Review: Bauble New York nail wraps (Or, Holly Jolly!)

Hello!

I have a double-feature today--a review plus nail art. :)

I have been falling in love with the convenience of nail wraps, once I realized that they don't limit nail art, but can actually be just one more awesome tool that enhances nail art.

So far I've only tried one type of wraps, so I was very excited when Bauble New York approached me about testing out a set of their new nail wraps. They have a very nice-sized collection of wraps to choose from, with a range of types, including some designs that are very hard to create on your own--take a look at Life Is But A Dream to see what I mean.

Another beauty is Emerald's Addiction To Gold, the set that they sent me. This set features a gold foil base with a tealish green accenting it. I love this look and often create nail art like it by using nail foils, which can be a pain, can be time consuming, and can be tricky to get the look that you want--so the idea of a set that could create the look with no fuss at all was very appealing:

These work just like the other nail wraps I've tried. You choose the strips that are the closest in size to your nail, then one at a time you peel the top and bottom clear layers off to reveal the nail strip. You place the strip on the nail and put it gently into place, picking it back up and adjusting as needed. Once in place, you push down on wrap firmly to make it seal to the nail. Here is what they look like on:

Bauble New York Emerald's Addiction To Gold

Bauble New York Emerald's Addiction To Gold

 You'll notice that on my ring finger I have a teeny bit of puckering. This is because I wasn't careful to check that I had it placed correctly before I pressed down to seal the wrap to the nail. You'll notice this didn't happen on my other three nails; this was user error, not an issue with the wraps, and I easily avoided it on the other fingers. Just make sure to double-check all your edges before you go press down over the nail to seal it, and you'll be fine. And notice that even in the pictures it doesn't look that bad, and in person it's actually much less noticeable.

The instructions suggest that you use a topcoat with these nails, but I'm not convinced that you need it. These pictures are without topcoat, and I thought they looked nice and shiny without it--I couldn't tell much difference after I added the topcoat (you can see the topcoated nails in the nail art shots below).

If you do use topcoat with them, the instructions warn that you may get peeling on any edges that weren't pressed down firmly, and this happened to me. They tell you that if it happens, just wait for the topcoat to dry, and then press those edges down again. I did just that, and it worked just fine.

I promised you some nail art with this, and tomorrow's theme in the 12 Days of Christmas challenge is holly--and it seemed to me that this would be a perfect base for some awesome holly. I freehanded some holly leaves on my ring finger with acrylic paints, and then added two sizes of rhinestones for my holly berries. You know I had to have rhinestones, 'cause it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that bling:

Have a holly jolly Christmas! 

It's the best time of the year!

Can you even see the puckering now? That's how not visible it actually is, even though the camera picked it up in the close-ups. And can you tell the difference with topcoat? If you can, you have better eyes than I do. :)

These nail wraps will go on sale starting on Dec. 27th--perfect time to stock up for the new year!

This was a wonderful manicure that was perfect for me today...after a very busy week that was complicated by a cold that sapped all of my energy, I finally felt well enough today to clean the house and decorate. These wraps made it super fast for me to have a festive, fun manicure that looked like it took me forever, and left me time to do other things. I even baked some brownies! A holly-licious manicure was the icing on the cake (or...the brownies?).

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend,
M.

Before & After: Inspired by my phone backdrop

Hello!

So I've decided to just admit that this month has already managed to get away from me, and jump forward to the next '12 Days' challenge so I can at least give the illusion of being on top of something.

On my phone, I have an app on my phone that shows trees in a wintery scene as my background, and a couple of the trees are decorated with little Christmas lights on them. Santa and his reindeer fly by occasionally, and that becomes more frequent as Christmas gets closer. Since I don't get snow where I live, this is my way of having that snowscape in my life, and I decided to do a manicure to honor that.

I promised you that today I would be doing a review of the half-bead microbeads I showed you yesterday, that Born Pretty Store sent me for review. These are a 100% improvement over the full-sphere ones, because they are only half of a sphere each:

Born Pretty Store half microbeads

This makes them a lot easier to work with, because they don't roll around everywhere if you dump a few of them out of the container; they also are easier to apply and don't stick up as much as regular microbeads. And while I've never had too much trouble keeping microbeads on because I tend to cover well with topcoat, the increased contact area with you nail keeps these on longer than normal microbeads.

For my manicure, I started with the same polish as yesterday, China Glaze There's Snow One Like You; I was very pleasantly surprised after yesterday's post to find out there are a number of you out there that like this besides me! :)

China Glaze There's Snow One Like You

China Glaze There's Snow One Like You

 Then I free-handed some simple trees on three of the nails with Glittering Garland, a dark pine green jelly with gold shimmery bits; I drew an outline of the trees with a small art brush and then filled in with the polish brush itself. I finished by decorating my tree with the half-beads:

 

You can see how the flat side of the beads changes the look and the dimension over full-sphere beads; sometimes you might want the other look, and it's always good to have choices! :)

I've been really into having nail art on three of the nails lately...I like the negative space that the plain nail gives, and I think it looks cool when the fingers aren't placed right together: 

What do you think? I'm definitely a symmetry girl, but the symmetry issue is solved because the two hands together make it all look symmetrical, even if each hand isn't, lol. Yes, I have more...let's call them quirks...running around in my head than you can even imagine, and a need for symmetry is one of them!

As always, you can use my code for 10% off your entire purchase at Born Pretty Store; I am not an affiliate, but when I checked yesterday, I had enough purchases with a code that Born Pretty Store will be sponsoring a giveaway, so stay tuned for that as soon as I hear back from them!!!

Hope this manicure helps to keep your spirits bright. :)
M.

Before & After: She can't take much more of this, Captain!

Hello--

This week's theme in the Kimber's Amazing Challenge Ladies group is faux stone. I was all ready to do a nice faux turquoise when I looked down at Julep Clara on my fingers and it changed my plans.

Here is Clara, a deep night-sky purple with tons of bright blue glass flecks:

Julep Clara, artificial light

  
 

This is more duochrome than it appears here; it's almost magenta at the edges in certain lights. The formula is wonderful, no application problems. As I was swatching it, I realized it reminds me of Orly Galaxy Girl, so I'll be doing a comparison of them for you. :)

Here is where I admit that I'm a leeeetle bit of a sci-fi geek, and maybe even a leeeetle bit of a Star Trek geek. So as I was looking at this polish and thinking about the night sky and the universe and aliens and stuff, and also had the whole 'faux stone' issue rolling around in my brain...and next thing I knew, 'dilithium crystals!' popped on out.

To create my faux crystals (that's a type of stone=rock=crystals, right??), I loosely sketcyed where I wanted my crystals to be with China Glaze Travel In Color, a topcoat that is supposed to shift the color of your polish just a bit, and add a hint of magic to it. Then, I took some Barry M Silver Foil, and mixed it with some Travel In Color, and used the mix to draw and outline over my crystal formations. Then, I put another layer of Travel in Color over the crystals:

I think the Travel In Color is really beautiful and creates a mystical crystalline feel. I do wish the lines of the outlines were a bit thinner...anyone have any tips on a good nail art brush that makes good thin lines?

Big hugs, and don't forget to check out the other faux stone manis below. :)

M.

Before & After: Freehand fall leaves

Hello!

Okay, so. I showed you a fall leaf manicure as my last nail art. Today I'm going to show you another fall leaf manicure 'cause I'm in the mood for it and it's my blog so I can cry if I want to! Wait, that's not right...

Anyway...For this one, I started with Picture Polish Mallard, one of those awesome ugly-pretty polishes; it's a deep, almost-black green with a gorgeous forest green shimmer and a rainbow of fall-leaf colored flakies:

Picture Polish Mallard, 2 coats, artificial light

Those flakies make me think of fall leaves, so I figured I'd add some more on top of the. I stamped on a tree branch with Barry M Gold Foil and QA21. After that, I freehanded some leaves on to it, with moderate success:

 

I like it, but it isn't quite what I was hoping for. Maybe it's one of those you're-your-own-worst-critic things...Point is, I'm not sure why I'm in a fall leaf sort of mood lately, but it might be a good thing, 'cause I clearly need practice freehanding them...

Thanks for stopping by. :) Hugs and loves,
M.

Before & After: My Halloween Mani

Argh!!

I can't believe it's Halloween already! I have two other manicures to show you that I didn't get to show you and I'm out of time! Oh well...maybe I'll post one later today, or maybe I'll just save them for next year. I have had so much fun doing manis for my challenges, and the funny thing is, I have ideas for about 10 more manis that I didn't get to...that's okay, soon enough it will be Christmas time, and I'll be happily immersed into that. :)

But for now, here is the actual manicure I will be wearing as part of my costume today. During my spooktacular tag, I told you I was planning on building a costume around this make-up (if you follow me on instagram, you will have seen my dry run of the make-up):

(source)

I am wearing a gothic dress with this, along with gothic jewelry, in an attempt to look like an old-fasioned doll. :)

For my nails, I started with a base of Julep Winter, which happily just came in my November Julep box (never had one come that fast!!). Winter is a light gray creme, and I've been needing one like this: 

Julep Winter, two coats, artificial light

Next, I drew stitched lines to match the ones on the costume's mouth; I drew them on with one of the MASH nail art pens they sent me for review a while back--I loved them then and I love them now. I freehanded some blood with acrylic paint; I wanted it to look like it was coming from my cuticles, so I put it right on up in the cuticles. The effect works in real life, but it looks a bit messy here:

I think the idea is that the doll either has some sort of horrid virus that is taking over her body and killing her, or she was killed in an unpleasant way and is coming back for revenge. What do you think, creepy??

Thanks for looking, and Happy Halloween!!!!!!
M.

Before & After: Ghoul Talons

Hello!

Today's theme (well, yesterday's) in the CNT Halloween challenge is Monsters! I also have this theme coming up later in the Lacquer Dreams Halloween challenge as well, so I'm combining it for a two-fer. :)

When trying to figure out what to do for this challenge, I just so happened to have been swatching the new China Glaze Halloween collection. When I looked down at my hands, I had China Glaze Boo-gie Down (a black, white and orange-gold glitter topper) over Trendsetter (a pea-soup green shimmer):

China Glaze Boo-gie Down over China Glaze Trendsetter, artificial light

Because the orange glitter is so muted in Boo-gie Down, I decided to put it over a more muted (okay, scrumptiously putrid looking!) green. I love the combo, and when I looked down, I thought--they sort of look like ghoul fingers! They just need some sort of talons!

::ding ding ding bell goes off in head::

So, I pulled out my acrylics, blacked out half of the nail, and drew some talons. Here's how they came out:

So what do you think, are they monstruous?? I kept catching glimpses of them out of the corner of my eye, and I'd do a double take, lol. This would be great to do for a ghoul type costume, or even just for handing out candy to the kids--especially if you get some of those gloves that just have the fingertips missing. You could also alter it a bit to make them nails instead of talons (have them come down into the green finger a bit more) and they could be awesome witch nails. :)

Thanks for checking it out, and don't forget to check out the other monster manis below--if you dare!

Shrieks and howls,
M.

Before & After: Witches are people, too...

(All products in this post were purchased with my own money.)

Hello!

We all know the story of The Wizard Of Oz. We know what happened to Dorothy, we know what happened to Toto, we know what happened to the Wicked Witch of the West. In fact, another book has been written about Elphaba and Glinda and their backstories, even.

But what about that poor witch who dies right off of the bat, when Dorothy's house falls on her? What about the Wicked Witch of the East? What do we know about her? Let's face it, she sort of got the short end of the broom stick in the whole deal.

I don't know much about her background, but I know this. When I decided to combine two challenge themes, Kimber's theme of 'inspired by a book' and Lacquer Dream's Halloween challenge theme of Witches, it got me thinking. That witch most certainly never made it home to her witchy lair that night, and it has laid abandoned and sad ever since. So I decided to do a mani about what we might see if we peeked in one of the windows.

I started with a base of Shirley Ann Nail Lacquer Candy-Coated Poison, a slate blue shimmer with a soft yellow-green duochrome shift:

Shirley Ann Nail Lacquer Candy-Coated Poison, 2 coats, indirect sunlight

Because it's been a good 90 years since she's been home, I added some bits of orange and green nail foil, to look like bits of paint that had been peeling off of the wall (most of the green got covered up). There have to be tons of spider webs all around, so I stamped some with BM-H07 and Konad black on two of the fingers. Her cool witch outfits would be long abandoned, so I stamped the hat and witch shoes (she left those at home cause she was wearing her fancy ruby slippers that day) from the same plate; to get dimension, I first stamped with colored polish, then black, and then covered with more polish by hand (I used Sally Hansen Lively Lilac and Lickety-split Lime):

Ooo, ooo, witchy woman

Raven hair and ruby lips

Sparks fly from her fingertips

While I'm sad ::sniff sniff:: about the fate of the witch, I adore that little spider guy on the hat, even though it's sort of hard to see from this angle. In fact, I'll be honest, he's what inspired this manicure, when I took a look at him on the hat next to the webs, it got me thinking about why a cool witch hat like that would by lying around covered in spider webs. :)

Thanks for taking a look! Hugs and love,
M.

(All products in this post were purchased with my own money.)

Before & After: Carl vs. Shane

Hello!!

Do you like Zombies? Well, I have two Halloween challenges that I'm a part of this year, and Zombies are a part of each of them.

And we all know--I love some me some zombies. So let the zombie fun begin.


When I googled 'zombies' for inspiration, this picture jumped out at me, and I wanted to recreate it:

(Source)

I started with a base of a polish that, while it isn't part of a Halloween collection, will be included on my Halloween favorites list. Lucky 13 Fool Of A Took is a smokey avocado crelly with grape purple hexes in a variety of sizes:

Lucky 13 Fool Of A Took, 2 coats, artificial light

I know, right??!! ::sighs::

Next, I did a combination of stamping and freehand to recreate the scene. I stamped the tree and the gravestones with Bunny Nails HD01 and HD03, using Konad Black (for once, any smearing will just make things look creepier, lol!). I used black acrylic paint and drew in the man shooting the zombie, and to draw the rolling hills on the ground. Here is the final result:

Best shot with no reflections in the way

Best shot to see the gun

Clearest shot. :)

I love how this came out and I don't want to take it off, but I have to do swatching tomorrow....waaaaahhhhhhh....:P

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to check out the other zombie manicures below!

Hug,
M.