Essence Choose Me! with Gold Stamping

I had a lot of fun with this mani!  This particular polish, despite being glittery, wears well on me.  I paired it up with some other colors to achieve the final look.

Zoya Frida - Funky Fingers Platinum Record - Essence Choose Me!

Layering goes as follows:

1. Nailtek II Foundation
2. Two coats Choose Me!
3. Stamped: BM 204, FF Platinum Record
4. One coat Zoya Frida
5. One coat OTD

I'm super happy with how this came out! Bonus: the gold gets a bit purposefully "lost" in the manicure, the stamping doesn't need to be perfect. 

I used the floral full nail design right above BM204 for the stamping.

OPI Berlin There Done That with Layered Stamping

I decided to spice up a day-old mani with some stamping.  The base of this manicure is two coats of OPI Berlin There Done That, which is a taupey, slightly greyed out creme polish that I absolutely adore. Pardon the tip wear!

This is definitely one of those uh, "looks better from a distance" manicures.  A continual and absolute frustration I've had since I've been polishing is the streakiness of black polishes when doing any sort of nail art. I've waited hours before applying top coat before, I've floated the brush across - but I still get streaks. I usually will just photoshop them out but this was too busy to do that.

I used plates BM206 and BM221 for the stamping designs. I used Wet n Wild Black Creme for the black flowers and L.A. Colors Live for the silver accents. I did do the stamping super quickly because I wasn't planning on wearing it for long. It does look much nicer from a few foot distance, sort of like a tapestry.  The silver stamping was done first, then the black flowers and finally sealed with a coat of OTD.

OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons & Stamping

I got OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons from a nail polish friend for Halloween and I wore it before but didn't blog it. I've been loving nudes lately so it made another appearance!

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I used three coats of OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons over Orly Bonder and sealed with Out the Door.  For the stamping, I used plate BM-323 with the Born Pretty black stamping polish. I was sooooo close to not smudging the design! Every time I do topcoat over stamping, I smudge it. I've bee able to avoid it somewhat by waiting extra long for the design to dry and by sort of "floating" the topcoat on top by waiting for a droplet to fall on the nail and smoothing it out without touching the brush to my nail; sometimes I mess it up anyways though )=

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Review: BornPretty Stamping Polishes

BornPretty asked me to review an item, I chose the stamping polishes since I'm always on the hunt for good ones!  This set is a set of 5 mini bottles, available here.  The set includes white, black, yellow, blue and a muted, maroon-like red.

I ask that my lack of stamping skills be ignored for this post and that we focus on the opacity of the polishes, since that is what makes a good stamping polish.  Shown is 2 coats of Finger Paints Paper Mache with stamping from plate BM-315. I love the blue, it is vibrant!

These polishes were super thick, which is exactly what you want with a stamping polish.  I want to add I had trouble with them at first, due to my own mistake.  I was cleaning my stamping plates with acetone infused with glycerin, which wasn't allowed the polish to fill in the grooves of the plate.  Once I realized that, I was able to get them to perform as expected.

Shown above are the same colors, except I used white stamping polish instead of black, over two coats of Finger Paints Black Expressionism.  The white IS opaque enough to stamp over black! That's definitely good news. The lack of my stamping ability had nothing to do with the polish.  I was disappointed that the colors don't show over a dark base, though.  The yellow seems like it wants to, and it is close, but it doesn't pull through. 

The set of 5 polishes is about $6 and BornPretty has free shipping.  If you use code "CA10L91" at check out you get an additional 10% off  your order!

I did a previous manicure with the black stamping polish back in September, view HERE.

These were provided for review.

Pink October: OPI Care to Danse? and KleanColor Metallic White + Stamping

I don't think the blog post title is long enough. I needed a palette cleasner so I went for one the OPI NYC Ballets and turned it into a jelly sandwich with some sparkle and added some for-the-cause stamping.

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I started out with two coats of Care to Danse? and then added one layer of Klean Color Metallic White which is a shimmery metallic white flecked polish.  It's very sparkly!  I then added two more thin coats of Care to Danse? and sealed with a coat of Out the Door.  I used Orly Bonder as my base coat.

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You can really see the sparkles from the Klean Color here.  These two colors play SO nicely together and make such a clean/delicate jelly sandwich.

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For the stamping I used Bundle Monster plate BM-321and Konad Special White stamping polish.  For the pink ribbons I used Zoya Lara which is the perfect pink for the occasion!

I'm still currently selling the Pink of Me polish in my Etsy store. Two dollars from each purchase goes towards Men's Breast Cancer Awareness education.  Pink of Me is available HERE. So far $32 has been raised!

Oopsie Daisies Pink of Me

Oopsie Daisies Apple Picking Jelly Sandwich

The thought hit me to turn Apple Picking into a jelly sandwich when I woke up this morning, so that's what I did!

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This manicure consisted of to coats OPI Y'all Come Back Now Ya Hear?, two coats of Oopise Daisies Apple Picking, and one more coat of OPI. I'm not sure if it was because I used my Barielle base coat which isn't really a base coat, or what, but the OPI jelly stained a bit. I used one coat of the Barielle Pro Advanced and one coat of OTD for this mani.

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Then I added some stamping.  I used bornpretty's black stamping polish and BM plates 211, 314 and 305 for the images.  The stamping polish worked well, better than WnW Black Creme, which was transferring too sheer. The brush for the stamping polish was flared and had strays which made it a little messy to work with, but the opacity was nice which made up for it.  The stamping polishes are available HERE for $6.93 and free shipping.  Also, you can use coupon code "CA10L91" for 10% as well!

Apple Picking and many others now available at my Etsy store!

Oopsie Daisies Nail Polish 

Black stamping was provided for review.

Zoya Zuza Mattified with Stamping

I meant to post this so long ago, oops!  Zoya Zuza has become one of my favorite polishes, I absolutely love it.  I did a full post on it previously but since I did add to the mani, I wanted to share that with you, too.

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This is the previous mani stamped with BM314 and Konad Special White polish and I used the NYC Matte Top Coat to mattify it. It created a whole different look :D

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I reaaally like how Zuza looks.. but I also reaaally like how it looks matte, too.  This didn't last long though, it began to chip after a few hours. Harrumph!

Don't forget to enter my Halloween Harvest Giveaway! Ends this weekend!

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Sephora by OPI Why Yellow There... The Perfect Yellow!!

I finally found the perfect yellow (for me)! I've been searching for quite some time and I am absolutely blown away by this one.  It's my first Sephora by OPI polish but this is easily in my Top Five polishes now, easily! I did a summery citrus manicure with it!

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Here are swatches without the designs.  What makes a perfect yellow for me? Well no lobster hands are an important factor but this.. this polish only needed TWO COATS! Finding my perfect yellow is like finding your HG base coat. I'm so incredibly happy with this.

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For the stamping I used plate BM308. I used Konad Special White for the white stamping and Klean Color Mango for the orange stamping.  I glued on some fimo fruits and added polka dots for a finishing touch!

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Thanks for reading!  I still have some polishes in stock at my Etsy store. The store will be closing for a week on August 24th, this Friday.  It will reopen on Saturday, August 31st.  Get your orders in now (=

Oopsie Daisies Nail Polish Shop 

Illamasqua Serenity Rubber Brights & Stamping

I got my first Illamasqua today! I went to Sephora and tried all the testers and decided on Serenity.  I would've loved to take them all home with me but at $14 a piece, I decided one would be a good start.  I also really like the rubbery finish and mattes in general, so this was a really fun addition to my stash.

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Photos seen here are two easy coats over Orly Bonder, no top coat. I say easy because I was anticipating some difficulty and it wasn't! My middle finger has three coats because I messed up while doing it, but opacity is reached in two.

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I jazzed it up with some stamping. This is BM306 with Konad Special White.  Since my nails have a pretty dramatic C-curve, I usually can't stamp a full image design without messing it up.  My thumb cramps and I try, every time and then it dries so fast on the stamper that not all of it picks up.  I fix this by filling in the gaps with dots and rhinestones usually.  I have no issues with smaller designs, just the full image ones. Such a shame!

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Only three fingers here because I royally botched my index nail.  Pro-tip: use the bathroom before doing your nails.

My first Illamasqua experience was a positive one.  I really like how the bottle fits in my hand too, although that's not really relevant to application or formula.  I also really like the color of this blue even though  I wanted to take all of them home with me!

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I still have polishes in stock at my Etsy store!

Oopsie Daisies Nail Polish Shop 

Zoya Arizona & Stamping

I own very few orange polishes so this was a nice addition to the stash! I'm also quite surprised that oranges (at least this one) aren't absolutely putrid looking on me either, so maybe I should get more.

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This is 3 coats of Arizona, some nails are 4 though. It has a really nice formula but it is a bit on the sheer side. I tried swatching it again and I was able to get 3 coats for each nail, so I may have been a bit too stingy the first time.

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This is over Orly Bonder and sealed with Out the Door. I used BM-224, which is one of my favorite plates. Even though the design is a "full nail" design, and I have a lot of trouble with them, this one is pretty forgiving.  I used Konad Special White polish for the stamping and added a little rhinestone for sparkle.

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I wore this all day at work with only one little chip on my thumb.

Blank Slate Nails Part I

Blank slate nails! They're like a canvas screaming for some color. I wouldn't wear a regular stark white polish on its own as it looks like White-Out but I would use a stark white for a base for some fun designs!

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This is a blank slate, just screaming for something to be done! I started with Orly Bonder and used 2-3 coats of Sally Hansen Whirlwind White and sealed it with OtD.  Looking at my white nails just gets the gears turning!

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Rainbow zebra stripes? Sure! I used plate BM-223 and a few different colors to do this.  KleanColor Mango, Sally Hansen Lightening,  China Glaze Fuchsia Fanatic and KleanColor Bikini Green.  I did diagonal stripes on the plate with the polish to get some more fluidity in the design.

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It kind of reminded me of Fruit Stripe Gum. It's obviously not a direct take on it, but it made me feel like Fruit Stripe Gum and Lisa Frank had a party on my nails.

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Overall I think its a sunny, fun, summery mani that doesn't take much effort. I may try this with other full-nail images from my plates. What do you think about it?

Summery Funky French

It's almost Memorial Day, which means it's almost June.. which means it's almost summer! And what better way to celebrate that than with an obnoxious funky french?! I went full derp on this one (you NEVER go full derp!)  My sister politely told me it belongs at the Jersey Shore, which at this time of the year, becomes a scary place.

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So for this mani I did things similarly to how I do my regular french manicures, which is applying the color to the bare nail so it is easy to shape it and fix any errors. After the color was on, I applied a coat of Orly Bonder. Then I stamped with WnW Black Creme and I can't remember which Bundle Monster plate (oops), after that I put on another coat of Bonder. I'm not sure if my layering was the best but it worked in this case!

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After the second coat of Bonder, I applied Instant Artificials since the color had left a visible lip/edge sort and was raised a bit compared to the bare nail.  After that dried a little, I sealed it with Out the Door.

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I used China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy for the pink (3 coats), KleanColor Mango for the orange (2 coats) and KleanColor Bikini Green for the green (2 coats).

Color Club Ultra-Astral with Valentine's Stamping

I'm slowly but surely accumulating the Starry Temptress collection piece by piece, year by year.  I really thought that was a fun collection and it brought something different to the table.  I have another to show you today, Ultra-Astral.  It's a hot pink base with holo glitter, eye-catching really.

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This is two coats of Ultra-Astral over CND Stickey and topped with Out the Door.  Look how bright it is! It's kind of glowy. It stands out, jumps off your fingers almost.  I'm in love with it, by the way.

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I added some stamping to create a Valentine's Day feel.  I used Konad Special White polish.  The plates I used were Konad m57 and Bundle Monster BM202.

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This was a fun manicure, I may create it again for the actual holiday!

My giveaway is still running! Please click HERE to read the rules and enter (= Thanks for reading!