Another A-England beauty; Her Rose Adagio

This was supposed to be a tribute post of sorts, so I chose these polishes and the design with that in mind.  Said tribute post did not really work out, however I do declare the mani still deserves its moment in the sun!  :)  

And crazily enough, I just looked back at my first post; it happened to be on April 15th, 2013. So I guess that means today is my one-year blogiversary!  Haha!  Don't know how that one escaped me... I'll have to do an official post on that tonight!

Shade, indoors

Personally I was hoping that Her Rose Adagio really would be as peachy pink as some of the initial pics I saw of it made it appear, but to me it is a very  soft, pale pink with just a hint of peach.  And I love it as it is!!  A-Englands are just far too mesmerizing and ephemeral not to love!   Unfortunately I cannot tell you how many coats I used here because this mani is about a month old. :-/  Bad me, I know!  I believe it was opaque in 2, but I went for 3 to see if that would intensify the color. Fairly certain I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure topcoat (and my standard Duri Rejuvacote for a base...'cuz it makes muh nailzz GROW!!).

Indirect sunlight, indoors

No, I did not freehand the chevrons... I recently bought a set of Fingr's nail art tools/brushes at Wal-Mart and it had a sheet of chevrons, french tips, and straight lines, but they're about double the width I wanted them to be, so I took a cosmetic scissors and cut them in half both ways.  Then I made them slightly less sticky by putting them on my palm a few times. Careful positioning and a thickish coat of Home Run!, and VOILA!! Lovely chevrons.

LED flashlight on my phone :)  It brings out dee holo!!!

I am not as happy with these photos as I would like to be, but I still think the overall effect is quite pretty.  I hope you can forgive the imperfections, oddities, and some shoddy cuticles (daaarn warehouse!) and enjoy a bit o' beauty!!!  It might be elusive this time of year (we are having a muddy, chilly, dismal "spring" that feels like winter), but I still see plenty of beauty in the smiles and laughter of my friends, the occasional blue sky, and of course; MY STASH!  :D  hehe
Try to find some beauty today, and help someone else to find it too. :)

Challenge #9: Match OOTD

Most of you probably already know this, but at first sight, I had to ask myself a few times: "match [OOH-tid]? What the heck is an oohtid?"  Google to the rescue!  OOTD = outfit of the day.  Well, this fell on the 25th - yeah, yeah, I'm not very good at meeting these deadline days - which obviously was a Saturday.  I typically don't even make it out of my pajamas most Saturdays!  BUT yesterday was a rare exception because I had to go into work for 4 hours of training.  So if I had  to go to work, I was going as casual as possible: jeans and a warm, comfy sweatshirt.

Fig. 1:  My Under Armor sweatshirt :)

Ahhh the never-ending complaint of polish bloggers: NEONS DON'T PHOTOGRAPH CORRECTLY!  This is actually a light neon peach, not orange. -_-  The neon fuchsia thread is pretty close though.  

Ok, so before I show you the resulting mani, I will warn you that super macro is SO not kind to detailed work with tiny brushes. :(  And getting an evenly symmetrical UA symbol is well, I'm going to say impossible.  For this medium anyway.  

I used Pure Ice Kiss Me Here for the base color, then took my L.A. Colors white striper to "sketch" the logo, and outlined it first with Sinful Colors Dream On (my very first SC purchase a couple summers ago), then filled it in with a Wet Seal neon peach polish that does not have a name.  I used cheapo brushes from a cheapo megapack I got at Wal-Mart for $4.77, baby!  Some of them actually work pretty darn well, I must say.  But ANYthing looks awful at the mercies of super macro + XL photo size. :-/  So I'm sorry for the assault on your retinas!

Oh, and I finished it off with NYC Matte Me Crazy because blue jeans and sweatshirts are not shiny. ;)  In case you hadn't noticed.

Fig. 2: My horrid recreation of said sweatshirt

I suppose this could be considered "indecent exposure" and I should be jailed for my indiscretions.

Ufff.  This kinda makes me shudder!  And WHY does China Glaze First Mate photograph much lighter than what I'm seeing on my nails right now?!  Sooo frustrating.  But hey, I gave it an honest try, and I think that's what counts!!  Not backing down from the challenge.  Which leads me to explain why Challenge #8 is mysteriously missing... it's supposed to be "Studs" and I do not own any because I don't like them.  There, I said it.  I don't.  I think they just look weird, and I'm not a huge fan of stuff sticking off my nails.  Except for tiny rhinestones... they're cool as an accent.  So I WILL do something for this "Studs" challenge... I just need to get creative! :)

Challenge #6: GRAYdient (aka FAIL!)

When I saw "gradient" was one of the inspirations for this challenge, I cogitated for awhile, mentally pouring over all the different creme options I had, or maybe even a holo gradient, but I kinda already did that this past summer... And then KABOOM!, outta the blue, I knew exactly what I should do: a GRAYdient!!!!!!!  Puns and plays on words are totally my thang, so don't that just beat all! :D  LOL

I laid down two perfect, smooth, shiny coats of Cult Nails Tempest.  Seriously, I was rubbing my nails ALL DAY.  Now that I've used it for a full mani, I would recommend it as the  ultimate white creme. PERFECTION!

And then I grabbed my grays; note that the night before I did this, a perusal of Wal-Mart's beauty aisle endcaps rewarded me Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here, which I'd been looking for since I saw it on my friend Essie's blog last spring!  Who woulda thought that a Pure Ice polish would be so stinkin' hard to find?!  Well it was, and it also happened to be the perfect gray to complete the GRAYdient!  'Twas meant to be!

Or NOT.  Uhhhh...NOPE.  Just no. :(  THIS LOOKS AWFUL!

Why did mine look more like color bands than a smooth, melty blend?! And patchy and ugggh... Well, for some reason I thought you were supposed to take a tiny piece of sponge and sponge on the colors one at a time.
After some research & consulting experienced nail art blogs, I discovered you're supposed to use a wedge makeup sponge & paint all the colors on in strips and use it rather like one big foamy stamp! DUH.  Oh well, I am now "in the know" for the next time I attempt a gradient.  But for now, I'm going to chalk this up as a learning experience and move on to the next mani!

BUT first... 

after that horror, I will give you a nice gray to feast your eyes on:

GRAY HOLO!!!  :D  This is Hit Polish Pewter Goblet.  Not a strong linear holo, but very purty nonetheless, and it satisfied my desire for Too Fancy Lacquer's Silent Night at a much  lower price!  Unfortunately, Hit Polish closed up shop as of a couple weeks ago due to a new business venture for her & her hubby.

This is one coat Pewter Goblet over two coats Kiss Me Here.  PG is a tad sheer on its own, and KMH really is the PERFECT MATCH to go under it.  Polish serendipity, I tell ya!  These photos are without topcoat - it's just that shiny. :)  PG actually felt a bit thick and gloopy to me, but a thin-medium coat was perfect, dried fairly quickly, and obviously, produces a nice holo effect.  

And I happened to be wearing a gray sweatshirt, so hey, why not do a good ol' Essie "sweater shot?!" :D  Except I'm clearly not her, so it didn't really turn out... I'm blaming it in part on the fact that I was operating the camera with my non-dominant hand! lol

I concur: Alcatraz...Rocks!

Good evening!  Brr, it's gettin' cold in here, so put on lots more clothes! :P  ...yet another frigid fall evening here in Minnesota...  I really hope that perhaps some of you are lucky enough to live in places that aren't the closest thing to another ice age! ;)
Okay, it's not quite that  bad at the moment, but come January I can assure you I'll be yelling on a daily basis (as I clean a mountain of snow off my car for the millionth time): "Why on earth do I live here?!?!"

So I think that besides the ever-plummeting temperature (and the fact that I watched The Day After Tomorrow  over the weekend), this mani has me thinking about snow and ice.  See what I mean?

I hate winter, but I LOVE this!! :D  I do have to admit however, that I got the idea from Polished Elegance.  Her post confirmed that I needed Alcatraz...Rocks.  It really is a gorgeous texture polish with soooo many pretty sparkles!  Here's AR "naked":

The base has more purple in it than is showing up here, for some odd reason.  I used two coats, no base and of course, no top coat.  Although I really did want to try some over this polish because I've seen a lot of people show the other side of a texture polish once it's transformed by a glossy top coat. :)  

Compared to my Zoya & Julie G textures (and even OPI Jinx), I must say AR did not wear quite as well (4 days vs. 7 or so) before I got some noticeable tip wear and a couple decent sized chips.  Maybe next time I'll use some Orly Bonder under it.

Dry time was average, maybe 7ish minutes for it to get completely textured.  GAH those sparkles get me every time!  They're by no means holo, but oh so purty!

After wearing nakey AR for a couple days, I knew I had to try the stamping thang over it, so I busted out my Pure Ice Silver Mercedes and Bundle Monster plate 214.  Although I really like the full-size image that Polished Elegance used, this design is one of my favorites from the set I have, and it's got a similar aesthetic.  

Several of my blogger buddies have insisted lately that they could never do stamping, so I also wanted to add this to show how pretty and easy it is!  Seriously took me 10 minutes, start to finish to do both hands.  I wish I could say I have a tutorial video to show you the process, but I have never tried making one and wasn't about to start at 12:30 in the morning!  So you'll hafta settle for watching this one; the video that sparked my addiction to all things nail related. ;)  For reals!

Oy, speaking of 12:30 am, it's nearly that time again so I really need to get to bed before my under-eye craters get any deeper & darker - if that's possible! :-/  For everyone's sake, I sure hope not! :P

I leave you with a parting shot:

Have fun, be merry, and stamp like your life depends on it!!

OPI Malaga W(h)iiiiiine

As per Melissa's (of Lacquer Reverie) request, I did a full mani of Malaga Wine yesterday evening.  It is a luscious - dare I say seductive? - shade of burgundy red that looks much brighter in sunlight.  It dries to a pretty high shine on its own but I still topped it off with Seche Vite because apparently I love me some tip shrinkage.
Mmm, just can't get enough of it!

Fluorescent lighting in my cube at work . . . makes it look almost
chocolatey brown.  Weird.  It is very dark like this when not in sunlight.
(just not really this color)

Dry time is decent, and it's almost a one coater IMO, but I did two just to get a deeper, richer color.  Formula-wise, it's quite liquidy, so careful around the cutes, because of course it stains like CRAZY.  Hence why my fingers kinda look bloody in these photos . . . it is SO hard to do even the tiniest bit of cleanup because inevitably, the remover will touch a spot on the nail near your cuticle & eat away the polish so the edge looks all choppy.  Maybe this is why I only have two reds in my stash!  I do like the brush . . . I'm guessing it is the standard OPI brush (not sure if it's the Pro-wide?), but it has a good "bend & snap," that somehow makes painting with it feel nice & smooth.  Now why didn't I take a photo of the brush?!  Darn.

Eeek!  Look at that deplorable tip shrinkage!
I'm shrinking back from the screen in HORROR.

After taking some shots of just Malaga Wine by itself, I decided to do some stamping since I haven't for quite some time and my plates were feeling neglected.  Poor plates. :-(

I used Pure Ice Silver Mercedes (NOT Mercades, like the darn shelf said at WM!) and Bundle Monster plate 201.  If you've never tried stamping before, it does take a bit of trial & error to get the hang of it and to discover what polishes work (if you don't shell out for the Konad special polishes - I only have the white).  But you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly & it allows for some seriously awesome nail art!  My roommate asked me if I did this by hand. LOL!!!!!!!

Pretty accurate color shot, and not too shabby for featuring my right hand!

You can purchase sets of Bundle Monster plates here.  They are really very reasonable (I think I paid $19.99 + free shipping for my set) as compared to around $6 a plate for Konad, the original stamping plate brand.  There are LOTS of other plate makers now: Red Angel, Shany, Cheeky, Mash, Gals . . . etc.  Ebay and Amazon are good places to get the other brands, or individual Konad plates.

Konad is obviously going to be higher quality (the impressions are usually deeper, thus giving a crisper image), but my Bundle Monster set does a pretty darn good job!  My sister got a Red Angel set for Christmas, and hers look about the same quality as mine - and there are really awesome designs in her set. 

One last parting image:

Drinking limonada in León (Spain) last year during Holy Week.
Limonada is a regional drink made with wine and some really sweet lemony stuff. :-P

 Ok, two images!

I guess this is technically water from the Bay of Biscay, north of Spain.
My friend was living in the city of Gijón (Asturias) when I visited her last year.
We took a quick bayside walk just before hopping on the bus to get me back to the airport.

I LOVE to travel!!!!  And I love SPAIN!!!!  ¡Viva España! :-D  

Do you have a favorite travel destination?