Ocean Nails

Hello everyone,

Today is the end of my daughter's summer.  She starts kindergarten tommorrow.  I will most likely be the one crying.  Tonight her backpack will sit by the door and her first outfit will be layed out (tears). I never used to be this emotional until she was born. 

Okay, on with the post.  This is my end of summer break manicure. 

• I coat OPI Nail Envy
• 2 coats SH X-treme Wear Coral Reef
• 1 coat Out The Door
• OPI The Color to Watch (spread with a dotting tool)
• Nabi Khaki and Salon Express plate for the sun (SH Insta-Dri Lightning for the center)
• WNW Teal or No Teal on tips

I tried drawing seagulls with a small dotting tool. They look more like bats.  Finished with a Fimo dolphin and Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat over everything.

Franken Fridays

I'm starting something new on Fridays.  I have a dozen frankens that I've created over the last year and haven't gotten around to wearing them as full manicures.   This is why I'm doing Franken Fridays, so I can test them out and see if I actually like what I've created.  Some are just tweaks to update the color, while some became a completely different polish.
First up is Revlon's Blue Mosaic.  This was a fav of mine last year when it was first released.  I used half the bottle and then panicked because it was a limited edition.  It's available again due to a rerelease under a different name.  I had some Milani Blue Flash left over from my obsession to create a dupe for Absolutely Alice and filled Blue Mosaic with it.  Now the hexagon glitters are slightly sparse, which really isn't that noticeable. Satisfied, I happily stored my full bottle away.
Now that I'm actually wearing it-I'VE CREATED A MONSTER!  A streaky, patchy monster that refuses to dry with a single thin coat.  I used Out The Door to dry the first coat and then puddled the polish on to fill the patches and make it opaque.  Two more coats of Out The Door and now, for some odd reason, my tips are cloudy. 

After the polish finally dried, the cloudiness went away
and it now shows shrinkage at the tips.

I added some Salon Express turtle stamping.  I stamped outdoors with a slight
breeze.  Not recommended.  I restamped several times.  The polish dried too fast and
had trouble transferrring. 

Blue Mosaic will go back to the lab for further tests and experiments.  I've seem to collected a number of blue glitter polish that are looking all too similar.  I need some variations (insert Mad Scientist laugh here).

Here Today, Aragon Tommorrow Crackled

Okay, so what do you do when you paint your nails before you sleep and wake with indentations all over your mani?  Paint on some shatter/crackle and walk out the door.  I've discovered that this is the perfect backup plan to a not so perfect paint job. 

I used a base coat with 2 coats of my new bottle of Here Today, Aragon Tommorrow and was wiped out so I went to sleep and was going to finish with some stamping the next evening.  Didn't work out that way.  I brushed on some China Glaze Crackle in Haute Metal and Revlon Quick Dry at the breakfast table and then set off for my day.  I'm not minding the result and haven't removed it yet.  I may even keep it on for the next couple days. 

Midnight in Moscow with stamping

Trade Secrets recently had a sale-buy 3 items and get 30% off.  I got 3 polishes from OPIs permanent line that I've been wanting for a while.  Midnight in Moscow, Here Today Aragon Tommorrow, and Birthday Babe.  This is 2 coats of Midnight in Moscow with Birthday Babe stamping using Bundle Monster 314.  I applied some white accents with a dotting tool.  

The red glitter in Midnight in Moscow is noticeable only in
sunlight.  Indoors is looks almost black.  This is going on my list of
favorite polishes.  If you double-click on this pic you can see this color
at it's best.

I frankened some of Midnight in Moscow with Milani Fx Red Glitter.  Looks great in the bottle.  I'll be swatching it soon. 

The Beauty Blog Bunch Feature

Hi everyone.
On Tuesday I was featured on The Beauty Blog Bunch. Here is the link
http://thebeautyblogbunch.blogspot.com/2012/07/meet-cynthia-from-journail.html
Don't forget to submit your blog too.

California Colors #13

I found a gem of a polish for only $1.07 at my local Longs (CVS).  It is labeled as #13 with no name. A coral pink jelly with flakies.   Very similar to OPI I Lily Love You (which is more pink).

I

This is 2 coats Guy Meets Gal-Veston and 2 coats #13.  Out the Door
top coat caused shrinkage again.   This combo looks like a party on
my nails.

It became more of a party with a round of presents and cupcakes for everyone!!!  I used

a couple of designs from my new Bundle Monster plates. I got so excited how awesome it

looked and rushed the top coat.  It smeared my stamping.  That didn't stop the party.  It wasn't

 as noticeable in person and I kept it on for 4 days.  My daughter was bummed when I removed

it.  It could have stayed on longer but I was in a vampy mood and was craving fall colors.

Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night

Three days ago I went to Walgreens and saw the new Wet N Wild Fergie display.  I picked up 4 out of the 25.  "Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night" is the first I wanted to try.  It is composed of black glitter with some gold hexagon glitter in a clear base. 

For this design I used:

• 3 coats OPI At First Sight
• Alternated fingers with Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night
• Stamped news print using Bundle Monster 311 using Konad Black
• Sinful Colors Striper for the tips
• The bows were Bundle Monster 317 alternating OPI Birthday Babe and Avon Glittering Gold

Wet N Wild Twining Vines

I finally got around to swatching Twining Vines. I've been looking at it on my dressor for the longest time.  It came with the Spring Limited Edition Wet n Wild Flora set (ironically I'm using the entire set today).  I picked up both Flora and Fauna.  I collect Wet n Wild eyeshadows so the polish was a bonus. 
Twining Vines is a lime green foil with a bit of yellow glitter.  In certain lighting the color looks more yellowish than green.  I'm wearing it as a pedicure at the moment and it leans more towards yellow-green.  On my nails, it's definitely green foil.  Twining Vines is slightly sheer, 2 thick coats made it opaque. 

This pic shows the sporadic yellow glitter.   I wouldn't mind
a yellow foil like this.

I started using Out the Door as a top coat and noticed that it's been
shrinking the polish away from the tips. 

I did some sample stamping with my new Bundle Monster plates. 
Pinkie BM-310, Index BM-301, Middle BM-312, Pointer BM-322.

I've been trying to figure this one out.  It's a skull over 3 smaller skulls with stars (didn't transfer) above,  Not sure if it's leaves or ghosts on the sides.

Bundle Monster Owls

Bundle Monster plate BM-309 is the main reason why I purchased this series.  The owls sold me and the slippers (flip flops) are so fun for summer.  Today, I have the owls stamped on.  The full image was too big for my nail beds, so I was only able to use one big owl.  Next time I use this stamp, I'll use different parts of the image (most likely over a solid base) for an alternate look. 

 I was so excited to see my finished mani, that I totally forgot to stop and take pics along the way. Here's what I used;

• Nail Envy as base
• 2 coats Planks a Lot
• 1 coat Milani 3D Hi-Res
• brushed on tips Milani 3D Cyberspace to create a holo gradient  (wish I took a pic)
• 1 coat Out the Door (First time using it.  It is really fast drying.)
• stamped moon using plate BM-316 and SH insta-dri  Lightnng
• stamped owls with SH insta-dri Co Co-a-go-go
• 1 coat Revlon Extra Life No Chip top coat

Care to Danse? gradient

Good morning.  It might be summer, but we are seriously lacking the sunshine.  All of our summer fun activities are on hold because of the unpredictable weather.  I took the girls swimming the other day and we had to cut it short when it started getting really windy and the rain started falling.  I had bought a bunch of outdoor fun things for the girls for summer and we haven't really gotten to make use of them.  It will probably be hot and sunny when school starts in a few weeks and everyone is busy.  Ugh.  Okay, there I vented. Now I feel better.  On to todays manicure.  Today I have a gradient using OPI Care to Danse? and SH Gem Crush Be-Jeweled.  This combo has a light, airy feel to it.  I started off with 2 coats of Care to Danse?.......

and then sponged on Be-Jeweled............

1 more coat of Care to Danse? to create a jelly sandwich.....

and then brushed Be-Jeweled on my tips.

Added some fimo. I overloaded the flowers on this hand and
then went minimal on the other hand.

It really sparkles under the kitchen light.

Red-y Response and super mini June Haul

Hello, today I have my super mini June haul.  I am on a low buy (which is much easier than a no buy).  I'm holding out til August for the Mac rerelease of Formidable and Mean and Green.  I also have my last mani from my June mini haul.  This is Sally Hansen Red-y Response magnetic.  This color is not even close to any shade of red.  It's more of a berry/plum/wine.  Once the magnet is applied, the richness of the color really pops. 

On my ring is the star design.  I thought it would highlight the butterfly.
This pic is more color accurate.  It was taken under my kitchen light.  The lightbox washes
out the warm color and gives it more of a purple tone.

Okay now on to my mini haul.  Left to right;  Just Spotted the Lizard, Bikini So Teeny, Red-y Response, White-On, Neon Melon.  For June, I also picked up Bundle Monster Fimo rods and their 2012 stamping plates.  The good part of a mini haul (besides it being easier on my pocketbook) is that I managed to use all my new colors as full manicures.