Sunday Stamping - Lilacky-Backy!

This week's Adventures in Stamping challenge is:  over a lilac base.  My biggest challenge was deciding which lilac to use! Luckily for me, I had just gotten some nail mail, and my selection from Barielle's last sale finally arrived!  This is Lilac Jelly Bean.

Ok, I don't know *anyone* who thinks that a lilac-flavored jellybean is actually a good idea, mind you.  Now, *lavender* I've tried, and it makes a good ice cream, but I don't know about lilac.  That's, well, that's just weird.  But so beautiful, and the formula is pretty good, too.

I used a polish I got in a swap - a brand I've never heard of before.  Joie' Kollection Metailic Burgendy.  I triple-checked the spelling on the label.  I used a weirdly-spelled plate, too - Pueen 14.
 

I thought the stamp looked like the ornamental top of a building, like the Taj Mahal.  For stamps like this, I wish my nails were longer!

In the pix, it just looks a little blurry, but this stamping polish had the prettiest pink shimmer that just glowed with the topcoat.  Pretty cool effect in Real Life, even if it makes me look a drunk photographer for my blog.

I love a polish with a surprise like that.  Do you have any polishes that just took on a different characteristic when you used topcoat, or layered them, and you were pleasantly surprised?

Adventures in Stamping - French Tip

Happy Sunday!  Today is a special day in the Lit From Within house, because 17 years ago today, Mr. Lit From Within and I got hitched.  I should have a hearts and flowers mani or something for today... but I created this mani a few days ago and forgot it would be going live on our anniversary.  Sorry honey!

I started with Brown Sparkles from Barielle.

No need to adjust your screen, and no, I didn't upload the wrong picture.  Why this is called Brown Sparkles, I do not know.  It is maybe a teeny bit on the champagne side, even though it looks silver here.  There are some sparkles, but it really just looks like a foil finish to me.

I tried to get it to sparkle... It's a pretty color, but not very exciting, and nothing like its name!

I decided to use China Glaze Midtown Magic and my new Cheeky plates (CH52) spiral/wave stamp for the tip.  Some of the new Cheeky full-nail stamps also have a curved edge, so you can use them for tips or even half-moon manis, which is very clever, indeed!

I did freehand a line at the top of the stamp just to give it more definition.  I don't do a lot of French tips because my nails are short and my nail beds are small, and a tip tends to make my nails look even smaller, but I think it looks okay with this type of tip because it's more open with the filigree.

 Do you like a French or Funky French tip?  Do you freehand, use guides, or stamp?

Pin it Thursday - sappy cute

Pinterest does funny things... I usually wouldn't pick out a nail design like this, but after seeing it pinned many times, I thought, well, a lot of people like this!  Maybe I should try it!

I am such a follower.

I started with Barielle Provocative.  Which is anything but.  Classic, maybe.  A sheer nude/pink, a color I have 20 of in my collection. 

 I think this is the best freehand white tip I've ever done.  This is Milani White on the Spot. 

And now, for the cutesy, sappy part.  HEARTS!  These I did freehand with Orly Ruby.

I couldn't believe my hubby actually liked this and wants me to wear it again, maybe for Valentines' Day.  He's such a romantic.

Did you pin a mani today? 

Starry, Blackened Bleu Night

When I look at this mani, I hear Josh Groban in my head, singing, Starry Starry Night.

I started with Barielle Blackened Bleu.  I wanted to show you what one coat looked like - weird, streaky, grey with a little bit of sparkle.

But, then look at what one more coat does.  Amazing!  Beautiful.

I added Sally Hansen Rock Candy for a little extra sparkle, but it didn't do much.  One of those polishes that looks better in the bottle than on the nail.

 Sally Hansen White Tip and a silver Nail Art Striper were used to make the stars.

Maybe I'll graduate to galaxy nails one day....

Leftovers are better the next day...

For some reason, these swatches didn't make it into earlier posts...  so now you get a swatchfest!

I had such lemmings for this color, and eventually found a buy one get one 50% off sale at a salon, so it was MINE MINE MINE.  This is OPI Thanks a Windmillion, a dusty light green from the Holland collection. Like most OPI colors, it applied nicely, was opaque in 2 coats, and look at that shine.  No topcoat here.  My hands do look a little red.. hmm.. maybe I was clutching the bottle too tightly? ;)

I picked up this Revlon in a swap at the CFL Beauty Bloggers' meeting.  I have slowly been collecting more yellows.  I used it as a base for nail art, so I used 2 coats, but it could have used three.. or maybe 4.  Like most yellows, it is a little streaky, but I love the shimmer that gives it it's name:  Sunshine Sparkle.

This is Barielle Falling Star.  I'd never seen a blue with copper glitter in it before!  It's beautiful, and I just couldn't cover it with nail art, so I wore it by itself.  Barielle makes great polishes.

This is CQ Twinkle, a lovely silver shimmer (It doesn't appear to be a foil or metallic), with Chameleon Cyclone over it on the accent nails.  Chameleon is an iridescent polish, very very sheer on its own, but is great as a layering polish to change the color of whatever you put it over.  Can't wait to try it over black!

Next up is China Glaze Rainstorm.  This is a jelly blue with shimmer.  It's very, very sheer - I think this was 2 and a half coats and you can still see VNL.  I was using it as a base for nail art, so I wasn't worried about it being sheer, but if you were going to use it alone, you'd need at least 3 coats.

I picked up a few polishes from indie polish Not Too Polished.  This is Peach Blossom, with an accent of Color Club Turn the Other Chic, an orange layering glitter.  I wasn't too excited about Peach Blossom on the nail - it was a little goopy and hard to work with.  I am still looking for the elusive perfect creamsicle color...

Can you hear the beat?  The Electric Beat, from China Glaze.  This is one of my fave blues/periwinkle colors.  It's more blue than Secret Peri-wink-le.  I love this color!

Hope you enjoyed this totally random collection of colors!

Bright Pinky dotticure

I am a shameless nail copycat.  I look at other designs and colors for inspiration all the time.  This time, I got my inspiration from the bag of goodies from our May meetup of the Central Florida Beauty Bloggers.

The base polish is from Milani, a bright Barbie pink called U Pinky Swear.  I did have a little trouble with the application on my left hand, but none on my right.  So what you're seeing here may be the result of not waiting until my base coat was completely dry.  Everything smoothed out later, with topcoat.  This is two coats, no topcoat, yet.

For the dots, I wanted something equally bright that could compete with the Milani.  Barielle End of the Rainbow is an iridescent peacock blue/green, and Chick All A Twitter is a baby blue.  These worked really well for dotting.  The Barielle was opaque enough to work as both an outline and the interior, as was the Chick polish.  As you can see, I alternated the colors.

I think the Chick polish may be the best polish I've ever used for dotting.  It had the BEST texture.  It spread perfectly and effortlessly, didn't dry out on my palette until I was done, and was perfectly opaque, even though it is a light, pastel color.  I can't wait to use it again.

 Right hand, sealed with Seche Vite topcoat:

Barielle is hosting a BFF Sweepstakes on their  Facebook page. The contest starts May 21,2012 and ends June 30,2012.  The prize includes Barielle’s Nail Strengthener Cream, Barielle Base Coat, Top Coat and 3 colors of your choice-a retail value of up to $74.50.

The Milani, Chick and Barielle polishes were provided to me for review (though I had already purchased my own bottle of Barielle End of the Rainbow.)  Nonetheless, the opinions presented are my own, and as unbiased as possible.

http://www.barielle.com/
http://www.chicknailpolish.com/ (coupon code: CHICK20 for 20% off)
http://www.milanicosmetics.com/