Sinful Colors Athens and Olympia and Stamping With Mash 45

       Happy Tuesday evening everyone.  Or if you are over on the East Coast I'm sure it is much later.  I won't rub in the fact that I am enjoying a nice cup of coffee at the moment.  Mmmmm.  Coffee.  I.  Love.  Coffee.  OK, now onto the more important things in life, my nails!  When I first saw this image on the Mash 45 plate, I was not to keen on it, but after seeing a few people use it, I wanted to try it out.  I will say that I really enjoy how this turned out.  It is a little splotchy in spots, but that is because I wasn't using "real" stamping polishes, but I think these turned out pretty good considering the fact.

Base coat: Sally Hansen Triple Strong Advanced Nail Gel Fortifier

Base colors: Accent nail: Athens from Sinful Colors - 2 coats.

                     Olympia from Sinful Colors - 2 coats

Stamping plate: Mash 45

Stamping colors: Same as the base colors

Top coat: Seche Vite

These were taken inside without the flash.

Have you guys tried this stamp before?  If so, did you like it?  If you haven't tried it yet, would you?  I look forward to hearing from you!  I'm off to enjoy the rest of my coffee and start a new mani!  Have a great night.

Stamping With Mash 42 Over Sinful Colors Gradient

       Happy Sunday everyone!  I am typing this with one hand because I have a baby on my lap!  But it is OK, because he is the cutest baby on the face of the earth, and my best friends baby.  Although, I'm sure mine will be cuter. ;-)  Today's post is for the Facebook group, Adventures In Stamping.  Each week we vote on a challenge, and this week the challenge is for us to stamp over a blue base.  I decided I wanted to do a blue gradient and it turned out beautifully.

     I also thought today would be a great way to use some of my whites that I haven't tried stamping with, to see how they worked.  We get a lot of questions referring to cheaper polishes to stamp within the group, and I figured my left hand would be a great way to kill two birds with one stone.  As you will see, my cleanup is terrible with my non dominant hand, and I'm also hiding a brutal hangnail.  It is so brutal, I couldn't even apply acetone to it to clean it up.  :-(  Winter is so harsh on my hands!

Base coat: Sally Hansen Triple Strong Advanced Gel Nail Fortifier

Base color: Cinderella from Sinful Colors - 2 coats

Gradient colors: Cinderella, Why Not, and Hot Spot from Sinful Colors

Topcoats: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat and Essence Gel Like Top Coat

Stamping colors: Stamp Me! White from Essence, White On The Spot from Milani, and Superstar! from Pure Ice

Stamping image: Mash 42

This picture was taken outside.  All stamping is done with Stamp Me! White from Essence

This picture was taken inside without flash.  All stamping was done with Stamp Me! White from Essence.

This picture was taken inside without flash.  Stamping was done with White On The Spot from Milani on the pointer and ring finger, and Superstar! from Pure Ice on the middle and pinky finger.

This picture was taken outside and stamping is done as described above the previous picture.

As you can see, the difference is pretty dramatic between the three whites I stamped with.  I will keep using the stamping polish from Essence, unless I can find something better.  I know the last two pictures look fuzzy, but it is actually the stamping that is making them look fuzzy. :-(  Crazy, huh.

ABC Nail Art Challenge: K is for...Keyboard

       Happy Friday everyone.  I hope that everyone that celebrates Thanksgiving had a great day.  My husband and I went over to my aunt's house, enjoyed some yummy food, and then went over to our friend's house to lie on their couch and relax.  :-)

     Today's blog post is another installment in the ABC nail art challenge that is being hosted by the Facebook group, Llama Nails.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do for the letter K, but I remembered seeing someone using a stamping plate that I owned that had a keyboard on it.  I'm so glad I saw someone use this image because ever since I received this set of plates, I have been wondering what the hell this image was.  I was pretty impatient when I did this mani, and you can see it in quality of this one.  Not one of my best ones.  :-(  Now I know for next time.

Base coat: Sally Hansen Triple Strong Advanced Gel Nail Fortifier

Base color's: Black Creme from Wet N' Wild - 1 coat, Superstar! from Pure Ice - 3 coats

Stamping plate: Mash 44

Stamping color's: Stamp Me! White and Stamp Me! Black from Essence

Top coat: Seche Vite

What do you guys think?

Pure Ice Femme Fatale With Treasure Hunt Accent Nail

       Happy Monday!  Today started out crappy, but towards the end of my workday things started looking up.  My husband finally got a job!  He starts tomorrow and I am so freaking excited.  I have been having far too many meltdowns lately, and having a $40.00 food budget for the month is way too hard.  With all the damn rice I have been eating, you would think I would have lost some freaking weight!  Ugh.  Oh well.  One thing at a time.

     Today I have two of the new Pure Ice polishes to show you.  Pure Ice is sold exclusively at WalMart, (as far as I know) and they retail for less than $2.00.  I have been using this brand for years and years and still really like it.  About a month ago I was at WalMart and my mother-in-law walked up to my husband and me.  In an effort to avoid talking to her I started looking at all the pretty nail polish that just happened to be right in front of me.  I grabbed a handful of them and then went to the normal place where the Pure Ice is, logged onto Facebook to see which ones I needed for a stamping project, and lo and behold, I found out that the display I was just looking at was brand new.  They had just released 55 new shades and they were right there in front of me in all of their glory.  If I had $110.00 you bet your ass I would have bought them all, but I had like $20.00 so I got five of them.

     Femme Fatale is from their Velour line of this release.  In my opinion, they are just like the suede polishes that OPI and Avon have come out with.  This is a beautiful dark forest green polish that also has lighter green matte flecks throughout.  I did use a matte top coat over these because I could not tell a difference in the finish with or without it.  I painted half of my nail with the top coat and the other half without and it looked exactly the same.

     Treasure Hunt is part of their Diamond Couture line in this release.  Treasure Hunt is a light green glitter suspended in a clear base with green and purple diamond glitter sprinkled throughout.  This is so much fun, but it reminds me more of spring than anything.

Base coat: Sally Hansen Triple Strong Advanced Gel Nail Fortifier

Base color: Femme Fatale from Pure Ice - 2 coats

Accent nail: Treasure Hunt from Pure Ice - 2 coat

Top coat: ***Not on accent nail*** Essence Nail Art Special Effect! Topper

               On accent nail - Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat

This next picture is in a different light.  I really want you to see the lighter green flecks in Femme Fatale.

Have you been able to try any of these new polishes from Pure Ice?  If yes, what are your thoughts on them?

 

Llama Nails Presents the ABC's of Nail Art: J is for... Jelly Sandwich

       Happy Wednesday everyone!  How has your week been?  I am feeling so much better after my bout of strep.  This week's letter for the ABC challenge in the Facebook group, Llama Nails, is J.  I decided that I would do a jelly sandwich mani today.  If you aren't sure as to what a jelly sandwich mani is, don't fret.  It is pretty much what it sounds like.  Glitter sandwiched between a jelly finish polish.  A jelly finish polish is a very sheer polish that looks like jelly, for lack of a better term.  This is not to be confused with a sheer finished polish.  If my lame description confuses you and you want a far better one you can check out this blog.

     I have done three or four of these manicures and this is the first one that I have really liked.  The hardest part of this mani was photographing it.  I took almost 200 pictures and think I got some good ones.  I am hoping to be able to purchase a new camera with my Christmas bonus, but I do have to pay my bills first.  Here's hoping they feel sorry for me this year and give me a little extra! :-)

Base coat: Sally Hansen Triple Strong Advanced Gel Nail Fortifier

Base color: Daddy's Girl from Sinful Colors

Glitter: Let Me See Your Peacock from Claire's

Top coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat

I did two coats of Daddy's Girl, a layer of the glitter, and one more layer of Daddy's Girl on top of that.

Have you tried a jelly sandwich mani?  Do you like doing them?  What kind of camera do you think I should get?

Stamping With Mash Plate 49 Over Avon Strawberry Polish, and Black Shatter from OPI

       Happy Monday everyone.  Let me just be honest and say that I am so glad it is a new week.  Last week sucked ass!  I had PMS all week and on top of that came down with Strep Throat!  I am sure that my PMS was on high from the Strep, too.  We spent all of our grocery money on the doctors visit, but oh well.  What can you do.  Looks like we will be on a steady diet of what ever is in our pantry, which isn't much!  Won't be the first time we've had to do this, and I'm sure it won't be the last.  

     Today was the first day I have had energy since Thursday.  I went to bed at 4 on Thurdsday and slep until I went to work at 5, worked a half day on Saturday, went home sick, noticed my throat was white, went to the doctor and then slept. I was so mad that I had to miss the Monster Truck show.  My parents pre bought my husband and me tickets since we couldn't afford them, and it was the first year in five years that I didn't have to work this particular event.  Imagine my anger.  Good thing I was too tired to do anything about it.

     Enough about my crap weekend.  On to the more important things in life, my nails!  I saw this mani that Valiantly Varnished did I was so excited to use it.  As I was looking through my polishes the other day I almost threw out my crackle because let's face it, no one uses them anymore.  But her mani did and i fell in love with it.  I am going to play around with this idea until I finish off my bottle of crackle, so weather or not you like this mani, be prepared to see some more like this. :-)  I hadn't used my crackle in so long that I actually had to use thinner in it!  And yes, it works just fine.

Base coat: Sally Hansen Triple Strong Advanced Gel Nail Fortifier

Base color: Strawberry from Avon - 1 coat

Crackle: Black Shatter from OPI

Stamping color: Stamp Me! White from Essence

Stamping plate: Mash 49

Top coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat

What do you guys think?  Still hate crackle or could you wear something like this?

Llama Nails Presents the ABC's of Nails : I (And Stamping With Mash 30 Plate)

     Happy Thursday everyone!  How has everyone's week been so far?  Mine has been a little all over the map, hence not posting since Sunday!  What the heck man!  Well I missed the post for last week, which was H, but don't worry, I did it.  I will most likely be posting it tomorrow.  "I" was a tricky letter for me, (aren't they all) but as I was in the shower saying igloo, irritated, irate, intimate, and then icicle I stumbled upon Ireland!  Now that was something I could do on my nails.

     I finally picked up some more Seche Vite Top Coat the other day and I can't believe the difference it makes in dry time on my manicures.  When I have wanted to stamp before I usually have to wait 30 minutes to an hour before I can stamp it. With one coat of Seche on I can stamp after ten minutes, tops.  I don't think I will ever go without.

Base coat: Sally Hansen Advanced Gel Nail Fortifier

Base colors: Pinky, thumb, and ring finger - Superstar from Pure Ice - 2 coats

                     Middle finger: Pretty Edgy from Essie - 2 coats

                     Forefinger: Clementine from Sinful Colors - 2 coats

Stamping colors: Pinky - Heat Flash from Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

                            Middle - Stamp Me White from Essence and Khloe Had a Little Lam-Lam from Nicole by OPI

                            Forefinger - Stamp Me White from Essence

Flage colors: Clementine from Sinful Colors and Pretty Edgy from Essie applied with a striping brust

Image plate: Mash 30

Top coat: Seche Vite

These were taken outside in indirect light

Here are some other "I" inspired manicures!

AIS: Stamping With Mash Plate 41

       Happy Sunday all.  I hope that you are all enjoying your extra hour of sleep.  I haven't participated in one of Sunday's Stamping Challenges in the Facebook group Adventures In Stamping in a few weeks now.  Today's challenge was for us to stamp over glitter.  When I was playing with some of my new polishes last night I came up with this color combination and was very excited to try it out.  It turned out a lot better in my head, but I still really like it.  I hope you do as well.

Base coat: PVA Glue - If you're not sure what I am referring to, you can check out my blog post about it here.

Base color: Skull and Glossbones from OPI - 2 coats

Accent color: Luxe Lavender from Avon - 2 coats

Glitter: Cheatin from Pure Ice - 1 coat

Top coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat

Stamping plate: Mash 41

Stamping color: Stamp Me! White and Stamp Me! Black from Essence

This photo was taken inside with the flash

This was taken outside without the flash

Skull and Glossbones is slowly becoming one of my favorite polishes!  I really like the white over the purple.  I think next time I will use all white instead of the black over the glitter and Skull and Glossbones.