 |
| Target |
On my ring finger I placed a black bow to match the ribbon belt on my dress. Manicure complete. It drew some admirers too. That is always a sign of a job well done.
Thursday, 17 January 2013
Inspired by my new blue dress
This past weekend I bought a simple but lovely blue dress from Target. On Monday I wore this dress going to training off-site from my regular workplace. Why not go the full package and wow them? Yes, my nails were going to match the jacquard design you can not quite see in the below picture.
As my base colour I chose to use Orly Royal Navy. I thought that Royal Navy would be a lot lighter than the blue in the dress but that I needed a lighter colour when stamping black over the top. The added blue shimmer would help give a little extra and define the design.
After going through quite a number of plates and using different black polishes, I ended up stamping with Konad Black. I really did not want to use Konad Black because it is such a pain to clean up. Even then, I had trouble with the stamping. To combat this, I had to suffer for my nails and turn both the air conditioning and the fan off. This enabled me to stamp properly but I only had time to stamp an accent on my middle finger. A Bundle Monster image plate was used. I know I tried both BM 20 and BM 21 but I am not sure which one I used in the end as both plates have a similar design on them.
On my ring finger I placed a black bow to match the ribbon belt on my dress. Manicure complete. It drew some admirers too. That is always a sign of a job well done.
On my ring finger I placed a black bow to match the ribbon belt on my dress. Manicure complete. It drew some admirers too. That is always a sign of a job well done.
Tuesday, 15 January 2013
Happy Birthday January
I know I missed out on December's birthday post. I did have a plan for it and that did not involve the December floral emblem of holly. There will be another December to post in since the world did not end. ;)
Many of you would know that the birth stone for January is the garnet. The rhinestone flowers I used in this manicure represent garnet. I know that most people picture garnet as a different shade of red but that was the best red I had in my wheel of blossoms. What you may not know is that the Chinese plum (aka Japanese apricot) is the January floral emblem in China. Plum blossoms are a common oriental motif that I like so I thought I would bring it back to the blog after the last appearance in Spring.
My base colour is a-England Dragon. Two coats were applied but the beauty could not be appreciated when I first took pictures as it was overcast. I am not going to complain because the coolness the weather has brought is a welcome relief from the high temperatures we have had lately. The sun did peep out for a few moments after I had applied some cuticle oil. A dash was made to take at least one picture to show the scattered holographic loveliness that is Dragon.
Using Konad plate M66 I stamped my favourite stone fruit blossom image in China Glaze Cherish. I did consider a red for the stamping but I decided for the chrome of Cherish instead. Seche Vite was applied over the stamping. What is unusual is that I stamped directly on the dry base colour. This colour dried satisfactorily fast to enable me to stamp without waiting hours for the firmness required.
On each fully stamped blossom a rhinestone was placed on the wet Seche Vite. That brings us to the end result. I think the manicure turned out well but the red and green could have a Christmas vibe to it. Still, I like it and I hope those who celebrate their birthday in January do as well.
Many of you would know that the birth stone for January is the garnet. The rhinestone flowers I used in this manicure represent garnet. I know that most people picture garnet as a different shade of red but that was the best red I had in my wheel of blossoms. What you may not know is that the Chinese plum (aka Japanese apricot) is the January floral emblem in China. Plum blossoms are a common oriental motif that I like so I thought I would bring it back to the blog after the last appearance in Spring.
My base colour is a-England Dragon. Two coats were applied but the beauty could not be appreciated when I first took pictures as it was overcast. I am not going to complain because the coolness the weather has brought is a welcome relief from the high temperatures we have had lately. The sun did peep out for a few moments after I had applied some cuticle oil. A dash was made to take at least one picture to show the scattered holographic loveliness that is Dragon.
Using Konad plate M66 I stamped my favourite stone fruit blossom image in China Glaze Cherish. I did consider a red for the stamping but I decided for the chrome of Cherish instead. Seche Vite was applied over the stamping. What is unusual is that I stamped directly on the dry base colour. This colour dried satisfactorily fast to enable me to stamp without waiting hours for the firmness required.
On each fully stamped blossom a rhinestone was placed on the wet Seche Vite. That brings us to the end result. I think the manicure turned out well but the red and green could have a Christmas vibe to it. Still, I like it and I hope those who celebrate their birthday in January do as well.
Friday, 11 January 2013
MUD Nail Stickers - Star It On 001
I have had MUD nail stickers since Woolworths released them. Since it was late November when I bought them, I thought I should try them out. They would have been wonderful to wear over the Christmas season as the design I have is 001 - Star it On. The sticker backing is clear to show a base colour. Each of the stars have a silver reflective backing so that they stand out against the base colour and are not affected by the colour choice. They always appear like white rhinestones.
For Christmas I received the gorgeous purple shimmery Illamasqua Poke. I love their delightfully wicked names. Over a PVA base I applied two coats of Poke to my nails.
After allowing the polish to dry for about 10 minutes, I started to apply the nail stickers. As I have very short nails, I was able to get two nails covered for each nail sticker. When I placed the sticker I then smoothed it down with my finger. Excess was trimmed off with a pair of nail scissors. A cardboard nail file was included with the package of nail stickers but it did not do a very good job of filing off the excess to neaten the end.
These nail stickers look great being worn. They are fairly easy to apply if you are not a perfectionist. I should note, this is the first time that I have applied nail stickers. As the backing on this particular design is clear, it is more forgiving when you make mistakes or have less than perfect application. Although the directions state that you apply these to the bare nail, I have not noticed a difference in wear between bare nail and polished nail.
On the negative side, these will annoy you if you need perfect application. The backing seems like a normal sticker and therefore difficult to get smooth and flush at the free edge. Star It On is a raised design and that may not appeal to some people either. If you plan to use a nail sticker for more than one nail you need to take into account that there is a graduation in the size of the stars from large at the base to small at the top. I think the way I have applied my stickers looks effective in having large portions on my thumb, index and middle fingers. The remaining fingers have the small portions that combine to appear graduated from large to small across my fingers.
MUD Nail stickers can be bought from Woolworths Supermarkets in Australia. The retail price is $5 for a set of 16 stickers with a nail file included. (Although they sell the set for $5.38 from Woolworths online.) They are produced by the same company that manufactures Ulta3 and I am not sure how these compare to the Ulta3 nail stickers.
For Christmas I received the gorgeous purple shimmery Illamasqua Poke. I love their delightfully wicked names. Over a PVA base I applied two coats of Poke to my nails.
After allowing the polish to dry for about 10 minutes, I started to apply the nail stickers. As I have very short nails, I was able to get two nails covered for each nail sticker. When I placed the sticker I then smoothed it down with my finger. Excess was trimmed off with a pair of nail scissors. A cardboard nail file was included with the package of nail stickers but it did not do a very good job of filing off the excess to neaten the end.
These nail stickers look great being worn. They are fairly easy to apply if you are not a perfectionist. I should note, this is the first time that I have applied nail stickers. As the backing on this particular design is clear, it is more forgiving when you make mistakes or have less than perfect application. Although the directions state that you apply these to the bare nail, I have not noticed a difference in wear between bare nail and polished nail.
On the negative side, these will annoy you if you need perfect application. The backing seems like a normal sticker and therefore difficult to get smooth and flush at the free edge. Star It On is a raised design and that may not appeal to some people either. If you plan to use a nail sticker for more than one nail you need to take into account that there is a graduation in the size of the stars from large at the base to small at the top. I think the way I have applied my stickers looks effective in having large portions on my thumb, index and middle fingers. The remaining fingers have the small portions that combine to appear graduated from large to small across my fingers.
MUD Nail stickers can be bought from Woolworths Supermarkets in Australia. The retail price is $5 for a set of 16 stickers with a nail file included. (Although they sell the set for $5.38 from Woolworths online.) They are produced by the same company that manufactures Ulta3 and I am not sure how these compare to the Ulta3 nail stickers.
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
You need to Just Keep Swimming in this heat.
We are looking forward to having Summer days with the temperature in the high 30s. That is in degrees celsius. It is times like these that I wish I lived closer to the beach. Then again, I lived on the beach as a child and I don't remember taking every opportunity to swim in the ocean.
I bring another Darling Diva polish today. It is Finding Nemo's Dory inspired Just Keep Swimming. This was one coat over three coats of Satin Nail Enamel 10 which is a smurf blue with pink shimmer.
I found the white bar glitter a little "hairy" but I managed it ok. I was able to get it put into position and not hanging over edges fairly easily. The white bar glitter seems to be rather finer than the bar glitter I have had in other polishes. You can easily see the hex glitters in my pictures but it is more difficult to see the green micro-glitter. Of course I say it is green but this is most likely due to the blue tinted base making yellow appear as green. The flecks can be slightly seen in the shade photograph below.
I bring another Darling Diva polish today. It is Finding Nemo's Dory inspired Just Keep Swimming. This was one coat over three coats of Satin Nail Enamel 10 which is a smurf blue with pink shimmer.
I found the white bar glitter a little "hairy" but I managed it ok. I was able to get it put into position and not hanging over edges fairly easily. The white bar glitter seems to be rather finer than the bar glitter I have had in other polishes. You can easily see the hex glitters in my pictures but it is more difficult to see the green micro-glitter. Of course I say it is green but this is most likely due to the blue tinted base making yellow appear as green. The flecks can be slightly seen in the shade photograph below.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)