52 Week Pick N Mix #13-Grey And Distressed Nails

This week's challenge was distressed nails and/or grey. I thought this was sort of strange, being Christmas week, but I did combine both promps. I love simulated texture. These nails looks jagged and like they have real tactile surface but they are smooth. And they were so much fun to do. I think I will be doing more of this style, just for me.

First, I went with a blingly silver glitter base in Color Club's Sex Symbol. Then the dry brush layering happened. I first used Dove by Zoya. The second polish was Moon Rendezvous by Deborah Lippmann. This added some blue grey to the mix. The last grey I used was Elevation Polish's Kita.  I then added some black with Zoya's Willa. The last step I did before I added the top coat was to dab on some more silver glitter. 

A Close Up 

The silver kept it from being so dreary. It sort of looks like grunge with sparkle.  

So Here's The Crew

From Left To Right" Color Club's Sex Symbol, Zoya's Dove, Zoya's Willa (mini on side) Deborah Lippmann's Moon Rendezvous and Elevation Polish's Kita. I also used Zoya's Color Lock system that was part of my Black Friday Mystery Bag. Willa was also part of the Mystery Bag.

Well, that's a wrap up for this one. Gotta go bake, shop and clean house-all that wonderful getting ready for Christmas stuff. Take care and Happy Holiday's.
                  
                                                               Terri
                                                                                                  

An InLinkz Link-up

Pick N Mix #3-The 60's-Goin' To Woodstock

For this week's challenge I went to Woodstock, the iconic event that closed out the 60's decade. Three days of Peace, Music and mud (among other things).

The three center fingers were taken from the original Woodstock poster. The thumb and pinkie were from Joe Cocker's fantastic boots. 

The main polish is Deborah Lippman's It's Raining Men. I just had to have this polish way more than a year ago. And this is the first time I have gotten around to using it. 

Hard Candy's  Matte-ly In Love is the matte. Do they even make it anymore?

The blue is Ciaté's Off Shore.

 

And had to have Jimi

 Just a little mud.

Well, that's it for this post, and until the next time, take care........Terri

An InLinkz Link-up

Louboutin Nails

Today's nails are a result of the Nail Polish Queen's challenge of Christian Louboutin. There has been a media buzz over his entering the nail polish market with some rather pricey polish. 

I first painted a layer of Zoya's Red Door Red (cream) and then topped it with Deborah Lippmann's darker red Stop And Stare (jelly) to get the color I wanted. 

I then:

•  drew and L on my thumb, 
• side view of a pump on my index finger
• the toe of a pump on the middle finger
• under heal on the ring finger
• and on the pinky I drew a elongated hexagon that I noticed on Louboutin's bottles of polish

Zoya's Red Door Red, Pure Ice's Black Out, Deborah Lippmann's Stop And Stare

Summetime Blues

I keep reading from the trendsetters that cobalt blue is the color to wear this summer. Well, my reasoning is that I can wear dark blue Fall, Winter and most of the Spring. I am busy wearing and enjoying my light blues this Summer.

NOTES

Deborah Lippmann's Rockin' Robin

This is a light dusty blue green cream with small black matte glitter. Rockin' Robin is listed under "Specialty" polishes on her website. This one is infused with green tea and Biotin. 

Now I really don't know if green tea or Biotin really helps ones nails, but it sounds good. It's a great formula and only needed two coats. When wearing it, I want mint chocolate chip ice cream. Rockin' Robin can be found here.

Orly's Angle Rain 

Angle Rain was part of Orly's Surreal Fall 2013 collection and is a gorgeous sky blue duochrome.  It flashes pink, purple and also at times I will see a blue green. It's a little thin in consistency so I have to use three coats. But it is worth it. This is a beautiful polish. 

There are six polishes in the Surreal collection. I also have Purple Poodle (no surprise there) and Pink Waterfall. Here is a link to see the whole collection.


Cult Nail's Manipulative

Manipulative is blue green with shimmer that Cult Nail's re-released.  I just got it this month. I thought it was going to have much more shimmer than it really does, it is Cult Nails after all. In reality, the shimmer doesn't really show up. In the end, I think it looks like a lot of other blue greens I already have.


Nail Art 

I was determined to have something good come out of Manipulative. A nail pen and Nfu-oh 56.

Well, that's it for this time.......Take care and until the next time, 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

Got The Blues

I Love My Blues And Am Celebrating The Blue Sky That We Are Finally Having!

NOTES

Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Eyes

Mermaid's Eyes was released last summer in a group of polishes that followed up on her success with Mermaid's Dream. This is a sparking blue chome with micro gold glitter and large electric blue sequins. I think it is really beautiful. I also have Mermaid's Kiss and am about to wear a series of pinks and will include it during that time. OK. I digress. If you like a smooth coated nail,  use a top coat, because Mermaid is pretty chunky.

You can still find this polish everywhere.


Zoya's Pixie Dust NYX

I think everyone needs at least one Pixie Dust in their collection. It is just that cool. I own three (Godiva and Lux being the other two). NYX was in the first group released in 2013.

NYX is is a dusty blue textured polish with very fine glitter to contrast with the matte finish. I don't use a top coat with this one because I think that would defeat the purpose of matte verses sparkly. I love this polish.

Zoya's Talulah 

Talulah is another electric blue polish with turquoise shimmer. It was part of their Summer '09 collection. It is still on their site. When I read about this one, I had to have it and think it is one of the best blues I have in my collection.

Extra Pic

I wore Tallulah about four days. One the last day, I experimented and added a top coat of CND's Sapphire Sparkle*. It added a different dimension to the color. It was subtle but gorgeous. I tried to capture it in the photo below.

 
 It turns out that blues are one of my favorite colors to wear. You just have to find the right one for you. 

I think that's it, Terri 

*The CND was part of twelve polishes gifted to me. They had big problems, being very dried out and way past their prime. With my trusty bottle of polish thinner and patience, I got them all working again.  

Spy Princess And Metallics

We had another visual art event to attend. This event was Spectrum's Raw Natural Artists* in Kansas City. Our daughter, Rachelle was one of the participants so Mom and Dad had to go.

This was a pretty dressy affair, so I really had fun doing this look.  My nails are usually designed to coordinate with what I am wearing. It was especially true this time.

There were three main inspirations: a knitted grey with silver metallic threads top, a chrome and acrylic baguette, and strappy Badgley Mischka heels.

The actual manicure was fairly simple. I painted two thirds of my nail with the lighter Spa Ritual polish and the bottom third with the Deborah Lippmann. After they dried, I added Spy Princess's White Tie Affair, which is the star of this nail show.  

To wear it during the week, I put on a matte topcoat that took a little of the in your face glitter look off. I tried to take a picture of it, but it wasn't to successful, so I am not adding that one. 
 
Polish Notes

Spy Princess-White Tie Affair

Spy Princess is a small Indie polish maker with a shop on ETSY (in the states). Most of her work is glitter based. I have no idea how I found Spy Princess but liked her spy themed names. Her polishes have names like Honeypot, Kir Royale, and Mata Hari.

White Tie Affair is a mixture of black hexes, silver bars, holographic squares and holographic micro glitter suspended in a clear base. I have found that it goes great over about any color.

I am not to crazy about the bottle design. It is different, that is for certain. But, I have trouble with to much polish getting on the wand. I am always having to wipe the excess along the top inside so things don't drip.

The link to Spy Princess's ETSY shop  is HERE.
If you do Facebook, here is a link to her FACEBOOK PAGE.

Spa Ritual-Silver Shimmer

Silver Shimmer is from Spa's 2012 Holiday Metal Collection. This is just a great silver metallic. I have two cheaper ones (Wet 'n Wild and Chi) which have a problem with streaking with application. Silver Shimmer goes on silky smooth and is just a beautiful silver toned polish. It is up to Spa's usual perfection. Silver Shimmer can be purchased on Amazon.


Deborah Lippmann-Moon Rendezvous

Moon Rendezvous is a slate blue grey metallic with a shimmer. It can be a little streaky, but you just have to look at it right to see the streaks. 

Moon Rendezvous was part of my Beauty Brands DL clearance haul last fall. I will have to say, although I have a few grays, I don't have anything quite like this one. It really is quite gorgeous.  It is still in the line up and can be gotten in quite a few places, Beauty Bar and Deborah Lippmann are just a few.
Well, that is it for now.............

I thought Dad took a pretty good picture Rachelle and I.

 * Raw is an independent art organization that works to focus artists that are in the first ten years of their careers. Although the organization is based in the US, it now has events in Canada and Australia. A link to the organization's site is HERE.

Nfu-Oh To The Rescue Again!

I did this one last month when it was still a bit cooler.

Last Fall, Beauty Brands discontinued their Deborah Lippmann line and put all of her polishes on clearance. I saw this a chance to expand that part of my collection. 

One of the polishes I brought home was Don't Tell Mama. It was beautiful in the bottle; a dark turquoise shimmer. 

For some reason, when I got it on, it just didn't appeal to me (may some other time it will). I grabbed my Nfu-Oh 56 and added a topcoat. Then I was happy. I finished the look off by doing a french tip with the Lippmann.

This particular Nfu-Oh line which is termed "Opal Glitter" is now discontinued, but there are a few colors left. I think it is some of the most gorgeous polish there is and will be sad to see it go. I purchase Nfu-Oh products from Fabulous Street. Here is the link to see what is still available.

Colorful Neutrals

I paired these two up a few weeks ago and loved them. First up is Nubar's Jewell (from their 2010 Prism collections), which I got from Ebay. Jewell is a warm chocolate brown with holographic, green and teal glitter. For the tips and accent nail, I used deborah lippmann's Believe, a gold/silver metallic.  Believe, has very subtle green and blue micro-glitter. 

Stop And Stare/Red Lips And Gold Chains

Stop And Stare and Red Lips And Gold Chains 

One Of My Recent Layering

Base Coat-Stop And Stare by deborah lippmann (I believe now discontinued but you can find it on Ebay).

Top Coat-Red Lips And Gold Chains (for some reason the name reminds me of the 80's)-Colores de Carol who is an Indie polish maker based in New Jersey. Although Red Lips and Gold Chains is now sold out she has a lot more wonderful creations in her shop.
Her Big Cartel site is here. Carolina always has a few things on clearance and always has a new line going. It's a fun visit.