Fun With Dots: Rainbow

This manicure was fast and easy. I LOVE these dotting tools my brother got me for Christmas. THESE are the ones I have.  My husband works all over the place and he happened upon a Sally's beauty supply shop. He called me to ask if I "needed" anything--um, yes! Finger Paints just came out with this amazing Special Effects collection that are flaky bits of pretty in a top coat. Apparently that sneaky husband of mine bought the whole collection for me, but he only gave me Asylum for now.  My birthday is just around the bend so I only have to wait a bit longer! But look how lovely:

Fun with Dots: rainbow

I'm not so crazy with how the yellow and green turned out, but eh. I'll just have to find the time to try again, right? Here's the line up of polishes I used:

Art Deco Pink, Yellow, Green, china glaze Purple Panic (I added this to my thumb nail), Pure Ice Black rage, Finger Paints Asylum, Dotting Tool.

And yes, somehow I didn't get the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away in this photo. that was a lot of polish for one nail "didding"!

Stamping Sunday: Green

Christmas was good to me this year! My brother bought me these fun Mash stamping plates. I've never done stamping before (the most popular brand seems to be Konad, youtube it if you want to know more). I'm also a part of a super cool new group called Adventures in Stamping on Facebook. Every Sunday we have a challenge called Stamping Sunday.  Today's challenge was to stamp with a green color. TRICKY for a girl like me with about 20 polishes! But, here's the finished product, my very first stamp manicure!

Stamping Sunday: green

I didn't have a TRUE green (other than an Art Deco nail polish, which has a tiny brush). I used Wet N' Wild in Caribbean Frost. It's in the green family--ish. At any rate, I did a base coat of Pure Ice Super Star and then 2 coats of Pure Ice Excuse Me (the banana yellow color). Then it was stamping time! I used Mash plate 16. The Mash plates are my first plates ever. I have small nail beds so I thought I would be okay with their smaller all-over images, but they don't cover my nails so I'm on a quest for larger all over images. I thought the star alone was kind of plain so I used my dotting tools and added a few dots. So far, so good with stamping!

Pure Ice Excuse me, Pure Ice Super Star, Wet n wild Caribbean Frost, Mash plate 16 and dotting tol

Inspired By: Holiday Funky French Freestyle

How's THAT for a name? This is actually an Amanda original! It's fun, different and easy enough for even my left hand.

The Funky French Freestyle

This was a quickie. I started off with 2 coats of Wet n Wild Wild Shine in Red Red. Next, I just eyeballed a funky french with Pure Ice Super Star (white). Normally I would have taped, but I was in a hurry and I knew i would use the glitter to cover up any "whoops". I then added a swoop of Bright Green by Art Deco and then a swipe of Art Deco silver glitter. Quick and fast!

Wild Shine  Red Red, Art Deco in silver glitter and Bright Green and Pure Ice Super Star

Inspired By: Holiday French Glitter

I like the simplicity of this french manicure done with a glitter polish. Simple, but with a punch.

Glitter polish is so tricky. Either it looks well placed or just terrible. This wasn't so bad. I used that same "swamp green" from yesterday's manicure (also known as Confetti's My Favorite Martian). This was about a million coats. I did the base coat and then took my glitter polish and just made sort of a sloppy French manicure style strip on the tip of my nails. I let that dry and then went back very lightly about 3/4 of the way down my nail.  Here's what I used:

LA Color Craze (found at any Dollar store $1)  and Confetti My Favorite Martian (from CVS for $2)

Inspired By: Holiday Half Moon manicure

I hesitated to even post this or not. I bought this nail polish at CVS yesterday on a whim. Big mistake. The application was watery and just funky. I tried my best to work with it, but alas, it was not what I was needing. At any rate, I persevered through this nail polish for you, dear reader. I'm also going to switch around the order of my photos--finished product first and then what products I used second.

Holiday half moon manicure

I kind of wish I had a photo of it before I added the streak of glitter--but eh. I used this tutorial HERE for the half moon manicure (that's so popular!). So easy using the Reinforcement labels (available in any office suppyl section).  I just did a million layers of the green--which my 5 year old referred to as "Shrek Swamp Green". BLAH. I must have done 5 layers to get it that dark. Once dry, I put the reinforcers on and painted over with the red. Again, a majillion layers required. Once that dried I used my LA Colors Deco Art in silver glitter and just did a quick cover up job. Here are the culprits it took to make this look:

Reinforcement labels, Confetti Red Carpet, Confetti My Favorite Martian and Art Deco silver glitter