Leprechaun Chevron ( that rhymes )

My mani for today is 2 coats of Love My Nails Envy - a fabulous green chrome polish from the USA and Avon Green Olive 1 coat swiped on my nails in a chevron freehand.....I added an obscenely thick layer of Top Coat and set these fake Rhinestones from the Dollar-rama into the wet Top Coat. Applying Top Coat OVER these gems from the DollarRama will fog them up because they are plastic - there still cool though even if they get fogged over.

Chrome polish's such as this show every flaw on the nail. They tend to dry very fast, so I usually end up with serious brush strokes. They are extrememly reflective and noticeable. I was surprised with this polish, I thought it would suck but it's pretty awesome. Because they dry fast and cover well, they are good for 'underwear' = as a polish to layer over. On my list for my next USA visit is a few more of these inexpensive Love My Nails Chrome polish's - They are 2 bucks and can be found at Walmart.

@ 2 coats of Love My Nails Envy  no TC

My plastic gems from the Dollar Rama - These are not Rhinestones and will fog over if polish applied over them.... that still looks cool but I wanted some sparkle. Also; a piece of spaghetti - not cooked lol - is perfect to pick these up and place into wet polish - I lick the end of the spaghetti and then pick up the stones...

... and a few more photos

♥

.....now thats a Christmas Mani !

Okay I am back with a real Christmas mani. This is a very easy look using two awesome Claire's foil finish polish's. Red Slippers and Emerald city are very thick and dense polish's, they dry waaaaaaay to fast ( even for me ). But they are beautiful shades packed with foil-ey goodness.

I began with 2 coats of Red Slippers and added a coat on Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat. I wore this pretty polish alone for the afternoon and got bored so I went with the super-easy diagonal mani instead. I applied straight french tip guides on the diagonal and added 2 thin coats of Claire's Emerald City, I peeled off the french tip guides and traced the diagonal line with the silver glitter striping polish. I added 2 coats of Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat when it was all dry.

These 3 colours together are lovely Christmas shades. This is a super-easy look and looks great in any colour combination for any season. When I finished painting my nails the sun had gone down, so hopefully I will be able to get outside and snap some proper pic's tomorrow.

ugh! look at all that snow!

Claire's Red Slippers is a fabulous foil.

Below; outside in the shade and indoor Florescent

I applied Nailene Straight French Tip Guides and added 2 thin coats of Claire's Emerald City. When it was dry I removed the french Tip Guides and traced the diagonal line with the Art Deco Silver Glitter stripe polish...... when that was all dry I applied 2 thin coats of Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat.

L-R; Claire's Red Slippers, Emerald City, Art Deco Silver Glitter, Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat

all of the foils from Claire's store's are great! They are richly pigmented, shimmery and dry very fast. I think they came out in fall-time of 2009. I haven't spotted any foil polish from Claire's in the last year or so and I am glad I spotted these when I did.

 

 ♥

♥ Sally Hansen 'Blue It' with sponged Billie 'Steel Blue' ♥

Sally Hansen 'Blue It' with Billie 'Steel Blue' & Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat

Another fabulous Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Polish. 'Blue It' is a rich shimmery medium blue. It requires 2 to 3 coats, applies perfectly, dries fast and held up well without top coat for the afternoon. I sponged on Billie 'Steel Blue' then used a sheer sparkly franken I made to cover the entire nail. I mixed approximately 2/3 of a bottle of clear nail polish with a few drops of Billie 'Steel Blue'. I wanted to achieve a subtle silver sparkle with a teal metallic base to use as a layering polish. It is very subtle and will need some good pic's outdoors in the sun.

Sponge mani's are perfect for disguising polish flaws and tip wear. It's been a while since I have done one. I also have to add, that adding a few drops of a foil polish to a clear nail polish makes a beautiful layering polish. The sparkle is extremely subtle and can be used to save a trashed mani.

Blue Steel 3 coats with NO Top Coat

Summer is 'sorta' on the way

Stuff I used

I use ordinary kitchen sponges for my sponge manis - you can use any dense sponge. I just cut these into little squares and am sure to use a new section once one section dries out.

3 coats S.H. 'Blue It' no T.C.

Billie 'Steel Blue' sponged on

Left- with the sheer sparkly layering franken polish, Right- with just Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat

♥

Claire's 'Emerald City'

 

Claire's Emerald City - 2 coats & 1 coat of Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat 

WHEW  the nails i am wearing in these photos are NOT the Nailene nails below - i cannot remember a time when this many nails popped off in 24 hours............... I like to try new things and i like bargains so i picked up another -unnamed- brand and my nails are popping off like crazzzzzzy! It may be different factors such as; glue adhesion, the state of my nails, aliens.... whatever it is - I know that I am not doing this stunning Claire's polish any justice.

This polish was in the Claire's 10 items for $10 bucks at my towns mall, so i snagged it and a few other colors...... If there are any more left at the end of the week i hope to snag those, too; for back ups and franken fodder. This is heavenly!!!!!

I have read that this polish 'Emerald City' is a shimmer, but to me it appears to be a foil- I hope to do a little more research as this polish, along with a gorgeous red, blue and gold came out around X-mas time and were blogged about heavily. I suppose I will find out for sure when I remove it as foil polish's leave a lovely silver haze all over your fingers. If I knew how lovely this was, I would have picked it up for full price, it's totally worth it.

I also rushed to pick up a fresh supply of the shorter nails I use= Nailene 'full cover nails in square' they are $8.99 at Zellers stores in Canada, and right now at the Zellers store in my town, The Nailene 200 pack of 'Curved' active nails are $6.79..... on clearance. 

Sad news though, no new Wet n' Wild polish's have appeared in my small Canadian town yet..... 

 - these are NOT the nails I am wearing right now the ones i have on are not fab -

 

fluorescent

  

 sunny window

  

 weird flourescent

  

  

  

  

  

 ♥

♥ Tip wear disguise ♥

Sally Hansen 'Soft Satin' layered over NYC 'Chinatown' with some metallic sponged tipz

So after wearing this NYC polish for a few days, I needed to disguise the tip wear I had. I did not use Top Coat with this NYC polish 'China Town', and so I ended up with alot of tip wear. I applied 2 coats of an awesome older polish; Sally Hansen 'Soft Satin' that I found at a discount store in my town. When it was dry, I sponged on Billie 'Plutonium Plum' a medium purple foil polish to the tips of my nails, and over the edge as well. (I use a regular kitchen sponge for my sponging), I think that when I sponge on foil  or metallic polish's it sorta looks like glitter... or something flashy.....Without the insane removal afterward.

Below is a photo of the NYC polish 'China Town' The formula on these was fabulous, it really does dry fast, maybe not in one minute..... but it dries fast, there is a nice range of color's & finish's and the price is great. I bought mine at my local grocery store for $ 2.29 CAD, but these can be found at walmarts in North America ( website )

I think this was a great way to disguise tip wear, and prolong a manicure for a few more days. I had run out of cotton balls & remover, so I had to wait until the next day for stores to open. Check out the cutest tiny teeny cotton balls I found at my favirote store in my town ( the .99 cent store)

 2 coats of Sally Hansen 'Soft Satin'

 

How I did this;

• 3 coats of NYC 'China Town' ( this is a 2 coater polish - I was careless & sloopy so I needed 3
• 2 coats of Sally Hansen 'Soft Satin'
• wait for the 'layered' polish to dry♥
• Using a regular kitchen sponge, I sponged on Billie Plutonium Plum, an awesome purple foil
• When I was sure everything was dry I used 2 coats of Billie Top Coat. These Billie foil polish's are easily transferred to the brush of my top coats... maybe I don;t let them dry enough but I always pick up color with my top coat, so now when I use these Billie Metallic & Foil Polish's I use a top coat that I have especially reserved for this type of polish. ( I have one for my pigment frankens as well ) If you look closely you can see on my INDEX & THUMB where the foil polish is all over my nail, not just on the tips. OOPS!
  

 

NYC 'China Town', Sally Hansen 'Soft Satin', Billie 'Plutonium Plum' & Billie T.C.

 Check out that tip wear!!!! I have been a busy girl♥

 thumb

 

These teeny cotton ballz are like 1/3 of the size of regular cotton ballz. There sooo cute!

♥

♥ ...... More blue ♥

~ Billie Steel Blue 2 coats & Maybelline 'New Years Blues' Sponged on ~

~ 2 coats of Nailene Acrylic Strong T.C. ~

When I planned on doing another blue sponge mani- I was aiming for something a little more festive, more Christmas like.... but this totally looks like something water or ocean themed. Oh well, it turned out very pretty anyway. I started with 2 coats of Billie 'Steel Blue', waited for it to dry and sponged on Maybelline 'New year's Blues' at the base of my nail, fading towards the tips of my nails. I waited for that to dry and applied 2 coats of Nailene Acrylic Strong Top Coat. I was hoping that the teal glitter in 'New Years Blues' would show up better but there is only a few visible on the nail.

 I planned on embellishing this a bit more but think it looks pretty enough on it's own

It is friggen freezing here in my town and so I did not take any outdoor photos of this mani. Hopefully the neat sponge effect is what comes across the most. I love this look and would not have thought to try it had I not seen how easy it is, here is a link to an inspiring  sponge mani on Nihrida's Blog.


I have last worn this beautiful blue Maybelline polish 'New Years Blues' in summertime - it is a very pretty deep blue, with small teal glitter. Another polish I do not wear enough......

~ Photo from summertime Maybelline 'New Year's Blues'~

~ Indoor Fluorescent Lighting ~

~ Indoor Fluorescent Lighting ~

Billie 'Steel Blue' & Maybelline 'New Year's Blues', Nailene Acrylic Strong T.C.

~ Indoor Fluorescent Lighting ~

I know these mailing labels are WTF, but I have soooooo many just sitting around, and I cannot find my Scotch tape....There is 2 missing in my house! I like to add barrier cream around my cuticles, as well as going overboard with the scotch tape/mailing labels...... the less remover and acetone that gets on my skin the better♥

~ Indoor Fluorescent Lighting ~

~ Indoor Fluorescent Lighting ~

~  Billie 'Steel Blue' 2 coats  ~

~  Billie 'Steel Blue' 2 coats   ~

♥