Thursday, May 31, 2012

Recent Stamping Manis

Sooooo I guess I was in a shiny duochromey polish with black stampey on top of it kinda mood lately!

I have been relaxing a bit too much. So today I have been refining my thesis, waiting for more feedback on it. Such a go-getter, haha not really.


This is Essence Just in Case, Pixel Polish Oh Golly Gee! (only 2 thin coats, it barely shows in photos and the duochrome doesn't come out unless it is over black BUT it added nice sparkle!), and DRK-B stamping in Konad special Black.


With the bottles!

The next one was a monster to photograph. People have been trying to take photographs of this polish to capture every multichromatic bit but honestly, you have to take a lot. of. pictures. 

It's HITS Mari Moon Cutie Pie!!

UPDATE: MASH replaced the missing plate; they said that they had sent emails but I only got the one confirming they shipped out the plate. They were eager to make things right after they realized that I had been sending emails and not getting any in return. It was a good outcome.


On a foil-covered journal!


On a rose! Those are little black rhinestones btw


The flash made it tealy blue, the unnatural lighting made it purpley. Yay for stamp manis! 

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Teal Tuesday: Freestyle...I am here, I promise!

Sorry I haven't blogged much lately. I have been kinda well...relaxing. Weird feeling! I have my thesis done outside of any edits from my committee (who I meet with next week) and I defend on the 25th of June. I could, you know, fix my resume and apply for jobs, but somehow relaxing is more fun, lol.

Oh and I got a package from my bestest German pal!! Some of you who purchased from my blog sale got some of the samples. I am too afraid to use them most of the time, afraid that I will be addicted to something expensive O_O Like that dang Jurlique rose hand cream, I love it so much but $45 for a tube, no thanks!


It is pretty much an epic haul. I told her I was getting into white polish so she sent me some haha

Off to the Teal Tuesday mani!

I used Essie Turquoise and Caicos as a base and KBShimmer Proud Peacock on top. This is two coats of each polish. I should have stuck with one coat of the glitter!! I recommend only one coat. I was watching The Tudors and I got distracted and only noticed the difference in one coat over two as I went to do my right hand ><


I am holding a mini Estee Lauder Pleasures perfume, hehe


It is a pretty bright turquoise over a turquoise polish. The base color is a little cloudy so that's why I am recommending one coat of this glittah.


I love this more than any Nerd Lacquer :P


Even if my gap is HUGE and I still have a little glitter on my pinkie skin.... ><


So since I held one of my perfumes, i figured I would show you my newly organized collection. The Pacifica Avalon Juniper perfume in the bottom right is my husband's! He loves juniper berries. I have a lot of indie samples and 5mL perfumes (Well not a LOT but comparatively). I bought most of these with my graduation money. No one got me a present they just handed me cash or gift cards. JUST HOW I LIKE IT!

Check out these other Teal Tuesday blogs:


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Blog Sale Update (yes, again!)

I know it must seem like I am running a business, always posting my blog sale link...

But I am moving in a month, I need some halp nao! I has no job at the moment, either :/

So I am not going to be swapping at this time. 

HOWEVER, if you ever wanted one of my frankens.....some are listed!!

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Jade Nail Polish Frankens

This is not about the Chanel color Jade! Just to clear it up.

More like the actual gemstone Jade. But, I will add a small franken tutorial for Illamasqua Nomad-esque color polishes. 

First, Jade!


Many people have been asking...how do you get a real jade colored nail polish? The answer is surprisingly simple.

First, start with a bottle of clear polish (not fast dry) and make sure there is enough room for about 2-3mL of polish. 


These are the polishes I used:
Golden Rose 325 and 327, NYC Lexington Yellow, Essie Waltz
(not pictured: the clear and one drop of grey polish!)

These Golden Rose polishes may not be readily available to you. I ordered mine from Golden Rose USA's website. They are neon jellies (but not SUPER BRIGHT). In their place, you can use a neon green or bright green and a sky blue. Since these are jellies, I added more than I would with a standard-pigment polish. 

Add the green first. One drop at a time, try to get just enough color to evoke the jade green you are trying to create. Then, when you have that, add blue one drop at a time. Add as much blue as you would like; jade is very variable! For mine, I added about 8-10 drops of jelly green, 5-6 drops of jelly blue, 2-3 drops of yellow, and 3 drops of Essie Waltz. Any white jelly will do; if you only have cremes try to use up to 3/4 less polish! Meaning, you may want to use more clear than I did. I used about 7-8 mL of clear (what was left in my bottle)


I added a little grey to give it an earthier look. It is a little brighter and slightly more yellow in person.

What would you wear this over?

For starters, I would use this as a base for a glitter gradient or over a couple coats of white jelly like Essie Waltz. I think it would be nice by itself with about 3-4 coats. It would even be fun as a jelly sammitch with small, sparse glitter polish. You could also add some shimmer!

Now for the bonus, some frankening in the Illamasqua Nomad/Color Club Age of Aquarius color range. 

This is the polish I used for my Nomad-esque jelly. It is a no-name Studio M (They make Color Club and some other polishes) and I think that it is like China Glaze Four Leaf Clover or even like Color Club Wild Child (I don't know as I don't have it and photos lie). I am not sure, this is a photoshopped photo. It photographs as a pure teal-turquoise when in reality, it is a BRIGHT green that leans blue. 

How it photographs
How it looks

Essentially, by toning down the color with white, you can go from the Studio M/China Glaze 4Leaf Clover? polish to one that looks more like Illamasqua Nomad (which is VERY close in color to piCture pOlish Jade  [has shimmer] and Color Club Age of Aquarius [a little darker]). All I know is that this is THE worst color to try to photograh!!

This color family is very pretty, I hope you experiment a bit and show me what you make!!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Frankening NerdLacquers


I bought one NerdLacquer back in January. I have since sold it on a blogsale. I did not like the formula (gloopy) and the color was way darker/greener than it was in the photos. I never got one returned email, so I never bought from them again.

I did learn that this indie seller went out of business (putting it nicely) and that there are still people who want the polish. I decided to use my mixing skills to eyeball franken mixtures for you all. Yep, eyeball. From all my store-bought glitter mixing, here are some recipes!

-------------------------------------

This is off the top of my head. You will want to play with the fractions in your mini or full size bottle. Use this as a starting point and work with it to get it to what you want it to be. As long as you like it, right?

All of Time and Space:
Chunky silver hex glitter. Milani, Jordana, LA Colors, just about every brand has one. They are a medium hex sometimes with smaller glitter.
Get a polish with small silver glitter only.
Get a polish with dense shimmer. Wet N Wild Break the Ice or Kleancolor Metallic White could work.
For the huge silver hexes: get Kleancolor Chunky Silver.
Get a Fuchsia glitter. Milani, Jordana have these, so does NYX Girls, etc.
Get a pale minty shimmery mica, either an eyeshadow or a mica sample. This will be the color of the polish base. The NL has a shimmery colored base and this give you the same thing.

1/4 Fuchsia glitter
1/8 chunky silver
1/8 small silver glitter
1/4 kleancolor chunky silver
1/4 dense white shimmer polish (you may need less of this, more small silver glitter; look at swatches)
add minty mica/pigment to color (use VERY LITTLE at a time. VERY little.)

If you just play around, you can make a polish you love without going insane or spending a lot of $$. Kleancolors are 1-3$ each, LA Colors are $1-2, Milani are more expensive and Jordanas are $3. LA Girl has glitter, too. You need the Kleancolor Chunky Silver, definitely, because it is one of the few polishes with huge hex glitters.

Exterminate:
going to need some medium-small blue and gold hex glitter (Girly Bits is now selling some)
Start with Kleancolor Tiara Gold (1/4-1/2)
Add LA Girls Uninhibited (1/8-1/4)
A little bit of LA Girl Aqueous
A bit of a metallic bronze (maybe Sh Brone Ablaze) one drop at a time. Should be rather sheer.
Add some shimmery white/clear polish or whit shimmer mica drop by drop
Add loose glitter mentioned above (I have these colors of glitter sitting in my helmer from Girly Bits)

Nebula:
Start with a glitter polish that has tiny holo glitters in it. I think even WnW has one for 99 cents.
Red glitter like LA Girl Animate
Medium pink glitter like WnW Sparked
A pure burgundy/vampy red creme; add one drop at a time to get a jelly. I recommend Revlon Vixen
There are different formulations of this so if you want other stuff in it, toss it in. I have seen one with silver holo hexes; Jordana makes a polish like this or you can use ChG Techno

Cold and Calculating:
Start with KC Chunky Silver, 1/6 or more.
Generic silver hex glitter polish, medium sized, 1/6
Smaller silver hex glitter, like in the AoTaS recipe 1/6
Purple hex glitter, LA girl Eutopia?, 1/8-1/6
Shimmer: maybe Sh Diamonds 1/6
I would use a mix of WnW Buffy the Violet Slayer and Essie Sexy Divide (the latter to warm it up a little). Really, you just need a dark purple. Add a few drops at a time.

Batcave is a charcoal base with small silvery glitter and big blue holo hexes. I would skip the holo and go for
KC Blue Eyed Girl 1/4 with
ChG Techno or the Jordana silver holo polish 1/4
then add 1/4 small silver or holo silver glitter and the rest charcoal-metallic polish.

Warrior Ethos
1/6 KC Red Hot
2/6 LA Girl Uninhibited
2/6 LA Girl Animate
Add a few drops of a pure red creme until it is a bright blood red.
If you can find some loose red, small glitter, add that in. Otherwise, try to find a polish with fine red glitter like Sephora's Hello Kitty Red Sparkle and add less than 1/6 to the mix (HK Red sparkle is VERY dense so do little bits at a time).

Do you have any others? Some of these are just like other polishes (Cold and Calculating is like Shiny but Shiny has an ice blue base and just silver glitter).

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Today is my Birthday! It is time for a catch up post!

FIRST-----My birthday mani!!


I got my cherryculture.com order yesterday. They had a NYX sale so the NYX Salon formula was only $2.20 a bottle or something. What I used for this mani is NYX Pastel Pistachio (omg gorgeous), China Glaze Blonde Bombshell (I ordered a backup, it is getting low), NYX 24k Glitter, and a minty franken I made from an eyeshadow and some gold glitter!

NYX Pastel Pistachio (no cleanup, I was doing a glitter gradient)

NYX Pastel Pistachio
 Did I choose this color because my husband is making me a key lime pie?!


The franken! I love it, very softly shimmery with gold glitter.



The flash makes it look like I have lobster hands but it is not so.

Posing with a necklace from my Etsy store 


And some progress photos!
This is from March 21...

...This is May 10th! They may be getting a hair too long, I am going to push it and see.

My first really successful gradient!

I used China Glaze Pelican Grey, Essie Cocktail Bling, and Kleancolor Concrete Grey (which is a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Stormy Weather)

Yes, the blog says No Holos but this is a VERY subtle holo and to me it looks mostly shimmery. Seriously, A England polishes are AMAZING! This one is St. George. I stamped it with DRK-A and some clear top coat after I matted it.





I know, this is a HUGE post, but it is my birthday, I post what I want to!

This is BB Couture Man Bug..so so pretty and squishy! This is a polish I bought with my NinjaPolish gift card from winning Neverland Nail Blog's nail art contest! I also got HITS Mari Moon Trendy and Model's Own Peacock Green. Yay for first polishes of certain brands!


I decided to sponge on it with OPI Last Friday Night, Zoya Zuza and China Glaze Watermelon Rind. I also used some weird little fimo things, I think I need practice on that front, haha



I am already having a wonderful birthday. I have met so many wonderful people this last year. I may have spent a lot of money on nail polish (ha ha) but hey. :) 

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Dupe'd: RBL Aqua Lily and Halcyon



Pain in the butt or labor of love? Not sure. I just wanted to see if I could franken dupe these two polishes, limited editions and all. No, you will never franken something with the same formula, the exact same pigment or shimmer. But if you are hankering for the colors, YOU CAN ALWAYS FRANKEN!! Always.

One of my friends sent her RBL polishes to my house so I made frankens based on these.

Materials: Suspension base, LA Colors Atomic, China Glaze Aquadelic, purple shimmer pigment, pinky shimmer pigment


For Aqua Lily (this one is pretty tough compared to Halcyon):

You need to get some eyeshadow or mica that is very fine, just shimmery. No big particles of shimmer (such as in Pure Ice Busted! which I will talk about later). I used L'oreal On The Loose loose pigment in Mystified and a purple MAC pigment to get the shimmer here. 

NOTE: these are not pure shimmer, they have pigment. To make a really good franken, I suggest using shimmer micas from TKB or another mica supplier. I just haven't gotten around to buying any yet.

I started with the shimmer and a teeny bit of glamour base to keep it suspended. Then I added in LA Colors Atomic (there are some in Dollar Tree stores that are DULL, you want to find the BRIGHT one) and China Glaze Aquadelic. There is *way* more Atomic to Aquadelic; I would say 7 parts Atomic to one part Aquadelic. Shake. It should be a noticeable but still kinda secret shimmer. IN THE BOTTLE, RBL Aqua Lily has a lot of shimmer. This is not so true on the nail.

testing as I go


bottle




See how subtle it is? It is pretty ridiculous, haha




Exhausting, yes. It was hard to get enough shimmer pigment without discoloring the polish. Maybe you can get some from TBK or another mica supplier?



For Halcyon:



This is a shimmer bomb. Get either Pure Ice Busted or Sally Hansen Aisle Be There (they are dupes of each other shimmer-wise). You are going to be using most of the bottle. That is how much shimmer is in this polish. For the sage green part...well, really, it is more of a paler army green. It has a lot of yellow in it.
SO...You need to have some fun mixing. I used LA Colors white, WnW Black Creme, Sinful Colors Envy (for the green; it is a dupe of OPI Jade is the New Black), and NYC Lexington Yellow. Use polish with more pigment if you care to; the original polish is kinda thin regardless. Aqua Lily is more opaque hence my choice in using eyeshadow/pigment vs. store-bought polish.


What happened to all my photos of this one?!?!? :(

Anyhow, first you want to mix the black white and green and get the right shade. Then add yellow to effect. I know, these are vague directions. However, you need about 3 parts white, 3 parts green, 1 part black. I also added a little Kleancolor Dark Brown to get it earthier. The yellow, I would say as much yellow as there is black, maybe a little less.

If you have a yellow-tinged army green, use it if you like. But note that if it has microshimmer, that is NOT what Halcyon has! It has big shimmers. See how you can see the particles in that photo? Big.

I would say...fill a 15mL bottle 3/4 full with the shimmer. Then add in the sage-army green a little at a time. You may need even more shimmer than that. There is a lot. It is also a sheer polish and needs built up to about 3 coats on the nail. 

Hope you enjoyed this, I really need to find more Halcyon photos! I can't believe I don't have them!