Monday Quickie ~ Neon Purple with Holo TC!

Hello Dahlings!

 

So there was this time, at band camp,

when I tried to make a neon purple holo polish?

No, wait! I never went to band camp

& did unmentionable things with a flute.

I have been trying to create a linear holo neon purple polish.

Not there yet!

(more about my frankening adventures next Friday)

 

It was suggested by my polish pal Sarah Penny Pinching Polish

that I just use a holo top coat over neon purple polish.

Well DUH!, but where's da challenge in that? LOL

But just to show I'm open minded enuf for my brains to fall out,

I thought I'd give it a go & see if it would satisfy my craving

until I can make what I want, what I really really want.

 

So here's what I did...

 

 Sparkly neon purple holo blingasm!

 

 Da line up ~ Jesse Girl Wild Thing,

Gothic Gala Holo-y Goodness & Shany 15

 

 2 coats of Wild Thing

Meh.

It streaked.

It patched.

It bubbled.

Da only it had going for it was da color

& it's not like there aren't a bazillion other neon purples

out there that behave much better than this one

& many of those cost less

than da $4 price of this 10ml bottle of bleh.

(run on sentence much...yep!)

 

 1 coat of Holo-y Goodness!

This bling fest goes a long way

towards hiding da defects of da base color!

I 1st bought from this rising star indie last summer.

Da bottles have changed, but not da polish goodness inside!

 

 Cuz I can't leave well enuf alone,

I added green glitter racing stripes using

Shany 15 & my fav skinny striper brush from Essence.

(Da mani on my other hand used similar colors

& adding da stripes to this mani meant my hands sorta matched)

I sealed in da bling with a coat of Seche Vite & called it good.

 

So yes, adding a holo tc over a plain polish works.

In fact, it's an excellent way to have lots of holo fun

without having to buy holo polish in every color

from every indie & big brand out there.

Not that I let a good idea stop me from buying more polish!

 

>^. .^<

At Christmas, my mom brought Ciri his own pressie

of a particular cat nip toy from a brand called Hot Cat

Sold by Full Circle Herbs in Oregon

using only catnip grown in Washington.

(so they're local for us)

This toys not only drives nip loving cats insane,

they're very well made & last for years,

even with an occasional run thru da washing machine

for hygiene purposes.

So did Ciri like his? I'll let you be da judge...

 

 suck suck suck

 

 nuzzle nuzzle nuzzle

 

 lick lick lick

(I don't know how a cat this small has a tongue THAT big!)

 

 chew chew chew

 

 rub rub rub

 

I think he likes it a lot!

I have to keep it in a drawer when he's not playing with it

cuz they other cats will steal it,

even tho they each have one of their own.

More about storing it later...

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

Does It Stamp?

Hello Dahlings!

 

It's been a while since I've done one of these posts.

My only excuse is that I've been a Polish Ho of da 1st order

& had so many nifty lacquers to share that it took many posts

over several months to show it all.

 

Does It Stamp?

What is it?

If you've done any nail art stamping

or even just looked as possibly trying it,

You may have noticed that official stamping polishes

tend to come in small bottles & are a lil pricey.

These polishes are too thick to use as full nail color

& many are even too thick to use for nail art.

They are formulated to be thick enuf to hold their shape

& opaque enuf to not allow the base color on your nails to show thru.

These posts are me showing you what regular polishes I've found

that can be used to stamp on your nails.

You may already have many of these in your stash

& just didn't know you could use them this way!

 

It all starts with da question:

Do you have to use stamping polish to stamp on your nails?

Heck no!

I did a whole thing on what I look for in a regular polish

& how I test them for stamping suitability HERE

(da rest of this post will make more sense if you read that post, really!)

 

Sometimes I show polishes grouped by color

& sometimes polishes that come in sets.

Sets are usually a good value over individual bottles,

but there are lots of reasonably priced single polishes

that will work as well. 

 

Here are 2 of my latest greatest finds 

for usable as stamping polish sets:

 

Nabi Metallics

I've bought several sets from Nabi on Amazon

& one of the best things about buying polish this way

is that even with shipping, the price per bottle is usually under $1.50.

This brand usually sells it's individual bottles for $3.95 - $4.95US.

 

I got this particular set of Metallic polishes for $30US + $10.80 s/h.

That's $1.36 per bottle!

27 out of da 30 stamped great & da 3 that were iffy

I may be able to putz with bring up their opacity.

All of these names start with 'Metallic',

but typing that 30 times ain't gonna happen.

Also, Nabi has some, shall we say, unique spellings

& odd color names for some of it's polishes.

These names & spellings aren't always consistent

between the several styles of polishes they offer,

tho' da same actual colors are used repeatedly.

So some of these look a lot like the Sand

& Volcano Ash texture polish colors I've already shared.

Same pigments, different finishes

& possibly different names with different spellings.

I can live with this for da price!

 

 Wine Red 143, Red 139 & Coral 133

 

 Gold 128, Cinnamon 147, Bronze 140 & Black Brown 154

 

 Shappire 136, Emerald 138, Lime 152 & Punky 129

(Emerald has a matte foil finish, where all da others are semi gloss foils)

 

 Sky blue 145 & L. Blue 131

 

 Purple 135, Fuschia 134 & Lilac II 141

 

 Wine 142, Lilac 132 & Pink 137

 

 Cinnamon 153, Dark Fuschia 154, Lavender 150 & Champagne 144

 

 Black 148, Charcoal 130, Silver 127 & White 155

 

Dark Per 147, New Gold 151 & Orange 149

 

You can see that these are da 3 that didn't stamp well by my standards.

Technically, they stamped just fine.

They do show up over white, but not so much over black,

& are sheer enuf that using them over a colored base will alter da color.

i.e. New Gold stamped over a blue base color

will look green with yellow sparklies.

I'm going to add some silver foil polish to them

to raise da opacity without changing da color.

(I hope! Frankening can yield surprising results. LOL)

 

~~~

 

JLB Cosmetics Metallic Candy Collection

I found this set at Ross for around $7

They often have odd lots of obscure brands as well as

occasional sets of well known brands like OPI & Color Club.

I went back to see if they had anymore, but my local store was out.

I did find a couple sets on eBay, but for more than I paid.

Check 'em out!

 

 Russian Red 6, Sand Storm 3 & Twenty Four Karat 2

(I used Twenty Four Karat HERE)

 

Garden of Eden 5, Denim Steel 4, Mystic Purple 7 & Platinum 1

(I used Garden of Eden HERE)

 

Mystic Purple was da iffy one in da set.

It stamped,

but it's dark enuf that it didn't show up over black very well.

Putzing may ensue with this one as well.

 

That's all folks!

I may have another Show & Tell for you next week

& maybe not.

If not, I'll show you more polishes that stamp.

Once da Never Ending Pile Challenge starts 

I may not post on Sundays for a while.

I'm not sure yet.

April is a really busy Stampin' Up! month for me

& I may not have time to test more polish. We'll see...

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

My-Stash Ectoplasm ~ I'll Take Mine To Glow, Please?

Hello Dahlings!

 

So I was cruising about on FB, like you do,

when I came across a new to me indie brand called

My-Stash Lacquer.

Danielle was showing a batch of polish

that didn't quite turn out as planned

& wondering if peeps would want to buy it.

Duh! It's fanbulously fugly!!!

So I bought a bottle along with a few other treats.

I did ask a question about this polish & since da answer was no,

I decided to do something about it myself...

 

 Yep! I did a gitd mani featuring Ectoplasm.

But 1st, I had to pick a good gitd polish to use with it...

 

 Line up #1 ~ Peripera WH801, Blue Cross pumpkin in yellow,

Nabi Funky Yellow 10 & Glow In The Dark Yellow 02

 

 I did one coat of the Peripera then added one coat of each gitd

 

index ~ BC pumpkin

light in color at one coat, but quite doable

The down side of this brand

is that they only offer da pumpkins in October.

 

middle ~ Funky Yellow

nice strong color at one coat

This one is part of da 24 gitd set for $25 I got from Amazon.

It's so totally worth the price!

 

ring ~ Gitd Yellow

I bought this why?

It came in a set of 6

& all of them are wimpy in intensity.

 

pinky ~ white for comparison

(this one of my fav whites cuz it's almost a one coater)

 

How do they do in the dark...

 

 Under black light the pumpkin & Funky Yellow do great.

The lame Nabi gitd just gets lamer.

 

 In full dark Nabi's Funky Yellow is fab,

but da pumpkin isn't far behind.

Gitd Yellow sucks. Nuf said.

Methinks some not so accidental frankening

will be happening to this set of lame ass polishes.

 

I decide to give da pumpkin it's 15 minutes of fame

& added a 2nd coat to da 3 test nails to even out da color 

& 2 coats on the rest.

 

 Under black light it looks WOW!

 

 And it keeps on Wowing in full dark!

It's a bit streaky looking here,

but this isn't as obvious in person

or after I add polish over it.

 

 Line up #2 ~ Kleancolor Neon Aqua, My-Stash Ectoplasm,

Joe Fresh Jet plus a short striper

 

 This is one generous coat!

I did have to do a bit of dabbing,

but no fishing required.

 

 Lookee at all da bits!

A green leaning yellow jelly with medium size orange hexes,

lil bright blue threads & black shreadies!!!

 

 I added a funky V double line French tip to spunk it up a lil more.

When I went to take da final pics I got this surprise...

 

Da orange hexes are UBER black light reactive!

They looked like lil coals burning in da bottle & on my nails.

AWESOMENESS!!!!

 

>^. .^<

 

Your claws glow like my beauteous eyes...how you do that?

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

Pink Holo Comparison w/Choco Cat Stamping!

Hello Dahlings!

 

Time for another comparison!

Today I have 5 pinkish linear holo polishes

that looked somewhat similar in da bottle.

On da nail was a different story...

 

See what I mean?

In da pic below, they look like some of them might be dups.

Nope! Not even close. 

 

 Da line up ~ Nabi Lavender 20, Color Club Cloud Nine,

Jade Aurora, Up Colors Lilas Chrome & Nabi Fushia 22

(all nails show 2 coats)

 

 Pinky ~ Nabi Lavender 20

The Nabi holos I have don't have strong rainbows,

but they are pretty & a great value.

This one wasn't very patchy to apply.

(some of da other Nabi holos required me to wait

until da 1st coat was dry before adding da 2nd.

I have SUCH a wait problem!)

 

 Ring ~ Color Club Cloud Nine

It's from da Halo Hues 2012 collection.

This means non-patchy application & a strong rainbow.

Both da 2012 & 2013 collections work great for nail art

& can be used for stamping.

 

 Middle ~ Jade Aurora

Easy application with a medium rainbow.

Jades usually have a strong rainbow,

so I was a bit disappointed in this one from the 2013 release.

It's pretty & all,

but it lacks the WOW factor of the earlier polishes.

 

 Index ~ Up Colors Lilas Chrome

No application issues.

I thought this one was a linear,

but if it truly is, I'm not seeing it.

It's pretty, but not a linear holo as far as I'm concerned.

 

 Thumb ~ Nabi Fushia 22

Who'd a thunk it?

After all my putzing around,

trying to make a neon purple linear holo

it turns out I already have one!

Well, sort of...da rainbow is pretty weak.

(like my other Nabi holos)

Even so, it's a really pretty color

that flashes a golden undertone in sunlight.

Da more I use da Nabi holos, da more I like them...

even if they don't have da strongest rainbows.

 

After twisting my hand every which way but up,

trying to capture rainbows in my pics,

I added some stamping using Konad Black & these images...

 

 CHOCO CAT!!!

This one is off FabUrNails Fun 10 plate

(I noticed later that this plate also has a face image of Choco!)

 

 These 2 images are from the $18 set of knockoff plates I got thru Amazon.

Yeah, it was a done deal as soon as I saw da set had Choco Cat.

 

 I also included these tiny paw prints off Vivid plate VL 001

 

Ta Da!

I got this plastic Choco Cat toy thru Amazon.

He's just SO CUTE!!!

 

I can't pick a fav out of this bunch cuz they're all different

& lovely in their own right.

 

Da Nabi Holos I have came in a set of 24 thru amazon.

(The price has dropped since I bought my set

& right now they're offering FREE shipping!)

Da Jade & Up Colors polishes are from Llarowe.

I got my Halo Hues from Enospring.

 

>^. .^<

 

I have my very own Choco Cat!

Poor Ziggy has allergies

& spring means snot monsters.

He also has long fangs.

Da other one is almost as long as da one showing,

but tends to stay inside his mouth.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Inky

 

 

 

 

 

Monday Quickie ~ I gots a Pressie!

Hello Dahlings!

 

Yesterday I showed you da FANTABULOUS pressie,

my polish pal Tina Light of the Moon Nails sent me

cuz it reminded her of lil ol' me!

Today I'm showing you this polish on my nails...

 

 Lookee how pretty Inky Fingers is in da sun!

(lookee, I found sun! lol)

Here's what all I did...

 

 Da line up ~ Contrary Polish Inky Fingers & JLB Garden of Eden

(JLB #5 is from their Metallic Candy collection.

I picked this set up at Ross for cheap & it stamps GREAT!)

 

 2 coats of Inky Fingers

It was a smidge on da thickish side, but went on smooth.

See all da lil sparklies?

(I know it looks like it stained my cuticles, but it didn't.

I just hadn't cleaned up much at this point.)

 

 I used this image from Bundle Monster: BM 314

 

Ta Dee Da!

 

Don't ya just LOVE surprises?

I know I do when they're da polish kind!

 

>^. .^<

 

 What you doin', Meowmy?

 

Me likey it and all,

but you need to stop what you doin'

& pet da cat...NOW!

 

Thank You Thank You Thank You

to da most terrifical Tina!

And thanks to all of YOU,

my loverly readers,

for stopping by!

~ Inky