the sun isn't shining but my gradient is!

Here in Newfoundland, we don't get a whole bunch of sunny days. Maybe in July and August... A week or two... But it's not too hot usually.
I've gotta keep my nails sunny, even if the sky isn't!

Woohoo! Summery gradient!
Me and some friends all decided to do gradients on this lovely Friday, and here's what I came up with.

My color combo was inspired by one of my "nail crushes" - Ivana Thinks Pink. There's nothing she does that I don't like! Seriously. Ivana, quit being so awesome!
She did this mani using China Glaze Peachy Keen and Orly Fancy Fuchsia. Hot damn, I need Fancy Fuchsia. Why don't I have it?! Jeez. I NEED IT! Her nails were glowing. Amazing.

I used the same peach - China Glaze Peachy Keen.
I tried to substitute Zoya Lo for the pink but it just doesn't look quite so hot.
It's still pretty though!
But one day I will redo the mani... Whenever I find myself Fancy Freakin' Fuchsia.

To do this gradient, I tried the new gradient tutorial that is sweeping the blog world, from The Nailasaurus.
But, I couldn't get that to work... At all. It just was not showing up with these colors.
So I went in and did it the way I'm used to, which you can see in my older tutorial here.
But I still wanted the flawless blended look you can get from the newer way, so I ended up doing that on TOP of the gradient that I did my way. And that turned out magical! It blended the colors seamlessly.

After that, I stamped the floral pattern from Konad plate m65. It's almost like a Hawaiian shirt! Haha, I love it.

I'm was going to submit this in Kayla Shevonne's Nail Art Contest but then I realized you can't stamp for her contest. Damn!
If you haven't checked out her contest already, hurry! There's just less than 12 hours left to enter.

I hope you guys enjoy this mani! I'm going to be doing lots of gradients again because I just love them and it's been too long since I've done them! I think I might even do another one later today. Woohoo!

More about → the sun isn't shining but my gradient is!

Nail-Venturous Lacquers - Floam! (+ stamping!)

I've got a great polish to show you today. I'm sure most of you are familiar with this awesome "indie polish" already but now it's my turn to show it to you!

I remember quite some time ago, a girl by the name of I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous was commenting on my blog posts. She followed me, so I followed her. Then somewhere along the way, we became friends via Facebook, and then suddenly, Amy started making frankens, and she quickly became one of the most popular "indie polish" makers around! And she deserves it, too.
I'm glad to be friends with Amy and I'm so happy for her success!
I'm also very happy that she swapped me this polish for my own franken, Rebecca Likes Cupcakes. (Amy loves frankens. All of them.)

Nail-Venturous - Floam
Check out this neon glitter! This polish is just so cool and original, I love the color combo.
Here I layered one generous coat of Floam over Color Club Twiggie but you can use it without a base color, too. I was just too lazy to do 2-3 coats of glitter. Haha!

Adding Twiggie underneath makes it a little bit brighter but I like the effect! From afar the polish looks mostly like a nice shade of neon green but then when you look close, you can see the two different colors that merge together to create the polish!
It is of course a little bit textured but 2 coats of topcoat solves it.

I haven't done stamping in a long time, so I decided to try some stamping over my Floam! And I'm glad I did because it turned out great.

I stamped this cool abstract image from Konad m65 using Wet N Wild Black Creme.

I love this mani and I am definitely going to keep it on for a few more days!

If you haven't been able to get your hands on this yet, keep an eye on Amy's Etsy store as well as on Ninja Polish. But beware of Floam-impersonaters! Hahaha. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I guess!

More about → Nail-Venturous Lacquers - Floam! (+ stamping!)