay, so, a little more information about this process. Each applique has a slightly different shape to each end, so you have a fair amount of variety when picking a wrap that will fit the shape and size of your nail. The appliques don't rip at any little pressure; they held up pretty well, but if you pull too much, they will rip, so err on the side of being gentler at first, and using more pressure as you go. I found it was easiest to pick a size that is nearly perfect so you don't have to stretch much, or to pick a size that overlapped a small amount. I say a small amount because you can clean up a teeny bit of overlap; because these appliques are made of actual polish, you can use a brush and some acetone to remove any small areas of oopsie. But, if you do this with a large amount of oopsie, things will get messy.

All in all, it took me less than 5 minutes to do one hand. This is much faster than normal polish application and drying time.

But, see...I love to do nail art. I can't leave anything alone, as is! So I also wanted to see how these would look in a little nail art...Here's what I came up with:

To make this skittle, I also used Pure Ice Siren, Pure Ice Celestial, and some little heart glequins. I really love how this came out, and I can see a bunch of possible variations on this...::wheels in brain whir loudly::

So what do I think? I'm really impressed by these. Because they are made of real nail polish, you can put them directly on the nail, no base polish or topcoat needed; they're fast, and they're remarkably easy to use, even for a noob like me. You don't have to worry about having to trash your first package just learning how to use them, because you shouldn't have an issue with that. I did rip one of the appliques--but they provide extras, so it should be no problem if you mess up one or two. I found the range of sizes worked well for my nails; I didn't need to use the smallest or largest sizes, which means people with smaller and larger nails than I have should also be fine. So far they're wearing well, but I'll be testing that out more carefully for you in another post.

Because of this, these would be great for taking on vacation, or for use during really busy times. I'm thinking about Christmas Eve when you've got 12 batches of cookies to make, presents to wrap still, and you have to be at your in-laws house in an hour. At times like those, I'd love a pretty alternative that goes on easily and doesn't have to dry for ages before I can touch anything.

There is one downside to these, and that is that because they're real nail polish, they dry out once they are opened. So you don't want to open them up to try one out, and intend to use the rest a few days later; that won't work. I went back the next day and tried to put on one of the remaining appliques, and it did go on, but it didn't stick quite as nicely, and one corner wanted to peel up. I expect this will get worse the longer the package has been open. So, they mean what they say when they warn you that the appliques will dry out once you open the package up. However...I have an idea I want to test out for using the leftovers, and I'll report back to you once I try it and see if it works. :)

With respect to ease of use, great appearance, and fun-quotient for use in nail art, I recommend these wholeheartedly. You can find these and a ton of other designs on Incoco's website--they have quite an impressive array of colors and patterns, including French tips! They sent me a set of these, so stay tuned to see my review on those, as well as my report on wear-time.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about these, let me know, and I'll be sure to test out your issues before my next post about these appliques. :)

Hugs and love,
M.

(Incoco Nail Polish Appliques provided for honest review.)

Before & After: Bridge over troubled waters

Hello!!

Today is the day when I show you one of my most lusted after lemmings...something I waited ages to get hoping it would go on sale...and finally just bought because I couldn't stand waiting any more! What is the wondrous magical potion of polish, you ask?

None other than Pahlish's Toxic and Timeless. This is a green-leaning teal jelly filled with blue, green, and gold glitters of the hex and bar variety. Here is two coats, with an impressively accommodating formula:

Pahlish Toxic and Timeless, artificial light

Pahlish Toxic And Timeless, indirect sunlight

When I look at this, it's like staring into a pond filled with beautiful, toxic sludge that's crisp and bright despite being deadly. It's like what a toxic lagoon would look like in Candyland, or in Willy Wonka's world. And what does a pond like that need? Something equally beautiful that allows you to walk over it safely.

So I decided to make just such a bridge for it, with silver glequins, microbeads, and rhinestones as my stepping stones:

Sail on silver girl

Sail on by 

Your time has come to shine

All your dreams are on their way

This is not a manicure for people afraid of bling! This is not a manicure for people afraid of glitter! But somehow, adding more blingy glittery goodness doesn't make this more ostentatious, it seems to pull together, at least in my mind. I love it. :)

Thanks for looking! And Happy Friday!

M.

Before & After: Sunfall

Hello!!

Today I have nail art for you using a polish from one of my favorite indie brands, KBShimmer. I love everything about this brand--the formula is excellent, the glitters blend perfectly with the base polish, and every component of every polish is chosen carefully to come together and tell a story. This polish is Quantum Leaf, a mustard-yellow-gold with gold, orange and red glitters:

This polish looks to me like the surface of the sun, so that inspired me to add some little suns to the manicure...I stamped using Bundle Monster plate BM01 and Sally Hansen Rapid Red, and then I finished with a red glequin in the center of each sun: 

Can't get much more summery than the gorgeous golden rays of the summer sun! Speaking of which, where'd I put my sunblock...

Hugs and love,
M.

Before & After: Franken Flashback

Hello there!

Okay, so I tweaked my franken a bit more, and wanted to show it to you full-manicure, as requested. In my hurry to get it up tonight I fought the light a little, so you'll have to sort of piece it together. First, the pic that represents the color well, which is a light milky sage, with green, gold, and white glitters:

Lacquer Or Leave Her! Irish Rain

Then two pictures that show the contrast with the glitters best, but wash out the green a bit and looks more of a mint shade than it really is:

Lacquer Or Leave Her! Irish Rain

I'm not sure that I'm fully happy with it, but I think I may leave it for now. It's still a bit thin--this is three coats, and I still wish it were a bit less milky. But it's a pretty sage sort of milky rather than a pastel, which I like. And at least you can see the glitters, and that's a definite improvement from the first from-scratch I made. And I do like the blend of glitters--not too much, not too little, and some differences in color and shape to keep it a bit interesting. Just too...milky.

Anyway, I needed to do a 1970s manicure for my Llama Nails time period Challenge, and I figured this makes a nice 1970s sort of base, so I thought I'd just use this. I picked an image from Pueen25, which has been screaming '1970s' to me since I saw it. I stamped with Sally Hansen Lightning on three of the nails, and with a rainbow of Rapid Red, Lightning, Orange Impulse, Lickety-Split Lime, and Brisk Blue on the accent nail. I finished off with some 3D Nail Art Confetti from the set Mash sent me for review:

I like how the glitter in the background looks sort of like a comet trail or some such behind the flowers, and I think the combination of flowers and stars is very 1970s, and so is the random rainbow, lol.

Anyway, I would definitely still love any opinions and/or advice on the franken, and I hope you liked the mani! Please check out the other 1970s era manis linked below. :)

Hugs, loves, and frankens...:)
M.

Before & After: OMG, my undies are showing!

Hello!!

Today I have for you my third neon manicure, made for my Nail Challenge Collaborative monthly challenge. :)

I started with a base of Julep Nikki, which just came in my mystery box; it's a greenish-yellow that looks like someone put split-pea soup and a banana into a blender and turned it on high (do I get extra blogger points for coming up with the least appealing description of a polish, ever? I do actually like the color, not that you could tell from that). It dries to a wax finish, which I just love:

This one is color accurate but doesn't show the finish as well

This shows the finish best, but the color isn't as accurate

I had a plan for this and I executed it and...everything went wrong and it looked like a complete fail. I stared at it for awhile trying to find some way of rescuing it, and finally decided that it was better to abandon it and start with a clean slate. So this is not technically a before and after, because the swatch you see above didn't actually make it into the mani, lol.

Part of what I felt I'd done wrong was not put undies under the polish, which meant I had a bit less of the brightness than I wanted, so this time around I decided to put that white polish on under where it belonged. And then, as I was polishing I thought...well, since I have to put this stuff on anyway, why not let it show? Why not turn it into an 'omg-my-undies-are-showing' ruffian!

So I did. :)

This time I started with a base of Wet n Wild French White Creme, and then put Nikki over it. To finish off the look, I put on some of the awesome 3D nail art confetti that Mash sent me out for review a couple of weeks back (you can see my original review of it by clicking here). I chose some orange and some purple flowers to complement the neon and keep the colors bright and fun:

I love this challenge because it's moving me a bit out of my comfort zone--which is the whole point of doing challenges in the first place, isn't it? I'm actually starting to like these bright neon polishes--I wore this manicure for almost three full days. Crazy talk!!! :)

Thanks for taking a look, and please don't forget to check out the other neon manicures, linked below. :)

Hugs, love, and bright shiny flowers,
M.

Before & After: 1960s Mod Squad

Hello!!

This week the Llama Nails way-back machine is taking us to...the 1960s! I wasn't alive then, but I hear it was a great decade, and there's certainly no denying that some awesome music and fashion came flooding out of that era in a major way. I decided to focus on the fashion side of it, and bring you a manicure that I'd love to have as a groovy mod dress. :)

I started with a Julie G Rock Candy, a pretty teal textured polish with lots of sparkling glitter:

Julie G Rock Candy, indirect sun

Julie G Rock Candy, direct sun

I wanted to go with a slightly darker teal, so I put a coat of Zoya Frida over it:

Julie G Rock Candy + Zoya Frida

Finally, because when I think of 1960s' fashion, I think of geometic patterns and blocks of color, I chose a square-block pattern from Pueen 16, and stamped it using Barry M Silver Foil. Then I added a couple of rockin' doughnut glequins to each nail, to give contrasting shape and a complementary color...oh, and they kinda look like little 45s, which my mother assures me was the way she listened to music as a little girl:

I love the look of the stamping over the texture--it reminds me of a beautiful chenille fabric. :) Overall I think the look is fun, mod, and very groovy, baby. :)


Thanks for looking! Peace, love, and retro hooks,
M.