Glorious Green

Most of you know by now that I have a weak spot for green, the deeper and richer, the better.  So when I first saw Revlon Color Stay Rainforest I admit I went a bit weak in the knees.

I mean look at this, can you blame me?  The question of course, was how would it translate from bottle to nail.  The answer.  Just beautifully.

Products Used, Revlon Color Stay in Rainforest, Glam and Glits hexagons in Laser (green)

This applied like a dream and color is so multi-dimentional with the hint of limey gold shimmer  This is just two coats.

Not being one for just a straight color as of late I wanted to add a wee bit of bling, just enough to capture interest, but not so much as to take the attention away from the polish.  So I picked out my green hexes and added one to each nail base.

It worked beautifully.  The color was king, but when I moved my hands, the hexes captured the light, flashing against the dark green backdrop and drawing attention straight to my nails.  I got so many complements.  It goes to show that sometimes simpler is better. 

What is one of your simple but attention getting looks? 

Thanks so much for stopping by, I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment.  Until next time, take care!

Beautiful Blues

Oh my goodness, I have been such a bad blogger.  Work has been crazy, with only one or two days off since my last post,.  I had a couple of polish changes, but just haven't gotten them posted.  I have been feeling more and more run down but just thought that it was because I was working so much, but today I went to the Dr. and he put me on antibiotics for a sinus infection and eye drops for conjunctivitis (seriously, aren't I a wee bit old to be getting pink eye?)  then sent me home on quarantine for the next three days. 

I'd be lying if I said I didn't do a little happy dance when I left his office.  I love my job but to not have to go to work until next week....Heaven!  Funny thing though...I didn't feel nearly this sick until he told me I was.  So tonight I'm curling up with a box of tissues, a glass of wine and my laptop to get caught up in blogland. 

Products Used

Now, on to the good stuff.  My Valentines Fail used a technique for nail foils that I picked up from Robin Moses, it didn't work that time, but I was determined so I tried again, and SUCCESS!

I love, love, love how these turned out.   I started out with a base color of Color Club  Love 'Em and Leave 'Em  I didn't want a nude nail, but something close to it with a bit of added interest.

From there I took Peacock Dazzle foil from Dollar Nail Art, and "tapped" it on over the adhesive that I'd randomly dotted on over the tips.

I then use a lime green glitter that I got from Sally's Beauty to fill in any open spots.  Their glitter is a lot courser than nail art glitter so I had to press it down into the nail to get it to lie flat.  I then used Orly Haley's Comet to seal the tips of the nails. 

For accent, I used matching diamond jumbo glitter (can't remember the official name for them at the moment)  then a bit of black and white acrylic paint. 

 

I'm pretty tickled with how this turned out.  It has the perfect amount of contrast to really pop, this is what I was hoping to achieve.  I hope you like it a much as I do.  

Thanks so much for being patient with me, until next time take care!

Valentines Fail.

So I think I mentioned that last week was going to be crazy, I worked every day of the week, taught a class, flew to Denver for a day long conference (we had to be at the airport at 4am.) Flew back that night then got to get up at 4 the next morning for military duty.  There wasn't a lot of time for nails, but I managed to fit a few things in.  I'm kind of bummed that the ubber cute nails that I did just for Denver didn't work.  I topped them with a UV cure gel to make them last longer, but it ended up shattering and  looking a hot mess.  The look didn't even last the day...So moving on.

I wanted this look to be my Valentines look, but once I got it finished I didn't care for it as much.  I don't think I had the proper contrast.

 I was inspired by Robin Moses and how she uses foils to do the tips, then takes a contrasting glitter and fills in the blanks.  I think it was the holo hearts that threw it off.  They ended up making the whole look rather thrown together randomly (and kind of junky).  I love the concept though and will continue to try to get it to work for me.

This Thing Called Love.

Happy Valentines Day everyone!  Or, as I used to say, Singles Awareness Day. After a horrid marriage that ended in divorce I didn't want to have a thing to do with men, but as time progressed and I healed and grew I realized that I didn't want to be forever alone.  After kissing a whoooole lotta frogs I found the man of my dreams...then lost him for about two years.  But the universe decided to give us another chance, and I am eternally grateful.  We're to be married this August.

Today we're going to go check out the house we're hoping will be perfect for holding the wedding.  I'm sooo excited!!

While these aren't the nails that I initially wanted to be my valentines day nails, the original ones didn't work out as planned (but that's another post) so these came up.  They're actually based off a look that I did for a business trip I took last week, only in a different version.   I'll show you the initial version another day.

I've been doing a lot more layering than I usually prefer.  This one has a base coat of Palladio Moisture Surge and then two coats of Color Club Sheer Chick just to even out the tone of the nail bed, then another two coats of Finger Paints Sparkle Top Coat.  From there I applied Seche Vite and let the nail dry pretty completely, I didn't want to risk the color pulling up with the french guides. 

Once the base color was dry, I applied the french guides (seche brand) I then applied two coats of OPI Pink Friday from the Nicky Minaj collection.  Once that had set I peeled off the guides and took a teal Stripe Rite to cover the seam line.  I then took some clear polish and some hologram hearts that I picked up at my local nail supply.  The latter are rather thick and stiff so you have to force them to curve so the don't stick up off the nail.  Once that's done, I used the clear polish to adhere them to the nail. 

After that it was just a matter of a couple of coats of Seche Vite and I was done.  I noticed that the hearts tended to bleed color  as I went over them with the top coat so I had to be very careful about that, but otherwise I think it turned out quite cute and more than suitable for venue hunting. 
And tomorrow will be the anniversary of the day my sweetie told me he loved me for the first time.  I guess he didn't want to risk it being cliche on Valentines Day, so he waited until the day after.  That's what we celebrate.  :)
Well thanks so much for listening to me prattle on.  I know they say that you should stick to nails  in a nail blog, but I so much prefer getting to know the person on the other side of the screen, don't you?
Thanks so much for reading, and for your wonderful comments (that I'm trying to get better at responding too.)  :)  Until next time, take care!

Luxe Effects Fix

Like everyone else, when I saw the flakies that Essie put out in their Luxe Effects collection I ran, not walked to purchase my own bottle of Shine of the Times.  While not being as impressed with the minute gold flakes that is As Gold As It Gets, I later returned to purchase it.

I am so glad I invested in both of them because they make for a spectacular manicure.  I started off with two coats of Wet n' Wild black creme then I applied two coats of As Gold As It Gets over all of the nails.  I could have called it good at that point, but I wanted a little bit more color on a couple of nails for accent.

So I took Shine of the Times and on my ring and index fingers, applied a thick coat over the top of the other two polishes.  It turned out just amazing. 

Shine of the Times glows like a beetles wing with orange, golds and delicious flashes of green depending on how the light hits it.  As Gold As It Gets reminds me of some of the pictures of deep space I've seen where the stars are so densely packed it's hard to tell where one starts and the other ends.  While it's not as flashy as Shine of the Times, it's quite simply beautiful.

 

Both of these polishes applied smoothly and evenly, the formula is thicker than most polishes and it's almost gel like consistancy reminds me slightly of Kleancolors formula.  While they are both dry quite smoothly, I applied a thick coat of Seche Vite to expedite drying and add a high shine. 

I love how these turned out and frequently catch myself staring at my nails.  What do you think of this look? 

Thanks so much to all of my readers, until next time, take care!

Rays of light

I am completely beat, I'm working way more hours than I'm used to and it's wearing me down . I'm already behind as far as responding to comments on previous posts (sorry about that) and I may be a bit more off than usual as far as posting simple because I may not have the time or energy for polish changes.  

Before removing my Essie Sexy Divide I thought I'd play a bit.  I ended up liking the look a lot and wearing it for a day or so but forgot to post pictures.    

The lighter purple is a metallic acrylic paint that I recently purchased.  The acrylic metallic colors are really quite nice and work very well for nail art.

Once I'd used the light purple metallic for the wide rays I took a liner brush with some metallic white and did some fine brush flicks on either side of the rays.

From there I took NYX Purple Diamond which is comprised of silver fine and hex glitters in a purple base, and using a fine brush, painted it over the remaining dark purple, making sure to place hexes towards the tips of the nails.

This is a more modern look than I usually do, mostly because they have a tendency to fail for me, but I think this one turned out quite well and changed the whole look of the previous mani into something completely different.

 

Back to the grind I go, hopefully you all are having wonderful days.  Until next time, take care. 

Good ideas that fail

There are two manicures that I have in my head that are so cute in theory but I never seem to be able to translate them onto my nail.  For whatever reason they fail miserably and I am left with nothing more than a vision, and a hot mess.

I've actually lost count of how many times I've tried this, but this look is one of those and I'm posting it here as an example as to how not every manicure is perfect, even when that's all you seem to see on blogs.  For every beautiful look there is usually a fail...or two, or thre...you get the idea.

Now, who out there doesn't like ladybugs?  I mean really, they're adorable as far as bugs go, all rolly polly and polka dotted.  Cute right?  You would think that they would be a fail safe form of nail art. 
I have wanted to do some nail art of cute little ladybugs skittering about amidst the daisies for a long while, and I keep trying but so far it hasn't been meant to be.  This time around it was the fault of the ladybugs.  They looked so innocent but oh no, they were demon bugs in disguise!

What sad empty spots where my ladybugs used to be. :(

The nail stickers that I got were thick and hard, about the same consistency as if you took a drop of polish and let it dry on a flat surface then tried to adhere it to your nail.  What adhesive they had was not enough to keep them flat and even a dot of top coat and pressing down wouldn't work.  So I tried filling in the gaps around the edges with my top coat, and that worked fine as long as I had no intention of using my hands.  They moment I did...pop, pop, pop, three little demon bugs met their demise, leaving only two sweet ladybugs behind for you to see.

Apparently demon bugs are comfortable leaving their heads behind, see it there on my thumb?

But, I have not been  vanquished, I will persevere! At some point I will try again and come back to show you frolicking ladybugs...just not today.

Winner Winner!

Happy February everyone and thank you for participating in my giveaway.  I hope that those that are new followers are here to stay. The winner is (drum roll)

Rachael of Perky Polisher

Congrats Rachael, you need to email me shipping details so I can send out your package.