Give Me Some Lovin'

Good day, Kitschies!  It's been an up and down, roller coaster kind of day.  I got to read my book for more than two solid hours last night = good.  Nate woke up in a *bad* mood this morning = bad.  Mason screamed on and off for the entire 45 minute car ride to daycare this morning = bad.  Got to go to lunch with the hubs = good.  Bad prognosis for a long-time patient of ours = bad.  Helped a co-worked get caught up on referrals and such = good.  *sigh*  I'm ready for bed!!

I have a really pretty polish to share with you today.  This came out with a Summer collection and I don't think it got the attention it deserved in the blogosphere, so I'm giving it a little love.

This beauty is Orly Rock Solid from this summer's Mineral FX collection.  It is a gorgeous charcoal glittery base with scattered micro holo glitter.  This one is a stunner and it's hard to truly capture it's true appearance.

It's pretty on it's own, but I had just gotten the new BM plates for my birthday, so I used the snakeskin full nail image (BM 209) with SH Black Out for a subtle effect.

I like how this one looked a little darker in artificial light and a little lighter in sunlight.  Either way, those little micro holo particles glittered!

Here's the obligatory blurry shot to show the holo micro glitter.  Yeah, I know.  These pics make my eyes hurt, but they're so pretty!  LOL

Sure...the other polishes in this collection were pretty, but this was the only one that jumped out at me.  And I'm a little disappointed it didn't get the lovin' I think it deserves. 

What do you think of Rock Solid?  Do you own it?  Do you want it?  I know I've seen this at Ulta within the last month or so...maybe, if you're lucky, you can find it in one of the clearance bins now. 

Fit It With Tape!

Good morning, Kitschies!  It's Wednesday...even though my mind keeps telling me it's only Tuesday.  I got some good Mommy-Son time yesterday afternoon with Nate.  We got to go to the park (he was *so* excited about that) and we played some MarioKart.  He's back at school today (for reals this time) and even though he wasn't quite as excited this morning, he skipped off to his classroom, so I guess he had a change of heart.  Mason is doing really well without his binkies - I'm glad we finally took that step.  Now it's time to get serious about potty training; wish us luck!

This mani was inspired by Nailside and her *awesome* tape mani.  She does the best tape manis...I can only try to live up to her example and for my first attempt, I think I did OK. 

As soon as I saw THIS explosion mani, I knew I had to try it.  I wasn't brave enough to try the 2-tone yet, so I settled with a single explosion.

I started with a base of Cult Nails My Kind of CoolAid (original post *here*).  For the explosions, I used Zoya Posh.  Posh is a gorgeous red matte, but I didn't want matte explosions on top of a shiny base so I used ChG Fast Forward to shine it all up.

I had a bit of shrinkage but I really liked the end result, especially for my first try.  Oh, and if you haven't picked up Zoya Posh, you might wanna grab it because it was not available for about a year and who knows how long it'll be around this time!

Here's a close up of my best explosion.  LOL  I definitely have some room for improvement, but I like it!

Have you tried a tape mani?  What do you think?  Wanna give it a go?

New Year - New Mani

Happy New Year, Kitschies!  It's been a while since I was 'round these parts.  I've been so bad about posting and reading blogs over the last few weeks.  Hopefully things will return to normal now that the holidays are over.  Speaking of the holidays...how were yours?  Was Santa good to you?  My boys had a great haul from Santa - Nate got his first bike (complete with training wheels) and Mason got a construction site play set with a remote controlled car.  It's been so much fun watching them play with their new toys...they really are spoiled.  Over the last few days, the boys have been trading stomach viruses...definitely not a good thing.  Today I'm home with them both and Nate's been up since 3:30 this morning with a yucky tummy and Mason's mad because I cut the tip off all his binkies.  It's going to be a long day.

ANYway...

I did my first new mani of the year last night AND I decided to trim all my nails so I could start fresh for the new year.  I knew right away I was going to use Zoya Alegra on my toes, but I couldn't decide what to use on my fingers.  I knew if I asked Nate for his input, he'd pick the most sparkly polish I had, so I asked the hubs to pick.  I reorganized my Helmer and other storage drawers yesterday so all he had to do was open one drawer to browse my untrieds (I have a lot more untrieds than I realized).  He decided on SH Xtreme Wear Gunmetal.  I was a little surprised at that choice, but I went with it.

Once I applied it, I wasn't all that excited about it.  It's a pretty color (reminds me of a black pearl), but it's a little too frosty for my taste.  So, I went digging through my BM plates and found a design I thought would work and I am *very* happy with my result!

SH Xtreme Wear in Gunmetal - 3 coats.  I used BM-210 and Orly Luxe for the stamping. 

I impressed myself with this combo.  LOL  It's pretty subtle but it's really classy.  It's best viewed in low light and that's why this picture didn't so up as good - it was taken in bright, direct sunlight.

The longer I see this color, the more it grows on me.  I doubt I would wear Gunmetal on its own, but as a base for stamping, it worked really well.  I love it when an idea comes together when you don't think it will.

Happy 2012!  I wish you all a great year and thanks for hanging with me for so long.  I'll be around more in the coming weeks.  Promise.

Fade to Black

Good morning, Kitschies.  It's a dreary, cold Thursday over here in my neck of the woods.  You know the kind of day...a day where all you want to do is hide under the covers with a good book or a warm body and lay there...all...day.  I'm flying solo today here at work, so it's probably going to be a short post.

To sort of reflect that dreariness outside today, I have an equally dreary (color-wise) mani to share with you today.  But first, a little explanation as to the inspiration for this one.  I was in a mood to do a sponge gradient so I sat down with a bunch of colors and turned on Douche Bagans and the crew of Ghost Adventures.  Say what you will about ghost hunting shows (yes, I know, most of that shite can be disproved, but whatev), but they're good to have playing in the background when I'm doing stuff like doing my nails and want to have background noise.  Anyway...they were doing a lot of work with black and white video and then it came to me.  Black to white gradient!

After getting the bugs out with my You're Fired! sponging gradient, I had a better idea of what to do with this one.  I started at the tips with Zoya Raven then sponged ChG Recycle and finished with SH White On.

To finish it off and maybe make it a bit more mystical (yeah, right), I added a layer of ChG Fairy Dust for a little sparkle.

The faded effect didn't turn out as strong as I'd have liked, but I still like the end result.  Have you tried a sponge gradient before?  What colors do you go to first?  Any tips for a beginner sponger like myself?

Alright.  I must get to gettin'.  It's shaping up to be a busy-ish day here at the clinic - but nothing that I can't handle.  Me strong like bull.

Seeing Spots

Good day, Kitschies!  So...I tempted fate one too many times on Friday.  We were at a company get-together, having a grand time and we were talking about our kids and their various sicknesses.  Of course, I was *bragging* that my kids don't get sick.  Oh, sure...the occasional sniffle, but never really sick-sick.  Guess what I woke up to at 12:30 that night?  Yep.  Mason was sick.  Like, puking sick.  We cleaned him up and got everybody back to bed only to be woken up a second (and third) time.  I decided it was useless to keep changing him and his sheets, so I slept with him on the couch.  He was a little better by morning but was rather lethargic.  Saturday was pretty good - nobody else was sick.  Sunday was good...for the most part.  The hubs woke up sick in the middle of the night on Sunday.  Nate was sick as soon as he got up on Monday morning.  And so was I.  Oh, it was horrible!!  The hubs got it together enough to take Mason to daycare, but Nate and I spent the morning in bed.  All three of us were zombies in my bed yesterday...and if you know Nate, you know he does not sit still for long and he does not spend time with us in our bed.  But, there we were, pathetic, in and out of sleep until noon.  While I'd love to sleep in til noon, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind.  Today we're all on the road to recovery today, but lemme tell ya...I *won't* be bragging about our lack of sickness any time soon!!

Enough about the sickies.  On to the good stuff!

This is one of my favorite manis I've ever done.  And it was pretty easy, too!

First, this is my work space.  My hubs got me a roll-top desk for Christmas and I love it!  It has lots of little cubbies for my nail stuffs and lots of open space for me to work (when it's not covered by 101 other things).  In the center, you can see the acrylic paints I used for this mani, along with the nail polish(es). 

So, we have pink, yellow, green, light blue and lavender acrylic paint.  Ulta polish in Black Lace (from Glam Goth) and Underground.  The different colors weren't so distinguishable IRL - the flash really washes out the dark gray.

I started off with a base of Ulta Black Lace, a super dark grey creme on all the fingers except for the ring finger, which I used Ulta Underground, a blackened teal shimmer.  Then, using varying sized dotting tools and the acrylic paint, I placed random dots in random sizes until I was happy with the pattern.

I loved this mani!  It was so fun and so simple.  I had to do something to cheer myself up because my nail had been trimmed to nubbins.  Indoors with flash.

I got tons of compliments on this mani.  Oh...and I used one rhinestone on each finger in place of a dot.  Outdoors in bright, direct sunlight.

 One more picture just because.  Indirect light, indoors.  Now that I see this, I want to do another mani like it...only in different colors.  Suggestions for colors?

I have a little baby bumblebee...

Good morning, Kitschies!!  Can you believe it's May?!  And guess what?  New Mexico (central and north) got snow yesterday.  Yep...snow!  In May!  It didn't really stick, but it sure was a surprise to see.  Needless to say, we didn't get out much yesterday.  I don't think it go above 40* and today we had flurries first thing and it's supposed to get to 58*.  And, of course, it's predicted to get to 80* by the end of the week.  I guess Mother Nature is mad at us about *something*.

So, where are we?  Oh, yeah.  Nail polish.  Let me just say a little something about that before I get on to the pics.  Raise your hand if you're quickly getting over the whole crackle/shatter fad.  *raises hand*  Don't get me wrong, it looks awesome and it's easy.  But...starting with OPI and then ChG and now SH...how many do we really need?  Maybe I'm alone in this, but I get it already.  Enough with the crackle/shatter polishes.  I think it's more cool when it's not quite as available.  With that said, lets look at the last crackle mani I wore.

This is ChG Cracked Concrete over ChG Lemon Fizz.  The yellow is your typical pastel yellow (a pain in the butt to apply) but I didn't have to be too careful since I was covering it with Crackle Glaze.

Indoors with flash.  I liked how this turned out (just like I had imagined/hoped it would).  The colors remind me of a pastel or faded bee.  One of the docs said it reminded him of a giraffe.  LOL

Indirect sunlight; no flash.  And, obviously, this was done before my last water marble mani (my nails are long), but they're growing out pretty fast.  I've noticed that as long as I keep my nails polished, they grow and don't break quite as easily.

So, are ya with me on the whole being *over* the crackle/shatter fad?  What is your favorite color combo for shatter?

*My* Kind of Cool Aid

Well, hello, fellow bloggers!  Yep.  It's me, again.  Here with another post for your viewing pleasure.  And, yes...this is my second post for the day.  I'm on a roll!!  Anyway...I've already shared two food-related posts with you this week, so it's time for a mani post, wouldn't you say?

If you've been in the nail blogging community for any length of time, you know that Maria from R3Daily started her own line of polish: Cult Nails.  The first color she released was My Kind of Cool Aid, a great gravender with subtle shimmer.  That sort of color usually isn't my thing, but I really liked MKoCA. 

The application was great - it was really smooth and it only took two coats for this opacity.  The shimmer is very subtle, but it's there and it's really pretty.

To take it to the next level, I added a couple stripes of turquoise and black Art Club striping polish.

The wear on this was great!  I wore this for about 3 or 4 days without any evidence of wear (other than some slight tip wear on my index finger but that's nothing out of the usual).

If you click on this one, you can see just a little bit of the shimmer.  The pictures don't show it, but I think this looks a little more purple IRL.  No matter what I did to the pictures, they always showed heavier on the gray than the lavender. 

At $10 a bottle, the price is a little higher than I usually spend, but for Maria and Cult Nails, I'm willing to spend a little more.  And just in case you didn't know, she's pre-selling her next collection, either individually or in a set.

I still have two other Cult Nails colors I haven't shared with you yet...I'm saving the best for last. *teehee*

Orchids are Gray?

Good morning, Kitschies!  I hope you survived your Monday.  My day was pretty uneventful (other than finding out that I have to work over a Saturday and Sunday in a couple weeks), which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  I know I complained about it when it happened and I'm going to complain about it again.  I hate the time change.  I hate that it's dark by the time I get home.  *sigh*  Can't it just be Spring year 'round?

Since it's Tuesday, I'm bringing you a two-for-one post today!!  A mani & a pedi.  Eeek!  Feet!  I know.  LOL  I don't mind looking at feet as long as they're prettily polished and I don't have to touch them.  There's no way I'd be able to work in a podiatry office.  Ugh!  *Update* Apparently, I didn't put the pedi pics on the flashdrive, so I don't have that one for you right now.  Maybe I'll add them later tonight. 

ANYway.  A couple weeks ago, I saw on various blogs that people had found collections of Color Club at their local Ross.  Of course I had to check it out.  And guess what I found!!  Color Club collections (more on those in a later post)!  WOOT!!  These two polishes are from two collections.

This is Color Club Gem of a Girl Wild Orchid from the Rebel Debutante collection.  I don't really get the name because orchid usually conjures up images of reds, pinks or purples.  This is gray.  Like, mouse gray.  It has the faintest shimmer and that's what drew me to this color (if you click on that pic, you can see the shimmer in the bottle).  This is the first time I've worn gray and I rather liked it.

The coverage was good - opaque and no streaks with two coats.  But, since it's gray, I couldn't just leave it gray.  Gray alone is so meh.  So, I dug out my rhinestones and put a line of blue and pink about 1/3 of the way down from the tip.

For some reason, this color combination reminds me of poodle skirts.  I remember having a poodle skirt that my mom made me in grade school.  I remember it was gray, but I don't remember much other than that.

A couple days after wearing this, my hubs asked if I ever have trouble with losing rhinestones.  I told him they're kinda encased in polish, so it's not really been an issue.  Wouldn't you know it...as soon as I got in the car later that day, I realized I had lost a couple rhinestones?!  LOL  He jinxed me!

What do you think of this gray?  Meh or yeah?

PS:  Thanks to one of my followers for pointing out that I titled this incorrectly.  This is Wild Orchid. *oops*

Challenge Accpeted - Part 6

Happy weekend! I hope everybody is enjoying theirs. It's been cloudy all day but no rain in Rio Rancho. It rained cats and dogs up by the mountains this afternoon, but nothing out on the mesa. I was up by the mountains because my bestie, Wendi, got her nose pierced and it looks great! A couple days ago she mentioned she was thinking about it, and then another friend and I egged her on and she decided to do it today. She did so good - not even a squee nor a tear did Ms W shed!

Today I give you the weekly Polish Hoarder Disorder challenge - Color Accent. We are to use black, gray and white with one accent color of our choice. I had a hard time with this one. I wasn't feeling very inspired all week and though I ended up submitting two looks, the first wasn't my strongest work.  Here's a LINK to the challenge gallery.  There's a lot of great entries this week!

This is my first entry.  The hubs and I sat down at lunch one afternoon and he had this really great idea.  Have the white as the base color to be the daylight sky.  The gray would be twilight and black would be the night sky.  The accent (ring) finger would have a setting sun with rays of light shining up.  It looked great in my head.  It looked great on the sketch.  On the finger?  Notsomuch.

In this one, you can see  I added just a touch of holo glitter at the very tip of the ring finger - it's supposed to be the stars.  If you click to make the image bigger, you can see the "stars" better.

Here's what I used.  Pure Ice Black Rage, Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go, Finger Paints Papier Mache, Sinful Colors Let's Meet and a couple different brushes. 

In theory, the idea was good.  I don't know if I was just feeling so uninspired that it didn't come out right or if I just lack the skills in execution, or what.  Either way - meh!

Now, the second look I like much better.  It was rather slow at work on Friday and I was by myself.  So, while surfing the internets, I decided to look for black and white nail art designs.  I came across a couple good ideas and then I found my inspiration.

I did all my nails black except for the accent finger (again, the ring finger) - that one was white.  On the white I used my dotting tool and made silver (aka: gray) eyes and whiskers and a red nose.  Then I painted on a red bow: my splash of color.  This came out much better than the first submission and I'm quite happy with it.  It's cute. 

This is my submission photo.  I was really hoping for sun today for a no-flash outdoors picture, but there was no sun to be seen all day!  You still get an outdoors picture, just not sunny.

Here's what I used for this one.  Pure Ice Black Rage, Finger Paints Papier Mache, Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go, China Glaze Vertical Rush, a striping brush and a dotting tool.

I realized from this challenge that I don't like all white fingernails.  They're distracting.  Way more distracting than black fingernails.  However, black is a bigger PIA to clean up.  Oh, and so is that sparkly silver polish.  I did what I could, but you can still see it on my fingers in that second picture.  And one more thing - I waited longer than usual to put topcoat over the design because I didn't want the red to drag.  Well, even though I waited, it still drug the red a little.  A little side note about Pure Ice Black Rage: in the direct, bright sun, this isn't just your run-of-the-mill black creme.  It has little tiny sparkles, almost holo particles.  I've only seen it once or twice, but it's so pretty.  OK - one more picture...just for fun.

Finally I can rest with a design I'm happy with.  I can't believe this one was so difficult for me!  I had a dream early this morning that I had painted over my black fingers with pink polish - but I didn't remember doing it.  And then when I went to touch it, the pink came off in big flakes.  WTH?!  I guess I need to let go of this for a little while.  LOL

Coming up in the next week or so, you can expect some recipes (including strawberry cake, serloin and potatoes and pork chops) and some more nail art.  And beginning August 4th, the bestie and I will be posting in Workout Wednesdays - our struggles through an intense 30-day workout program.  FUN!  Speaking of the bestie...take a look at my banner!  She made that for me!  I love how it combines all 3 of the things I post about in the blog (family, recipes and polish) and she included a skull, too - makes me think of her. :)

Well, I'm off to watch Taking Chance.  My co-worker told me she cried from beginning to end - just great!  Good thing the hubs is out playing with his bestie tonight.  But that's not until I put the frosting on the strawberry cake - yum!!!

Listening to: Heads Will Roll by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Mood: Inspired