Holographic Franken

My fave of the holographic frankens that I made the other night.

All pictures have flash used so you can see the holo.  I mixed Finger Paint's Art of Theft with Cosmetic Arts silver holo.  My only wish was that you could see the purple on the nails that you see in the bottle.  I really like this holo.  I have no blue as dark as it is in my small collection of holos. What do you think?

Frankens!

Here's a little peak at the frankens I made that night that I could not sleep.

 4 flaky polishes

3 holographic polishes (no flash)

3 holographic with flash

Pretty aren't they?  I'll be wearing them and posting them, so keep checking back to see what they look like.

(click on the pictures to make them bigger and get a better view)

30 Manicure Challenge - Manicure #8

Manicure eight is metallic nails.

I decided to use a polish from a recently acquired mini set of a newly released polish from Shoppers Drug Mart (Canadian drug store).  This is First Class from Quo by Orly.  It's basically Orly's Rage, with a new brand name on it (the bottles even have Orly's signature cap style).  It's a nice color, but I was not a huge fan of it on me.

30 Manicure Challenge - Manicure #7

Manicure number 7 is a black and white manicure.  Now, the concept sounds pretty easy, but once you think about it and think about doing something unique, it clouds your mind and actually becomes a little difficult.  I don't think my idea was really unique, but I liked it.

 (no flash)

(with flash)

I used Wet N Wild's Black Creme as my base (imo the best black you can find, especially for the price), and I used Wet N Wild's White.  I wanted to maintain  the integrity of the brush stroke, and decided not to clean up the white spots.  I also used Essie's Matte About You as my top coat.  I find matte black and white tends to have more pow to it.  What is everyone's favorite black and white polishes?

Insomnia Begets Creativity?

Sitting here exhausted, cannot fall asleep, despite only getting maybe 2 hours of sleep in the last 26 hours.  Guess what one of the reasons I can't sleep is....  My mind would not shut off, so here I am mixing some hopeful goodies (which I will post the outcome).

I have the camera back and once I get some sleep I will be fixing up the photos I have on it so I can start posting again.  I do have one problem though, which I need to call upon the help of you, my followers.  I use the site picnik.com to edit my photos, but it will be shutting down.  Does anyone know of any sites like it to edit photos?  Or even a program that is easy to navigate, and free, to edit photos?  Please leave a comment if you do, I would really appreciate the help.

30 Manicure Challenge - Manicure #6

Number six of the 30 Manicure Challenge is violet nails.

 (without flash)

(with flash)

I chose a new addition to my collection, Orly's Oui.  This is a beautiful metallic purple with gold shimmer.  Definitely my type of polish.  Application was good, and dry time was good (Orly is known for uber long dry times).  I'm just in love with this color.

30 Manicure Challenge - Manicure #5

The fifth manicure is a blue manicure.

 (without flash)

(with flash)

This one took me forever to decide on, because of all the colors out there blue is the one I own the most bottles of.  I finally settled on a new addition to my collection, and boy was I not disappointed.  I chose OPI's Swimsuit...Nailed It!.  This is a very brilliant blue.  It's like a bright, dark toned blue.  It went on smoothly.  I could not stop staring at my nails while wearing this.  The only downfall to this polish is that it stained crazy bad, both nails and cuticles (I'm messier with wide brushes, and don't really like them).  Despite that this is a polish that I think everyone should add to their collection, it truly is an amazing color.

30 Manicure Challenge - Manicure #4

The fourth manicure is a green manicure.

(without flash)

(with flash)

I really wanted to wear one of my new polishes, that I'm now totally in love with.  This is Androgynie by Orly.  It is a very dark olive base with small glitter and bigger hex glitter.  The flash picture shows the base color better.  For some reason it was really hard to get the proper color to translate to film without it looking black.  The application was smooth, there's a lot of glitter in there too.  I would love to see other color with this type of glitter, it's such a fun polish.

30 Manicure Challenge - Manicure #3

The third manicure in the challenge is yellow nails.

The base is Color Club Almost Famous, the shimmer is Wet N Wild Cozumel (one of their Craze minis), the green glitter is an L.A. Color striper.  The stars used are meant for scrap-booking, from Martha Stewart.

This definitely wasn't a favorite manicure of mine, I was itching to take it off less than 24 hours after putting it on.  A bunch of the stars fell off in my sleep as well, guess they needed more than one coat of Seche.  The yellow is a nice color, it doesn't suit my complexion though, and I rarely use yellow.  Also I have found that yellow polishes tend to be streaky uneven pains in the butt to use, no matter what brand.

30 Manicure Challenge - Manicure #2

Challenge #2 is orange nails. I decided to try an unworn that I purchased last spring.

 (without flash)

(with flash)

I chose Finger Paints Outta Sight Orange.  It's a nice orange jelly with shimmer in it.  It went on pretty well, not really any issues.  This is 3 coats.  I somehow have a lot of oranges, even though it's another color I don't really care for.  I also used orange rhinestones and orange teardrop plastic pieces to make it a little less ordinary.

Found a Great Giveaway!

Lucy's Stash is hosting a 1300 follower giveaway, the prizes are awesome and the blog is a great read!

30 Manicure Challenge - Manicure #1

I recently found a 30 Day Manicure Challenge floating around some blogs and decided to give it a go myself.  I am making one change to it though, instead of it being 30 days, I'm making it 30 manicures.  I wanted to this because I might not have the time to change my mani each day, and if I do something I really like I'd like to wear it for more than one day.  Here is the challenge:

(click to enlarge)

I think this will be good, and fun to do because it will challenge me for some of the patterns/inspiration, and make me think a bit more out of the box.  It's also good to challenge yourself once in a while :D .

Manicure #1 is red.

(without flash)

I used China Glaze Poinsettia as a base (one coat), then put Color Club Feel The Beat over top (one coat), followed by Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure.  I personally am not a fan of red on my nails, hence why I dressed it up with flakies.  In fact, I own more pink than red, and I hate pink :P.  I guess I just haven't found "my" red yet.

Do you guys have a favorite red?

*PS.  I just noticed that I forgot to mention that I used Essie Matte About You as a topcoat.

Tinsel Revamped

In the usual me style for day 2 of wearing Tinsel Town I wanted to change it up a bit.  I recently bought some new shatters, and decided to add Navy Shatter (OPI) on top.

(with flash)

I honestly wasn't impressed by the results.  I think Tinsel Town looked better on it's own.  I will have to experiment some more to find colors that go well with Navy Shatter.

Tinsel For Your Fingers

I present you with China Glaze's Tinsel Town from their current winter collection.

It's a greyish silver glitter with fine glitter and some slightly bigger hex glitter.

 (without flash)

(with flash)

I fell in love with this glitter from the moment of application.  It went on smoothly, with no hassles.  It only took two coats for complete coverage.  This is like dream glitter for me, and I wish China Glaze had a whole collection of them, even part of their regular collection, of a rainbow array of colors.  This will definitely make it into my lists of go to glitters for quick easy manis.

Mint, With Sprinkles!

I decided the other morning to make a play on my previous franken, Frosted Cake. I wanted to use the same idea of the the jelly with glitter, but a nice minty green this time. I rather like the color that came out, but it seems a little short on the glitter.

(without flash, 3 coats)

(with flash)

I used the same polishes as last time, Essie Waltz (really love this jelly white for frankens, need more!), Wet N Wild Party of Five Glitters, and two different mint greens that I had in my collection, and some clear nail polish. It's got a nice smooth formula for all that is mixed together, goes on really well.  I'm thinking about making 2 more frankens that play on this (and will use the last of my Essie Waltz).  I know I want one to be purplish, but am unsure of the fourth color.  What do you think?

I Am Back!

As the title states, I am back! I do apologize for such a long absence. Since my last post I've dealt with increased work stress, which is now gone as I have a new job, with a nice regular schedule and guaranteed days off (so so so ecstatic for this!). I had also cut and bitten (so horrible of me) all my nails shortly after my last post, and they stayed that way until recently. I get frustrated trying to polish stubby nails and tend to take less care of them, so I felt it not in anyone's best interest to see pictures of that mess. Also the main reason why I wasn't able to blog was because my laptop's video card went kaput on me. All I had was a computer that is about 7 years old that isn't great for any of the activities I use mine for. Now I have a brand new laptop that is just perfect, but I still haven't fully transferred all my old info onto it. I have been polishing my nails again, and have taken some pictures (gotta find my previous editing program) that I will hopefully be able to create a post soon. I also have been rethinking my spending and have not been buying a lot of polish lately (trying my hardest to stay away from shopping, period).
That's it for now, happy polishing!

xox
Danielle

Gems

I have some pretty glitter to brighten up your day.

(flash)

This is Milani Gems over an off-white base. Really pretty glitter mixture. Application was as decent as I think you can get with multi-sized glitter. Removal was a pain, but that is expected.

Flirty/Shy

Today I have a very fun nail polish to show you. It's Flirty/Shy from Claire's Mood Polish line.

(as my hands were at the time)

(cold)

(warm)

(showing the mixture of cold and warm)

Now it did not show well in my photograph because my hands were too cold at the time, but normally if you have longer nails you will see that where your nail bed is it's the lighter color (warm) and once your nails are past your nail bed it becomes dark (cold). The last picture does show the opposite way of how the colors normally show up (had to use water to get it to change color). So you end up with a very interesting french like manicure, with less work.

This polish had a nice application, and actually dries in an odd semi-matte plastic finish, so you do need a top coat to make it look nice. Tip wear was about my only problem with this polish, as it happened quite fast. It was really fun to wear though, and I loved the "french" manicure effect it created. I found it so fun that I went out and bought two other colors yesterday.

Royal Gold

This was my mani a little bit back.

(flash)

Revlon's Top Speed in Royal as a base and Milani Jewel FX in Gold. My nails did give me the royalty feel while wearing this combo. Royal is a really nice jelly polish, but beware the staining! Where I had gotten polish on my skin stayed stained even after clean up. Definitely use a base coat with it. A little note as well, as you can imagine, the glitter was a pain to remove.

Silver Dazzle

A couple weeks ago I took a trip to the other side of town to check out a drug store that sells some brands of nail polish that I cannot get anywhere else in town. I was in luck, the reline was done on the Milani collection, so I was able to pick up a bunch of the one coat glitters. This is the first one I decided to wear.

This is Silver Dazzle from Milani. While it says that it's a one coat glitter, I felt that it needed two for full coverage. I was amazed by this color. I could not take my eyes off my nails, and I don't think any other color in the collection will be as great. It was also pretty easy to take off for a glitter. This is definitely a must have for any collection.