Abstract Illamasquatch!

Hi Readers!  Did you read that right??? Illamasquatch instead of Illamasqua?  Yep you sure did!  My friend Kim admitted awhile ago she had trouble pronouncing Illamasqua and then she referred to it as Illamasquatch and ever since I just call it that because honestly it's hysterical!  It seems in the world of nail polish there are a few of them people aren't sure how to pronounce.  Seche Vite--my mom always calls is Skesh Ka Veet which cracks me and my sisters up. Nfu-Oh which I say New Fo but others say En Eff You Oh.  NYX which I always call En Why Ex although I believe it's Nix as in Goddess of the Night.  And of course Illamasqua which is Ill Ah Mah Squaw.
I have 4 Illamasqua's and they are are all truly gorgeous.  My friend Rachel of Cherry Glam Girl got every one of them for me and whenever I wear them I think of her!
I saw this look somewhere but I just can't recall!  I think it was a DIY site--I'd link it but again just can't remember where I saw it lol!

Basically I just made shapes on my nails not necessarily touching and then filled it in the space with gold.

The Illamasqua's are so rich and regal looking.  I used Baptiste, Viridian and Scarab.  To fill in I used Funky Fingers.
Here's a pic of the polishes I used

Do you have Illamasqua's if yes which one is your favorite?  Any on your wishlist?  I just have 2 on my wishlist Scorn and Muse.  Hopefully someday I'll snag both of these.  


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Mer Man???

Hi Readers!  I think it's no secret when it comes to mani's I love all things dragon scales and mermaid tails!  I came up with this one after I was doing some blog searching.  Check out the inspiration for today's mani here.  In addition to some nice swatches and designs Nihrida rocks some AWESOME rings! When I first saw this post it reminded me of a merman and I loved the look so I pulled out some untrieds in my stash to see if I could recreate it.  

As you can see I went a bit further than Nihrida and added a holo topcoat.  What I did to get this look was 2 coats of L'oreal VIP Status (which I love btw).  Then I sponged on a light purple LA Colors Craze--no idea what that name is since they aren't on the bottle!  I also sponged on a purple flakie LA Colors Craze AGAIN with no name.  After all that was dry I sponged on the lovely OPI Mermaid's Tears, stamped using M57 and L'oreal VIP Status.  What was so cool about it is the fish net stamp doesn't show up over it's self but only the other colors!  I liked the look but decided to get more "scaley" looking so I added my gLORIous holo topcoat over all.  Pretty cool!

Here it is with flash!  Pretty darn gorgeous!

Here's a pic of all the polishes I used--if you know the name of the LA Colors let me know!

While I didn't love this mani I did like it.  I loved the look of VIP Status with gLORIous over it.  I think one of these days I might have to do some side by sides of mermen with mermaids!


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Wavy Gravy!

Hi Readers!  Since it's winter here in Wisconsin it's too cold for ice cream so this wavy gravy will have to be something else!  How about a delicious magnetic manicure?!!!  I'm really loving all my magnetic polishes so far and this one is simply stunning!  A gorgeous dark vampy wine!

For $5 a bottle these Nabi's are really nice.  The only downside to them is they smell awful!  Burt's Bee's Lemon Butter doesn't even help!  Oh well the price of  beauty is well worth the stink!

As you can see on my swear finger aka middle I touched the magnet to the polish and I used the magnet from one of my Icing's for this as the chevron design on the Nabi's doesn't wrap around enough on my curved nails.


Here's a nice close up though--so dark and vampy I just love it!

I tried to live with the mess up not bothering me but it was! SO I decided to haul out my Brett Favre franken and do some covering up

Brett Favre is a franken I made intending the old Mardi Gras look green, gold, purple.  My first attempt at it I did not like and I said "ug this is so ugly only a Minnesota Viking's fan would like it"  since if was a fail and since I'm a Packer fan and you don't screw with the Packers by signing with the Vikings and did I mention it was ugly and huge fail so I named it Brett Favre! Not accepting defeat I went in and revamped it and then loved it.  I decided to stick with the name though lol!
Here's a bottle shot of Brett Favre

He's a mix of micro green, gold and purple glitters and then some large gold hexes.

I like this glitter tips look with the magnetic polish!
Here's a pic of the polishes I used--pretty straightforward lol!

How do you feel about these magnetic polishes readers??  Do you love them, hate them or are you over them--OR do you need them all like me and my friend Amy from I'm Feeling Nail Venterous?


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Stop Drop and Roll!

Hi Readers! Today I am ON FIRE! The Sunday Stamping Challenge over in my fb group Adventures in Stamping is Using 3 Colors.  Really the possibilities were endless with this one.  I had recently received my Zoya's from their Valentine's promo though so I decided I would use a couple of them.  My favorite color is yellow--it was the first color I learned to spell can you believe it?  I didn't start with red or blue nope I went for yellow.  My nephew AJ when he was little couldn't pronounce "y" to save his life lol!  He always said lellow for yellow.  I remembering him asking my dad to read him the book The Little Yellow Duck.  Of course he said Lellow Duck instead when asking.  So my dad says okay let's read the Lellow Duck book and AJ said "No grandma!  It's the lellow duck not the lellow duck!"  Holy cow we all busted out laughing!  He knew how it should be said he just couldn't do it lol!
Back to the nails and the challenge though!  I did a nice gradient using Zoya Pippa, Kleancolor Metallic Orange, and Zoya Sarah.  After receiving my Sarah I have decided I must have ALL the Zoya metallics!

Okay so there are my 3 colors!  BUT we have to stamp on this baby yet so I decided to burn down the house and stamped using the the same 3 colors but in reverse order on the gradient!

I think it turned out great!  I'm not sure this is an everyday mani but for a challenge mani it's dang good!
What I had to do to make the yellow really pop was go back over the mani stamping yellow a 2nd time on the tips. Here's a nice close up 

 I love how my thumb turned out the best!

After I took a shot of this one I decided I should make a ring like this mani!  Hopefully it will turn out and I can post pics of it later!

This is just a basic gradient mani.  I started with a base of two coat of Zoya Pippa.  Then I sponged on Kleancolor Metallic Orange going from the tip to halfway up the nail.  After that I sponged Zoya Sarah onto the tips.  I stamped using all the colors on the image plate using Shany SH22.
Here's a picture of the polishes I used

Look at the loveliness that is Zoya Sarah!  When I mentioned how gorgeous Sarah was in my FB group the bigheaded Sarah from Chalkboard Nails got a big head! Can you believe it???!!  You all should stop over there and give her some grief about it!! LOL!  The thing that makes me laugh is Zoya Sarah is all fiery and spicy and that is SO not Sarah--she is super nice and sweet.  My Zoya color Laurie is a pale pink--really innocent looking--our colors totally should be switched lol!


So what do you think about this challenge mani readers??  Do you think it looks good stamping in reverse on the gradient or is it just too much?  Is this your everyday mani or one you'd haul out on for a special occasion?


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Foiled take II you don't get fooled again!

Hi Readers!  I'm featuring another stamping over foils mani today!  And like my title says I didn't get fooled this time.  I had absolutely no issues with them this time because I waited a full five minutes or more before applying the foils and they went on like a dream!
This time I managed to take pics of the foiling before the stamping!
This is Aztec Gold isn't is gorgeous???!!!

It's SO prismatic and shiney!

Here's a close up!

Now true story readers I was at a spaghetti luncheon today to help out my sweet niece Alex.  I nearly blinded her mom, my little sister, Lynelle and a few others in the room with these nails lol!  When I got home I stamped over them hoping to tame them a bit but still keep their bite.  Hmmmmm what would be the best stamping image to do that?
BAM M57 to the rescue! ROAR!

I thought I'd show off the right hand again for a change lol!  Don't you ever wonder if bloggers only paint their picture hand?  I always sport a two handed mani lol!

Again I really love how the stamping on foils looks!
I was lucky enough to win a raffle item at the fund raiser!  Trust me when I tell you this is rare.  I'm the person putting it a zillion dollars for the raffle items and coming home with bupkiss.  This time though I won something and check it out!! Is this not perfect for a mani/pedi lover??????

I did an awesome foot soak with the bath salts and foot scrubs with my new goodies.  Don't worry readers I'll spare you the foot pics!


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Dark Matter--a franken

Hi Readers, today I'm featuring a franken I made.  I had a lot of trouble naming this franken.  When I first made it and showed it to my nail polish friends the first thoughts were it looked like space.  So we had all sorts of names flying out there.  It looked as if Starburst was going to win but then doing a web search today of galaxies the term dark matter hit me in the heart so that's what I'm going with!  
Dark Matter happened completely by mistake.  I had been wanting to make a dark purple for my friend Wendy and name is Sweet Bitch because it sums her up to a "T" but it just wasn't happening.  I had an empty bottle of an old prism bottle I used to make another franken with.  There was a teeny bit of holo glitter  left inside and I thought I'm not going to clean this bottle out I'm just going to pour into it.  I used 2 bottles of a dark purple Sally Girl I bought for Wendy's franken and then added holo, magenta, aqua and dark blue glitter to it.  Then to amp it up a bit I added some aqua flakies.  I wish my camera was better to show you the true beauty of this polish.  
I give you . . . Dark Matter

I tried to isolate a couple fingers to show you the glitters

Here's a shot under the kitchen light

I love how the holo glitter and magenta glitters really work well together

This shot you can see some of the cool flakies too!

Aaaaaaaaaaand because I can't have just plain nails I stamped on it!

For the stamping I used China Glaze Harmony and 2 images from BM208
Check out my pinkie in this angle

Holo glitter Close Up!!!!

And if that's not enough of me breaking my arm patting myself on the back here's a picture of the new franken, Dark Matter, with the new moon and stars ring I made for my friend Ace of the Polish Lab's fundraiser

I have to say this might be one of my best frankens ever.  My friend Tara from Tough As Nails, and Twice As Pretty is dying for a bottle of this lol!  She's a Bears fan but I still love her!  I think I might make her say I love the Green Bay Packers before I send her a bottle lol!


What do you think readers--did this one knock your socks off?


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Good things come in twos!

Hi Readers!  Don't you love with you can get two for the price of one???  Today's mani features another one of my birthday gifts from Igor.  She got me the Serena set in Love Is A Racket and Pros & Bronze.  I have to tell you the Serena sets are fantastic!  I also have Grape, Set, Match and Servin' Up Sparkle.  I feel like I'll need the other sets as well!  As much I love Love Is A Racket on it's own when I layered Pros & Bronze over it I loved it more!  

What a gorgeous layering combination!

I stamped over it with Sally Hansen Chrome Pen in gold using plate M78 and really like this design!

I really love this Serena set and can't wait to find some more uses for both Love Is A Racket and Pros & Bronze!

How about you readers?  Do you have any of the OPI Serena sets?

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

It's As Easy As . . .

Hi Readers!  Today's mani features one of my favorite images EVAH!  It's not flowers, it's not animal prints, it's not abstract.  AND it's such an easy image to do--it's as easy as . . . shooting fish in a barrel!  Today's mani is all about the Skelly fish!!!!  I got some of the Nabi brand magnetics and one of them was a really pretty aqua blue.  After I put it on it totally reminded me of the ocean and waves.  Check out how lovely it is

This aqua blue is soooooo pretty!

Do you see what I mean about the waves look???
The minute I "saw" water I pulled out my skellies!!!

I don't know what it is about this skelly fish but I just love them!

Don't be afraid to get a look up close--they don't bite!

What do you think?  Are they cute or stinky????


And don't worry readers no fish were harmed in the making of this mani!!!!!


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Abstract Art!

Hi Readers!  Saturday night was game night over at my folks condo.  We love playing games as a family and get together to do it often.  Mom made this fantastic beef and pork roast cooked together in the slow cooker and together we whipped up a broccoli and cauliflower salad and then earthquake cake for dessert.  The game we played was Guesstures.  Let me just tell you if you're old and out of shape this is not the game for you readers lol!  ANYWAY while over there I started looking at the metal wall hanging my mom has and I thought "hey I wonder if I could do something like this on a mani?"  I put the thought in the back of mind and then Sarah of Chalkboard Nails came up with a contest and I had to pull that sucker back out!  Look here for her contest and the rules for it. I love Sarah I really do but sometimes I just want to smack her!  Dotting tools are not easy for me at all.  But this is what I came up with readers--what do you think???

I tried to create a dramatic effect of using matte and holographic here.  I used Zoya Verushka and China Glaze He's Going In Circles.

Of course after finishing the mani and taking pictures of it I said "hey I wonder how it looks with topcoat" SO I topcoated it lol!

I really do like it better with topcoat.  I know a matte is made and designed to be matte but the depth and shine you get out of one when you topcoat it is unequaled in my opinion!

Here's a close up--there is just so much sparkle to Verushka with a topcoat!

Here are the polishes and the tools I used for this mani

Which way do you like it better readers matte or with topcoat?  Have you entered Sarah's contest????? I hope you all do!


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Foiled and not a Weber grill in site!

Hi Readers!  Well it's Monday so that means there was a Sunday Stamping challenge in my facebook group!  This Sunday the challenge was to use a plate with 3 in it.  I've got about 5 sets of stamp sets now so this was going to be rife with possibilities for me!  My friend Alyssa and I went in together on an order of nail foils from Dollar Nail Art they have some awesome foils and rhinestones and such check them out here.  They have a minimum order of $25 which is why Alyssa and I went together for an order.  We wanted to try foils and weren't sure if we would A--be able to do them properly and B--like them.  I tried them and loved them!  I foolishly didn't get a picture of them before stamping on them though SORRY!  
This mani is nail foil in Tie Dye Surprise with SH Whirl Wind White using plate RA113

I even took a picture of the right hand this time!

Here's a nice close up

WOW looking at that makes me dizzy!!!
Here's a shot I took of the foil for my friend Marcy who asked to see it.

It was a bit of trial and error for me with these.  I found a site that said to wait 1 to 2 minutes after applying adhesive but really you need to wait a good 5 minutes before applying the foils.  Once I figured that out application was a breeze.  Another thing with the foils is no Seche Vite!  KILLER I know but it ruins the flat foil affect and makes them all wrinkled.  I used 2 really light coats of Dollar Store clear and once it dried I stamped and then did a topcoat of Seche which worked just fine.
Here's a picture of all the foils I got from Alyssa.  I can't wait to try them all!

What do you think readers--do you like the stamping over the foil or do you think it's better left alone?  Have you tried foils before--if yes where did you get them?  If no, what's stopping you?


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!