Different Dimension – Zarya

 

Happy Saturday, folks! I hope that your week is being kind to you and that you are finding time to relax or do something that you want to do. For those that work weekends, hope that your day is quick and easy! Today on the blog I have a polish from Different Dimension’s Shooting Star Collection called Zarya.

 

TGIF with Different Dimension’s Big Bang

TGIF, folks! The week has almost come to an end and I feel a bit of celebratory nail polish is in order, don’t you? For those of you who work on Saturdays thinking, “Screw you, I have to work tomorrow!”, you have my deepest sympathies. Rest assured that this post will be available to you any day of the week to celebrate YOUR Friday!  😉  Now let’s get to today’s polish.

Elevation Polish – Rapa Nui

Today I have another polish from Elevation Polish called Rapa Nui.  This is part of a blog sale haul you can see a pic of here, and I am really enjoying it.  The polishes from Elevation that I have tried thus far are great to work with and have amazing color.

Comic-Con Geek Week Nail Art Challenge – Day 4

Inspired by a comic book

Hello, everyone.  Yes, me again, I know!  What’s up with THAT?  Just keeping up with the Comic-Con Geek Week Nail Art challenge.  Today’s theme is inspiration from a comic book, and the first thing that came to mind was Batman.  The yellow and black from the comic’s cover would surely be included in this manicure and I think I know how I can achieve a themed design with my newbie skills.  🙂

Colors and Plate Used

Cult Nails You’re My Dandy Lion

Blackheart Cursed

Cheeky CH47

I used Cult Nails You’re My Dandy Lion as the base and then did nail art with stamping and a brush.  My Cheeky plate set had some of the traditional comic book Zap, Bam, and Pows I needed to pull this off with minimal brush work.  The ‘BOOM’ in the middle is a bit wonky, but I’m sure you get it. 🙂  Note to self, swatching nails can and should be used to practice new techniques.  Another love I have that stems from Batman is that Adam West has a prominent part in one of my favorite animated TV shows, Family Guy.  Wonderfully irreverent and full of laughs!  But I digress….

I hoped you like this manicure, I think now that I have finally tried to use my brushes I am a little more confident in the thought of me being able to use them to make pretty things and not just blobs of paint.  Clearly I need a lot of work, but practice makes perfect.  Make sure to check out everyone else’s manicures for the day 4 challenge using the links below!

Dipped in Lacquer
Rachos Nail Love
Kate Kreatez
Seriously Swatched
Makeup and Nails not War
Glitter Me This
Galactic Lacquer

Thanks for stopping by!

SquareHue Salute Collection July 2013

Today’s post is devoted to SquareHue’s Salute Collection for July 2013.  You’ve seen many polishes from SquareHue if you follow and will likely see many more if you stick around. 🙂  For more information on what SquareHue is all about you can check my post here.  This month’s collection is clearly dedicated to the military forces, what with July 4th being the United State’s birthday and all.  While I was expecting either red, white and blue or a set of camouflage colors (light OR dark), I was surprised to see bits and pieces of what I had in mind strewn throughout this month’s collection of the appropriately-named polishes: Valor, Patriot and Honor.

Valor

Valor is a military olive green jelly polish that dries to a nice shine even without a topcoat.  The photos you see here are three thin coats and a layer of China Glaze’s Fast Forward Topcoat (my topper of choice, these days).  This color was very sheer so I did use three coats versus the two coats I normally use in a mani.  It did get me to a nice opaque color, although under flash there was some visible nail line (VNL). As usual, the application was smooth and drying time is decent, as I was able to apply subsequent coats within 3-5 minutes.  This applies to all polishes in the collection.

Patriot

Patriot is a bright blue sheer jelly polish, a bit lighter than the color found in the American flag.  I love it’s brightness compared to the drab olive green of Valor.  It definitely brings some pizazz to this collection.  As with Valor, this color was very sheer and VNL was evident in this flash photo.  With either a fourth thin coat, thicker coats to start with or perhaps some nude undies this will likely be reduced or eliminated.  Although how many of us really have the paparazzi flashes following us around all day for this to really be that much of an issue, huh?  These sheer polishes would be a no-no for stamping, unless you are looking for muted colors and are stamping over a very light base color.  Application and drying time were good with this polish.

Honor

Honor is a gold foil polish that, by the way, works GREAT if you like to stamp!  Take a peek here if you’d like to see it.  This polish was completely opaque in two coats although you can probably get away with a single coat if you really don’t feel like using two.  I think that their use of gold and the name Honor signifies the importance and value that honor has in the lives of all, especially those who serve to protect the freedom of Americans at home and abroad.  A special thank you goes out to all who are serving and unable to be with their families for this holiday.  Your sacrifices are acknowledged and appreciated.

So that’s the collection for this month.  How do you like it, do you have a favorite color?  Hope you are all having a great weekend.  Thanks for reading!!

OPI – Can’t Find My Czechbook

Happy (almost) Hump Day, everyone!  Today’s post is part of another set I got my hands on from OPI.  Their site is really awesome, you can ‘try on ‘ their colors and even adjust the length of the nails shown in the display!  Nail geekdom at its finest, I must say.  But I digress, back to the topic at hand.  The Euro Centrale mini set includes the polishes listed below:

• Can’t Find My Czechbook
• Suzy’s Hungary AGAIN!
• You’re Such A BudaPest
• OY-Another Polish Joke!

The polish swatch I am sharing today is called Can’t Find My Chezhbook (I just LOVE these polish names LOL).  It’s a baby blue creme that dries to a nice shine.  It was a bit streaky, but two layers gave complete coverage as you can see below.  It’s a bit darker/smokier in artificial light, so if you think the blue below might be a bit too much, it does tone down.  The photo below was taken in sunlight.  So, I’m wearing this color, and I think to myself, “Self, you should stamp something really cool and sparkly on top of this!”

So the color I chose to stamp on top is one of the colors from Color Club‘s 2013 Halo Hues collection, called Beyond.  I haven’t swatched it yet, but will eventually.  This one is a black linear holographic polish, so I thought it would fit the bill with sparkle and add some contrasting dark color too.  I pulled out my Cheeky stamping plate CH2, and proceeded to perpetrate the crime against nail stamping that you see below.  I don’t know what it is lately, but my stamping mojo is missing.  I hope I can get it back, because I LOVE stamping and it’s so disappointing when you try and the end result really isn’t what you had intended.  Oh well, pity party over.  LOL  It looks OK and I can’t wait to see it out in the sun, I’d like to see how much sparkle I really get.

Thanks for stopping by, as always, feel free to leave any comments if you feel so inclined.  Have a great week!

OPI German Manicure

Good afternoon!  This next manicure was made using a base of OPI Don’t Pretzel My  Buttons and stamping using OPI Schnapps Out Of It! and Bundle Monster 2012 plate BM-313.  I wasn’t sure whether to call it my German Giraffe mani, or the Carb Loader (pretzels and schnapps, get it?).  Yeah, that’s why I called it the German Manicure.  LOL  But I digress…….
Here is the base of Don’t Pretzel My Buttons.  This is a very nice, nude color.  A very light beige creme that would work with any color complimentary, I think.  It’s a but blurry and pardon my beat up cuticles..

OPI Don’t Pretzel My Buttons as the base

Here is a shot of the full manicure after top coat and a bit of cuticle care.

Final Manicure, complete with Burt’s Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream

Finally, a close up of my thumb, which came out the best in my opinion (even though this was before I cleaned up the edges. That really isn’t my thumb bleeding, I promise).  I really like this plate design and can’t wait to use it with other colors!

Crop of German Manicure Thumbnail

These are the only two colors I have from the Germany Collection, but I would like to get my hands on several others. 

Thanks for reading!!

Leslie

Neutral Stamped Manicure

Hello!!  Here’s a more subdued manicure that I tried out using a base of Finger Paints Blank Canvas Cream and a stamp color of China Glaze Harvest Moon.  The image I used is from a big Cheeky plate I got (not sure which) and the pattern is either wood grain or feather. I really like the colors, but together they seem to blend into my skin tone.  It’s nice, but will be using a darker stamp color with this base in the future.

Another view

Here is a close up of the pattern.  I really like it and will definitely be using it again with different colors.  The idea of full nail pattern stamps didn’t appeal to me at first, but now that I have done a few I think I get it lol.  Although now that I do, my nails seem to be constantly breaking.  GRRRRR

Close up of Stamp

Thanks for reading.  Hope you have a nice weekend!
Leslie 🙂

Some recent manicures

Scene Steel-er & Shine of the Times under a stamped image in Black Impressionism

Close up view

Nessa By Julep

Here are a couple manicures that I’ve done in the last week.  The first look uses Ulta Scene Steel-er  and Essie’s Shine of the Times over it.  The stamping is done with Finger Paint’s Black Impressionism.  That is currently my go-to color for stamping.  The Nessa came in my Julep Maven box for April.  There were 3 great colors, will post some pics of all of them eventually lol.

I’ve got some new stamping plates that I will be trying out this weekend.  The family and I are going to an all-day concert on Sunday, so I will be trying some funky new styles.  The only problem will be deciding on the final look.  Have a great weekend!!

Leslie  🙂