Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween 2013

I hope everyone is having a wonderful time tonight, with whatever you are doing.  Trick-or-treating, staying in, watching scary movies, spending time with family.  I am watching some shows and probably will watch Hocus Pocus tonight, while my husband hands out candy to the little ones.

You may have seen my post on Facebook about this polish I chose this week.  I chose to try out L'Oreal The Queens Ambition.  I love the look of it.  The glitter helps lend the texture to the polish.  My only issue is that it is chipping quite a bit.  Usually I don't have that problem with polish on my acrylic nails.  I figure if I put a clear top coat over it, the mani would last longer, but then I would lose the fabulous texture.

Until later,

Chess

Friday, October 25, 2013

Lack of Creativity

This week I really just didn't feel creative.  I couldn't think of anything to do with my nails.  Earlier, I bought a few ORLY colors, and I wanted to play with one of the them this week,  but I didn't have any ideas.  So I have a swatch of this color for you today.  This one is ORLY Terra Mauve.  It is a great red with a pinkish hue.  The color really is fabulous, I just couldn't think of anything to do to it.

Also, to give you a little more to look at, I pulled out a mani I tried out a bit ago, but never posted.  I started witha few coats of Sinful Colors Ocean Side.  After that dried I used some glitter polish from Icing on my ring finger.  It came in a four pack, but there is no name on it.

I hope you like these,

Chess

Monday, October 21, 2013

Howl You Doin'

Lately, I haven't been feeling very creative.  I have been finding it hard to come up with new ideas and color combinations.  Luckily, this month China Glaze had a couple colors from the Halloween collection that I liked.  So this week, I used one of those.

I started with a couple coats of China Glaze VIII.  After that dried, I used tape to block off some of my nail near the cuticle, and used China Glaze Howl You Doin'.

I really love the different types of glitter in Howl You Doin' and it wasn't too hard to remove.  Usually I hate glitter polish, but this one was much easier to remove.

What do you think?  Any suggestions for another mani?

Chess

Friday, October 11, 2013

Leopard Print

This week, work went by fairly quickly.  I made a couple monetary decisions about bellydance and yoga that make me feel good about my future.  I'm excited about these opportunities next year.

Last week I saw this pin on pinterest, and knew I had a couple colors that I could use to recreate the look.  So that's what I set out to do.  To top it all off, the base color I used was given to me by a close friend, so it felt good to finally use it.

I started off with two coats of ORLY Rage.  After that dried, I stamped on the leopard print image using Konad plate m57 and Konad special polish in black. Then is used Sonia Kashuk Two Cent to place the darker dots on some of the leopard spots.  Finally, I used two coats of my Diamond Dry to smooth out the mani.

This one turned out beautifully, and everyone who has seen it in person has loved it.  It really did not take that much more time than any of the other manicures I have done before.

Until later,

Chess

Friday, October 4, 2013

Tongue & Chic

My co-worker has been on vacation in Florida all week, so it has been a little difficult keeping up with the workload.  However, I have taken on a new mantra at work.  I can only do so much, and the rest will have to wait until tomorrow.  It feels good.  I'm not as stressed as I usually am.

I decided to do something a little bit different for my mani this week.  I wanted to do a matte polish again.  So, I started with China Glaze Tongue & Chic.  Then I stamped on the peacock feather using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Silver Sweep and plate VL 006 by Vivid Lacquer.  Then I used ORLY top coat to save the image, and ORLY Matte Top over all the nails.

For some reason, the matte top coat didn't work for all the nails, and I decided to take pictures so you could see it.  Some of it wears off anyway throughout the week, but two of my nails just wouldn't take the matte top coat.

Despite the issues with the top coat, I really like this mani.  I love the color and the way the silver contrasts it.

Until later,

Chess