Green Tea Ice Cream

It's the last day of July, and the last of the Step Into Summer Hobby Polish Bloggers challenge!  Our theme was ice cream.  I thought I'd end up doing one of those ice cream cone manis, but then, I didn't.

I did my fave ice cream instead - green tea!

This is LynBDesigns Green Tea With Lemon, a metallic green polish with a yellow shimmer. 

I loved the color, but I've never seen ice cream with a metallic finish, so I added a matte topcoat to try and tone that down.  I thought it looked great!

Around here, it's hard to find Green Tea ice cream in the stores, but sometimes I can find it at Chinese Buffets.  And everything is served on those plain white dishes, so I served my Green Tea Ice Cream mani with a plain white tip.

Can you imagine a big scoop of Green Tea ice cream in a white bowl?  Yum!

Bottle shot:  LynBDesigns Green Tea With Lemon, Warpaint Beauty Matte topcoat, and Sally Hansen White Tip.

What's your fave flavor of ice cream? I also have a real thing for Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia FroYo. Om nom nom.

Naked Heart

Hello, Fireflies!

I have a glowy polish that made me glow when I got it.  Like most everyone else, I missed the Enchanted surprise listing of In The Nude, but I managed to find someone who wanted to trade with me.

This really is a true nude on me - it's pale! I've seen some comparisons with EP Afternoon Delight, and they look pretty similar.  This one is a tad bit lighter, and the shimmer is blue instead of pink.

I saw this nifty idea on Pinterest from The Crafty Ninja for adding a black tip and heart.  She used tape for cleaner lines, and in retrospect, maybe I should have, too.  But, I was lazy.

I love this look, though!  It was advertised as a Valentines' Day mani, but I think this could be worn year-round.  I may try it with just hearts on the accent nails, too.

I love nude and black polish together.  And a chevron is always flattering on the nubbins.

Bottle shot:  Enchanted Polish In The Nude, Black nail art striper, and OPI Black Onyx.

Do you also like using nude and black polishes together?  Are you a fan of the nude holo?

EcoPolo - Summer Sky

Images of a summer sky... you're probably thinking blue skies, white, fluffy clouds... so, maybe this shimmery blue Peace Camp from Pretty & Polished is a perfect summer sky blue..

Sometimes, these heavier shimmer polishes can hide the bigger glitters, but this one does a pretty good job of letting you see all the nice colors in it.

I live in Florida, and our summer skies are often punctuated by torrential thunderstorms.  So, I painted one rolling in, with lots of our famous Florida lightning.

I mixed up SOPI Frankly, I Don't Give Adam, Dark Room, and I Don't Bite to get the murky sky, and drew in the lightning with a white striper.

Bottle shot:  Pretty & Polished Peace Camp, and SOPI Frankly, I Don't Give Adam, I Don't Bite, and Dark Room, with a white nail art striper.

What do the summer skies look like where you live?

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?

It's Polka time!

Roll out the barrel, we'll have a barrel of fun....

Oh, wrong Polka.

I have a couple of Maybelline Polka Dots polishes to show you.  I love that the mainstreams are taking some cues from Indies and doing some interesting glitters!

This is Drops of Jade.

This one had a little trouble getting started - my pinky doesn't have enough glitter on it - but then the glitter went into overdrive.  I don't know why that happened, and I didn't notice it until I looked at these super close up pix.  Love the color!

Blue Marks the Spot was a little thinner, and the proportion of base color to glitter was a little off.

I tried building my thumb up to opacity, and I just got a clumpy glitter mess.  If you don't want just a sheer wash of blue, undies are a necessity.  Kind of a bummer, though, because this should be an all-in-one polish.  That shade of blue is so pretty, I don't want to alter it with undies. 

For about $3.50, these are a nice low-cost alternative to some of the Indies, but I don't think they are quite as good as some of the more established Indies.  The base color is a little too sheer, and the glitter proportion is a little heavy, though I love the simplicity of the black and white glitter in different sizes.

Nice for a first try, Maybelline!  Pump up that color.

One-stroke pinkish-purple flowers

I had fun, but really stretched myself with all the challenges this month!  Which, I suppose, was the point.  My last flower NCC challenge mani starts with a palate cleanser, Models Own Utopia.

What a peaceful, serene, delicate color.  Made even prettier by a new-to-me Indie, Sweetheart Polish.  This is She's So Flakey, a blush-pink jelly base with pink and green flakies.

I encourage you to go check out Yummy Nails' video that inspired these one-stroke flowers.  Mostly because she is awesome and my flowers look a hot mess, especially compared to hers.  Mine are more like 'she-had-a-stroke' flowers.  But I keep practicing!

I used Nabi Purple Hologram for the inside of the flower, and Cover Girl Outlast Vio-last for the outside, and then added some detail with a black nail art striper.   A magenta half-pearl went in the center of each flower.

I really like that bit of purple holo sparkle in the flowers.  

Bottle shot:  Models Own Utopia, SweetHeart Polish She's So Flakey, Nabi Hologram Purple, Covergirl Outlast Vio-last, and black nail art striper.

Have you tried the one-stroke technique yet?  I suspect it would be easier with acrylic paints, but I like the effect with polish, too.  

If you'd like more info about Sweet Heart Polish, you can find her on Facebook and her Etsy store.

I'ma NERD

I don't know if some of the NerdLacquer fervor has died down now with this last big restock, or if it just fueled the fire.  I haven't seen as many going for $50+ like before.

I managed to score one of my biggest lemmings, from the Monty Python collex:  It's Just A Flesh Wound.

It would be opaque on its own, but I did layer it over a coat of black.  Can't remember which one now, but likely OPI Black Onyx.  I love the black and silver and the occasional copper fleck, but especially the glowing red glitters.

This is two lemmings in one!  It's a two-fer!  What a bargain.

I could NOT find Sinful Colors Pistache anywhere.  I love a nice pistachio creme.  Luckily, a polish buddy had one and decided it should be mine.  Yay!

I thought it would make a great base for one of those upside-down glitter gradients with the beautiful, but awkwardly named TDBSLWCHSHITD.  It's a Lord of the Rings thang, and stands for 'The Dwarf breathes so loudly, we could have shot him in the dark,'

A little factoid that surprised me is that the actor that plays the dwarf is actually really tall, like over 6 feet tall.  His body double is a dwarf, though.

I think I would have liked this better as a full-nail mani, rather than trying to blend it with Pistache.  I feel shorted on the glitter goodness.

NerdLacquer is harder to come by, but she does have a Google+ page, and has restocks on Ninja Polish and her own webstore. Facebook groups or blog sales are a good place to find them.

Guest Post on Nail Glaze!

I don't know how this fell through the cracks, but I did a guest post over at Nail Glaze, and I would love for y'all to check it out!  I did a bright, summery glitter/dotticure mani for her blog that I loved.

While you're there, please check out her blog and Facebook page, if you'd like, and share the love.. or likes..

Summer Challenge Gradient - Nabi Holos

This is the penultimate post of the Step Into Summer challenge!  I love the word, "penultimate".  It's a fancy way of saying, "next-to-last". 

And, speaking of fancy, I used holos for my gradient challenge.  Dem holos is fancee.

The base I used is called, "Pefite Teal" by Nabi.  I looked many times, studied the label.  Yes, Pefite.  I don't know what that means.  Maybe it was supposed to be "petite."  Maybe it's in reference to a place in Africa called, "Pefite."

It doesn't look teal to me, either.  The whole label is a LIE. (/the cake is a lie)

This gradient is no lie, though!  I used Nabi Ocean Blue in the middle, and Nabi Navy Blue for the tips. 

I kinda suck at the whole 'seamless' gradient thing, and the nice thing about holos is that their texture gives you a hand with that.  I basically just painted the three stripes and then did a little sponging to blend.  I would have liked it to be a smoother gradient, but I just haven't gotten there yet.

Here's the bottle shot:  Nabi Pefite Teal, Ocean Blue, and Navy Blue.

I found these Nabis on Ebay.  They were fairly inexpensive, and the holo isn't very strong, but they were easy to use, and I like the colors.  What do you think of these Nabi holos?

Giveaway with Wishes of A Blue-Eyed Girl!

Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl is having a giveaway to celebrate her 1-year blogging anniversary!  I've donated a prize pack of pink polishes (love the alliteration) and I would love for one of y'all (yes, I say, "y'all," even in Real Life) to win!

Scroll down to read her post and enter the Rafflecopter at the end.  Some prizes are US only, some are International, and there's even one for IG!

************** Here's Julie!

Oh, no! What did I do to that holo?!

Hello, Fireflies!

It's a good thing I'm not a perfectionist, or I'd never post anything.  Today, I have a couple of manis that were aspiring to perfection, but overshot and went up in flames.

Ironically, the first polish is from a brand called, "Perfect".  This is the perfectly named, "H3".  It looks like an H3, doesn't it?

This is one of those holos that would have performed better with an aqua base coat.  Took me three coats to even out the patches, and the formula was finicky.  But, the end result is awesome.  Very bright, clear linear holo.  Almost blinding.

And. then, I wasted all that hard work.  Pffft.

I thought, 'ooh, dark green would look great with pink.'  Not thinking that dark green would stamp as  muddy black.  It just looks like my printer ran out of ink.

Look at this gorgeous cornflower blue holo, Liquid Lacquer When the Levee Breaks. 

It's so delicate.  I love how the rainbow reflects yellow and purple and pink.

And then, the Levee broke and made a dam(n) mess.

One of my recent fave blues (and a great pedi color) is OPI I Saw..U Saw.. We Saw.. Warsaw.  Beautiful blue.  Does not stamp, at least for me. Looks like a weird Rorschach test.

If it weren't so tragic for these gorgeous holos, it would be funny.  Oh, heck, it is funny.  Celebrate your screwy manis, we all have them, and if we're lucky, we learn something from them.  If you have a screwy mani you'd like to share, post it on my Facebook wall! I'd love to see them.