Blue, Green & Bored

Hello Dahlings!

 

Last weekend I was having a bored moment & went looking for mani ideas on Twitter. My Twitter pal @SparkylieNails suggest doing a dotticure & another lovely lady (I can't remember her name, I've slept since then, sorry!) suggested using blue & green. I went with it & this is da result:

 

Da line up: Kiwi Gold Franken made by yours truely, Revlon Black With Envy & Nubar Absolute. Frankening is a great way to turn polishes you don't like into ones you do. I've done it by combining existing polishes as well as adding craft pigment powders &/or loose craft glitter to neutral base polishes. My fav source of base polish to putz with is clear, white & clear with small glitter polishes from da dollar store. If I mess it up, I'm only out a buck! I have lots of fun powders to play with from my years of crafting & will share what I've learned soon with my Franken February series. (Fitzy from Lacquer Lad was having a serious frankening fit yesterday & is willing to share his creations with us in february. I'm so looking forward to this informal collaboration...Fitzy is BRILLIANT & had GORGEOUS nails!) Now on to da nails of today's post:

 

This is 2 coats of Black With Envy. It was one of the many polishes I picked up uber cheap at da Grocery Outlet next to my local PO. (They have 4 packs of Revlon polishes for $5 & 6 packs for $7...SCORE!) It went on with no issues & is a nice medium-dark metallic gray. Then I dinged up my ring finger pretty bad before I took pics. So please ignore the polish patch on that finger in da above photo. It wasn't the polish's fault, it was mine. lol

 

I'm so not thrilled with how this turned out! It wasn't the concept, it was my polish choices & dotting technique that failed. There isn't enough contrast between the blue & green polishes, so they tend to blend together visually. Plus I totally failed at doing either random dots or organized dots, the sizing of the dot layers is off & the placement of the 2nd layer of dots is skewed. Not an epic fail, but a fail none the less. Note to self: just cuz I like 2 colors together doesn't mean they will play nice on my nails. Live & learn!

 

Thanks for stopping by & please be on da look out for da Franken Fest coming soon!

~ Inky

 

Freehand Leopard Print ~ I did it myself!

Hello Dahlings!

 

I'd like to welcome all my dahling new followers to my lil blog! You're just in time to see a new first for me...freehand leopard print nails. I know these are done by talented nail artists all over da blog-o-sphere, but it was a challenge for me & I'm pleased as punch with myself...so deal with it! lol

 

Da line up: Nubar Treasure, Orly Miss Conduct & Scandal Modern Black. (I love Scandal's corset & skirt bottles!)

 

This is 2 coats of Treasure, no undies needed! I don't see them about much, but I do like Nubar's scattered holos & this one went on like a polish dream...smooth with no issues.

 

TA DA! I used both large & small ends of a dotting tool to make spots of Miss Conduct & the small end to make the black markings using Modern Black. I may be late to da party on this design, but I had fun doing it & will be doing it again.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

 

 

Kitchen Sink Saturday #4 ~ better late than never!

Hello Dahlings!

 

I appologize for my absense from da blog-o-sphere last week, real life interfered with my polish life. I love being a Stampin' Up! Demo, but when I have a camp or workshop scheduled, the week before it is pretty much sucked up with prep. Some of this prep consists of designing several greeting cards then cutting all the materials to make these cards in numbers from X10 to X28. This involves handling lots of card stock which sucks the moisture off my hands & I also lose moisture to frequent hand washing to get ink off my hands so I don't leave finger prints all over da place. Lubing my hands after every wash doesn't happen cuz the lotion will also leave finger prints. Why am I 'splaining all this? I thinkm y hands look like I'm related to a 'gator right now & will continue to do so for a couple more weeks cuz I have 2 more workshops to prep for before I can uber lube my mitts enough to fix da damage. Poop.

 

So my last Kitchen Sink Saturday nails are late cuz I didn't have time to do them until after camp last night. I was dead dog tired, but it felt SO good to have art on my nails after 5 days of just Zoya Storm! I'm not used to having just one color on my nails even if it is an awesome black holo. So on to da art:

 

Da line up: Nicole by OPI Back In My Gloria Days (from the Modern Family Collection), China Glaze Glistening Snow, Orly It's Up To Blue, Nicole by OPI Opal Texture, Wet N' Wild Rain Check & Funky Fingers Mermaid Lagoon. Also shown are a bit of Essence sponge & very thin striper brush from their Nail Art Kit & my large dotting tool.

 

All polishes were opaque in 2 coats. Starting with my thumb ~ Rain Check is a blue gray with a subtle blue shimmer; index ~ It's Up To Blue is a shimmery almost metallic aqua with a hint of green that wanted to stain during clean up, but did come off; middle & pinky ~ Glistening Snow is a bright silver scattered holo (tho da rainbows don't show here); ring ~ Back In My Gloria Days is glass fleck red violet (aka purple) that shows a potential for a gold shimmer, but I didn't see any on da nail.

 

Ta Da! From da top: Thumb ~ 2 coats of Mermaid Lagoon...I LOVE this polish! It has small magenta & light blue glitters with medium round silver holo bits that lay nice & flat. I did need to add a 2nd TC layer to make it smooth, but no application or fishing issues. I got it in a recent polish swap & went looking online for more of this brand. I couldn't find an actual website, but they are listed on eBay & several discount sites, so they may be discontined. Oh well. Index ~ I added the Opal Texture crack & while the subtle purply shimmer shows in person, my phone couldn't pick up much of it. Middle ~ gradiant time! I grabbed a bit of sponge & used IUTB with BIMGD to add color over Glistening Snow & the holo goodness shows thru', Me likey! Ring ~ double dots using IUTB with the large dotting head & Glistening Snow with the small head. I had wanted to use OPI Turquoise Shatter on this nail, but my bottle had gooped up bad. (I've added thinner & will see if I can save it) Pinky ~ free hand stripes using IUTB & BIMGD with da skinny striper brush.

 

I've had way kewl fun doing this challenge! My thanks to Nicole at Young Wild and Polished for getting this challenge started & inspiring us to reach beyond our comfort zone of ALL NAILS MUST MATCH. They don't, they really don't.

 

Please check out the other's that posted their Kitchen Sink Saturday week #4 manicures:

 

Sarah at Swishie Nail's

Claire at Kerruticles  

 

It's been swell, ladies & gents, but the swelling's gone down...thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

A polish comparison for a gray day...

Hello Dahlings!

 

We've had nothing but foggy days & frozen foggy nights for the past week, so I thought I'd play with gray duo chrome polishes to match da mood.

 

Da line up: Fetish Mirror, Revlon Smoldering, American Apparel Smoke Dazzle, Wet N' Wild Gray's Anatomy, Essence Chic Reloaded & L'Oreal VIP Status. Mirror is da undies cuz some of these are on da sheer side. The others all show a duo shimmer of pink, green or both in da bottle. 

 

This is 2 coats of Mirror. If I weren't wearing it as undies I do 3-4 coats tho' I'd consider white undies under it, just to keep the layers down. It's a bit streaky, but for $1, I can live with it.

 

Starting with my thumb ~ VIP Status is opaque in 2 coats (doesn't need undies) tho' it barely shows a shimmer of green & is more of a blue gray than the others; index ~ Chic Reloaded is opaque in 2 coats w/o undies as well & shows its pink/green duo easily; middle ~ Gray's Anatomy needs 3 coats w/undies, so really is more of a topper than base color, it only shows a pink shimmer on da nail; ring ~ Smoke Dazzle is opaque in 2 coats over da undies, so 3 coats by itself might do ok, it does show both colors; pinky ~ Smoldering needs another coat here for opacity & is another topper, while it does show the green, the pink was shy to non-existent. Of the 5 polishes I compared, Essence Chic Reloaded was my favorite followed by American Apparel Smoke Dazzle. The L'oreal is ok, but not really a duo chrome & the Wet N' Wild barely qualifies. Smoldering was so underwhelming to me I put in the swap box.

 

So I thought I'd spiff up my gray nails with some stamping! I used Konad Silver & Princess Pink stamping polishes with FabUrNails Fun 2 plate. I used the hearts & crossed bones full nail design in da middle of the left column. I LOVE FabUrNails stamping plates! The images are the right depth to transfer polish well & many of da images available are not available anywhere else. You can see what's available HERE. These plates are a smidge under 4" x 6" & the full nail designs will cover longer nails. The downside of ordering these plates is da price per plate is $20 US & when I ordered 2 plates the s/h was $17 & it took about 3 weeks to arrive. (Which is pretty good for international non-express shipping, but I thought you should know.) Even with the price & s/h costs being what they are, I will be ordering more of these plates. They are worth it!

 

Alas, my stamping results were not worth the effort due to my choosing silver over white & black for stamping the image. It showed up better on the 2 dark gray nails, but pretty much disappeared on the light gray ones unless I did hand gymnastics to catch just the right angle. The Princess Pink worked great with a dotting tool & I need to stamp with it at some point soon.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

Kitchen Sink Saturdays ~ #3

Hello Dahlings!

 

Today is the 3rd Saturday of January & it's Kitchen Sink time!

 

Da line up: Ruby Kisses Solid Copper, Orly Luxe, Sephora by OPI Come to Pappa-razzi! & L.A. Colors Black Pearl.

 

I did 2 coats on all fingers: thumb, middle & pinky ~ Black Pearl; index ~ Solid Copper; & Luxe is on my ring finger.

 

Ta Da! Some ideas worked better than others, but overall I'm happy with how this set turned out & have been wearing it for several days. (I usually change my polish every other day.) Here's da nail by nail scoop: thumb ~ double dots made with both a lg & sm head dotting tool; index ~ this started out as a stamped leopard print, but Black Pearl isn't that good for stamping, so I added da gold dots with a dotting tool & freehanded the rings using the smallest dotting tool I have (the 1 with the point rather than a ball); middle ~ glitter bomb!; ring ~ I stamped the tiger stripes using Black Pearl & Cheeky plate 02; pinky ~ I used my short striper to make a double line French Tip. A coat of Seche Vite & all is well in my polish world!

 

Only one Saturday left in January? Waaaaa! This has been a fun challenge & I'm going to miss it. I do have some fun posts planned for the near future, including a birthday give-a-way from me to YOU!

 

Stay tuned & thanks for stopping by!

Please go visit the other Kitchen Sink Saturday blogs!

~ Inky

 

Swishie at Swishie Nails

Nicole at Young Wild and Polished

Amanda at The Nail Polish Enthusiast

Wes at Polish me MANLY

 

You may need to check back to see who else is playing, but I think you can handle it! <3 font="font">

 

 

 

 

Kismet's Pajamas from Whimsical Ideas by Pam!

Hello Dahlings!

 

Today I have a lovely polish from Whimsical Ideas by Pam.  Pam makes my fav indie polish! I love the formula, I love the color combos of the jelly bases & glitters & her customer service is awesomeness itself!

 

Da line up: Ruby Kisses Magenta, Sephora Mirror Mirror

& Whimsical Idea by Pam Kismet's Pajamas.

 

This is 2 coats of Mirror Mirror & it doesn't clean up well at all. It was part of a mini polish stack I got at Sephora recently on clearance & while it works well enuf, I'm glad I don't have a big bottle of it. Staining aside, I found the tiny wide cap hard to hold onto & the brush wand was quite short, making it hard to see what I was doing & if I tipped the brush so I could see, I would touch the end of my nail with da handle & ding da polish.

Rather annoying!

 

Ta Da! Kismet's Pajamas has small chunky roundish glitters in a magenta/purple & silver along with tiny silver glitter bits in a black jelly base. I added the double line French tips to pop these colors, but they don't show well here & this is my fault. To see really good pics of this & Pam's other yummy polishes you need to go visit her Facebook page. If you see something you can't live without you can order by emailing her at the addy on listed on her page.

I dare you to not fall in love with at least 3 of her polishes while you're there!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

The Mani In Black, Take 2

Hello Dahlings!

 

Back in September, 2012 I did my 1st mani post for a new Indie company called Llama Lacquers. Llama Lacquers is the polish child of Crazy Nail Lady & her 1st collection was named after one of my all time fav movies, The Princess Bride. The mani I did was badly done with cheap black undies that rode up & old nailstickers that bled under tc plus my skill taking photos with my phone was sadly lacking. Hence the post name: Cool Polish, Crap Mani. Since then my nail & photography skills have improved, so I thought I give this polish another chance to be appreciated.

 

The line up: a Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear silver mini from one of the packs of 4 currently in stores, that don't have names on the bottles, but did on the box, that I forget to write down & Llama Lacquers The Mani In Black.

 

This is 2 coats of nameless SH silver. It was a lil challenging to get off my skin, but the streaking was tolerable since I was using it for undies.

 

I did 2 coats of MIB over the silver then added French tips in the silver topped with my usual Seche Vite FDTC. The black jelly base of this polish is fairly sheer so the silver base color looked antiqued & the glitter looked silver near the surface & as dark as gunmetal nearest the base. I know all the glitter you can see in this pic look black, so I took a daytime outdoor shot for you:

 

See all the shades of shiney gray? I do like this polish & am glad I gave it a fair shot to be see in a better light.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

Kitchen Sink Saturdays #2!

Hello Dahlings!

 

It's the 2nd Saturday in January & that means #KitchenSinksaturdays nails! What is a Kitchen Sink Mani you ask? It's where every nail on the same hand is different from the others. They might have different colors, patterns &/or textures...whatever we want to throw at them, except da kitchen sink. I opted to throw in a comparison while I was at it, so y'all are getting a twofer today!

 

Today's line up: Ruby Kisses Pink Blinged Out, China Glaze 108 Degrees, L.A. Colors Paradise Pink, Sally Hansen Gleaming, Wet N' Wild Frosted Fuchsia & Orly Liquid Vinyl.

 

There isn't really much difference at 1st glance. 2 coats on each finger, starting at the bottom:

pinky ~ Pink Blinged Out has a slight blue shimmer & is the lightest of the polishes used; ring ~ 108 Degrees has blue glass fleck shimmer that you can just see in the photo, it was the sheerest of da bunch & needs a 3rd coat or undies for opacity;

middle ~ Paradise Pink is close in color to PBO tho the blue shimmer was a tad bit stronger;

index ~ Gleaming is a bit darker than the previous 3 & has a pink shimmer glinting from it's depths;

Frosted Fuchsia on my thumb is the darkest of the lot with a subtle pink shimmer.

Over all I'd say you don't need all of them, but if you love fuchsia like I do, I recommend China Glaze 108 Degrees & Wet N' Wild Frosted Fuchsia as the 2 most unique of the 5 I've shown here.

 

For the Kitchen Sink part of da show I used the Liquid Vinyl with a dotting tool & a striper brush, plus: Fun Flock Plain Ol' Black flocking fuzz, clear micro beadz, craft foil & glue, a bit of sponge & Orly Top2Bottom. The T2B sucks as a top coat, but works great for gluing bling & other embellishments to your nails! All of the crafty stuff was bought at either a craft store or rubber stamping convention & have been floating around in my crapht room for years.

 

Ta Da! From left to right:

Pinky ~ these are self adhesive bling from da craft store & if you want to use top coat, don't use these black ones on your nails! When I used SV on my left pinky the black beads started to melt, turning the end of my nail into a black blob. Blerg. I had to strip that nail & start over from da base coat. So in this pic there isn't tc on da pinky. After pics I took the beads off & made some medium sized black dots in two rows to create a French tip that imitated the beads then topped it with SV.

Ring ~ I used a lg dotting tool w/Liquid Vinyl to make big dots then I topped it with Seche Vite. When dry I added dots of T2B over the black dots & poured the flock over the nail. The fuzzies were still going strong 2 days later when I changed my mani.

Middle ~ I used a sm dotter to make a boarder of dots using Liquid Vinyl & topped it with SV.

Index ~ I did the same dots as on the ring finger except I poured clear beadz (aka fish eggs) over the T2B. Once the T2B dried those eggs were stuck but good! I started picking at them the 2nd day & couldn't budge any of them. I want to try full nails of both the flock & the beadz using Top2Bottom. It worked great!

For the thumb I painted a big French tip in black then SV. I used the bit of sponge to dab the glue over the black & waited until the glue turned clear. This type of glue is still sticky when it dries. I then laid the foil, fancy side up, over the glue & rubbed over it with my finger until the area was covered. A layer of SV & I was done

 

I am having tons of fun doing these #KitchenSinkSaturday nails

& am already planning the next one! Now go visit the other players!

 

Nicole at Young Wild and Polished

Amanda at The Nail Polish Enthusiast

Wes at Polish Me Manly

Sarah at Swishie Nail's

Claire at Kerruticles

 

Hopefully everybody gets their's posted ASAP! I know Nic & Claire have theirs up at the time I'm writing this (1:52am PST lol) & the others will surely follow suit when they get up this morning.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

 

 

 

 

 

I Crack Me Up!

Hello Dahlings!

I was in the mood to experiment with some untrieds one night recently...

 

 

 Over the last year I bought 5 of Claire's Mood polishes: hyper/relaxed is a blurple/aqua shimmer, fabulous/funky is a semi matte neon pink/bold pink, calm/wild is a shimmery magenta/pink, mellow/crazy is a sparkly almost glitter lavender/pink & peaceful/confident is a semi matte teal/turquoise.

The black is Sephora by OPI Blasted Black

 

 

From top to bottom on my right hand: thumb - peaceful/confident, index - hyper/relaxed, middle - mellow/crazy, ring - calm/wild, pinky - fabulous/funky.

I've had mood polishes before & I loved how my nail bed would be one color & the tip the other. These did NOT do that! 

 

 

My left hand at room temp. I reversed the order on this hand from what's on the right.

 

My right hand after adding heat. I had to practically scald my hand under the tap to get the colors to change. To pull this skittle mani together I topped my nails with Sephora by OPI Blasted Black crack polish. I've used this polish several times with no issues, but this time it pulled the hyper/relaxed (on my right index finger) away from the base coat so the color was missing in spots & on the fingers I used calm/wild I had hideous staining in the crack pattern. A week later & I still have traces of reddish pink on my right ring finger! Blerg.

So over all I have to call this mani a fail & can't recommend the Claire Mood polishes unless you just like the base color & have no hope for any color changing effect.

On the bright side, my Orly Nail Rescue patch on my right pinky is still holding!

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

Kitchen Sink Saturdays #1

Hello Dahlings!

The fantabulous Nicole at Young Wild & Polished suggested this challenge last week & I jumped at the chance to stretch my creative muscles with something I'm not very good at: randomness. A kitchen Sink mani is where no 2 nails on a hand have the same pattern & can even have different colors, textures etc. Basically we're to thow everything at our nails but the kitchen sink & we can use that too, if we want!

I used 2 polishes for this one: Snap Dragon Sparkle is a franken polish I created by adding craft pigment powder from the craft store to a white polish I got at the Dollar Tree. It's the perfect blue violet IMO cuz it shifts from blue to violet depending on the light. The black is Scandal Modern Black.

 

Isn't my baby gorgeous!

 

I applied 2 coats of SDS then used my short striper & large dotting tool to make the various designs, except the thumb. That got a V French tip sticker guide to make the pointed halfmoon. I tried striping tape on my left hand & I have to confess...I do better free handing lines than using tape! How dumb is that! LOL The painted areas next to the tape strips bled under the tape & required tidying with the striper brush. After all the paint had dried to the touch I applied a coat of Seche Vite.

 

Please go visit the other KSS players!

Amanda at The Nail Polish Enthusiast

Wes at Polish Me Manly

Nicole at Young Wild and Polished
Sarah at Swishie Nail's

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

 

 

Up to 25% Off Starting Today!

Hello Dahlings!

 

Enjoying the New Year so far? Mr Inky & I spent the night with friends. We were nibbling fantastic food (Toad in the Hole w/creamed spinch, asst cheeses, dips & crackers, all topped off with Flaming Mulled Wine) & enjoying BBC comedies & wide topics of adult conversation til 4am! I am getting too old for so much fun. I is a rather pooped Inky today. LMBBO Onto da nails...

 

What's this? Inky only used TWO polishes besides top & base coat? Tonight's mani was Mr Inky's idea, so these 2 were all that were needed to fullfill his 'vision'. Da line up: Orly Sheer Nude & Finger Paints Hollydazzle. Oh...yeah...I, um...cut my claws...

 

Ta Da! I chopped up to 25% of my nail length off tonight. I could tell I'd be happier with da shorter nails right away. It took me noticably less time to paint my nails than it has for the last couple of months. I can also type faster without my nails getting caught in the keyboard & I can make a fist now! Mr Inky better behave his affecklate self. Meow!

 

Now for something completely different...

I am so happy at the progress my lil blog has made in the last few months & I have YOU to thank! Is there something you'd like to see blog about? I think I've found a nice ballance between showing a swatch of whatever base color I'm using & nail art plus Haul & technical posts. Is this working for y'all?

Please let me know in da comments what your thoughts on this are?

 

Also, to all you lurkers out there...I want to have a give-a-way when I reach 100 blog followers. The sooner y'all click 'follow' the soon y'all get a chance to win FREE stuff!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky