Konad M85 + Essence A Lovely Secret & Space Queen

Good evening everyone! Today I'm going to show you yet another stamping mani with my Konad M85 plate from Nail Polish Canada.

This mani ended up a little crazy but I really liked it at the end!

It started with 2 coats of Essence - A Lovely Secret.
I love these little Essence Colour & Go polishes, they are very inexpensive and the formula is fantastic on all the ones I have. (I wish I had them all. All 99! I'm really trying to find Glisten Up and Pool Party!)

This polish is really cool because not only is the color really nice, there is this cool speckled look to it! And on top of that, pink shimmer. I believe this color is available everywhere Essence is sold right now.

I added a coat of Essence - Space Queen for some iridescent sparkle!

I love the way this sparkles.

Now for the stamping - lots of it!

Tada!
I first stamped using Kleancolor Metallic Pink and Metallic Purple.
But they didn't show up as much as I wanted so I restamped using black.
So, most nails have the same image in purple and then in black, while my accent nail has the full nail image in pink, and then the star in purple and black.
It created a really cool effect I think!

I experienced a but of shrinkage on my middle finger (I believe Space Queen would be the culprit) so I filled it in with the base color, so please excuse that little eyesore, haha.

This full nail image reminds me of a kaleidoscope or something. I bet it would be cool to stamp the same thing several times with different colors over white! I'll add that to my idea list.

See you guys tomorrow with a cool surprise! ;)

Plate sent for review.

More about → Konad M85 + Essence A Lovely Secret & Space Queen

Another Snowflake Mani

Snowflake nail art seems to be one of the more popular looks this year after reading blogs this month. I can see why, because they are super cute! This is probably the third time I have shown them to you here.

This version is China Glaze Blue Year's Eve, Kleancolor Pastel Teal and Sally Hansen Glass Slipper. The snowflake stamps come from our shop! Have you done a snowflake mani this season?

Have a good one and thanks or stopping by!

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Snowy Nail Sponging

Hi readers!

I did a simple, but fun mani last night using the nail sponging technique. The base is Kleancolor Pastel Blue, with Color Club Pretty in Platinum sponged in sort of a gradient from the tips. The middle finger is the same colors, but reversed. And to top it off, China Glaze Snowglobe was sponged on. It gives this mani just the touch it needs!

I wish my photo was a little better, but here it is anyway. I think it looks way better in person than it does here!

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kleancolor neon splatter mani!

Hi guys! Super short post for you today because I only have one picture of this mani... So here it is!

I did these nails on my friend Jill a few weeks ago and they were super cute!
They ended up a bit lumpy in places but the overall look was awesome. Enlarge the photo to see it better!

For this manicure I used all six of my Kleancolor neon minis which I showed you yesterday. I dipped a coffee stir stick into the polish and blew it off really quickly onto the nail.

Splattered nails are easy but really bold! Have you tried a splatter mani?

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Kleancolor Mini Swatches!

Good evening! I hope you all are well.
Today I have twelve - yes, twelve - Kleancolor swatches for you.
I decided to just swatch each of these on one nail because they are minis. I don't normally do that but I figured hey, you won't mind this one time, right? ;)

I got each package of these minis for just $5 at Dominion! (That's a Canadian supermarket chain, for those of you not familiar.

Here is the first set, Candy Cast. The backs of the sets show the colors included and also have a funny saying about the type of girl who would wear these colors. It also is not grammatically correct. Enlarge the photo and see it!

Kleancolor - Neon Aqua (1 coat,) Kleancolor - Neon Yellow (2 coats,) Kleancolor - Neon Orange (2 coats.)

Kleancolor - Neon Pink (2 coats,) Kleancolor - Neon Amethyst (2 coats,) Kleancolor - Neon Lime (2 coats.)

You might remember that I used these polishes for my watercolor mani!
I also have another super cute mani to show you guys that I did with these polishes - I will post it tomorrow!

This is the Techno High mini set. Again the colors are on the back as well as a grammatically incorrect saying about the type of person that would wear these polishes!

I know that the Kleancolor Metallics are awesome for stamping so I was pumped to get these ones!

Kleancolor - Metallic Brown (1 coat,) Kleancolor - Metallic Navy (1 coat,) Kleancolor - Metallic Jungle (1 coat.)

Kleancolor - Metallic Purple (1 coat,) Kleancolor - Metallic Yellow (1 coat,) Kleancolor - Metallic Pink (1 coat - causes pink staining!)

Overall, the formulas are really great, much better than you would expect from such cheap polish!
The neons are great for nail art and the metallics are awesome for stamping. 
They are a bit stronger-smelling than most polishes and they aren't super quick-drying on their own, but those are minor flaws in my opinion.

Kleancolor is sold in some dollar stores and clothing stores and supermarkets - all sorts of places!
And you can also get it online at Beautyjoint.com which is where I ordered my other Kleancolors.
Cheap and good! Just how I like it!

More about → Kleancolor Mini Swatches!

new technique - watercolor nails! + tutorial

Hi guys! Today I have a super exciting and really cute new technique to show you!
You'll be surprised when I tell you how this is done. Take a look!

Watercolor nails! Aren't they pretty? I'm totally in love with this watery, overlapping look. I love the way the colors blend.

So, how do you think I did this?
It takes one secret ingredient... Acetone.

A little cap full of acetone and a big, soft paint brush.

When I say "big" - I don't mean really big. Just bigger than you would use for nail art.

This is my watercolor brush vs. my nail art brush. That should give you an idea.

I got the idea for these nails from this post from beautygeeks. They did them a bit differently and I'm not such a fan of the final result, but I knew I could turn it into something really pretty!

Here's what you've gotta do to get this look.

Paint your nails white, and add a coat of a thick topcoat and let it dry. I use Seche Vite.
Topcoat is important - it creates a protective layer so the acetone won't ruin your white base color.

Choose the colors you want to be in your watercolor. Keep in mind that they will be watered down and runny - it might take a few tries before you find polishes that work exactly like you want them to.

I chose these four Kleancolor minis. Neon Yellow, Neon Aqua, Neon Amethyst, Neon Pink.

Add a few tiny drops of color to your nail.
(This picture is awkward but I had to quickly take it while the polish was wet!)
Then, you dip your brush in the acetone, blot off a little so it isn't soaking wet, and then start spreading the blobs of color!

You should end up with something like this.
If you can't seem to understand how this works - watch the video in the link I posted. it will show you the basic technique but I like to spread it out more instead of just making blobs.

If you end up getting too much acetone on your nail and it is wet - don't worry. Blow on your nail and the acetone will quickly dry.

It looks sort of funny at this step, but keep going!
(However, I bet you could just do a 2-tone one with different colors! I don't think it works with the white but you cold definitely try other colors.)

Add your second color and spread it around the same way you did the first, but don't cover up all of the first color. That's what creates the blended watercolor look!

See how it looks orange over the pink, but yellow over the white?

Adding blue brings many other colors into the look! You get blue, green, and purple!
You likely only want to use one small drop of blue because it will take over the others easier.

I finish off the look with the purple shade.

With the final color, you should try to lightly cover any remaining white.
Add topcoat and you're done!

I'm in love! It's so simple and takes basically no skill. You're just blobbing and smearing! Just like painting with watercolors in kindergarten.

I left the above picture fairly large so you can click it to see how cool it looks close up!

Loving it! Let me know if you guys try this. I hope you can have as much success as I did!
I can't wait to try this with more colors - I'm envisioning watery blues and greens... So many possibilities!

More about → new technique - watercolor nails! + tutorial

Kleancolor stamping and awesome Nail Mail!

Ah, Kleancolor metallics, is there anything you can't do?  I seriously can't tell you how in love with the Kleancolor metallics I am.  Why did it ever take me so long to try them, and why did I not see anyone else raving about them on their blogs?

I've frankened with these babies, they're amazing one coaters in their own right, and now, look how well they stamp.  I've gotta say they do bleed a little when you apply top coat, so that the edges of the stamping go a little fuzzy and out of focus, but when I think about the stamping possibilities with all the Kleancolor metallic colours, I simply don't care.

My base colour here is Orly FX Shine, stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM-221 in Kleancolor Metallic Purple.

And now I'm sure you've noticed that I also added a coat of my Spectraflair topcoat.

Now I have made that SV spectraflair top coat, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to stop myself applying it to every single non holo mani I'm wearing.  I mean, come on, if you can holo up every mani, then why wouldn't you right?!?

 

And now for my nail mail all the way from Brazil.  I did my first ever swap with Tata Nada Ver.  I've always been too worried I'd get busted with the whole dangerous goods in the post business, but when she contacted me to do a swap for the Holográficos Hits no Olimpo, I sucked it up and lied my ass off on the customs declaration!  And yay that we have easy access to Ozotics to swap for too (especially as Picture Polish don't post to Brazil at the moment).  So here they are on our garden wall this arvo!

Left to right: Zeus - black, Hefesto - top coat, Artemise - silver, Hermes - gold, Poseidon - light blue, Apolo - dark blue, Hera - aqua blue, Dionísio - purple, Héstia - pink mauve, Atenas - magenta, Ares - red, Afrodite - pink, Deméter - orange.

Oh yeah baby!!  Any requests for which one first?

More about → Kleancolor stamping and awesome Nail Mail!