Bundle Monster 206

Hello dear readers,

I'm up early today because we are taking our son to board the bus to sleepover camp this morning for his first time away for a whole month...Let's just say I'm a bit freaked out!!!!!


Anyhow, here is another green manicure.  I don't know why I was in the mood to use green again...

For this manicure I used China Glaze "White on White" as the base colour. I only used one coat, which was a bit streaky, but I knew it would mostly be covered with this full nail pattern from the newest Bundle Monster plate 206.

I used Konad Special Polish is green for the stamping.  Then I used my dotting tool to apply small dots of a neon pink, aptly, if not very creatively, called "Pink" by Sinful Colors.  I topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite Quick Dry, as I always do!

The only thing I really don't like about how this turned out is that some nails have a white border that shows around the cuticle. You can see it on the thumb in the photo below. Oh well...

Enjoy your long weekend, everyone!  (Can you recognize what kind of soap I'm holding? I bought a huge package of these bars, but both of my sons hate it!)

Remember to leave me some comments because I love hearing from you all! ;-)

Pink Wednesday - Pink Voltage (neon) with Bundle Monster Stamping

Dear Readers,

I've noticed many polish and beauty bloggers wear pink on Wednesdays, so I thought I'd post my pink manicure today for you to enjoy as well.

I stamped a design from one of my new Bundle Monster plates (BM-203) over China Glaze "Pink Voltage (neon)". I used Konad Special black which always produces a crisp dark design. I think it looks cool, but the dark overall design really covered the beautiful colour and made my nails look almost purple from a distance.

So when my mani chipped, I took it off and reapplied "Pink Voltage" to enjoy just on its own. This is what I am wearing today.

This is a great colour by one of my favorite brands - China Glaze. "Pink Voltage" has an awesome blue flash you can see especially in the sun.  And luckily I had lots of sun today! It applies thin - I used three coats - but it dries quickly and leave no VNL.  It does dry matte, but with a coat of Seche Vite QD topcoat, it really sparkles and comes alive!

I have "Pink Voltage" on my toes too, and I love it for a summer pedicure!'

I know this isn't a new colour, but I have never used it before, and I'm really loving it, so I hope you love it too.  Have you used this polish before?

Have a great day, everyone. And remember to leave me your feedback. :-)

Skullz - BM 225

Dear Readers,

I am really excited because I finally got the new Bundle Monster plates, and they are the first BM plates I've ever had.  I only have tried one plate so far, but I am impressed with the quality.  I am also glad they fit in my Konad IP holder.  I am sure you'll be seeing many future posts featuring the designs from these plates!

Here is China Glaze "Purple Panic (neon)" which is a gorgeous colour!  I used two coats, and it looks more like a hot hot pink than a purple to me.  I am sure I will use this colour a lot - it's right up my alley! It does dry matte, but after a coat of Seche Vite QD topcoat, it has an amazing shimmer!

I added the skull and crossbones design from BM 225 in Konad Special Polish (black).

Then, to add some depth, I stamped the same design again, a bit off, using China Glaze "Millenium".  I scraped a bit of the silver off to give it an aged, rough look.

I think this is a really cool design.  It was one I was really looking forward to using!

With an orange background, it would be great for Halloween! :-)

Hope you enjoyed this post, and have a great weekend! 

Please leave me some comments and follow my blog if you don't follow me already....   :-)

Crushed Candy Crackle

I know these crackle manis are all over the blog-o-sphere, but I really like how this colour combo turned out.  These blues are perfect for the rainy weather we are getting here today.

I achieved the diagonal crackle pattern by brushing the crackle polish on in thick diagonal strokes instead of straight down.

I used 2 coats of Sally Hansen's "Pacific Blue" as the base for China Glaze's Crackle Polish in "Crushed Candy".

Hope you enjoy this post, and have a great start to your week!

It's about time...

It's been soooo long since I posted. I finally got around to doing a "fancy" manicure.  This is a base of China Glaze "Agent Lavender" with the mesh stamped in "Sci Fi" and the flower in Konad Special polish in dark purple.  I find the Khromes ("Sci Fi" is one of them) from China Glaze so awesome for stamping!

Do you like how it looks to layer two different patterns on top of each other?

Lightning Bolt Crackle

I went to Sally's this week, just in time to grab a few of the only bottles of China Glaze's crackle collection that they got in stock. Sadly, these collections come out later in Canada than in the U.S., and they seem to be in short supply.

I used the white crackle called "Lightning Bolt" and though I've seen great swatches on other blogs, I was a bit disappointed with this polish. I applied it over Sally Hansen's "Grass Slipper" and it turned out looking yellow or light green instead of staying true white.  I'll have to give it another shot over other base colours to see if I can get it to stay looking white.

In the end, the effect looks cool, but I wanted it to look true white. I even applied a second coat of it after the first coat finished cracking, but it still appears yellow. The bottle I got seemed really watery too.

So far I like the Barry M special effects crackle polish I have in black much better than China Glaze's version, but I would still like to experiment a bit more with this polish and also try some of the other crackle polishes by China Glaze before I give up on them.

Has anybody else had this problem?

Plum Attraction Konadicure

Here's the konadicure I wore last week. For the base colour I used an old Revlon polish called "Plum Attraction" that is a shimmery reddish violet. For the stamping polish, I used China Glaze "2030".  I used part of a design from plate m78, then reversed the direction and stamped it again to create an original looking pattern.

I hope you like how this turned out.  Please leave me a comment, and have a great weekend!

Winter Break Konadicure

Hey guys,

Well, I am sad to report I have been sick with a lousy cold for my entire winter break, so far.  I finally felt good enough to do my nails and post the results....

This is China Glaze's "Flying High" - a colour I just never get tired of - with a stripe of black polish (Sally Hansen Extreme Wear "Black Out".  Then I stamped over the black freehanded stripe with this cute leopard print & lace pattern in Konad Special White.

Konad IP m57

Hope you have a happy and healthy New Year!

Black & Gold Konadi

Hey all,
Here's my latest konadicure. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black as the base and China Glaze 2030 for the stamping.

 The pocket watch was a beautiful gift that my husband's grandmother gave to me...I thought it looked perfect with this konadicure!

Hope you liked this post. Have a great weekend!

"Designer Satin" Konadi

Okay, so nobody commented on my yellow disaster from last post. That bad, eh?!

Well, here's what I did later that night when I took off the mess I'd made....

Ah...much better!  This is China Glaze's "Designer Satin" which is an older colour, but I just got it from 8ty8beauty.com.  I really like this deep raspberry creme colour for fall.

I stamped this pattern from IP m76 across the middle of each nail.  I used Konad Special White, which always makes a very crisp, clean image.

Today I peeled a bunch of apples to bake an apple crisp, and luckily my manicure escaped without harm.  Gotta love Seche Vite topcoat! Keeps it shiny and nick-free, and dries super fast without smudging the stamping at all.

Hope you all are having a great weekend.  Please leave me a comment, because I love reading your feedback!

"Happy Go Lucky" Manicure - epic fail!

Here's a manicure I just finished. I am not very happy with how it turned out at all. I used China Glaze's "Happy Go Lucky" from last year's Up & Away Collection.  I just recently got this colour, and I do like it. But I was somewhat impatient and rushed to add stickers before the polish was dry enough. So the whole thing turned out kinda lumpy and I'm probably going to take it off pretty darn soon.  The truth is...I can't stand it!!!!!

I figured I'd snap a few pics to share my sad failure.  It looks worse than this in real life, but it kinda makes an interesting photo, at least.  Ever do a manicure that you know is an epic fail as you are doing it, but somehow you just keep going?!

Well, hopefully I'll have something prettier to show you soon.  Now it's late at night and I better get some sleep...wish me better luck for the next attempt.

Note to self:  Konadicures are way better than using stickers!

Fall Floral

My sister brought me this Barry M polish when she visited back in the summer, but I just got around to using it this week.

Konad IP m57

black dots made with a dotting tool

This is Barry M's "Mushroom" with flowers stamped in "2030" from China Glaze's Khrome Collection from last fall/winter. I finally managed to get my hands on  a few of the Khrome polishes and they are awesome for stamping...but you have to move FAST! They dry really quickly on the stamper and won't stick to your nails unless you work swiftly!

I didn't have daylight when I had time to do my pics, so the photos aren't the best. Still, I really like how this turned out. I'm not typically a fan of how these "pooey" colours look on me, but this one isn't too "greige" so I think it's somewhat flattering.

What do you think?

Flyin' High with Konad

Hey everyone,
It's been awhile since I've posted because I was away for the weekend.  Here are a few pics of the konadicure I wore while I was away. I took these about three days after I did the konadi, but they still look in fine shape.

China Glaze "Flyin' High"

Konad IP m79 in Special Black

Orly Bonder b.c. & Seche Vite t.c.

I took these shots in my backyard around dinner time - yay, it's staying light out later!

I know, I know...a lot of pics! But I really like my prop in these shots - my wicked Ed Hardy Butterfly style glasses.  Okay, last one. I promise....

And our new camera takes really awesome quality images, which makes it really hard to narrow them down to only a few.  So, I hope you like having a post with this many pics of the same konadicure!

And a word about Flyin' High - if you don't have it yet, get it! It came out with the Up & Away collection and I really love the colour and super pigmentation.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave me your comments!

"Grape Pop" Konadiclone - Konad m62

To see what inspired me to try this konadicure, check out one of my favorite blogs:

Fab Ur Nails.

China Glaze "Grape Pop"

Konad IP m62

Avon Mirror Shine "Polish" (stamping colour)

in daylight

with flash

I was really excited to use this new polish, and I loved it! The colour is really pigmented and is a perfect purple! I also wanted to use the Avon Mirror Finish in "Polish" with it.  I find these metallic polishes awesome for stamping, as long as you can work quickly!  The result is a pretty subtle konadicure because the base colour and stamping colour are so similar, but I like it.

As usual, I used Orly Bonder as base coat and Seche Vite on top.

I got inspired to do this design by seeing a recent one by Thriszha, but her nails are way longer than I keep mine.  Still, I managed to fit in both images from m62.

Hope you enjoy this post.  Please leave me some feedback!

Konad New Plates!

Designs from Konad IP m77 in Special White

One Coat Finger Paints "Tangerine Tint"

One Coat China Glaze "Bare if you Dare"

Sally Hansen (glitter) "Encore"

Yay!  My new plates arrived from OCnailart.  I didn't want to do a new konadicure until I got these plates, so when they arrived, I jumped right on it!  The only problem was, I had too many choices, and it took forever to decide which plate and which pattern to use first.

Unfortunately, I did this late at night and woke up to find one smushed nail.  DRAT!  Also, I'm not totally sure I like the colour I ended up using as the base, but I love these gems and pearl strands! After all, your nails are jewels - not tools! Ha, ha, ha....

Hope you enjoy this new design...I'll be doing more from the new patterns soon.

Please leave me some feedback - I love your comments!

Purple Bling

         China Glaze "Spontaneous" (2 coats)

I was in the mood for something different from my usual konadicure, so I used some rhinestones instead.  I actually picked these up at the dollar store while my son was at his breakdancing class.

This is 2 coats of "Spontaneous" which is actually a bit more reddish violet than it looks here.  For some reason my camera made it look more bluish no matter what lighting I used.  There is a bit of drag near the cuticle on some nails that you can see in these close-up macro shots.

I added some rhinestones in circle, flower and triangle shapes, in white, yellow-orange, lilac and bright violet on the thumb and ring finger.  All but the flower have self-adhesive backs, which makes placing them easier.  I used tweezers to grasp and position them.  For the flower, I dabbed a bit of Seche Vite topcoat on the nail and placed the rhinestone.  Then I coated the gems and the whole nail generously with topcoat to seal them in place.

My older son was not impressed with this manicure.  He said it wasn't very fancy and missed my stamped patterns.  That cracked me up!

Oh well, it's been a couple of days and this mani is starting to chip - I did a lot of cooking and washing dishes yesterday.  There's just the excuse I need to plan another manicure!

Hope you enjoyed this post.  Please leave me your comments.

Love Tips

China Glaze's "Tantalize Me" (2 coats)

Color Club's "Power Play" on tips

Heart tips design from Konad IP m73 in Special White

"Tantalize Me" was given to me by a friend. It's not the type of colour I'd normally wear or buy for myself, but as a base for a modified french manicure, I kinda like it. It's a rather sheer colour, but the duochrome bluish shimmer makes it interesting.

"Power Play" is a deep purplish pink that I really love. Together, this makes for a romantic Valentine's Day-appropriate manicure.

Hope this post helps to get you thinking about l'amour. What will be on your nails this Valentine's Day?