Citrus!

Its been a few days and I've really not done too much with my nails. Which of course meant I went nuts today.

Gradients are hard for me...why? I don't know. The tutorials I've seen make it look dummy proof...but let me tell you, apparently I'm worse than a dummy. BUT gradients and then stamping? Absolutely. Because then the gradient can have imperfections:)

I started with a base of OPI Need Sunglasses  Yellows hate me. Or I hate them. Probably both. Streaky...patchy...gross looking. In fact I went out with just the base of yellow and I got quite a few awkward comments from people about my nails looking like I had an infection. Other swatches I've seen of this color are great...so I'm sure it's my application that is the problem not the color. But it's definitely not a color I'll be wearing on its own anytime soon. 

My poor cuticle on my ring finger. Not sure why I can't get it to heal:(

Using Sinful Colors Clementine, I created a gradient that actually wasn't awful. 

I've definitely done worse. Still not a look I'm confident in. Will continue trying to perfect it.  This totally reminds me of candy corn and would've been a good Halloween mani. 

After I had my gradient completed, I broke out BM plate 308. Finding the right green for the look I was going for was a chore. Surprisingly, Sinful Colors Pine Away, a lovely dark green foil, was perfect!  In the bottle, was the last green I grabbed for...but then you have to remind yourself that stamping and regularly painting gives two different colors out of the same bottle! 

I love how this turned out!! So citrusy. Probably a better summer manicure, but when I was browsing through my plates I stumbled upon this stamp and envisioned this look. It's always exciting when you can translate vision into reality:)

Lovely stamps!

Another day, another stamped manicure:)

I actually asked my dear hubby to pick a plate for me, because I can't make decisions...at which point he, without looking, fanned the plates and grabbed one, handed it over and said "the one on top". He tries so hard to be interested in my interests...but he just can't do it;)

Anyways, I opted for blue and white for this mani. The stamp he chose was more suited for accent nail, so I did a base of SC Rain Storm on all but my ring finger, and did a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls there. If you've never tried Rain Storm...you must. Easy one coat on every nail. And such a beautiful navy. 

Using BM plates 311 & 317, I ended up with:

I absolutely love the bubble heart stamp, and have used it pretty frequently. The stamps with words, those never come out perfect for me...but I was ok with how it came out since the Love at least came out right:). As you can see from my ring finger...INM Out The Door should probably not be used for nail art. It totally streaked my stamp, and made it look quite smudged. The good news is, I have a refill bottle of seche vite...so I'll be able to use that as soon as I refill my nearly empty bottle!

Sinful Colors Dotticure

It's officially fall. I raked leaves this weekend. As much as I love all the mature trees in my neighborhood..the leaves are a nightmare this time of year. Took 9 yard bags, and 4 trash cans just to do my front yard!!!

Anyways after that work, I decided some fall nails were in order. I had these grand plans to do some saran wrap nails, but it looked like mud so I started overly completely ;)

I used Sinful Colors Grain de Pouvre for my base. It's a lovely taupe cream. I think it's pretty similar to OPI You Don't Know Jacques and Sinful Color Nirvana, but I need to do a comparison to be sure. 

Here's a picture with a different lighting...much warmer toned!

I think the real life color is somewhere between those two pictures. Either way, it's a great color to wear on its on, or as a base like I did. 

Since my saran plan failed spectacularly, I pulled out my dotting tools and opted for a dotticure:). I used Sinful Colors Cross my Heart (red), Anchors Away (goldy yellow), and Strapped (green) for the dots. I was totally right...these colors together SCREAM fall!

I topped it off with my OPI Top Coat. Strapped dries matte, so I had to slap on extra top coat to even out the look. Random matte dots looked weird..but it did make me want to try a dotticure with ONLY matte dots..that has serious potential, and may be seen before too long. 

I loved this look, and got a ton of comments on it, from friends, coworkers and even a few people at my dentist office:)

Girly!!

After my edgier stamping session, I decided to go with the ultra girlie manicure I've been jonesing for.  I'm a pink kind of girl, so it's no surprise that I reached for a lovely bubblegum pink. This is another from the OPI Coutre de Minnie collection. I give you Chic from Ears to Tail. 

This was three coats. I had some problems with streakiness, but nothing unrecoverable.  It's such a lovely pink, and in person there's an even lovelier shimmer!  

For the ultra girlie part of the manicure I decided to use some nail jewels that I've recently gotten my hands on. I didn't want to go too crazy, and kept things pretty simple. A single rhinestone at the base of each nail. 

 In shade

I loved how this turned out. One of the few times my vision translates to reality really well. I think the next time I do tus I'll be using a white base to emphasize the different colored rhinestones. 

Barbed wire and Roses

I love nail stamping. Seriously. Such a great way to do some nail art for those of us who have zero artistic ability. Free hand?? Yeah, right. In my dreams. Stamping? Absolutely:)

I don't do red often, but as I was gazing at my nail polish rack trying to decide what to do, my eyes kept going back to OPI Innie Minnie Mightie Bow. It's from the Coutre de Minnie collection. Holy smokes, but this red is amazing. Totally could be a one coater if you're more careful than me. I went with two, just cause I always try and go too fast. The formula is amazing...not too thin, not too thick, but just the right consistency to be super easy to apply. 

The second picture probably catches the true color the best, but even so, the shimmer and richness of this color need to be observed in real life to truly appreciate the beauty:)

I had planned on stamping with a creamy pink initially, for a supremely girly look, but as I was going through my stamping plates, I realized I HAD to go somewhat edgier and stamp with black. Plate BM-323 was screaming at me to be used. So I reached for my trusty Sinful Colors Black on Black and got to stamping. And I love the result!

The last picture is a sunlight shot(with a picture of a REALLY work sweatshirt). Even with the shorter nails, I totally am in love with this look, and it may last a full 24 hours! Which is extraordinarily rare!!! 

Zoya Pixie Dust

Happy Halloween! I wasn't much in the Halloween mood so I went with a textured mani instead. I absolutely love the Zoya Pixiedust polishes. They're beautiful, sparkly but matte. I can't remember where I saw my inspiration for this particular look...probably on Pinterest. 

I decided to go with 4 colors, Zoya Destiny, Zoya Liberty, Zoya Chita, and Zoya Carter. I painted on color each on my thumb, index, middle, and pinkie. I put a base of Sinful Colors Gold Medal on my ring finger. 

Here are the individual finger swatches. 

Zoya Carter

Zoya Destiny

Zoya Liberty

Zoya Chita. 

All four of the colors were great, though Chita wins on opacity. It only took one coat compared to two all the others took. 

I didn't get a shot of my ring finger with Gold Medal alone. 

Once I had that piece done, I got out my striping tape and made a patchwork pattern on my ring fingers. I made it into four sections, and then filled one color in per section. Once I carefully peeled the tape off, you could see the gold between the textures and I am quite happy with the way it turned out!

Taping fun

I used another Butter London for the first time today. I went with This Old Bill. Kind of jumped off the shelf at me when I was browsing my polishes. It's a great metallic-y bronze type color. It totally reminds me of brand new pennies. I think this would be a great stamping color. I used two coats, flawless formula as I've come to expect from butter London!

Then 10 hours later, I decided to jazz it up some. I love me some tape manicures... so I pulled out my striping tape and went to town. I taped on two or three stripes in random patterns on my nails, and painted on a coat of Kleancolor Pearl Jungle. Pearl Jungle is a nice green with a borderline metallic-frosty finish. I think it's more metallic than frosty personally.

I thought this played out pretty well all in all:)