NYX Prismatic Eyes

Hello, Fireflies!

I saw a few swatches of the new-to-me NYX Prismatic Eyes Collection, and I knew I had to have a few of these metallic beauties!  I bought four of them, and I may need to get more.  MOAR!

One Fish, Two Fish, White Fish, Three Blues..

 Hello, Fireflies!

I'm picking back up with the 52 Week Pick 'n Mix challenge this week, and combining the 3-blues prompt with the domestic animal prompt.  Let's see.. shall I make a blue dog, a la Blue's Clues?

I start with this really nice, bright, opaque blue from CoverGirl, called Out Of The Blue.  This is ONE coat.  Easy, breezy, beautifu-  wait.  Wow, that's good marketing. You were thinking it, too, weren'tcha.

I started to do a chevron French tip with OPI Keeping Suzi At Bay, a medium blue jelly, but then when I added Sally Hansen Insta Dri Teal-y Fast, I just kept adding stripes.  It's not a fishtail, but along those lines.

I really liked how this turned out.  These colors look good together.  I took a few pictures in case adding the animal part to the mani completely failed!

When I had all the blues picked, I thought of fish! And these cute goldfish from Cici & Sisi 11 fit the bill.  I stamped with Milani White On The Spot.

Up close, you can see all the lines of the blues, but from a reasonable distance, it just looks like light and shadows in the water.

Everybody, now, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!"

I've never owned any kind of fish before, but I do like watching them sometimes.  Have you ever owned fish before?  What's the attraction?

TRI - Deco

Hello, Fireflies!

Welcome to a new month of TRI-Polish Tuesdays! This month's colors are Lilac, Teal, and Grey/Silver.
I decided to do a technique for creating an Art-deco style graphic that I saw on Pshiiit.  It makes this neat pattern a lot easier to do, though I will admit to having some trouble lining up the striping tape.

I started with Cover Girl ShowStopper, a nice smooth silver.  When that dried, I applied the tape according to the diagram on Pshiit.

I wasn't talented enough to take pictures of the process.  I did want to show you that it's kind of a mess when you pull off the tape, though.  Don't be discouraged! A lot of nail art looks a hot mess until you put topcoat on.

I found that it's easier to do this one nail at a time.  Paint the nail bed portion first, and then the tip.  Quickly, before the polish starts to set, take off the tape with a pair of tweezers.

I used Rimmel Salon Pro Purple Rain and Pop Beauty Brave for the lilac and teal.

I love this look, and it can be done with so many different colors!

Bottle shot:  Cover Girl ShowStopper, Rimmel Salon Pro Purple Rain. and Pop Beauty Brave.

What do you think about this Art Deco type look?

An InLinkz Link-up

Hooray for Bollywood!

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's Sunday Stamping challenge is 'Bollywood.'  The only exposure I've really had to Bollywood is from the TV show, So You Think You Can Dance.  I love their Bollywood numbers, but I'm always out of breath at the end, just from watching!

So, when I think of Bollywood, I think of the costumes in rich jeweled tones and gilded details, and the music and fast-paced dancing. To try and capture that feeling, I started with Cover Girl Wine Stain, a deep, rich, wine.  There's no topcoat in this picture - the shine is all from the polish.  It's gorgeous.

I painted my ring fingernail with Cover Girl Timeless Rubies, and then dabbed it and some more Wine Stain on the other nails. Lookit that sparkle.

I just got my new CiCi & SiSi plates, and thought that this stamp was perfect for this challenge.  Music notes, and swirls make me think of the dancing.

Cover Girl Perfect Penny adds a lightness to the mani, too.

Aren't these so pretty together?  Cover Girl Wine Stain, Timeless Rubies, and Perfect Penny.

Have you seen any Bollywood?

Embracing My Geekness with Katniss

Hello, Fireflies!

Today is a day to embrace your geekness! and today, especially, I'm embracing another glowing, fiery thing - Catching Fire, from the Hunger Games trilogy.  Yes, I read the books, too, so this qualifies, I think.

I even used polishes and nail art decals from the Cover Girl Catching Fire collection.  First, Cover Girl Black Heat, a black polish with flecks of gold and green, and some orange that catch the light. 

I dabbed on a gradient with Cover Girl Seared Bronze, a pink/bronze polish with some of the same green/gold duochrome glitters as Black Heat.  Smoky, Smoldering, Glowy.

These came in a set with these cool decals.  Decals - Big.  My nails - small.  Tiny scissors - friend.

Yeah, I need flames like this painted on everything I own. I used to watch a lot of cooking shows, and some of my faves had flames painted on their Kitchen Aid stand mixers.  I want these.

*I* am the Girl. On. Fire!

Bottle and decal shot:  Cover Girl Black Heat and Seared Bronze.

What fandom has influenced your style?

An InLinkz Link-up

Sheswai Studs - #NailArtForNubs

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's Nail Art For Nubs was inspired by this nailart on Mari's Nail Polish blog. I really loved the off-set ruffian she did, and wanted to try my own version.

I started off with Sheswai Rootsy, a reddish brown creme, and accents of Cover Girl Silver Lining, a light greyish-white creme.

Then I did an off-set Ruffian with the opposite color.  Silver Lining became surprisingly opaque! I love how these looked together. If you wanted to go whimsical, you could paint eyeballs on the accent nails.

The gold glitter is the perfect detail.  This mani is bold, but still looks classy to me.  Of course, I have no taste, so it could be trashy, but I still love it.

What was that about trash? Trashy-chic, dahlings! A little hardware does a mani good.  I take some faceted gold studs and some round half-pearl gold studs for a corner accent.  I wish I had them in a slightly smaller size, as they didn't *quite* fit on my pinky.

I think I'd like a purse in these colors with gold hardware!

Bottle shot:  Cover Girl Silver Lining, Sheswai Rootsy, and a gold glitter nail art striper.

Would you rock a (sing it now, Bond fans..) Goldfinger?

An InLinkz Link-up

If you missed it, my review of my #FindItAtTarget Influenster Vox Box went live earlier today.  Click here to see my review of FudgeUrban Iced Raspberry and Vanilla mousse!

Sunday Stamping - Undah Da Sea

Hello, Fireflies!

It's time again for Sunday, Sunday, Sunday Stamping! Today, we'll be *blub* *blub* under water!  My version of water starts with Nina Ultra Pro Twinkle, Twinkle.  I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a textured polish or a rough glitter.  I was actually glad to have it a little textured, because I felt that would add to the 'under water' effect. 

You believed that, right? Good.

I found this cute image on my stamping plate DRK-C, and used Finger Paints Silver Sculpture (a lilac-leaning silver) for the stamping.  Totally adorable, right? I only wish my nails were big enough for the whole stamp.  

I used different parts of the stamp on different fingers, and then I decided to create a backwards 'decal' look by painting in some of the fish 'n things. 

I love how colorful it turned out, like a kids' toy aquarium!

I used a lot of different polishes while painting this scene.  Bottle shot:  Nina Ultra Pro Twinkle Twinkle, Finger Paints Silver Sculpture, Revlon Spirit, Nabi Gold, Liquid Sky Lacquer Marisa Lander's Dancing Flames, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer 2014, Cover Girl Silver Lining, and Born Pretty Holo #3.

What would you like to see under the sea?

Sunday Stamping - Turquoise Stone Saran Wrap

Hello, Fireflies!

I'm super-excited to show you this mani.  It was so easy and fun, and I love the way it turned out.  When have you ever heard me say that about a stamped mani?

Yeah, maybe never?

This one starts out with two gorgeous blues:  Layla Softtouch 10, a mermaid-type blue with gold shimmer, and Cover Girl Blue Hawaiian, a light blue creme.

Some of you may have noticed that I alternated the colors.  Go ahead and pat yourselves on the back! I only did that because I wasn't sure if I wanted to dab light blue over dark, or dark over light.

Here's what I discovered:  I preferred using the Layla darker base and dabbing the light blue over it, for two reasons.  One, I liked the darker edge where I didn't dab much, and two, dabbing the Layla meant that I got gold shimmer over my finger, and it's harder to clean up.  Word to the wise.

I have this Jumbo Cheeky plate that has no identifiers on it.  I took this squiggly line stamp and black and stamped over the saran wrap mani.

Then, I took a teeny-tiny brush and some Maybelline Bold Gold and dabbed in some of the larger gold chunks you sometimes see running along the veins in turquoise.

I think one of my fave things about this mani is that you can still see some of the gold shimmer, which gives it a really cool natural stone look.

This was way easier than trying to watermarble for me.  I have some OPI Black Spotted, and I might try to achieve the effect that way, too, instead of the plastic wrap (which, incidentally, I used a piece of a plastic grocery bag, and it was much better for me.)

Bottle shot:  Layla Softtouch effect #10, Cover Girl Blue Hawaiian, Finger Paints Black Expressionism, and Maybelline Bold Gold.

Have you tried any versions of the turquoise stone mani yet?  Which one do you like?

Get the F..lowers Out!

I like to do my nails for any occasion, and these nails I did to cheer me up for an impending visit to the doctor's office.  I like my doctor okay... but I don't particularly want to go, especially if I'm not sick.

I started off with a sweet pastel lilac, Sweet Hook from China Glaze. For a pastel, it went on beautifully.

I decided to do a flower pattern based off of one from Maria's Nail Art and Polish blog.  I used CG Nail Slicks in Mint Sorbet and SpaRitual Yes I Can for the stems.

Then, I painted in some flowers in white, so that whatever color I used, it would stand out against the background.

I used China Glaze Stella, a shimmery violet, for the flowers. 

On some flowers, I painted it with Stella first, others I did a mix of Stella and Wet 'n Wild Bijou Blue.  The blue is iridescent, so it really brought out a texture in the flowers.

A touch of shimmery orange in the centers courtesy of Ulta Not From Concentrate.  It's really subtle, but came out a little more with topcoat.

And with Seche Vite topcoat.  When the nurse saw my nails, she couldn't believe that I did it myself.  She said, "you did that?  Get the F* out!"  Best reaction to my nail art yet!  She even made the doctor look (and went to get his reading glasses so he could see them!)

Right hand:

What was the best reaction you got to something you did?