I scrub and scrub but they'll never come clean!

HIDEOUS! AND AWESOME!

My germs and bacterium manicure:


I don't even know where to start on explaining these bad boys. Suffice to say my friend Alikat came over for a girl's night and well...things got a bit silly!


I had been browsing my new bundle monster set and noticing all the cool little stamps that look like germs or bacteria. Lo there was also a french tip that looked like it would combine nicely. I painted my nails with 2 coats of Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White, and when that was dry I went to town. I grabbed a whole schwack of sheer/iridescent polishes from my stash including: Sinful Colors Fiji, Love Nails and Bali Mist, Sally Hansen HD Resolution and Hi-Def (both green) and Digital (bright pink sheer), Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lime Lights, And Nicole By OPI Respect the World.


I planned to french tip all nails except my ring finger on each hand, using the tip image, so before I stamped I wanted to ensure some sparkling colours would come through the stamp. I blotched on daubs of random sheer polishes across the tips of each nail. I then used more sheers and the stone stamp from BM211 to add subtle colour to the remaining white nail.


I used GOSH Nero and the bacteria tip from BM217 to stamp over the tips once everything was dry. On my ring fingers I blotched sheers all over the nail instead of just the tips. Then I used Nero and the germie images off BM211 and 212.


Then I switched to red. I used OPI Off With Her Red to stamp those same images from my ring finger onto the whites of the remaining nails. I was totally random about it. It was a lot of fun!


Time to dig out the dotting tools!
I used brighter more pigmented colours and dotted all over the place. I used a bright yellow and more Off With Her Red inside some of the bacteria. I used GOSH Nero here as well.


And I just spammed you with sooo many pictures! But this was totally fun. Not really an attractive manicure, and it has a LOT going on, but from a distance it has a kind of abstract art/graffiti effect that I really enjoy. :)

Thanks for visiting me and having a nail painting session Alikat!

Has everyone had a chance to take a peek at my 200 Follower Giveaway?

Cheers!
♥
JQ

2 different full nail stamp images...

Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay, but things have been pretty hectic 'round here. :) Just a quick set of photos of two manicures I wore around mid May:

OPI Ski Teal We Drop and metallic silver eyes:


2 coats OPI Ski Teal We Drop, image plate BM212, Sally Hansen Chrome Crystal, Seche Vite.


OPI Off With Her Red and metallic copper curlicues:


2 coats OPI Off With Her Red, image plate BM 201, Sally Hansen Chrome Sizzlin' Bronze, Seche Vite.



We've been super busy landscaping (I'm surprised I've been able to keep my nails this long!) and I've been picking up momentum again on my tapestry. It's nice to see progress again!

Have you checked out my 200 follower giveaway yet?

Thanks for taking a peek!
♥
JQ

Cosmic Sparkles

Greetings Jellybeans!


This manicure started with 2 coats of L'Oreal Luminescence (a rich dark purple with subtle shimmer). I didn't really know what I was going to do next!


Then I wondered what it would look like with my favorite polish: Nicole by OPI's Count on Me, so I painted 2/3 of my nail vertically, leaving a stripe of the original polish showing to the pinkie side of each nail. Then as an after after thought I painted over the thumb side 1/3 of each nail with one of my Claire's flakies.


I tried and tried to capture the total awesomeosity of this manicure, but my camera failed. :( Imagine it with a shimmery intense fuchsia and royal blue and the little flakies really seem to float at different depths, refracting the light in an array of colours. It was so pretty I just stared at them constantly.


A few days back I discovered another cool cosmic manicure by You Nailed It! and her photos really captured that nebula effect! Definitely go take a peek cause it's wicked awesome.


There was SO much more fuchsia shimmer in these than the photos show off. :P


Okay that was quite a few pics for me. I usually like to keep it short and sweet but this one...I just couldn't decide so you got them all.

Just a shout out about my 200 Follower giveaway, in case you haven't had a chance to enter. Still plenty of time left though! :) Good luck everyone!

Lavendar Fishnet Tips with Teal.

Greetings Jellybeans!

This was my manicure that I did yesterday afternoon, after I anxiously checked my mailbox for the new Bundle Monster plates. They still haven't arrived, but I have yet to do the final check of my mailbox today so there is still hope for the weekend. :P Seeing as I was so revved up to do stamping I decided I'd better sift through my Konad and older BM plates to see if I could get inspired.


Up until this time I haven't had much luck with applying the tip images STRAIGHT. Yesterday I lucked out, or else I have just done enough stamping and lining up full nail stamps that I am intuitively applying the tips better. Anyways I'm pretty happy with the turn out! I kind of finished this mani at the last minute so I slopped on some lotion, and ran outside to catch the last light in an already overcast day. I still managed to capture some of the shimmer, but due to my rushing I didn't actually do a brush clean up around the cuticles, and the lotion makes my hands look sooo shiny.


First I painted the tips on freehand, using a pale lavender franken, then painted the whole nail in two coats of Nicole by OPI Count On Me (teeny tiny pinkish blue flaky). After that was all dry I used Konad image plate #m45 and China Glaze Avalanche (a purple metallic), Then I used a fine brush and Revlon 340 Ocean for the definition line (that extended 3/4 of the way across each tip, leaving a small undefined section to the pinky side of each tip).


I also used Revlon 340 Ocean to stamp the flower (bm02) on the pinky side of each nail, sort of half on the tip. I did clean up the excess green that landed on my cuticles, but that's the extent of the clean up I did. I used a little nail glue to adhere a dark purple rhinestone to the center of each flower, before covering everything with a good coat of Seche Vite.

I just want to make it known that I am in LOVE with Nicole Count on Me. I just want to slap a coat of it over EVERYTHING. Also. I wish I could eat it.

Okay. I go now. :P

♥
JQ

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