Before & After: Arr, Matey, yer mani is a FAIL

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since I did a Cheeky Twin Post with Dina of Secretary's Nail Art because the stars haven't really aligned well recently, but we're back on track, and today we're working with the ship image from Cheeky 49.

I have to warn you now that I am not pleased with what I put together. ::sad face::

I started out with a polish that I was/am pleased with...Zoya Meg, a pretty fleck-finish avocado green:

Zoya Meg, indirect sunlight

Zoya Meg, indirect light

I thought I'd do a bit of a skittle thing with it, so I stamped the cutlass image from the same plate on the index and pinkie, using Barielle Green Apple Chew. On the middle and ring finger, I put a coat of Sation Go-Glitter Girl, a beautiful glitter topcoat with teal shards, teeny green hexes and silver and white small hexes; I thought this would give a sort of an ocean-y feel. Then, I stamped the ship over the top of the glitter with Konad Black, to represent my pirate fleet cruising the ocean:

Just sit right back and we'll hear a tale...

A tale of a fateful trip...

Even putting aside the wound I sustained on the side of my finger, I am just underwhelmed by this. It's not horrible or anything, but it's not great. I think maybe it would have been better if I'd put the glitter on all the nails? I don't know...sigh.

Anyway, don't forget to check out Dina's mani over on her blog; I just saw it and it's way cute!! And we used similar colors, I think that's the first time that has happened, lol! :)

Big hugs,
M.

Before & After: Celtic majesty

Hello!!

Today I have the first of several St. Patrick's Day-ish manicures that I've played around with in anticipation of the holiday. :)

I started off with a base of Sation's I Paint In Peace. As you can see, I wore it for a couple of days before I took a picture of it. This is a deep, muted Kelly green with a flash of blue sparkle; this was the first Sation I bought, and I was really pleasantly surprised with it:

Sation I Paint In Peace in direct sunlight

Sation I Paint In Peace in the shade

Then I stamped a Celtic pattern on top, using Cheeky XL plate D and China Glaze Passion:

Every mani dies...

Not every mani truly lives!

I do admit I'm partial to Celtic patterns--they have a magic to them that I love--so I really like this mani.  If you're not quite the Celtic fan I am, a single accent nail might work a bit better for you. :)

On another note, I did this mani before I had to pack up and move a house (and am now unpacking and sorting...ugh), and since then my index and middle fingernails have broken here and there and now I have nubbins...So when I look at these pictures, I heave a deep sigh...Is it possible to be jealous of your own nails?? (hee hee hee)

Thanks for looking! Xoxox,
M.

NOTD: Finger Paints Take It Or Leaf It + Sation Ego-Friendly

Hello!!

Just a quick nail-art post today to show you a cool layering combination I stumbled on! This is Finger Paints Take It Or Leaf It, with Sation Ego-Friendly over the top...Ego-Friendly is a very cool black-and-avocado-green shred glitter that I adore:

I have to admit I was surprised to find such a cool glitter from a non-indie source! Hope you like it, too. :)

Thanks for looking,

Xoxox,
M.

Before & After: Watercolor Camo

Hello!!

So. Yeah. Today is watercolor day in the 31 Day CNT challenge. I've um...never done a watercolor mani...>.>...So, um...Yeah.

Well, we must do the things we are afraid of to grow, right? So I did it. But since I really don't like pastels, I decided to go another direction with the colors, and did a camouflage. :)

I started off with a base of Julep Stella, a light butterscotch sort of color:

Julep Stella 

Then I put on random swaths of China Glaze Trendsetter, China Glaze Westside Warrior, Sation I Paint In Peace, and Revlon Hot For Chocolate. I splurted a little bit of acetone over it, and swooshed it a bit with a nail art brush to get the watercolor effect. Then I stamped over with with China Glaze Passion and plate QA30 to give it some rank stripes:

Camo watercolor

I admit, it's still not my favorite technique, and you likely won't see it here again. But, I like how this turned out, and never say never! So who's to say. :)

Thanks for looking, and please check out the other watercolor manicures linked below. If they aren't showing up it's because I'm having a problem with the code and I hope to get it fixed soon. :)

Xoxox,
M.

NOTD x 3: Going out with a bang!

Hello!!

Yes, you read that title right. There will be three manicures in today's post for you. The reason is this. Both of my Halloween challenges end today, and Wednesday is the Llama Nails alphabet challenge day, and this week just happens to be 'H'--I'm pretty sure there is a law that states I MUST do a Halloween manicure for the alphabet challenge if the letter that falls on actual Halloween day is 'H'. And I don't wanna go to jail before Christmas, too much stuff to do. So yep...that makes three manis scheduled for the same day.

First up: To end my CNT Halloween challenge, the last prompt is to recreate someone else's mani from previous prompts that you liked. One of my favorite manicures of the whole challenge was this one. I'm not really great with free-hand art, as you may have noticed, but I really wanted to try to make a version of it. Here's how it came out:

I don't remember planting zombie hands in that part of the garden...

That one on the middle finger is a zombie skeleton. Not at all a zombie hand that looks like a skeleton. Nope, not at all.

I was so happy with how this came out, I almost couldn't bring myself to take it off. It's not perfect, and I'm sure there are many others out there that are better. but I managed to do it, make it recognizeable, and even used gray polish to shade the black polish. It just goes to show that it's always worth giving something a try, even if you aren't sure you can do it. :)

To make it, I started with a base of China Glaze Elephant Walk, my go-to grey. I free-handed a moon with Pure Ice Silver Mercedes, and then free-handed the zombie hands with Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris. Then I tried to highlight/shade appropriately with Silver Mercedes and Elephant Walk. I used The Nail Junkie Black Cat to make the ground at the bottom of the nail.

The last prompt in my 'This Is Halloween' challenge was also to recreate someone else's mani from the earlier prompts. I chose this one from Lissa's Polish Addiction, because it was sleek but spooky. Yes, it's another free-hand manicure--let it never be said that I'm not willing to push myself, lol! Sadly, my results were not quite as good this time:

In my mind I decided that it would be cool to have a spooky night sky instead of her beautiful purple, and a blood-red house because...honestly, I don't know what the heck I was thinking, I really don't. I mean, it's not *horrible*, but it's not good. Nope...not good. The only good thing about this mani is that you'll never have to see it again. I tried to rescue it by turning it into an Amityville Horror manicure, and it did work better for that. But it still wasn't my favorite.

And last but not least...My Llama Nails 'H' is for Halloween manicure. This is the actual manicure I'm wearing for Halloween. I've done so much nail art with these challenges that I wanted to just chill out and layer some pretty polishes in Halloween colors. Here is what I ended up with:

Yes, I know crackle is not in fashion at the moment. Don't care. I love it, especially for Halloween, and I think it goes beautifully with shard glitter (also not a favorite of most polish fanatics...fine, more for me!!). To make this, I started with a base of China Glaze Code Orange, a beautiful pumpkin orange that manages to be just the right amount of bright. Over it I put Sally Hansen Vintage Violet crackle, and over that, I put a coat of Sation's Ego-Friendly, a very pretty polish that has small green hex glitter, lime green shards, black shards, and white pearlesent shards in a clear base. Not to harp on it, but I really do love how well the shard glitter and the crackle go together. And this combination of colors is fun, but not crazy bright.

Phew! That's a lot of manicures for one post! But it just seemed silly to do a separate post for each manicure. So, this way, I hope there is something here for everyone, to end the month with a big Halloween bang. :)

And don't worry, I've learned my lesson--only one Christmas/Holiday challenge for me come December. Well, probably. I mean, most likely. Okay, we'll see. :P

Thanks for looking! Please take a look at (1) the other CNT challenge manis, (2) the other 'This Is Halloween' manis and (3) the other Llama Nails 'H' manis, all linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.