Pastel Pink and Powerful Purple

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's Sunday Stamping challenge was to pair a pastel with a neon.  A true neon purple is hard to come by, but I like the violet purple from the Saved By The Bell Wet 'n Wild collection, and I paired it with a pastel pink stamping polish.

Flower Fashion

Hello, Fireflies!

This month, the NCC challenge prompt is, 'inspired by fashion.'  I'm going to interpret this loosely as 'clothes' because I know nothing about fashion, and I like doing manis that match my outfits.  I also share my FOTD and EOTD, too!

Scrolling Wallpaper

Hello, Fireflies!

Short post today - I was going to take the day off, and then I decided to look through the vault to see if I could find a mani that could satisfy this month's NCC challenge - wallpaper.

I think that this scrolling pattern on blue flakie and gold works!

Dress Dotticure

Hello, Fireflies!

Two posts today! I needed a little nail art in my life, so I wanted to show you this dotticure I did to match a dress.  I've used this dress as an inspiration for a stamped nail look before, too.  It's one of my fave dresses.

Color me Fall #ChallengeYourNailArt #FallingForNailArt

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's Challenge Your Nail Art prompt is for Fall Colors.  I did this mani for a nail group I'm in, for a Fall Glitter look, and thought it would work for today's challenge, too.  I love the gold and red together, with a stripe of black.

I laid down a base color of Wet 'n Wild Pot of Gold, and then added Candy Lacquer Big MacIntosh to the bottom 2/3rd of the nail. 

Swish of red and black striper, popped on a red rhinestone, and Bob's your uncle, and Fanny's your aunt.

Bottle shot:  Wet 'n Wild Pot of Gold, Candy Lacquer Big Macintosh, and nail art stripers in red and black.

What are your favorite Fall colors?

My Nail Art is getting...Thinner

Hello, Fireflies!

When I was in high school, I LOVED everything Stephen King.  Read all of his books, multiple times.  I still have this paperback from when I was a kid:

I patterned my very simple nail art after the cover.  I used Wet 'n Wild Black Creme, and then free-handed a hand print on my thumb with OPI Over and Over A-Gwen.

I'm pretty proud of how the handprint came out.  It was my first one.

What do you think?  Does it look like the cover to you?

Do you still read books from the same authors that you read when you were a kid?  I don't really read Stephen King anymore, but I loved Richard Peck as a kid, and I still go back and read his stuff.

I've Come To Suck Your Blood, uh, Nail Polish!

Hello, Fireflies!

There are some vampires we love, some we hate, and some we love to hate.  This villainous nail art was inspired by this tutorial, and they are so cute! They're not sparkly, either, though a little glitter could change that!

I painted all my nails with my Sally Hansen/Revlon white mix, and then added the black details with a striper.  The eyes were multiple dots, and then, there has to be some blood, right?

My husband has been playing all the LEGO movie games, and maybe that's influenced me, because I kinda think these guys look like little LEGO vampires! Can't you just imagine them with little LEGO capes and "U"-shaped hands, running after some hapless LEGO victim?

Bottle shot:  Sally Hansen/Revlon white, Wet 'n Wild Black Creme, and Revlon Cherries In The Snow.

Who is your favorite famous vampire?

An InLinkz Link-up

I see you, kitteh

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's nail art came about because someone asked in a nail group if anyone could do this cat tutorial.  I tried.  It was hard.  I think a lot of the cats kinda look like the rabbit mask from Donny Darko.

I found this cat eye nail art from Kayla Shevonne, and I thought it would go well with the cats, and make this more Halloween-y!  I think they're my fave part of the mani. I like how the dot of Joss Desert Sunset glitter makes the eyes shine!

 Bottle shot:  Orly Hook Up, Joss Desert Sunset, and Wet 'n Wild Black Creme.

Ever go as a cat for Halloween?  My husband and I went as Rottweilers once.  Someone asked if we were aliens. 

Monsters In Love - Frankenstein's Monster and Bride

Hello, Fireflies!

If you saw yesterday's patchwork mani, and with today's Frankenstein's Monster and Bride mani, you might sense a theme - that Halloween monsters are known for being stitched badly!  Was no one proud of their craftsmanship?

Today's mani is inspired by this Pinterest roundup post - they couldn't identify the original artist, and neither can I, but if you can point me in the right direction, I'll be happy to give credit!

I decided to add the hearts because they are monsters in lurve.  Look how they have goo-goo eyes for each other... You could break out this design for an alternative Valentines' Day mani!

Bottle shot:  Sally Hansen White Tip mixed with Revlon Spirit, Finger Paints Go Van Gogh!, Revlon Cherries In The Snow, Wet 'n Wild Black Creme, and stripers in black and white.

Is there a romantic side to your Halloween?  My husband and I like to do couples' costumes!  One year, we were stereotypical tourists, another year we were 'Old and Retired' Han Solo and Princess Leia..

The Nightmare Before Christmas - Jack and Sally

Hello, Fireflies!

For my last NCC Stripes challenge of the month, I wanted to incorporate stripes and one of the most popular Halloween traditions - watching The Nightmare Before Christmas.

This mani was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest, but I cheated and used a 3-D charm for Jack's face.

I painted all but my middle finger with Revlon Spirit, and then used a black striper to freehand the black stripes.  The middle finger was painted with Milani Black Swift, and then the charm was applied.

Bottle shot:  Revlon Spirit, Milani Black Swift, and a black striper.

What's Jack without his girl?

 This was inspired by a mani done by The Nailasaurus, but it reminded me of Sally.

I started off with a white base to make sure that the colors were bright.  Then, I used striping tape to mark off the different sections.  Even thought it would be nice to paint one color at a time, it dries too quickly for that - and dry polish gets pulled off with the striping tape.  So, do one nail at a time.  I painted over the white lines with black polish and made the stitches, too.

Bottle shot:  Revlon Spirit, Nails Inc Bond St., Wet 'n Wild Pleasure Pier, Urban Decay Bang, Finger Paints Go Van Gogh!, and a black striper.

Wouldn't it be neat to have one hand done like Jack, and the other like Sally?

Getting Wild with makeup and nails with the Wet 'n Wild Fall LE Collection

Hello, Fireflies!

When the new LE Fall Wet 'n Wild collection came out, and people started posting comparisons to the UD Naked 3 palette, I knew I wanted to try them.  Don't get me wrong, I have the original Naked palette, and it's a great palette.  But I wanted to see if these rose-toned neutrals were worth another $50, or if I'd be okay with the two $4 Wet 'n Wild palettes.

I actually really like these palettes! Wet 'n Wild definitely has both hits and misses with their eye shadows, but I think these are a hit.  Here's a closer look at the eye look I did with the Wet 'n Wild Melrose at Night palette.

I am always up for a dark berry lip, and I love the new matte Bordeaux Boulevard.  I am also a sucker for the rubbery black packaging on these LE lippies, too, but the formula was fantastic. 

Um...I know I used a foundation, but it didn't seem to make it into the picture.  I've been using powder foundation this summer, for the most part, so it's either Ageless Derma Pressed Mineral Foundation, or the It Cosmetics one.  Also, I used mascara.  Was I drunk when I put this together?  Where's the mascara?

I'm hard pressed to use anything other than my Cover FX stable of primers, though.  I haven't found a foundation they won't work with, and I love that they are skincare as well as makeup.  The blemish primer is proving especially useful these days, and because the eye primer is also a treatment, I put it over my lid and under my eye, as well.

I finally gave away that Physician's Formula brow definer.  The design just bummed me out.  I hated having to replace the cap whenever I wanted to switch to the brush.  I'm much happier with my Too Faced Bulletproof Brows.

The blush, Maybelline Mineral Power in Fresh Plum, is one I've had for a while, and thought it complimented the eyeshadows well. 

I have tried the UD setting spray, this mist from Pur, and the ELF setting spray.  I like them all, but the Urban Decay sprayer beats them all, hands down.  The Pur spraying mechanism just douses me, which wastes product and is annoying because I can't put my glasses back on until my face is dry.  So, for now, I'm back to using the UD spray full-time, and I'll refill the bottle with something else when its done.

I also did a nail look to go with the outfit I'm wearing.  I started with Echo Dark from this same LE collection.  It's a dark navy jelly matte.  What? yeah.

I did random brushstrokes with Revlon Spirit and another color from this LE collection, Careful, it's Vine-tage. a matte grape.

To better match the pattern on the shirt, I used Mentality Eeny and Pueen 13 plate to stamp this floral pattern.

And, here's the final result!

The whole look, sorta:

Have you picked up anything from this collection?  What do you think?

Pink and Ribbons - must be Breast Cancer Awareness!

 Hello, Fireflies!

Today's Adventures In Stamping challenge was to use pink and BCA stamps.  I just bought the 2013 OPI BCA polish set from a friend, so I thought it would be perfect for this challenge! The pink creme is Pink-ing of You, and the glitter is More Than A Glimmer.  Frankly, I should have just kept it this way, because I really like this, and I totally messed up the stamping.

On my ring finger, I used BM 321 plate.  On the other fingers, I used the French tip stamp from BM 324.

I used Wet 'n Wild Black Creme to stamp.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  This was a doesn't time.

If this wasn't a Stamping Sunday challenge, I wouldn't have even shown you.  Sad Trombone mani.

Bottle shot:  OPI More Than A Glimmer and Pink-ing of You, and Wet 'n Wild Black Creme.

You can see I even tried stamping with white first on my thumb, and that didn't work out.  I had no stamping ju-ju on that day.  None.  Have you ever gone to do something you've done hundreds of times before, and you just couldn't do it?

Shattered Glass, 80's Style

Hello, Fireflies!

Ready for today's stamping challenge?  It's full of eye-searing neon goodness, with a dash of 'hey, that wasn't supposed to happen' and a smidge of 'black stamping for the win!'

I didn't know that China Glaze Thistle Do Nicely was a neon when I got it out.  I like neons okay.  They dry quickly, so you have to work quickly.  And, they make me look like I got a tan.

Today's challenge is to do a 'Funky French' so I rifled through my tips plates. 

I *rarely* use these.  I don't have enough 'tip' for these to make much sense, usually.  But I thought this tip from Mash 27 would look good even if it wasn't a whole stamp.  I used China Glaze Cosmic Dust for the stamping.

In my mind, this was going to look like shattered pieces of glass, twinkling on the pink background.  Instead, it's a lot of squinting to see if the stamp transferred.

So, I got out my Wet 'n Wild Black Creme and stamped it again, and then did a little more Cosmic Dust over that.  Gone is the shattered glass effect; now there's an 80's vibe.

 Bottle shot:  China Glaze Thistle Do Nicely, China Glaze Cosmic Dust, and Wet 'n Wild Black Creme.

A lot of my nail art is made up of 'oops' and then, 'I totally meant to do that!'.  No one can tell you that your art isn't right.  Own it.  And then, if you're still not happy, slap some glitter on it!