Merry Christmas

Hello lovelies!! I'm a little late posting today, but right after finishing these this morning I had to immediately leave. How immediate? Immediate like I was terrified I was going to smudge them while getting dressed - thank goodness for my trusty Seche Vite top coat! The chance of smudging made me snap a few quick pics and then I was out the door. I just now settled down to watch some Christmas Doctor Who (goodbye, Doctor #11 ??) and realized I never got around to taking the pics off my camera. So, here's my Christmas mani ... late but at least it's still Christmas. :)

I wanted a mani that I could wear after Christmas. Once Christmas is over I want Christmas over so I went simple - more winter than truly Christmas. I started with 3 coats of CQ Pearls and then topped it with 2 coats of Firefly from Hell.

If you'll remember Firefly from Hell was the glow-in-the-dark glitter topper from my Halloween collection. There are still a few of these glow polishes left if anyone wants one; you can get them on sale for $6 in my Storenvy shop. :) I adore how the stamped snowflakes still show up in the dark!!

I think I'm getting better at this whole stamping thing!! These snowflakes were done in mere moments (with China Glaze Blue Bells Ring) as I was in such a hurry and they're almost all there - only a few smudges and missing lines. And, as you can see, I also added a pearl to the center of the large snowflake on my ring fingernails. I think it added a slightly elegant, dressy touch.

So, how was your holiday? Do anything special? Wear anything special on your nails? How about gifts?? Did you get everything you asked Santa for? :)

Until next time,
-Ashley

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Santa Came To Say - More Christmas Stamping

Yes, this is another attempt at Christmas stamping. I think I'm getting a little better. I'm still working on placement and which colors I can stamp over which polishes but not too horrible if I do say so myself.

This is Eight Tiny Reindeer with an accent nail of Holly Jolly. The main polishes used in this mani are from my Christmas collection and except for Holly Jolly, which was a freebie with select Christmas orders, you can now get them on sale here!!

I couldn't do a Christmas mani, especially one with a polish like Eight Tiny Reindeer and not use the reindeer stamp! And since this was inspired by Rudolph, this mani just wouldn't be complete without a bright red nose on at least one of the reindeer. :)

And since this didn't show up on the full mani shot I had to do a close-up of Holly Jolly. Just look at that sparkle! Holly Jolly is red, green, silver, and gold micro-glitter, and this is just two coats for full coverage! It also works wonderfully as a glitter topper - such a versatile little glitter.

Order 6 full-size Christmas sale polishes, and I will include a mini of Holly Jolly in your order completely free! :) This offer is only valid until the year's end, 12/31/13, so order quick!!

Until next time,
- Ashley

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A Candy Cane Christmas with another Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate

Hello again!! First off, have you entered the giveaways I'm either hosting or a part of yet? If not you can enter here, here, and here. That's a lot of polish you could win; don't miss out! Go on. I'll wait. Done? Okay, onto the nail art!

I really wanted something simple but eye-catching so I started with a base of OPI The Spy Who Loved Me. This polish was a Christmas gift last year but red is always in season around Christmas. What makes this polish even better is the gold shimmer.

In some lights the shimmer will just look red but as you can see here and in the next pic the gold will occasionally show itself. It can be a little shy. :)

This one is a little blurry but it really shows off the gold shimmer.

via BornPrettyStore

To complete this mani, and add just a little more of a Christmas-y touch, I used my new-found stamping skills and added some candy cane stripes in white. This was done using the Born Pretty Store stamping plate M65. If you'll remember I used this stamping plate before to create my Elegant Border Nails. You can buy this stamping plate right now for $2.99. As always feel free to use MLE10W21 for 10% off your BPS orders.

If you don't have and don't want to buy this stamping plate you can always draw the stripes on freehand, use a base coat of white and put down some striping tape before painting on your red, peeling up the striping tape after ... or just use the striping tape itself to create the stripes! All it takes is a little imagination!

Until next time
? Ashley

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And To All A Good-Night featuring the Born Pretty Store Christmas stamping plate

I was busy mixing polish and filling orders last night when I was suddenly and inexplicably struck with inspiration for some nail art. Maybe it's the Christmas spirit finally kicking in? I'm not real fond of Christmas. Lemme explain! I loved it as a kid - the wonder of going out and picking/cutting/bringing home our own tree, decorating, going for long drives to see Christmas lights; the anticipation on Christmas eve, attempting to sneak out to the living room to see if Santa had come yet ... when finding anything under the tree was a surprise and a delight, but it's just not the same and hasn't been for a long while. And it's not just because I'm not a child anymore. Now-a-days, most kids (and adults are guilty of this too) are all about the receiving - how much their presents are worth and how many they can get ... and most are completely ungrateful. Where's the spirit of good will and charity gone?? So yeah, my reasons for wishing Christmas would come and go quickly.

But my Grinch-like behavior isn't what this post is about. This is about nail art inspiration and my very first truly successful attempt at stamping!

I used 2 coats of And To All A Good-Night from my 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Collection. I put down a layer of top coat and then sponged the tips with basic white. Another layer of top coat and then came the attempt at stamping. You've all seen my previous stamping disasters so I went into this with a cringe on my face. But I read somewhere that you should file the gel bit of your stamper before you use it the first time. Well, I never did this ... didn't know you should, but I figured why not? What's the worst that could happen? The filing could ruin it but it was of no use to me now so worth a shot right? I'm guessing since this attempt at stamping was a roaring success that this does help!

I used my Born Pretty Store stamping plate QA19. I'm pretty sure I received this free last year, just after Christmas, when they did a flash sale/giveaway thing. You can buy it right now for only $0.99! If you'd like to buy this stamping plate or anything else from their site you can always use my 10% off code: MLE10W21. I only had a small amount of trouble with the tree, and that was all my own fault ... I didn't roll the stamper enough on my nail and the tip of the tree didn't stamp. I had to attempt to line it up so it's just a little lopsided. And I did loose a line or two on the house; I don't think you can really tell though.

But overall, I really couldn't be happier. I'm already dreaming of buying some more stamping plates and seeing what other quick and easy designs I can come up with. I don't have time anymore for full out nail art, but I should have time for stamping. :)

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I is for ...

I scoured the internet looking for something, anything, unique that I could do for the letter I in the ABC Challenge. I was going to do Rorschach ink blots, but I didn't have the correct tools to accomplish them the way I wanted. I attempted them anyway and ended up with an absolute disaster. I decided to start over and try something else. So ...

I is for ... Iguana. Not very unique, but I tried. :)

I used Revlon Garden as my base color. I lightened it and darkened it with white and black for the texture. I also added a few dabs of Color Club's neon yellow Yell-Oh! Looking through pictures of iguanas I found a beautiful green iguana that had light blue patches on its skin so I also added some dabs of Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint over the texturing.

Here is a closer look at the texture. I had a moment of panic upon realizing I had no scale stamps on any of my stamping plates. The one stamp that looked anything like scales was absolutely tiny! So, I settled for Born Pretty Store's m61 stamping plate. I used China Glaze Holly-Day and actually consciously slowed my movements so I wouldn't get the full stamp.  A first for me, but I wanted it to look uneven like scales and I also wanted some of the texturing to show through in places.

I wasn't completely happy with the texturing and scales so I added an iguana eye to my index nail hoping to give this mani some life. In this picture, before I removed the design, I decided to see what it looked like with a top coat. The nails lost nearly all the rough texturing I worked so hard to create, but I really like how the eye took on a more realistic quality. Look into it and tell me it doesn't stare back at you!

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Elegant Border Nails

Hello everyone. I'm in the midst of a cold and debated even doing a post today, but thanks to some help from the lovely women on my Facebook Page I was able to beat the sore throat and tone down the other symptoms of my cold. You can totally thank them for this post!

I've been waiting to post these nails for a while but there were always other posts that needed posted first. Well, I'm making today the right day. Lustrous Lacquer wanted to see border nails and this is what I came up with.

Start out with a base color. This will be the color of your borders. I used two coats of L.A. Colors Black. The next step is to paint your nails again, but leave a border around the edges. I found it easier to simply use the nail polish brush and be a little more careful around the edges, but you could use a nail art brush or a dotting tool to lay down an outline first if you don't feel comfortable jumping right in. You'll go back later and create a tip so don't worry if the tips look messy or the black shows on the edges. This picture shows one coat of L.A. Colors White. I used three coats to completely cover the black.

Here's where you complete the border by repainting the tips with your border color. Remember to round the edges of this tip to give a nice oval shape to the borders. I let this part of the mani dry completely and then put on a layer of top coat to give myself a nice stamping surface.

I used the rose image on m65 of my Born Pretty stamping plates. This is the one and only time I got such perfect images on all my nails. I'm sure it has something to do with the L.A. Colors polish I used. It's a very slow to dry polish, and I worked extra fast. Be sure to let your nails dry completely before stamping and be sure it's completely dry before using any top coat. With the black and white even the smallest amount of smudging or running will be immediately visible!

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My Coffee Obsession

My not-so-well kept secret is that I love coffee. I would drink it all day, every day if I could. And to me, the cup is just as important as the coffee. I can't just put my coffee in any cup. My family knows this and they are nice enough to get me some of the prettiest cups. Today's nail art is inspired by one of these cups.

Here are the (not so perfect) finished nails. I can't for the life of me get my stamper to work consistently. Though it hardly ever stamps this bad. This likely had something to do with the fine and delicate etching for the flower petals.

And here is the cup that inspired these nails. I started with three coats of Lightening from Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri line of polish.

 It's one of the most perfect yellow polishes, in my opinion. I have owned light yellows and sheer yellows but before Lightening I have never owned an actual, true yellow.

To get the yellow gingham pattern from the cup I used tape and China Glaze's White on White.

I used three strips of tape from cuticle to nail tip and three strips of tape from side to side before painting over the nail with white. This is such an easy design to do and creates such an amazing affect!!

My coffee cup has such gorgeous flowers in various colors, but the ones that catch my eye most are definitely the blue morning glories. To complete this design there just had to be flowers. Sadly, the only flowers I can do without a good deal of time are swirly roses and daisy-like flowers using a dotting tool. I had to use my stamper. I want so much to be good at stamping ... but I'm just not. :( I did manage to get one nearly perfect flower and it really did make the design come to life! It makes me all the more longing of a deft stamping hand.

I could definitely see this gingham pattern being used in a picnic nail art. Use red in place of the yellow and a dotting tool with some black to create an ant or two scuttling their way over the picnic blanket. If you have fimo fruit slices it would certainly add life to the design. :)

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French Hearts

I've given myself something of a challenge. I want to see how many ways I can spice up a simple French manicure. I will keep the standard French white as a base for these manis as an added challenge.

You've seen the standard French manicure in Mother's Day post, 'The Mommy Mess', and you've seen the Mother's Day design I created over those nails. Now, I bring you French Hearts. :)

I used my new Born Pretty image plate m56 for this design. I adore this image plate. It's a plate full of tip stamps. It's the same plate that contained the bow from my 'All Wrapped Up' nails

I only had one problem with stamping this design. I didn't push enough near the tip of my index nail and lost the hearts from the very tips. You can see that I went back and tried adding them. Well, I didn't line them up well enough and overlapped them slightly. I like to think I'm getting better though. The other nails are almost perfect!! Yay!

I used OPI Alpine Snow and Bubble Bath as the base again. The hearts are done with Wet n Wild's 'I Red a Good Book'.

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Bonsai

Wow! I am like dead on my feet. I've been going to my sister's place every day. Sometimes we go shopping, mostly we go tanning. I'm getting a nice jump on some summer color. She also has three little girls: the older two in school and a two-year-old with her constantly. So, I've been getting run ragged by a little girl who wants to play with her 'Annie'. I was talked into throwing a softball for her and the middle girl yesterday. This is why I have a dog! Children expect you to run after them and get involved unaware that you are many years older than them and have nowhere near the amount of energy they have ... a dog will run and bring the ball back perfectly content if you stand in the same spot the entire time! Lol. I've had no time or energy to create elaborate nail art so I used a stamp and my dotting tool for this one.

I picked this color up last weekend during a shopping trip to Walmart. They have changed their entire selection of nail polish. They now offer new brands of nail polish and new collections from old brands. As always seems to be the case though, the one collection I was there looking for was the one collection they seemed not to have. With my luck, I simply overlooked it.

I did manage to snag Bonsai from the Revlon Colorstay collection. I'm not the kind of person who can pull off many shades of green without looking sickly, but Bonsai is a really pretty shade that worked well with my skin tone. This might have something to do with the very light yellow gold shimmer.

 You can see in the pictures that the shimmer is very hard to see though. That wasn't the only problem I had with this polish either. The polish was very hard to get on the nail, streaky and with large gaps where the polish wouldn't lay. I had to use three coats to get total coverage. It wasn't such a big problem since I was using a design over it, but it is something to think about if you enjoy one color nails.

Another downside is that this polish only stayed on for one day! Not even that long because it showed signs of wear almost immediately and began chipping that night. I know I've been going non-stop and have likely put my nails through some hard times but that was ridiculous. Especially from the Colorstay collection which touts long wear, 11 days of wear if worn with their base and top coats. I did not wear this with their top coat but I did use their base coat. That should add something right?? I will allow that maybe I got a bad batch or some other kind of error because I have never had this many problems with the other polishes I own from this collection. But ...

All in all, pretty though it may be, I don't think Bonsai will become a staple around my house.


The stamping was done with Sally Hansen White On. I found this worked very well with my image plate but that might have something to do with White On being very old and thick. If you have some old lying around give it a try with your stamper. Or try it with new and let me know how it works.


I'm off to get ready for another day on the town. Have a great day everyone!

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Caged

'ello lovelies! I'm kind of embarrassed to post today. These are nowhere near my best nails. They just look so messy to me. Also, I decided not to use a smiley with this mani. The broken nail on my left hand isn't so noticeable in the two pics I got of that hand.

I tried something new and then used another stamp over top. I loaded a large brush with four colors and attempted to do a one-stroke nail. Things didn't work out as I hoped.

Since I was only allowing myself one stroke I used a white base in hopes the colors would really pop.

Sadly, the one stroke is much harder than it looks. The polish got everywhere except my nails! It flooded my cuticles and smeared all over my fingers but would not stay on my nail. One stroke turned into many as I attempted damage control.

It was all so messy that I looked for a stamp to cover some of the mess. I decided to use this stamp, Born Pretty m64. Even after all that I still wasn't satisfied and was really glad to take this mani off.

Here's an attempt to explain the title of this mani. The finished nail makes me think only of bird as it looks out through the bars of its cage at the setting sun wishing more than anything to fly free. I tried to think of a title that would make more sense but that's all that I could think of.

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All Wrapped Up

Hello, girlies. I write a post filled with sadness today. It will be the last post for a while that you will get to see my lovely index nail. I will have to use my right hand, which is never as pretty, or do as other bloggers do and post a smiley over the nail. Why you ask? I broke the nail completely while out yesterday. I was in a hurry and wasn't careful enough and the nail split right down the middle. As I was away from my supplies, I had no way to do an emergency fix and had to take the clippers to it. :'( It's now cut clear down and will take a good while to grow out. Enjoy its loveliness with this mani while you can.

For the base of this mani I used Wet n Wild Tropicalia. As for the bows, I bought a 16 piece set of image plates from Born Pretty and found myself very impressed.

I could never understand why everyone loved stamping so much. I had so many problems with the image plates I owned that I couldn't imagine anything but frustration. I couldn't get a whole image on my nail to save my life! Another bad thing was that the polish set very quickly that sometimes I didn't even get it onto the stamper before it was dried up and refused to budge.

Well, now I understand the enjoyment.

As you can see from these pictures I had no such problems with the Born Pretty plates. I managed to get the entire image with every stamp. The only problem I had was inexperience with actually stamping that image onto my nail. I figure with a bit more practice on lining the image up I will have nearly perfect stamps.

The last image I have to share is probably one of my favorites. It was a rainy day and once the rain let up I stepped outside in an attempt to get the most light. Well, I stepped too far off the porch and got dripped on. For some reason, I love the water droplets splattered all over my nails and the polish bottle.


That's all, folks! I guess I will see you in a few days with another post. That post will surely be without the index nail visible and you will get to see the ever elusive right hand.

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Pretty Camo

Hello, girlies! I tried my hand at stamping again today. I still haven't got it down yet, but I might be getting better. What do you think?

I think of this mani as deconstructed camo or my attempt at 'pretty camo'. While doing this design, I kept in mind the camo that uses various shades of green and tan to create leaves and a wood texture. I think it turned out very nice with this flowery, girlish stamp.

For some reason the middle nail smudged horribly when I stamped the design. Can you push too hard while stamping?

The two polishes used come from the Revlon Colorstay collection which just arrived in my small town. They are Bare Bones and Spanish Moss. I picked them up with a slightly different mani in mind but they looked far too much like camo colors to do anything else with them. :)

I'm still not sure how other bloggers get such perfect and whole stamps, but I'm just happy to see more than half the stamp on my nails this time!

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The Hunger Games

In honor of my finishing The Hunger Games trilogy and in anticipation of the first movie, I decided to do Hunger Games nail art. I think this is one of the only books I've ever read where I didn't prefer any one character over any other; I just plain liked them all: in various different ways, yes, but still ... I tip my imaginary hat to Suzanne Collins.

The first nail, the thumb, is the mockingjay of course. I mean, what else could possibly say Hunger Games better than the mockingjay? Not my best work, I admit. I'm guessing it looks more like a blob than a bird with an arrow if you don't know what you're looking for.

The index finger is to honor Katniss Everdeen, The Girl on Fire, one light shining gloriously in the dark of District 12 (and all of Panem). The flame, the dark surrounding it, and a little bit of coal using black crackle to show where she comes from.

Next is the one nail I desperately wanted to do but debated endlessly on just how to accomplish it. Even with my love and sorrow over Rue, I was left agonizing over what to do for her. I already had the mockingjay, but that was for the overall series. I could do an orchard tree but that didn't feel right either. Finally, I decided to follow Katniss and honor Rue with flowers. So, I tried covering the entire nail in nothing but flowers. I reworked this multiple times. I can't tell you how many times I had to use nail polish remover. Finally, I used a combination of stamping and a brush to fill the flowers in with different colors. The flowers cover the peephole into another world; one where Rue leaps through the trees like a bird with the whistles of her mockingjays singing that she's safe. Yeah, I'm a big ol' sap!

After that is the forest, stream, and the cave from the Arena. Again, it's not my best work, but I lost a good deal of canvas space. I haven't done a nail art design this intricate since I cut off a lot of my nail length. Still, I'm very pleased. Blue Year's Eve makes an absolutely stunning stream! All that bright blue glitter gleaming from the darker polish just speaks of hidden depths, and whether what lurks in those depths is good or bad will only be found out when you dip in a toe. I tried to add a muddy-ish, sandy bank and some odd rocks before it leads into the greanery of the forest. I'm pretty sure it was the other way around in the books: the forest leads into the barren stream riddled with a mess of rocks and the cave, but I couldn't see filling a whole nail with rocks.

Last but not least, I wanted to do something to encompass the violence of the Hunger Games. I knew I wanted blood, but wasn't sure in what way until I happened upon the trailer while searching out ideas. I saw the reaping of District 12, and when I saw the drab gray blues of their clothes (Katniss's horrific dress especially) I knew what I had to do. The blood spatter is done by straw as per a tutorial I found on Youtube. However, the original idea goes to thepolishaholic.com.


Not sure if anyone wants know this but I thought I would include it just in case. You can totally skip over this. :)



Polish Used
Thumb

• Wet n Wild - Goldmine
• Funky Fingers - Platinum Record
• Petites - Bronze Baby

Index

• L.A. Colors - Black Velvet
• Pure Ice - Siren
• Sally Hansen - Sun Kissed
• Sally Hansen - Mellow Yellow
• Funky Fingers - Black Scales

Middle

• Sally Hansen - White On
• Revlon - Tangerine
• Sally Hansen- Sun Kissed
• Sally Hansen - Mellow Yellow
• Pure Ice - Siren
• Borghese - Buon Viaggio Mauve
• Sinful Colors - Beautiful Girl
• Sinful Colors - Feeling Great
• Bon Bons - Blue

Ring

• Sally Hansen - Green with Envy
• Sally Hansen - Emerald City
• Pure Ice - Free Spirit
• Funky Fingers - Platinum Record
• Wet n Wild - Metallica
• Sally Hansen - Wet Cement
• L.A. Colors - Black Velvet
• China Glaze - Blue Year's Eve

Pinky

• Revlon - Cloud
• Pure Ice - Siren

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