Rainbow Honey December 2015 Mystery Bag

Good morning and happy hump day! :D Today, I finally have my Rainbow Honey mystery bag from December! They changed up their packaging a little bit - look at how cute the bag is that this came in!

I received two polishes, a mini perfume, and a little tub of shea and cocoa butter for my thirsty skin! I swatched both polishes and added a bit of stamping just to mix things up a little.

First, I have Majestic Bluewhale. Look at the gorgeous blue shimmer magical colors! It truly is majestic and is very reminiscent of ocean water. Below, I added a little bit of stamping using BM-XL25 and Mundo de Unas Spring Green.

Next up, we have Rainbow Honey Smokey Creme. This polish was a bit disappointing. It was terribly separated when it arrived, and no matter how much I shook it, rolled it, etc., it just would not mix back up. So, as you can see in my swatch, there were tiny specks of white where the white had separated itself from the color. I added some pretty stamping anyway. :D This is plate BPL-028 and Mundo de Unas Nabu.

Thank you so much for looking! I am already swatching my January mystery bag. I fell super behind with my blogging over the holiday. /(><)\ I'm trying to get back at it, and have soooo many manis done and just waiting to post! Anyway, I'll be back Friday for the Nail Tarts' challenge. Yay!

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Things That Fly

Good morning! This week's theme for the Nail Tarts' challenge is Things That Fly. I thought for a while on this one, but it didn't take long for me to decide that I needed spaceships!

I used my new Nerd Lacquer, I Think You Call Me...Sexy for my base. It looks like space with stars and has tons of sparkle. I wanted a variety and had several stamping plates featuring spaceships, so I just used them all! I made these decals using mostly images from BM-XL134 and the image on my thumb is from JR-31. I got this Nerd Lacquer and the JR plate (My Online Shop) from my secret agent in a Christmas exchange, and I thought I was going to DIE. I cried opening everything, but there will be a separate post for that!

  

The decals were done using Mundo de Unas Light Gray and Blue.  I used Sally Hansen Graphite Gravity, a silver OPI that has no name, a silver polish from The New Black that is also nameless, and some of the Mundo de Unas blue to color in the decals.

Here is what Nerd Lacquer I Think You Call Me...Sexy looks like on it's own. It's a fantastic blue jelly packed with holographic shimmer, tiny blue and silver metallic hexes, medium sized blue and silver metallic hexes, and larger pale blue metallic hexes. It's gorgeous. And also, it's a Dr. Who polish, so I love it even more just for that.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! Make sure you check out what everyone else did for this week's prompt. I know there is at least one other TARDIS out there. ;)

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Grey + Colour

This week's prompt is grey + colour, so I am keeping it simple and elegant with a grey base and some pretty purple stamping. I used China Glaze Elephant Walk for my base, and OPI DS Extravagance for the floral lace stamping. The stamping plate I used is from an indie maker, It Girl. This image is from plate 103. The images are HUGE, and I just love how you can take different pieces of the same image for each nail. So much variety!

Here is China Glaze Elephant Walk on it's own. This is a cream grey that almost leans to green. It has a subtle silvery shimmer to it as well. It's very pretty. I did two coats here, and one coat of Out The Door topcoat.

Thank you so much for looking! Make sure you take a peek at what everyone else paired with their grey!

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40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Black & White

Lord have mercy, I am having a heck of a time lately. BUT I will persevere, darn it! So, in the spirit of persevering in the face of so much disappointment in the world...I bring you my black and white for this week. Yeah, it was supposed to post yesterday. But yesterday was the first day in 3 days I didn't wake up feeling like absolute trash, and I had to go to work haha. So, after work, I did this mani. I was too tired to blog about it, so I'm doing it today. I may have slept until noon, but I'm still fighting off whatever illness I had, and I'm up now! The theme this week is black and white, and most of my favorite black and white art is from my dad's favorite artist, M.C. Escher. Now, let me tell you about how hard it is to recreate a pencil drawing with a paintbrush and nailpolish. It's hard. So I went for one of his most simplistic designs - cubes!

I used three basic colors from Pure Ice, SuperStar! (white), Black Rage, and Kiss Me Here (grey). The cubes were not to bad to paint. You just start with a hexagon pattern (like honeycombs), then paint in the rectangles of black and grey. It came out looking pretty cool, although a bit on the sloppy side. I have to start on next week's manicure now so that I can take my time with it!

It looks less sloppy from a distance! haha

Thank you so much for checking out my nailart. Make sure you look at everyone else's black and white nails!

An InLinkz Link-up

Julep September 2015 It Girl Box = Purple Heaven

Ok, so you all know I am a sucker for purple. So of course, when there were 3 purple polishes in the September box, I just had to say yes and get it. XD

The box came with 3 polishes and a special add-on. The add-on is called Julep and is their signature color (the color of their marketing materials, such as their boxes, signage, etc.)

Let's take a look! First, we have Delores. This is a purple-leaning-blue holographic polish. I didn't have any sun for the swatches, but it is a scatter holo. It went on in two smooth coats and dried to a satiny finish. The second pic shows what it looked like with topcoat to add some shine.

Next, we have Zoey. This is a cool grey cream polish. The formula was nice and went on it two coats. I added one coat of Out The Door topcoat here.

Then, we have Aubrey. This is a purple frost, which is almost metallic.The formula was pretty good, but its not my favorite finish as I really don't like seeing visible brush strokes. This one will be fun to play with in manis with stamping and sponging, where streakiness doesn't matter. I did two coats here as well with one coat of Out The Door topcoat.

Last, is the add-on, Julep. This is a rich orchid shade of cream polish. The formula was really nice on this one, and it painted on in two smooth coats. I don't think I have a similar purple shade so I'm super happy to add this one to my collection. :)

Thank you so much for looking! I have my very last mani of the 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge for you this week, so stay tuned. :)

January 2015 Julep Box - Chrysalis Collection

Hi all! I have been slowly swatching this collection as I cashed in all of my Jules and got all of the colors from their Chrysalis collection back in January. I received 10 bottles of polish (9 from the collection and then a bonus polish that I will show here as well). You have seen some of these already as the base of some of my recent manicures, but here I will show them off on their own. I received a gigantic box because of all the polish they put in there. I also got another add-on that I will show at the end of this post. They are holographic chevron stickers, so I paired this with one of the polishes that came in the collection. I have some left, and I'm thinking about trying them out as a mask to see how that works. I'll let you know when I use them. :)

First up, we have Maryam. This is a dark red-wine shade with gold shimmer. It applied nicely in two coats.

Next, is Shawn. This is a lovely bright pink leaning red. It is a great opaque cream color and went on in two smooth coats.

Next up is Alicia. This is a lovely, clean, coral and was nice and opaque as well. This is two coats.

Next, we have Phyllis. I feel like I have at least a few other polishes from Julep that look just like this, but it is a soft pink cream. As I looked through my other pale pink creams from Julep, I found that it was similar to (but not the same as) Jules and Fifi. Normal girls probably want a selection of classic pale pink creams, but I am not a normal girl. I want crazy new glitters and lots of variety. :P

Next, is Margit, which is a really interesting polish. It is dusty rose shimmer, but it's neat because you can actually see three different shades in there. I see a mushroom-y color, a rosy color, and a darker, almost brick color. I like it even though it is very muted. It looked good with everything I wore because it was so neutral. This is two coats.

Next is Sandi. It is a dark eggplant cream with a slight grayish hint. Again, this is two coats. You all know I love purple, so I am happy to add this to my collection. You can never have too many purple creams. ;)

Next up, is Casey. This is a pretty, dark teal cream. As much as I love teal, this is pretty much identical to Julep Donna, which I already own, so it is another disappointment in my book. Beautiful color, but a duplicate from Julep, which is why I'm skipping March, and will probably ultimately cancel my account. This is two coats.

Next, is Tilda. This makes up for the disappointments in this box, as it is an iridescent topper. Julep calls it a "Metamorphic Top Coat". These are cool because they can change the look of any polish. This one is green, so I layered it over Casey. This would still look green if you layered it over a black polish, though. I did just one coat over Casey here.

Next, we have Shelly, this is a pale mint cream. This is slightly more blue than Julep Susie if you have that shade. This is two coats.

Last, we have Janae. This is a dark charcoal grey cream. This is a good shade to have for nail art, so no complaints here. This is two coats.

Here is what the holographic chevron stickers look like over Sandi. They are pretty cute, but I found that they started peeling up (even after topcoat) after just a day. This really isn't a problem for me since I was ready for a change anyway, but I have to figure out how to combat this issue with nail stickers. It seems like some are worse than others, and this may have been more of an issue with these because the stickers went right to the edge of my nails and that is where they started peeling up. Once that happened, I could not keep myself from picking at them. This pretty much happens with any sticker that has a loose edge at the side of the nail, so I'm not sure if it can be helped. If any one has any tips for this, please comment below with your solutions!

Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my swatches. I still love my Julep polishes, but will probably just buy a polish at a time from them when they come out with something interesting as opposed to getting the monthly boxes. I forgot to skip February, and wasn't disappointed, so I will show off that box in the next couple of weeks (I know, you all will LOVE to see Valentine's Day polish in April). :P Bye for now, I'll be back in a couple days!

Winter Landscape Nail Art - The Frozen Lake

So, I always try to get creative, but I had very few stamps I could work with on this one, so I found myself struggling. I finally came up with the idea to do Lake Erie when it freezes. Lake Erie is a large lake, and has waves like the ocean (but smaller). When it gets very, very cold here, the lake begins to freeze and it freezes with big chunks of ice formed by the waves. I figured I could use a wave stamp for this, so that is exactly what I did.

I started out with a gradient using Julep Jessica and Dendrie. After that, I stamped the waves, just over Dendrie. This is MoYou Suki plate 06. I added Zoya Snowsicle over top of the waves to try to show the sparkle that you see on the ice from the sunlight hitting it.

Thank you so much for looking, and please make sure you check out what everyone else did for this challenge!

An InLinkz Link-up

Four Seasons Manicure (with a bonus 5th season some of you will know well)

Hi everyone! Today I have a stamping manicure for you that represents the four seasons. Well, five, but I'll explain that in a minute. I love double stamping ever since the first time I saw Laurie over at Dressed Up Digits do it a long time ago, so every time I can, I try to squeeze some into a manicure. Since this one is for my stamping group on facebook, it is an excellent excuse to do some double stamping. ;)

I used so many different polishes and stamps for this, I'm just going to list them out at the bottom of this post. If anyone has any questions or wants more detail, just ask in the comments. So, you may be noticing that gray thumb and wondering what that is supposed to be. We have a season here between winter and spring that I refer to as "slush disaster". My husband calls it "crippling depression". It is freezing cold and there is slushy snow and water everywhere. The sky is always cloudy and grey and you start to wonder if you will ever see the sun again. And this goes on for MONTHS. I thought a grey nail with clouds and blowing wind would represent this well. It really does feel like its own season here in northeast Ohio.

Here are the polishes and plate I used in this manicure, by finger:

• Pinky - Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, Sally Hansen Lemon Zest, BM21 & BM01
• Ring - Barielle Joytini, butter LONDON Chuffed, MoYou Sailor 07, BM04 & RA-118
• Middle - N.O.P.I. Pros & Confidence, butter LONDON Airy Fairy, Konad m63, BM114 & RA-119
• Index - Sally Hansen Perfect Pear-ing, China Glaze Paper Chasing, RA-102 & Cheeky B21
• Thumb - Julep Dendrie, NYC Tribeca Silver, Konad m79 & MoYou Sailor 07
• The final stamp on each nail was done using Konad Special White polish

Thank you so much for looking and make sure you see what everyone else did for the seasons!

An InLinkz Link-up

Halloween Manicure with Black Cat Lacquer Six Feet Under

Halloween is almost here and this week's prompt for my stamping group on Facebook is celebrating the holiday! I decided to keep this manicure muted in greyscale mostly because I was inspired by Black Cat Lacquer's Halloween-themed glitter mix, Six Feet Under. It is a milky grey base with tiny silver glitters, black shard glitter, and medium hex glitter. I started of with a grey base using Julep Dendrie and added stamping in black and white using Konad's Special White and Special Black polishes to pull it all together.

The spider webs and bats are from Bundle Monster's plate BM13, and the big spider is from Mash-38.

Here is what Julep Dendrie looks like all by herself. She is a grey cream, and went on in two smooth coats.

Thank you so much for looking and have a great day!

An InLinkz Link-up