I'm Swatchin' You - Zoya Stevie

You know what I'm going to say...head over to my giveaway.  Time is running out!  For today, I'm showing you Stevie by Zoya, a light purple textured matte with metallic glitter.  This is from their 2013 Pixie Dust collection.

The formula on this was amazing!  It was easy to apply with even coverage.  It builds beautifully and quickly.  Due to it's matte finish, it dries very quickly.  I have to say, this was just as pretty as a one coat sheer.  But I loved how it built up, so I did three coats, which is what is pictured.  The glitter does kind of hang off the nail a bit, making the edges of the nails feel rough.  You can probably kind of see this in the photo above.  But it smooths out with a bit of wear after a couple of hours.  Love this one!  Which are your favorite colors from this collection?

SH Double Duty as a base with no topcoat.

I'm Swatchin' You - China Glaze Liquid Leather

Goooood morning!  This next polish is the very first China Glaze (ChG) polish I ever bought, because you can never have enough black!  It's a black jelly called Liquid Leather, as I'm sure many of you already know.  Of course, ChG makes great polish, and this one is no different.  Their brushes are pretty good.  However... (isn't there always a however with me?)  It does drag a bit on the first coat with this color.  But once you get a second coat on, it smooths right out.  Great coverage in two coats, and tons of shine...normally.  I decided to mattify it because nothing is hotter than a matte black.  Yum!

On a side note, do NOT try stamping with this black.  How do I know, you may ask?  EPIC. FAILURE.  That's how I know.  Very stressful day...I can't even go back there. *curling into the fetal position and sucking thumb*

SH Double Duty and Essie Matte About You for base and top.

I'm Swatchin' You - Nail-Venturous Floam

Hi all!  Here is the polish featured on Friday, Floam, an indie polish made by Nail-Venturous.  This is only the second indie polish I liked enough to buy.  Floam is neon blue and neon yellow matte glitter in a clear base.

As I've said before, I'm not usually a big fan of most of the indie polishes out there.  But this one was too unique to pass up.  Plus, I have all of the earrings I wore back in the 80s, and this polish totally reminded me of one of my favorite pairs!

On to the deets on Floam!
The formula was a little thick and finicky.  I had a hard time controlling it, so I wasn't able to get a clean cuticle edge.  The glitter also seemed to be very attracted to my cuticles!  I found that the first stroke did not have much glitter, but the following strokes covered well.  After a little trial and error, I found that it is best to do a light first coat and thicker second coat.  This can be layered, but I decided to wear it on its own.  You are looking at pre-cleanup, and cleanup was no fun!  Floam dries matte, and it is a bit of a top coat muncher.  I topped with two coats of SV and it still was not very smooth.  All in all, a very cool polish that is definitely unique!  You can purchase this through Ninja Polish or the Nail-Venturous etsy shop.  However, the owner, Amy, is currently taking a break.

SH Double Duty and SV as base and top.

Feature Friday - Ski Teal We Tip

Happy Friday, folks!  So, I've been sick and up to my eyeballs in homework.  But I did manage to squeak out a mani for you today.  And I have to say, I am totally loving it!  I started with SH's Double Duty as a base.  Then I put on two coats of OPI's Ski Teal We Drop.  I have nothing but love for this color!  Then, I was really dying to try out my new Warpaint Beauty's Mattify top coat.  It works like a dream and at $1.99 from Hot Topic, it's a heck of a lot easier on the wallet than Essie's Matte About You.  Score!  And of course, I couldn't just stop there.  So I SV'd my tips.  What do you think?  I'm in lurve!

Feature Friday: Marbled Mani

Hi everyone!  I think I've mentioned before that I get some of my inspiration for manis from artwork I've done and even walls I've painted.  This mani is an idea I've had written in my little mani-spiration notebook for a while now and I got the idea from walls I've painted!  Those walls actually inspired two ideas.  Maybe I'll try the other one for next week's Feature Friday.

Anyway, I've painted walls with a flat white or off-white base and then used cheesecloth to rub on a gray to get the look of stone.  Then, using black paint and a small paintbrush, I painted on veins.  To finish, cover the walls in a clear glossy finish.  So I wondered how this technique would work on nails.  It definitely takes some getting used to using polish as a medium instead of paint.  But I think it's okay for a first attempt!  And the name is not to be confused with marbling nails.  This is not a water marbling.

I started with one coat of SH Double Duty as a base.  Then I painted on two coats of OPI's Alpine Snow and topped it with one coat of Essie's Matte About You.  You will want to wait a while to make sure the polish is dry and won't smudge with some pressure.

Next, I cut a small piece of cheesecloth and painted on some SH Xtreme Wear Wet Cement polish on the tip of the folded cheesecloth.  I very lightly and quickly rubbed it on the nail.  You have to work quickly and try to make it uneven, with more polish is some spots and less in others.  If you rub it around too much, the polish will start to dry and clump up.  You also want to try to get as close as possible to the edges to avoid a white outline.

Then, I used ChG's Liquid Leather to paint on veins.  I diluted the polish to bring down the intensity of the black.  Using a piece of tape as a palette (very high tech, BTW), I put down a drop of polish.  Then I grabbed a very fine paintbrush and loaded it with nail polish thinner.  Then I grabbed a bit of polish and rubbed in around to the load the brush with diluted polish and painted on some veins.  Here is a pic of my very sophisticated palette and the cheesecloth I used.

I did not paint a vein on every nail.  I left one or two plain.  On my left hand (shown) I left my accent nail plain.  Then I topped it with SV.  Not perfect, but not horrible for a first attempt!  I'll try to do my other idea for next weeks Feature Friday.  Thanks for looking!!!

Chalkboard VDay Math Mani

I'm getting this in just under the wire (unlike my day late Superbowl mani!).  The day before Valentine's Day and here is my mani!  If you've figured it out by now, I am not a pinky flowery type of gal.  So I was trying to figure out how to do a Valentine's Day mani that was more ME.  Then I remembered something my hubberoo always used to say about us...one plue one equals one.  Awww!  The simple math made visions of chalkboards dance in my head (blame the teacher in me - we love chalkboards!).  So here is the mani...

I started with SH Double Duty as a base.  Then I used two coats of CG Liquid Leather topped with one coat of Essie's Matte About You.

Then I used tape (since my freehand sucketh) to do the math using OPI's Alpine Snow.  I finished it off with a teeny tiny pop of color by using CG's For Audrey to make a heart on my thumb.  First time trying dotting...not too shabby.  Sadly, my practice heart came out better than the ones on my thumbs.  Oh, well.  Can't wait to show the hubberoo!

And yes, I forgot to flip two of the photos prior to watermarking and didn't feel like going back to fix it.  Been that kind of day!