Polished pairings: Snap My Dragon + Lemon Crush

Hello!!

It's time for the next installment of Polished Pairings, where I show you combinations that I love. :)

This time I started with China Glaze's Snap My Dragon, from this spring's Avant Garden collection, a pink-leaning red with pink shimmer:

China Glaze Snap My Dragon, direct sun, messy cuticles

China Glaze Snap My Dragon, indirect sunlight, messy cuticles

Then I added a coat of Glitzology's Lemon Crush, a mixture of white glitters, yellow glitters and yellow flakes:

Glitzology's Lemon Crush over China Glaze Snap My Dragon

I love how the yellow plays with the pinky-red beneath it and almost looks orange in places. A very summery combination, I think!

Thanks for looking. :) Hugs and love,
M.

Before & After: Inspired by red

Hello!

All I have to say is UGH. I hope this is one of those cases where I'm my own worst critic, because holy moly I hate how this came out. Maybe it's the pressure of doing your favorite color family justice--today's prompt in the CNT 31 Day Challenge is to do a manicure from your favorite color family. Maybe it's because I'm crazy sick with a horrendous cold. I don't know. All I know is ICK.

I started this manicure after doing my dupe-or-no-dupe post with China Glaze Ruby Pumps; that polish and its snowman dupe are such pretty reds, I figured that would be a good base for the manicure:

China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Sally Girl 'Glitter' Snowman

Next, I added a a layer of a new glitter polish that recently purchased from Glitzology, called Sock Monkey; it's a mix of red, white and brown-black hex glitters (medium and teeny) and gold hexes and squares and squares in a shimmery light taupey-brown base:

Glitzology Sock Monkey over Ruby Pumps and 'Glitter'

I love this whimsical blend :)

And that's when it all went very, very wrong.

I wanted to do something that went along with the dark brown-black hexes in the glitter, but I didn't take into account that they had been softened by the base of the glitter a bit. So I stamped over the tips using Konad Black, probably the darkest black you can stamp with, and Bundle Monster plate BM201:

Sometimes Konad black is TOO good...

And let's not mention the hot stamping mess on the ring finger...it didn't really show up that much until I saw it on camera

It's not horrendous, but it's not great either. What it boils down to is this. I think if I had stamped in a brownish red, this would have been really nice. Unfortunately, this is one of those times that I didn't put a layer of topcoat between the glitter and the stamping, so I couldn't remove it without damaging the base. And I thought about doing another manicure for today, but I'm so darned sick that that just wasn't going to happen. So I figured I'd post it in case I'm just being too hard on myself, or so that at least someone can learn from my misjudgment here! :)

Thanks for looking, and please check out the other manicures linked below, I'm sure the other participants had much more luck!

Xoxox,
M.

Before & After: Snowy Trees

Hello!!!

Check out this amazingly awesome green, Barielle's Date Night, that I started today's mani with:

Barielle Date Night

Barielle's Date Night

I don't know about you, but to my mind, that has to be one of the most perfect Christmas greens I've ever seen. I mean, it's a really beautiful green for anything, but I really love it for Christmas. So much so, in fact, that I decided to turn it into a mani of snowy pine trees. :)

Next I added some 'snow', with Glitzology's Snow Day. This is a white-glitter polish with a variety of white hex glitters, white square glitters, and some white bar glitters; what makes it really special is the interference blue that you can't really see in the bottle, but that shows up when you put it on (you can see the difference best in the bottom shot):

Date Night with Glitzology Snow Day

Date Night with Glitzology Snow Day

Finally, I couldn't resist turning one of them into a Christmas tree, so I added a some sequins in different colors to the accent nail:

In the lane, snow is glistenin'...it's a beautiful sight, we're happy tonight

Walkin' in a winter wonderland. :)

What do you think? I really love that flash of blue in 'Snow Day', it really gives an extra something to the polish. And that green...oh, that green...

So, before I end, I have a question for you all...Would you like me to do a year-end recap of my favorite polishes and/or nail art items/techniques? Let me know.

Thanks for taking a look! Have a most wonderful day. :)

Xoxox,
M.

NOTD: Candy Canes

Hello!

Today is the second prompt in my Winter Holiday Challenge, and the prompt is Gingerbread Men and Candy Canes. I'm assuming (hoping) that this means we can choose one or the other, and I'm choosing candy canes.

I love what I did, but had the worst time ever getting a picture of it. I used a jelly-based glitter, and while it covered well, when I tried to take pictures of it, it went transparent and showed the underwear. If I adjusted the light down so that the polish was less transparent, the colors got dark and muddy. So I'm going to just show you the best I could do and hope the idea comes across, lol.

I started with a base of Sally Hansen White On and covered it with Jindie Nails Yule Love This (a special 'thank you' polish she made for people who ordered the week of Nov. 7th), a milky glitter with red, green, and gold circle glitters. Then I stamped stripes using Wet N Wild I Red A Good Book and LeaLaC plate LLC-A. I filled in some of the stripes with Glitzology Little Red Corvette, a red jelly with red glitter of all shapes. Here's what it ended up looking like--well, sort of:

This is the closest to what it looked like in person

Grr...so dark in order to get the look right...

Ah well, what can you do...

I'm bummed because I really love how this came out. Traditional candy-cane-ish, but with the multi-colored glitter poking out of the white and tons of red glitter in the red stripes. But I just couldn't capture it well. I hope that these pictures at least show you the idea, in case you want to do something like this yourself.

Anyway...thanks for checking it out, and please check out what the other participants did (almost certainly guaranteed to have better pictures than I do!).

Xoxox,
M.

MSMD Before & After: Home-made Milky Glitter

Hello!!

I recently saw a very cool tip on how to make your own milky glitter from any glitter you own here on Nouveau Cheap's blog. Of course I loved the idea of getting more use out of glitters I already have, and I'm familiar with the glitter sandwich concept, so I had to try it. The only problem was I didn't have a milky base polish suitable to do it.

Luckily for me, the Wet n Wild petites went on sale at CVS, and I got the whole box for $0.99...and one of the ones included, Break The Ice, seemed perfect for this purpose. :)

For my glitter, I decided to go with Glitzology's Sherwood Forest (Indie alert!), because I've been dying to use it, and it's such a bold glitter that I thought it would present an interesting challenge. Here's a look at the colors in the bottle:

Glitzology Sherwood Forest

I applied one coat of Break The Ice, and then one thick coat of Sherwood Forest, and topped it off with another thick coat of Break the Ice:

Wet n Wild Break The Ice + Glitzology Sherwood Forest + Break The Ice again

I absolutely love it. I put a thick coat of this because I thought I needed to, but I think I could have used a bit less. Also, I was surpised that the topper actually changed the color of the glitter somewhat! I thought the sheer white would just make a it bit occluded, I didn't think there would be a shift in the color scheme. :)

Of course I can't leave well enough alone, so I wanted to do some nail art over it. I stamped using China Glaze Holly Jolly, using a Cheeky XL Fauxnad plate. Then I added a few microbeads and pearls:

The glitter peeks out from under the stamping

I think it's so cool the way the glitter adds a subtle texture under the stamping--almost like a bit of a marble effect. I also really like the sprinkling of mirco-beads and pearls, but I wonder if I should have just kept it on one accent nail. Hmmm...

Thanks for taking a look!

Xoxox,
M.