Hey it doesn't suck

I attempted water marbling again even though I'd tried 4 times previously and wasn't impressed.  I had a cool idea this time around so I decided to give it a shot.  I started with a base of basic black and used 3 polishes that I consider to be 'layering polishes'.

I used Sally Hansen White Turquoise (which I'm holding above), Sally Hansen Showtime (the holo from my haul last week) and Sally Hansen HD in Byte.  I think I don't put enough rings of polish in the water and that's why I'm never happy with my designs.  The problem is that marbling wastes so much polish that I want to cry.

This mani looks different from almost every angle and I think it's kinda cool.  I'm not 100% happy with it but satisfied enough to give another go some time. 

After 2 days I felt it needed something else so I added one coat of Kleancolor Chunky Silver to it.  The best part about this mani?  Well because I used such light sheer layering polishes it made cleanup so easy!  I am definitely going to try marbling again and I've got a few more ideas rolling around now.

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Stamping with Carbonite

This is 2 coats of OPI's Stranger Tides.  I found this one in a clearance basket a few weeks ago.  This is one reason why I usually refuse to buy new OPI collections when they first come out.  The shades I want always end up in the clearance bin eventually.  It's awesome that I love the unpopular colours!

Sorry this is a really shitty photo but it's a small US haul I had a few weeks ago.  I found Revlon Carbonite at Meijer but I didn't realize at the time that it's a dupe for Chanel Graphite.  It was $4 in a display on its own and I thought it looked pretty unique.  Also I'm probably the last blogger on the planet to buy Revlon's Royal.  I eye it up every time I'm out shopping but I've never seen it cheaper than $6 here in Canada.  Next up is Studio M's Sweet Dreams - I was on a hunt for purple cremes and picked up Sinful's Verbena on the far right as well.  The LA Colors polish is Aqua Crystals (glitter) found at the Dollar Tree.  Lastly, I finally found Sinful's San Francisco at Walgreens.  I've been looking for that colour forever.  Pretty small haul overall.

So as soon as I got home I broke out Revlon Carbonite because I knew the colour would look awesome with Stranger Tides.  I used plate BM207 and aligned the stripes straight across instead of diagonally as the image was intended.  I thought it was decent.  I don't mind the loud patterns when the colours are subtle.

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Epic Win, Epic Win, Epic Win

Epic Win #1 - Awesome metal concert on the weekend with my fave band ever headlining :)  Black nails were mandatory.  I started this one off with one coat of Wet and Wild's Black Creme.

Epic Win #2 - Once coat of Icing's Epic Winning.  The photo sucks but this polish is friggen magical!  The rainbow of colours you get under the light is unbelievable.  I didn't bother to stamp it.  I got tons of compliments on this and could not stop staring at my nails.

Epic Win #3 - An awesome fellow blogger shared with me the location of an amazing warehouse where I procured these little bottles of happiness.

From L-R: White Turquoise, Coral Amber, Emerald Amethyst and Golden Cinnabar.  The best part?  There were fifty cents each!

L-R: Valentino, Night Hydrangea, Showtime (HOLO!), Night Blooms and Ruby Rays.  Also all .50 each.

L-R: Moonstone, Rhodolite Chrome, Kleancolors in Golden Nirvana and Chunky Silver.  On the far right is a shadow pigment that looks like Orly's Galaxy Girl:

Dry on the left and over primer on the right.  I'm going to use this for frankening.

I did swatch them all but because my pics suck so I'm only posting this one to show you the awesomeness of Showtime.  Just to the right of Showtime is Coral Amber which is not my kind of colour at all but it's holo and will make a great franken. 

I only had about 15 minutes in this store but I could have easily spent hours there.  I walked out with 12 polishes for less than $7!  You can bet your ass I'll be back there eventually.  Damn good week :)

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How to extend the life of your Nfu Oh 61

I think I've shown this one before but it's China Glaze's Hologram from the Tronica collection, 2 coats.  I actually added a third coat the next morning since it wasn't quite enough.

I did a terrible job freehanding some black tips and then I stamped a little spider on the ring finger using Wet and Wild's Black Creme plus konad plate m1.

While I was wearing Hologram for the first day (I almost always do my stamping on the second day...weird or no?)  I kept thinking that this is probably the perfect basecoat for Nfu Oh 61.  So I decided to try it out:

Only the pinky nail is Nfu Oh 61 (1 coat) over Hologram.  There is also a topcoat on my nails here.  So everyone who said that the Tronica's aren't holo can kiss my ass lol ;)  And wow did this ever extend the life of Nfu Oh 61!  The first time I used Nfu Oh 61 I had chips the very next morning and it was pretty much toast by day 2.  I will be using Hologram under it from now on for sure!

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Simple mani and an awesome find

This is 2 coats of Essie's Sand Tropez which I picked up for half price during my last trip to the US.  Not my usual type of colour but I don't mind it.  I like Essie's formula but I don't know how they justify the $9 price tag. 

I stamped it with Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Bittersweet and konad plate m31.  Finished off with an orange gem on the ring finger.  Simple and classy, just the way I like it.

So a couple weeks ago when I was polish hunting in a nearby city I went to 3 different Winners and came up empty handed!  Ugh I hate how Winners is like that.  But I stopped at my local Winners last week and found these awesome Kleancolor sets:

Top set is a metallic set containing: Metallic Pink, Metallic Yellow, Metallic Purple, Metallic Jungle, Metallic Navy, Metallic Brown. 

I swatched them as soon as I got home over my existing mani:

This was one coat of each over an almost black polish so you can see how amazing these are for stamping.

The second kit contained glitters: Black Out, VIP, Kiss Goodbye, Grand Finale, Karat and Peaceful Heart.

I didn't swatch Peaceful Heart since I already have the full size bottle but the thumb is Black Out and the rest (L-R) are: VIP, Kiss Goodbye, Carat and Grand Finale.  I don't like the strip glitter at all but I love that Carat has large diamond glitter in it.

These sets were $5 at Winners and I think I'm going back to grab another metallic set.  Also I need to find somewhere that sells Kleancolor here in Canada because I really need a full size bottle of Black Out!

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DS Illuminate

So there are several salons that I stalk nearby who have 'bargain baskets' of OPI polish.  I've picked up a few gems here and there.  These baskets sometimes have silver-capped bottles but they usually contain DS Classic - a tan scattered holo which honestly doesn't appeal to me much, especially since it's very similar to Color Club's Love em Leave em, which I already own.  But the last time I browsed the basket down near the bottom...there was a polish that looked like DS Classic but wait!

Holy shit how awesome is that?!  This is DS Illuminate.  How the hell did I never see or hear of this polish before?  I'm guessing this color didn't get a lot of love since I'd never heard of it, but I couldn't wait to slap this baby on.

This is 3 coats and this polish is definitely a chameleon...

The green shimmer actually made my nails look dirty most of the time but I loved the look.  There really was only one stamp that was worthy of this colour...

It was a little loud for me to wear outside the house though.  I used Wet and Wild's Black Creme with BM221 and then dotted with Pure Ice's First Time.  This is probably the only time I will ever use that leopard print stamp lol.

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Feeling bitchy today

Warning, long rant ahead...but let's take a look at this first:

This is L'Oreal Resist and Shine #737 which is described as black with a khaki shimmer.  One coat.  It looks pretty much black at almost every angle.

I stamped it with Essence Just In Case and BM16.  Simple and subtle...I like it.

So now onto the bitching...
I'm annoyed again with some bloggers.  Maybe I should stop reading them and just look at all the pretty pictures.  When the Justin Bieber polishes came out I read a lot of comments on them - mostly negative.  Some bloggers even said they were 'ashamed' to own a JB polish!  This infuriated me really.  So his music isn't your cup of tea...so what?  It's not mine either.  But there is no doubt that JB is an incredibly talented kid and a great role model for young people.  Music aimed at young girls always seems to be the butt of a lot of jokes.  I can understand that the JB line of polish gave pause to most people at first because he's a guy, but the best thing about that polish (besides some great colours) was that part of the proceeds were given to a charity.  I don't typically give a crap what is on the label if I like the polish.  But to say that you're ashamed to own it because you 'don't like' the person whose face is on it?  Ridiculous.  If anyone has a good reason why JB is so terrible I'm all ears.

Now this new Kardashian line that everyone is fawning all over is the inspiration for this rant.  Yeah people seem to be really excited over this one...um, granted I don't know a whole lot about their family but what I do know (besides the fact that they are famous for nothing other than being rich) is that one of them is an unwed young mother, one of them has a sex tape and their father got OJ off, correct?  Now this is not my own personal opinion, but a lot of people consider some of what they've done as immoral.  So how come it's cool to buy a polish with their name on it but it's such a crime to own a Justin Bieber polish?

So yeah I don't necessarily like the Kardashians but if I like the colours I'll probably buy a couple.  Why?  Because I love polish of course!  Isn't that why we're all here?

Be nice dammit :)

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Another oldie

This is 2 coats of Rimmel 60 Seconds Extreme in Zeitgeist.  I'd say this one is probably 10 years old.  The surface dried fairly quickly but it was easily smudged if bumped.

Another awesome duochrome which was pretty easily captured.  It reminds me somewhat of Hard Candy's Beetle with it's greenish base.

And then I stamped it with Nfu Oh 61 and BM211.  I never thought that Nfu Oh 61 would make such an amazing stamping polish!  So glad I picked up that extra bottle!

So here's a little recent haul I was excited about:

From the OPI bargain basket at a local salon -
Stranger Tides
DS Glow
DS Illuminate (pleasantly surprised with this one!)

I picked up the L'Oreal Resist and Shine in 737 (black khaki) at a grocery store.

Then I made a pit stop at Icing to find Epic Winning but I also grabbed Chrome Bright Blue and a set of nail stickers that were on clearance.  I've been looking for the perfect chrome blue for stamping and I think I've finally found it!

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Definitely Not So Blueberry

Seriously WTF Revlon?  It ain't blue and it sure as hell doesn't smell like blueberries.  This took 3 coats for full coverage.  The photo doesn't show it but it has a subtle pink shimmer.  If you're on a diet and trying to stay away from sugar then by all means wear this polish!  It smells like sugar.  In fact after about 15 minutes of wearing it I wanted to throw up from the sweet smell.  I even added 2 top coats, a stamped coat and a glitter coat and it didn't reduce the smell at all.

I stamped with Pure Ice's First Time - a moss green chrome polish, and plate BM202.  It pretty much turned out to be a hot mess so what else could I do but add glitter right?

My camera hates holo glitter for some reason.  It can't focus properly.  Anyways, this is a coat of Savvy in Tinsel which is pretty much a dupe for China Glaze's Fairy Dust.  I did actually wear this for a day because I was too lazy to take it off but Not So Blueberry will be going to my sister just like all the other polishes I hate ;)

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Ocean Grotto

I started with a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Green with Envy - a lime green creme.  I used it as a base because I didn't want to apply four coats of my polish - Wet and Wild's Ocean Grotto from the Mermaid Cove collection.  It's very sheer and so I just used one coat on top here.  I hate hate hate Wet and Wild's brushes!  I don't know really how to describe them other than 'sloppy'

Then I stamped it with Wet and Wild Black Creme and Konad plate m8.  I compared Ocean Grotto to Zoya Apple and they are very different.  Ocean Grotto is a much more golden/yellow green.  I prefer it over the Zoya.

I've been a good girl lately and haven't really bought any new polishes but I'm dying for something new and different!  And cheap lol!

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Canada Day nail fun

So I brought my kit with me last Friday and did some nails for my family.  I only have two to show you  because some people don't know how to take care of their nails and I didn't want to scare you ;)

This is the Princess of Poo who painted her own nails with 2 coats of Elf Medium Red.  I stamped her with the maple leafs from the same plate I used on my own Canada Day nails - BM04.  Then I dotted with plain old black and white.

This is my Dad's cousin's daughter who is 16 I think.  I painted her with 3 coats of Orly's Charged Up and I stamped with Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes and BM06.  You can't really see it in this photo but I added a purple gem to the middle of the flower on each ring finger.  I loved doing her nails because she takes good care of them.  She was also a Konad virgin and now I've got her hooked.

We had a great but hot day on Friday.  Yummy food, only one obnoxious drunk and some pretty cool fireworks.  Not bad.

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