Before & After: Stamped French Manicure

Hello!!

Today I have a mani that I did a couple of weeks ago for my Sunday stamping group, Adventures In Stamping. The theme was to do some sort of French manicure, and of course it had to include stamping.

I started with a base of Pahlish Coney Island Queen; this is a soft white with hints of pinkish (barely) and lots of gold fleck. It's a neutral, but it has a ton of panache:

Pahlish Coney Island Queen, indirect sunlight

Since my nails are on the short side lately (and that was before they went all turbo-nubbins on me!), I wanted to do just a short little French tip. After I put the white tips in place, I stamped over them using China Glaze Passion and Bundle Monster plate BM316:

I chose the color and pattern I did to carry over the gold flecks into the tips, but in a more leafy, developed way. I love how it came out--intricate, but still subtle. You could wear this as a wedding manicure, and even probably wear to work. :)

Hey, here's a question--would you like a tutorial on how to created stamped French tips?

Hope you're having an amazing weekend! Hugs and kisses,
M.

Before & After: Bridge over troubled waters

Hello!!

Today is the day when I show you one of my most lusted after lemmings...something I waited ages to get hoping it would go on sale...and finally just bought because I couldn't stand waiting any more! What is the wondrous magical potion of polish, you ask?

None other than Pahlish's Toxic and Timeless. This is a green-leaning teal jelly filled with blue, green, and gold glitters of the hex and bar variety. Here is two coats, with an impressively accommodating formula:

Pahlish Toxic and Timeless, artificial light

Pahlish Toxic And Timeless, indirect sunlight

When I look at this, it's like staring into a pond filled with beautiful, toxic sludge that's crisp and bright despite being deadly. It's like what a toxic lagoon would look like in Candyland, or in Willy Wonka's world. And what does a pond like that need? Something equally beautiful that allows you to walk over it safely.

So I decided to make just such a bridge for it, with silver glequins, microbeads, and rhinestones as my stepping stones:

Sail on silver girl

Sail on by 

Your time has come to shine

All your dreams are on their way

This is not a manicure for people afraid of bling! This is not a manicure for people afraid of glitter! But somehow, adding more blingy glittery goodness doesn't make this more ostentatious, it seems to pull together, at least in my mind. I love it. :)

Thanks for looking! And Happy Friday!

M.

Oldie but Goodie: Pahlish Fire in the Taco Bell

Today's weather was seriously crazy.  Like for real crazy.  My heart and thoughts go out to those who lost their families, homes, and businesses in the tornadoes that ravaged north Georgia today.  I'm very thankful that we're all ok here in Blue-Eyed Girl land, but it was really nerve-wracking all day.  Although, I did spend most of the day at the allergist, which came back with an astounding I'm not allergic to anything.  Weird, huh?  Oh well!  At least that rules out one more thing in the never ending search for a reason why I've been sick for a very long time. They did, however, determine that I have asthma.  I'm glad to know why, no matter how hard I've tried, I can't run even short distances despite being in really good shape.

Since I've been feeling kinda blah and I'm working on clearing out my old photos, you guys get another Oldie but Goodie!  I'm sure you're so excited.  Photos for tonight's polish, or Pahlish...  (Heh heh heh.  See what I did there?) were actually taken at Disney World this past summer when we went for my 30th birthday, which means that I don't have any bottle shots.  These were taken in full sun with three layers alone without undies.

Fire in the Taco Bell is an orange jelly with hot pink hexes and squares.  I topped the three layers with a thick layer of Seche Vite.  Sadly, you can tell that there's some pull back and shrinking.

Overlook those gnarly cuticles, if you can...  This was in the middle of July at a theme park after all!

The polish applied easily with the glitters coming out on the brush easily and spreading without any manipulation.  I'm sure it would look amazing over undies, which might actually help with the shrinkage, but I didn't wear it over any undies before I sold it.

Despite how pretty this polish is, I decided that the orange just wasn't for me.  As a gal who went to UGA, I'm not a huge orange fan.  Usually, most oranges don't look great on me, either, but Fire in the Taco Bell is actually one that looked pretty good with my skin tone!  Sadly, it appears that Shannon from Pahlish has changed the formula, so if you order it from her store now, it will be a little different than mine.  It's still very pretty, though.

You can purchase Pahlish at her Etsy store, which is restocked every Friday at 7pm central time, and Llarowe.  Although, keep in mind that it's cheaper to order directly from Pahlish's etsy site if you live in the US.

How do you avoid shrinkage?

Comparison Thursday: Grey Glitters

Today's been a rough day.  I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and have been irritable all day.  Don't you hate that?  Add on top of that, I've been singing songs from Les Mis for four days.  FOUR DAYS.  It's my all time favorite musical and has been since I was 11, but there's only so much a person can take.  I can't get them out of my head.  So, in an effort to make myself giggle a little, I decided to watch something pretty damn spectacular.  Go ahead.  Click play.  I'll wait. (Please bear with the introduction he does because the video is totally worth it - especially if you're a console video game nerd like myself.)

HAH!  Fantastic.  It never ceases to make me smile and put me in a better mood.  Plus, I'm now enjoying my first beer since Christmas, Sweet Water Dank Tank the Gimp.  I've been trying to cut back on my alcohol just to get healthier (I'm gluten intolerant after all), but it's sooooo hard.  I love that sweet manna from heaven.  I'm also watching some Arrested Development and Eureka while the hubs snoozes on the couch with the kitties.  My night is definitely going much better than my day!

Now that that's out of the way, let's take a look at today's Comparison Thursday: grey glitters.  What's your preference for spelling the word grey?  Grey or gray?  I don't know why, but I've always spelled it grey.  If that drives you crazy, I apologize and give you permission to flame me in the comments, lol.  As you may have noticed, I've changed up the way I review polishes on the blog.  For Comparison Thursdays, I won't be doing full blown reviews of these polishes like I do in normal review posts.  Instead, I'll focus solely on comparing each of the relevant polishes instead of going into too much detail.  Then, I'll do a detailed review of each polish at a later date.  How does that sound?

Anyway, back on topic.  We're going to take a look at four of the grey glitters I have in my stash: Pahlish Sitting in a Tin Can, Dollish Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto, Pahlish Sullen Girl, and Dollish the Many Shades of Mr. Grey.

Here they all are together.

And here they are blurred so you can see the gorgeous glitters a little better.

Sitting in a Tin Can

Sitting in a Tin Can is a charcoal grey jelly with fine black glitters and multi-sized and -shaped silver holographic glitters.  SiaTC applied really smoothly without much work, but the smell was pretty off-putting - almost like I was at my grandmother's house playing in her perfume.  I noticed this with Sullen Girl, as well, so I'm not really sure what base Shannon is using or if it's something else that she adds to her polish to make it so...  pungent.  The glitters in SiaTC have sunk, but they shake up easily.  Although, they were a little more difficult to dig out of the bottle than the other three polishes.  This is two coats over undies (Gelish Cashmere Kind of Gal).  Other than the fact that the glitters took a little effort to spread and the smell was a bit too strong for my taste, I really do like this polish.  It's probably my favorite of the four.

Domo Arigato(u) Mr. Roboto

I'm anal.  It's Arigatou, Ms. Dolly.  Not Arigato.  Anyway.  Roboto is a grey jelly with a lighter base than SiaTC.  It includes silver holo hexes in two sizes, iridescent glitters, and black hexes in two sizes.  Roboto suspends well, mixed easily, spread well, and only required a little dab and then a swipe on the second coat for full opacity.  It's not as dark as SiaTC and is a little more blue-toned than Sullen Girl.  The lack of smell and ease application puts this in my second favorite slot.

Sullen Girl

Sullen Girl is a bit lighter grey jelly than SiaTC and a little more brown-leaning than Roboto.  Again, this little baby smelled pretty bad.  It lasted on my hands for a whole day even with a shower, if that tells you anything.  Plus, it clumped.  A lot.  Like, a whole lot.  It was a massive pain to apply, which was completely opposite of SiaTC that applied soooo easily.  This is four coats to get an even and non-streaky end product.  The iridescent glitters make this one unique in the bunch.  This was easily my least favorite.  I'm sure that you can add some thinner and fix the thickness right up, but I also wasn't really sold on the color combination.  It'll be making its way to my sales page in the next few days.

The Many Shades of Mr. Grey

Grey is the outlier of the group.  It's a clear base with gun metal, silver, and black glitters without any holo goodness.  It spread so easily and looked great over the undies I chose (still Gelish Cashmere Kind of Gal), which I had been battling with for the whole week trying to determine whether I like it or not.  I'm actually really digging it with Grey on top.  I knew it wasn't really in the same family as the other three, but I wanted to toss it in just in case anyone was curious.  It's still really pretty, and I love it for different reasons than I love SiaTC and Roboto.

Depending on what you're looking for in a grey polish, you could probably get away with only having one.  If you want iridescent, go with Sullen Girl.  If you want holo-y goodness, you can't go wrong with either SiaTC or Roboto.  You'll just need to determine what base jelly color you like best when making your choice.  Here's my order of preference, in case you're curious: SiaTC > Roboto > Sullen Girl.  Grey falls in a different spectrum.

You can purchase Pahlish at her Etsy store and Llarowe.  Follow Shannon on Facebook and Twitter for updates, news, and new collections.  You can purchase Dollish Polish at her store (NEXT RESTOCK IS TOMORROW!!!!), Llarowe, and Overall Beauty.  Follow Dolly on Facebook and Twitter for updates on restocks and new collections.

Which is your favorite?

Game plans!

I don't know about you, but I always feel better when I have a goal in place and a plan to reach that goal.  This past weekend the hubs and I sat down and set up a monthly budget with goals for savings for emergencies and vacations.  My bank has a pretty kick ass online banking tool, so I was able to set up a goal through them that would either tell me how much money I need to save to hit a certain target by a certain date or how long it will take to hit the target amount when only depositing a certain amount per month.  I'm feeling pretty good right now!  Plus, I've pretty much gotten all of the prizes together for the holiday giveaway.  I can't wait for the rest to be delivered so I can let you guys in on the secret!  Until then, let's take a look at some polishes!  This is an oldie but goodie, Pahlish Train Underwater, since my nails are the nubbiest they've ever been...

This is three coats in the sunshine.  

Train Underwater is a navy blue based polish with navy blue, light blue, and fuchsia holo hexes and giant holo  hexes.

It applied really well, with the glitters spreading evenly, and the large hexes coming out easily.  Look at that color saturation!  This is one of my favorite polishes of all time and my all time favorite Pahlish.  It's pretty similar to a few other polishes I have, so I plan to do a comparison post sometime soon.  Maybe this week if you guys want!

You can purchase Pahlish at her Etsy store and Llarowe.  She restocks every Friday night on her Etsy store, which is cheaper with faster shipping.  Nothing against Llarowe or anything, but just sayin.  Check out her Facebook and Twitter for updates on restocks and new collections.

What's the last goal you've planned that you were truly excited to reach?

Breast Cancer Awareness Part 2: Pahlish Glittoris

That name never ceases to make me giggle.  It reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where the lady won't remind Jerry of her name but does tell him that it rhymes with a female body part...

LMFAO.  Amazing.

So yeah, this, ladies and gents (?), is Glittoris.  Fitting, really, if you think about it since this is breast cancer awareness week on the blog.

Glittoris is a hot pink jelly based polish with hot pink glass flakes, holographic silver squares, hexes, and bars, various shades of pink hexes and squares, red squares, and translucent iridescent hexes.  Seriously gorgeous.

Glittoris applied so so so well.  I didn't have to dig for the squares, and the glitter spread out perfectly.  It wasn't too thick or too thin.  The glitter didn't really eat top coat either, but I did apply 2 coats of Seche Vite, which was a mistake.  Shrinkage.  Ugh!

Look at those glitters!!!  The iridescent hexes are seriously my favorite.  Stunning!

You can purchase Pahlish polishes at her Etsy store every Friday night at 7pm central or on Llarowe.  You can also follow Shannon on Facebook.

What's your favorite pink polish?

Oldie but Goodie: purple goodness

Today will be a quick one with another oldie but goodie.  Check out base color Pahlish Slow Fade of Love with Rainbow Honey Worst Possible Thing as the topper.

Slow Fade of Love is a deep purple based polish with holo glitters.  Like all Pahlish polishes, it applied fantastically.  I did this so long ago, though, that I can't remember how many layers I used.  It was at least 2, maybe 3?  I don't remember.  I do remember, though, that I seriously loved this polish.  I applied Rainbow Honey Worst Possible Thing on top because I thought the purples would compliment each other well.  The Worst Possible Thing has blue, purple, and iridescent smaller glitters with larger purple hexes in a clear base. Like all RH polishes I've used to date, this guy was extremely thick, so it definitely needed some thinner to apply smoothly.

This mani was a few days old, so I do have some tip wear.

Here's a blurry pic so you can see the holographic and iridescent glitters.

Lastly, here's a closeup shot of the mani so you can see the layering a little bit better.

You can buy Pahlish at her Etsy store and Llarowe.  Follow Shannon on Facebook here.  You can purchase Rainbow Honey at their site, which also includes a blog for news and updates.  Follow Dee and her RH crew on Facebook, too!

Do you have any Pahlish or Rainbow Honey polishes?  Which is your favorite?

Game Day Nails: Nail Art and Endless Static Sea

I'm going to make this a quick one tonight as I'm trying to spend some quality time with the hubs and kitties before I go back to work tomorrow.  It was a nice week and a half off, and I'm sad to go back now that the basement is finally unflooded!  Although, the mold and mildew are making my eczema flair like you wouldn't believe.  It's pretty bad.  I apologize for the dry and ugly cuticles...  Even balm and oil aren't helping much.  Ugh.

Updates: only 18 follows away from that awesome giveaway I keep harping on about!  Also, I updated my blog sale with more polishes (indies, HTF's, etc) and lowered prices.  Please help a gal out and purchase a few!  I'd love ya forever!

On to the nails.  My game-day nails from this past weekend included a base of ProGel Deep Abyss with nail art on my thumbs using OPI OPI Red and Revlon Metallic.  Then, I finished off the rest of my nails with Pahlish Endless Static Sea.

I didn't use Gelous over the nail art, so it smeared a little when I applied my Seche Vite.  It's weird, too, because I let it dry for quite some time before I applied my top coat.  Oh, well, I still like how it came out despite the smearing.

Pahlish Endless Static Sea is a black jelly based polish with holo hexes, bars, and squares as well as pink and blue shimmers.  The pink and blue shimmers were actually a surprise because I couldn't see them in the bottle at all!

See, the bottle just looks like a normal black jelly with awesome holo glitters.  Right?

But, when I put this guy on, it was like magic!  I honestly wasn't sure if I would keep ESS before I wore it, but now that I have, there's no way I'll give this guy up unless I absolutely have to.  Look at it on the nail.  The glitters just glow!

Plus, here's a closeup of that pink and blue shimmer I was talking about.  It was such a fantastic surprise!  

Also, look at how shimmery ESS is.  It's absolutely amazing.  I wore this polish for days, which isn't like me at all.  (I get bored easily.)  

You can buy Pahlish at her Etsy store every Friday night and on Llarowe.  You can also follow Shannon on her Facebook page for news and updates.

As a random aside...  Every time I see ESS, I think of this horrible (amazing?) movie I saw in high school called Johnny Dangerously.  Has anyone else seen this??  Warning, this isn't rated G.  It isn't really rated R, either, but it's definitely NSFW.  

Specifically, this is what I envision:

Hah!  Now that I've chuckled like an idiot for a few minutes, I think I'll call it a night.  

Have you ever had a polish that surprised you when you put it on your nail?  If yes, which polish and why?