Animal print - Giraffe!

Here's a new animal print design from one of my bundle monster plates. The base is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Coco a-go-go, from the new fall line. Stamped with Orly Luxe. Thanks for lookin'!

NYX Girls + stamping

Sometimes I buy nail polish, not realizing that I have something nearly identical at home. So, I after I applied three layers of NYX Girls Roots, I realized it was pretty much identical to Orly Rage. However, Orly Rage is a one-coater and NYX Girls Roots is very sheer. It might be interesting for layering.

NYX Girls Roots and Orly Rage

Then I did some random stamping with my different black polishes. As usual, the Konad special polish looks the best. (on pinkie)

Thanks for lookin'!

Les Miserables inspired mani

My husband and I saw Les Miserables, 25th anniversary tour, last Saturday. I really wanted to get this manicure done before the show, but ran out of time. I am a lover of theater, and this story, set, characters, songs take my breath away! I first saw this show 17 years ago, in the same theater, during my first or second year of college. It was very nostalgic!


Yes, I have VNL's. I doesn't bother me, though.
This Orly Shine is quite sheer.



I did 2 coats of Orly Shine. Then I replicated the French flag on my thumb nails, since they had the biggest area to work with. The blue is Ulta Moody Blues and the red is Sephora Cerise. I'm quite pleased with the ease of this. Scotch tape manis are fun and easy - I encourage you to try it!

Thanks for reading!

Stamping dots - pretty

This is my second stamping session with my new Bundle Monster plates! I could only tolerate yellow and green glitter for one day, so now I'm compensating with something sweet. I started with two coats of Sally Girl, no name, medium orchid purple, then topped with one coat of Orly Grape Glitz. That's a nice combo by itself.

Sally Girl topped with Orly Grape Glitz.

Stamped, using Bundle Monster plate 19 and

Konad special polish white.

Melana says, Thanks for lookin'!"

New stamping plates!

I bought these Bundle Monster plates on Amazon, and they just arrived yesterday! I purchased sets 1 and 2 because I couldn't decide between the two. So many designs to choose from!!!!

There are so many awesome designs here, which of couse,

you can't see. I'll be doing a LOT of konadicures in the future!

Base coat: Ulta Chocolate Kiss. For stamping: Orly Rave



One thing I've observed: Using a shimmer/metallic for both base and design does not allow the design to show crisply. I would do a shimmer for one or the other but not both. I'll be trying something else tonight. The number of combos of colors/design is limitless!!!

Thanks for reading!

Lemons/Lemonade

Last night's yucky manicure was Hard Candy Sky with a non-Seche Vite top coat.  Giant dent, bubbles galore and sheet marks.Wah. Tonight, I did some konad stamping to hide the flaws. It's no surprise, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, and Orly metallics look the best. Blues on the left hand and metallics on the right. I adore this konad design and use it the most.

 Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Brisk Blue on my pinkie -

the best for opacity.

Right hand, different metallics, but they kindof all look the same!

The best was on my pinkie, Orly Luxe. This color combo is more dainty!

Makes me think of Tiffany jewelry store.

Major dent. Sally Girl no name glitter tc.

The Winners: Hard Candy Sky, SH Insta-Dri Brisk Blue, Orly Luxe

Yes, I should do better clean-up before taking my pics, but . . . it's my blog, I can do what I want!

Thanks for reading!

Dots!

I watched a dotting tutorial last night and tried dotting tonight. Dotting is very simple, and I really didn't need a tutorial, but watching someone else inspires me. This was fun and easy. My idea was to stay with pinks and purples. Maybe I should have done a Cinco de Mayo theme, but . . .I wanted dots!

Sinful Colors Easy Going, $OPI mini Just a little dangerous, Orly mini Grape Glitz, Icing glitter, Zoya Marley

Stamping frustration

Hi everyone. Watching the royal wedding (over and over and over) inspired me to do a more ladylike manicure. I had some major technical difficulties with this Konad-icure. Possibly I need to breakdown and buy the Konad special polish to use with the plates. Also, I'm using a credit card as the scraper instead of the original one. Maybe I need to go back to the original?

WnW fastdry, Orly mini nude, Sinful Colors Black on Black

I really like the black fishnet over a nude color. Sexy!

I like the concept, but the execution - not so much.

Thanks for lookin'!!!

First Scotch tape french

I'm a little behind in the nail blogosphere . . . I just tried my first scotch tape french, and it was fun. I started with a base coat of Zoya Marley. This was my very first time using Zoya. The formula was quite thick and opaque in 2 coats. I will have to get used to their formula. It's so different from $OPI, for example which requires a million coats on me.

Zoya Marley

So, now for the tips. I thought OPI Ink would complement the pale lilac of Marley.

Zoya Marley with OPI Ink tips

Zoya Marley, OPI Ink, Orly Love Each Other

This came out better than I expected. Here are some things I learned:

1. Since the scotch tape leaves such a straight line, I think the nails should be filed as square as possible.

2. Wait longer than you want before doing the scotch tape because it will smudge the base coat a little. However, the topcoat will smooth that out a bit.

3. Stick the tape to your arm or hand a few times to cut-down on the stickiness to avoid marring the base coat.

4. Take that tape off as soon as you paint the tips.

I must credit Chloe's Nails for inspiration!

Learning from mistakes and pleasant surprises.

Well hello darlings! I'm up to eight followers, I feel like celebrating!!! I'm posting this today versus last night because I got caught-up in watching "The Golden Compass" on SciFy channel. BTW loved those books.

I decided to do some Konading last night and was really excited to try this swirly design. I wanted to try some different color combos for fun. Warning . . . a little sloppy.

These were mini $OPI bottles that don't have the names on them. The aqua color is from the Havana collection.
I don't care for this color - kindof pukey looking. I stamped the design with another teal $OPI mini.

This is wet n' wild Ebony hates Chris as a base coat, stamped with another $OPI mini,
from the Rocker Chic collection. Meh. Would be a nice shade by itself, though.

This is again wet n' wild Ebony hates Chris, stamped with Orly Luxe, using
Konad plate m63. Wow, those macro shots really make it look sloppy. :(

I'm loving these Orly metallics. I have another that is a rose gold, forget the name.

So, what did I learn?

1. $OPI (OPI for Sephora) doesn't work for stamping.

2. Orly metallic foils are awesome for stamping.

3. Wet n' Wild Ebony hates Chris is a great, opaque, quick-drying black that doesn't bubble at all. And I paid 99 cents for it! The brush is crappy, though.

4. My clean-up technique needs some work - more on that later!



Thanks for reading!

Houndstooth Konad

This is my second "Konad-icure" and wow, the learning curve is steep. I'm quite happy with my improvements in coverage and discovering which polishes work best with Konad.

This is OPI Lincoln Park After Dark. I like the

glossy finish. This bottle is at least 5-6 years

 old and went on very thick.

I stamped the houndstooth design from

Konad plate m63 with Orly Rave or Rage -

the label with the name came off.

It seems like metallics show-up nicely over vampies. I think it's a good combination.

I wish I had more time for nails. I can think of so many different themes/designs. . . Valentine's Day, Egyptian flag, snowflakes . . .

Thanks for reading! -Crystal