ABC Challenge - "L" is for lemon-lime

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Since I was so long winded last week, I will be short (for me) on this one. I don't think I'm keeping this mani on very long. It is below freezing, blustery winds, and snow is in the forecast - again!. It was meant to perk me up and make me look forward to spring, but it's just not working...

I took this week's letter to heart, and not only is the concept comply to the rules, so do the 4 polishes I used (all were in my stash, hard to believe):

Maybelline Color Show - Lustrous Lime

Jessica - Lime Cooler
Sinful Colors - Let's Meet.
Orly - Lemonade

First time sponging, and it was fun - definitely will be doing this again.  It seemed a little blah, so I put on a topper of iridescent flakies from Studio M, and a purposeful mistake - from a comment RiaG made last week - on my accent nail with Hard Candy, Piece of Papaya.  FYI - this color is AWESOME!  I may wear Papaya and make a blog post if I do. 


Before:                                                                                        After:  Topper is:
Not bad, but too blah for my mood...                                            Studio M - Covered in Diamonds

 

It was almost impossible for me to get a photo where the greens read as green - the "naked" one on the left was the closest I could get.  In real life, it's much more noticeable.  Probably because these were yellow-greens and not blue-greens, the camera couldn't make the distinction.

And as always, cheers to Kimber's Lacquer Korner for starting off this challenge - it's never too late to join. Just see her website, and request to be included.  It is a laid back challenge - once a week, as opposed to every day - because she realized that life sometimes comes before polish.  Shocking, but true!

Thanks for taking the time to read...and now, onward to all the other lovely ladies' submissions for the letter "L"...

ABC Challenge - "K" is for Khloe Had A Little Lam-Lam

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Here we all are again - wow, we are almost halfway through the alphabet!  This week is the letter K, and let me just start off with a rant.  I DO NOT like reality TV.  I think it is a major contributor in the dumbing down of Americans.  The stupidity and shallowness that runs rampant on this kind of TV is just...ugh!  Capitalizing on this type of "entertainment" is a family called the Kardashians.  I go out of my way to NOT purchase anything involved with that family, but they are not the only ones.  There are others, but I am getting too far off tangent here.  This is a nail polish blog, for crying out loud!

This is all leading me to the fact that the polish of choice today is from the Kardashian collection put out by Nicole by OPI.  Can I tell you...I hate myself for loving this color.  It was part of my St. Patrick's day exchange gift, so technically I did not buy it, so that makes me feel a little better.  Yea, I am going to run with that.

It is a dark teal, which looks like a dark evergreen in certain lights.  It goes on perfectly, is basically opaque in one coat, and dries to a glass-like shine.  Why, oh why, does it have to be part of the K-collection?  It does have one draw back - it stains like (a) _____ (insert favorite expletive here).  I was trying to be VERY careful with application, but had to do a second clean-up the next day for cuticles, which were a very nice pale shade of green, I must say.  These photos are three days in - constantly washing my hands, cleaning, hand lotions, and cold weather; my hands had a lot of abuse this week.

To add a little something to this color, I decided to do a cheat marbling.  I have not had much time to practice water marbling, and have issues with choosing polishes that will work.  Either they will not spread, or they spread so much that they break the pattern, and I need to clear the water and start over.  I didn't want to be staring at a cup of water all afternoon, so I brought out my trusty sheet protector from the letter "G" manicure, and did some pseudo marbling.  A few drops of polish, a toothpick, and 36 hours later, these are what I got. 

Yes, they look a little alien, but I did not want to drag the toothpick backwards through the polish.  The tentacles were cut off when I was shaping these to put on my nails.  But beware...you had better know exactly how you want this to sit on your nail, because once they touch the polish underneath, even if it FEELS dry to the touch, it WILL suction itself.  It was OK with this manicure, since I had so much base color mixed in the marbling, but if I hadn't, everyone would've noticed the big boo-boo on my thumb, not just me (and no, you can't see it in the photos above).

Didn't think to take a photo of these in, you know, DAYLIGHT, but you can see the shimmer that these polishes have in them.  Pretty impressive for such an inexpensive brand.

Couldn't quite capture the shimmers on the taupe and sage, but you can see a *little* bit of the blue peeking through in the green bottle.  You'll have to take my word on the taupe. 

Colors used are:
Nicole by OPI - Khloe Had A Little Lam-Lam (dark teal, used as base color)
Love & Beauty - Coral Glow (has a gold shimmer)
Love & Beauty - Taupe (has a silver shimmer)
Love & Beauty - Sparkling Sage (has a blue shimmer)

I am still working out some kinks with this method, and one of them is that I should NOT have used so much of the base color in the marbling.  With the darker color in the marble, and the dark base under the marble, once I put it on the nail a lot of the lighter coloring got lost.

Over all, I am VERY happy with how this turned out.  As long as I know what colors I want to use when I change things up, this is a very viable option to water marbling, at least until I get good at it.  There is nothing like instant gratification you get from that method, after all.

Sorry everyone...I think I am FINALLY out of breath!  If you made it all the way down to here, congratulations - you deserve a medal!! And thank you!

Take a look at everyone else involved in the challenge, sponsored and brought to you by Kimber from Kimber's Lacquer Korner.  I think "K" will give us a pretty diverse group of manicures.  Looking forward to them as much as you!

ABC Challenge - "J" for Jindie Nails

Another week, another letter.  This week is going to be short and sweet.  I was planning green with St. Patrick's Day theme - got the first color on my fingers and it did NOT look good at all.  Green - at least the light greens I have that start with "J" - are not working for me while I am winter pale. 

In the middle of this dilemma, I got nail mail from Jindie.  Problem solved.  Although I still look deathly pale, I love this polish.  It's just fun.  Excuse the nicks and cuts all over my fingers - spent the day at work filing and handling papers, and couldn't keep my hands moisturized enough and got pretty cut up.

Jindie Nails - Barbies Have More Fun (pink and black round and micro matte glitter)
over Pure Ice - Superstar! (plain white)






















Take a peek at all the other ladies in the challenge below, and thanks again to Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner for bringing us together.

Have a good week everyone!

ABC Challenge - "I" is for OPI's I Don't Give a Rotterdam!

Here we are again for the letter I.  Bad, bad day.  I tried 4 different manicures for this letter - I got them done, hated them, and started all over.  Pretty much wasted my Sunday on it.  So, the title of one of the polishes I used pretty much sums up my attitude by the end of the night.

I'm not really happy with this, but I am guessing that even if I had the perfect manicure I wouldn't like it right now either.  So, onward...

I used:

OPI - I Have a Herring Problem (left, greener of the two) and OPI - I Don't Give a Rotterdam! (right, bluer of the two).  Both from the Holland collection, and both are very close in color.  Photo does show the difference.  I do really like these polishes though; muted colors and multi-color shimmer. 

What I did:  full coat on the nail with the bluer of the two, I Don't Give a Rotterdam!.  I did a tip gradient with the greener one, I Have a Herring Problem.  The idea was to put a stamp near the gradient line with silver.  For that, I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Hi Ho Silver.  The problem?  The stamps I used were so delicate, they are not translating into the photos.  It's there IRL, but not as...bold?...as I would like it.  Poor choice of polish to stamp with too (I found out).

I tried to blur the pictures a little to show the stamps...






Oh, and FYI - this manicure wasn't even 10 hours hold, and there is already tip wear...overnight.  I'm guessing these OPI's don't like Seche Vite.  Another "good to know" thing.                  

So, here is a little darker and blurrier photo, but the stamps show up a little better.

Glad this week is done.  Not exactly a "fail" because I've got polish on my fingers, but far from a success. Oh well, I'm already moving on to J...

Give everyone else a look-see that is involved with this challenge, hosted by Kimber of Kimber's Lacquer Korner.  Want to join?  Visit her website and drop her a message - all are welcome.  (Isn't that a line from Poltergeist?).

Until next week!

ABC Challenge - "H" is for Holographic

This is going to be semi-short and sweet.  I had a lot of different ideas come to me for H, but once I started each one, I discarded.  The Color Club Halo Hues were calling to me...  Black base on all fingers, and each finger has a diagonal tip of color.  OK, "tip" may not be the right word, but you'll get the idea from the photos :).

I took the indoor night pictures because I love the way the holos look with the flash.  Still not a good camera...I may end up going through this whole challenge without one.  This is still just a fun little hobby for me, so a new camera unfortunately is not on the financial radar anytime soon (sigh).

Now for the daylight photos:



 

Here are the colors I used, and let me tell you there is not one color that I don't LOVE:

The original 6 Halo Hues are (in order of the photo):
     Angel Kiss:  minty green
     Halo-Graphic:  pink
     Harp On It:  silver  (this is the only color I did NOT use - ran out of fingers)
     Blue Heaven:  light blue
     Cherubic:  nude/beige
     Cloud Nine:  lilac purple

The new 6 darker Halo Hues are (in order of the photo):
     Over the Moon:  blue
     Miss Bliss:  pink
     Kismet:  lime green
     Cosmic Fate:  orange
     Eternal Beauty:  dark purple
     Beyond:  Black  (far and away my FAVORITE)



Again, many thanks to Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner for hosting this weekly challenge.  It is open to anyone - professional or novice (I can attest to that!).  If you would like to join, shoot her a request under the "ABC Challenge" tab on her blog.  And FYI - any attempts to just add your blog to the challenge WILL get you booted off the inlinkz group.  There are eyes watching, and the gatekeeper knows....muah ha ha ha!!!!!

Here are the other ladies participating...take a look at their great submissions for the letter "H".
Until next week!

ABC Challenge - "G" is for geometric

Hello, hello!!  I'm cheating a little bit with this post - I am "drafted" and ready to go here on Sunday, but holding off the PUBLISH button until Wednesday, make that Tuesday; I didn't want to wait.  I am in a mood, and can't seem to want to keep a manicure for more than a couple of days, no matter how long it takes me to do, or how much I like it.  I'll probably have my "H" post done before the weekend!

Anyway - focus, focus.  This week in Kimber's hosted ABC Challenge, is the letter G.  Last week's manicure was an issue for me - every day I woke up wanting to like the colors, and every day, it did not happen.  I figured I would go to the other end of the spectrum in colors this week, and I did....sort of. 

I got a little inspiration from Jenni at I Relish Nail Polish and her Fish braid mani last week.  I also commented on FB about walking by a display at a local store that was packed full with ESSIE dark colors.  I picked up my first 3 from the brand, and planned on using them this week also.  The detour I took was in the base coat.  With three dark colors I planned to use, I had no choice but to use a very light base.  I remember Kimber using a taupy base color back in week E, so I went that route.  Yes, you women are inspiring me - giving credit where credit is due.

So...I painted three coats each of my Essie colors onto a sheet protector, and let them dry overnight.  I peeled them off and decided to cut them into squares/rectangles and triangles.  Easy, right?  Not so much (for me, anyway).  These suckers seemed pretty strong, until I got a TINY little nick in one, and tore it almost in half.  OOPS!  Also, the scissors I was using to cut the shapes created JUST enough static electricity that I couldn't get the little pieces of polish to let go.  It was pretty comical - and it got the attention of one of my kitties.  Bad got worse really fast. 

I ended up, for sanity's sake, making the shapes quite a bit bigger than I had originally planned.  1)saved time, and 2) saved my sanity.  I was going to do circles with a dotting tool, but with the size of these cutouts, it just would have been too much.

On to the pictures...I'm doing my camera research too, but these seem to be a little better than usual.  Maybe because it turns out there really is a sun out there - haven't seen it in what seems like forever.  The down side?  It's like 15 degrees outside, so the photos are taken inside near a sunny window.

The colors:
OPI Skull and Glossbones (light grey) LOVE this - I already know I will be using again at least one time in this challenge
ESSIE Stylenomics (green)
ESSIE No More Film (blue)
ESSIE Carry On (burgundy/wine?)

I have to say, so far in this challenge, this is my favorite that I have done.  The top coat I used made the colors bleed (until I figured out a way around it, at the end, of course), and the shapes did morph a little out of proportion, but all in all, I am happy.  The photos magnify every "flaw", real or imagined.  IRL, this looks good - because I say so. (And no one will tell me different - ha!)  Now, it I could get all my nails the same length, life would be good.
 

Thanks for stopping by...please stop and look at all the other amazing ladies that are participating in this challenge below.

SEE YA!

ABC Challenge - "F" is for Flower

Another week is here...can't believe they are going so fast.  Are these posts getting longer?  They feel like they are...maybe because I am only doing this once a week, I don't know.  Feel free to tell me - I won't be offended.  Really.

I had another choice for "F" this week - flames.  What I wanted to do would have taken me a while, and I may still do it later in the challenge, but I ran out of time and this was my fall back. 

Flower is a new line of cosmetics by Drew Barrymore, and it turns out it is being sold exclusively through Walmart.  The new line is pretty small, since it is just starting.  The colors in the nail polish are not my usual - I think there are about 15 colors, and only 3 of them are my favorite darks.  The vast majority are in the pinkish range, and many are soft and pale.  Since I couldn't do my other choice, I got lazy and picked some up to try.

I ended up buying two colors.  Most of the polishes are cremes, but they did have one that looked like it might be a duochrome, and these two that I picked up were shimmers.  I desperately need practice with my stamping, and with Valentine's day coming up, I thought I would use that as the theme.

I found a plate from Cheeky - CH15 - that had 4 different heart designs, with a bonus cluster of hearts.  Perfect.   Sorry for the photo being so bright, but I wanted to get a close-up of the designs, and this was the best photo I got that didn't completely glare back the flash.

So here are the colors I used:



SPOILED Shuffle the Deck (glitter)
FLOWER Budding Romance (red)
FLOWER That's Just Dan-De-Lion (nude)

I tried to capture the shimmer on the nude color - it isn't just a glass shimmer, it is multicolored, which was unexpected.  You can't see the colors from the swatch stick, but I think you do get a hint of the shimmer. 

So, the stamping is...meh.  Not too bad, but nothing to write home about.  Considering it is my 2nd time stamping, I gotta say it's not THAT shabby.  The nude color is DEFINITELY not anything close to a go-to color for me.  Not with my skin tone; but the photos really wash me out and make me look even paler than I am.  That being said, I kind of like this mani.  I don't think I'll be doing another light one anytime soon, but it doesn't hurt to change things up a bit. Oh, and FYI - still no decent camera, and no decent weather for any natural light photos. 

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by, and while you looking, be sure to check out all the other ladies in the challenge hosted by Kimber's Lacquer Korner below.

Until next week ladies!