Explosion Fail

I think we’re all familiar with Jane from Nailside. I envy her skills. She’s one of my favorites. I did not do her explosion mani justice.This was my second attempt at this design.  I’m seriously struggling with it.  I don’t know why.  Her tutorial makes it seem so simple.  I’m determined to get it right.  I’m struggling with the tape placement.

In an effort to save time, I did it over an existing mani  The subtle polka dots paired with the black and silver “explosion” looks very comic bookish to me.  Like they should have “Bam!” and “Pow!” captions.  I used Sally Hansen Black Out and OPI DS Radiance for this look.

I will for sure keep trying at this one.  I love the explosion when Jane does it.  I will conquer it.  Mark my words. 😉

V-Gap Dotticure

I’m really loving the polka dots lately.  Maybe it’s just because I’ve been busy and am too lazy to try anything else.  I do love the retro look that polka dots create.

I love the designs you can create with tape, but I sure do hate the drying time.  I usually try to stick the tape on too early and end up messing up my polish in the process.  I’m impatient and don’t like to use layers of top coat to dry things in between.  I had to do some touch up work, but once the top coat goes on, you can hardly even tell.

I love this color combination.  I love grey.  This is Sally Hansen Wet Cement and Essie Alligator Purse.  Here Alligator Purse reads as red, but it’s actually a burnt orange.  It’s a fabulous color!

Twinsie Tuesday: Oldest Polish

Happy Tuesday!  Today we’re showing our oldest polish.  I wasn’t really sure which of my polishes was older, but being that I have a few OPIs that don’t have the wide brushes, I figured that makes them pretty old.  I know I bought them when I was in my teens.  They’re in surprisingly good condition.  You’d think they would be all dried up and gloppy, but not so.

These polishes are such delicate colors, it made them difficult to photograph.  I started with OPI Shanghai Shimmer.  Talk about mannequin hands.  If this polish didn’t have a shimmer to it, you wouldn’t have been able to see it at all.  I was terribly unimpressed.

So I added some polka dots in OPI Hawaiian Orchid, a super, super pale pink shimmer.  It makes for a very subtle combination.  Evidently I didn’t always like bright and colorful polishes.  I have a couple bold ones that are pretty old, but I only ever used them on my toes back in the day.  I used to buy French tip kits pretty regularly, but always struggled to get them to look good.  Oh how times change.

Be sure the check out all the other manis today:

Amanda of Amandalandish
Anna of Going to the Showing
Anne of Grape Fizz Nails
Ashley of Art Evolve
Brandi of The Collegiate Nail
Chelsea of Nailed Blog
ChiChi of I’m Just Me…ChiChi
Cordia of Seriously Swatched
Elizabeth of Did My Nails
Jenn of All That is Gorgeous
Jenna of I’m Still Thinking
Katherine of Haul of Fame
Maribeth of Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite!
Marisa of Polish Obsession
Meredith of Polish and Charms
Nory of Fierce Make Up and Nails
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch
Tara of Polishy of Truth

Movember Moustache Monday

Last installment of Moustache Monday, until next year anyway.  This one’s a little crazy.  A zombie with a moustache?  Yeah, a little crazy.  Who watches The Walking Dead?  That show is definitely what inspired today’s moustache mani.  Each episode gets more and more intense.  I think I actually held my breath through an entire scene last night. 

I can’t say that I ever recall noticing a walker with a moustache on the show, but I thought it would be fun to try.  Although my husband thought the moustache was blood around the mouth.  🙂

I played with a little splatter to compliment my zombie stache.  My splatter is done in Jordana Chiffon, Sally Hansen Wet Cement and Julep Alma.  Zombie’s face is a combination of the colors I already mentioned, Sally Hansen Black Out, Julep Annette, Julep Molly, and Essie Alligator Purse.  I topped it all off with Chill Zone top coat.

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Autumn Chevron and Stripes

I had a great Thanksgiving and I hope you all did as well.

I just love this color combination.  It’s very autumnal.  I had grand plans to do one of Nailside’s explosion manis but evidently I’m explosion mani handicapped.  Her tutorial makes it look easy peasy.  Not so, for me at least.  I’ll keep trying to master it.

But in the meantime, I had to figure out something else to do with the two accent nails that I had messed up already.  Chevrons and polka dots.  My base polish is OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down the Window.  My brown is Essie Chocolate Cakes and the fantastic orange is OPI DS Luxurious.  After messing up the explosion more than once already, I was too impatient to wait for the polish to be dry enough to tape off the chevrons, so I freehanded them.

Off topic, how many of you are black Friday shoppers?  I am not!  I would rather spend the extra money to avoid the crowds.  I may take advantage of cyber Monday though.  I like the peace and quiet of shopping from my own home.