Sparkles and stripes...

Barry M


This is another remnant of my vault cleanout!  I think ultimately after I had this one on my computer I just didn't think it was clean enough or that it photographed well enough to make it on the blog.  That being said I really loved this mani too and I wore it for a considerable period of time. I started out with just wanting to do the stripes and then I decided later to jazz it up a bit with some glitter. I hope you enjoy it!! :)

Splash Marble

Essie


Most of you probably know that I picked up some sheer shades recently and I.LOVE.THEM.  I've had so much fun playing with them.  They blend, they can be layered, you can color with them... the possibilities are just endless.  One of the ways I played with them was in doing something I'm calling a splash marble.  This may well have been done previously, it's difficult to create a new nail technique these days, but if it has I haven't seen it anywhere. You can use it to make multiple effects and I've sort of fine tuned it for a future mani.  Basically what you want to do is to do a standard water marble and then use alcohol to spray the surface so that the marble separates.  My index nail was a bit of a fail but you can use it to do a random sort of marble like on my pinky OR to make sort of a blended leopard type effect like my middle two fingers.  The sheers make it extra interesting because if you don't make a full bulls-eye in your cup but rather, just do a few sheer drops, you can then dip your nail repeatedly to make a layered effect.  I think it might be fun to use this in conjunction with stamping like a pond mani but I haven't gone that far with it yet.  At any rate I hope you like the art!! :)

Swatch This! Butter London Fiddlesticks

butter london


Here's a little swatch post for you! Haven't done one of these in a bit so I thought I might start again. Originally the intention was to swatch my entire collection and weed out dupes and colors I don't wear or won't wear.  I'm not sure that's really a viable option at this point -- especially as I'm in the midst of a move -- but it's still a great way to see the pretty colors I have. :P  So this one is Butter London Fiddlesticks.  I believe it was a holiday release but for the life of me I can't remember the name of the collection.  It came out in 2012 along with a plethora of other glittery shades.  This is a perfect shade for fall and for the upcoming holidays so it's definitely a keeper!! What do you think? Do you have Fiddlesticks?

Suitcase of memories...

essence


Ok so today I'm cleaning out the vault and while most of the things I did ages ago were deemed not worthy of the blog, this was a look I thoroughly enjoyed and so, despite the nubs and the not so great lighting (and that TEENSY chip on my thumb!) I wanted to go ahead and share it with you.  I actually did this art last fall and I'm not sure why they never made it on here because I really LOVE them.  At any rate I digress.  I hope you like my little fall birdies!  Thanks for following along!!

Nature Week: Flowers


It's the final day of Re-creation Week with The Digital Dozen!! This was a mani that I KNEW I had to do as soon as I saw it. It's been on my list of things to try and what better a time than now?  This is actually another two for one because the original was done by Kirsten of The Geeky Owl using a tutorial from the Idiots Guide: Nail Art by our very own Lacquerologist. I really love the colors Kirsten used and the way her art looked sort of grungy and feminine and just...EVERYTHING.  That being said I did not have the stamp she has, nor the exact colors AND her nails are quite different from mine so it wasn't as exact as I'd have liked but it was still really fun to do and I LOVE the results.  I didn't want to take this one off...like...EVER!! Alas I eventually did have to...but now it's immortalized here for all time. :P  Please check out the original art by clicking the link above and don't forget to check out the other amazing art from this week's re-creations! I wish I could've done a mani by every girl in our group but unfortunately, that's it for this week! Thanks for joining us!!


Bare Trees



OK guys...today we're going ALL the way back to December of 2014 for a re-creation from Hannah at The Dalai Lamas Nails.  This came from our Winter Wonderland theme week.  Now...I LOVE Hannah's art.  I fangirl HARD over her blog but let's face the facts here; I'm no Dalai Hannah.  I actually chose THREE other designs of hers first and failed hard core at all three. Then I arrived at this one and thought...OK maybe I can handle that.  I've actually done tree mani's before and really hated them but I think this came out rather decent!  I used two tones of gray and light brush strokes to try to give it some depth and a little more of a bark like feel where I think the original was more of a silhouette kind of thing but overall I think this turned out great. You can head over to Hannah's blog by clicking the link AND don't forget to drool over her other mani's while you're there!! More re-creations can be found below!! :) 

 

Arrows, Mustaches, and Dots!


Today I have a re-creation for you that was pretty tricky!  I really loved this mani from A Girl and Her Polish but that struggle I told you about on day one...yeah that one REALLY came into play here. See, I don't actually have a mustache stamp.  Or rather, I do have one but it makes GINORMOUS mustaches and I needed little tiny one.  So....you get this.  This mash-up of large and little stache.  I actually loved the way this came out although the original is arguably better and far more precise.  I love the way Katee can put patterns on patterns like a boss so I'm extra proud that I even attempted this. That stuff can go so badly so quickly!! At any rate, you know the drill!! Click the link, check out the original and leave your thoughts below! Try not to judge me too harshly ;P  Check out more re-creations below!!

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