Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

And today I am wearing the Queen of Valentine's Day, Ruby Pumps by China Glaze. It has reigned since it's debut in 2001. It is just one of those tried and true classics.

And that's all see wrote-take care-Terri

Lynnderella's Mr. Darcy and Illamasqua's Cameo

 Today I have Lynnderella's Mr. Darcy over Illamasqua's Cameo.

I like doing nail art, stamping and all that stuff that goes on with nail design. But my favorite thing it to come up with different polish combination with base and toppers to get a different look with the lacquers. I think that was what first drew me in. And I probably have the most fun with the few Lynnderellas I own. 

Mr. Darcy was part of the 2013 Once Upon A Prince collection. 

Mr. Darcy is made up of multiple shades of gray, periwinkle, lavender, gun metal, black and a tad of red glitters. I had wanted this one for a while and finally got it when it went on sale for $12. Lynnderella is having a few sales now on both her Ebay and StoreEnvy shops. 

I bought four Illamasquas from Hautelook earlier this Summer. Cameo is a Periwinkle blue. This is easily a one coater. Illasmasqua is now available again in the United States through through their UK website. There's free shipping with $75 and standard delivery of $7.50 for less than. Of course, when I got mine through HauteLook, they were half price and that would be the way to go (if they ever offer them again).

And, with a Lynn, I have to do a macro because there is so much going on with this polish. But that is usually the case with her creation. If you love glitters, she just can't be beat. Although, I won't go for any of those high rolling auctions that go over at her Ebay store.

  I wanted to do a dupe comparison for this one, since Illamasqua is so expensive. I have two other Periwinkles; China Glaze's Secret Peri-wink-le and Julep's Isabela. I would have to say that Isabela is dead on. You can find Isabela around but it still seems to be around $10. I got mine originally in a Maven box but I did find some for around $10 on Ebay. Cameo is $18.

Secret Peri-wink-le is just a tad dustier, as seen in this trio comparison. 

That it for this round, just two great polishes that I think go great together. What do you think? Take care and think Shiny.    Terri

Fall Leaves For Hobby Polish Bloggers

Hello and welcome to my contribution to the August Hobby Polish  Link-Up. This month's theme is Fall Leaves.

I had two polishes in mind for my base. I couldn't choose between them so used both. And they are Caité's Heirloom and China Glaze's Cabin Fever from their Fall '15 collection. I just dabbed a little bit here and a little bit there of both polishes on each nail.

I was going to practice my stamping with this mani, but when I got my polishes from Lynnderella's Labor Day sale, stamping went out the window. I had to have my leaves filled in with Positively East Fifth Street and so out came the gold Stripe Rite and I just painted some leaf shapes on, filled in with my Lynn and then added some lines on top.

I wear a lot of these colors so it wasn't hard to find an outfit to go with this design. I am sad to have to take it off.

Well, that's it for me this time around. But as I mentioned earlier, I am taking part in The Hobby Polish Blogger's group link-up. This is a great group of bloggers on Facebook that are very supportive and always are willing to give help to other bloggers. So check some of their art out below.

So until next time, take care and shine on!

An InLinkz Link-up

Pick N Mix #25-Stain Glass Window Nails

I've been MIA for a while on this challenge, but this one just calls for me to use my Nubar's Venetian Glass. This polish set and it screams stain glass windows!

Venetian Glass polishes were released in 2010. I didn't even polish my nails back then and purchased them from Ebay this past winter. These polishes are glass flecked and beautiful. They look like stain glass!

I first painted my nails a base white. After deciding on my design, I drew in the "lead" lines with an ultra fine Sharpie. I did the color work with a 18/0 spotter brush. 

There are eight hues in the Venetian glass set. I used six. Blue is not in the color collection so Pure Ice's Splash filled in. 

THE POLISHES

Oro and Arencia

Roso and Bronzo

Vino and Vaso

Pure Ice's Splash and China Glaze's White On White

This is a link up so check down below for some great design work. 

Well, that's it for today. Take care and until next time........Terri

An InLinkz Link-up

Slice And Dot-Black And White

Hello Everyone,

Today's post is a quick one. The Nail Polish Queen's has a challenge this week that I just couldn't resist. NPQs is my favorite community on Google+. It has four very active and involved moderators. One of the highlights is the weekly challenge. This week's challenge was for a black and white design and I couldn't resist.

This was a very easy design. The steps were:

1. painted nails white
2. place straight nail vinyls at opposing angles.
3. Took my largest dotting tool and made large black
   dots on the white areas but
    made sure they touched the black.
4. Made the white dots sightly set back from the 
    black, making sure they cross over to the black.

I used Orly's Black Vinyl, China Glaze's White On White. The nail vinyl's were by Nail Vinyls.

Short and sweet, that's it. Take care until next time.

Terri

 This is what you see from me on Instagram. 

Pick-N-Mix #4-Yves Saint Laurent's Russian Collection-Fall 1976

We are are at week four of the "52 Week Pick And Mix" nail challenge. The prompts this time around were The 70's and/or grey with color. I only went with one of the prompts and chose "The 70's".

Yves Saint Laurent's 1976 Fall Russian collection was my inspiration. My design is taken from a beautiful paisley shawl/scarf from that collection.

A close view of my YSL inspiration

The Polish Lineup

My bright and neon polishes tend to be very economical. L.A Color Crazes run $.99 and Wet N Wild is usually $1.88.

From Left to Right:

•  L.A. Color Craze's Reckless
• Wet N Wild's Black Light Party
• Wet N Wild's Tulip Time
• Pritti NYC's Empress Tree
• Wet N Wild's Limelight
• China Glaze's Be More Pacific
• Wet N Wild's Club Havana
• L.A. Color's  Splat!
• Orly's Fancy Fuchsia   

To find specific designs, I used a simplified nail shaped view finder.

A model grouping of the Russian collection

Close up of the skirt and belt that was shown with the paisley shawl/scarf

Well  that is it for this nail adventure. And until the next one, take care..............Terri

An InLinkz Link-up

Pick And Mix #1-Blue/Green (Not Quite Teal) Gradient

Or as like to call it ,"Let's Go Find A Pearl". When I decided to use polishes named Aquadelic and Tahitian Pearl, I became obsessed with having a sea shell on my finger. 

Fall is starting here in the Mid-West, but I figure somewhere in the world people are looking for sea shells at this very moment. 

It is finally here, The Crumpet's Pick and Mix 52 Week Challenge. This is the first time I have ever taken part in anything like this. I am hoping this will get me of my kiester and make me try new techniques. Well, that's what I'm hoping.

Right off the bat, I had to do something I had never done or wanted to spend to much time doing; a sponged gradient. So friends, here were my steps:

1. Painted on a base coat of China Glaze's Aquadelic
2. Using a makeup sponge,  I layered on stripes of Aquadelic and Wet 'N Wild's Tahitian Pearl.
3. @#*∞ª˚√≈∂!!!!!!!!!-you get the idea, I hated it. It was terrible
4. Watched a couple of YouTube videos-ahhhhhhhhh...OK
5. Redid the problem areas
6. Hand painted my seashell using the Stripe-Rite, Klean Color and China Glaze's Rainbow-that I get
7. Added the pearl (left over stuff from the wedding)
8. Added the sparkly for the sun shinning on the water.

 Now I feel better about it. And next week is a three color gradient. That should be interesting for me to tackle.

Here's The line up-It took quite a crew to get this one done.

This was quite the gathering of the clans. From left to right" Klean Color's Blue Metallic, China Glaze's Rainbow, CND's Sapphire Sparkle, China Glaze's Aquadelic, Wet N Wild's Tahitian Pearl, and Stripe Rite's silver glitter stripper.

This is a "Blog Hop" or I guess in the nail world is is a "Link Up". Check out the other ladies efforts below. 


That's it for this time around. So until we see each other again, take care............Terri

An InLinkz Link-up

Tri Polish Tuesday#2-Stiletto Heels, Grey, Turquoise and Lavender

Here is my second week effort for Tri-Polish Tuesday. 

I've seen this set up called the V-Gap but I like calling it The Stiletto Gap and the longer your nails, the higher the heel.

Today I am using China Glaze's Turned Up Turquoise, Koco's Set In Stone and Cosmetic's Art's Lavender Foil.

  The Line Up

"no name"by cosmetics arts, Set In Stone by Koco and Turned Up Turquoise by Chine Glaze

Linestone, Tan And Orange Colorblock

A couple of weeks ago my daughters and I attended the 18^th Street Fashion Show. If there is an event that will encourage me to do some type of nail design, this is it. I did a design based the color block dress I wore. I originally intended to do a true color block but ran out of time. It was between shearing one of my ewes or spending more time on my nails. The sheep won out over the nails. So I had dots.

POLISH NOTES

Elevation Polish's Limestone

I wanted to show a close up of this polish. I really like Limestone. This is such a creative take on white polish with it's off white cream, gold micro shimmer and gold flakes. It is thick, goes on smoothly and could be an one coat polish. Elevation Polish can be found HERE. 

China Glaze's Kalahari Kiss was part of The fall 2012 On Safari collection. This is a sandy brown with a definite hint of yellow. It matched the tan on my dress better than anything else I had. I am pretty sure you can't get this though China Glaze anymore. But it is less than $4 a bottle on Ebay.


Ulta's Sun Of A Gun 

Son Of A Gun is a red orange cream. This is one of my favorite oranges. It is thick enough and goes on smoothly. It has been around for awhile so others must like it too. Ulta still carries it and the link to their polishes is here.

Here we are in our group selfie

 And don't forget about my Koco giveaway. So far there are only five entries (only two people).

G+ Circles-when you add me it shows up in my G+ feed and I will add you back. If we are already friends, let me know your G+ ID so I can make sure you are in one of my circles.





a Rafflecopter giveaway  

Well that's it for this post. Until next time, Take care.......Terri

Hard Candy Toppers-Part 3-Bachelor Party

NOTES

Hard Candy's Bachelor Party

Bachelor Party has large, medium, and small black and turquoise hexes. There are also small black and blue circles. And finally tiny and really tiny black and blue circles that are suspended in a clear base. There are only two colors here, with a wide variety of sizes of glitter. 

Alter Ego's Beach Comber Too! 

Alter Ego is an American Indie Polish maker. Her polishes are quite different. The quote from her Store Envy site says, 

"Alter Ego is using a different base than most other indie, artisan & handcrafters of nail polish, lacquer & enamel makers. It is because of this unique base that some settling of pigments/glitters may occur upon standing.
Alter Ego's formula is just a tad heavier than most other polishes but shakes easily & applies smoothly. If you have a heavy hand applying your enamel you may only need 1 coat for complete coverage.
Alter Ego polish is not as glossy as most others but not really a true matte either. If you like a shine on your polish a top coat is highly recommended, and a base coat is strongly suggested. "


The important phrases are highlighted.

I  like this color and thought it went the best with the Bachelor Party. And I really like Alter Ego's satin finish. When she says the mixture separates when left standing for a while, she means it. I have a picture down below showing what happens.

I did have trouble with Beach Comber Too! chipping. It could be it didn't like my base coat (can't remember what the base coat was). I would have to wear Alter Ego polishes a little more to see if this was an isolated event. I have never heard of anyone having this kind of trouble with Alter Ego.

Yes, it does settle  but with a few shakes it's good to go.

The Second Runner Up And What I Will Use Next Time

China Glaze's Turned Up Turquoise. It even has the same type of

satin finish. 

That wraps this one up. Until next time, ...........Terri

July 2013-Nail Journal #2 Secret Peri-wink-le

Nail Journal 7/12/2013
Secret Peri-wink-le 

Polishes: 

 China Glaze-Secret Peri-wink-le

             Orly-Instant Artist-Sky Blue

                  Sally Girl-So Disco

       

Notes: It goes without saying that these two blues are high quality polishes. It is a matter of if one likes Periwinkle, and it is one of my favorite colors. The Orly had a nice long art brush so it was easy to make the S-curves. I had to add some sparkle  for good measure. I did this a while ago and just now noticed that the S curve on my pointer is curving in a different direction, oh well......

China Glaze and Orly are cruelty free. I am not sure about Sally Girl.

This Could Be What Fairy Wings Look Like In The Early Morning Dew Light

Today I have Celesia from the Rainbow Honey's Equestria collection. This polish has to be one of the most ethereal polishes on the planet. I am a big fan of ABC's Once Upon A Time (a very much  fairytale show), and my first thought when I saw this polish was, "This has to be what fairy wings surely look like". 

Rainbow Honey's description of Celesia is, 

" Celestia - A sheer, sky blue polish filled with bursts multichromatic shimmer and opalescent flakes, turning every color into something new."

Well, it's all that and fairy wings too.

This look started out with an underpainting of China Glaze's Rainbow. Rainbow is a prismatic hint of all the colors (like a rainbow). I usually use it as a topcoat but thought it could contribute to the quality of light I was trying to get with this mani. 

Rainbow is one of my "original ten" polishes that I had before the "obsession" hit. Even if China Glaze doesn't make it any more, it can be found on Amazon and Ebay without a problem and for a good price. When this one runs out, I am going to restock. OK, I digress......

Back to the mani-I put on two coats of Celesia. For as heavenly as this polish looks, it was that much of a pain to apply. Bits (I assume the iridescent heavenly stuff) kept hanging off my nail or went on in clumps that needed to be smoothed out. But it all worked out in the end. 

I finished the tips of my nails with Pure Ice's Splash. Splash came in as a close second as an undercoat. But, it was just to close in the same value and color as Celesia. I still wanted to use it, so I used it for a French tip. It gives a nice finished look, and the color is so close that it is very subtle. 

The Lineup: Pure Ice's Splash, China Glaze's Rainbow, and Rainbow Honey's celestia

I so enjoyed wearing these nails and I hope you have also enjoyed seeing them and how I did them. 

That's it this time. So until next time and I hope today brings you a beautifully polished life.......Terri