Swatch: Wet 'n' Wild - Burgundy Frost

So the background of last week's design was a new-to-me polish from Wet 'n' Wild called Burgundy Frost. Based on the bottle design it's actually an old polish. I think I found it lying around the house in some dark corner. But surprisingly it was still in great condition and needed very little thinner to fix it up.

 

In the bottle I thought it was just a nice frost finish burgundy polish, good for a fall nail art design. But once it was on my nails I was really intrigued. There's like this subtle shimmer in addition to the frost that makes it so much cooler. It also makes the traditional problems with a frost finish, not be problems.

 

 I took like a million photos trying to capture just how pretty this polish is.

 

As I said, I've only used it so far in my Thanksgiving Break nails. I'll have to play with it some more now, though. :)

11/27/13 - Thanksgiving Break Nails

I really struggled with what to do with my nails for Thanksgiving. I feel like I've done all the normal Thanksgiving nail art already, you know? So I thought, what if I did a background of some fun fall colours, and then did metallic feathers on top. So I tried that, and, eh.

 

 I started with a saran wrap background of Wet 'n' Wild - Burgundy Frost and Jcat - Mango. I think this is where I went wrong - Mango blends too much with the gold, so you can't really tell they're feathers. Anyway, the feathers are done with Revlon - Hot For Chocolate, JLB - Immortal Gold, and Delicious - Scene Stealer.
I think you can see the feather idea here:

 Well, onwards and upwards. :) I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

Swatch: LynBDesigns - Let's Get Mawwied

I bought LynBDesigns - Let's Get Mawwied a while ago, because it looked so adorable, and how could I pass up a Princess Bride reference anyway?

This is two coats, and it is adorable! The pastel-ish glitter shines through the milky base perfectly. I love all the different shapes, sizes, and colours.

Some photos better than others you can see that there is tiny blue glitter in there along with the larger hexagons.

LynBDesigns describes it as "I want to mawwy this color. Creamy white base loaded with pastel hexagons in all sorts of colors and sizes. Including itty bitty baby blue hexes. There are no words to describe this polish accurately. I love it so much." Pretty much sums it up!

By the way, these pictures are without top coat, and do look a little bumpy. However, a couple coats of top coat evens them out wonderfully. No concerns there.

I enjoy and recommend this colour. :)

11/16/13 - Confetti Cake Dots

I've been feeling a little bla when it comes to nail art lately. No inspiration and no energy. Sigh.
But this last week I decided to do an idea I've had since I received LynBDesigns - Let's Get Mawwied. I wanted to do a line of dots out of the Lime Crime set, to compliment the glitter without detracting from it. The more I look at it, the more it reminds of me of confetti cake.

It's kinda subtle but it's fun.

I tried to slightly decrease the size of the dots as I went down the nail. There are varying sizes of glitter in Let's Get Mawwied as well.

Have a nice weekend. :)

11/03/13 - Teal and Gold Toes

So last week I painted my toes. I wanted something kind of blue and sparkley and then with gold and sparkley on top.
So I started with L.A. Girls - Teal Dimension, then did a few random sheer brush strokes of my mini blue Icing polish, and then topped it with Essence - Make it Golden.

I think it's a fun combination. Fairly subtle, but pretty.

 

11/03/13 - Abstract Colours

So I wanted something colourful, now that the weather is getting so grim. I thought a while, and decided to try this technique that I think is a combination of a couple other nail artists' work. It's kind of abstract, and messy-on-purpose, and colourful, and odd. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it.

Yup! Obviously, a lot of colours went into this. I started with a very thin coat of Barry M. - Matt White, and then just layered on these colours:

It's an interesting effect, but the jury's still out on whether or not it's a good one.

Swatch: China Glaze - Seduce Me

And from this week's design, I bring you swatches of China Glaze - Seduce Me.

This is two coats. Seduce Me is a good colour, but kind of hard to describe. Kind of a berry magenta, purple-tinged red, dark pink colour.

I've used it before in my Sea Life nails, my Graduation nails, and most recently my Pumpkin Jack'o'Lanterns nails.

A good berry-coloured cream. It's sure to seduce anyone. ;D

Swatch: L.A. Girls - Black Illusion

Back at the beginning of the month I used L.A. Girls - Black Illusion for my Halloween Drips design, but some how didn't get around to posting the swatch photos. But fear not, for they are here. :)

I really like this polish. Opaque in two coats, with beautiful holo goodness in the black.

In some lights the glitter just looks silver, which is actually still a cool look. But in most lights it's a delightful holo.

This polish is definitely a good addition to my stash. :)

10/20/13 - Pumpkin Jack'o'Lanterns

So last week I was too swamped with stuff to get a design in, but this week I'm back! I've been tossing around a few ideas, "Pumpkins?... spiders?... blood?.." etc. and unable to decide on one. So I asked my boyfriend what I should do, and he said, "Do a jack'o'lantern with a eye patch, so it looks like a pirate." And I said, "That actually sounds awesome." So I did do that (on two of the nails) and a variety of other jack'o'lantern designs, or plain pumpkins, on the others. :)

Oh yeah, and I made it glow in the dark. ;D

Here's a picture of just the pumpkins, pre-design.

I like the depth of the look I got by layering sheer polishes on top. Unfortunately some of that went away post-top cat, but I still like it. Specifically, I started with Sally Hansen - Orange Impulse, and then did curved stripes of Brash - Gone Bananas and Milani - Awesome Orange. Similarly for the stems I did Kleancolor - Green Grass and Love&Beauty - Neon Green.

On top of that I did one coat of Lime Crime - Crema de Limon, and one coat of Serum No. 5 - Day Glow. Actually, I did two coats of Day Glow on the eyes, but it doesn't look much different. For whatever reason, the glow seems even more awesome in this design than the last time I used it. :)

Oh, and the base colour is China Glaze - Seduce Me, and the eye patch is done in 2True - No. 39.

I think this looks great. Happy almost Halloween! :)

10/06/13 - Halloween Crackle Toes

I kept going back and forth on what I wanted to do for my toes. Finally, I decided I would try Barry M. - Croc Effect over Sally Hansen - Orange Impulse. I love the results!

The first few times I tested out Croc Effect, I couldn't get it to work. As in, it wouldn't crack at all. So I set it aside for a few weeks and returned to it this day. I think what finally made the difference is that I really shook it. Like, sat there for a minute just shaking the bottle. And then I applied to to slightly wet polish, as the instructions say.

The effect is somehow similar but cooler than ordinary shatter. Especially on my left big toe - I totally see a person or a tree there. So great for Halloween!

Well, I think this will be a great look for the month of Halloween. What do you think? :)