Finger Paints Hue Rang?

Happy Friday! I'm getting antsy for my July Julep Maven Box to get here. I am craving a 4th of July mani and am dying to use the free America The Beautiful polish they are sending!

Onto the good stuff...This is two coats of Finger Paints Hue Rang? which is a lovely purple with a slight purple/silver shimmer. For an accent nail I have two coats of Ulta Mint Condition with two coats to Spoiled Pet My Peacock. I don't think that Mint Condition is a good name for this polish, as there really is nothing mint about it. The color in the bottle is much nicer than on the nail, as it becomes "smokey" once on. Does that make sense? It's different from any of my other light blue polishes so that's okay but I'm not too sure if I'll wear it that often. It doesn't look that smokey in the following pictures and I'm thinking that the glitter is hiding it. Somehow I got a few bumps under the polish and I think it might have been some sneaky file dust that crept in. Oops

*Insert Cartoon "Bling" noise here*

 

Pet My Peacock is a multi colored glitter in a clear base and it has a wide flat brush that allowed the glitter to disperse quite evenly. This is my favorite style brush because I have rather wide nails and it provides good coverage in minimal strokes. 

Have a great day!

~Linda

Funky Fingers Holographics

It's disco time ladies! I have two holographic glitter polishes by Funky Fingers to show you today. These polishes are jam packed with holographic glitter pieces in a slightly tinted clear base. Baby Baby Baby is a greenish light teal color while Sand & Stilettos is a light purple leaning almost towards lilac. 

Since these are glitter polishes it took quite a few coats in order to get it completely opaque. The following pictures are about 4 coats, no top coat. The glitter does apply pretty evenly, but I know that for some nails I needed 5 coats.  I have Sand & Stilettos on my index and ring finger and Baby Baby Baby on my middle and pinky finger.

 

Blurred to show holographic quality

As you can see, the colors are very light when using just the glitter and no base color, so I also want to show you how it looks with a colored base and 2 coats of the glitter on top. Again, no top coat.

FF Baby Baby Baby and Essie Mint Candy Apple

  

FF Sand & Stilettos and e.l.f. Fuchsa

 

The colors are darker and more distinct when using these holographic glitters over a base color so I prefer it this way. They just feel kind of washed out without the base color. What do you think?

I can see that I have a few followers now so THANK YOU for checking me out! Please feel free to leave comments with requests or suggestions! 

~Linda

Rainbow Nails

Hiya! Today I'm rockin a gradient heartbeat mani using one of my new MASH Stamping Plates. I used two different colors on each nail in order to have a rainbow effect across my hand. With that in mind...I have 10 different stamping colors to list out as well as my base coat. 

Here we go....I started with 2 coats of Orly White Out and then stamped using these colors in the order shown (from pinky to thumb) with MASH plate #38. 

Funky Yellow, Mandy, Myrta, Bite Me

Fuchsa, Let's Talk, Prince Charming

Halley's Comet, Zuza, Four Leaf Clove

After putting on a thick coat of Seche Vite topcoat, I noticed some slight smudging of the colors, particularly the purple ones. Overall I'm very happy with the way this turned out and just in time for PRIDE this weekend in Chicago! Happy PRIDE! 

 Thanks for stopping by!

~Linda

MASH Plates 26-50

YAY....I got my new MASH Plates (26-50)! These plates are made from high grade stainless steel and have a paper backing to prevent scratching and it makes the edges of the plate less sharp. This collection came with 25 plates which each have 5 to 7 designs on them (OVER 125 IMAGES!) 

These are the first MASH plates that I've used and in comparison to BundleMonster and Red Angel plates, these are pretty darn good. I've used one of the plates so far (for the mani you'll see tomorrow) and I had no smudging! The designs are deep enough to hold the polish well, but not so deep that it's a pain in the arse to clean the polish out. One thing that drives me crazy about my Red Angel plates is that no matter what brand of cotton round thingies I use, the edges of the designs are so sharp that I always have these little bits of the cotton hanging on to the plate. Uugghhh  Can you say annoying?

These are some of my favorites. The reflective surface of these plates make it hard to take a picture without my camera and hands showing on the plate. Took a while, but I think I finally got some pics that show the designs quite well. Here's a link to the MASH site so you can see all the plates.

I bought these plates from Amazon for $12.99 and I am a Prime member so I got free 2 day shipping. OMG...my Prime membership is beyond amazing. It's a little pricey but if you are an Amazon-a-holic like me, it's paid for itself at least three times over! Free 2 day shipping on tons of products, free Kindle book borrowing, free Amazon Instant Video....aahhh...I could rant about it forever. I digress.

So these plates are pretty great. I rate them higher than Red Angel and on Par with BundleMonster. Do you have a favorite brand of stamping plates? Or favorite plate that you use all the time?

~Linda

Fresh Paint Olive You

Hello Hello! I have another non traditional summer color for you today. My lovely mother-in-law just visited and she wanted her nails painted her favorite color of mine...Fresh Paint Olive You. So of course I obliged. I wanted to get away from all the neon pinks and oranges that you see on all the blogs right now since summer is in full swing, so I decided to show you a fresh way to spruce this polish up.

I have this poster in my office/nail polish room and love love love it! It's soo beautiful and inspiring in person. So this was essentially my inspiration for this spruce up to a wintery/fall olive green polish that has a shimmer of gold to it. Olive You alone is very nice, but I wanted to add that extra pop, so I reached for my teenie tiny bottle of Sally Girl Gold Glitter. These polishes are not named, so Gold Glitter is an obvious name to call it. I like this glitter because it applies pretty evenly and I like the combination of small and large hexagonal glitter pieces.

 

This is two coats of Olive You and one coat of Gold Glitter, no topcoat. Pictures were taken in indirect sunlight and were kind of a pain to get the right shade of Olive to show up since the sun was particularly bright this day. [Stupid Glare]

Thanks for stopping by, and hopefully this break from neon town was good for your retinas :)

~Linda

Peacock Inspired Nails

Today I have for you a mani that was inspired by my lovely peacock (Jezebel) who keeps watch over our sunroom. How can you not love this face?

I started with one coat of Julep Nail Therapy Basecoat, then two coats of China Glaze Four Leaf Clover. For accent colors I used Kleancolor Funky Yellow, Orly Snowcone and SinfulColors Let's Talk. I also pulled out my handy dotting tool for the first time in For-Ev-Er. (haha you gotta love a throwback to The Sandlot)

 

I basically used the smallest dotting tip to put small dots across the tip of my nail using Funky Yellow closest to the tip, followed by a row of Snowcone and then Let's Talk closest to my nail bed.

All pictures were taken in my sunroom in indirect sunlight. The colors are pretty darn accurate, although Let's Talk does not look as amazing as it really is. Let's Talk is my go to purple color because the formula is nice and it only needs two thin coats for full coverage. The beautiful shimmer in this polish makes it glow from the inside out. The bottle shot actually shows how amazing this color really is.

So I don't use my dotting tool very often, and I obviously don't have the most steady hand, but what do you think of this mani? Can you see where I'm going with the peacock inspiration? 

~Linda

Kleancolor Bite Me

Hello beauties! Today I was feeling sparkly and decided I wanted to break out my favorite red of all time... Kleancolor Bite Me. Mind you, I have very fair skin with pink undertones, so both pink and red just do not look right on me which is why I don't really have many reds, and maybe 1 or 2 pinkish polishes. This red can only be compared to the beauty of Dorothy's Ruby Slippers in The Wizard of Oz! 

The beauty of this polish did not come through with the following pictures, however there were a few that do show exactly how sparkly it really is. This is two coats of Bite Me and one coat of Seche Vite. 

 

 

 

Taken in Shade

The color of this polish looks a lot deeper than shown here. My pictures were all taken outside in sunlight or shade since the lighting in my house sucks it big time. These pictures represent the true color much more accurately and were taken in artificial light.

This polish is one of my go to for Christmas time since it's the perfect 'Christmas Red' and it's also amazing for stamping! I have plans on bringing this back sometime soon to show you just what this bad boy can do.

What do you think of wearing this color in the summer? Do you always stick to summer colors or winter colors in their respective seasons? 

~Linda

China Glaze Bohemian Collection

I'm sooo excited about what I am about to show you. China Glaze has a new collection coming out in July 2012....drum role please....the Bohemian collection! It's full of gorgeousness and if I could...I would eat it up! The duochrome looks amazing so hopefully that translates to the nails. 

Unpredictable, Rare and Radiant, Swanky Silk

No Plain Jane, Want My Bawdy, Deviantly Daring

 

Unpredictable and Deviantly Daring are going to be two must haves! What are yours? 

I pulled these pictures from Chic Profile.

~Linda