The Digit-al Dozen Does Blue - Spazmatic Tips

Day two of The Digit-al Dozen Blue Week! Today I bring you a jeweled french tip mani! I did one of these a few weeks ago (using other colors) and loved how it turned out so I thought I would do it again!

I first started out by applying OPI Pink-a-Doodle (not pictured) as my base color. This is a perfect pink for french manis! I then applied Orly Sweet Peacock on my tips. Hmmm, a little uneven. But that's alright because the next step helps to camouflage that problem! :)

I sponged on Orly Spazmatic on my tips. This is a clear base blue hex glitter with blue micro glitter. Gorgeous! It is part of their Glam FX line that was released earlier this summer.

And next up I finished with Orly Prisma Gloss Silver for a bit of added dimension. I love how it turned out! I am quite fond of these funky french tips! They are easy and sophisticated! :)

My base coat for this mani? Good ol' Elmer's Glue. Yep, I really wanted to try and see if it works! Also, in this picture I have added HK Girl Top Coat.

** edit ** 4 days later **

Ok, so this is day 4 of this mani! Look how well the glue base held up, and the HK Girl top coat! This is even with a day of working truck at work! (unloading boxes and putting out inventory) Not too shabby!

 

And look it! All peeled off! Well, except for a few bits and pieces here and there. But all in all this worked fabulously! And took 5 minutes to do both hands! Sa-weet! I'm sold! I can't wait how satisfying it'll be on a full glitter mani! Oh, and I loved picking it all off! :)

 

Sadly I didn't have the big pieces like I have seen others peel off. But I think that is because it wasn't full on glitter. But oh well! Still awesome and amazing! :)

 

Don't forget to check out the full line-up of ladies in The Digit-al Dozen:





A Girl and Her Polish

Beautygnome
Bee Polished
Caitlin's Creative Corner
Geeky Owl
Glowstars.net
Gnarly Gnails
Manicurator
Manicurity
PishPosh and Polish
The Crumpet
Toxic Vanity

Vacation Haul!

So today I am going to show you what I bought while I was gone. Nothing too exotic and crazy! :)

First is my purchase from Sally's during the extra 50% off clearance sale. I got Seche Rebuild and Finger Paints Flip Flop Fuchsia for, ready for this? A whopping $3.38! Woot woot! Love sales!

This is China Glaze Kalahari Kiss and OPI My Pointe Exactly. China Glaze Kalahari Kiss is really the only one from the new On Safari collection that I had to have. The others are pretty but I needed this one! And OPI My Pointe Exactly is one that I have been wanting for a while too. A grey jelly! Yes please! :)

Yep! Two of the new plates from Essence! Loving the starburst on the first one and check out the owl on the second one! *so happy* :)

And yep again! The other two plates from Essence! Mushrooms and PacMan! *squee!* These are from the lovely Malinka from Nails by Malinka. She was so awesome to get these for me! It's so fun to meet people in polish groups that can help get you your lemmings from half-way across the world! Thank you so much Malinka! :)

Woot woot! Dollish Polish It's A Me Mario! This lovely polish comes from a swap with the lovely Elizabeth from Nailpolish is My Crack. She is such an amazing lady! Thank you so much! I love it!

Macro bottle shot of It's A Me Mario. Blue and red hex glitter with some stars! :)

And finally, this pretty fun package!

Red Carpet Lacquer Ruh Roh! and Zoinks! Emma from Manicurity showed me Ruh Roh! because she knows I am on the look out for brown glitter! :) And I love this one! So unique! And then I couldn't pass up Zoinks! because it's green and brown, uh my favorite colors!

 

Macro bottle shot of Ruh Roh!

 

Just a quick swatch of Red Carpet Lacquer Ruh Roh! on an index card to show you the colors! Brown and black! Super duper fun! Love it!

Macro bottle shot of Zoinks! So special! :)

Just a quick swatch of Red Carpet Lacquer Zoinks! on an index card to show you the colors! Yummy brown and green! Lurve it! :)

*************** More recent haul that I decided to add on! :) **************************

Got these at Sally's. Orly Spazmatic, Orly Can't Be Tamed, and Finger Paints Fall of Surprises!

 

Macro bottle shot of Orly Spazmatic.

 

Macro bottle shot of Orly Can't Be Tamed.

 

Macro bottle shot of Finger Paints Fall of Surprises!

Some clearance polishes from Ulta:  OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down the Window (really similar to another one I have but oh well! I've been wanting this polish! Haha!) and China Glaze Make Some Noise

Sorry for the horrible lighting, but this pretty polish is A England Tristam!!!! Oh yes! I got it in my monthly swap group from LizMarie! Thank you thank you so much!

 

Macro bottle shot of A England Tristam. So purdy!

And these three pretties I got with Copious credits! Spectraflaire Top Coats in 14, 20, and 35!

Back shot of the Spectraflaire Top Coats: 14, 20, and 35

Have you tried Copious? Sign up using the link below to get $10 of Copious credits (new user)! Super fun and easy! :)

http://copious.com/invites/500b49748451e073ed0137e7

Click this link for an additional $10 credit! (click on it and then click the image it brings up!)  :)
  
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=ar5964jab&v=001ip99edeIjlYOS7SGgIf4Cg9MIBPSPXxCSA_SMtBnMWAXIkA4ykVz26Pg3jQCingCcocpSUDTmAwklIVBhqW1Z74Dym_aVNcDDCWmUTXu_BhwqZjebYcoHapLRlN36uaPrvXiW4m-hHA69Wqz9cFqtagEcH-Fo8pwTwdmSgPNWKHuaFPHxRIh7uac3zcOOL5m

So? Any of you have any fun hauls lately?

Guest Post by A Girl and Her Polish

Good Morning Owlets!

Today's guest post is by A Girl and Her Polish. She is the Queen of Dotticures! Her nail art and stamping are fantabulous! And today she's given you some awesome techniques--owl style! ;)

Thank you so much A Girl and Her Polish! :)

Don't forget to check out her blog after reading this post!

************************************************************************

Hello Everyone!!  I was so excited when Kirsten asked me to do a guest post for her!  I feel really lucky that I have gotten to know her in the past couple months.  She is an awesome nail blogger and person! :)

Okay...on to the nails!  Many of my readers have contacted me about stamping.  They want to know how to do it, why it won't work, tips, etc.  I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to share my stamping techniques.  Plus I just got the brand new Bundle Monster plates and they have the perfect design for this post!

When stamping the first thing  to do is gather everything you will need.  You have to be fast with stamping and running to get the things you need will lead to a frustration.

My Tools:

I have my polishes, Orly Decades of Dysfunction, Barry M Denim and I later added Barry M Raspberry, not pictured.  My stamping tools are my plate, stamper and an old Starbuck's card that I use to clean the plate.  My clean-up tools are a make-up brush and cuticle pusher.  Not pictured are my Q-Tips, acetone in a small glass (for clean-up), and paper towels that I put the plate on while stamping.

The plate I am using, BM309 is perfect because it is an owl stamp!  So cute!

Before I get started with polish I use a Q-Tip dabbed in acetone to clean my nails and the plate.  Everything always works better with a clean palette!  I also always use a base coat, which changes depending on my mood.  My go to base coats are butter LONDON Nail Foundation and OPI Nail Envy.

For today's design, after my base coat, I added 2 coats of Orly DoD.  I love this polish.  It's a dirty white with a pink tone and yes, it's from the Dark Shadows collection.  For some reason I had bubbles with this application, so annoying!

You want to make sure that your base polish dries before stamping.  I don't recommend using a fast drying top coat.  The tackiness of the polish helps pull and hold the stamp to your finger.

Alright, the actual stamping.  You want to make sure that the polish you are stamping with is opaque in 1 coat.  You don't have to buy the special stamping polish! A nice thick polish is all you need.  Place some on the stamp, scrap off the excess using a plastic scraper, like my Starbucks card.  You can purchase a plastic scrapper, but I'm sure you have extra plastic cards laying around somewhere. In picking up the stamp, I have found that firmly pushing down works better than the roll method. DON'T move the stamper around or you will smear the stamp. Just push down.  Once you have the stamp on the stamper, roll it on your nail.  You need to move quickly through these steps because the polish will dry fast.  You don't always have to clean the plate between each stamp, it usually depends on the polish.  Sometimes it works better when you leave the extra polish on the stamp.

My nails after stamping:

After I cleaned up my nails I decided to add some accent dots, using the same colors.

Lastly, you want to add your top coat.  It is always a good idea to give your polish time to dry or else it can smear.  Some top coats are horrible with stamping and will always smear, typically the thinner ones like butter LONDON Hardwear.  I have recently started using HK Girl which is AMAZING!! I have not experienced any smearing with this polish, it's fast drying and has a great shine.

My finished product:

Stamping can be a very difficult and frustrating technique to master.  It took me awhile to get good at it.  My best word of advice is practice.  The more you practice the better you will get at it.  Don't give up, you will get the hang of it! 

If you have further questions please feel free to contact me through my blog. I am more than happy to help those who want to learn this technique! 

Thanks Kirsten for letting me share with your readers! :)

Adventures in Stamping: Inspired by Something You Love = Owls and Mustachios!

Well, hello there Adventures in Stamping! It's been a month and a bit since I participated! Whoops! But I could not pass up this theme: Inspired by something you love! And, um, hello, what do I love? Owls and mustachios! Grr with the crooked mustachios.......I mean I meant that and he is doing the little mustache twitching! ;) It's so hard to line it up just right. I need a see-through stamper! :)

Now, this mani is all full of stuff I love. My base color is Orly Nite Owl. This is my favorite polish! (hence it being in the middle in my header photo!) Love love love it! Applies wonderfully! Then I stamped the owls using Barry M Silver Foil and Bundle Monster BM 309. This is the best silver ever to stamp with! Love it too! And then I stamped the mustachios using Konad Black and QA28. And this black is ah-mazing! Love it!

That's a whole lotta love going on huh! Yep it is! I hope you don't mind the mustachios and that you aren't sick of seeing them.......tomorrow is one more chance to see them! Shhh! ;)

Here is Orly Nite Owl is all it's splendor! This is two thin coats! Lurve it! A nude with a silvery shimmer, um yes please! :)

Dupes? Essence Choose Me, Fashionista Mystical Dragon, Jesse's Girl Glee, and Orly Halley's Comet

 

 Today I bring you four beautiful polishes! Essence Choose Me!, Fashionista Mystical Dragon, Jesse's Girl Glee, and Orly Halley's Comet. This is what I found after swatching all my polishes! There different.....right? Errr........maybe? Why don't we take a closer look, shall we?

**Picture Heavy**

Macro bottle shot of Essence Choose Me! Retails for 99 cents, is 0.16 fl oz and is found at Ulta (at least here in the US).

 

Macro bottle shot of Fashionista Mystical Dragon. Retails for 5 pounds (sorry don't know where the symbol is) which converts to $7.85 (according to Yahoo finance), is around 0.38 fl oz, and is found at Superdrug. Or is you have an amazing polish friend who lives in England and has access to it! You know who you are ;)

 

Macro bottle shot of Jesse's Girl Glee. (anyone else thing of Jesse St. James and Rachel Berry From Glee when they read that?) Retails for $2.99, is 0.35 fl oz, and is found at Rite Aid.

Macro bottle shot of Orly Halley's Comet. Retails originally for $10 (but now is clearanced), is 0.60 fl oz, and is found at (if they have any more) Ulta, Sallys, and Amazon (plus many other places).

 

Here is one coat of each polish. (l-r) Essence Choose Me!, Fashionista Mystical Dragon, Jesse's Girl Glee, and Orly Halley's Comet. Right off the bat you can see that my middle finger, Fashionista Mystical Dragon, is more opaque. You can see visible nail line (VLN) on all other fingers. My ring finger, Jesse's Girl Glee, shows a few bare spots because the polish sort of dragged. The other three polishes all applied very nicely!

Two coats of each polish. (l-r) Essence Choose Me!, Fashionista Mystical Dragon, Jesse's Girl Glee, and Orly Halley's Comet. My pointer finger Essence Choose Me! is much lighter than the other three polishes. Again, my middle finger Fashionista Mystical Dragon, is darker and more opaque. Could have been fine with just the one coat. My ring finger,  still shows some of the bare spots (a third coat would have covered it all). On my pinkie finger, Orly Halley's Comet, is a tad more green, only a smidgen if that. You can still sort of see some VNL on my pointer and ring finger.

All these polishes are teal based and jammed back with glass flecks and are just stunning in the light!

Look at that shine and sparkle! Look at all those flecks of gorgeousness! Two coats of each polish. (l-r) Essence Choose Me!, Fashionista Mystical Dragon, Jesse's Girl Glee, and Orly Halley's Comet.

And again another angle. The edges take a on a deeper hue. Two coats of each polish. (l-r) Essence Choose Me!, Fashionista Mystical Dragon, Jesse's Girl Glee, and Orly Halley's Comet.

There are also other polishes that belong with this comparison. Wet 'n Wild Teal of Fortune (I own this but it went missing when I did this post, weird!) and Zoya Charla (which I don't own).

The blog I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous does a great comparison post that includes these two polishes: Comparison: Zoya Charla, Essence Choose Me, Orly Halley's Comet, & Wet n Wild Teal of Fortune. Please click the link and go check it out! :) She says that the Wet 'n Wild Teal of Fortune isn't a dupe, it is more blue based. But that Zoya Charla looks exactly like Orly Halley's Comet and Essence Choose Me! So I would assume that is would also look like Jesse's Girl Glee and Fashionista Mystical Dragon.

So are they dupes? I believe Essence Choose Me! Is a bit lighter than the rest, the blue/teal isn't as deeply saturated. But they are all pretty close and you wouldn't be sad if you only had just one of these. Fashionista has the best coverage as it is pretty much opaque on it's first coat. And Jesse's Girl Glee likes to drag a bit. But I would think it's safe to say that they are all pretty close and could be considered dupes!

Do you have any of these or all of them like me? 

I am planning on a blog sale soon and will possible be putting a few of these up on it. So, if you don't have any and would like one, wait around a bit and you soon could! My blog sale will be up around the beginning of August (would be sooner but I am going on vacation and won't have that much internet and wouldn't be able to keep track of it all!).

I hope you enjoyed this comparison/dupe post because while swatching my polishes I have found quite a few more! >_<