I found some nice deals this month

This first set is the new China Glaze Bohemian Chromillusion polish.  No Plain Jane, Unpredictable, Swanky Silk, Deviantly Daring, Want My Bawdy, Rare and Radiant.

The next set is the new Essie metallics.   Penny Talks, No Place Like Chrome, Nothing Else Metals, Good as Gold, Blue Rhapsody.

These are a couple Wet n Wild polishes: Disturbia and Through the Grapevine.

Next are a couple of Sinful shimmers: Rich in Heart and Ciao Bella!

These three Sinful colors would make a great combination.  Rainstorm, Pull Over, and Ocean Side.

These two are Envy and Fig.

These last ones are Open Seas and Savage

These last ones were random ones that I picked up.  China Glaze Blue Iguana, Nicole by OPI Khloe had a Little Lam-Lam, A Lit-Teal Bit of Love, Mer-Maid for Each Other. 

I'm hoping to have a lot of fun with these.

Until next time...
Chess

My new favorite color combination

This week I decided to try using nail polish for stamping instead of special polish or insta-dri polish.

 I started with Blue Escape  by Avon.  This is a nice cerulean blue.
















Then I stamped with A-England's Lady

of the Lake and Bundle Monster plate BM-221.

This is a close up with flash of a couple fingers so you can see the holographic glitter in Lady of the Lake.

The only real issue was that the stamping thinned the A-England polish quite a bit so it also thinned the glitter.  Even still, I feel it turned out pretty well.

My second try at gradient

I tried the gradient technique a while ago with and orange and pink.  The colors were a little too bright for even my liking.  I saw something similar to this on another blog, but I can't seem to find it anywhere now.  This is my second try.  I think I need a different sponge because it still didn't come out the way I was hoping.

I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Blue By! for the base color.  Then I sponged on Love Nails by Sinful Colors and Sun-Kissed by China Glaze.  The yellow was so light that I ended up sponging two more layers of the yellow, so that might have been part of the problem too.  I topped it all off with my favorite glitter top coat: Fairy Dust by China Glaze.  It's more of a jelly, so the glitter doesn't settle at the bottom like Northern Lights does.

I'm still working on the gradient.  I'm going to get a different type of sponge and see if that helps.  I'm also still working on the picture-taking.  Let me know what you all think so far!

Chess

Pink with white lace

I decided I wanted to do something lighter this week for my nails.  I like the idea of french tips, but sometimes I like to have color instead of my normal nail underneath.  So I opted for a light pink and instead of a basic white tip, I found a flowery lace looking tip to use.  

I used OPI Sweet Heart for the pink and the stamp is from Konad plate m80 using Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White.  

The tip is slightly curved, and normally I have a really hard time getting them on the nail just right.  They usually end up lop-sided.  I kept thinking about the issue this past weekend before doing my nails and it finally occurred to me.  The rubber stamper is curved too!   I place the stamper so the curve of the stamper matches the curve on the plate, so when I place it on the nail, I know exactly where the image is.  Most of my nails turned out really well this time.

This look is fairly neutral which is useful in a more conservative setting.

This is a macro of my thumb so you can see the design a little better.  I just wish it weren't so blurry looking. I'm still practicing with the camera.

Let me know what you think!

Patriotic nails

This is the manicure I did to celebrate the 4th of July. 

I used Sally Hansen Xtreme wear in Blue It, China Glaze in China Rouge and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White for the base colors.  Then I used my stamping plates to add designs.  I used the Konad special polish in white for most of the them, and the special polish in blue for the middle finger.  From Thumb to pinky I used BM05, BM14, Konad m3, BM21, and BM20.

Sadly, the stripped one was too small for most of my fingers, so I had to change things a bit.  I even had to try to fill in the lines on my smallest finger at the edges.  Despite this, I rather like how my nails turned out.  I had a number of complements on this during the week.

In other news, there weren't any fireworks for the 4th of July, due to the Waldo Canon fire and the high risk of fire all around the city.  By the 4th, the fire had been contained along the city limits, and was mostly contained elsewhere.  Many of the cities residents were able to return to their evacuated homes.  I was quite pleased in how the city and county responded to the threat.  Only two people died, and only about 350 houses were completely lost.  The firefighters saved many houses during that frightful night and my husband said that most of the firefighters will have a hard time buying their own drinks for a long time.

So regardless of not having any fireworks, this whole city was celebrating in many other ways.