Iron Lady - The Polish Well Fashion Contest Entry

Hey polished prisoners,

I think this goes without saying given the title and all but this is my entry for The Polish Well's Celebrating the Thousands Giveaway and Fashion Nail Art Contest.  My entry is based around one of the big trends for Fall 2012 that was everywhere during NY Fashion Week.   Retro granny if you will lol!  I know that sounds totally hideous, but if you've ever seen Oscar de la Renta do retro you know it's awe-inspiring! Think lace meets tweed with bold accessories. It's easy to fall in love with that kind of loveliness, not that I can afford such a frock, but recreating a mani around his design isn't entirely out of the equation.  So here's what I came up with...

I'm really pleased with how this came out. 

Mani-louge

Base color: Essie's Blanc

Watercolor: Essie Blanc + Power Clutch 

Holo topcoat: INM Northern Lights in Gold

Stamping plate: Dashica Big SdP I

Stamping Polish: Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl

This picture is not color accurate which makes me a bit annoyed as the white here comes off looking a dirty brown when it's not IRL.

 Here's the inspiration I used to create this look - Oscar de la Renta's Iron Lady. Isn't this gorgeous?  I feel like I need this jacket in my life as I will admit I am also a coat whore ;) Wait who am I kidding? I need the whole outfit hahaha! (Note: This will never happen but I can dream right?)

Photo credit: Imaxtree

The watercolor was done using the plastic bag method which to be honest I prefer about a million times over the acetone + polish method.  It's messier but I think it creates a more realistic looking watercolor effect without the little "dots" that I always see left behind when using the acetone method.  I tape of my nails just like with watermarbling to minimize the clean up.

This was my first attempt at watercoloring and though this one is simple I love it!  I will be trying this again soon with more colors.  

The palette created by OdlR is just gorgeous!  I can imagine doing this in a different way as well using this palette and a yummy accent.  Hmm maybe I will ;)

The giveaway ends at midnight tonight so you can still enter to win polishes from the China Glaze Bohemian and On Safari Collection, the Orly Flash Glam Collection, and the upcoming OPI Germany Collection.   The top ten contest entries will be posted on Facebook and then voting will proceed.  Wish me luck and thanks for reading!  Toodles...

Out To Lunch - Hello Kitty Style Nail Art

Hey polished prisoners,

Today I have a little mani inspired by a Hello Kitty lunch tin that was given to me by my mother.  Yup! I'm way too old to have things like this, but I use it for storage so that's my excuse.  The truth is I feel like girls are never too old to be girls and things like Hello Kitty are timeless like Barbie who btw I also love. In any event yesterday I was looking at the tin and then I thought wouldn't this be so cute on my nails.  The rest as they say is history...

Mani-louge

Base color: China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy

Paint drips/fenches: Orly Passion Fruit

Birds/Outlines/Clouds: Orly Liquid Vinyl, OPI Alpine Snow

Duckie: China Glaze Happy Go Lucky
Hello Kitty/Heart : Fauxnad plate KD1

The lunch tin that inspired the mani - way too cute right?

cG Flip Flop Fantasy is so neon my camera freaked out trying to capture it. This is dead on to the color IRL.

I love creating drip manicures - they are so easy and somehow come off looking harder to create than they actually are.  I need to do more of these in the future yes?

I'm definitely not 100% satisfied with my execution.  I need to keep working on my freehanding, but I do think the end result is pretty adorable.  I'm having a lot of fun these days doing silly but cute nail art.  I guess this is also due to cutting down my nails because when my nails are longer I do tend toward blingy style/"adult" mani's.  Which do you ladies prefer - my bling or my cute or just whatever goes? I'll see you next post and thanks for reading! Toodles...

Off With Her Red - On Sundays I Stamp!

"The true color of life is the color of the body, the color of the covered red, the implicit and not explicit red of the living heart and the pulses.  It is the modest color of the unpublished blood."

 ~ Alice Meynell

Hello lacquer ladies,

I'm sorry this is late!  Unfortunately there are just some days when my health isn't up to the challenge of more than a snails pace and that was yesterday so I was unable to get pictures until today.   Anyway, here we are another AIS posting and here I am a fool with her red.  I love red polishes in case you hadn't noticed.  It may not be my favorite color, but red is by far one of the most decadent color choices I believe a woman can choose to wear.  It's rich and sensual and bold.  A color to inspire confidence and lust.  Oh yes I do love a good red and above is one of my all time favorite quotes about the color red - the color of life...of the living heart.  So why the hell am I waxing poetic about the color red today? Well the challenge for this week's AIS foray is a red and black theme.  I was thrilled to bits and pieces when this won although this would make it my second red mani of the week but who cares when I get to be as decadent as I like? Now onto the art...

Mani-louge

Base color: Sally Hansen Red-dy To Mingle

Gradient: Sally Hansen Red-dy To Mingle, Orly Cherry Bomb and Emberstone

Fishtail Braid:  Sally Hansen Red-dy To Mingle and Pat On The Black, Orly Cherry Bomb and Emberstone, and China Glaze Ruby Pumps
Stamping polish: Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl

Stamping plate: Dashica Big SdP-A

In the shade everything looks wet.

How do you ladies feel about red? Is this a color that you feel is very essential to your polish stash or more of just a once in a while kind of thing?

Gradient before stamping was super subtle.  I'm not sure it would be very effective without nail art on top.

Reds all around.  I ended up loving the stamp here quite a bit!

After writing this post I do feel I need to add more reds to my polish stash.  I want some deep blackened ones reminiscent of dried blood and bruised roses.  Macabre right? Hmmm but I think also a little sensual and gorgeous.  Thanks so much for reading and I'll see you next post! Toodles...

BM323: Barbed Wire & Roses + Tutorial

Hey lacquer ladies,

It's another scorcher here in the district and that means another hot summertime mani! Now that I've got my Bundle Monster 2012 plates QC'ed I'm ready to take them out for a spin.  For today's mani I decided to go for a lot of brights on a clean background and ended up with something fun and sorta tropical. You'll notice my nails are long again that's because I did this a while ago and it's been sitting in my drafts ;)

Mani-logue

Base color: OPI Alpine Snow and Essie Action

Stamping polishes: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Brisk Blue, Fast Fuchsia, & Snappy Sorbet + Konad Special Polish in Yellow (roses); Wet N' Wild Black Creme (barbed wire)

Glitter accent: Confetti Ice Ice Baby

Plate: BM 323 (roses and barbed wire)

I ended up needing 3 coats to get Alpine Snow opaque and about 2 coats of Essie's Action layered over AS.  I also did need to stamp the barbed wire pattern across my nails several times to get the entire length covered, but I'm still really pleased with the clarity of the pattern on the plates themselves as well the novelty of the images. The barbed wire itself is just so fun!

 

So what do you ladies think? While I was out and about with this look I got approached a lot which is a nice compliment.  I thought my Youtube followers might actually really like this mani too so I went ahead put together a tutorial.  If you are interested you can check it out below.

Thanks so much for reading and I'll see you next post!  Toodles...

Panda Love feat. Dandy Nails Colorblind Squared

Hey polished prisoners,

What's black, white, and yellow all over? Girl, today my nails! Hmm we are keeping it pretty simple over here these days plus I'm a little mad that I had to chop off my nails (but this isn't that hand).  Honestly, if it hadn't been the middle and such a bad break I would have left them because in general I don't worry too much about all of my nails being the same length. Alas I needed something to soothe my ravaged soul so I brought out my feel good animal - the panda. They are so darn cute how could anyone be unhappy looking down at those all day?

OMG do you see that the panda's nose is a freaking heart?!! Adorable adorable....

Mani-louge 

Base color: China Glaze Happy Go-Lucky & OPI Alpine Snow

Accents: Dandy Nails Colorblind Squared

Stamping polish: Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl and White

Image plates: RA120 and MJ Med Plate

The panda is totally smug - he knows he's in charge lol!

I wanted to keep my color palette very simple on this one so I chose three complementing colors and just replayed them over and over within the design.  I chose Colorblind Squared, a matte black and white square glitter polish in a clear base since it fit the palette perfectly.  What I love about polishes like Colorblind Squared is that they literally go with everything and have the ability to add a little extra to my manicure without overwhelming the art which sometimes happens with heavier glitterbombs and wilder matte glitters.

It's a jungle full of panda love ;) I am so loving how bright and fun this is!

Isn't this such a happy looking manicure? This is my second time playing with panda's in my nail art.  If you look at my avatar you'll see a freeahand version with bamboo etc that I did a while ago that was also extremely cute.  I really really love the final effect of this one though - just a whole lot of super cuteness with a very monochrome theme.  I hope you enjoyed this one too and please let me know what you thought in the comments below.  Thanks for reading and see you next post! Toodles...

Red Hot Harlot: NailsIT Angelique + Giveaway

Hey polished prisoners (wink),

I've got a hot hussy for you today! Her name is Angelique and she packs a real punch.  Angelique is a red jelly polish filled with black squares small white hexagons, medium gold hexagons and hot pink microglitter.  It's part of six piece collection inspired by the Dark Shadows movie that released earlier this summer, and made by a lady who I feel is a good friend and fellow blogger - NailsIT.  On top of being a real dollface her polishes are stunning, and this one is no exception!  

This is two coats of Angelique over one thin coat of Sally Hansen Red-dy To Mingle.

The minute I saw Angelique I knew she had to be mine.  I am a sucker for jellies, but particularly well done red ones.

Perfect candy apple red - I love this color so much!

The only polish in my stash that's close to this kind of delicious depth and finish currently is Smitten Polish's Fire and Blood.  However, it's still a very different red compared to Angelique and has a venous blood hue while Angelique reminds me of very fresh raspberries or apples. 

Suddenly in the shade you can see those gold hexagons and pink microglitter popping.

 I was so enamored with this swatch I left it alone...for now ;)

I did have to use two layers of Poshe to get a smooth finish because of the square shaped glitters, but it was totally worth it! 

Well, isn't this pretty baby too gorgeous for words? I love it so much I may have to get a backup when her shop reopens.  If you are interested in purchasing Angelique of any of the other yummy mouthwatering shades by NailsIT you can find info on that here on her blog.  While your over there you should enter her giveaway because she's giving out five of her gorgeous polishes along with Nfu-Oh 61!  You should also check out her nail art as well because this lady also has some seriously banging skills.  Thanks so much for reading and see you next post! Toodles...

Abstract Shades of Blue...On Sundays I Stamp!

Hello polished prisoners,

Time for another Adventures in Stamping post! I'm just gonna jump right in - the theme for this week was using your favorite new stamp.  Saaaayyyy what?  Lol - yeah that's a tiny problem for me because I've gotten a lot of new plates recently including my Red Angel plates which arrived this week (stay tuned for the QC post).  So I decided to take these out for a spin this time around. I also had to do a big chop to my nails since I snapped the middle one on the way out the door yesterday - boo! Alas they will regrow and in the meantime I can use my smaller image plates without a need for double stamping which kinda rules.

I think this is so cute and easy!

I started with Sinful Colors Cinderella as the base color.  Cinderella is a beautiful blue sheer polish filled with bits of iridescent pinkish red and gold microglitter.  By itself it's a gorgeous polish, but it also worked well as a backdrop for my abstract manicure.  FYI, in case you didn't know Sinful Colors will be on sale for .99c at Walgreens til 7/28 so take advantage and pick up some lovelies on the cheap!

 I used plate RA120 and stamped using Essie Blue Rhapsody and Color Club Cold Metal. 

 This type of stamping where you are sectioning out colors within a single stamp is my favorite kind of nail art.  It requires a bit of attention, but when executed correctly has cool payoff. 

Omo - a little too much glare here, but I was trying to capture all the shimmer fro the 3 different polishes.

 The look ends up very simple the overall effect is complex because of the "layering" within the stamp along with the use of a metallic and foil nail polish on a cream base. I like to think of it as a "texturized" mani.

You can see all the pretty pink sparkle from Cinderella rising underneath the stamp - cool beans!

So here we are my second foray into AIS.  I hope you liked it and please comment below! I'll see you next post.  Toodles...

Jellied and Holo'ed: Sonoma Nail Art Steampunk

Hey polished prisoners,

Happy Saturday! I planned to do a haul post today but the weather fairies conspired against me for the last several days and decided to bring the rain (and with it bad lighting).  So instead I'm doing a easy breezy swatch.  Eh? Say what! I know I know.  I did plan on doing a little "more" but again the lighting situation wasn't good.  In fact, I'm so annoyed that I'm already trying to either build or buy my own lightbox so that I won't be quite so limited in the future.  That said let's talk about a brand that I absolutely freaking love - Sonoma Nail Art!

Sparkles all around.  I really wish I had been able to get a few photos in sunlight to show off the holographic topcoat a bit more.  These were all taken in indirect sunlight/rainy weather.

First, you need to check out her blog - start there because her nail art is SICKENING! Ok have you recovered yet? Now check out her polishes.  I know you almost died of a polish-gasm didn't you? Flawless flawless glitterbombs with formula that makes it totally worth your while.  I want them all! But for today let's settle for Steampunk.  Steampunk is a glitter polish with black diamonds and an assortment of magenta and rust colored glitter in a dusty pink base. Translation - purrty!

Two coats of Care To Danse? + one coat of SNA Steampunk +one coat of CTD?+  one coat of Fairy Dust = yummy jelly.

I decided to wear it as a glitter gradient layered in a jelly sandwich using OPI's Care To Danse? from their NYC Ballet Collection.  I also added a single swipe of China Glaze Fairy Dust to the entire nail.  For accents I painted my nails using OPI's We'll Always Have Paris (Suede).  I found the final effect to be stare inducing.

Gooey looking in the best way - this is why I love jellies!

So what do you think? I love jelly sandwiches like this because they are easy to put together and have that instant pretty factor without spending oodles of time nail-arting it up.  Of course I'm also extremely biased when it comes to anything jelly finish so course I love it.  If you are interested in acquiring Steampunk or any other Sonoma pretties you can get them here on her Etsy shop.  She restocks every two weeks.  Word of fair warning though - the polishes move quickly and the restocks are fairly small.   Thanks for reading and see you next post! Toodles...

Pretty & Polished Hello Dolly Meets A Lunar Eclipse

Hello polished prisoners,

Today I've got some pretty to share - some Pretty & Polished that is!  I've had this swatch in my head forever - the deliciousness of Orly's Lunar Eclipse combined with all the luscious glitter in P&P's Hello Dolly.  Eventually, I couldn't resist the sweet allure any longer and had to make it happen, but of course I wouldn't be me if I didn't add a little spice to the mix (smiles). By now I think it's clear that I am not really a "swatching" kinda girl. I do enjoy them, but like M Night Shyamalan I love a good twist!

Hello dollies! Single coat pictured over first three digits and then sparingly dabbed over the water marbles.

Mani-louge

Thumb & Index Finger: Orly's Lunar Eclipse and Pretty & Polished Hello Dolly

Middle Finger: Essie's Jamaican Me Crazy and Orly Lunar Eclipse + Pretty & Polished Hello Dolly

Ring and Pinkie: Water marble using Essie's Jamaican Me Crazy, Color Club Puccilicious & Almost Famous with Pretty & Polished Hello Dolly lightly dabbed on.

As you can see I have a lot of techniques going on in this manicure.  This often happens when I'm randomly "creating" a mani with no idea or no focal point in my mind.  Even though I knew I wanted the P&P/Orly swatch the rest was just whatever I thought might be fun. 

I love that even in the shade/indirect light you can still see the inner fire of Hello Dolly.

 Shall I also tell you another secret? This was my first attempt at a water marble! I'd been dying to do one for ages, but never got around to it until just now.  The execution definitely was imperfect, but I think it came out okay for a first time attempt.  Clearly, I'm no Colette of My Simple Little Pleasures - she is amazeballs!  The hardest part was finding polishes that would spread out in the water and then creating a clear pattern.  Do you have any recommendations brand/polish-wise to make things easier?

I still need a lot more practice until my water marbles are "clean" but I still love the overall effect.

So what do you ladies think of the results? There are so many things I haven't tried yet on my nails I'm so excited and I can't wait to share.  I wonder what other techniques you ladies are interested in seeing or trying yourselves?  Please do let me know and thanks for reading! Toodles...

Appealing Oranges...

Hey polished prisoners,

I love a good orange and today I've got a gorgeous little glistening glitterbomb for you from none other than one of my fav indie polish makers - KBShimmer!  This one is a real beauty too!  Orange-A-Peel is a bright neon orange polish, part of a six piece summer neon set, packed with various sized orange, pink, and white hex and white bar glitters.  In a word OAP is DENSE as glitterbombs tend to be.  That said the formula is smooth like butter and easy to apply with no need for fishing for pieces of glitter.

Isn't this just such a fun bright nami? And look at all the pink glitters in OAP!

I layered this over Essie's Marshmallow to make the neon even MORE neon.  You do need to wait about 5 mins in between coats otherwise the polish drags.  I also did a little colorblocking using Essie's Lights and Action and finally added some microbeads and tiny little hot pink butterflies to the mix.  

This is three layers of Orange-A-Peel pictured here.

 I am not at all happy with how the microbeads turned out - I accidentally knocked my hand before the topcoat set and they moved (boo!).  I still thinks it's cute-ish though...

It's super bright in this pic! Lol!

So here we have it yet another indie brand that I love.  And yes, I know I really darn well need to get my haul posts done (cringe).  I keep popping up out of nowhere with these polishes, but I just can't help myself when so many unique brands keep appearing these days!

Indies come to me!

Photo Source: comedycentral.com

Are you dying of laughter over my Rick James photo with an orange halo of light surrounding his beckoning form? No? Coldblooded...Do you at least feel overcome with lust to acquire this pretty baby?  I know I was when I saw the swatches put up by Amy from Nailventurous. Well good news! Though KBShimmer polishes used to be pretty hard to come by these days you can access her entire collection with ease here on her storefront.  She also has an Etsy where limited editions are listed from time to time.  Speaking of LE's it just so happens our little miss will be giving away 5 of them that she made as part of a rainbow polish making challenge. The contest ends this Friday and you can enter to win here.  Here's hoping to scooping up a new pretty to play with! Thanks so much for reading and I'll see you next time. Toodles...

3R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Hey polished prisoners,

I am a testament to the fact that indeed old dogs most assuredly can learn new tricks - lol.  Um of course by that I mean my penchant for not wanting to decorate over glitter nail polish has at last been broken! Remember those glittering nails polished by DDP's Red After The Wolf that seduced me so quickly away from stamping? Well they got a little upgrade...nothing is friendlier to the environment i.e. my cuticles than recycled nails (smiles).

The red looks bottomless under all that stamping!

I stamped using BM312 and BM313 using China Glaze Passion and Revlon's Copper Penny respectively.

For some reason this look strikes me as very "Russian" can't put my finger on why though..

What do you ladies think - to stamp over glitter or not to stamp? I mean is it better to just enjoy the sparkle without the distraction of more or to create something fresh after a little bit of one dimensional bling?

Still so in love with this mani!

 For me I think looking at all the glitter peeking through the gold swirls made me love this manicure even more, but I'd love to hear more opinions.  In any case thanks for reading and I'll see you next post!  Toodles :) 

What's a Jewel To Do? On Sundays I Stamp!

Hiya lacquer ladies,

I hope your weekends are going well!  I've got a bit of news on my end as I've recently joined a nail art interest group called Adventures in Stamping - yay! I'm sure several of you have heard of it or are participants yourself.  We take a theme every week and then create nail art around it using stamping of one kind or another.  I love this concept so much and it's a great way to expand out on ideas, meet other lacquer ladies, and share helpful tips and cool techniques.  This means every Sunday I'll become a tramp, a stamp tramp that is (wink wink).  Lord save us from the Jezebels hahaha! Now onto the art...

The theme for this week is Precious Stones, i.e. designing around the concept of precious stones or using jewel tones.  This concept for me was oddly easy.  My birthday is right around the corner (August 1) and my birthstone, peridot, has been on my mind quite a bit lately as I've been thinking of buying a pair of solitaire earrings in the stone.  I will admit peridot is a tough color to pull off.  It just doesn't have that "classic" appeal I that I so love in stones such as pearls or sapphires (at least not IMO).  Nevertheless, I have endeavored to embrace myself and in so doing the stone of my birth lol.

Look at all this bling! Well it's my birthday stone so I'll bling as I want to...

I started by taping off my nails at a diagonal and painting with Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear in Ivy League for the majority of my nails.  The accents are painted with Zoya's Jules and Butter London's Tart With A Heart.  What I love about TWAH is that it has so many small flecks of iridescent glitter including those that throw back a peridot colored green which made it perfect for the theme.

I love the effect of TWAH layered under Ivy League! Green and gold is one of my favorite combinations.

Next I stamped on lace, leopard, zebra, and grid accents using Konad Special Polish in black from plates SH21, M57, CH11 respectively.

CH11, SH21, and M57 plates

 I added several pearls, microbeads, and yellow, clear, and green colored rhinestones to each stamping, and I also used my LA Colors nail art stripper in gold glitter to add little accents throughout each nail.

Lol I promise not all of my mani's are blinging, but I mean come on Shelly it's precious stones themed.  How could I NOT bling it up?!?

So what do you think? I wonder if I hadn't said that my stone was peridot you would have known anyway? Do tell because I really would like to know.  In any event this was so fun I can't wait to see what next week's theme is!  Thanks for reading and see you next post! Toodles!

Testing: Bundle Monster 2012 Plates Have Arrived!

Hello lovelies,

Happy Saturday! I have been on  stamping rampage lately lol! As I'm sure everyone in the nail-o-sphere knows Bundle Monster has released their latest series of stamping plates this summer.

 Image Source: bundlemonster.com

I got mine a few weeks ago now, but still hadn't taken them out for a spin. I've mentioned before with the old series I had a few problems with some of my plates not stamping out the images correctly because the grooves were too shallow.  I subsequently had those plates replaced and had no issues with the second series.  However, I've been reading here and there that some other ladies were having a few issues with some of the images on the newest set so I just decided to quickly stamp out all of the images onto paper to make sure I was good to go and decided to post the results below.

Plates 301-311

I used Wet N' Wild Black Creme to stamp these out unless otherwise noted on the page as KSP in which case I used Konad Special Polish because of difficulty picking up the images with the Black Creme.

Plates 312-321

Plates 322-325

As you can see most of the plates stamp very well which is what I expected. However I did have a problem plate, BM307, which was too shallowly imprinted and so none of the images transferred despite using Konad Special polish instead of the Wet N' Wild Black Creme for stamping.

Close up of stamping QC for 307.  I was so shocked I kept stamping and stamping but nothing would transfer for the entire plate.

Plate in question which was too shallowly engraved when made.  Bummer cause look at how cute the images are on this plate!

I'm a little disappointed to see this for sure and of course I'll be contacting Bundle Monster/Amazon for a replacement.  However, overall I'm happy with the plates.  Sometimes these things happen and that's why I started QCing my plates.  I still think Bundle Monster plates are a great value for the number of images and options you get and recommend them highly as an addition to all the avid stampers out there.

If you're interested in purchasing the new series you can get them here on Amazon or go directly through Bundle Monster to get them as well.  Either site has excellent customer service so no matter where you order any issues you may have will be addressed with professionalism and expediency.  I wonder if this was helpful at all to anyone? Please let me know if you like this kind of thing for the future as I do frequently order stamping plates and I always do a QC check on them just to make sure it's money well spent.  Thanks for reading and see you next post!