Friday, February 25, 2011

Layered fauxnad, Lemony Flutter alternative

Hi Kids!
I'm waiting for a Capacitor and other parts for my PC to arrive, so I'm still publishing from my laptop. It's a PIA having to take my laptop and power cord out of my briefcase every time I want to go online.

Anyway!...I can't believe I've had Sally Hansen Grey Area with a layer of CND Crimson Sparkle on my nails for over a week now!  Although Crimson Sparkle, with its soft tri-chrome sparkles, is my absolute favorite CND Effects, I always felt that it overpowered the color it was being layered over, especially darker colors. My CND Crimson Sparkle works much better for me diluted 1/4 CS to 3/4 clear.

My idea for this mani included layering and using several floral images from the new D series fauxnad plates. Shortly after getting my base images down, I got distracted by the tangled mess in my jewelry drawer which lead to a  DIY project to get all my jewelry untangled, organized and into new storage. (pictures of that at the end)

By the time I got back to my mani, my original "vision" and motivation to complete was lost. Instead of abandoning the whole thing, I added a few more iridescent colors, sparkles and stamped a single image, and called it a day.
I'm glad I went ahead with this fixerupper...the iridescent color flashes and sparkle were pretty enough to warrant another day of wear rather than just taking pictures and removing it all. I really thought I could capture the pretty with 1 or 2 pictures, but my camera had different ideas, focusing instead, on the black stamping. In reality, these black areas look less globular.
It's all good, though...this fixerupper gave me new inspiration for a future mani.
Finished mani:





















Remaining pictures are posted in order of  application:
Note the condition of my cuticles and hands in the first 3 pictures. Horrid dryness made much better in the last 3 pictures by a cheap alternative to Lemony Flutter !

































Enlarge the next pic for pretty...





































Here's the product that changed the condition of my cuticles and hands, literally overnight.
Heel To Toe Spa Pedicure Collection
$5.99 at Sally's will get you a 2oz tub.
Honestly, I like this much better than Lemony Flutter, and not just because it's readily available and cheaper.
HTT is not as oily feeling as LF...in fact, 15 minutes after application, you barely notice you have it on your hands. No need to wait until bedtime to apply it. I keep a small sample tub of this in my drawer at work. I have found that HTT protection lasts through several hand washings as well. Like LF, HTT contains the wet animal smelling Lanolin. While Lush tries to mask the smell with the opposing fragrance of Lemon, HTT does a much better job through the use of complimentary fragrance(s). Although not listed, my nose detects some pine and another wood/resin. HTT smells a bit like furniture polish/cleaner...maybe a bit like Murphy's Oil, but not in a bad way. It's not an overpowering odor, and it doesn't compete with cologne or perfume.
I originally purchased a sample pot to try on my feet, but never did. I ended up using it on my hands one evening because I was too lazy to get my Mango Mend from another room. Overnight, my hands went from being scaly dry (pics 2 & 3) to soft and supple.
Although Heel To Toe is meant for feet, I have no problem using it on my hands. It works well enough for me that I can say bye-bye to Lush and their overpriced Lemony Flutter!

































And...here's my jewelry DIY storage... No more tangles!!!
I attached a piece of pegboard to the back of my closet door to hang necklaces. I also salvaged the frame from a discarded art canvas, stretched and stapled black netting to it to hang my earrings. (my ears are gauged, but I always wear hanging earrings with my plugs) As you can see, my necklaces are currently hanging 3 and 4 on each hanger and there's no room on my earring board. Monday's project- since I have 2closet doors, the back of one will be for necklaces and the back of the other for earrings.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

scroll down, 2 jellies

Hi Kids!
My *almost new* Dell PC died a couple of days ago. I'm posting from the crummy laptop that I use as a wp just for work.  I don't how some of you publish from laptops. I find it super inconvenient, uncomfortable and I can't control the screwball mouse pad. I miss my big screen, my comfy leather chair, cordless mouse, and above all- decent speakers to listen to my music while publishing and surfing the Web.
Here's hoping that my dh figured out the problem and that the Capacitors I'm going to pick-up from Radio Shack will get us back up.

Actually, this has been a week of Hell. I've had to deal with irate employees (my dd included)...One of them failed to tell me that her apartment has been infested with Bedbugs for months.... Problem is...They all share a communal box for coats and other personal belongings. I pray she wasn't a carrier for stowaways.

To cap off my WOH, I contracted a Staph infection in my palm. Damn dirty public with their nasty, dirty hands! I can't tell you how mortified I am with the state of people's hands...I see it all. What's most disturbing to me- the amount of people, men and women, walking around with thick, deformed, yellow fingernails- nail fungus. Also, I've noticed that only half of the women I come in contact with wash their hands after using the restroom. Another thing... why is it that people, mostly men, always blow their nose right before they give me money?
I can't believe that in our time- the age of information- people still do this, and they think it's ok.
My hands are in a state of constant dryness due to all the hand washing I do and through the use of antibacterial gel. Even after being diligent in regards to keeping my hands clean, I still got a Staph infection. What's worse, it's in an inconvenient spot, on my palm, just below my middle finger. 

~Sigh~ At least my nails look good. Essie Fishnet Stockings...a gorgeous red jelly to make me feel better.
Geez...It ain't over...Just went to upload my pictures and received the message that my (very convenient) Picassa acct is full. I guess I'll have to upload to Photobucket.




















































Bonus pictures of another jelly I wore as a NOTD. Ruby Kisses Fuzzy Naval....the most squishiest and juiciest jelly I have in my collection!
















Monday, February 14, 2011

Review, Chez-Delaney D series plates

Hi Kids!
Right off the bat, I'm letting it be known that I've only fooled around with about 30% of the images from the D series fauxnad plates. I purchased them as a 30 plate bundle from Chez-Delaney. While shipping was super fast, some of my plates, including the XL "C" were slightly damaged by way of small dings. I don't think the damages happened in transit. They look to be manufacturing defects, quality control issues, and improper storage. These fauxnad plates are easily damaged due to the inferior metal stock used to make the plates. Many of my other fauxnad plates have similar damage. I never reported this to Chez-Delaney, so I can't give feedback on how she handles such issues. What I can say...twice I received plates that were stamped way off center, and duplicate plates were included, that although not perfect, were better.
I repaired all the damaged plates myself. I'm a corset maker, so I understand metals and have many tools in my arsenal to take care of stuff like this.

The D series fauxnad are available for 50 Euros ($68.44 USD) as a whole bundled collection of 30 plates.
Due to some images not stamping well or at all, Chez-Delaney discounted the price and is selling them as a set.
They are not sold separately!
This was good news for me...I figured I was going to get the entire set for the price of whatever plates I was going to cherry pick.
As for images not stamping at all, there really weren't that many. The biggest problem with some of the images I tried were incomplete/partial stamps.

Disclaimer...If you've been following my Blog for a while, you'll know that I do things differently. I don't stamp 1 or 2 images and call it a day. Although a little bothersome, partial stamps aren't a big deal to me.
Honestly, finicky/tricky images in the D series fauxnad plates make up only a small percentage- much less than the very challenging T series fauxnad plates. Seriously, sometimes all it takes to get a troublesome image to work is to experiment with different stamping polishes. Then again, I don't play by the rules where choice of stamping polish is limited to those that are labeled for stamping. I make most of my own stamping polishes now, and am always experimenting with regular manicure lacquers. Did you know that some jellies make excellent stamping polishes? Sometimes the only way to get an image to stamp is to use a jelly. Other times you may have to add thinner to a stamping polish, and in some cases the addition of clear to a polish is needed to make certain images to work.

So, before this post becomes a tip post (coming soon)...
The images in the D series fauxnad plates were well thought out- there is something for everyone. You're not getting the same old run of the mill images that look like something else you have on another plate. I think all of the images are outstanding. The assortment of flowers is amazing, as are the fleur de lis, emblems, scrolly and leafy thingies. There are a fair amount of images on these plates that I'm sure are a no-no...illegal... Mickey Mouse, Tweety Bird, Tinkerbell, to name a few, also stamp well.( I should add that I had to thin my black a bit for Tink to stamp fully.)
I have to laugh...the stamp I've used most, the circle on plate D30 is supposed to be one of the "fail" images.
For the last couple of weeks, I've been wondering why that circle has an off center dot. For this post, I went back to the Chez-Delaney site, only to find out that while it's supposed to be Winnie-the-Pooh in a circular frame, the only part of Pooh that made his way in that circle was his nose.

Anyway- I absolutely LOVE my D series fauxnad collection! As far as I am concerned, if I was only able to have 1 set of nail stamping plates, this series would be it, faults and all. Truly, this bargain priced set has all the right stuff!
If you are the type of person who plays by the rules and expects all the images to stamp perfectly with polishes made specifically for stamping, this set is probably not for you.























My plate below- no Pooh face...just the dot of his nose. This manufacturing fail works great for me. You'll see this circle image in a lot of my stampings.

















Oh yes...I can't forget to mention the extra large, double end stamper also offered by Chez-Delaney, made specifically (I believe) for the XL plates.
Since I got this, I have not touched my Konad double ended stamper. I love this stamper as much as I hate it. The gummy heads pick up images like no ones business, however they also pick up things like hair, lint and anything else that gets within an inch of it- including the very plate you're taking the image from!. Cleaning between stamps is a nightmare if you use cotton balls. I'm going to try using one of those yellow, small cell kitchen sponges soon.
Another issue with this stamper- The material used to make the heads is squishy by nature. Care must be taken with how you apply images to your nails. "Rolling" and any type of firm pressure will lead to distorted stampings. What works best for me is gentle pressure with no rolling.


































Please remember, this is a preliminary review of the D series fauxnad plates. I'll surely post another review in the future as I get to work with more images.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Many layered fauxnad, snakeskin!

Hi Kids!
Oh my gosh- I'm so behind with everything! My boss infected me with the flu twice in the last two weeks. He's sick again, and this morning, my nose started running. Gah!

Anyway, I've been playing around with my new Chez Delaney fauxnad plates, and came by my finished design by stamping the full (haha,yea right) nail image from plate D17 multiple times. Base was China Glaze FYI, stamped over with several glitter jellies, a shimmer and a couple of holos. I topped it all off with CND Jade Sparkle, an un-named mini with glitter and Seche.

You'll have to click on the pictures to see all the glitter in this design...it's so pretty! This is seriously the most photogenic mani I've ever had...every picture was a winner.