Gemma & BM 202

Hello Dear Readers,

Here is last week's manicure.  I started with the lovely "Gemma" from Zoya.  Two coats form the base of this mani.

 (click on pics to view larger images)

Then I added the pattern from Bundle Monster plate 202. I used Konad Special Black for the stamping.

If you look at the thumb/pink, you can see I had a few problems keeping the pattern from breaking up or stretching, but I still like how it turned out, overall.

Hope you are having a great week.  Please leave me some feedback, if you have a minute.

Thanks,
glitterM

"Stone Cold" Stamped

Hello Dear Readers,

Here's another stamped mani I wore recently.  I used Orly's "Stone Cold" from their Mineral FX collections.  It is an amazing bright blue colour!

(click on the image to see a larger version)

I added a design on the tips using China Glaze "Millennium".

Hope you like this mani. I love hearing from you, so please leave me a comment, and I'll be sure to respond!


Have a great day. :-)

Stunning Stilettos with Stamping

Hello Dear Readers,

I have a stamped manicure for you today. I am behind in posting!

For this manicure, I used Finger Paints "Stunning Stilettos" as the base colour.  I bought it and then realized it was pretty close to the Barry M "Grey" I already bought awhile ago. Oh well...I'm sure you all have some dupes in your stashes too! Am I right, ladies?

(All images are clickable for a more magnified view.)

Then I added the curlicue design from BM 225, in China Glaze "Millennium", which I use often as a stamping polish.  It really stands out against a darker background, but it dries super fast, so you gotta hustle with it!

I wear a lot of silver or white gold accessories, so this manicure worked well with many different looks.  The neutral grey/silver makes it an easy manicure to wear, in my opinion.  

I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend, and I wish you all a great week.  Please leave me some feedback, as I love to read your comments.

Do you try to avoid buying dupes or near-dupes, or do you buy them anyhow...just can't resist?

It's been soooo long!

Dear Readers,

Sorry I have been away so very long.  We were away on a great family holiday to Turks and Caicos, right before the hurricane hit! Here is a pic I took while we were away.  My hands are so dry - sorry for the flaky skin! Anyhow, I figured, better late than never....

This is a stamp from BM 212 in Avon Mirror Shine "glisten" over Finger Paints "To-teally Chic".

Even though I swam and applied lotion to the kids and then swam some more, re-applied lotion, did snorkelling, jet-skiing, laundry, etc., this mani lasted almost the full two weeks we were away! (My pedicure wasn't quite as resilient, so no pics of the toes.) I think that Seche Vite topcoat is awesome and combined with Orly Bonder base coat, it's a winning combination!

Hope you are all enjoying the last few days of summer....

Blue Bundle Monster 201

Dear readers,

Here is the manicure I've been wearing for the past few days.

I used Orly "Royal Navy" (2 coats) for the base colour.  Here's a pic in front of my bookshelf. I arranged my books according to spine colour.  I'm so conflicted about my books... I love books, but in the last year I've been reading off my beloved Kindle.  Books.  Kindle.  Books.  Kindle....they each have their pros. Kindle is much more practical, but there's just something about holding a book and looking at the cover and seeing them stacked up on your shelf...ah, I'm getting way off the topic of nails, aren't I?!

 I added stamping from BM 201 in "Millenium" by China Glaze.

In this one you can see I tried a different design on my pinkie first, but I changed my mind because that pattern, while pretty, didn't leave enough of the blue showing for what I wanted this time.

Holding a weird part of a phone case.  I like finding odd props for my photos.

That's it. You made it to the end of my post.
Have a great week everybody. Please remember to leave me your comments. I love reading them!

Bundle Monster 211

Hi dear readers,

I wanted to post this manicure I did last night. Do you ever do your nails late at night and feel like you can't see that well due to using artificial lighting - and near exhaustion?!  The colours and stamping always seem to look a bit different in the daylight!

This is a base of Avon Mirror Shine in "glisten", a metallic, quick drying light blue.

The stamping design comes from BM211. I like the oval spotted pattern. I used Konad Special Polish in Blue.

Man, this macro lens shows flaws I didn't even know were there! Some of the stamping shows up a bit smudged or doubled but you can barely notice it in real life.  Unless someone had my hand really, really close to their eyes, it wouldn't actually show.

I really like using a cream over a metallic, or the other way around when I do a stamped manicure.  What about you?

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! ;-)

Snakeskin BM Manicure

Dear Readers,

I finished marking all of my exams and doing all of my report cards so I had time to do a really elaborate manicure, and here are the results of more free time...

I painted diagonal stripes, roughly, using Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in "Grass Slipper"  - a lime green that applies nearly opaque in 1 coat, and S.H. Insta-Dri in "Blue-Away"- a powder blue that applies similarly.  I randomly applied a few thin streaks of China Glaze "L8R G8R" - a holo olive green - to add some dimension.  Then, I stamped the pattern using Finger Paints "Evergreen Dream" (in the photo above) which is a shimmery dark green that is quite thin, but, surprisingly, it worked great for stamping!

Just in case that wasn't enough going on, I added a coat of Inglot 203, and holographic flaky polish.

I really think this has the look of snakeskin, and the texture too - just not sure if a snake this colour exists in nature!?

Have a great weekend, everyone, and let me know what you think of my latest design.

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. :-)

Last week's mani with BM stamping

Good Morning Dear Readers,

Here is the mani I wore last week.  It features Finger Paints "Curator's Coral" (2 coats) as the base colour. I really love this bright reddish-orange for summer!  

Then I added the full nail pattern from Bundle Monster's new plate BM-224.  I used Konad Special White polish for the stamping design.

As usual, I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite Quick Dry Topcoat to seal the deal.

The colour doesn't look quite right in either pic, but this colour does look different depending on the lighting.

Hope you all have a super weekend.  Please leave me some comments because I read every one, and I really love hearing back from you!

It's Not Valentine's Day, But...m83

Okay dear readers,

I know it's not Valentine's Day, but this manicure is all about the love!

I went a bit overboard with this one. In fact, I don't really like it, and I'll probably take it off as soon as I finish this post! My husband wrinkled up his nose and shook his head when I showed this konadicure to him. Ha ha ha!

I kinda like the thumb and ring finger, and wish I did all the nails the same way instead of having so many different designs.

Well, what do you guys think of it?

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Inglot 203 - Flaky Fun!

Dear readers,

I was so excited to finally receive my first order from Inglot. I only ordered one polish. I can't find SH "Hidden Treasure" anywhere. I don't have Nubar's Flaky topcoat.  I have no flaky NFU-Oh's.  So, when I saw Inglot carried some holo flakies, I had to order one with my Freedom Palettes.

I read that they were tiny bottles for $10, and that was no joke.  It is a tiny mini bottle (15 ML/0.51 US FL OZ) but the results were good, so it's worth it for a splurge.  I'm usually pretty cheap with what I will spend for polish, but I love how this turned out.

Inglot 203 from their "Dream Collection" shows up with a greenish-turquoise-golden flash, depending on what you use under it.

Here I put it over 2 coast of SH "Pacific Blue".

Sadly we have had no sun here the past few days, and the forecast is for rain, rain and more rain, so this is the best shot I could get, just using dreary rainy day daylight.

This is a weird pic that I snapped while experimenting with my new macro lens.  It's "flaky-morning-after-makeup", but I liked how the shot turned out and it shows a bit of my Inglot shadows (after I slept in my make-up - baaaad girl!).

Have a great week, everyone. And, as always, I'd love to hear from you....do you like flakies? Do you ever go to sleep without taking off your makeup?

Pink Piano - m73 Konad

Hello dear readers,

Here is the konadicure I did this week.  I wore it to a party with a black and white dress and hot pink lipstick!

I used Sally Hansen "Cerise" and "Black Out" with Konad Special White for the stamping.  The design comes from IP M73.  I used just the bottom part of the design to make a keyboard as the tip design, and then I used the entire design on my ring finger.

Here it is in slightly different lighting.  My dear hubby bought me an amazing new macro lens, so I've had a lot of fun experimenting with close-ups!

Do you like konadicures with an accent nail?

Oh - and Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

"Double Bling" Mint Sorbet Manicure

Hi everyone,

this manicure is one of the "thickest" I have ever done. I layered two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Mint Sorbet".  It is one of the worst polishes I've ever used. It was very gloppy and streaky all at once. It went on thick and then seemed to dissolve as I went over it.  I thought it would never dry, and I should have just aborted the whole mission, but I wanted to use this colour at least once since I just bought it!

Then I layered a coat of Nubar "Martini", an awesome pale green holographic glitter polish that has tiny glitter as well as bigger pentagonal silver glitter.

I should have probably stopped there, but I don't know what possessed me.  I decided, "more is more" and added another new polish I bought.  I slapped on more glitter in the form of  Sally Hansen Insta Dri "Snappy Sprinkles" which has both pinkish and green strips of glitter in a kind of thick sheer pink base.

The glitter in "Snappy Sprinkles" goes on a bit unevenly, so I just blobbed it on and pushed it around.  It dries really bumpy, with pieces of the glitter sticking up, so I needed two coats of Seche Vite to smooth it out.  It's still a bit "textured" shall we say, but at least all the layers did dry!

I'm not sure I even like this manicure, after all that... And, I know for sure it will be a royal pain to get all that glitter off!

Well, what do you think of this manicure? Please let me know...

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?

Glitter for glitterM

It's been too long since I posted. I have had many manicures but have been too busy to photograph them!

Anyhow...here's the mani I've been wearing for the past few days, and it has held up really well!  I layered 2 coats of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear in "Rockstar Pink" over 1 coat of China Glaze "Grape Pop".  A coat of Seche Vite QDTC helped smooth out the texture and bring out the bling!

I don't usually like layering polishes, but I really like how this turned out. The glitter on its own is too transparent for my taste, even though it is densely packed with pink, blue and gold glitter.  I love how it looks over the purple base.  In sunlight it is truly dazzling, but these photos were taken with indoor lighting.

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!

BarryM Instant Nail Effects - Crackle Manicure

My sister finally came home from England for a visit and she brought me the BarryM Instant Nail Effects crackle polish I'd been waiting for for months.  I was really excited to use it...and then OPI's crackle polish ended up coming out at the same time, so these crackle manicures have been popping up on many nail polish blogs.

Anyhow, here is how mine turned out:

I used Sally Hansen "White Out" as the first coat, but I probably should have applied more than one coat for a less streaky foundation. I was so excited to try the crackle polish that I really didn't even let that one coat dry enough - thus the smudgy looking thumb.

BarryM's crackle polish works great and with a coat of Seche Vite over it, it's lasted just fine for about a week already! I've had many interested people asking questions about this manicure, and I've received a lot of attention because of it!  So, if you can get your hands on BarryM's version, I'd certainly recommend trying it out.



Will you try a crackle manicure any time soon?