Stress stifling creativity/swatch- Nicole, I Stop For Nicole

Hi Kids*
Another post without nail art...
I've been under a tremendous amount of (job) stress this past week I'm very frustrated, disappointed and sad that I haven't been able to "get it together" and have something to show you.
I'm far from running out of ideas and inspiration...in fact, I have too many! The problem is- stress is invading my "creative space", making me very unfocused, indecisive and restless.

Anyway, this post is not without picture content- albeit a "rode hard and put away wet" mani-
Friday night, my Milani Neon, Pink Rocks! mani was ruined by the cash register change drawer. Instead of removing it, I swatched Nicole, I Stop For Nicole right over it. I was hoping to get up early enough on Saturday to stamp some Asian inspired fauxnad/Konad. ::sigh:: my job, I never get to leave it. Going to bed at 3:30am and getting up at 6:30am is my norm, however, one of my servers went alcoholic psycho, drunk calling and texting me in those 3 hours. The drama just wiped me out.

It's not very difficult for me to "buck-up" and I figured that I'd get to fauxnading tonight. Haha! I Stop For Nicole got ruined with my pants zipper...how nice! Nothing to do but laugh, really.
It's pretty beat up...
3 photos in my lightbox- not color accurate!

ISFN is a vivid, rosey red/punch sheer with glass flecks that reflect punch and gold. In low light, it looks highly metallic. Next pic was an accidental shot. I was adjusting my lighting and my finger slipped.

These are under my mani station light and are color accurate, although the intensity of this color got washed out.

Monday is my day off...stay tuned for pictures of my Giveaway!

Milani Neon, Pink Rocks!

Hi Kids!
I'm still working on my Lightbox...I can't rest until I have it "working". I need more bulbs and a way to anchor the fixtures.
In the meantime, I've been playing around with  a Fresnel screen my son pirated from a projection TV he found in someone's trash. I think I can somehow use it with my lightbox...I wish I was more knowledgeable when it comes to this stuff. Although not color accurate, not in focus and not arranged properly, and lighted wrong, check out what the Fresnel does to my sequined backdrop in the last photo. With some fiddling around, I think I can get my background to look like The Northern Lights. Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, here it is, Milani Neon, Pink Rocks! Not neon in the least, this polish is a jelly, and in real life it's the color of a glass of Hawaiian Punch. It certainly is not as red as my pictures bring out, however, I wouldn't call it pink either. I've photographed it with a bottle of Freshcover, Pinky Lacquer (multi, iridescent glitter in a clear punch colored base).
I'll be wearing this to work tonight, sans art. Hopefully, I'll get an idea on what to stamp on this color after I "live" with it for a while.
This is pre-clean-up, no top coat, no lotion on my dry hands.

"quickie" testing lightbox

Hi Kids!
I just spent the last couple of days making a lightbox. Go figure- Sun's out today, and I'm taking pictures in a box.
Anyway, this mani is a real "quickie, using Color Club, Wild At Heart as my base color, a nail decal, some contrasting color fauxnad stamping with a franken, and Milani, 3D Hi-Tech dots. I also tested Sally Hansen Insta-Dri topcoat on my pinky...what a fail. Totally smudged my stamp.

Looks like I need to work on getting better bulbs and changing my lighting placement. This is all new to me, so please forgive the less than ok pictures.

I have a camera tri-pod, but I can't seem to place that right, fit it all in the opening of the box and get my hand in there without resorting to gymnastics.

If all goes well tonight, I'll be photographing all the goodies I have for my massive Giveaway!!!

Orly, Snowcone- sweet fauxnad

Hi Kids!
The last 2 days have been beautiful, in Southern NJ...sunny with temperatures in the 40s!
Time for some happy colors, yes?
How about Orly, Snowcone from the Sweet Collection- summer 2010?
Add some pink and neon violet fauxnad, pink and blue nail stickers, AB rhinestones, and you have a mani that could almost be called sickening sweet...if it wasn't so pretty.
Click any of these to make them bigger;

2 coats Orly, Snowcone
fauxnad plate H21
stamped with Konad Princess sp polish in Psyche Pink and Color Club striper in Neon Violet
Nail stickers...threw out packaging months ago, so no clue on what brand
Crystal AB rhinestones from Michael's
2 coats Seche

The only polish I wanted from this collection was Pixy Stix. Once I saw Snowcone (along with Lemonade), in person at Sally's, I had to have them!
This mani would have looked so much nicer if I hadn't run out of pink flower stickers.

Anyway, I have 2 more doubles to get through at work, and I get my day off!
I'll be able to do a mani that's more involved then.
I'm also hoping to get to making my light-box, so I can photograph my giveaway items better.

No willpower

Hi Kids! I hope the day finds everyone well.
The start of my day was a disaster. :(
After going to the restaurant to pick up my paycheck, I stopped by Sally's for some much needed supplies...Liquid Bonder, Bonding Powder, boards and blocks.
To get a grip on my spending, I've been on a low-buy. Yesterday I ran into Kmart to get my son oil for his truck and walked out with these;

Several days ago, I picked up a back-up of Rad Purple, 2 Milani holos, the entire line of Love My Nails, Chromes (for fauxnading), 2 Maybelines (pink hearts, red hearts), a Nicole, several new Pure Ice...and just before that haul- the one I posted in my Blog.

And today, I got everything on my supply list above and these;

It could have been worse...I initially had the entire Orly Sweet, Orly Metal Chic, and ChG, Up & Away collections in my basket.
I can try to make myself feel better by saying that at least had *some* discipline today...I put back all the polishes I wasn't *absolutely* crazy about. But that does not fix the fact that I'm not supposed to be buying like this.
I've been wanting to set aside some $ so Thriszha from Fab Ur Nails and I can get some fauxnad plates. I feel just terrible that I can't seem to curb my spending.

On my day off, I had to re-arrange my nail station for expansion;

Pathetic.

Fauxnad quickie ~ Love Bites #069

Hi Kids!
Thank you all for saying such nice things in my last post, marble fail!
I reluctantly wore that fail to bed, and did not waste a second in removing it the following morning.

The hardest part of doing a mani, for myself, is picking a base color. The more nail polish I acquire- the harder it gets...too many choices! Anyway, I narrowed it down to untried, quick dry polishes. I almost went with YDKJ Suede, but changed my mind when I heard we were going to have a partly sunny day in the 40s. I wanted color!!!
So I turned to my bucket of swatches- most of which, are 2 coats on assorted press-on nails, and some on plastic cards. My swatches are nothing like some of the ones I've seen on the MUA NB...nails attached to labeled popsicle sticks. Too much work for me~ besides, I love rooting through my collection of nails and cards.

I chose the first nail that caught my attention - Love Bites #069- a bright, pink pastel, pearl satin.
After applying 3 coats, it had that awesome "lit within" quality, typically associated with shimmers. This color is, without a doubt, super unique to me, and deserves a description, in addition to pictures.
The last polish I went nuts over was Bleach Black, Dickweed!

The chalky/whited properties of a pastel comes to mind on first impression of Love Bites #069. The bottle color is very deceiving. The pearl shimmer could easily be mistaken for a frost.
Anyway, first coat went on in thick streaks, so I added 13 drops of thinner. As with the other 3 Love Bites polishes I have, this bottle had no ballz, so I dropped in 3. #069 dries super fast like a matte, so you have to work quickly and accurately, being very careful to avoid overbrushing. The second coat smoothed the color enough to be finished, however, the addition of a third coat, really brings out depth, pearly shimmer and a hot glow to the edges of the nail. I classify this as a neutral pink...natural light brings out cool tones, and incandescent light brings out the warm.
Very cool and unexpectedly unique, I <3 this color!!! Click for ginormous size.

Here's a bottle comparison Claire's (new) pastel pink and Love Bites #69. As you can see from the (intentional) dribble on the LB bottle, polish dries to a satin finish. 

Color accurate under incandescent light.
















Sunlight

I flew through the stamping on this mani yesterday...like I said,  a "quickie", meant to replace my marbling fail.
I wish I had been neater and more accurate with placement and execution, or waited until today to fauxnad over this. I have favorites going on here...the pink and black combination and Love Bites #069. I really should have waited...such a straight-up, simple fauxnad is a piece of cake, yet in my zeal to have art on my nails quickly I rushed. I'm not satisfied with this amateurish result.
Plates used- essence stampy, Konad M8 & M21.
Color Club, Where's The Soiree? to stamp
1 coat Seche.
 I purchased Love Bites #069, on clearance for $1.99, just before Christmas, at Rue 21. 

Marbling fail

Hi Kids!
While I'm not thrilled to be posting a failed mani, I miss posting and interacting with my Readers and fellow Bloggers! The last 5 days have been miserable. I've had 4 nail art fails and 1 straight-up mani fail. :(
With nothing on the agenda today (my day off), I decided that a fill would help me wipe the slate clean of those failed manis.

That done, I revisited Thursdays plan- Sinful Colors, Green Ocean over my navy, jelly franken. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough of the franken for a complete mani, and had to use a different, but similar, base color-
Quirius, Paris Night.
I ended up decanting Paris Night into one of the new Sally Hansen bottles after doing just 2 nails. The Quirius brush totally sucks. I also ditched Green Ocean and the fauxnad plates I had picked out for this mani, and decided to give marbling another try. My inspiration was Malachite!
Surprise, surprise- it turned out great. Confident at last with marbling, I filled more cups with water, for a "double" marble. I wanted to add some lighter greens.
Mistake!

Ugliest marbling ever! Ironically, this mani looks much worse than what my pictures show...lol!

I should have stopped after the first round iof marbling. Sample nail...