Teal Tuesdays - Ovarian Cancer Awareness

 

This week our tealicure is to support a good cause! It is to raise awareness for Ovarian Cancer. September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month with September 7th being National Wear Teal Day!

I decided to keep it simple and straight to the point! :) This is Essence Romeo and A England Saint George using the Bundle Monster BM321 plate. Isn't it perfect! Teal ribbons!

Here I tried my HK Girl topcoat that I talked about last week here. And you know what? No dragging or smearing of my stamped image! And look at that shine! Shiny sparkly teal ribbons! :) You can purchase HK Girl Top Coat at Glisten & Glow

The is a group called Teal Toes (facebook group here and website here) that talks about wearing teal in to raise awareness. The website states:

"Our mission is to raise awareness of ovarian cancer.

How?  By painting your toenails teal, the ovarian cancer color.  By getting your friends to paint their toenails teal too, and then by talking with people when they ask about it, to make sure that they know the signs of this whispering killer.

Any time of year is good for teal toes, but we especially recommend September, the ovarian cancer awareness month!"

 Please spread the word by showing your teal! For more information please visit Teal Toes or Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.

There are also some polish companies that are donating sales to Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Color Club has a set of polish, OCRF Polish, and they will donate 50% off the proceeds for an entire year! Please click the image below to be sent to the site!

Also, Diamond Cosmetics is donating a dollar for every kit sold! Please click image below to be sent to their site!

Such awesome deals and service! Please check them out and let's raise some awareness! Painting my toes teal tonight! :)

Don't forget to check out the other ladies that are showing support and awareness with their tealicures and our fancy links! :)

Love Yourself Mani: Essence No More Drama and Barry M Foil Effects

So I decided to do a simple palette cleansing mani! :) I choose Essence No More Drama as my base and stamped with Barry M Foil Effects in Silver using Bundle Monster BM 314 plate. I love how it turned out! Simple and beautiful! :)

 

Here is Essence No More Drama. See that clearance orange there on the bottle? I got this polish for 49 cents! Best 49 cents ever spent! This polish is a dream! Applies evenly and smoothly. 

Here it is again in direct sun. Such a gorgeous shade of light purple!

Another angle of the stamped and finished mani. I love how the Barry M Foil Effects seems to glow! Love!

I really liked this mani and wanted to do something for me, that I enjoyed. This is part of the Love Yourself manis. For more information click on this picture or the one in my sidebar to be taken to the facebook group!

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!

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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! :)

Guest Post by Mommy Does Her Nails

So today starts the run of a two and half week guest post show while I am on vacation! I hope you all enjoy these posts as much as I have!

Today's guest post is from Mommy Does Her Nails, her pictures and stamping are simply gorgeous! I love how rich the colors are in all her pictures! Oh and I think she has created a name for my readers! :)

Thank you so much Mommy Does Her Nails! :)

Don't forget to check out her blog after reading this post! I hope you enjoy!

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Hi owlets! Geeky Owl flew the tree and left this mommy with a post *insert evil laugh*. Well mostly evil since I didn't actually do an evil inspired manicure but now that I think about it that would have been awesome. Beauty of hindsight right? So what I have here is an accent manicure with some stamping:

I ordered the Zoya Pinterest mini trio of Myrta (accent), Zuza (other two fingers) and Kimber (not pictured). I stamped Myrta with Sally Hansen White On and the other two with Sally Hansen Green Envy. Bright and summery :)

These have so much shimmer in them! So how did the Zoya minis compare to the full size?

Ah! There's Kimber - pictured next to Jancyn for size. Basically it's half the size, but the cap is identical. Then there's the brush:

Identical with a shorter neck! Personally I love Zoya and I really hope to see more mini sets in the future. They are the best minis I have ever seen and really made me want every single color in a mini version. They are PERFECT travel size and should I go through one I will be keeping it for my travel polish bottle.

Thanks for reading and thank you Geeky Owl for letting me have a few moments on your delightful blog! :) Signing off, Mommy Does Her Nails

Monkey See Monkey Do Mondays: Mustaches & Monocles!

Monkey See Monkey Do Mondays are where we re-create manis from different blogs or pictures we have "pinned" on Pinterest, and link back to the original blogger!

Shhhh! No, I have no idea what you are talking about. Part of this mani so doesn't look familiar! ;) Hahaha! (please see this post) So I decided to recycle a mani a bit. Shhh! :) I used China Glaze Agent Lavender as the base. Konad Black and plate QA28. I then used Color Club French Tip and Wet 'N Wild Black Cream for the monocles.

I was inspired by Samariums Swatches mani: Mustaches & Monocles! (please click the post title or the image to be taken to her site).

I love this mani a ton and it was a blast to recreate it! It's so fun and full of whimsy and awesomeness! Yep, awesomeness! :)

Thank you Samariums Swatches for making such an awesome mani! :)

Would you like to join Monkey See Monkey Do Mondays? Click the image below or the one on my side bar.

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! :)

China Glaze Agent Lavender in Disguise!

So I wanted to do a mani today and was having troubles coming up with an idea. So I pulled out China Glaze Agent Lavender and was about to put glitter on it but stopped as I saw my new stamping plates. What better than to use mustachios and have China Glaze Agent Lavender in disguise! Hahahaha! ;)

This is a pale purple/blurple creme. Mine was a bit runny and flooded my cuticles a bit but acetone and a brush cleaned it up with no problems! This is two coats of Agent Lavender.

I used Konad Black to stamp my mustachios using stamping plate QA28 that I got from ebay.

This one is slightly less true to color, this is more blue than in real life; but this is a direct sun picture.

Well, with his disguises, would you be able to tell who Agent Lavender was? ;)

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to all of my American readers! I thought I would try a patriotic mani and I am lovin' how it turned out! :)

For my index finger I used FingerPaints Cerulean Seascape. This is a gorgeous glowy blue. Look at it! And this is one coat only! The red that I used was Essie First Dance, also one coat! I thought these were the perfect blue and red for the flag! And as you can see I used Konad White as my stamping polish. This white is a wonder! It's perfect! The plate that I used Cheeky plate CH4.

Hope you all have a safe and wonderful 4th of July! And to you who don't celebrate this holiday.....I still wish you a safe and happy Wednesday that happens to be July 4th! ;)

Monkey See Monkey Do Mondays: Flip Flops!

Monkey See Monkey Do Mondays are where we re-create manis from different blogs or pictures we have "pinned" on Pinterest, and link back to the original blogger!

Today I have re-created a gorgeous bright flip flop mani! When I first saw it I knew I had to do this mani. You see, I work at Old Navy and this Saturday was our $1 Flip Flop sale! How perfect is that! Oh, and they were a hit at work! :)

This is my inspiration from A Girl and Her Polish. (please click her name her image below to be sent to her site!). Isn't hers gorgeous! I didn't have any neons but chose some bright colors to go with the theme. Now this mani was hard for me to do. I don't do skittles all that well, something about have different colors on each finger is hard for me. And I usually do my ring finger as the accent nail and not the little finger like above. But by golly I was determined to re-created this lovely mani! :)

Now they only problem with this: was what to do for my thumb! Her's isn't pictured! Well, I thought like any good friend of The Crumpet would do and added a purple! :)

See! My purple thumb with more flip flops! :)

Bah! Pay no attention to the wonky little finger, it doesn't get much camera time and therefore isn't trained on how to behave in this situation. This is my right hand because I started stamping before I took a picture to show you the base colors! Duh! >_< But the colors are (l-r): Max Factor Disco Pink, Catrice Blue Cara Ciao, OPI Fiercely Fiona, and FingerPaints Sexy Sundress. My purple thumb is OPI Planks a Lot. I used Bundle Monster BM-309 (this one also has the owls on it!). I stamped using Konad Black and Konad White.

And for kicks and giggles the bottle shots of the polishes I used.

Thank you, A Girl and Her Polish for created such an awesome mani! :)

Would you like to join Monkey See Monkey Do Mondays? Click the image below or the one on my side bar.

Love Yourself Mani: For the Love of Owls!

Today's mani, is purely for me! :) I have been waiting to do this mani since Bundle Monster showed this plate as a sneek peek! I used Essence Romeo for my base. I really love this grey. Great coverage in one coat! Then I used BM-309 (the owl plate!) using Konad black (stains like a mother!) and KleanColor Metallic Fuschia. I LOVE this mani! And what better way to break in a new set of plates then to use one featuring your favorite animal! Win! :)

Flipped this image so that you can see it. Isn't it spectacular!? :)

Here is Bundle Monster's picture of the plate I used. Click on the image to be sent to their site to order the newest set of plates! You won't be sorry. You can also get them on Amazon.

I know, I know, you've seen me swatch this polish a bazillion times. But I love this polish and it works great as a base for stamping and for glitters! This is Essence Romeo, part of the Nail Art Twins.

I really liked this mani and wanted to do something for me, that I enjoyed. This is part of the Love Yourself manis. For more information click on this picture or the one in my sidebar to be taken to the facebook group!

Adventures in Stamping: The Sky's the Limit

This week the challenges was the sky is the limit, which meant anything you would find in the sky. I immediately thought of my Konad plate Q1. And so that is what I used. All of these images are from the Q1 plate. My base is Essence You Belong to Me. The polishes I used to stamp with are: Konad Special White, Konad Special Black, KleanColor Metallic Yellow, Metallic Fuschia, and Metallic Green.

Here is Essence You Belong to Me on it's own. Isn't it the perfect sky blue!? This is two coats with one coat of Seche Vite.