Cheeky Plate Fun

I had been admiring the cheeky plates for the last few months before I finally caved and bought some.  The beautiful patterns were irresistible.  They look like gorgeous Indian fabrics.

I went with a franken yellow basecoat and used China glaze's shower together for the stamp.

I moved into a new apartment this past weekend and the process has been ridiculously stressful.  The majority of my stuff is still not unpacked and I've had multiple failed attempts to set up the cable.  The blog posts will probably continue to be sparse until I am settled in.  

Have a great weekend!

Water Marble Strips Take 2

It's been awhile since I've used dry water marble strips for a mani.  Check out my previous post.  I made the water marble sheets yesterday and allowed them to dry overnight.  24 hours of drying time seemed to be the perfect amount.  The nail polish separated from the plastic with ease.  The colors used are Sally Hansen Black out, China glaze shower together, cross iron and trendsetter.  They had a nice contrast next to one another.

I cut the sheets into triangular strips.  I wanted the strips to look like they were made of tiny stripes.   The strips were placed over a base coat of shower together. My only regret is matching the blue on the strips to the background color.  It ends up making the strips look too short for the nails when the blue stripe lines up at the base of the nail.  An example being my middle finger. Otherwise, i really like the color combo and the way it turned out.

Happy Memorial day!

In honor of Memorial day, I went for a patriotic mani.  I love the look of different patterns on each nail with a common color theme.  Normally I couldn't pull this off at work, but fortunately it was a three day weekend.
I'm not feeling very chatty tonight, so I'm going to stick with photos and few words.

Here are my red, white and blue nails.

 Here is my right hand.

I hope everyone had a great day filled with sun, picnics and friends.

Does a tiger say roar?

My nails decided to stop cooperating and continued to break for the past few weeks.  They weren't photograph-worthy until this weekend.  In the meantime I've been experimenting with all my new glitters from youmix and TKB.  FYI the sample size of TKB shaplies is plenty.  I ended up ordering 1oz of some of the sizes and ended up with way too much glitter.

The manicure below has china glaze seduce me as a base, topped with two coats of my magenta glitter franken.  I stamped a franken over that, put on a coat of seche and called it a day.  Typically I'm not one for animal prints, but I thought I'd give it a go.

Glitter appreciation shot.

 It's so glittery.  The purple magic glitter looks awesome when the light hits it.

Who said "puke green" couldn't be beautiful

Green is by far my favorite color, especially vintage shades.  Everyone who knows me describes "puke green" as "Liz green".  I should probably be insulted by this, but unfortunately it's true.  I'd prefer to think of "Liz green" as a 70's retro shade rather than vomit.  China glaze's trendsetter is pretty much my ideal color.  This floral design from BM plate (224) has been posted many times before, but it's too pretty to not to show pictures of.  China glaze VIII was used for stamping.  I LOVE this color combo.  It achieved the retro look I was going for.

I'm happy with this manicure and especially pleased that I've found a shade of green that matches me in trendsetter ;)

Basic mani

 I hate having naked nails, but I don't always have time to do something complicated. So, these are the times I turn to a basic mani.  This isn't anything exciting, but it still looks pretty and clean.

Base: china glaze seduce me
Top layer: china glaze luxe and lush 

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!

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 ;)

Opposites attract

I've started to get into the habit of changing my nails almost every day.  Although I'm pretty certain most people would think this is obsessive,  I know anyone reading this blog probably does the same thing....so no judgement here ;)

I'm really excited about this one.  I went to sally beauty today since they were having a sale on china glaze magnetix (which I've been wanting to buy).  If you purchase 2 polishes, you get a free magnet with three designs.  I went with you move me and instant chemistry polishes.

The star pattern works really well.

I painted a broad stripe on each nail with this electric blue franken (which is awesome one its own).  

The magnetic polish was placed adjacent to the blue stripes.  I used the diagonal magnet for the pattern followed by a black stripe to separate the two colors.

I absolutely love the contrast between the blue shimmery polish and the depth created by the tan magnetic polish.  It reminds me of something in ancient Egypt.

Dots, stripes and dashes! Oh my...

I always enjoyed nail art when I was younger, but got away from doing it over the years.  It's difficult with work to keep up a hobby in my free time (I'm sure everyone can relate).  I stumbled upon kitties26 blog a few months ago when I was looking up swatches for some OPI polishes.  This was the inspiration I needed to start up experimenting with frankens and designs.  It's amazing what a large nail-loving community there is on the internet.  MK's blog has had so much helpful information on supplies and mixing frankens...I just wish I would have found it before I wasted way too much money on random glitter.  So, thank you to all of you talented nail artists!

Here is a fun dot and stripe mani.  I love the contrast of the colors and patterns.  Unfortunately my right hand didn't work out quite as well.

The colors used:

1. Ulta- sun-sational

2. Sally Hansen-black out (+ black mica)

3. China glaze-shower together

4.Stripe Rite- black

5. Milani- white canvas

I also used a dotting tool and fine-tip paint brush.  

Saved by the bell

This finished manicure reminded me of a shirt pattern that would have been popular in the 90's.  I started with a mustard yellow franken.  It looks a little more orange in the photos than in person and has a subtle shimmer.

 I used a BM plate 221 with china glaze first mate.  It was topped off with cult nails clairvoyant.  I haven't mastered using a camera to show off glitter and flakies.  This ended up looking muddy.