Silver holo franken love

I'm loving all the glitter options from you mix cosmetics.  I felt it was necessary to make an awesome franken with silver and black glitter. Below is a photo of the glitter used.  All of them are from YMC except luminosity (left) and the black micro which are from TKB.  The remainder of the glitter used included silver holo square, black holo hex, black shredded, black hex, 2 sizes of gunmetal hex, small silver hex and 2 sizes of silver holo hex.

It's so pretty in the sun.

The base is one coat of a silver steel franken followed by 2 coats of the glitter polish.  There was a bit of shrinkage near the tips of the nails following application of seche vite.  For some reason it always looks worse in photos than in person.

*On a side note, I've been experimenting with the use of xanthan gum in glitter suspension. It seems like people have had mixed results with it.  The polish was only made last night, but so far it has remained suspended. *fingers crossed*  I will post photos after the weekend with an update.

Sinful red

 I figured the rainbow nails were a little too intense for work. So, I kept the pointer finger the same and worked around that.  The base color is sinful colors Ruby ruby.  Each nail contains a small red hex and a larger red hex closer to the base. I applied the glitter with a dotting tool while the second coat of red polish was still wet.  As mentioned yesterday, the pointer finger has the small and large hex glitter along with dots in various shades of orange.  A dotting tool was used for this.

That's all for now :)

Rainbow nails

Rebecca is hosting a contest that combines a few of her favorite things.  I chose to incorporate gradients and dots in mine.

This is a little more busy than what I usually do, but I it's always good to try new things.

1. Pointer: sinful colors Ruby Ruby with multiple orange dots and two sizes of red hex glitter
2. Middle finger: OPI rising star and take the stage stripes with gold hex and bar glitter
3. Fourth finger: Sheets from dry water marble (previous post)
4. Pinky: Too many shades of blue and purple to count applied with a dotting tool (notice the dots of Cult nails clairvoyant)

Time for the macro shots...

The blue polish instantly stained my cuticles.

Glitter!

periwinkle magnetic polish

A few weeks ago I purchased the magnetic polish grab bag from you mix cosmetics.  They include 12 polishes and a magnet for 34.95.  This is the cheapest option I've seen for magnetic polishes.  The only downside is that you don't get to choose which colors you get.  Since most of their colors looked pretty, I figured I'd take a chance.  I'm glad I did.  The colors are so nice!

The individual polishes aren't labeled so I don't know the actual name for each color.  I've decided to call this one periwinkle because its a delicate silvery/purple.  This is 2 coats with the line magnet provided by YMC.

You can get a better feel for the color of the polish in this photo.

I'd recommend purchasing these polishes for anyone who is on a budget and looking to expand their magnetic collection.

Water marble strips

I've expressed my love for dry water marble before.  I had a few dry sheets around that were made about two weeks ago.  The polishes were a mix of sally hansen and china glaze.  

 I wanted to try some nail art with them so I cut the sheet into thin strips. 

The base is sally hansen green with envy and going green.  About 2/3rds of the nail was painted with green with envy.  I let it dry for about 5 minutes.  Long enough that my finger wouldn't leave prints on the nail polish when I touched it.

I then took the strips and placed them on my nails (polish side down).  I pressed down on the strip and peeled the plastic right off.  It was complete with a coat of seche.

Glitter franken

I may have gone a little overboard when you mix cosmetics added a ton of bar and hex glitters a few weeks ago.  My bank account is still feeling the pain.  It's a real challenge to not just throw all the different colors in a base together.  If you haven't tried their glitter yet, I highly recommend you do so.  The quality and the price are great.  Also, they are clearing out their stock of magnetic polishes and are offering grab bags at a great price.

Ok, back to the glitter.  This is two coats over china glaze first mate.

Polish recipe:

small and large hexes in blue, pink and purple (YMC)

blue bar glitter (YMC)

large hex and square holo (YMC)

purple micro(TKB)

pink and blue solvent resistant glitter (TKB)

chunky opaque blue (art institute glitter)

suspension base

This is super sparkly in light.   I got a bunch of compliments at work which made my day!

"Shamrock" mani

I'm going to start by apologizing for these photos.  I used my backup camera and they're just not as nice as I'd prefer.  Although these are just clovers from my yard, we can pretend that they're shamrocks.  

I started with a base of sinful colors happy ending.  There were some clovers growing outside so I picked and pressed them.  To press them I placed them between two sheets of newspaper and put that in a book.  I put a heavy object on top of the book for several hours.   It helped flatten them nicely to make them easier to apply.  I put a little bit of a clear top coat on the green before the clovers were put on.  The whole thing was topped with seche vite which made them really smooth.  

The clover turned a little brown when the seche was added.

I used to do this with wildflowers when I was younger.  I think I'm going to have to start that up again this spring.

Magnetic french tip

It was another beautiful day in Chicago today.  Hopefully everyone is experiencing the same great weather.  I've been really into magnetic polish recently.  The tips were done with the V shaped magnet. 

I've been trying a tape mani with magnetic polish but I keep ripping the base color off with the tape.  If anyone has suggestions, please send them my way.  

I love the way these turned out! 

Polishes used

1. China glaze: ingrid          

2. China glaze: magnetix you move me

Now it's time to watch some Dance moms ;)

Dry water marble

I first learned about dry water marbling several months ago from Cathy at More nail polish.  I like this technique because it uses a lot less nail polish and you have more control about the design that ends up on your nail.  The other advantage is that you can make the water marble, place it on plastic and keep it for several weeks before you use it.  It works best if you let the plastic sheets dry for several days before applying them to nails.  

When it's time to apply them to my nails,  I will fist hold the dry sheet up to my hand and trace individual nails on the plastic side.  This way you can cut them to fit your nails well. A lot of people paint their nails with a white base but I find that it's helpful to use one of the colors in the marble as a base.  That way if the marble doesn't fit your nail perfectly, the base just looks like part of it.  In my experience china glaze and sally hansen polishes work the best for marbling.

This manicure wasn't cleaned up well but it's still fun to look at.  I haven't managed to completely prevent bubbles from forming on the plastic.

I made these sheets several months ago.  They were kept in a plastic bag but began to chip after about a month.  It's probably best to use them within a few weeks but obviously it's not necessary. 

This is one of the polish chips.  I had to take a picture because it looked so pretty!

  

You can't do that on television

Does anyone else remember this show?   People got slimed if they said "I don't know".  Well, this polish reminds me of that slime.  I tried using texture in my mani but it didn't turn out quite as planned.

I started with a green base and used a buffer to thin out some areas.  I then used an old unsuccessful franken to add a brown glistening tint.  It's not the most beautiful polish job but it's still fun.  Prepare to be slimed......

And you thought I wouldn't add an extreme close-up.  

Continuing with the dot tool inspiration

It was 68 in Chicago today which is pretty amazing for March.  If only it would stay light long enough for me to get decent indoor nail photos after work.  I guess I'll just have to wait until summer for that.

This mani is growing on me, but it's still not quite what I was hoping for.  The blue and silver alone looked nice and a few orange dots have been better.  I think I went a little overboard.  The base color is cult nails is time traveler.  It goes on so smoothly and covers pretty well with just one coat.  The silver and red/orange dots are frankens which are two of my favorites.

In reality the dots and the blue mesh a little better

This was a poor attempt to mess with the lighting, but it still looks more accurate than the above photos. 

This franken is a little more orange than a brick red and has subtle gold shimmer.

This franken is a darker silver with multi-colored shimmer.  The second photo really highlights how this polish looks in the light.

Gold leaves

Today's mani isn't anything too crazy.  I love that the bundle monster plates can make even a plain manicure look a lot more interesting and fun.

I started with a base of OPI tease-y does it.   It's so pretty just by itself.

This is bundle monster plate 19.  The leaf pattern is my go-to.  My only complaint, like most people, is that the designs are just a little too small.  I added a few stripes with gold glitter polish to finish up the look and of course seche vite.

Just because I  love close up photos...

The polishes I used

1. OPI: tease-y does it

2. lippmann collection: nefertiti

3. Milani nail art: art of gold