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!

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!!! 

Purple stamping

After my Halloween manicure, I decided I needed a little less "look at me look at me" on my nails. And I kind of love how it turned out:)

I started with a base of Sinful Colors Sweet Tooth. It's a beautiful lilac, and applies effortlessly, and has a lovely shimmer. The shimmer is not visible in the pictures, but is definitely there IRL. It was part of SC Sugar Rush collection this past spring. And it really is a great spring color. But I'm all about using colors that fit my mood, not the season:)

Then I stamped on a nice swirly pattern from BM-314, using OPI Purple with a Purpose. I didn't line things up as perfectly as I should have for the stamp, but I still like how it turned out!

I like the purple on purple stamping look. I'm going to have to try similar looks with different colors. A green on green would be great, or a brown on brown...the possibilities are endless!

Halloween #2

Today I went all out. My husband was gone for the day, so I had plenty of time to do something totally fun. I couldn't decide what would be best, so I went with a skittles look!

I used Sinful Colors Black on Black, Clementine, and Black Magic, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, and a red NYC polish. My sister brought the NYC and I forgot to look at the label. As you can see I went with plain Black on Black for my pinkie, Clementine stamped with Black on Black for my ring finger. On my middle finger I tried a technique I've never done before, saran wrap. I started with a base of OPI, then dotted on BoB and Clementine and then used a scrunched up piece of saran to dab it all together. 

My pointer was SC Black Magic, which I love. I may be doing just that on my nails before Halloween. It's a fun black micro glitter with orange small hexagons.

My sister actually gets credit for my thumb..my hands not steady enough to do any kind of free hand, even something as simple as that. 

I really need to get a different camera. My iPhone 4S just doesn't capture some of the details I wish I could show. Especially on Black Magic. 

OPI Definite Moust Have and Minnie Style

Happy Thursday. Took some time away from the dark Halloweeny looks, and went with a standard for me...pink!

These two polishes were from the OPI Couture de Minnie collection. I am a Disney fanatic, so you can bet I was all over this collection! Sadly, while I bought the whole set, I'm now short the liquid sand polish - which was totally a favorite from this collection. The story of how I lost that polish is tragic, and rather funny. Let's just say - I wouldn't recommend cramming a foam board nail polish rack full of polish if you have it hung on the wall in your bedroom. Unless you want to scare the bejesus out of yourself, your husband  and your dog at 3am, when said overflowing polish rack loses the battle to gravity and crashes to the floor. 

Enough sadness. Let's see the pretties. I started with two coats of A Definite Moust-Have. This polish is phenomenal. It's a corally fuschia/pink. I love it. There's a shimmer throughout that is only visible in the sunlight. Super creamy and opaque. 

Never one to leave a phenomenal polish alone, I had to add the glitter from the same collection: Minnie Style. It's got white and fuschia hexagonal glitter, an white square glitter. After looking up other swatches online, I realized it's not supposed to have the white squares. I don't know if I just got a mistake, or what's going on, but I'm kind of excited about it. I love both, but I'm partial to the uniqueness that the white squares add to this polish. 

The white squares, for me at least are a bit of a pain to get on the nail. Which is why they're only on my index and ring. I did my nails at work, so I didn't want to spend too much time fishing glitters, in case people walked into my office;) This is only one coat of Minnie Style. I think next time I'll use two, to see if I can't get more of the white square glitter on there. 

Halloween #1

One year ago this month, my obsession with nail polish and nail art started. It's gone from something my husband knew about, to something most of my family and friends knew about. Whih everyone finds hilarious...because if you know me, I'm about as low maintenance as you get. My beauty routine is wash, tone, moisturizer. That's it. Seriously. And now, there's the polish. Which for me, is like therapy..a way to decompress, and do something that brings some prettiness in my life. 

After finding my perfect Halloween orange in my stash, I decided to go pretty simple for my first Halloween themed mani. And to make it more poignant, almost this exact manicure was the start of all the fun last October. Aside from the fact that I had to borrow orange polish. 

Nothing says Halloween like some black and orange. Crackle polish is definitely not "in" anymore, but I do love the look. It's fun, different, and most importantly easy!!  I love that you can create different crackle patterns depending on how thick or thin you spread the polish. I used OPI Black Shatter over Sinful Colors Clementine for the pictures above.