KBShimmer Snow Flaking Way

This is KBShimmer Snow Flaking Way, from Christy's Winter 2013 collection.  More pics and info after the jump!

KBShimmer Snow Flaking Way

January BHB Mani Swap

Mani Swap with my nail thread buddy Scoutie!  You can find her on IG as @manimaninails.  Go check out her page, she's very talented and has some great video tutorials posted!

I chose to recreate her ruffian roses mani, but with a little twist of my own.  More pics and info after the jump!

Antique Style Roses in a Ruffian style mani

Bear Pawlish Cold Never Bothered Me with stamping

Here's a beautiful polish I purchased during Bear Pawlish's B2G1 free sale in the beginning of January!  It's called Cold Never Bothered Me and it's inspired by who else but Elsa from the Disney movie Frozen!  More pics and info after the jump!

Bear Pawlish Cold Never Bothered Me stamped mani

Bestie Twin Nails Meets The 90s

I was asked by one my best nail friends Megatuce (IG@megatuce; blog: megatuce.com) to do Bestie Twin Nails and I said absofreakinglutely!  Read on for more pics and info!

90s Inspired Bestie Twin Nails

ILNP Mutagen and Flakies Stamped Mani

I'm in love with this mani!  So much that I've had it on for five days!!  I'll be sad to see it go.

Dual-purpose mani, trying out my new ILNP polish (Mutagen) and new MoYou London plate and stamper, and painting for a football playoff games challenge.  More pics and info after the jump!

Fluff: More Nail Mail

Nail mail!!  I finally got my Bear Pawlishes in from the promo Tennessee ran at the beginning of January, and I dove in and ordered some new stampers from MoYou London too!

Nail Mail!! from Bear Pawlish and MoYou London

Tennessee, owner of the Bear Pawlish indie brand, ran a Buy 2 Get 1 Free promo.  I've had several of her polishes on my wishlist so I certainly couldn't pass up such a great deal!  Her shop is currently closed, but once she works through everything from this promo she'll be back up and running.

Bear Pawlish indie brand polishes

As for MoYou London, they just recently released some new squishy stampers.  I currently own several stampers (Konad double sided firm, BPS double ended XL squishy, two Cici&Sisi squishy stampers from the jumbo sets) but I've been itching for a good marshmallow stamper for my collection.  From the reviews I've seen, the people that have purchased these stampers from MoYou London had some good things to say and they claimed they were both marshmallow squishy sticky stampers.

MoYou London stamping plates and squishy stampers

I found that while the rectangular squishy stamper is a marshmallow, sadly the double ended one is not.  It's still squishy, probably a little less so than my BPS one, but certainly not a marshmallow.  Never fear, I'll find a use for it!  Both stampers came with their own plastic scraper.  Woo hoo!!!

I've also had the Explorer plate 22 on my wishlist forever, since Debbie (@ladyandthe_stamp on IG) received one as a prize from MoYou London.  Since I was ordering stampers, I figured I may as well put this baby in my cart too.  I was not disappointed!!

MoYou London Explorer collection plate 22 and rectangular stamper and scraper

Now for my testing of the stampers.  I used an image from the Explorer plate and Sinful Colors Black On Black polish.  I first tested them unprimed, then I primed a little, then I primed some more until I got a good image.  I primed the stampers using a dry Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and lightly buffed in circular motions until the head was no longer shiny.

The first picture is my double ended stamper.  (Sorry, I can't directly link it right now because it is out of stock.  I'll edit my post once they are available again.)  The top box is where I used the larger end of the stamper, and the second box is the other slightly smaller end.  The smaller end stamped better than I expected unprimed, but once I primed it twice it was good to go.  The larger end took a little extra priming until it was perfect.

MoYou London Double Ended squishy stamper

This second picture is the rectangular squishy stamper.  This actually worked pretty well unprimed, but I thought it may be even better if I primed it a bit.  I stamped twice more after I primed it to make sure it wasn't a fluke.  I'm thoroughly impressed with this stamper and I think it moved to the top of my favorites list.

MoYou London Rectangular marshmallow stamper

Do you stamp?  What is your absolute favorite stamper to use?

KBShimmer Deja Brew and In Bare Form Mani

So, I stepped away from my multichromes for a hot minute, but still went right for my indie drawer... (btw, collection pics coming soon!!)  I came away with some beautiful holos from KBShimmer, this time Deja Brew and In Bare Form.  More pics and info after the jump!

KBShimmer mani

Morgan Taylor Best Dressed stamped mani

This was a mani using an untried polish that I got from a Secret Santa swap.  My Secret Santa was so awesome and picked out great polishes for me!  This is Morgan Taylor Best Dressed, a cherry red metallic polish that was pretty opaque in one coat.  More pics and info after the jump!

Morgan Taylor Best Dressed stamped mani

Fluff Post

Hello!  I am a tad far behind in posting!  So I'm just going to include a couple things in this post.

Yay NAIL MAIL!!

ILNP Black Orchid

This post includes swatches of ILNP Black Orchid, which is a beautiful vampy cranberry black-red linear holo polish, and a mani fail of nail art I attempted with flakies. It wasn't truly a fail, because I think it could've been a good mani, but it wasn't what I was going for.

ILNP Black Orchid

(By the way, I'm using Blogger's iOS app for the first time and I'm a little very disappointed in the lack of options here... It certainly doesn't offer the functions that the PC version does, nor have they updated it since May 2013!!! What?!? Fyi, don't bother, this app is NOT user friendly...)

So yeah, Black Orchid by itself is gorgeous. Here is one coat of it over a coat of OPI Nail Envy:

One coat of ILNP Black Orchid

Not too bad, a bit patchy, but it tended to be a bit fussy and didn't like being overworked. I did a thicker second coat which seemed to help. 

Two coats of ILNP Black Orchid, no topcoat

Next I tried using the Aztec nail vinyls from Glam My Mani, and they would have looked great if I used a better color rather than flakies. I was just so excited to use polishes from my nail mail that I wasn't thinking clearly. So here is Black Orchid and ILNP Atlantis:

ILNP  Black Orchid and Atlantis

With a flash so you can see this had the potential to be gorgeous, I just wasn't feeling it.

Flash to show holo

I even thought if I slept on it, that if feel better about it in the morning. Nope. I took Black Orchid and my topcoat to work with me because I couldn't bear to sport this mani. I'm sure my cube neighbors loved me! *shrug*

Still, ILNP Black Orchid is a winning polish in my book, so I highly suggest it if you are looking for a classic vampy look with a twist of holo. 

ILNP Black Orchid

ILNP Black Orchid with flash to show flame

How do you blog? Are you mobile or do you work strictly from a PC? How about a tablet? Any better way to blog on the go?

Bear Pawlish "No Good Can't Hear You" swatches/mani

***WARNING***

Very Pic-Heavy Post

I am sooooo, sooooo sorry.  I'm sorry that I am about to bombard you with amazing, ridiculous, delicious, multi-chrome goodness.  I don't know who got me into this mess of loving multi-chromes as much as I now do, but I want to thank them.  With big, wet, sloppy kisses.

(Ick.  At least I didn't say the "M" word.)

I bring to you No Good, Can't Hear You from Bear Pawlish.

Oh.... my.... multichromegoodness.

Bear Pawlish No Good, Can't Hear You

Fun With Friends' Manis/Bear Pawlish Ultra Violet Swatch

Sorry for the dual post, but this will include a Bear Pawlish Ultra Violet swatch/mani and a mani done by a non-polisher.

I know I've said this before, but it really means a lot when a friend can appreciate your addiction to polish, and then join in that addiction.  Which is exactly what my dear friend Kate has done.  First up, Bear Pawlish!

More pics and info after the jump, just click the Read More link below!

Bear Pawlish Ultra Violet and Zoya Cosmo

KBShimmer Snow Way! Snowflake Mani

I'll be doing some updates and changes to the look and feel of my blog, so thank you for being patient while I figure out the ins and outs of blogging.  =)

Meanwhile, I have a swatch of another gorgeous polish from a great indie, KBShimmer Snow Way!

It's a fun sky blue crelly polish with lots of various-sized white glitter and a hint of holo microglitter.  I used it for the base of my Snowflake mani seen below.  More pics and info after the jump, just click the Read More button down below!

Snowflake Mani using KBShimmer polish

Happy New Year!! (mani)

Happy New Year, nail polish lovers!!

So my New Year's resolution is to post to all social media at one time after I do my manis.  That way I won't be 5 manis behind with no blog posts about them!

So here is my NYE mani that I rocked while holding my son over the toilet at midnight (he's only two, and not the one I imagined would be praising the porcelain gods!  mixture of too much food and damn congestion from a bad cold...).  More pics and info after the jump!  Click the Read More link down below.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!