Digit-al Dozen; Fashion, Day 4

I'm not terribly into fashion, so when I was surfing the net for inspiration for another fashion mani, I Googled famous dresses.  Didn't see anything too exciting (or at least something I thought I might be able to stamp close enough to resemble one!) so then did a search for Oscar dresses....a pix came up on the results (even though it wasn't worn at the Oscar's!) that I decided to use for inspiration; here's what I came up with.

This was the dress I used as inspiration, a Carolina Herrara dress worn by Lucy Liu at the 2012 Golden Globes.

Started with a base of two coats of Sinful Colors Sugar High, topped with SV.  The base isn't as close in these pix as I wanted; obviously there are some screen colour variations as when I was doing this mani last night using a pix I had picked on my iphone, the base was bang on but these pix, my base isn't nearly light enough. Or could be my camera/lighting.

Stamped leaves from plate MM07 using Sally Hansen Insta-dri Jumpin' Jade. (Really liking the mani just like this!)

Plate pix of MM07.

While I fully intended to use the assortment of single roses in different sizes from this plate, when I did a test stamp on a nail on my right hand, I wasn't liking how the rose looked.  Decided upon an image from DRK-A and then stamped random roses throughout using FUN stamping polish in Mango Shake and a franken made by mixing Konad pastel orange and pastel pink special polishes. ( I dabbed a bit of both directly on the image plate, mixed up a little using an orange stick, then scraped and stamped.)

Topped with SV.  (See the shimmer in Jumpin' Jade once it's top coated; it's most noticeable on the middle finger...love it!)



Here's the other ladies Day 4 Fashion mani's.





Thanks for looking!

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Unknown blue, Digit-al Dozen, DRK-A, Fauxnad, FUN stamping polish, Konad, MM07, sally hansen, sinful colors, tricks and tips

A Couple Fails

I'm sure we all have them; nail fails....these are a couple of mani's that just didn't float my boat but thought I would share anyway. 

DS Shimmer should fix everything...and while it saved this mani somewhat, it still was a fail to me.  Started with a base of two coats of Quo by Orly Social Butterfly.  This is two coats; no topcoat.  I was disappointed from the get go with this polish; I was sooo hoping that the beautiful shimmer in the bottle would show up on my nails, but it never.  If you click on the pix, you can see the shimmer in the bottle and that was really what I was hoping to see on my nails, but nope.

Then it dried matte-like....and while I'm generally a fan of matte, I wasn't into this AT ALL.  Maybe because I was still missing the shimmer....

The failures continue....stamped using Konad special polish in royal purple using an image from DRK-A which would have been OK except my stamping *skill* (and I say that loosely!), alluded me and had a mis-stamp of some sort on most fingers.  Look quickly and then look away!

The thumb was particularly bad but my strategic camera pix placement hid most of it! I tried to save the mani with OPI DS Shimmer (which is the first pix), because, let's face it, DS Shimmer makes everything awesome.  It helped a little, but still, fail to me.

Another mani I had high hopes for, but was less than thrilled with the results.  Boring, mis-stamped...*sigh*

Started with a base of two coats of NYX Girls Muted Lavender; no top coat.

I've seen lots of mani's stamped successfully with Color Club Wild at Heart, so I thought I'd try it myself; but no holo shimmer in the stamping and stamping fail on several fingers again.  The plate used was Pueen 18. 

Finished with SV which is the first pix shown.  Let's say it all together now.....F A I  L.

Well, I guess they can't all be winners...and don't I know it.  The only good thing about fails, is that it's just polish...easily removed and there's a new canvass for the next mani...which hopefully isn't a fail!

Have a great weekend!

Edit:  I thought I'd share this too....for those of you who are like me and don't have access to Color Club nail polishes and were looking for the 2013 Halo Hues, Nail Polish Canada now has them in stock!  While I was able to get the 2012 collex at a local retail store, Designer Cosmetics, I've called them umpteen times since they've been released, so often I'm sure they were sick of hearing from me and they have never been in stock (not to mention that this would only help out those in the GTA anyway)....but they are now available at Nail Polish Canada!

 



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Unknown blue, color club, DRK-A, Fauxnad, Holographic, Konad, matte, NYX Girls, OPI, Pueen18, purple, Quo by Orly

WingDustCollections Ocean Tears

A couple months ago, I was browsing a FB group I belong to and there was a thread were someone had asked for known Canadian indie polish makers.  There were several suggestions and as I read through them, some of them I knew and had already been buying their polishes, but there was one I hadn't heard of, WingDustCollections.  So I wandered over to the WingDustCollections Etsy page and bought a few to try out, including this one, Ocean Tears. 

Started with a base of two coats of WingDust Ocean Tears, no topcoat. 

A bottle pix of Ocean Tears.

This was a mani I was wearing just before Valentine's Day but didn't get around to posting until now so these are V-Day images....plates used were DRK A (pinky and index), MM03 (thumb), BM 311 (middle) and Apipilia P.04 (ring) using Konad white special polish.

Topped with SV.

WingDustCollections is based out of Toronto Ontario; while I had bought these polishes from the Etsy store here; soon after my polishes arrived, llarowe had announced that she was stocking this line as well! 

Hope you're having a great week....thanks for looking!

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Unknown Apipila, Apipila P.04, BM311, DRK-A, Fauxnad, glitter, Indie Polishes, Konad, MM03, teal, Valentine, WingDustCollections

Digit-al Dozen, Geek Week; Day 2

Are you a fan of Big Bang Theory?  I have to say, I love the show!  A mani around BBT would be perfect for Geek Week...but there was a nerd theme a few weeks ago in AiS and I did a BBT mani already here; then I thought, hmmm...what about a mani in tribute to Sheldon Cooper, the biggest geek ever....so decided to do a mani featuring the t-shirts worn by Sheldon Cooper!  Here's what I came up with!

Base polishes, starting at thumb and going clockwise are FingerPaints Blissfully Blue, FingerPaints Inkblot Blue, FingerPaints Black Expressionism, Duri Taming of the Shrew and FingerPaints Blue Raspberry Taffy; all two coats, topped with SV.

Stamped using BM305 (ring finger), FUN2 (index), MJ VI (pinky), D25 (middle) and DRK-A (thumb), using red Konad special polish and FUN stamping polishes in Mango Shake, Bubble Blue and Cotton Candy.

Added a couple words for filler using CH47.

Topped with SV. 

Here's pix of Sheldon in his t-shirts so this mani may make more sense...his t-shirts have their own little cult following!  I had to take some stamping liberties; for example, I could stamp the lime on the Batman image but purple didn't show up well, so just decided to do it yellow; and while I thought I had a massive Flash bolt like the t-shirt, I didn't and the multi bolts was the closest I could find. 

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown BM305, CH47, D25, Digit-al Dozen, DRK-A, duri, Fauxnad, FingerPaints, FUN 2, FUN stamping polish, Konad, MJ VI, skittles

Digit-al Dozen, Love and Heartbreak, Day 4

Happy Valentine's Day!  Well, belated by the time I get around to finishing this post!  I still have so many Valentine's Day mani's to share I thought I do something a little different and post a couple today!



Here's the first one. 



Started with a base of one coat of OPI Red My Fortune Cookie and OPI Bride's Bouquet.



Added a layer of Lynnderella Ruby Red Ruby and Lynnderella The Snow Cake; topped with Gelous and then SV.



Stamped with HD-A using Konad red and white special polish.



Here's a pix of the HD plates** which were designed by Bunny Nails and are available here.  There are some really unique designs and any of the images I stamped, including a few that aren't on this mani, stamped wonderfully!  These two plates are full of themes and you'll want to check them out if you are a theme/holiday kinda stamper like me!




 

Topped with SV.  My only regret with this mani is that the The Snow Cake wasn't whiter; had I realized that it seemed so offwhiteish before hand, I would have picked another white glitter. 



Another one I did quick one night when I wanted a change of nails but didn't have much time!



Started with one coat of Color Club Harp On It (yes....one coat!), no TC.



It dries fairly fast so stamped a couple minutes later with red Konad special polish using MJ II and accent of DRK A. 

Yes, the alternating upside down hearts was on purpose...just for something different to change it up a bit!  I think this would be cool with the same images but with black stamping polish...another day perhaps!



Topped with Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Topcoat.  I used this as I had read that it doesn't dull the holo and have had good results before, but there was a noticeable difference in the holo flash once it was applied this time.  There still was lots of holo though because the polish is so holo-riffic!

I still have lots of Valentine's Day related mani's to post...I'm not sure if there is any interest in getting them posted now that the day has passed.....I may post them over the new few posts...or they may just show up randomly at a later time, not sure yet! 

Thanks for looking!
**items were provided for review. Please refer to my disclosure policy for details.

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Unknown color club, Digit-al Dozen, DRK-A, glitter, HD-A, Holographic, Indie Polishes, layering, Lynnderella, MJ II, OPI, red, sally hansen, Silver, Valentine, white

Cats!

I did this tribute mani for a nail gal pal who recently lost her beloved pet recently.  Her cat was black; her favourite colour green...this is what I came up with.

Started with two coats of Butter London Dosh.  I had bought this colour not terribly long ago as I thought it would be a great base for a Halloween mani...but decided to try it for this mani instead. 

Stamped!  All using black Konad special polish using DRK-A (thumb and index), XXL Big SdP-1 (cat in middle finger), HB37 (paw prints on pinky and middle), Konad m2 (heart on middle) and BM206 (ring).

Topped with coat of SV.  The pix above is without SV; the one below...topcoat just makes the stamping pop so much more!

Hope you're having a great weekend...right now I'm in the midst of doing my nails for the FB Adventures in Stamping mani...waiting for the base to dry before I stamp it so I thought I'd quickly type a post while waiting!

Thanks for looking!

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Unknown BM206, butter london, DRK-A, Fauxnad, green, HB37, Konad, m2, XXL Big SdP-01

Butter London Knackered

As soon as I seen the promotional shots of the Butter London Spring/Summer 2012 polishes, I knew I wanted them all! So imagine my excitement when I was contacted by Nail Polish Canada asking if they could kindly send me two for review*. They even let me pick which two polishes I would like to receive.....this is Butter London Knackered, one of my favourites from the collex!



Duochrome! Holo! Love!

Three coats with no base polish or topcoat as I wanted to get a good idea of what it looked like without one. I think the next time I use it, I'm going to layer it on top of a base as the polish is sheer; however, application was good and cleanup a cinch as it is on the thin side.

While I could go on about how Knackered shifts from purple, to green, to pink and silver....AND with the added bonus holo glitter mixed in, I think this is one of those times that it's best to let the pictures do the talking!











Nail Polish Canada is currently running a promotion** to win the entire Spring/Summer 2012 Butter London polish line for free (a $85 value).......please go here to check it out!



Of course, I couldn't resist adding some stamping! As I always SV a mani after polishing and before stamping, I forgot that I didn't in this case..so the base wrinkled a bit on a finger or two when I stamped it as not enough time had passed to allow the polish to dry without any quick dry topcoat. Oops! It was pretty none the less...I got a lot of compliments on this...wrinkles and all! It was great to still see the colour shifting and holo of Knackered even with the stamping on top.



Stamping plates used were DRK-A and Konad m20 using KleanColor black for stamping. (So far, so good using KleanColor for stamping as it stamped clear, dark and no drag!)

Canadian nail fanatics will know that Butter London is not that readily available in Canada so it is great to see that Nail Polish Canada carries Butter London (they also just launched Nfu oh this week as well....AND they ship to Canada and USA for anyone out there still looking for the amazing Nfu oh #51!)

Hope you have a great weekend and thanks for looking!

*products used were sent to me for review; please refer to disclosure policy.
**promotion is open to Canadian residents (except where prohibited by law) and ends April 30, 2012!

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Unknown butter london, DRK-A, duochrome, Fauxnad, kleancolor, Konad, m20