NYE mani- LA Girl Rock Star Addict

 

 

 

 

Please excuse the state of my cuticles! I did my own fill yesterday and got too aggressive with the file. Also, I did a quick clean-up just before taking pictures. I did a pretty good job as an amateur.

Mani started off with 1 coat Sally Hansen Rapid Red over Diamond Cosmetics Super Base.

See what real reds do to my hands? Yuck!

Anyway... 2 coats of LA Girl Rock Star, Addict over the red looked so much better!

1 coat SV

Played around with my Konad and Fauxnad with swatches of Addict on plastic, but ended up using multi-sized Holo dots I got from Michaels. Edit** These holo dots are flat stickers! I've used these before, and I love them! They look like faceted jewels because each dot is framed in gold, much like a jewel setting.

I used Orly angled tip guides to help with dot placement.

2 more coats of SV.

On my way to work now.

Happy New Year Readers!!!

Secret revealed~ Concept nailsssssssssssss!!!

Shedded snakeskin nails! How *awesome* is this? Click to make giant!

 

The Tuesday before Christmas, Mandy, one of my servers, gifted me this box of fantastic shedded snakeskins. She found them in a pile under the crawlspace of her house, and thought that I would like to "do something creative" with them.

According to my husband- these are sheds from a very large Pine Snake. While I'm not afraid of snakes per se, I certainly would not like to share my living space with them- even if it's outside and under the house.

Anyway, as soon as I saw these, I knew I'd be putting them on my nails. Looking at them up close- they are very, very cool, iridescent. I knew right away that I would be using a duochrome as the base...something just as cool and as exotic. Rimmel Zeitgeist was the first that came to mind. And although I played around with sampling other polishes like Nfu-Oh flakies and glitters, Zeitgeist won in the end.

So- I have one coat Zeitgeist over my old Love Bites, Purple Haze mani.

One coat Poshe, and while still wet, I applied the shed, pressing down firmly.

Once dry, I trimmed the skin to fit my nail.

3 coat of SV

Call me weird, but I LOVE this look! As I type, the free edges of the skins are coming up a bit (shrinkage?), so I don't think this mani will last very long. I am saving these sheds and will try again using glue to secure them to my nails instead of using a  topcoat. I am also toying around with the idea of removing my current acrylics and having a new set put on with these skins embedded in the tips.

Small Nfu-Oh haul & Frankening a Scrangie dupe

I was hoping that I'd get to the secret contents of that box I posted days ago and work on my concept nails. Unfortunately, my time was spent tackling a different project...Hanging a new bedroom door in an old, not square or level jam. Not an easy job- even for experienced carpenters...and I am not a carpenter.
While dh slept on the couch, (where he was safe from me), I hung the door, *and* it only took me 6 hours.
~It was quite fitting that as I was hammering the last finishing nail into the molding, the postman came with a package.
My Nfu-Ohs!!!

Before the postman was out of my driveway, I had my pinky swatched with #51. Picture taken after construction clean-up.

For the rest of the evening, I played around with pigments and glitter, taking a stab at duping Scrangie.
I need to work on it some more... Am I on the right track?  Don't forget- click on pics for largest size!

 

Surprise color!- Love Bites Purple Haze

Last night, I started to lay down the base colors for my concept nails. The plan was to apply Love Bites, Purple Haze and then layer Rimmel, Zeitgeist over top. Well...I never got to Zeitgeist...Purple Haze turned out to be so pretty, I wanted to enjoy it for a day before layering. I don't have anything like this in my collection. Purple Haze really glows lit metallic like nothing else!
My camera picked up the color well, but totally missed the glow part. Two coats Purple Haze, 1 coat SV.

Anyone need some funny? Classic Abbott and Costello

For all those who celebrate- I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

 

Me- I can't really say that it was bad- I have been "over" Christmas for years, and don't do it in the traditional sense.
This time of year is always hard for me, starting with my birthday on the 19th.
I started a detailed and candid  post earlier in the day that I thought I would finish and publish. I realized, just now, that it was too long, and really...who would understand and have patience to read thoughts that go nowhere?
I also ran out of steam, so to speak, after I watched my "I need to get out of this funk" YT clip above.

DC haul...Concept nail~ idea...

I was handed a very special gift on Monday. One of my Servers found something very cool, and thought to pass it on to me.
You should have seen how excited I was when I opened this box!!!...

I'm not going to show you what's in this box...I'm saving it as a surprise---whatever it is- it's going to be featured on my nails. I've already done a test drive and it's do-able.
Since the restaurant is closed on Christmas Day, I'll have time to work on this concept mani. I'm not sure if I will be patient enough to refrain from posting pictures when there isn't much Blog activity.
I would love to get lots of feedback on it...
hahaha...48, and still a child.

My Christmas mani

I've been loving all the awesome cuticle, glitter gradients that have been popping up lately, and thought I should do one  for my Christmas mani. Picking my base did not take long, and no- it's not Ruby Pumps or Emerald Sparkle.
I chose Orly, Iron Butterfly for the base and for my glitters- Cover Girl, City Lights (Micro Holo) and LA Girl Rock Star, Super Nova (Bar Holo). Not a typical holiday mani- I know! The "dark side" has been a part of my entire adult life, and no matter how many colors I have in my collection, and how much I love them, black is what I'm most comfortable with.
This would have turned out much better if I had layered City Lights over Supernova, which has a black jelly base canceled out a lot of the holo in CL.
Merry Christmas everyone!

OPI Tulsa Tootsie Roll-a

I believe this color is from 1997, and OPI got in some legal trouble over the Tootsie Roll  issue. If I'm wrong- someone please correct me- my memory is shot out.

Anyway, I think this is a beautiful color, and it does wonders for my skin-tone! Irl, there is a crimson glow deep within the color that my camera could not pick up. I found this at a local Dusty along with OPI Amarillo Almondine.

While opaque in 2 coats, this polish never really dried. 4 hours after the second coat, it was *still* tacky. I went to bed 6 hours after application (no top-coat), and when I woke up, there were sheet marks all over it.

I started some fauxnad stamping with plate H23, and mixed Konad SP in dark evergreen(?)  w/ CG Metallic Muse. I'm not crazy about how it turned out- not enough contrast. I should have used the much lighter Amarillo Almondine as the base.

That crush tag-

I've been meaning to do this since being tagged my evilangel.
These are in exact order...


Yul Brynner!                                                                             

Morticia Addams!

  Clint Eastwood!

Christopher Walken!

Barnabas Collins  as Barnabas (aka Jonathan Frid)

 David Bowie- <3 boys in make-up!                             

Blizzard nails

 

Matte-fied:

Painted and glittered the underside because my natural nails under the acrylics are not only jagged, they are severely stained as well. My old nail tech used to grind my natural nails almost to to the 
hyponychium. I had to twist my current nail techs arm really hard just to get her to clean up the underside. >:(

 

Sorry about the many photos. It was difficult to pick what pictures I wanted to post...and, it was hard to capture just how pretty Nina Ultra Pro Molten Opal, a white duochrome, was- especially when matte.
My nails look really thick too. I got to mixing and playing with some pigments, and rather than remove what I had layered over NUP, I just brushed on more polish.

Oh yea...I had some pretty, purple, sparkle, snowflake rub-ons planned for this mani, but seeing how there are so many great snowflake themed manis being posted, I thought I'd do something different.

Let's pretend that I didn't mess up this pretty mani with a couple of layers of pigments...
Details:
1 coat Essie, Looking For Love
2 coats Nina Ultra Pro, Molten Opal
1 coat Hard Candy, Break Up
Matte- Essie MAY