I'm guest posting at Imperfectly Painted!

I'm guest posting for Steph at Imperfectly Painted!  Woot!

Check her page out ***HERE*** to see the completed mani.  Here's a few pix I took leading up to the final mani:

2 coats of Revlon Buttercup.  It's yellow.  I like yellow, and this has some of the problems pastel yellows have.  I thought this was pretty good coverage for 2 coats, though.  And it's just the prettiest buttercup pale yellow.

Oops, forgot to take a pix after the sponging, but before the flowers.  A little sponging of China Glaze Metallic Muse and Orly Ingenue, and the background of my daisies.  I wanted the flowers to pop, so white is essential for that. 

Go see how I finished it on Imperfectly Painted. :)  And check out the rest of her blog, because she's a really nice person and runs a sweet blog.

If you want to swap blogs for a day, let me know! 

Delicate flower

This was my version of a 'palette cleanser' mani.  Something light, sweet, and feminine.

I started with Jessica Born 2 Pansy, a sheer pink with a blue shimmer.  I put on 3 coats, and still had VNL, but I knew I'd be using some art, so I stopped there.  My ring finger got 2 coats of Color Club Hydrangea Kiss, and because I suspected B2P would make a good layering polish, it went on top.

See that blue shimmer?  It even pops over the blue polish.

The flowers and petals are painted free hand with Sally Hansen White tip, and each flower is colored in with some of the Hydrangea Kiss and a few dots of Pure Ice Black Rage.

Right hand:

As Shania would say, "Man.  I feel like a woman."

Homemade Holo

Who doesn't love a sweet holographic polish?

New, from Girly Bits, the ability to turn any polish into a holo!  And it won't even cost you $19.95!

But wait, there's more!

Actually, no.  All it does is put a linear holographic topcoat on your polish. But that's enough!

I started with Essie's Bikini so Teeny.  I forgot to take a pix, so here's an older pix.  BST is on my thumb.

When I tried this mani, it had been raining for about a week straight in Daytona.  I saw a little patch of sunshine and ran outside with the camera... and then shade.

Are you kidding? Really?  Come on!  So, I am one of those bloggers that complains about not having sunshine for holos.  I can hear the world's smallest violin playing, 'My heart bleeds for You."

Pix Spam!

I found that 2 coats of Hocus Pocus gave me the best results.  I thought it would make me stop wanting to buy every other holo... but no.  I still love the other holos.  Do you want to DIY holo?

Decal dupe freehand

I am a blatant copycat, and today's mani was inspired by this one from Not Another Bottle of Polish.  She had on some troublesome decals, and since I didn't have them, I thought I would freehand a similar pattern.

I started with the gorgeous OPI DS Classic, a nude scattered holo.

I used a striping brush and three polishes:  Jessica Movie Premiere for the sky blue, Ulta Wild Night for the navy blue, and Sephora for OPI  On Stage for the taupe.  I wish I had thought to outline the shape in black first, like the decals, but I didn't.  Hubby said he liked mine better, anyhow, but he's kinda supposed to.  ;)

Right hand, I attempted the same pattern:

 I wanted to try it with a matte finish.  I love glitter matted.  Which do you like better?

Have you tried to replicate a decal with freehand art?  I'm not an artist, but it's fun to try.

Idyllic Aboriginal Inspiration

I had been lemming CQ Idyllic (and a few others) ever since I saw a swatch of it online.

It's a gorgeous multichrome - purple, bronze, green, brown.  I love these colors that evoke a warm hearth to me.

I saw this dotticure on Lucy's Stash based on an Aboriginal pattern, and I loved it. I didn't want to cover all of Idyllic, so I used it as an accent.  The whitish dots are Color Club Oh La La, and the brown dots are Color Club With Abandon.  I had a really hard time finding the right brown to match Idyllic, and I still wasn't 100% happy with this choice - maybe I should have used a tan color

On my right hand, I tried it with Essie Matte About You on the accent nails.  There's something beautiful about a shimmery polish when it's mattified - look at that glow from underneath the dots.  In the end, though, I preferred the glossy look with Seche Vite.

Which do you like? Matte or glossy?  Would you mattify the whole manicure?

Speak up, I can't see you!

I kinda like entering contests.  They make me do things I wouldn't necessarily think of doing!  This contest entry was for Jilltastic Designs outrageous mani contest.  You had to enter a design that was outrageous or made a statement.

ETA:  I won second place!!  Check out the contest winners here.

The only outrageous element of my mani was this crazy color.  A few years ago, I would have never thought to buy a color like this.  Kinda gave me lobster hands, too.   This is Deborah Lippman Almost Paradise.  Ok, two outrageous things - why would anyone pair that color with that name?  Someone has been sniffing too much polish.

My statement?  Quit making blog fonts so damn tiny!  I'm old, I can't read that tiny crap.  And I don't feel like zooming in for each blog that does this.  I already have my font enlarged on my screen so I can read everything else.  Anything under 12 pt is unacceptable, people!

(Thumb - glasses, index - ?Can you Read this?, middle - magnifying glass, ring - disappearing dots, pinky - squinty eyed person.)

What's your statement? 

Essie - no dupes in my drawer!

I am the person whom the advertisers love.  I am the one who reads these blogs that say - forget all the other blues you have, THIS is the one you need.  And I say, yes, yes, I DO need that particular blue.

So, I bought two new Essie shades:  Bikini so teeny and Mojito madness.  Both colors were touted as THE new shade, and I believed that..sorta.  I knew I had to look in my extensive collection to see if I had any dupes.

So I picked the closest 4 bottles of light blue I had, and swatched.

Essie bikini so teeny, China Glaze Electric Beat, China Glaze Secret Peri-winkle, Zoya Jo, and Jessica Movie Premier.  I thought for sure Electric Beat, and maybe Kinetic Candy, or DL Let's Hear it for the Boy would be close.  Kinetic Candy and the DL didn't even merit a swatch they were so different.

I don't think any of them are alike.  Electric Beat and Movie Premiere are similar (the Jessica was ONE coat, can you believe it?  All the others were two)  Jo is much darker on my nail than it was in the bottle.  So I can breathe a sigh of relief - no dupes for the beautiful Bikini so Teeny.

Next, the greens.  Again, I picked the 4 closest greens I had.  Essie Mojito Madness, China Glaze Gaga for Green, Revlon Bonsai, OPI Don't Mess With OPI, and Sinful Colors Exotic Green.

Ok, I just realized that because this is my right hand, the swatches are all backwards from the lineup.  DERP.  Thumb is Mojito Madness, index - ChG Gaga for Green, middle - Revlon Bonsai, ring -  OPI Don't Mess with OPI, and the pinky is SC Exotic Green.

Gaga for green looks close in the pix, but it's visibly different in RL.  GFG is a much sheerer polish that took 3 coats for opacity, and is a little more yellow.  OPI DMWOPI was the closest in the bottle, but is the most different on the nail! This is why I don't trust bottle comparisons.

Again, nothing close in my stash.  Good thing, because I really do like that Essie.

With 10 different colors on 10 different nails, I knew I'd be re-doing my mani, so might as well test a couple of glitters!  On the Essie BST, I layered Revlon Radiant (said to be a DL dupe.)  Very pretty, nice coverage - I could have added another layer for full opacity, but I liked it with the underwear showing.  I'm liking the flashes of green glitter, too.

And, finally, a layer of Sinful Colors Call You Later over Essie MM.  Not sure I would pair these together again, but I do like that flash of gold in that glitter.

So, does anyone know of a dupe for either of these Essie colors, or are they truly unique?  Have you worn them with a glitter topcoat that you liked?

I stamped! Is it Sunday?

On principle, I refuse to buy the Konad Special Polish.  So, stubbornly, I buy different white polishes to see what works and what doesn't.  Well, I read on a blog that Finger Paints Paper Mache' was good for stamping, so it was time to try it out.

I started with 2 coats of OPI Call me Gwen-ever. Sigh.  I really wanted to love this - I loved all the swatches, accepted that it wasn't a color even remotely associated with Spiderman, and Gwen Stacy isn't even a redhead or strawberry blond, so that doesn't even make sense. This color just wouldn't work for me.  It's actually more pink/coral in RL, but my camera wanted it to be orange.  2 coats, and still had VNL, and it took a long time to dry. 

Next, a stamp with the Finger Paints.  WOW.  A white that actually stamps WHITE.  If you like stamping and you don't have this color, you should get it now.  It's actually on sale this month at Sally Beauty, too.

I wanted to add a little more color, so I dabbed on some Sally Hansen Insta-dry in Lightning and Chasing Chartreuse.  Next time, I'll add the green stems before the stamp, I think.

Right hand... but remember how I said this OPI took a long time to dry?  Yeah, I totally screwed up my thumb beyond repair, and I knew I was just going to take this off, so I didn't bother to fix it.  So no photograph for you, thumb.

 I kinda like this, but I just wasn't feeling it.  Not an epic fail, but definitely not a win.

Catch a Shooting Star

This gorgeous shimmery purple goodness is SpaRitual Shooting Star.  It's almost duochrome-y in that you can see blue and pink in the shimmer, but it's mostly berry and purple.  It has a great formula and that rubber grip cap that is so nice. 

 I think you need another picture of that shimmer.

I thought I'd add some random stripey things in different colors.  I started with a Nail Art striper in Frosty Pink.  It went on really sheer and didn't really look darker until much later.  I wish I'd gone a little thinner and lighter with the stripes.  I'll know next time that it changes over time.

Next, I took another Nail Art striper in White and did a similar pattern next to the pink

This Nail Art striper is called Urban Legend.  It's a magenta-purple color.  I put it mostly over the white to help it pop.

And then, I low-lighted the pattern with some black for contrast.

 
Finished with Seche Vite topcoat, and there you go.

Right hand:

The sales clerk at Ulta gave me a nice compliment, and said I should charge to do nails!  I don't think I'm there yet.  If I screw up my own nails, I keep acetone at the ready, and no one gets hurt or angry!  If you like it, I hope you'll try this and tell me how it went.

Plan B is usually Glitter!

I found a few of these Cutie Girl polishes at the Dollar Tree.  I couldn't find anything about them online, but, hey, it's a dollar.  So they came home with me.  I like this purple.  It's a little sheer and slightly frosty, but that's ok.  There are 2 coats in these pix, but if I were wearing it without the glitter, I would have used three.

 

When I was trying to find a good underwear for Girly Bits Street Magic, this was my first attempt. It didn't work at all - all I could see was a small smattering of holo glitter, but not that much, and no color change. So, rather than take it all off, I decided to find something else to do with it.

Ok, I'm coming around to glitter.  I never really liked it before - seemed like too much of a hassle, especially for someone like me who changes polish every day.  But the Target polish remover dip-it with acetone has changed that for me - it's so easy to remove glitter with that thing - and the plastic bristles don't get gooped up like the old sponge inserts did.  I added a little Zoya Remove franken (acetone + glycerine + water) to it, and I don't even get the white hands anymore.

This is Sinful Colors Frenzy,  purple/teal glitter.  This was 2 coats-ish, maybe a little dabbing.  I didn't want it to be completely opaque.  I actually like a little polish showing through around the cuticle.  I'm so fashion-forward, y'all.

I've only recently discovered Sinful Colors, but I'm a convert.  You really do get a lot of bang for your buck at $1.99 a bottle.  Watch for the occasional half-price sale, and it's even better.

Wanna see something even cooler?  Mattify!

I'm sure there is a scientific explanation for why this looks so neat, but it just does.  MOAR glitter, please.  What's your fave glitter?  Matted?

Stroke me, stroke me

I learned a new trick today!

Good girl!

Ok, spending too much time with the dogs...  I practiced one-stroke flowers today.  And I got a little carried away.  I liked them so much, I decided to do a RAINBOW of one-stroke flowers.

I started with purple.  Base:  CQ Twilight & Chameleon Cyclone.  Flowers:  I think that's Color Club Electronica and Sally Hansen White Tip

Right hand:  more like one-stroke blobs.  I'm learning...

Blue!  My fave.  Base:  China Glaze Rainstorm.  Flowers: Kleancolor Neon Sapphire and China Glaze Kinetic Candy

 Right hand blobbish:

Green/Gold:  base: OPI Thanks a Windmillion, Flowers: OPI Jade is the New Black and China Glaze Gaga for Green.  Dots were Orly It's Not Rocket Science & Sally Hansen Hue

Right hand, looking more like flowers, hey!

Sparkly Hue.

Red/Pink.  Or, Red, and Light Red.  Base: Sinful Colors You Just Wait and Glass Pink.  Flowers:  Orly Red Flare and a no-name pink creme from Ross.  Leaves:  OPI Jade is the New Black and Thanks a Windmillion.

 Orange/Yellow:  Base: Revlon Sunshine Sparkle.  Flowers:  Bettina Sherbet & Revlon Sorbet

 

So, are you ready to try some one-stroke flowers?  Stroking is fun!