Before & After: O Christmas Tree

(Press samples ahead!)

Hello!


Merry Christmas if you celebrate it! And if you don't, I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season filled with family and joy surrounding whatever holidays you celebrate.


Today I have a quick before and after for you to celebrate the day. I started with a base of Sassy Pants Polish Luster Of Midday over Barry M Gold Foil:

Sassy Pants Polish Luster Of Midday over Barry M Gold Foil

Then I stamped the stick tree image from Messy Mansion plate MM82XL, using Messy Mansion Forest:

Messy Mansion MM82XL

 Finally, I applied a Christmas Tree nail charm from Born Pretty Store:

Born Pretty Store charm + Messy Mansion MM82XL over Sassy Pants Luster Of Midday (over Barry M Gold Foil)

Born Pretty Store charm + Messy Mansion MM82XL over Sassy Pants Luster Of Midday (over Barry M Gold Foil)

What do you think? I love this look, I think it has a serene feel to it. I also really love the nail charm, how it has the rhinestones in it, and the edges are rounded to it's not as likely to catch and pull on things. That said, there are two things to note about the charm. One, it sits fairly high up from the nail, so I'd suggest attaching it with nail glue (I sometimes attach smaller rhinestones and such with topcoat, but that's not gonna hold here). Also, despite the somewhat rounded edges, the star on the top of the tree will still catch on things if you're not careful--for example, if you're wearing tights, definitely take care this is covered, or apply it after you've dressed for your holiday event. That said, for a special occasion, I think this is a cool look without too much fuss.


You can find the charms on Born Pretty Store's site, and you can use my code for 10% off your order: MCL91. And don't forget to follow them on Facebook and Instagram!


Merry Christmas,
M.

Before & After: The Lady Varnishes Give Me What I Want + UberChic Beauty Christmas 01

(Press sample)

Hello!

Today's theme in the Winter Nail Art Challenge is: Christmas sweater! I love Christmas sweaters, and defend them vociferously--they aren't ugly (most of them), they're beautiful expressions of holiday joy! That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

Despite that, I don't think I've ever done a Christmas sweater manicure on the blog, so this was past due.

To start with, I used The Lady Varnishes Give Me What I Want, a deep plum scatter-fleck holo from the Maleficent collection (see my full review here):

The Lady Varnishes Give Me What I Want

I chose this lovely because I wanted the undercoating of my 'sweater' to have a beautiful sparkle to it. Next I used two images from UberChic Beauty Christmas 01:

UberChic Beauty Christmas 01

I stamped the images with Barry M Cotton, and finished off with some three-dimensional snowflake accents, because when you go out in your awesome sweater, you're probably gonna get a few flakes of snow on it! Here's how it turned out: 

Awesome Christmas Sweater manicure

That's right, I said AWESOME, not ugly

Awesomest Christmas Sweater mani ever!

What do you think? Would you wear that sweater? What about the mani?


Happy stamping!

M.

An InLinkz Link-up

Review: Sugar Bubbles SB 008 (aka, villain skittle!)

(Purchased with my own money; affiliate links)

Hello!!

I recently bought my very first ever Sugar Bubbles plates (not sure what took so long), and I'm gonna review 'em for you here today.

First, though, I want to do a customer service shout out to Beautometry.com. Long story short--they accidentally sent me the wrong plate, and when I let them know about it, they responded to my e-mail almost instantly, and sent me the right plate right away. I'm talking, in the morning mail kind of right away. Absolutely amazing customer service.

But back to the plates! Here is the video I made reviewing SB 008 and SB 08:

And here are the still images of SB 008:

Sugar Bubbles 008

Sugar Bubbles 008

Sugar Bubbles 008

And here's the plate with a Konad plate so you can judge the size of the individual images:

Sugar Bubbles 008 vs. Konad

So how does it stamp? Here's my stamping test; notice that while the Freddy Krueger image isn't very clear on the plate, you can see it clearly on my test:

However, stamping Freddy is a little more complicated than you might think...For my test manicure, I wanted to use Freddy as one of my 'villains' for the Nail Challenge Collaborative's 'Superheroes and villains' theme. I made a started with Zoya Anais on my ring finger, and Zoya Arianna on the rest. Then I stamped on my ring finger and pinkie with Barry M Silver Foil:

As you can see, Freddy doesn't show up nearly as well as it does in my stamping test above...so, when you use this stamp and stamps like this, you're going to get the best result stamping in a darker polish over a lighter surface. That will give you the right contrast you need to allow the face to show well.

But wait...it feels like there's something...missing...wait...what...BAM!

Take that! Nothing more awesome than a surprise blinged-out skull to round out that mani. :)

Yes, I love it. Love, love love! Hope you do, too. :)

To see a list of my other stamping plate reviews, click here.

Happy stamping!
M.

An InLinkz Link-up

Before & After: Gr8 Skullz

Hello!

I am slowly getting back into my challenges, and today is my first contribution to Fingers Freakin' Holo Freaks' weekly challenge. Just my luck, I come in right when the color of the week is 'Yellow', because I don't own a yellow holo (I must remedy that). So I got permission to contribute a gold holo, which is pretty darn close. :)

I give you China Glaze GR8, from the old, nearly mythical, OMG collection:

China Glaze GR8

China Glaze GR8

China Glaze GR8

China Glaze GR8

 GR8 is sort of the unwanted step-child of the OMG collection, in that the holo isn't as strong as some of the others. For that reason, you can still find it for a relatively cheap price on eBay. The holo is actually a bit stronger than you see it here, but of course it's overcast today, so I couldn't get an outdoor picture for you.

I found myself in a skull kinda mood today, probably after all of that talk about the Haunted Mansion ride polishes, lol...So I pulled out some nail jewelry I was sent for review from Born Pretty Store. This set has skulls, hearts and bows, and a set of lips:

Nail jewelry from Born Pretty Store

All of the jewelry charms except on had curved surfaces, to better adhere to your nail:

And most of them don't have any pointy edges, so you shouldn't have problems with these falling off, unless you try to wear them for too long. I'd suggest no more than a day or two if you want to remove and keep them, otherwise it gets too risky to have them pulled off; and if you keep them, you can get a ton of use out of them. I simply paint my nail with quick-drying topcoat, and set the charm on top until it dries. I do *not* put additional topcoat over the top of these.

I used the one charm in my set that didn't have a curved surface and does have pointed edges, and even so, this sucker is staying put using the topcoat method:

GR8 Skullz!

GR8 Skullz!

GR8 Skullz!

On the other nails, I stamped using Konad black and Bunny Nails plate HD-D. I love the contrast with the gold, and you can even see in this artificial light that the holo flash still comes through. :)

If you're interested in purchasing this or anything else from Born Pretty Store, you can use the coupon code for my readers:

Now I'm off to rock my awesome, skull-icious nails for what remains of the weekend!

Hugs,

M.

An InLinkz Link-up