More than just a swatch today. I've got a look showing it's stamp-ability as well as it's comparison to another polish. I saw this in the store and thought it looked "chrome" enough to stamp well. I'd been wanting a light pink polish to stamp with, so it came home with me.
This is 2 coats swatched. You can tell it's just a little bit "brush-strokey." Below is compared to China Glaze Emotion. Which is just a shade darker.
I accidentally reversed the order of my swatch-sicles....
To take care of the visible brushstrokes, I used my tried and true method for smoothing out the finish.
Then to test out it's stamp-ability I used the Bundle Monster zebra print image to do the following.
I used OPI Skull and Glossbones as a base polish, then stamped with China Glaze Emotion on my ring fingernail. I used Pink Satin on all the other nails.
You might have noticed that I've started including swatches on a false nail stick in some of my posts. I recently heard about these Swatch sticks and I love the idea of having everything so organized. Plus if anyone comes over for a mani, they can fan through those to find what they like. And that frees me up to reorganize my stash by brand vs by color or whatever! So I ordered 8 sets of 50 nail sticks from this eBay listing. Then I accidentally ordered an additional 8 sets because I thought my first order didn't go through. :( I'm a goober like that sometimes. Lol. So I have more than enough to swatch my entire collection! It will be nice to use them and try different combinations of polishes, so I will still use them.
You can write with a Sharpie permanent marker on the stick part and to brand and color name. :)
So far I have them grouped by color family. This is my glitter/magnetic/crackle ground. I layered the flakies over black and white to see how the colors pop.
So that's my whole stash!
I have a group for:
Glitter/Crackle/Magnetic
Blue
Brown/Black/White
Purple
Pink/Coral/Orange/Red
Teal/Green/Yellow
Now if I can ever find someone willing to custom make me a polish rack/bookcase to my specifications.... I plan on organizing my stash by brand!
I've received multiple questions about my Candy Heart manicure. I thought I'd re-post the picture and link back to the original post because so many people love these for Valentine's Day.
They were made using the Nail Art Diva "From the Heart 1" stamping image plate. It can be bought online here for $9.99.
In my original post I mention the polishes I used to stamp the hearts with... I didn't give all the boring details, but the heart image transfers very sheer. So I stamped the heart shape, but ended up going back over it with a small paintbrush and more polish to give it the best color. In case you were wondering why your's was acting up. Well, mine did too!
There is an easy way to solve the problem of the pesky frosty polish that applies and show each individual brushstroke. It can really distract from the beauty of the polish, so how can you get rid of it? Sponge on the final coat!
Take for example Pure Ice Platinum.
This is 3 coats and it's full of brushstrokes.
Take a small piece of a makeup sponge, or a clean eye shadow applicator like pictured here, and sponge on the last coat of nail polish.
Look at that smooth finish?! What a drastic change! It's a super easy technique that anybody can use to get more use out of their polishes. Now you don't have to pass up anything for fear of pesky brushstrokes!
I was recently contacted by Elizabeth a follower with questions about my basic nail care and tools. This is a long overdue idea for a post, so here we go!
How often do you buy polish? Do you usually get it in bulk?
I don't buy polish that often. I buy things from new collections when I'm fairly confident that it's unique and not like something I already have. Also, I'll only buy it if I see myself using it. I refuse to buy the entire collection, just to swatch it on the blog. I feel like that would be irresponsible with my money. I drift through the polish isles any time that I'm in the store, but I don't buy unless it's a great deal or something I need. Thankfully I have pretty good self control. I usually just buy a few here and there. If I ever do buy in bulk because I like a lot of a certain collection.... I use a website like nailderoyale.com for example.
How do your nails keep so healthy? Don't they dry up after you wipe it off?
Thankfully I'm blessed with good nails to work with. I don't have to do too much to keep them healthy. I have oily skin/hair/nails naturally, so they don't dry out. I always use a nail strengthener/fortifier as my base coat. I've found OPI Nail Envy works well for me, as well as Orly Nail Defense. When I use other base coats I find that my nails peel and split. :( With those two base coats I've noticed that my nails grow longer and stronger, faster and without any visible damage from my frequent polish changes.
This is my old and a new back up bottle I just bought of Nail Defense. Don't ask me why they're different colors..... I don't know! I stuck with this for my back up bottle because it's slightly cheaper than OPI Nail Envy.
Do you think those base coats help to prevent the polish from chipping?
Base coats are really important I think. They make them in so many variations to fit any problem area! You can get ones that strengthen, ones that smooth out ridges, or ones that say they will help the polish stick or cling better and resist chipping. I do think that base coats help to minimize chipping, to a certain extent. I still can only get a manicure to last 2-3 days before I have chips and need to change it. That is regardless to what base coat I use.
You never show the actual tools that you use to do the detailed work in your pictures huh?
I have not been taking great care of my brushes, so they were pretty deplorable. I recently bought some new ones at Sally's Beauty Supply. The skinny striper is almost too long and skinny. It's a little flimsy and that makes it hard to control.
If anyone has any other questions, just drop me an email!
I ran with the idea Shaina Rose gave me to use the prints of Lilly Pulitzer as inspiration. This is another image I found in my search that I really wanted to use. I love these colors. :)
I don't remember what the exact background colors are that I used. I forgot to take a group bottle shot. But I used the same technique that I recently used in my Wacky Dots post.
I added pink acrylic paint.
I added some white to the pink paint on my palette and then did this.
Some white and regular pink paint for these details.
A little black beak and some orange and white paint details to the body. And topcoat.
I received this question in my suggestion box.
"How do you keep your clear coat from pulling the nail
polish underneath and making it bleed? I make designs
that look so nice and crisp then (what should be) the
finishing touch ruins them :("
Simple solution!
Make sure your nail art design is completely dry! Sometimes I finish my nail art and then go do something else for 30 minutes and come back and topcoat later.
If it's still happening.... it may be your topcoat itself. Do you have a thick topcoat like Seche Vite? I've noticed that thinner drugstore topcoats can drag designs more.... Whatever topcoat you use, make sure to not wipe the brush too much on the neck of the bottle. If the brush doesn't have a lot of polish on it, the bristles will catch on the design. Apply a medium sized blob of topcoat near the cuticle and LIGHTLY guide it around the nail in as few of strokes as possible. The more strokes you use, the more likely streaks will appear.
This is a older OPI that a friend gave to me. It's from Spring 2010 Hong Kong Collection. *edit* Sally was nice enough to point out that my bottle is labeled to be from the older Far East Collection release. Thanks Sally! *end edit* It truly looks like pearls on my nails. Some might feel that it's too blah and frosty, but I appreciate that it looks like pearls! I feel like this nail color can be used on a number of different occasions. I most recently used it when I needed to be a bit "dressed up" more than usual. I think it looks quite classy and demure. :)
This is 3 coats with some slight visible nail line, but it wasn't enough for me to be worried about.
If you're having trouble with a frosty polish showing too many brushstrokes? Try this tip! Instead of that last final coat, instead use a sponge and sponge on the last coat! It'll even out and hide the brushstrokes!
I wanted to see if it could look like that blue and white china pattern that has been floating around... This was Sally Hansen Co-Bolt Blue and a random stamping plate that I already forgot about. I didn't like this look and the stamping was a smeared mess, so it came off shortly after this!
I suggest you start simple. Don't go out and buy lots of polishes just for the sake of mixing until you're comfortable with (and let's face it, better at) frankening. Start by using polishes that you have in your stash but don't particularly like. That way if you end up wasting it on a dud franken, you won't cry. Lol.
Hopefully you've not been throwing away your empty bottles from topcoats and basecoats. These are what I use to franken in. Polish addicts burn through this stuff faster than toilet paper! Once my bottle is empty, I squirt (I use a handy-dandy plastic pipette I stole from work) some acetone into the bottle and shake it up a bit to clean the brush. I leave them stored like this until I'm ready to fill them and franken. Don't have empty bottles lying around just yet? Drop by Walgreens and pick up some Wet N Wild clear polish. It's 99 cents and you can save the clear to later add back in as a filler for your frankens.
Start by just mixing two colors together. Think ahead as to what you would like to do, make it shimmer? make it glitter-bomb? etc. Add some of your first color, I usually just fill the bottle 1/4 full. Then pick your second polish, shimmer, glitter, etc. Add that polish in about 1/4 as well. Now you have a half full bottle of nail polish, got that simple math lesson?! Lol. Then shake it like a polaroid picture (thanks to Laura I have that song stuff in my head each time I franken!). Then swatch your franken. Do you like it? Does it need more shimmer, more color, or is it just right? Then add small amounts of whatever is needed with furious shaking in between. You have yourself a basic franken! Congrats to your success!
I suggest you get comfortable creating simple frankens like this before moving on to buying polish with the intents of frankening.
Oh you're comfortable now? Great, then why not hit up some garage sales or your mom/sister/aunt's polish stash. Yes they may be terribly dated and frosty, but they will also be cheap and plentiful. And mix away the frostiness :)
Ready to move past that? Ok, well hit up the Walgreens for other Wet N Wild's (colored polishes) at 99 cents a piece. Try Wal-Mart for Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear line (usually $3) or Pure Ice collection (usually $2). Pure Ice has some great shimmer polishes that are in a virtually clear base. Great way to start simple and add to a colored polish.
At this point you can go wild, you know your mix-abilities enough to go buy specific polishes and predict their franken outcome. Maybe even dupe-ify a special lemming you've got?
