Indie Brand Manicure Contest Entry

Nails by Kayla Shevonne is holding a nail art contest and I, like a ninny, have waited until the very last minute to post my entry even though I finished and photographed it weeks ago. The theme of this contest is Indie brand polishes. Everything, or nearly everything, used has to be a polish made by an independent nail polish brand.

In order from pinkie to thumb I used: Chromatological Constructs (CC) Kashmiri Namkeen Chai, CC Chough, Nail Venturous Lacquers Granite, CC Kashmiri Namkeen Chai, CC Chough.

On the pinkie and index nails I did a gradient using CC Bai Hao (Oriental Beauty). On the middle nails I gradiented with CC Chough.

I then did a glitter gradient on the pinkie and index nails with Sonoma Nail Art Clockwork. I used CC Bai Hao to create the lace patterns and the design on the middle nail as well.

With a toothpick I placed individual glitters from Sonoma Clockwork onto the lace patterns.

Chromatological Constructs is a line I have been working on myself over the last six months. Chough is a polish from the Corvus collection. Bai Hao and Kashmiri Namkeen Chai are from the Camelia Sinensis collection. These polishes are not for sale yet but one of my goals this summer is to get the materials I need in bulk to be able to produce these for sale.

Where holo you been all my life?

So you know how I mentioned the Jade holos in my last post? Yeah, well, I kinda went and bought two of them not long after. LOL! I bought Magia Negra and Vermehlo Surreal from the lovely ladies at Ninja Polish and let me tell you, these two polishes are GORGEOUS! Better yet, I'll even SHOW you!

First up is Vermehlo Surreal, two coats with top coat, in full sun:

And with a gradient of OPI DS Extravagance on the tips, also full sun:

And Magia Negra, two coats with top coat, taken indoors in full sun:

Some people have said the Jade holos don't play well with base coat or top coat but I had no issues applying them over my usual base of OPI Nail Envy nor any loss of the holographic effect when I put Out the Door top coat over it.

You might be wondering what I did for my second day wearing Magia Negra since, if you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know I can never leave a mani alone for the second day.

I decided to layer the two Jades.

That's right, I layered a coat of Vermehlo Surreal over my existing mani of Magia Negra. Then I stamped a small design with Wet'n'Wild Black Creme. Is it as spectacular as it sounds? I'll let you be the judge ;)

And it even matched the dress I wore that day! What a stroke of luck!

Just Spotted a Gradient

Last year so many people were going gaga over Chanel Peridot that my anti-popularity filter went into overdrive. I hate feeling like part of a mob when something gets popular, thus my dislike of Brittany Spears, the Backstreet Boys, and why it took me so many years before I finally broke down and read the Harry Potter books. The price tag was a big contributor to my antipathy towards the color as well. I mean, really, $26?

Fortunately there are a few companies now that have come out with duplicates, the latest of these being OPI with Just Spotted the Lizard from the company's newly released Spiderman collection. Obviously I don't own Chanel Peridot myself but I've seen some rather convincing comparison photos.

I think you've probably figured out by now that my mani for today's post has to do with OPI Just Spotted the Lizard. I was fortunate enough to snag a bottle this weekend before the OPI booth sold out of it.

 Two coats, full sun

Two coats, shade

It really is a lovely duochrome. I'm just glad I didn't have to spend anywhere near $26 for it! Rather wishing I hadn't filed my nails quite so far down for work however. Oh well, they'll grow back. Now at some point with this mani I knew I wanted to add a gradient but I decided to do a little stamping first to add a bit more visual interest.

 Stamping with Chameleon Waltz, artificial light and flash

Indirect lighting

And then I added the gradient with the same polish as the stamping, Chameleon Waltz.

 With flash

Indirect lighting

Such a pity there's no sun today, I'd love to get a better photo of the lovely blue-purple duochrome of Waltz. Unfortunately it just doesn't seem to photograph well in indirect lighting.

What I Wore to my Friend's Wedding

A couple weeks ago a very good friend of mine from school got married and asked me to do her nails for the big day. I was still in school at the time and got to give her a mani/pedi (and get credit for it too, bwahahaha!) For her toes she chose Wet n Wild Blue Wants to be a Millionaire. On her fingers she went with a variation of a manicure she'd seen online. The original was a pale gold with a champagne-colored glitter gradient on the tips, her variation was a pale blue with a silver glitter gradient. We used Maybelline Wet Shine Diamond Gems in Sparkling Opal as the base color and Nicole by OPI Make U Smile for the gradient.

Of course I still had to get my own nails done once I got home! For a base I chose Pure Ice Jaguar and layered a coat of L'Oreal Silver Sparkle over it and a coat of a self-made flakie polish (Angel's Breath, made from TKB's flakies) over that. Of course it was cloudy and I was under time constraints so I wasn't able to get any photos of my base color alone but here's a photo of the polishes I used, and one of the finished mani:

I'm so happy for my friend. I hope her and her husband have a long and happy relationship together <3

Franken Time and Zoya Charity

If any of you follow Zoya on Facebook (and if you don't you totally should!) you would have heard about the buy two, pay only shipping promo they had a few weeks ago. I was lucky enough to be able to take advantage of the promo and let me tell you, it was VERY difficult picking just two! In the end I decided on Yara and Charity (Dakota, you will be mine someday) and I'm very happy with my choices. Of course, when they finally arrived I had to use one right away! I decided to use Charity first since Yara has been big in the blog scene more recently and let me tell you, this polish is GORGEOUS! I've been looking around for nice dusty mauve and this certainly fits the bill but there's also a delicious copper/gold shimmer that just makes me want to stare at my nails all day long. I'm such a sucker for copper and gold shimmers XD

Two coats and top coat, taken in full sun

I've got to tell you, most online swatches don't begin to do justice to this polish but I've done my best. I definitely recommend clicking the photo to see the full sized image!

After a day or so I decided to add a bit of bling so I grabbed one of my newest frankens, Rust and Rhinestones, a dark orange-red packed with copper, orange, and holo glitter (ingredients: Rimmel Hit the Street, Rimmel Torrid, SuperNail glitters in Sunset and Silver Rush) and sponged a gradient on my nails.

Swatched on its own, two coats and top coat, full sun

I really love frankening and making my own colors. I think I need to start pricing out all the stuff I need to make my own polishes. I'm going to make it my goal to have my own indie line of polishes by the end of the year!

Team Dyan Manicure

Hooray for snow days! That means I get to post this mani a day earlier than I was originally planning :D I'm especially happy because this mani is in honor of a very special young lady named Dyan. Late last year Dyan had a serious medical emergency but every day she is getting better and stronger. Her and her mother have an incredible determination to overcome the obstacles that have been placed before them that I have found very inspiring. And so, when a group of polish lovers, bloggers and non-bloggers alike, came up with the idea of doing special manis in honor of her I immediately started brainstorming ideas.

When I found out that Dyan loves the color blue I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to use my bottle of Sinful Colors Ciao Bella that I bought for my 4th of July mani last year. This is two coats, no top coat:

Please excuse my lack of cleanup here, there's a bit of layering to come yet.

I love this shade of blue but I'm not sure it really works well on me so I grabbed my bottle of Liquid Euphoria Euphoric and layered one coat over Ciao Bella:

Unfortunately my camera just couldn't capture the true beauty of this polish. Such a magnificent blue/green/teal shift! Next I created a gradient with Jesse's Girl Glee:

At certain angles you couldn't even tell the difference between the areas with the gradient and those without but I managed to get a photo at the right angle to see it. At this point I finally put a topcoat on so I could start with the stamping. I used one of my newest frankens, Orchid Wine, to stamp with Mash plate M-25, then I layered Mash plate M23 over it with OPI DS Classic.

Best shot of the DS Classic stamping I could get

I love how the final results of this mani turned out and I hope Dyan likes it as well. May you have a swift road to recovery, Dyan!

In case you haven't seen them, here are a few more Team Dyan manis:

On Pretty and Polished

On Rebecca Likes Nails

On Sonoma Nail Art

On Polish Ninja

On Dressed up Digits

On Good Lack, Nail!

Belated Holiday Nail Art

I was just now looking through my unposted photo stash and realized that I never posted my Christmas or New Year manis! Shame on me! So I'm posting them now. Better late than never . . . right?

First up is a mani I did for a friend at school. I used Milani Ruby Jewels and Pure Ice Peach Sorbet:

Next is the mani I did the week before Christmas. The base is Zoya Sooki with a coat of Milani Ruby Jewels. The stripes are China Glaze It's Alive and Sinful Colors This is It and the "snowflakes" are NYC French Tip White. I think the glitter on top is Wet n Wild Hallucinate.

And last but not least, my New Year mani. The base color is Borghese Stellare Notte with one coat of Finger Paints Motley, Wet n Wild Blue Wants to be a Millionaire sponged on the tips, and a second layer of Motley on top.

Idyllic (WARNING: Photo Overload!)

Well look at that! I've got 200 followers now! Thank you so much to every one of you for taking the time to read my posts, comment or even just browse the photos <3

Speaking of photos there are a lot of photos in my post today! I apologize in advance but I just couldn't narrow my choices down any more than what you see here.

The polish I used for this is CQ Idyllic which you can find at just about any Rite Aid. The reason there are a lot of photos is because this polish is a duochrome. It has a brass/copper/brown/wine color shift that is perfect for Fall.

Artificial light

Above photos taken in the shade

Above photos taken in full sun

Of course you should know by now that I can't leave a manicure alone for more than a day or two so I decided to use ma.nish.ma Way Out Fuscia, a pink/purple duochrome glitter (also found at Rite Aid), and create a gradient.

Artificial light

Above photos taken in full sun

I know I just threw a whole lot of photos at you and I apologize again but I definitely recommend clicking for a closer look, especially on the gradient photos.

Up next: Giveaway time!