NOTW(eekend) Milani Holographic Hi-Res

Hi Kids!
I hope everyone had a nice weekend!
My weekend was crazy busy at the Restaurant...actually, I'm being too nice with that statement. Working in the Service Industry sucks. I cannot get over just how rude people can be.  My weekend was really a nightmare, and from here on, so will the rest of them until mid September.

On Friday, I had to stay at the restaurant until the wee hours of the morning for a scheduled ventilation/hood cleaning. I brought everything I needed to change my mani, and chose to wear Milani 3D Holographic, Hi-Res.
When I do my manis at home, I usually rush through it. Some kind household thing is always calling for attention- usually my husband. Anyway, I had no distractions Friday night, so my mani turned out virtually clean-up free.

I love the way this holo looks! It's very pretty and really different from the other holos in my collection. It's almost as if the holo particles were misted onto the surface of my nails. In fact, several people thought that I had done just that, and were compelled to touch them.
I didn't have time for art-stuff on this mani, however, I may get to some when I change this later in the day. I was thinking about using the other 2 Milani Holos together for my next one, but I'm not sure. Pink is also calling out to me.

Asian Garden- multi layerd fauxnad

Hi Kids!
I am ecstatic that so many of my new Followers are still  here post Giveaway! Thank you for taking an interest in my Blog! As you probably have noticed, I don't really do swatches, comparisons and reviews of collections, aside from the polish I've chosen for the base of my Konad/fauxnad/nail art. This Blog is my creative outlet...actually, it's the *only* creative outlet I have these days, so it's going to reflect a lot of BIG ideas. And because nails are such a tiny canvas to work on you will be seeing just about too much of anything I can put on them! All that said, whatever nail art I post here is just that art. I'm not making any fashion statements here.

Those of you who won a haul will have to sit tight and be patient. The unexpected expense of having to purchase my Blood Pressure medicine because my doctor did not have samples put me into the poorhouse. My doctor does this as a courtesy to me as I don't have any insurance. In the 5 years that I've been on BP meds, I've never had to lay out money for a prescription. I know I'm getting way off track here, but, GEEZ! The cost of a full price script of my BP meds *MADE* my blood pressure skyrocket! I'm still in shock and angry. I feel like I've been scammed and taken advantage of...mind, I filled my script at Walmart too! I know I need to let this "go"...before the summer is over, I will be married and insured. But, I can't help but be bothered by this. 
Anyway, I think I counted 104 bottles of polish to be mailed. I don't have address specs yet, but I am estimating shipping will be probably average out to $1.00 per bottle. Please be patient!

Onward~>

Tons of pictures. All are clickable for the ginormous version.
I need to get ready for work...specs will be added in later.

***3-4 coats L.A. Colors, Pink Sizzle. See prior post for more information on this polish.
***Orly French Tip Guides applied to the tips to mask off are from a full nail fauxnad stamp
***full nail stamp fauxnad #H20, center image (one of my favorites) stamped w/Franken(?) from prior post
***Tip guides peeled off, I applied Sinful Colors, Green Ocean(a flakie) to my tips & layered Claire's glitter in Diva over that.
Since my plan changed at this point, the whole tip thing became overkill...I could have sponged the color on.
***From here on, I basically "winged" it. Seems quick and easy? Not really. Over the course of 2 days, I practiced and played stamping tons of images over a swatched piece of plastic. At this point, I had a hazy idea on what I wanted, and about 6 colors and 6 stamping plates set aside for this "project".
***fauxnad plates H14 (leaves), & H25(2 coordinating flowers) stamped over the french tip seam and sidewall in Konad royal blue(?name is not correct & this is a semi-franken)
***Bamboo, butterfly and water lily images, Konad plate M66 stamped w/Sally Hansen Gold Chrome
***At this point, I knew I needed "something else". I tried stamping white flowers on my swatch plastic, tried some freehand flowers w/an art pen, rhinestones...nothing looked right until I found a set of nail decals with white flowers.
These white flowers "make" this art work. Bold, but simple, the application of these white decals "push" all the prior stamping into the background. Pictures 6-9 are accurate examples of what this mani looks like irl. The flowers are the focal point, followed by the bamboo, and everything else just becomes "color".
***Purple, oblong rhinestone jewels for the butterfly bodies
***Mani topped off with 1 coat Seche Vite
I LOVE doing layered stamping like this!

L.A. Colors, Pink Sizzle- awesome color!!!

Hi Kids!
L.A. Colors, Pink Sizzle is a gorgeous, soft, duochrome. This color is formulated a lot like my beloved Bleach Black, Dickweed, and is the type of polish that pushes all my buttons.
Pink Sizzle is a berry shimmer that flashes copper- but more. The shimmer is suspended in a hazy purple base, similar in shade to, but not as pigmented as,  Milani, Totally Cool. This color is nothing short of stunning, and would so be in my Top 20, were it not for the extremely thin formula and narrow, stumpy brush. I think I paid $1.49 for this polish- cheap enough for an experiment with a decap to see if evaporation will help thicken the formula.

Anyway, as you can tell, I Love this color! In real life, the purple base translates to having an obvious  purple haze around the edges of the nail. Both the purple haze and berry shimmer are cool toned, -the copper flash, however, is warm.

Pink Sizzle has been hanging around my mani desk, patiently waiting for the perfect purple stamping color. While looking for a bottle to empty for another go at franken-stampen purple, I came across a set of 3 colors I hauled last year. In that set was one of those tri color polishes meant to look like marbling. Out of curiosity, before I dumped it all out, I added 3 ballz and shook it. The resulting color was a neon, red purple- like China Glaze Flying Dragon but a bit redder. Thinking that this new color could be a keeper, not a dumper, I swatched it on plastic and noted the superior pigmentation.  A few fauxnad test stamps over swatch nails, Pink Sizzle included,-and  I knew I found my perfect stamping purple!

All pictures pre-clean up (why bother when I have stamping to do?)
Just look at this glorious color!!!

Here's a sample stamp over Nina Ultra Pro, Mermaid;
fauxnad #B22

I can't wait to get stamping...unfortunately, I was called into work early :(

On another note...I'm really freaked out by the obvious twisting of my fingers- my pinky being the worst. Let me explain...
My paternal grandmother suffered from extreme arthritis. By the time she was 60 years old, her hands were monstrosities. I'm sure there is a proper, medical term for her condition. Gnarled fingers, huge joints, each segment twisted- some at opposing angles. They were very debilitating and way beyond hideous.
I have arthritic pain and ache, and I can see the visible start of that same condition. I cannot close my hand without fingers overlapping either.
:'(

Konad Flower Power

Hi Kids!
Tis the season for pastels...everyone is doing them! They're really not my cuppa tea, but I did pick up a few- Claire's Pastel set, Orly Lemonade & Pixy Stix, Maybelline Pie In The Sky & Goody Plum Drop, and Love Bites #050.

Since you've seen most of the popular ones swatched already, I used Love Bites 050, an orchid with a pearl sheen for my mani base color. It's very pretty- totally reminds me of Rhododendrons.
All pictures taken outside;

The sun ate the pretty pearl shimmer. You can just make out a hint of it in this next picture;

Shade-

I did this konadicure about an hour before I left for work this morning, so I did not have time to clean up the Seche that pooled at my cuticles and sidewalls.

I used 2 coats LB 050, broke out Konad plates M26 & M51, and stamped with Color Club, Where's The Soiree?. Flower petals were filled in using a dotting tool with the following pastels from Claire's set; pink, blue, green, coral, Orly, Lemonade and Sally Hansen nail art pen in white. I must have added too much thinner to my Seche, because it smudged CC WTS on my ring finger. I re-stamped a flower over the smudge and made a mess. which looks worse on Macro than in real life.

Presenting, 8 Giveaway Winners!!!

Hi Kids!
Thank you all for taking time to read my Blog! It's been very interesting reading which of my manis you like most. You can bet on me keeping the most popular style choices in mind for future nail art.

Anyway- with all the options out there for drawing contest winners, I decided that a good, old-fashioned, physically pull-names-out-of-a-hat drawing would be fun!

To make it special, I came up with the themed setting above, from things I had around my house. Weird...After the drawings, and while editing  pictures, I noticed something very bizarre in regards to the items I chose to set this theme.
Without ever having previous exposure/knowledge, every prop used in my light-box points to an ancient civilization called The Olmec. Let's focus on the giant head, the turtle shell helmet on the domestic cat skull, the center image & bottom image from the copper plate in the background. Ironic how I found The Olmec...from Google-ing 'Aztec cat names'. In keeping with my theme, I wanted my domestic cat skull to have one.

Giant Olmec Heads
1/2 way down-similar image, bottom of plate
Is that freaky, or what?
(I purchased that copper plate in 2003 for wall decor in my son's bedroom,and the big head planter in 2008 for my den. Both the turtle shell and cat skull were found on hikes.)

Coincidence?, parallels?, irony?, synchronistic patterns?. All I know is that this happens to me all the time- for instance, the name/word ainos. My maiden and married name along with predictions from my mother on my future come to mind as well. 

When I was really young, I remember thinking that there was a significant meaning behind these bizarre, circular coincidences and I was only but an incident and a thought away from solving the mystery of my destiny or fate. 

As an adult, I have a better understanding of these things. I don't believe in fate. I believe in free will and choice.  

On that note, climbing up and out of my momentary schizothemia, I bring you the 8 Winners of my Giveaway.

 Here we go!

 

To the winners- the number on your entry corresponds to the haul # you won.

Congratulations!!!

I will be emailing Winners over the next few days for shipping info.
Thank you all, old Followers and new, for reading my Blog and entering my Giveaway!

Undersea fauxnad-Konad

Hi Kids!
Edit! Holy smokes Ladies! Thank you ALL for your wonderful, awesome comments!!! Regretfully,  for time's sake, I have to limit my replies to those with questions/comments that need dialog.

I bet some of you thought I gave up on a layered fauxnadi-konadicure over  my Maybelline Turquoise Seas mani  I posted a few days ago. I almost did- I was bored with TS after a day, but had to wait until today to change it...and not before some layered stamping.
So, here it is, Just finished, my Undersea mani;

Plates;
Konad M27
Fauxnad A07, A13, H16, H20 & H29
Color accents on fish  stamps- Milani 3D in Hi-Tech and Hi-Res, Isadora Apricot
Glitter & flakie accents- Sinful Colors, Green Ocean,  Hard Candy, Sweet P, & NK Magical
Stamping colors- all greens for seaweed, 3 frankens
Fish- Color Club, Where's The Soiree?
Shells, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, Whirlwind White

I wish I had the time to have done this fauxnad 2 days ago...I could have had some wear time.
I am about to take it all off :(

Giveaway closed!!!

Hi Kids!
Wow! It's here already...the deadline for entering my Giveaway.
I think it's awesome that my Giveaway generated some new Followers, however, I am more than disappointed that more of my "long-time/before giveaway" Followers did not enter. This was truly for "you"!!! 

The reason why I, personally, don't enter Giveaways is -  I'd forget about my entry, and since I very rarely "open" Blogs with Giveaway results & have a backlog of email to go through (lack of time), I'd never know if I won! 

Anyway! The winners of my Giveaway will be announced (tentatively), Tuesday, late in the evening. If you have forgotten, each entry is eligible for all 8 packages. All winning entries are put back in the "pot" and are eligible to win multiple times!

Good luck!!!!