IsaDora Graffiti Nail Top SUBWAY GREEN!

Greetings Jellybeans!

I finally tried out my IsaDora Graffiti Nail Top! AWWWWWESOME! I got this set of polish as a Christmas gift from my sister in law and I'm so head over heels in love with it! Spam! :D






I found the formula of the base white polish to be a bit thick, but I'm used to working with those kinds of polishes. The Graffiti Nail Top was thin and super fast drying. If you want to read up on what's what with crackle polishes check out this fabulous masterclass by Lacquerista! I might have had to try this manicure a few times before it turned out but because of her post I got it on the first go!

The Subway green is sooo beautiful! Great pick sister! Thanks again!

And thank you everyone for popping by! Have a great week!
♥
JQ

Spring Bling

Hello jellos!

Anybody else wishing for spring? Well it already sprung on my nails. :P

I just want to begin by sending out mad props to Ainos at Glammed-Up for all her deliciously layered manicures. They remind me of those intricately hand painted silks I saw when I was in the fibre department of my art school. She's really inspired me to look at every polish for stamping purposes, to layer stamps and polishes and to try for partial stamping too! This is my first purposefully layered manicure. Not ONE special stamping polish was used!


I started with a base coat of Seche Clear, then one coat of Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lickety-Split Lime. When that was dry I sponged on three layers of OPI Green-Wich Village three quarters of the way up my nail, then a few layers of Sinful Colors Show Me The Way just at the tips.


My next step was to stamp a leaf pattern horizontally across each nail at about the halfway mark. To do this I used Revlon Matte Suede Emerald City and Bundle Monster image plate BM11 (the outline leaf rather than the solid leaf pattern). I was pleasantly surprised at how the stamp showed up, plus I was excited because I knew that matte polishes have a subtle glimmer after top coat is applied so I knew it would be purdy. :P


I then used GOSH Metallic Green and BM10 to stamp a random spray of little flowers. It also hinted at a dewy sparkle.


After that step I thought I failed my nail. I used GOSH Metallic Purple and BM06 to stamp the Dalia-esque flower. There wasn't very much contrast at all and it just looked like a light metallic pink blob on top of all that work! But I have seen stamping done over top of smudges of color-especially with flowers-before so I hurriedly chose the Revlon Matte Suede Ruby Ribbon and stamped on the flower image from BM03 over top. SAVED! And it looked prettier than I could have hoped!


I only placed the pink flowers on every second nail, then I placed rhinestone stars in the center of every pink flower, and a flower rhinestone coupled with a tiny round rhinestone on the other four remaining nails just to even out the sparkle.


Come on Springtime! :D
Thanks again for stopping by. I can't believe how my list of friends has grown and I thank you all for you support and comments! I want to say that I am on a hunt for GOSH Holographic and if I find some I'll buy two! One for me and one for my giveaway! Still working on that puppy.

♥
JQ

Happy Birthday Cosmetic Cupcake

Happy Birthday Cosmetic Cupcake! I love Your blog! Here is my post for your Big Birthday Giveaway.



Everyone! Fabulous giveaway alert! There's an assortment of groovy polish including BYS and Ozotic Pro (two brands I've never had the opportunity to try and a whole set of stamping plates! Wee! Even if you don't really do the giveaway thing I hope you will go visit her blog. :) Good luck everybody!

KONADLICIOUS' HUGE 1,000 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY!!

Everyone should check out Konad-licious' 1000 follower giveaway. It's jam packed with Australian goodies! A real assortment! This will be my first giveaway entry of the new year and I'm kinda REALLY stoked.

:) Cheers everybody!

Black and White and Valentine Manis

Hi everybody! I got tired of trying to get ALL my guest manis together for a couple big posts and decided that I'll just lob one guest manicure pic in with my current manicure posts. That way I can go fetch them one at a time and it doesn't feel like such a big project.

This is a guest mani I did for my auntie Judith while I was home was done by painting thumbs white and rest of nails black. Stamped the black nails using Konad Special polish in White and Konad image plate #m65 . Thumbs used Konad Black Pearl stamping polish and Bundle Monster image plate #BM14 . I layered up the single rose stamp in a pyramid on each thumb. Used my Art Deco Silver sparkle striper polish to add a little bling to the center of the roses. Topcoat was Seche Vite.


And this is my manicure from last week. Base color is 1/2 Sally Hansen Insta Dri White On, and 1/2 GOSH Nero. Stamped using GOSH Nero and Bundle Monster image plate #BM11, lining it up so that I got a line of crisp white between the solid black and the pattern.


I finished off with Sally Hansen Insta Dri anti-chip top coat. I pour this top coat into a smaller bottle that has a softer brush and I find I don't get nearly as much smudging on the stamp this way. It also helps the polish not to thicken up and get goopy as fast.


And finally my Valentine's day manicure. I just did something quick to match a black and red dress I found at the thrift store that fit me perfectly! I painted a little more than half my nail with Essie Lacquered Up and filled in the other side with GOSH Nero. Stamped using GOSH Nero and the full rose image off Konad plate#m65 (I love that plate) I didn't worry about the stamp overlapping onto the black side. It was visible upon stamping but because it was the identical polish when I went over the manicure with my SH Insta Dri Anti Chip Top Coat it just melted into the previous layer. :)


Sorry there's already a fair bit of tip wear, but I don't think it's the polish. I've been weaving taspestry all morning and the friction of my fingertips against those warp threads really does damage.

Hope your week is cheery!
♥
JQ

Christmas Haul

Hi everybody,

This is just a big picture post of all the goodies I locked down by doing fun manicures for family and friends. I'm really excited to show it all off, but really this is just filler while I go about collecting photos from all my friends of their funky nail-dos so I can do a guest mani post. Sorry it's winding up being about a week between posts here. I think that's going to be the norm until April, as I am working on a tapestry submission for an upcoming touring exhibition.

Also I promise PROMISE I am working away at my first giveaway. I'm pretty excited about it. I put my little stash together and I've decided I want to add a few more polishes to the mix, so that will probably take until after my next payday. But it's in the works!

Okay here are the pics :P

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in: Lightening, Brisk Blue, Lickety-Split Lime, Whirlwind White

I found out that the white, and the yellow will work for stamping. the yellow one, of course only really works on some colors, but I look forward to trying out the blue and green as well. Hey, I can do some fun manicures on light backgrounds. :D You can see I've used quite a bit of the yellow and white already. :) I actually picked up another bottle of white and I have a slightly different yellow which hasn't got a name just the number 04.


Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in: Gray By Gray, Thinking of Blue, Wet Clay, and Commander in Chic. Drool. The Thinking of Blue I've actually used as a one coater under full nail stamps. I love one coaters. Also the bruses are really wide, and I found they worked for me, especially when painting other people's nails.

SH Xtreme Wear in: Black Out, Sun Kissed, Lime Lights, Emerald City, Blue It, White On, and three frankens using 3 bottles of White On and a few drops of more saturated colors. Sorry I can't remember which ones!

Left to Right: Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamonds and Brilliant Blush, Joe Moss, L'Oreal Luminescence and Party Hop, Revlon No Shrinking Violet, Minted, Totally Toffee.


Sally Hansen HD Hi-Def, Digital, and Resolution, Red Girl-dollar store finds by the hubby-Star (holo hearts and circles) and Illusions (holo bar glitters), Cover Girl Disco Dazzle, and Pink Twinkle.


OPI Top Coat and Drip Dry, China Glaze Cheers to You and Midnight Kiss.


My first OPI! Green-wich Village, Ski Teal We Drop, Pamplona Purple, Malaga Wine, Off With Her Red and My Private Jet (Fweeee! SOOO spoiled)


Gosh is my new best friend right now. All four of these stamp and stamp well. Left to right: Nero, Metallic Purple, Metallic Green, Metallic Blue. I went out and picked up a second bottle of Nero already because stamping black is a staple for me.

And the IsaDora!

Graffiti Nail Top in Subway Green--Which is this most amazing dark teal YUM. and Plain White for the base color.

OHHHH Boy that was a lot of spam. Sorry for the lame color quality!

Cheers and have a great week!
JQ