Before & After: French Skeletons (Zoya Troy + Julep Erica + Sugar Bubbles SB 008)

(Press samples and affiliate links ahead!)

Hello!


Sometimes a girl just wants her skeletons to be classy, ya know? And what's classier than a French manicure??


For today's mani, I started with a base of Zoya Troy, from Zoya's fall 2016 Urban Grunge collection (see my full review here):

Zoya Troy

Next I sponged on Julep Erica onto the tips for a little bit of fall color; then I stamped one of the French-tip skull images from Sugar Bubbles SB-008:

 

Sugar Bubbles SB-008

I stamped with Messy Mansion Sterling; here's how it came out:

Sugar Bubbles SB-008 over Zoya Troy and Julep Erica

Sugar Bubbles SB-008 over Zoya Troy and Julep Erica

Sugar Bubbles SB-008 over Zoya Troy and Julep Erica

Fall. Feminine. Deadly.


Happy stamping!
M.

Tutorial: Stamped French Manicure

Hello!

I'm back with a tutorial on how to create your own stamped French manicure. :)

Step 1: Bend your French tip guide into submission. For ages I tried to use French tip guides to make French tips, and could never quite get it right--they would always come out lopsided. Finally the answer came to me--bend the darn thing in half so I have a midpoint I can reference, to place it on my nail correctly. Fold your guide in half (sticky side out, so it doesn't just stick together), and crease it so there is a line.

Step 2: Place that line onto the center of your nail, and then press the guide in place. The line will disappear as soon as you're pressing it into place, but that's okay, it has done it's job, which is to allow you to position the guide so that your tip won't be lopsided. :) I press my guide down into my cuticles (see picture) to help keep my polish from bleeding under the edges of the guide.

Step 3: Paint your tip white. To get the cleanest lines, paint in strokes that start on the guide and move toward the tip of the nail; if you brush from the tip of the nail up onto the guide, you are likely to get polish that bleeds under your guide and ruins your clean line.

Step 4: (Optional) Put topcoat over your nail. I do this to help speed drying time, and to help level the nail areas.

Step 5: Once your nail is completely dry, put your French tip guide back into place. However, you should leave a tiny gap, as seen below, between your tip and your guide--if you don't, your stamping won't reach to the bottom your white tip, and it will look like you stamped it wrong. This will allow your stamped design to reach all the way to the bottom of your white tip.

Step 6: Stamp your image onto your stamper, and make sure it has transferred well. You can use any shape image you want; I just happened to use a triangle-shaped image because it had the leafy design I wanted. If your image has a strange shape, it's okay, because your guide will catch any extra design and keep it from going on your nail.

Step 7: Roll your stamped image over your white tip and guide. Make sure your image is going over your entire white nail area, and that it doesn't go past the bottom of your nail guide (and onto the base of your nail!).

This is what it should look like when you're finished stamping:

Step 8: Finally, finish with a coat of topcoat, and you're done!

Voila! A thing of beauty (well, once you do your clean-up around the cuticles, lol!):

For ease of reference, I've compiled these into a single-image tutorial for those who prefer it that way:

I hope this has been clear--let me know if not and I'll add any information you need. Feedback is greatly appreciated, since I'm still figuring out how to do tutorials effectively!

Thanks, as always, for stopping by. Hugs and big smooches!
M.

Review: InDecisive Nail Lacquer (Ichor, Ichor my nails...)

Hello!

I'm back with 4 more polishes from InDecisive Nail Lacquer, and I promised you something interesting today...and so I bring you InDecisive's Ichor line, sent to me for review.

Why are the Ichor polishes 'interesting'? They're temperature-sensitive...in a very cool way (no pun intended). You're possibly saying to yourself, as I did the first time I saw one of these, 'Isn't that just a fancy way of saying 'color-changing polishes?'. Well, technically yes, but in reality, no, they are absolutely not.

Ichor polishes are different for two reasons. First, the polishes change not from one color to another color, which makes a polish only a one-trick pony; rather, they change from clear to their target color, so you can put whatever color you like as your base color--and this means an extremely versatile polish with lots and lots of possibilities. Second, it's temperature that makes the color change, in a very particular kind of way...sure, if you're in a warm room, or outside in warm sun, the polish will be clear, and if you're in a cold room, or outside when it's cold, the polish will turn to its target color. The magic is where the switch happens--at body temperature (86 degrees, to be precise). What this means is that in medium temperatures, the polish will be clear on most of your nail, and colored at the tips. So, your undie color shows in cold temps, Ichor color shows in warm temps, and in moderate temps, you get a French manicure with the combination of the two colors.

That, in my opinion, is brilliant. And incredibly fun.

Aleksandra's original Ichor goes from clear to black. She has added three additional colors to her line: Blue, Red, and Purple, each shifting from clear to the target color. On her website, she shows you each of these polishes over naked nails so you can see the color shift; you can check these pictures out by clicking here. This freed me up to have some fun and play around with color combos, and that's just what I did!

Let's start with the original Ichor, which switches from clear to black; I put it over China Glaze Tart-y For The Party, a springy lavender purple:

Ichor Black over China Glaze Tart-y For The Party

In the second picture, the wind started to come up as I was taking the pictures in my backyard, an you can see how the gradient began to move higher up my nail. That was one of the things I loved best about these polishes--the type of the gradient I'd get changed with things like the wind, and it was so much fun to watch. I wore blue Ichor to an outdoor event, and got about 6 different effects over the course of the afternoon depending on the temperature, wind, etc. :)

Aleksandra suggests that you put two coats of Ichor over your base color, and recommends that you use cremes rather than shimmers, because Ichor dries a bit like a rubber-finish matte polish (my words, not hers), and she suggests you finish it with topcoat for the same reason. I actually love the matte finish it gives, and show it below. Also, I think that as long as you know it's going to have that slightly cloudy effect on the polish below it, you can do some fun things with shimmer and glitters, and I'm looking forward to playing around with that. But you should be aware of that when picking your base color, and factor it in accordingly. In all of my pictures I have two coats of Ichor over my base polish, as suggested.

One last point about original Ichor. As you can see above, in some temperatures, the pigment in the polish gives a flecked effect; this varies a bit from batch to batch. I love the dimension it gives to the gradient when it does show. :)

For the blue version of Ichor, I used Revlon Cloud as my underwear; Cloud is a very light blue with purple tones:

InDecisive Ichor Blu over Revlon Cloud

Seriously, how pretty is that! Of course this would look wonderful over white as well, and I can't wait to try it over a pale green. :)


For Ichor Purple, I decided to try something a bit darker underneath, to see how that would come out. Here I have it layered over Julep Sophie, a medium gray:

InDecisive Ichor Purple, over Julep Sophie; with topcoat

Yep, the color shows up even over a darker basecoat. :)

And here it is again, without the topcoat, so you can see how the finish dries on its own:

Outside semi-direct sun

I love rubber-finish mattes, so of course I love the natural finish of these polishes, and I like that you can leave the topcoat off for a different type of look. :)


For the final color, Ichor Red, I had to try something a little daring and fun. I put it over Zoya Arizona, a bright orange creme:

InDecisive Ichor Red over Zoya Arizona; with topcoat

My grandma and your grandma, sittin' by the fire

My grandma said to your grandma, I'm gonna set your flag on fire

Talkin' 'bout hey now! Hey now!

Ichor Ichor my nails!

Jockomo feena ah na nay, jockomo feena nay!

I love love love how this came out. Tell me that last picture doesn't look like some beautiful tropical drink you'd want to sip by the side of the pool or the ocean! Absolutely gorgeous, summery and fun.

And if you'd like your red to be darker, she can make that up for you, just contact her or let her know in your checkout notes that you'd like a darker shade of red. :)

The formula on all of these polishes is excellent, they apply easily and dry quickly. They can be a bit strange to work with because the polish turns clear almost as soon as you put it on, but it changed slowly enough that I didn't have any troubles applying evenly. However, Aleksandra warns that it can be easily to get some of the polish on your cuticles, have it turn clear, and then forget it's there until it turns colors later, so you may want to clean up your cuticles carefully.

All of these are available now in the InDecisive Nail Lacquer shop, which you can reach by clicking here. As with her other polishes, these are three-free, not tested on animals, and thoroughly human tested for months before she releases them.

I'll be back tomorrow with some nail art, and then I'll bring you the last (awwwww...big sad face) InDecisive Nail Lacquer review on Saturday.

Thanks for reading! Big hugs,
M.

(The polishes in this post were sent for my honest review.)

Before & After: Simple Superbowl nails

Hello!!

Today I have a quick post, to show you the nails I wore to the superbowl party I attended. I'm going to keep it short because my team lost, so I'm pouting a bit...but I'm still proud I represented and I'm sure they'll go all the way next year!!

I started with a base of Maya For Michelle (Indie Alert!). You know I love red, and you know my name is Michelle, so how could I possibly NOT buy this polish? I didn't disappoint--it's a very earthy red, just different enough from anything else I have to make it worth it. Plus...there is a pretty pink shimmer to the finish when the light hits it:

In inside light, the pink doesn't show as much, and the first time I wore this polish, it struck me what a perfect polish it would be for a San Francisco 49ers manicure. I used some french-tip guides to add cool gold tips, using Barry M Gold Foil. Finally, I stamped a little helmet on the accent nail using Konad Black and Cheeky plate CH35:

Go Niners!

Don't worry, there's always next year!

I am so proud of those crisp lines, all due to some awesome tips from my readers! I did a tape mani a short time ago, and got some lines that were not straight. I asked if anyone had any tips for doing better, and I got two great ones that worked really well here:

1) Citygirl907 told me that I should try to make sure the edges of the tape/guides are pressed down really well so I don't get leakage. I pressed down very, very hard on this mani, lol.

2) Vwolf suggested I do a coat of topcoat before painting the tips. So I did. :)

3) Snookie Wegner told me to start with my brush on the tape/guide, and brush away from the tape/guide, down off of it across the nail. So I tried it that way.

I don't know if it was only one of these tricks that worked, or the combination of all three, but something definitely worked and I'll be doing all three of these from now on! So for any of you who struggle with this type of manicure, give these tricks a shot. If they can get zig-zags this nice, they can work for any sort of taped-off mani. :)

Thanks everyone for your help with the tips, and thanks for reading!

Xoxox,
M.

Before & After: Fierce Glequin French

Hello!

Today I put together a simple fall look that's quick and easy. :)

First, I started with Color Club's Winter Affair; this is a deep maroon that has gorgeous red-orange flecks in it, from their Holiday 2012 collection of the same name (I recently reviewed the collection; if you missed it, you can see my review by clicking here):

Winter Affair

My second step was to add a coat of Snow-Flakes, which is also from that same collection. Snow-Flakes is a standard multi-color flakie, but that doesn't make it any less gorgeous: 

Winter Affair + Snow-Flakes

Finally, I wanted to add a little bling, so I chose glequins in colors that coordinated with the color of the flakies in Snow-Flakes. I used two green, two orange and one yellow glequin on each nail, in a Fierce French pattern:

Glequin are pretty. Smudges in my topcoat and little fibers on my nail tips are not. >.<

There you have it--a fast, but stunning fall manicure with, in my opinion, just the right amount of bling. Of course, if you want more bling and want to add more glequins, I say go for it, you awesomely fierce creature you! :)

Thanks for looking. :)

Xoxox,
M.

NOTD Twin Post: Anchors Away!

Hello!

Today's post will be a fast one because I'm cooking a version of Thanksgiving dinner today, so I'm a bit rushed. :)

This week, Dina and I are on Cheeky 36, and agreed that we would use the anchor stamp from that plate. Here is what I came up with:

Anchors Aweigh, my boys

Anchors Aweigh!

Here's how I did it. The base polish is China Glaze Water You Waiting For, which I'll show you more of tomorrow. Then I stamped over it with Konad white, using Cheeky plate 36. Finally, I free-handed the french tips...yes, I know this is obvious >.<...

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! And don't forget to take a look at Dina's version by clicking here!

Xoxox,
M.

Twinpost: Cheeky 33 (Fall Leaves)

Hello!!

Today is the third installment of my twinpost series with Dina of Secretary's Nail Art; this week, we're both doing manicures using the leaf image from Cheeky plate 33.

For my manicure, I started with Ulta Ginger Peach, a really pretty neutral shade that I'm falling in love with (I'm very picky about neutrals because they tend to bore me, but this has just the right amount of pretty peachy flash in it):

Ulta Ginger Peach in the shade

Ulta Ginger Peach in overcast sunlight

For the next step, I painted over the accent nail with Cult Nails Iconic, and freehanded French tips on the other nails. Iconic is one of my favorite polishes; it's a beautiful wine-red with gold-bronze flakies that are unfortunately really hard to photograph!:

Grrr...you can see the flakies better in the bottle than on the nails...sheesh

Finally, I stamped the target image over all of the nails except the accent nail; for the accent nail I isolated one whole leaf, and stamped it twice, overlapping the stamps. For all the stamping, I used China Glaze Passion:

Pretty leaves

Falling leaves...

You can see the color of Iconic best in this shot

 This would be a great way to jazz up a neutral manicure after work for a night out! I like how the stamping works with the French tip to make it all look more fluid.

Don't forget to check out what Dina did with this image--she used a really cool technique for her, and you can see it here.

Finally, I'm also starting a new thing where I link my favorite artwork for the week up with some friends of mine; they link their favorite manicures, too. Check them out below!

Thanks for looking.

Xoxox,
M.




Blogger 1.0 -

Review: Born Pretty Store Loose Foil Sheets

Hello!

Today I have a product review for you, some loose foil sheets from Born Pretty Store. They contacted me and asked me to pick a product I wanted to review, and I've been dying to try these, so I snapped them up! You can see the foil directly by clicking here, but of course I'm going to show it to you as well.

This foil is a little different than the foil that comes on rolls. These come crumpled up in little pots, and are meant to go on as more of a thick layer than the rolls of foil are. This is how they come packaged:

Loose foil sheets in pots

 This set comes with three colors, gold, orange-gold, and green-gold.

One of the pots up close

 When you pull the foil out of the pots, they smooth out into little rectangles:

One of the foil sheet just out the pot

Unfolded foil sheet

You can use them either as a whole sheet, or you can rip the sheets apart to get little pieces; they are a bit fragile, so you want to work carefully. But they're not so fragile that they crumble at any touch.

I tried two different looks and techniques that I'm going to show you. For the first, I wanted to use strips of the gold foil as textural elements, together with stamping. To do this I took clear topcoat and used the saran wrap technique to apply it in strips across my nails (use some wadded-up saran wrap to dip into the polish and then dab onto the nails). I then laid the foil on top of the wet area, and pressed it down gently, while pulling the extra fail away.

After waiting for a moment, I took an eye shadow brush and softly brushed over the gold foil. This removes the extra gold not held down by the topcoat, and smooths the edges.

To show you what it looks like if you apply topcoat directly to the nail instead of using the saran wrap method, I put topcoat directly onto my index finger; you can see how it will hold down a more solid strip of the foil if you do it this way.

I used a darker section of the foil on my middle finger, and lighter sections on the other fingers. Here is what it ended up looking like after I applied all the foil:

Gold foil applied over glitter polish and brushed.

To complete the look, I stamped over the polish and foil using Bundle Monster plate BM12, and Barry M Silver Foil polish. Then I covered it with a coat of Seche Vite to protect the foil and the polish. Here's the final look:

For the second look, I decided to try making French tips with the foil. For this, I tried a different application method; I used nail glue instead of topcoat. I didn't want it to have a perfect edge, so I brushed the tip of each nail with the nail glue free-hand, and immediately put the foil on top of the glue. Then I pulled gently on the foil to separate it from the edge of the nail glue, and gently pushed it off the edge of the tip with a fingernail of my other hand. Here is what it looked like with one application of the gold foil:

Gold foil French tips--one layer over glitter polish

 As you can see, I messed up a bit on my middle finger, so I decided to put a second layer on; this is how it looked with two layers:

Two coats of bling

Overall, I found this surprisingly easy to work with, and a little bit goes a long way. For all of what you see here, I didn't even use half of a single piece of foil, and there were additional small pieces left over (which you should save and use for other looks). Both the glue and top-coat methods worked well, and the foil went on without fuss. And look at that bling!

Right now the box of 12 sheets pictured above goes for $6.28 on the Born Pretty Store site; you can find it here. Also, if you use my code, MCL91, you'll get 10% off of your entire purchase.

Oh, and...you may have noticed that I didn't identify the polishes I'm wearing in these pictures...I'll be doing a review later this week on these gorgeous mystery polishes. :)

Thanks for looking!

Xoxox,
M.

(The products reviewed in this post were sent to me for an honest review.)