Wrapped Presents

 Hi all, just a simple quick post of something I put together today.

These are some simple holiday nail designs. The base is Revlon's Golden. The ribbon and bows are Stripe Rite's Gold and the white is Floss Gloss's Mrs. Tony Montana.

 Now the the fancy wrap adding Floss Gloss's Second Base along with some rhinestones. 

 And Revlon's Golden solo shot.

Short and sweet, that's all I have. Terri
 

Orly's Smart Gels

Hi all, Did this year go fast or what? I was determined that before the year was over I would finally try my home Orly Smart Gel System. I only bought it 2 1/2 years ago! Is that procrastination or what? 

I have the the starter kit. This includes:

Cleanser
1.7 Fl Oz / 50 mL
Nail Tip Primer
.18 Fl Oz / 5.3 mL
Base + Top
.18 Fl Oz / 5.3 mL
Cuticle Oil
.18 Fl Oz / 5.3 mL
Remover
1.7 Fl Oz / 50 mL
Pocket Removers
20 pk
Lint Free Nail Wipes
20 pk
Pusher & Remover Mini File/Buffer
Step-by-Step Instruction Guide (which includes a DVD)

The polish I picked was Crawford's Wine, which was a very good holiday shade. I followed the instructions and was amazed by the shine and once I finished the surface was durable. 

I put this polish through some pretty hard paces in that I did not use gloves ( on purpose) to do some pretty heavy pre-Christmas cleaning. They lasted a full week before anything even chipped. Under normal circumstances, I think they would have lasted two weeks. 

Removal is the down side of gels. I think it is a bit rough on the nails. I had a hard time not picking, even though I knew it would be bad for my nails.

My only wish is that the Gellie Bean LED does not have a timer. I believe the Orly LED light does have one. 

 
 One thing I learned from the DVD was you can put your lacquers over your gel and use a non-acetone remover to remove the lacquer and the gel polish will be safe and sound. I used Beauty Secret's Non-Acetone from Sally's Beauty.

I did a carved design with Revlon's Golden. I painted a coat on my gels and then with a brush and the non-acetone polish remover carved swirls out for a Baroque look. I added some red dots for some interest. 

A shot of Revlon's Golden.

 

That's it for today. Take care-Terri

GOT Thursday-Charmed By A Snake

My GOT polish today is OPI's Charmed By A Snake from the Spring 2008 India collection. That is way before I fell in love with polish and all that goes with it (which I have found includes making new wonderful friends). 

I snagged my “Charmed" off of EBay about two years ago. That’s where I usually have to go when I see something that I missed out on and love.

And the darker brown is Starlight And Sparkle's Hot Chocolate  and you can find her store on ETSY.

For me, these are two super rich shimmery colors that go fantastically together. 

I did a two thirds/one third arrangement for the color relationships. I used more lighter color to balance out the darker one. For a little extra flash, Revlon's Gold Coin was used to divide the two areas. Using a dotting tool, I fished out sequins from Revlon's Sequins and put five on the thumbs and three on each of the other fingers. I am pretty sure these two Revlon's are also GOTs. Again, I got them off of EBay a couple of years ago.

I finished out with a top coat of Seche Vite to make sure the sequins were secure. 

At this point in time, I do not buy OPI and Revlon. It's the whole animal testing thing. I will buy what I call "OPI Vintage" which are polishes that were made by OPI before they sold out to Cody with the condition that they are not still produced today.  But they tend to expensive. I finally decided that there is to much wonderfullness (I think I just invented a new word) going on today to dwell in the past. 

Well, that is it for today. Until the next time-take care..............Terri

Hard Candy Glitter-Part 4-Wedding Crasher With Limited Skittle

Wedding Crasher is the last Hard Candy glitter that I brought home this spring. If you follow me, you know I love my golds and Wedding Crasher was almost perfect (more on that later).

I did a very limited skittle for the base colors. The thumb, middle, and pinkie fingers are painted with Revlon's Varnished. The pointer and ring finger are painted in Deborah Lippmann Believe.

NOTES

Wedding Crasher-Here is the list of the glitter in Wedding Crasher. All glitter, with the exception of the gold are matte.:

• Gold Shards
• Black And White Large Hexes
• Black And White Medium Hexes
• Black And white Small Hexes
• Mini Black And White Circles 

 If I could redesign this polish, I would trade out the large white hexes for a bronze hue. I think the white just sticks out. When I use Wedding Crasher again, I will take out any large whites. Except for that, this is my kind of deal. 

Varnished-This was one of the first polishes that I bought during the late summer of '12. Varnished is a bronzed metallic. I don't buy Revlon anymore (the whole about face on animal testing because of China). I like this metallic but I don't know if it is still available in the stores. It can still be gotten on Ebay for about $4.

Believe-This is a gold/silver metallic. Believe was design for Cher. The story goes that Lippmann was creating Cher's look with four separate polishes. Frustrated with drying time, she decided to get the look in one polish. I recommend this metallic. It can go anywhere and is so sophisticated. I love it. 

I was so happy with with this look, I put an extra in

Glitter Closeup

In closing, I need to add that Hard Candy is not in all Wall-Marts. It will be only found in the larger ones.


That's it for this time............so until next time take care, Terri

Chinese New Year

This is a re-post from The MeadowTree Journal. It was first published on 2/09/13.

It's Chinese New Year and we were going to a celebration event. Something was needed that would go with my Asian inspired blouse that I made last year and my jade jewelry. 

First, I put on a very dark green base. Using a nail brush, I applied double curved lines in gold with space between to lay down a small line of gold glitter between.  Finally, things were top coated with Julep's Freedom topcoat. 

Here's the lineup:

1. The base coat is what I call Green 20 by Cosmetic Arts (middle). Cosmetic Arts does not seem to include names on their bottles. I found this at Ross. From what I read on other blogs, Ross is the only place to find Cosmetic Art polish and it usually sales for $1.99. Forsythe Cosmetic Group, the same company that makes Color Club makes Cosmetic Arts.

2. The double gold lines are from Revlon's Gold Coin 925 (far right). I got this one from Ebay.

3. The glitter is a strange little thing that I found on Ebay also. It smells way to strong and I won't be getting strange polishes off of Ebay again. 

That's it this time around.  Still having way to much fun with this.  Until the next one..........

It's the Year Of The Snake, not my favorite animal, but oh well.....

Had to add this years symbol-Year Of The Horse

Holiday Compilation Repost

This is a combination of two holiday reposts from The Meadowtree Journal. They were posted 12/18/2012 and 12/24/2012. I remember wearing all of these. 

My simple idea for the Holidays. I had this on last week. It's rich but subtle.
I am wearing C on the below chart.

I really had fun posting about "my obsession" and wanted to show what I've been up to for the holiday nail ideas. I am doing a simple design of one base color and tipping my nails with another. Done in the right colors, it can be worn for everyday. 

The above collage shows the four combinations I am using. I have already worn B and C. I am planning on D for Christmas day and don't know when I am going to get to A. As you probably guess, I really like this style of design. It looks elegant without being overdone. Well, at least that is what I think. 

The combinations are:

A. OPI's Indulgence for the base coat and it is tipped in Revlon's Golden

B. OPI's Vamsterdam for the based coat and tipped in NYC's Topaz.

C. OPI's I'm Not Really A Waitress for the base coat and tipped in OPI's Indulgence.

D. Zoya's Logan for the base coat and tipped in NYC's Topaz. Logan is also on my toes now.

Some of my OPI's are very small bottles. Being just a beginner without much of a collection, I have gotten a few of OPI's mini sets. My favorite has been their TOP 10 for 2012. I found it on EBAY for $20 and like everything in it. You can try a bunch
of different colors without the high price of individual full size prices. 

OPI's Top Ten. A big bottle of Vamsterdam stands in front of it. I loved the color
so much that I purchased a full size bottle and gave the mini to my daughter.
She wore it last weekend and really liked it also.

From left to right: Revlon's Golden, Zoya's Logan, LA Color's Topaz and OPI's Indulgence.

And I couldn't forget about Hanukah. I am not Jewish but very close family members are. There are two different looks. Both base coats are Unfor-greta-bly Blue by OPI.
Again, this is a mini sample and is from the Germany Collection (GER-MINIS). The sample on the left is tipped in Beware by Pure Ice. The sample on the right is a little more understated with the tips being in Hallucinate by Wet n' Wild. Hallucinate is a  multi color glitter and blends more than contrasts.

Zoya's Logan

It's Christmas Eve morning and 20 degrees! Before I start working on our annual family Christmas Eve meal, I want to share what I put on last night for Christmas. 

I used Zoya's Logan from their 2012 Holiday collection. The minute I saw it in an ad last October, I knew that was the one for Christmas. It's my first Zoya polish. In fact, at this point, it is my only Zoya. 

I tipped my nails in gold with Revlon's Golden. Any gold would do. I'm not buying any more Revlon (I have problems with their new animal testing policy) so if I was getting a gold tomorrow, I would probably go to a Milani, Orly, China Glaze, Zoya or Hard Candy. 

Did anyone else pick a color just for the holidays? They sure put a lot of beautiful ones out this year. 

Quite honestly, I don't know if I need any more golds. I'm a sucker for them, that's for sure.

That ties up this repost. To be quite honest, I will probably use some of these colors for this year also. Logan is just really cool and I can't wait to use it.