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!

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!!! 

Sinful Colors Leather Loose

I have a love hate relationship with matte nail polish. I love the way it looks, but I despise the way it applies. I have a Zoya Matte green that I cannot for the life of me apply without streaking. So when I found a few of the Sinful Colors Leather Luxe collection at Walgreens, I knew I had to pick them up, but was convinced that the swatches I saw online would not be duplicatable on my own nails.

I was SO pleasantly surprised!!! I've only used one, but it applied absolutely perfectly!!! First coat=streaky, second coat=amazing!!  I give you Sinful Colors Leather Loose. 

It's a dark chocolatey brown, with a golden shimmer. A shimmer in a matte nail polish?? Yes please! It such a great color. I've used matte topcoats over brown before so I knew it had potential, and I was so pleased with how it looks on the nail.

 I wore this all day, and then decided a gold stamp would jazz it up even more.

I stamped on Sinful Colors Gold Medal, using BM plate 318. Gold medal is from the new Decorate Decadently display at Walgreens. 

It's not very often a color makes it on my nails for more than one work day, but this one has managed to wow me enough to stay put. I was even pleasantly surprised that there's only minor tip wear, considering mattes are notorious for chipping and I bang away on a computer all day long.  Good luck finding Leather Loose. The press release for the Leather Luxe collection just came out, but I've only found random bottles scattered at the walgreens I've visited. Wish I had known about this collection before it was so hard to find!

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. 

Butter London Tea & Toast

And so it starts.  Actually, so it becomes public knowledge.  The nail polish obsession "started" a while ago, but us two cousins decided that it was probably time that we put all of our swatches, manicures, and ideas in a single spot.  And so a blog is born.

Today Jasmine and I finally split up the Butter London polishes we received from the Zulily sale a few weeks ago.  So of course, I had to use one of them right?

Butter London Tea and Toast
This color is fantastic.  Beautiful caramel, flowed onto the nail so smoothly, and was totally opaque in one coat.  One coaters are my favorite, seriously!

But me, being me, I couldn't leave well enough alone.  So I stamped on some animal print using Sinful Colors Black on Black.

Can't wait to try more of the Butter London polishes that came in the Zulily Diva Set!!