Grungy Candy Striper Stamping

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's AIS challenge is 'negative space'.  Mine's more of a 'fail space'.

Glitter Before and After

Hello, Fireflies!

Yesterday, I had a HUGE post with all the goodies from four different subscription boxes in August.  Today, I want to focus on the two nail polishes I got from those boxes, and some before and after pix.

So, you saw this pix of the gorgeous Nailtini Mango-Rita:

 Gorgeous peach/creamsicle with a hint of gold shimmer.

Afterwards, I decided to pair it with this fun, pastel glitter in greens and oranges from Sally Hansen's Color Frenzy line called, Fruit Spritz....and apparently, I tried some of the Style Essentials on my ring finger, first.  Usually, iridescent glitters just show up better over a darker base, but you gotta experiment sometimes!

Don't these just compliment each other?

I also showed you Style Essentials iridescent glitter over Ulta Green And Wear It.

I love how iridescent glitters catch the light and show off different colors. My own private light show!

I thought you might like to see how gorgeous Ulta Green And Wear It is on it's own.  It's an emerald green crelly, opaque in two coats, but with a slightly squishy look to it.  Perfect for Fall.

I love that more subscription boxes are introducing nail polish, and you can still get some pretty interesting colors and finishes close to home, too.

So, what's your preference? Plain, or glittered?

Zoya Flower Teacup

Hello, Fireflies!

Time for another tea party!  This time, I'm making floral abstract cups with the Peter Som trio of polishes from Zoya.

I wanted to love Zoya Cole.  It's the perfect orange creamsicle color.  But the formula.. ay, Zoya.  you rarely fail me, but this pastel is a mess.

Zoya Edie is a gorgeous blue.  Slightly dusty, maybe a little lighter than a traditional denim color.  I can't get enough of these blues.

This pretty dusty light green is Zoya Alexa.  I feel like this mani is looking like a disservice to Edie and Alexa at this point.  Cole is just ruining it for everyone.  She's such a beatch.

Oh, if I were a poet, I would write an ode to topcoat.  How she smooths away our wrinkles, and blurs our imperfections.

Forget foundation, I'm going to start wearing Seche Vite on my face.  Think it would work? 

Bottle shot:  Zoya Cole, Edie, and Alexa.

Despite her flaws, why does Cole have to be so pretty?  I'll probably wear her again, like I'll try a staining blue just *one* more time, to see if I can make it work. 

Do you have a makeup product that you should just throw away, but you can't for some reason?

An InLinkz Link-up

Saturday Sundae

Hello, Fireflies!

I'm a hoarder. I admit it.  I often have to fight the urge to buy complete collections of polishes from my fave Indie brands.  So, I'm happy that Cult Nails has started putting out these smaller 3-4 polish collections, because then I can buy the whole thing!  They usually have a special pre-order price, too, which lessens the guilt.

I decided to use one of her whole collections in this look.  I started with New Day, a sunny yellow creme.  Of course, it's a yellow creme, so it's going to be a little finicky.  Not too bad, though.

Somehow, I forgot to take pictures of the build up, so I don't have a picture of just Evolution, the lovely peach creme that sucked me into this collection in the first place.  The bright, bubblegum pink creme is Falling Hard.

Someone suggested that because of these sorbet-like colors, and the 'cherry' pearl on top, this looked like an ice-cream sundae.  I have to agree.

Bottle shot:  Cult Nails New Day, Evolution, and Falling Hard.

This is the best kind of sundae - never on your lips, never on your hips, and stays on your tips!

Peace Out!

 Hello, Fireflies!

I'm going to show my ignorance here... I didn't know there was a Peace Day.  Turns out, there's a World Peace Day, and an International Day of Peace.  I'm all about letting my inner hippie out, though, and peace-ing out today.

I've been wanting to try Drew Barrymore's Flower brand for a while, and this lovely came in my Allure Beauty Box! This is Good Bud-dy, a groovy teal blue.

 I wanted a colorful, but distressed look for my background, so I went with the grunge technique, popularized by Chalkboard Nails.  I used Cult Nails New Day (yellow) and Evolution (peach) and Finger Paints Get Real-ism (purple) for the soft, floaty...peaceful.. background.

Doves are the symbol for peace, right? And I happened to get this image on my new set of stamps from Winstonia.  I stamped this with Milani White On The Spot and Winstonia W205.

I also hand-drew a peace sign.  OMG, circles are HARD, y'all.

Glitter, on the other hand, is easy.  China Glaze Fairy Dust gives my doves an ethereal glow...

Does this say "Peace Day" to you?  Or does it just say, "Peace sign, bird, stripey colors, bird, bird, glitter?"

I really like that grunge technique.  So easy - just use an almost dry brush to paint bits of color.

Bottle shot:  Flower Good Bud-dy,  Cult Nails New Day and Evolution, Finger Paints Get Real-ism. Milani White On The Spot, and China Glaze Fairy Dust.

Did you know about Peace Day?  I think I'll celebrate with a cocktail and a hammock, which sounds peaceful to me.  What about you?

An InLinkz Link-up

Stamping Spring Decals

Happy Sunday, Fireflies! It's Stampin' Time!

I started out with a base coat of Cult Nails Evolution, but, I must be slipping in my old age, because I forgot to get a picture of it.

And, it's not the only egregious mistake I made in this post.  Oh, yes, it gets better.

Today's theme is Spring Nails, so I found this really cute stamp with flowers and bees on Dashica Big SdP-M, and thought it might be time to try making my own decals for the first time.

I layered on some topcoat onto a piece of plastic, and when it dried, I stamped the image with Milani White On The Spot over the topcoat.

I bought the stamper that Cult Nails debuted this month, but I haven't been able to stamp successfully with it yet.  I'm so used to my squishy stamper, and this one is so hard.  It's a bummer, too, because the stamping head is red, instead of white, and would have been great to use with this white polish.

When that dried, I painted some yellow bees and pink flowers with Cult Nails New Day and Falling Hard. When that part was dry, I applied some topcoat to my nails and applied the decal.  I also painted an accent with Kelara Lacquer (now defunct) Hooray For Boobies 2.0, a Barbie-pink shimmer.

Notice anything about my thumb decal?  Yep, I noticed there was something weird about it, too, but it wasn't until I was editing this post that I realized what it was.

I put the decal on backwards.

*slow clap* *bow*  Yep, takes special talent to do that.

Bottle shot:  Cult Nails Evolution, New Day, and Falling Hard, Kelara Hooray For Boobies 2.0, and Milani White On The Spot.

Care to share your own bone-head moment in the comments?  It might make me feel better - misery loves company!

Sunday Stamping - Here Comes Pastel Peach Peter Cottontail

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's stamping theme is pastel. I went rooting through my Indies and found this LE from last year -  Dollish Polish Peter Cottontail.  Oh, what a lovely peach! In the bottle.  I think this polish took a cue from China Glaze Love Letters. Visually, they are both the Iocaine powders of the polish world.

I took my trusty Milani White On The Spot and stamped this tribal-esque pattern from my Pueen 10 plate.
 

This is more white than peach - or even clear - not really pastel.  So far, totally bombing this challenge on so many levels.

It's peanut butter jelly time! Well, just jelly sandwich time! I added a few more layers of Peter Cottontail on top of the stamping.

The white brightens up Peter Cottontail, and now it's looking more peach.  I really like the bold print with the pale pastel and the delicate glitters! Almost like a wedding mani.

Bottle shot:  Dollish Polish Peter Cottontail, and Milani White On The Spot.

What do you think about stamping jelly sandwiches?

GOT - Don't Eat The Yellow... Sand?

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's Golden Oldie Thursday challenge is Yellow/Peach. I had several missteps along the way, but I think it came together in the end.

Problem 1.  Peach in the bottle is not always peach on the nail.  China Glaze Love Letters is a gorgeous, jelly peach color in the bottle.  And that's where it stays.  After 3 or 4 layers on the nail, it still looked clear, so I stopped.  You can see it in the half-moon part of the pix below.

Problem 2.  Yellow polishes are almost all universally Teh Suck.  Several more layers of Revlon Sunshine Sparkles, and it's still fairly streaky.  It probably isn't helping that now I have on many layers of polish.

Problem 3.  A sheer orange polish will be changed by the color put on before it.  Revlon Tangerine has a little more yellow to it because of the Sunshine Sparkle behind it. 

Solution 1:  Distraction.  Stripes lead your eye in the direction they go, so instead of focusing so much on the vertical streaking, you're not looking horizontally at the blocks of color.  Also, the stripes break up the color into smaller blocks.  Adding a little bling also helps with distraction.  Look up here! oooh, shiny!

Solution 2:  Topcoat.  Oh, topcoat, how I love thee.  You make everything smoother and shiny.

Bottle shot:  China Glaze Love Letters, Revlon Sunshine Sparkle, Revlon Tangerine, and a white striper.

Oh, and the title?  When I showed my husband this mani, he said, "it looks like sand."  Um, okay, honey.  So, yellow and orange sand it is.  It doesn't look like sand to me.. does it look like sand to you?

An InLinkz Link-up

NYE Pretty Peach Party Nails!

Hello, Fireflies!

It's here, the last day of 2013!

I'm wrapping this year up with a soft, pretty, glittery mani that should work for all occasions.

I started with Lacquer Lust Sweet Georgia Peach.  Unlike my other Lacquer Lusts, this one isn't a holo! Color me surprised.  Peach surprise.  Yum!

Not absolutely in love with the formula, actually.  You can see that I had a little trouble getting a smooth, opaque nail.

I love this new color from Mariah Carey's OPI Holiday collection.  Ski Slope Sweetie is sheer, but with a heavy gold shimmer.  You can be looking at it one way, and not see much at all, and then when the light hits it from a different direction, the shimmer is so opaque, the polish just looks gold!

Darling Diva Polish The Big "O" is chock full of iridescent glitter.  They're not flakies, per se, but they're not mylar shards, either.  They are closer to the awesomeness of flakies, but in a glitter.  I love them, and they look spectacular when they catch the light.

There is something about the iridescent glitter over the gold shimmer over the delicate peach.  It's like I'm riding a unicorn out of 2013! Onward and upward!

Bottle shot:  Lacquer Lust Sweet Georgia Peach, OPI Ski Slope Sweetie, and Darling Diva Polish The Big "O".

How are you bringing in the New Year?  I love to watch the holiday special Rudolph's Shiny New Year every NYE! 

I wish all my Fireflies a wonderful and happy New Year! Thanks for being with me this year on my journey!