PROUD! my first nail stamping

I have a long way to go before I can pull off the stuff Ainos2 does at at all Glammed up, but I am off to a good start. I thought my first nail stamping would suck waaaaaaay more, but this isn't that bad for my first try. I started with a base of N.Y.C. Water Street Blue, then used Sally Hansen Chrome in Sapphire to do the stamping. I added a coat of Pure Ice Oh Baby and a coat of TC.

Next time I stamp, I will use a non-chrome polish as this dried way to fast for a beginner like me. I did stamp my index nail on upside down lol. Also I switched to using a cut up store card - sorry Fabricland!

Overall I thought this was easy to do and am already planning my next nail art

Also if you don't come back and share new stuff with us, please don't erase your blog - my goodness, there is some amazing nail art on there!

a coat of Pure Ice is hiding some pretty obvious goofs in this mani.....

stuff I used

the aftermath

Below; after stamping...... I had to double stamp horizontally on my middle and ring nail but could'nt match the pattern at all I think that is advanced stamping and out of my skill range for now..... I waited too long between picking up the image on the stamper and stamping my nail.

Index ( far right ) is upside down - whoops, lol

This is an awesome colour with an awesome formula ( Love NYC In a New York Minute polishes )

.... I think it's been a while since I have used Pure Ice Polish's

............................. so proud

o

Fingrs Art Nail Stamping kit and a blobby mani

Almost all the reviews I have read have been good for this nail art stamp set from Fing'rs Flirt. I picked this up at Walmart Canada both packages came to $15.00 - ish. The scraper works well if you don't apply alot of pressure, however I will be trying the gift card/credit card scraper tonight when I play around with this. In the mean time I have stamped out the designs using NYC Skin Tight Denim. The white polish that this set came with works just fine =  I just wanted to stamp on White paper.

I think this is a nice little set, and if you live in Canada and are hurting to purchase more of an assortment  of stamping plates, those 'As seen on TV' stores in most malls have the Salon Express set along with a separate package of 25 plates extremely similar to the first edition Bundle Monster plates for $19.95 each.

For now I am happy with this. There is some awesome new Fing'rs and Nailene products that have appeared on store shelves recently. I really, really want to see what the Artist Effects Top Coat from the Nailene Artists Expressions  looks like over black (cool or warm -  they both look really pretty). Has anyone tried it yet?

for my sample stamping I used N.Y.C. Skin Tight Denim..... I need to be a bit faster, and use a thinner polish.  Each image came up fine, but think I was too heavy handed with the scraper. (I know its a learning process )

 ... and my blowey blob mani for today. This is 3 coats of Wet n' Wild White, I added a few small drops of each polish and blew..... waited till it was sorta dry and applied a coat of Top Coat.

Billie Cosmetics Electric Blue

Billie Cosmetics Electric Yellow

my last blowey blobby manicure...... I tried to do the 'Splatter Mani' where you dip a straw into polish then blow the polish onto your nails and could not do it! So I just applied small drops of polish onto my nails and blew! This is waaaaaaaaaaay less messy!

o

Shopping my stash

There is literally hundreds of polish's I want that I will never get my hands on, mostly due to self discipline. Even though I have soooooooo much and am able to aquire what I want pretty much instanteously, I have some serious self discipline. I still have those pangs of jealousy and 'I-want-it-right-now' feelings and despite that I keep myself in check and try to utilize what I already have and look at my own things before running out to the store.

the results of layering this polish over a dark base was a surpise to me. I have had this rediculouly cute mini bottle of Sally Girl Way 2 Disco for a few years and have layered it over other polish's but I did not realize that there was such a huge colour shift = especially over darker shades. I bought it for the sheer glitter and used it a couple of times then tucked it into the top drawer of my Deez-elmer.  I have seen soooooo many blue to green shifting glitters and cant beleive I had this sitting in a drawer. Here I have layered 3 coats over Nina Ultra Pro Out of The Blue. All my photos are crappy indoor lighting but that is the best way fro me to photograph the colour shift.

also; NUBBINS -  I will be cracking down on my beading crafts as well as digging outside inb the garden for the next few days.

HERE is a GORGEOUS example of Way 2 disco over a lovely puple creme

a few irridescent glitters I rounded up ( I looooooove Love My Nailz Dazzling )

Elf Twinkle Twinkle is an irridescent polish that is $1.00 - I have used this quite a few times

o

Nail Fetish 3 stripe mani

I think using the orange polish was a mistake for this 3 stripe mani; just because it is a frosty finish and not because of the colour. I picked up these old Nail Fetish Polish's from The Dollar Tree USA in Summer of 2011. They came with a sheet of neat silver holographic stickers.

The base is 3 coats of 'Babe', I waited till it was sorta dry then applied the tape. The pink polish 'Tank Top' applied perfectly in 2 coats but the orange 'Clash' took almost 4 coats to cover up the purple base -  it was horribly frosty and took forever to dry.

Frost polish finish's are my least favorite - I try to avoid buying them in the first place and only incorporate them into manis and nail art in small doses.

from The Dollar Tree USA ( summer 2011 )

I used that fancy office tape

o

Why?

The colour and formula on Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polish's is impressive, but the double polish configuration from Summer 2011 is just ridiculous. I have nothing but praise for Sally Hansen Nail products but this one has me scratching my head. I picked this up just after X-mas, wore each polish on it's own shortly after then tucked it into my deez-elemer, forgetting about if for several months.....

Since that time I had noticed a strong nail polish-ey scent in my craft room/make beleive nail salon, but could not figure out where it was coming from. I meticulously inspected each bottle I own, ensuring that they were properly closed and that there were no cracks or flaws in the bottle caps but I could not figure out what it was. 

..... it was this polish bottle, grrrrrrrrr, It did not seal properly so month after month the polish chemicals were evaporating!


The colours are fabulous and this combination is eye-catching but the deliver sucks. I am not surprised they dont sell these anymore ( at least up here )
















The yellow polish, Lightening, is a nice shade of yellow. On my ring nail is Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow for comparison ( If you have a hankering for a nice yellow polish, just buy this instead). To paint my nails I had to yank out the brush stem and use that instead of that weird oblong cap.... and I didn't do a very good job.

and the lovely chevron mani

messy and not worth it - but I only paid a buck for this polish duo so I shouldn't complain - but i will

After decanting the polish into cute mini bottles -  I can safely say I will never do this again.... there was polish everywhere! These two polishs are dupes to the X-treme Wear polish's pictured below. The X-treme Wear polish's are way easier to work with, more ecenomical in volume and have lids that close properly.

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening = Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Mellow Yellow

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Brisk Blue = Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Blue Me Away

 

My mani today is a basic ruffian, I used nail tip guides at the base of my nails becuase my free-hand ruffian manis never look right to me. Below is 2 coats of the Insta Dri in Lightening

 

I applied the deep french curve at the base of my nail

added 2 coats of the brisk blue

waited till it sorta dried, then removed the french tip guides and added a coat of TC

This colour combo is pretty awesome.......

.....and 1 more photo

o

Flim Flam! Franken

 I found this awesome glitter at THE DOLLAR TREE CANADA! and had to whip up a franken ASAP. My heart was set on a pink/orange combo but this rediculously bright yellow flourecent glitter swayed me to whip up a 'Floam' like mani first.

I thought that the clear polish I usually use for fankens would dissolve the colour of the glitter but after two days there is still no bleeding......

I used a base of Wet n Wild White and applied 3 coats of my fanken 'Flim Flam!' This was a hungry glitter and even after  3 coats of TC it is still bumpy. I am excited to wip up at least 2 more of these with the neat glitter I found at THE DOLLAR TREE IN CANADA!!!!!

 I found these awesome glitters at THE DOLLAR TREE CANADA! I am happy that The Dollar Tree stores showed up in the big city ( Wpg ) ..... Now if a Diaso would end up in my Provence somewhere I would never complain about my nail polish availability ever again!

 I also picked up some beads and a few other crafty things.... no nail polish this time. They had a few displays of Billie Cosmetics nail polish which was awesome, but I already have evey single one!

 These are matte neon glitter, I think I will make a green and purple mix next. The other package of glitter is a sheer easter-grass-like glitter which also did well in the clear nail polish base I use....

Always have tape on hand to seal up these little packages of glitter!!!!

 I mixed up the yellow and blue ( this is supposed to be a good photo of the re-sealed glitter packs )

 stuff i used ( check out that settling )

clockwise from thumb - 1 coat, 2 coats and 3 coats with blobby touch-ups

here is 1 coat - note that texture, this was still bumpy after 2 coats of TC

..... and a few more photos

o