Funky French Tips

This weeks FB Adventures in Stamping challenge was a french tipped mani; this is a funky french that I came up with!

Started with a base of two coats of OPI Magazine Cover Mouse, no topcoat.

Stamped using white Konad special polish using Betina B10 and Betina B13 on accent.  (I also used a brush and filled in the circles closest to the cuticles as I didn't like the look of it half done!)

Topped with SV.

Pix in the sun.

Betina are a (new to me) series of plates.....I purchased my set here!  They also have a FB account here.

Hope you had a fantastic weekend....thanks for looking!

P.S.  Be sure to check back for a new giveaway coming soon!

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Unknown Betina B10, Betina B13, Fauxnad, Konad, Liquid Sands or similar, OPI, red

OPI Solitaire Stamped

This is the first mani I did with OPI Solitaire even though I've shown another mani using it earlier here.  I was a little disappointed as based upon the pix I had seen online, I expected it to be whiter and not have the little black grit glitter though it but even so, it's still a polish I've used quite a bit.

Started with a base of two coats of OPI Solitaire, no topcoat.

I had been reading good things about Mash black stamping polish so decided to use it for this mani, using Pueen 46 with an accent of Pueen 39.  (I've since done a comparison using black Mash versus Konad, which will be posted soon.)

Found this a little on the boring side so added random dots using red Konad special polish for a splash of colour.

I do hope a whiter liquid sand with more glitter (not the black grit kind, but like the glitter in OPI Get Your Number) is released eventually as I can think of so many different uses for it either as a base or in nail art. Until then, this one will have to do!

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown Fauxnad, Konad, Liquid Sands or similar, MASH, matte, OPI, Pueen39, Pueen46, white

Digit-al Dozen, Books; Day 3

This is quite a change from the last post!  From blood and gore to sweet and fluffy!

My mani is based upon a book of nursery rhymes that I used to read to my three kids when they were little including the rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb.  Unfortunately, my kids aren't that little anymore and its been a while since I read from the book so I couldn't locate it readily so I'm using this image from Usborne Books at Home.

Started with a base of two coats of Zoya Shelby (pink) and one of the OPI Liquid Sands, Solitaire; no topcoat.

Stamped using Cheeky Jumbo 9, Wild at Heart and Chez Xmas 001 (accent) using black Konad special polish.

Added a few random dots.

Topped with SV.

In hindsight, once I did the topcoat, I wish I didn't topcoat OPI Solitaire to keep it more grainy-like/rough to mimic the look of the texture of wool, but hindsight is wonderful, and I'll keep it in mind if I ever decide to do a sheep/lamb mani again!  (I'm guessing this mani would be good for Little Bo Peep, too!)

Here's the other ladies Day 3 mani's!

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown Cheeky Jumbo 9, Chez Xmas 001, Digit-al Dozen, Fauxnad, Konad, Liquid Sands or similar, OPI, white, zoya

Stamping Over Lilac Base

This weeks FB Adventures in Stamping challenge was stamping over a lilac base.  I had picked up Essie Under Where? which is part of the Essie Resort 2013 collex recently, so decided to use it; this is what I came up with.

Started with a base of two coats of Essie Under Where? as well as an accent of one coat of Julie G Crushed Candy.  I had asked a friend to look out for the Julie G Frosted Gumdrop collex on her recent US visit and lucky for me, she found them all!  Under Where? is a little on the thin side, but personally, I prefer thin as easier to apply and find it easier for clean up.  All fingers but the accent were topped with SV. 

Stamped using Pueen44 which is a part of the new 2013 Love Elements collex. I'm not sure how obvious it is in these pix but as my nails have a fairly significant curve when they get long, they didn't stamp right to the tips on the fingers using my normal Konad stamper so I had to hand paint in some lines and do some filling in with a brush.  I used the squishy XL stamper for the accent and it stamped much better right to the tips.  (I also cut my nails right down right after this mani as I'm not a fan of using the squishy stamper but hate how they don't stamp right down to the tips because of the curve.  Short nails = problem solved!)

Topped with Orly Love Each Other which you can see over the lilac if you look realllyyyyy close..and squint! I perhaps should have done a second coat to make it more visible but left it with one as pressed for time.

For those who may be international (aka not live in US) and are looking for Pueen plates as I believe they are not shipping international via Amazon (at least they weren't when I was looking to buy) I picked these up on eBay where international shipping was offered.  (When I went to get the link, I see they are no longer available, but with the help of google, found they are selling and shipping international now here via Big Cartel.)  I paid a little extra for the shipping but when you consider otherwise, I wouldn't have got them at all, or had to drive to US to collect like the first set, it was worth it.  I have to say that overall, I like this second set of Pueen plates over the first one; they seem to stamp better and the images are larger.  A lot of the plates are themed around love, so there are lots of Valentine's Day images too which I'm sure I'll put to use next year!

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown Essie, Fauxnad, Julie G, Konad, layering, Liquid Sands or similar, orly, Pueen44, purple

Blue Sands

Continuing with blue manis and mixing it up with some different finishes, I decided to do a mani with one of the OPI Liquid Sands.

I'll be honest, I'm not quite sure what the nail prep is on these liquid sands; I seem to think with the Zoya's that they are best applied directly on the nail but even though I wasn't entirely sure, I just applied the polish after doing my regular routine of base coats.  This is two coats of OPI Get Your Number, no topcoat.

Two coats didn't give quite the coverage I was looking for, so added a third coat; this pix again is with no topcoat.

Bottle pix of OPI Get Your Number.

Because I had six layers of polish/base treatments on my nails at this point with no fast dry topcoat to speed up the drying process, I waited about half an hour or so before stamping.  For stamping decided to use an image from Big SdP V using white Konad special polish. 

There's a lot of different pictures as they look a little different in the lighting (not to mention that I have such a hard time picking out just one!)   

The images seen here are the same image from Big SdP V that is mirrored.  Because the image is fairly large, in fact, the images on the Big SdP V are some of the longest out there, I was able to use various parts of it for a slightly different look on each nail which made them kinda interesting and unique (to me anyway!).

While I know that these traditionally would not be topped with topcoat, its hard for me not to do this, so I decided to topcoat it to finish.  This is when the mani really sparkled and I was happy that I had put top coat on it!

I only did one coat of SV and while it wasn't entirely smooth, it was smooth enough that it wasn't rough to be annoying.  I could live with it anyway.

While this pix was blurry, the benefit was that so many sparkles can be seen through the stamping.

Again, far too many pix because I just couldn't pick one....or two for that matter.

I thought these OPI Sands from the Mariah collex were pretty cool....enough that I knew I wanted all the OPI Bond Girl Liquid Sands and went to my local supply place several times eagerly anticipating their arrival until I finally able to snag them earlier this week.  I think they are an interesting base for stamping.

Hope you had a great weekend...thanks for looking!

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Unknown Big SdP V, blue, Fauxnad, glitter, Konad, Liquid Sands or similar, matte, OPI, SdP