Last Christmas

I was listening to Wham's, "Last Christmas," while I was working on my nails tonight so I figured a bumble gum pop song deserved some bubble gum pink nails!  And people say I only listen to hair metal...  you have to throw George Michael and Wham in the mix every once in a while!  I am very happy to be starting my last few days before Christmas doing Christmas mani's!  I will probably throw in a couple none Christmas posts here and there.  Maybe I'll just be a nice person and throw up more than one blog a day!  Who knows, I guess we will all have to wait and see.  :)

 

I will be adding a complete list of everything used at the bottle of this post so that I won't have to go into complete detail of all the items I used.

I started out by painting each nail a different color, two on each hand were painted pink, two were painted white with a glitter over them, and one was painted silver with two different silver glitters on top.

I grabbed every Christmas plate I could find in my book of plates, these plates included a mix of Konad, Bundle Monster, and also the Chez Delaney D-Series plates.  There were 9 or 10 plates total so it was a lot to keep track of!

I used the special Konad polish in white and then the two Sally Hansen Insta-Dri colors, Silver Swept and Presto Pink to stamp with.

 

I finished the nails off with the top coat Seche Vite to give them that amazing shine!

I hope you all are having a very merry few days before Christmas and please enjoy a little Wham!

Base Coat: Essie Sensitivity Basecoat

Base Colors:

*Pink Nails: Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri - Presto Pink

*White Nails:

1. Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri - Whirlwind White

2. Sally Hansen - Diamond Strength - Diamonds

*Silver Nails:

1. L.A. Colors - Color Craze - Live (1 coat)

2. Sinful Colors - Queen of Beauty (2 coats)

3. L.A. Colors - Color Craze - Sparkling Diamonds

1st Top Coat:

NYC - In a Minute - Top Coat

Konad Polishes:

1. Konad - Special Polish - White

2. Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri - Silver Swept

3. Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri - Presto Pink

Glitter Over Konad Images:

1. Sally Hansen - Diamond Strength - Diamonds (Over tree on ring)

2. L.A. Colors - Art Deco - Ice Breaker (Over presents & hats)

Plates Used:

1. Chez Delaney - D Series - D01

2. Chez Delaney - D Series -  D02

3. Chez Delaney - D Series -D07

4. Bundle Monster -BM-205

5. Bundle Monster -BM-225
6. Bundle Monster -BM-214
7. Bundle Monster -BM-209

8. Konad - M59

9. Fauxnad - Octogan Plate - M26

Plate Backing

This is just a very, very quick post.  I got really tired of having to handle some of my nail plates so carefully so I didn't slice my finger open again while using them.  I looked around on line, but didn't find any ideas that I really liked for putting a backing on them.  I wanted something very easy and very quick, so I grabbed a roll of duct tape and placed it on the back then cut around the sides.  It worked perfectly!  The edges are no longer sharp and they have some protection on them now!

In an ironic turn, while I was putting the tape on the back of the plates so I wouldn't slice my fingers open again I managed to slice my thumb open!  Figures right!  Well I hope this helps anyone looking to back their plates.  I did this with my first set of Bundle Monster plates as well as my octagonal fauxnad plates.

Shot Through The Heart

Welcome back my dear readers!  While digging through my old pictures of nail designs I came across these oldies but goodies.  I had forgotten all about them and was madly in love with them when I did them.  I've been very into having nails lately that are in a state of organized chaos.  They all go together, but none of them match.

I used a hot pink color and a the black from Wet N Wild to paint each nail.  I then used the white, black, and shocking pink special to do all of the stamping.

I used a combination of the Bundle Monster plates, the Konad plates, and a couple fauxnad plates that I have to create the designs.

The whole design came about because I had just seen this sexy, sexy picture of Mr. Jon Bon Jovi and I knew I needed to do something with pink.  I had just done a green leopard print like his pants a few days before... but that is another post. :)

 

If anyone would like to know the plates that I used to create this I am more than happy to let you know, just leave me a comment and I'll get them posted.

Now, since I'll such a nice person I will leave you with the sexy Bon Jovi and "You Give Love a Bad Name."

San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair)

"If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair."  I absolutely LOVE this song by Scott McKenzie, at least once a week I play it on my way into work.  And after I saw the Chez Delaney plate with the 60s flowers on them, this song popped into my head and I knew I needed to do a mani with the flowers while listening to this song.

I started out with a base of my usual color for french tips, Girly by Orly.  I then used plate M19 from Konad and added french tips with Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri in Silver Sweep.  It didn't even occur to me until after I had already done the next step to start taking pictures!

I added the "In a Hurry" top coat before I went any further, just in case I screwed up with the stamping.  I go back in forth between really loving the Seche Vite and really loving the In A Hurry top coat.  Sometimes I'll use both in a single mani!  Anyways, I used China Glaze's For Audrey (my all time favorite color of theirs!) with one of my fauxnad plates B57.  I'm sure it's a knock-off of a Konad plate, I just don't know which one!  I got it on eBay for .99 cents so I don't really care either!  :)

I used my Chez Delaney plate D10 to do the flowers with the white special Konad polish.  I broke up the image and put different flowers in different places so none of the nails were exactly the same.

 

This is hands down one of my most favorite manicure I've ever done.  I got so many compliments on these nails, even from guys!  I think I kept them on for three days, which as you know if a lifetime for me!

Purple Rain

I'm assuming it is not at all hard to guess what song will be the song of the day with a polish named Purple Rain!  That's right, "Purple Haze," by Jimi Hendrix, fine fine, it's not that song, but that's a sweet song nonetheless...  The song of the day is, "Purple Rain," by none other than Prince is the inspiration for this manicure.  I used Nubar's glorious polish Purple Rain as the base for these nails.

I added a coat of Seche Vite after completing the Purple Rain before I started stamping.  I will add also that this Nubar polish was virtually impossible to photograph.  There was so much more sparkle in it than the camera could grab.  It's so beautiful in person!

I then broke out my Fauxnad plate B21 (it's a circle plate) that I got on eBay for .99 cents including shipping...  Gotta love eBay right?!

I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Silver Sweep for the stamping.  I love the Insta Dri line for stamping because it's so thick like the Konad polishes and it comes in a trillion colors.  It seems every time I go to the store they've come out with new colors.

I also love that you can get it for half the price of the Konad special polishes!  Anyways, I really loved this mani, it was just simple and yet really eye grabbing all at the same time.I'm definitely going to be using this Nubar polish in some future nails!

Cuts Like A Knife

Got a present in the mail today... Fimo canes!  I wasn't sure I would like them, but damn are they cute once they're on the nail!  There are all sorts of cute canes, flowers, hearts, bows.  I bought them from a couple different eBay sellers, but you can get a hundred of them for as little as five dollars.  To me this is a far more reasonable option than buying the pre-cut ones.

 These are a couple of the canes I got, I just grabbed a few of them to show off.  And after much trial and error I FINALLY found a system for cutting them up that works for me!  And the most shocking part of it all is that I was listening to Bryan Adam's, "Cuts Like A Knife," song when I figured it out!  Sometimes fate just nudges you in the right direction...

This is the set up I have, the items in the pictures are: 1) lighter, 2) X-Acto knife, 3) filo canes/rods, 4) small jewelry bags, 5) a piece of card-board (something to cut the canes on so they don't damage your surface), 6) the other random things in the picture that aren't necessary.

To cut these up I heated up the blade of the X-Acto knife with the lighter, when it was slightly hot I sliced through the filo cane holding it as close to the edge as possible.  I cut as many times as I could before the blade cooled down and then I heated it up again.  I was actually really  stunned to see how thin I was able to get them.  And there you have it!  Al done!

Once they were all cut up I put them into the little jewelry bags and then into the photo album that I got at Marshals for $3.99 on clearance that I use to store all of my nail art stickers and items.

It is also the place I use to store my Konad/Fauxnad plates!  It keeps them all in one spot, they don't get scratched, and everything is labeled so I know which plate is missing if I miss place them or don't put them back right away after using them!

November Rain

The song of the day is "November Rain."   Yes it is true that I hate GNR, but I needed a song with rain in it so lay off!  :)  And to be honest, if I had to listen to a Guns 'N Roses song it would probably be this one...  Onto the nails though, this is Wet and Wild's Rain Check.  I used three coats of it and I'm in love.  It couldn't have taken more than 2 minutes tops to be completely dry in between each coat.  I added a top coat which is called, "In A Hurry," and then used a fauxnad plate.

 In certain lights the color looks very grey and in certain lights it's REALLY purple.  The picture below was with the flash on my camera, the picture above was just in normal lighting.  See the extreme difference?

I used a fauxnad plate that I got from a seller on eBay, it's plate M27and I used the flower design in the middle.  I've actually used the plate a number of times, I just love the look of the image on my nails.

  

I used the Konad special polish in blue for the images.  Now I don't particularly like the nails as they are above, but once I added Hard Candy's Matte-ly in Love,I really was Matte-ly in Love!  They were gorgeous and I got so many compliments on them!

The picture just can not fully encompass how incredible they were in person!  You'll have to give it a go yourself and experience the awesomeness!

Peace Train

Now I know many of you wouldn't believe it, but I do actually listen to music other than 80's hair metal, I know, I know, you're SHOCKED!  While playing around with my iTunes today I found a song that I was obsessed with a couple years ago, but hadn't listened to in months and months.  Cat Steven's "Peace Train" is such an amazing song.  It's just soft and soothing, exactly what a girl needs every once in a while!

I started out with two coats of Sinful Color's Social Ladder, it's one of my two favorite color's to use when I'm doing french tips, it's pale, but with just the right enough of shimmer to make them pop.

Then I used the Silver Konad polish with their plate M64 and added a light design to the Social Ladder.

Once that was nice and dry I added a coat of Seche Vite to the top of it, I like to add a top coat to my nails when I'm doing a french tip or another stamp just in case I screw it up!  I like things that are idiot proof and trust me, most of the time I need it!

Anyway, I used the white Konad special polish with the Konad plate M19 to do the french tips.

From there I just dug through my plates to find anything with peace signs on them!  I stamped a fauxnad plate, M42, and the Bundle Monster plate, BM07, onto one nail on each hand with the black special Konad polish.

And there we have it!  I added another thick coat of Seche Vite and I was done!  I really liked the way they turned out, I thought the silver design gave the traditional french tips a little something special!