Sunday Stamping - Happy Easter Egg Hunt

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's nail art combines my Sunday Stamping Easter challenge with my Spring Renewal Freestyle challenge.  I decided to take you on an Easter Egg Hunt!

I started with Liquid Sky Lacquer Autumn Thyme, a gorgeous light sage green holo.  I love her holos, but they do take a little longer to dry, and I always ding my nails up, because I am a major clutz.

I used Shany18 and Finger Paints Go Van Gogh! to create a foliage pattern in which to "hide" my eggs. 

I kinda like it just like this! But, it's not very Easter-y.

I used Revlon Spirit with Shany08 and Winstonia W105 to stamp a cute little (and apparently, transparent) chick, and some eggs.

I found these pretty cool nail art pens on clearance at Target - I think they're one of those 'As Seen On TV' products.  They're Hot Designs double-sided nail art pens.  They have both a brush applicator, and a thin tip that you can squeeze the polish through.  Technically, you can refill them, too, though I haven't tried.  I used the thin tip side to color my Easter Eggs.  Some of the pens were harder to squeeze than others, but they were fairly easy to use.

This is one of those, "I wish my nails were bigger" moments.  The eggs aren't really so much hiding, are they? More like, I could barely fit these on my nails, and in some cases, I didn't.

Bottle shot:  Liquid Sky Lacquer Autumn Thyme, Finger Paints Go Van Gogh!, Revlon Spirit, and the hot designs nail art pens.

I wish you a happy Spring renewal, however you celebrate it!

An InLinkz Link-up

Sunday Stamping - Undah Da Sea

Hello, Fireflies!

It's time again for Sunday, Sunday, Sunday Stamping! Today, we'll be *blub* *blub* under water!  My version of water starts with Nina Ultra Pro Twinkle, Twinkle.  I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a textured polish or a rough glitter.  I was actually glad to have it a little textured, because I felt that would add to the 'under water' effect. 

You believed that, right? Good.

I found this cute image on my stamping plate DRK-C, and used Finger Paints Silver Sculpture (a lilac-leaning silver) for the stamping.  Totally adorable, right? I only wish my nails were big enough for the whole stamp.  

I used different parts of the stamp on different fingers, and then I decided to create a backwards 'decal' look by painting in some of the fish 'n things. 

I love how colorful it turned out, like a kids' toy aquarium!

I used a lot of different polishes while painting this scene.  Bottle shot:  Nina Ultra Pro Twinkle Twinkle, Finger Paints Silver Sculpture, Revlon Spirit, Nabi Gold, Liquid Sky Lacquer Marisa Lander's Dancing Flames, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer 2014, Cover Girl Silver Lining, and Born Pretty Holo #3.

What would you like to see under the sea?

Frosted Spice Cake #FallingForNailArt

Hi, Fireflies!

There's a chill in the air - even here in Florida today!  There's a nice cool breeze, dropping the temps into ... the 70s... still, you'll see people walking around in parkas and boots like it's 40-below!  Ah, wacky Floridians.

It's nice to take the chill off with a hot tea or cider and a warm piece of spice cake.  And that's what Liquid Sky Lacquer Spice Cake reminds me of.  It's not so brown to be chocolatey, not so light to be like tea.  It's just like spice cake.

What's cake without a little frosting?  These MatteFX flakies from Orly are different!  Matte, soft pink iridescent flakies are like a sweet glaze.

Such a subtle detail, but so cool.  I love flakies!

Matte flakies for you, or only the glossy ones?

Spiced Up Spice Drops #FallingForNailArt

Hello, Fireflies!

For this 'spiced up' challenge, I actually took inspiration from my husband!  When I showed him these textured polishes, he thought they looked like the spicy gumdrops that he really enjoys.  And so, the Spice drop mani was born.

Only the polish on the thumb is a traditional glitter, from Liquid Sky Lacquer, Hot Rod Red.  The rest are textured polishes from either the NOPI Gumdrops collex, or the Zoya Pixie Dust collex.

I can't pick a favorite! Cinna-man of my dreams is pretty unique, and I love the color.  Arabella is so vibrant! All the textures applied wonderfully, and they all had a sparkle to them.

Bottle shot:  Liquid Sky Lacquer Hot Rod Red, NOPI Cinna-man of my Dreams, NOPI My Cherry Amour, Zoya Miranda, and Zoya Arabella.

I am still loving the texture trend - with or without topcoat! Are you?

Harvest Time #FallingForNailArt

Hello, Fireflies!

It's harvest time! So, it got me thinking about food.  Which got me thinking about pie.  Pumpkin Pie.  Liquid Sky Lacquer Pumpkin Pie, to be precise.  It's that perfect 'cooked pumpkin' shade of orange holo.

I was watching a Robin Moses video where she demonstrated some 'old school' nail art - stuff she did back in the '80's.  I wore nail polish then, but I wasn't into nail art.  I was really only allowed to wear champagne and frosted pink, back then - maybe a red for a special day.  Black was for the 'bad kids.'  Oh, how times have changed.

I used Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics ISherwood and Above the Curve Let's Tan-GO for old-school stripes that reminded me of waves of grain.

All the oranges, yellows, and browns are perfect colors for fall.  These stripes also make me think of hay, maybe stuffing a scarecrow!

The magic that is topcoat smooths everything out.

Bottle shot:  Liquid Sky Lacquer Pumpkin Pie, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics ISherwood, and Above the Curve Let's Tan-GO

Ready to rock some old-school nail art?

Red hot Red!

Hi Fireflies!

"Sometimes, I like to dance around my living room in my underwear.  Doesn't make me Madonna.  Never will."  - one of my favorite lines from the movie Working Girl.

Sometimes, I like to put on red nail polish and be a hot tamale.  I may or may not dance around in my underwear.  If I were to, though, I might wear Cirque Vesuvius, because it is a red-hot holo.

Red is the hardest color to make holo - it's either too pink or too grey.  This one is really close to a true red. 

I wanted to amp up the red a little, and also the sparkle, so I did a gradient with Liquid Sky Lacquer in Hot Rod Red.  I love how it darkened the tips and added a little glitter.

Bottle shot:  Cirque Vesuvius, and Liquid Sky Lacquer Hot Rod Red

If you were going to dance around in your underwear and pretend you were Madonna, what nail color would you wear?

PurpleNOTpurple?

Hello, Fireflies!

Today, I want to show you Liquid Sky Lacquer Iris Illusion, a gorgeous purple holo... wait.

What happened?  It was purple when I got it out.  The top of the bottle is purple.  Now, the bottle is all blue and it's really looking very blue on my nail.

OMG.  I bought a thermal polish and I didn't even realize.  I thought I was going a little crazy, y'all. I had to look up other bloggers' swatches to see what was going on! Duh.

I bought these gorgeous rhinestones from Cult Nails at The Makeup Show, and I thought they'd look great with this polish.  I know they're a little big for my nubs, but I don't even care.  They are so pretty and sparkly.  And, because Iris Illusion is a thermal, it takes a little longer than normal to dry, which meant I had plenty of time to set these stones.

Had I known it was a thermal polish, I could have shown you that these stones would look awesome with a purple holo, too!  Well, live and learn - and have a little fun!

Back to School! Pencils and Pandas

Hello, Fireflies!

I'm going to pretend that I'm not doing these out of order, and while my Summer Love mani is finished, I wanted to bump this mani up to today because public school in my county starts today!  I don't have kids, but the collective cheering of all the moms is deafening.

Hobby Polish Bloggers - Inspired by a Theme Park Ride

Hello, Fireflies!

Today's challenge is to be inspired by a theme park/ride.  My fave ride EVER is the Spiderman ride at Universal Studios Orlando.  It's so awesome, I'll ride it multiple times in a row.  It's so awesome that one time I rode it some of the projectors were broken, and we got to see a little bit of how the magic worked.  And I still loved it.

I started out with the top half of my nails painted with Liquid Sky Lacquer Tripindicular, a red holo, and the lower half with Born Pretty Holo #8, a blue holo.

Then, I got out my stamping stuff....

...and stamped some bugs? Well, they're definitely not spiders because they only have 6 legs, not 8.  Dammit.

At least the webs I drew on let you know it's supposed to be spiders, right?

Bottle shot  Liquid Sky Lacquers Tripindicular, Born Pretty Holo #8, and stripers in black and silver glitter.

You knew it was supposed to be Spiderman anyway, didn't you?  It's the thought that counts...

If you'd like more information about Liquid Sky Lacquer, you can find them on Facebook, and their Big Cartel store.  Born Pretty Holos are from the store that has tons of polish and nail art supplies, Born Pretty Store.