Monday, March 21, 2011

2 syruppy frenches and a guest manicure!

Greetings JellyBeans!

These are two frenches I did near the beginning of March. This first one started by sponging a few layers of Sinful Colors Love Nails, then halfway towards the tips a few layers of SC Bali Mist, and right at the tips a Layer of SC Fiji to darken it up. Then over the whole nail I painted one coat of Color Club Si Vous Please! and at the tips sponged a layer of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rockstar Pink.



For the second french I sponged 3 coats of sheer bluish tinted Claire's Pink (unnamed from a pack) trying to get a good gradation from base to tip. Then at the tips I sponged two coats of SC Show Me The Way which is this swampy green sheer with little flakies, but it made the pink look gold! Then over the whole thing I painted a coat of Sally Hansen Diamonds.



Both of the above manicures were stamped using Gosh Nero and Bundle Monster image plate# BM11

And this is one of the other guest manicures I did on my friend who was up for a visit the first 10 days of March. One half of each nail was Claire's Raindrops, and the other half was OPI Ski Teal We Drop. Stamped using Konad image Plate # m60 and GOSH Metallic Blue.


The stamp doesn't really disappear over Raindrops, but it takes on this weird floaty look. Super cool. I want to try more!


Thanks for stopping by! Hope everyone has a fabulous week!

JQ

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Dragon Scale

Hi everybody!

This one was a guest mani for my friend who was up visiting from the 1st to 10th (hence why I haven't been in to post!)


I was inspired by the Wet n' Wild fastdry Gray's Anatomy that we picked up while shopping. It's a super sheer polish that shines gray, fuchsia, and green. I thought it would lend itself well to a scale effect. I've been really wanting to try a snakeskin style manicure for awhile so we bit the bullet! We used four coats of Gray's Anatomy and still didn't get full coverage so I would use it in the future for layering, or sponging rather than full manis. Also, she told me that two nails just peeled right off within a day so I am wondering if that was just a bad combination with the base coat or if the polish itself a bad egg. I sure hope not! I lurv it.


My camera just doesn't want to capture the duo-chromeness on either manicure. This one looked grey green with a dash of pink but in the photos it seems more golden.


And this is the manicure I did for myself this morning.


My cuticles are icktastic right now. And I got black polish smeared into the dryness so it's staining. Also my nails are considerably bigger than the BM image plate so I had to match up the stamp on every nail but my pinkie. YIKES. and it shows. :( Kay now that I've made you notice that here are a few more shots. I got a bit better show of pink when I went in the shade. All of these should be clickable.



In the photos the manicure still looks pretty sharp but the pink and blue sheen is almost invisible. In person these nails are delicious and shimmery blue emerald and pink under the sharp contrast of black. Any suggestions for how to catch that or do I just have to invest in a better camera?

For manicure #1 I used 4 coats of Wet n' Wild fastdry Gray's Anatomy, for manicure #2 I used 1 coat of Revlon Top Speed Ocean, and one coat of Nicole Count on Me (super pretty, tiny fleck, sheer, baby blue and pink). Then for the stamping on both I used BM image plate 21 Honeycomb and GOSH Nero. Seche Vite topcoat to finish!

Left to right: Nicole by OPI Count On Me, Revlon Top Speed Orchid, Revlon Top Speed Ocean, Wet N' Wild fastdry Gray's Anatomy. Again with the photos not capturing the prettiness. *SIGH*


Yep, that's totally a Lush shampoo bar container. It's almost perfect for holding my BM and Konad image plates. The lid pops off due to the weight of the plates so I usually have an elastic around it. Just one idea for storeage. I do really like the trick of using trading card sleeves and a binder for easy browsing. Might have to switch eventually. :)

Hope everyone is having a stellar weekend!
Cheers!

JQ