Before & After: Rainbow Butterflies

Hello!

Today I'm doing something a little different--a twin post with the very sweet Laura of Little Laura Loves! Laura discovered stamping recently and is diving into it with gusto! She has been playing with the Salon Express stamping plates, so we decided to use the butterfly image on SE18.

I started with a base of Julep Helen, a soft mauve creme:

Julep Helen

Julep Helen

Then I wanted to stamp a spray of butterflies across the nail in a rainbow of colors, almost like the butterfly is changing color as it goes:

I used my Sally Hansen Insta-Dris for this, in Lightning, Orange Impulse, Rapid Red, Brisk Blue, and Going Grape!. Finally, I thought a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust would give it a magical fairy quality, but I think it was a misstep:

It just seems like a bit too much, and I prefer the crisp contrast of colors without the extra sparkle. What do you think?

Thanks so much for stopping by, and please don't forget to check out what Laura did with the image by clicking here.

Hugs,
M.

Salon Express SE18
SH lightning, orange impulse, rapid red, brisk blue, grape going
Julep Helen
China Glaze Fairy Dust

Before & After: The Anti-Valentine Manicure

Hello!!

Today's prompt in the February Flip Flop Challenge is--go figure--Valentine's Day! Or you can do French tips. But yeah, Valentine's day. :)

I've again prepared a mixed-emotion manicure--it's Valentine's Day themed, but is on the anti-Valentine's Day side again, lol.

I started with a base of Literary Lacquers Lucy, a vampy red-black-silver glitter jelly:

Then I stamped several Valentine's-type designs with Sally Hansen Lively Lilac and over the top I stamped barbed wire with Pure Ice Silver Mercedes; I used Bundle Monster plates BM08 and BM09, and Salon Express plate SE21:

If you don't have the issues I have with Valentine's Day, lol, you could always just leave off the barbed wire...But I have to admit I like the edginess of it the way it is.

Maybe later today I'll post an actual positive Valentine's mani...Hmmm...;-)

Thanks for looking! And please check out the other participants below.

Xoxox,
M.

MSMD: Denim Nails

Hello!!

Now that my Halloween challenges are over, I can get back in the groove a little, and was excited to have time to do a Monkey-See-Monkey-Do Monday manicure again. In my awesome shipment of British polishes that my awesome friend Dina hunted down and bought for me, was a little denim gem--Barry M's Denim. This is a blue polish that goes on matte and looks like (you guessed it!) denim, so I figured it was time for me to do some denim nails of my own.

I've seen so many takes on denim nails that I can't really credit an exact one for my creation, but I do think the first time I saw someone do a version of them was this one here, at Konad Abuse. So I'm not going to re-do hers exactly, but do my own take on the denim nail concept. :)

I started out with--go figure--Barry M. Denim as my base color. Then I wanted to have stitching going around like each nail was a pocket, so I put white dashes around the edges with Sally Hansen White On. Then, I stamped on some yellow flowers with Sally Hansen lightning, and turned them into black-eyed Susans with black rhinestones in the middle (using Salon Express SE-19). I put little green dots around the flowers, but they don't show up that well in the pictures:

Seriously, how cool is that polish? It really is the perfect polish for hassle-free denim nails, and to wear any time you just want to match your jeans. For you ladies out there who aren't sure where to get this in the US, I believe you can find this shade, and some other Barry M's, at www.ninjapolish.com.

Thanks for taking a look!

Xoxox,
M.

NOTD Before & After: Misa Spinning Out Of Control

Hello!

Today I'm going to show you an exceptional dark purple, Misa's Spinning Out Of Control.

This color was just about impossible for me to photograph. I tried, I did. But no matter what I did, it came out too blue. That and the reflection from the polish also makes it look like it goes on in a less-than-perfect fashion, but the finish on this is smooth and velvety and amazing. The finish shows better in the stamped pictures, and I did get one nail in one picture that will show you the gorgeous glow-y purpleness, which I enlarged at the very end:

Outside light, in the shade.

Inside light

Indoor light with flash.


My stamping choice for manicure was decided by a stamping challenge I was in. I had been wanting to try something like this with a block stamp, and butterflies fit the theme perfectly, so I went for it:

Indoor light that shows the smooth finish and almost gets the color right.

Also indoor light that shows the finish accurately and the color almost accurately.


I stamped this using Salon Express plate SE-19. There are 4 butterflies on the accent nail (one just looks like a faint blob). The bottom-most butterfly is stamped with a mixture of Spinning Out Of Control and China Glaze LOL. The next one up is LOL by itself, followed by China Glaze Avalanche, and then finally at the top, Sally Hansen Insta-dry Silver Sweep. On the other nails, there is one butterfly at the top, stamped with Avalanche. It doesn't fully come across here, but since the top one on the ring finger is the lightest color, it stands out from the ones on the other nails, and pulls attention to the metamorphosis of the butterfly on the accent nail. Or, at least, so say I. :-P


Here is an extreme close-up of the one nail I got in ONE of the 50 pictures I took that gets the color right:

Is that or is that not a gorgeous, rich, velvety dark royal purple!? I love it, and if you like dark purple, I think you will too.

Thanks for looking,

M.

NOTD Before & After--Zoya Gemma (lotsa pictures!)

Hello!

Today I have Zoya's Gemma for you. Gemma is as hard to describe as it is beautiful...She's an olive-green color with a light blue-lavender flash that makes it look like she's lit from inside.

Above: direct sunlight

Indirect sunlight

Inside light.

She brings up so many different associations in my mind...This is what moss would look like if it were phosphorescent...it's what a forest fairy would wear for her clothes, her nails, her hair. The flash of light blurple in it reminds me of the beautiful tree in avatar:

The evanescent-feeling combination reminds me of Zangarmarsh in World of Warcraft:

And of incandescent jellyfish:

Whenever I look down at Gemma on my nails, I'm a little bit transported to these beautiful places--it's like I'm carrying a little bit of their magic along with me.

Yes, I know it's a little crazy to wax lyrical about a nail polish, but Gemma just inspires that in me for some reason. In fact, she inspired me so much, I actually free-handed part of the design I wanted to do on my accent nails for the second day of this manicure. I wanted to play up the color flash and the ethereal quality of this polish, so I chose this design:

 (outside, indirect light)

(outside, indirect light)

(inside lamplight to show the flash of blue better)

I free-handed the grass with a nail art brush and Maybelline Go Go Green; the fact that I'm very proud of how this came out shows you how pathetically bad I am at free-handing. I stamped the dragonfly with Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Grape Going!, using Salon Express plate SE-21. I picked these both because they have shimmer and Grape-Going is a duochrome that flashes blue, the same way that Gemma does; I think this all worked together well to keep the magical, surreal feel.

I'm not completely embarrassed by it, so that's a step forward for my free-handing, even if it is only grass. One step at a time, right? :)

But that's not all!! What if I told you that you could get THREE manicures instead of two? That's right, THREE?

(sorry...too many late-night infomercials...)

Shortly after finishing the nail art, I unpacked a package with styrofoam peanuts that for some reason dulled my polish when they rubbed against them. Weird, huh? Anyway, I figured if I had to put on another layer of topcoat, I might as well try another experiment. So I put on a coat of Zoya's Opal, another of the lovelies that I bought during Zoya's sale. Here is the result:

How gorgeous is that?! The blue-green flash of the flakies perfectly complements Gemma's colors. I will definitely be pairing these two again. :)

Thanks for reading, and bye for now,

M.

TOTD: Finger Paints Art of Theft and Barielle Starchild (Or, Baby You're A Supernova)

Hello!

Today I have a pedicure for you...I'm not a big fan of feet or toes, and I'm still on the fence about whether or not I will have pedicures on my blog. But I love how this little experiment came out so much that I had to share it...So please forgive me for the fact that my feet are not the nicest things to look at (especially when I recently had a blister on my big toe)!

This pedicure was inspired by a pedicure and a manicure done by one of my nail art heroes, Soguesswhat11 (a.k.a. Gina). She not only does beautiful things with polish, she also has a gift for explaining what she does in a way that makes it accessible to those of us who are not artistically accomplished (she has a channel on YouTube under that name; you can find her tutorials here). She featured the manicure I'm referring to, along with instructions, in a guest blog post that you can see here, or if you just want to see a picture of the manicure, you can find it on Pinterest here.

In her original, she used two beautiful holos and some creative stamping. I wanted to have a similar overall look and sparkle, but with a slightly different twist. Also, I didn't have a blue holo that would work for the sparkle, and I decided that some holographic glitter might work well instead, and throw some extra stars in the mix, too. Here are the pictures of the pedicure I did; after the pictures I'll list what I did and used:

(I stamped a little further to the right on the nail than I meant to  >.< . I'm not sure why the big star is a bit blurry on the tips--I think it must be starting to supernova...heeheehee)

This one shows a bit of the holographic sparkle of the glitter. In real life, every time you move even a little, this glitter goes nuts!

Here's some dark, indoor light..

And finally, a slightly blurry indoor shot to again try to show off the rainbow sparkling of the glitter. Pictures do not begin to capture it, but this gives you an idea. :)

I started with one coat of Finger Paints' Art of Theft; in retrospect, I think two might have been better, because it was a little patchy in the direct sunlight. Then, I stamped the stars and the moon using China Glaze's Metallic Muse, and Salon Express plate SE-21. After that, I applied a layer of Barielle's Starchild over the rest of the exposed blue; if you've never seen it, Starchild is an amazing silver holographic glitter in a clear base, with different sizes and shapes of glitter. It catches the light and reflects rainbows back at every angle and is just crazy sparkly and fun to look at. If I had to choose only one silvery glitter polish to have in my collection, first I'd consider suicide, but then I'd pull myself together and I'd go for this one, without a doubt (it's inexpensive at $3.60, too). I finished the whole thing up with a coat of Seche Vite for extra shine.

I am so happy with this look, especially as a pedicure. The holographic glitter gives it enough sparkle that it actually looks a bit like a night sky when you look down at your toes, because of the distance. It really makes me feel like I'm wearing a little universe on my toes. Thanks Gina for the inspiration!

And thanks to you all for looking. :)

M.