Stripey Power!

Now I have the stripey power!!!  Now I wield the stripey power!!!

How fun, right?  This is after 4 days of wear.  But still not horribly bad!  My favorite nail is my thumb in this pic.  A sort of diamond/ harlequin pattern.   I even got that last strip in the lower left corner!  I was tickled pink that that came through!  

Oh the things that thrill a nail polish-aholic, right?

I tried a mani I found on-line last winter.  It used tape like this but I didn't have any then.  I tried cutting strips of scotch tape.  CRUDBALL mani! :p

So I'm so happy I finally ordered some on Amazon. 

There is definitely a technique to this.

You must wait a bit for the stripe nail polish to settle or the color will bleed onto the base color when you pull the tape up and off the nail!

I look forward to doing some more with my new found knowledge 

AND do less fixing after pulling up the tape!

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow and Coral Reef and Seche Vite were used.

Goodbye August, Hello September!

Greek Bubblegum

She-who-shall-not-be-named came over the other day and we both tried on nail polish after nail polish.  I just procured this gorgeous palest lemony whisper-of-yellow polish that I was dying to use.  So I put a coat on in exacting detail.  Then since that coat was waaaaaaay streaky I put another on.  And the Seche Vite.  That's when the smudges started to happen for no reason.  The dings made by the summer breeze.  

The top coat wrinkling up cuz the stuff underneath wasn't dry yet... simply by looking at it wrong I swear!  Oh I was so bummed!  

 

Voldemort was having no luck either.  So she just grabbed a polish and I grabbed my new Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear Bubblegum pink and carefully put that on there and without further embellishment as we are so wont to do, we called it done.

Not bad for a mani done a few days ago right?  Yay, Xtreme wear!  I wanted to play today!

I ♥ me some konad action!  

Btw, I just found out the other day that, GASP, I think I bought FAKE Konad plates on Amazon!  Not real ones that I was led to believe I was buying!!!!   Oh I would have had someone's co-nads in a vice if I knew at the time!  My nail polish friends and I always wondered why some designs, clearly meant for the entire nail, were too small...  

insert emoticon with smoke coming out of ears here.  ...and a vice.

So the faux-nads have been doing pretty well by me.  

The ones that are big enough to use...  Isn't this pretty?

I had much fun this afternoon using the dregs of my ancient bottle of OPI's It's All Greek To Me. I'm going to see if I can find another bottle of this stuff.  

It's been such a fave over the years.

I put some Seche Vite, Bottle #3, on there after the photo shoot.  

I want to look at this mani for at least a couple of days!  

I hope you're having lots of nail polish victories this summer!!!  :)

Flowers for Sarah ♥

My nail polish fiend friend Sarah came over the other day and we had a jolly good time!

♫   Flowers everywhere!   ♪  

She took her nails to the florist and back again!   I love the art she creates. 

She was inspired by some Sally Hanson nail polish strips.  

One of them is on her pinky here.  

Btw, the strips were extras and had been out of their original packaging for a month or two.  Well the sticking power was completely gone even though the backing and clear plastic top cover of the nail strips were perfectly intact.  They would not stick to her nail for anything.  Just so you know, you'll have to use glue like she did if you want to use polish strips that have been out of their packaging for a while!!!

Here is the lovely artist herself on my deck...  She didn't know I was taking a pic at that very instant.  The look on her face suggests "What's happening out here?  What are you doing down there?"  Wonder if she'll be irked at me for posting this....  We'll see if this pic is still here tomorrow!!!

And the little flower gem stones on her thumbs complete the cute.  She's fearless!  I don't think I'd every try this!  Love the color combinations!

Guinevere's Diamond Dreams

*sigh* I'm having a love affair with Guinevere.  But more about her later...

Sally Hanson's shimmery Diamond Strength Diamonds covers this spongetastic mani!  

I rather like this one!

This is the last pic of the mani and the bottle of Diamonds before...

gravity snatched the bottle from my fingers and my glorious purple flowering clematis gobbled it up...  the black eyed susans snickering the whole time...  :p

It turned out to be easy to find but from this view looking down from my deck I thought I wouldn't see it again til springtime!

So a-england's Guinevere has made off with my heart! It's the antique pale mauve that you see.  Isn't she beautiful?  I've done my best to sponge it together with the blue Revlon's Dreamer.  I wish I knew how to make a really awesome gradient between the colors!

Just yesterday I looked at an air brusher in Michael's art supply store.  But it's a little too spendy.  I also envisioned how I'd work the airbrush with my left hand...  not pretty!  ha ha!  My sponging technique will just have to improve.  :)  Ciao!

Addendum:  OMG I just found this gradient tutorial and it looks so awesome!!!
Can't wait to try it!!!

try a little... kindness

Am I in heart with Rainbow Honey's new Equestria line or what!  I took delivery of one nail polish and having thoroughly examined the pictures of the other polishes I've decided I heart them all!  So here's what happened with this one...

Woooo, all those crazy sparklies are so pretty, right?  Rose, white, gold, and soft green glitters float in a delicate and sheer yellow base with an iridescent pink shimmer.  Broad daylight and no sunshine don't do the color enough justice!  

I have been on the hunt for a high quality soft pink polish with no iridescence but the drugstores have yielded no luck right now.  

The soft pink polishes are all too sheer it seems! 

Anyone have a non-sheer soft pink with no sheen or iridescence that they love?  

Well my latest soft pink buy was way too sheer so I went to Sally Hansen's Insta-Dry Snappy Sorbet.  There was a bit of a glop fest but it will do.

Sinful's Pink Glitter came next just on the tips.  

Then my latest fave A Little Kindness :)    Look at the awesome glitters of different shapes and sizes!!!   I didn't show step by step because my recent fingertip paintings have had ucky results. :p

But this is ok though!  SV on top.

Can't wait to slowly acquire other Rainbow Honey pretties!  

Happy Black-Eyed Susan season!

 

Pacific Blue Pedi

It's the Sally Hansen 'Pacific Blue' Xtreme Wear takin' it to the extreme all over my toenails!  ...this time during my 5-year-old's playdate!   

On jungle gym equipment no less!

So what if my husband adamantly maintains that he does NOT like this color what-so-ever on my toenails!  As my friend Shawn points out, we can all see how much his opinion means in this case  ;)