Snowflake Mani

I'm back with a winter manicure for you today! Winter is in full swing here, and we have snow and cold, so I was excited to do this snowflake prompt for my stamping group on facebook. I like the snow, but I'm not a fan of the cold that comes along with it. ;) I do love how pretty and sparkly the snow looks at night with the moon shining on it, though, so I tried to mimic that with my mani.

I have another butter LONDON polish to show off today called Big Smoke. It is a dark, grey-leaning blue polish with a lovely shimmer. To achieve this look, I used two coats of Big Smoke, then added one coat of Nubar White Polka Dot (this is a cool glitter topper with tiny and medium sized opalescent, white glitters in a clear base).

After that, I added my snowflake stamping using Red Angel plate RA-119, Bundle Monster plate BM14 and a plate I received from kkcenterhk for review last year, B61. I smeared the darn thing when I decided to put Northern Lights on top and didn't use Seche Vite first.

Here is what butter LONDON Big Smoke looks like all by itself. This is two coats plus a coat of Seche Vite.

Hooray for pretty snow, and pretty snow-filled manis! Check out the links below to see everyone's snowflake manis!

An InLinkz Link-up

KKcenterHK D.I.Y. Water Decals Review + Sally Hansen Hi-Def

Hello! I am probably out on the beach right now having a fabulous time with my family, but just so you don't miss me too much, I scheduled this lovely review for you. :) This is my second shot at using their D.I.Y. Water Decals and I have to say, I learned a lot the first time around, so this time went way better. I got fancy with this one. Here is what I ended up with.

So when the decal sheet arrived in the mail, it looked like this. It is packed nicely and this is actually  resealable packet as well, which is nice. I put my leftover portion of the decal sheet back in there to use it again in another mani. :)

This sheet is the same size as the last one I reviewed, and I decided to do a partial nail instead of a full nail. Here is a pic of what one of them looked like once I had it all cut out to fit on the nail.

I had a lot of fun with these, and I got to use some polishes I haven't used much yet, too. :) Here is Sally Hansen's Hi-Def by itself. It is a very thin polish, so this is about 4 coats. Lovely color, huh?

I also wanted to mention that I tried a couple different topcoats with this mani, and this time I think the topcoats I used actually were worse. :( Here is an image with an explanation about which topcoats I used on each nail.

On the pinky/thumb, I used Orly Top 2 Bottom, which is my fave basecoat. It ate the decal. On my ring finger, I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails. It did ok, until I reach the tip of the nail, and it lifted the decal right off in one spot, which is why you see the chunk taken out on the corner, there. On my middle finger, I used NYC In a New York Minute Topcoat which did ok, but bubbled on me just because it is old and getting thick. On my index finger, I used AVON Speed Dry Topcoat, which did alright as well. It only ate the decal a little bit. So, now that I see how some of these other topcoats did, my Seche Vite doesn't seem so bad after all. I think that the NYC and AVON topcoats did the best though.

I am really pleased with my experience with the water decals this time, and super happy with my results. Definitely check these decals out. They are a great alternative to nail art if you are short on time, and look way better than anything you can do by hand without spending hours at it. :)

If you would like to try out some of the nail goodies they have, don't forget to use the 10% off coupon code that KKcenterHK has generously provided to me! It is good through 1/31/2013.

Coupon Code:  DelightInNails

*Products in this post were sent for review in return for my honest opinion.

KKcenterHK Water Decals Review

I received some DIY water decals from KKcenterHK, when I got the stamping plate I reviewed a while back. The first one I want to show you is a floral design and came in a little square. I used it on a couple of accent nails and then painted the others with a solid color. Here it is.

Here it is with my polish still matte

The color on my nails by the way is Sinful Colors Dream On

And here it is after I added topcoat

 I didn't really know how to use water decals, so I went online and found a few tutorials that I used to help me. These ones are a bit different because they are not small individual images, it is one large image and you have to cut them into the shape that you want. Since this was a bit trial and error, I learned some things, which I will share a little later. First, I want to give you an idea of what these water decals looked like when they arrived. This sheet was approximately 2.5 inches tall by 2 inches wide. Here is an image from their website.

I really loved the way that these water decals looked and I had them on for about 4-5 days with minimal wear. I started out by cutting out small rectangles approximately the size of my nail, soaked it in water and then applied it to the nail after peeling off the backing. I had hoped that I would be easy to trim around the edges, but that was not the case. Heehee whoops. Thankfully, when they are wet, you can still move them around, so I just removed it, trimmed it to the right shape (very difficult once the decal is already wet!), and then reapplied the decal. However, I did learn after the fact that they will dissolve with nail polish remover, but it is better to just cut them to the right shape to begin with. That is what I did for the thumb and it turned out way better.

These decals looked great until I went and added topcoat. I use Seche Vite and it literally ate the decal, and pulled some of the color. Here is a close up so you can see what I mean. I don't really blame this on the decal, but it's something to watch out for so you don't ruin your mani. I'm going to try a different topcoat the next time and see if I get better results, so I will definitely share that when I do.

Overall, I really liked my experience with these decals. It was something I had never tried before, and i had a lot of fun learning and experimenting with how to use them. Definitely check these out when you visit their website. They had a bunch of different styles and now that you have heard my experience, you will know how to use them properly. :)

If you would like to try out some of the nail goodies they have, don't forget to use the 10% off coupon code that KKcenterHK has generously provided to me! It is good through 1/31/2013.

Coupon Code:  DelightInNails

*Products in this post were sent for review in return for my honest opinion.

KKcenterHK Review - Stamping Plate

I have been so busy lately, and just finished my final for my last summer class. I meant to post this on Wednesday, but I had too much studying to do. So, you are getting it now. :) I'm reviewing some items I got from KKcenterHK. 

They have a lot of items to choose from and I immediately went straight to the stamping plates (of course!). They have so many, I spent quite a bit of time before I finally settled on this one. :) I was so excited! Then I realized that doing nails with a winter theme in the middle of summer would be kind of weird, so I used the flower stamp and made it summery. :) Here is the design I came up with.

I didn't really have a plan when I did this, and you can probably tell. I just stamped randomly and then decided to zazz it up (yup I just said zazz) with some dots. This base color is a lovely turquoise that my husband got for me. It came from Pacific Sunwear and is from a company called Black Poppy, but does not have a name. I stamped over it using Pure Ice Black Rage, and my dot are Zoya Pippa. This is another new addition to my collection, which my mom got for me recently - thanks Mom!! Here is the color from Black Poppy by itself!

On to the review:

Overall, I like this stamping plate. I had some struggles in the beginning, but it was totally user error. Here are some pics to show what I mean.

When I got the plate in the mail, it looked like this. I was actually pretty upset that it was so scratched up, but decided to give it a try. That was when I realized that this scratched up surface was actually a clear protective sheet. Doh! I couldn't tell since it was clear. I think they should make it hot pink instead. :) Here is the plate looking all nice after I peeled off the plastic.

So, after I removed the protective sheet, I went on to test out the stamp. Here is a pic of the images I stamped onto white paper.

They are pretty good. I'm especially excited about the snowflakes! I also wanted to talk about the stamper and scraper that came with it. The stamper is quite small, but I didn't have any problem with it. I LOVED the fact that the scraper is plastic. It works just as well as my metal one from Konad, but it doesn't scratch the plates. Yay! This will be my new go-to scraper for all stamping. :) My experience with these products was really great, and they have so many wonderful things on their website, you will be like a kid in a candy store. Make sure you have a lot of free time before you start browsing. ;)

If you would like to try out some of the nail goodies they have, don't forget to use the 10% off coupon code that KKcenterHK has generously provided to me! It is good through 1/31/2013.

Coupon Code:  DelightInNails

*Products in this post were sent for review in return for my honest opinion.