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Thursday, June 14, 2012

Move over Duckie!

Hi Readers!  Today's mani is pretty in pink!  I just got almost all of the new Zoya's--somehow poor Zuza was MIA but she's on her way to me lol!  I honestly did not know where to start with these I love them all so much.  I decided to start simple and went with pink.  If you notice with Zoya's summer collection the Beaches are all lovely cremes that compliment the Surfs which are fantastic metallics.  Each Beach color has a corresponding Surf color--it's a gradient addicts dream come true!  For this mani I picked Shelby and  Rory and went with a simple gradient with some stamping (of course!) on top.
See how well Rory and Shelby compliment each other?  I haven't tried one of the metallic shades to stamp with yet but I feel they will work which makes tons of endless subtle stamping possibilities!
You can really see the lovely shimmer of Rory in this pic
I used my lovely Milani White On and Mash-48 for my stamping.


This is what a call a one day mani--lovely but not earth shattering enough for me to keep it on more than a day lol!


What do you think Readers?  Did you get any or all of the Zoya Beach and Surf polishes?


Thanks for stopping by!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!
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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Holo Hump Day!!!

Hi Readers!  Happy Wednesday or aka Happy Hump Day!  My friends and I have gotten together once again with a group mani and this time we chose Holo Hump Day.  Because blue is my "problem" color I had no issues whatsoever hauling out China Glaze 2Nite and my holo franken Safe Word ( ad dupe to DS Glamour) to make a gorgeous mani!
First my gradient sans stamping!
Super lovely gradient in the sun!
BUT that's the downside to a holo.  They really only shine, sparkle and come to live outside during the day in the sun.  If you are like me and cooped up inside during the day a holo is sort of wasted.  That's why I always stamp on my holos!
This is still a great gradient but when you're inside it looks great too!
I think the white rectangles and squares give this a hip funky look!
When I asked my son what I should stamp over my gradient he basically gave me the look that said "who gives a rip" but at the last minute he came up with "why don't you use the plate I bought you for Mother's Day you haven't used yet???!" Yikes! He was right so I hauled out my Cheeky XL A plate and stamped using Milani White On.  I love how it looks!
Make sure you check out everyone else's mani for Holo Hump Day!!
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Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Summer Challenge--Gardening!

Hi Readers!  When it comes to gardening I.DON'T.DO.IT. . . PERIOD!
LOL!  I seriously don't do it.  My sister Lisa used to do this with my mom and my mom still loves to do it but me and plants or flowers are a no go.  BUT I can do a beautiful flower like mani of my fingers SO I am more than happy with that!  I will say this is one of the most gorgeous mani's I've ever done and my little sister let me do this for her for my niece's graduation ceremony so it got a lot of wear this week!
This one is almost too lovely for words!
Here's a before stamping and after stamping on the gradient
This could possibly be one of my favorite mani's of all time.  The gradient is PERFECT!
Here's a picture of the polishes I used and how the sponge looked
These are part of the Jessica Paint The Town collection--they look like little paint cans! How adorbs!  Here are their names!
I created a whole The Making Of A Gradient album on my blog facebook page. If you'd like to see how I do it and try your hand at it look on http://www.facebook.com/DressedUpDigits

There are lots of ladies doing the summer challenge!  Check them out when you have time!



Debbie @ The Crumpet - http://thecrumpet.blogspot.co.uk/
Alyssa at Fancy Phalanges - http://fancyphalanges.blogspot.com/
Lucie @ Lucy's Stash www.lucysstash.com
Vic @ Glowstars http://glowstars.net
Rychelle @ Colorsplash Nails- http://colorsplashnails.blogspot.com/
Missy the Manicured Maniac @ http://melissahenderson95.blogspot.com/



Thanks for stopping by!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!!
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Monday, June 11, 2012

Monkey See, Monkey Do Monday--Pimp My Nailz!

Hi Readers!  I am FINALLY featuring the every popular monarch butterfly wings mani as my Monkey See, Monkey Do post!  My friend Sam pinned this on Pinterest awhile ago and I loved it.  What makes it so different from others I've seen--IT'S RIMMED!  You know me and I'm always joking that everyone loves a good rim job so when I saw this all I could think of was Cassanova meets The Virgin lol!  So here it is my first ever free hand monarch butterfly wing mani
To be honest I'm not a huge fan of my mani!  The lines look WAY too fat to me!
I think I would have liked it better had I done the butterfly wing water marbling over it instead of freehand.  Face it when it comes to freehand I pretty much suck!
The inspiration for my mani was from Pimp My Nailz.  She does some very cool stuff and you can see her butterfly wing mani here

Here are the side by side comparison's!
Her lines are so nice and dainty!


To get my look I used China Glaze Salsa, OPI Atomic Orange, Zoya Pippa and Zoya Tracie.  I used Milani Black White for my wings outline and Milani White On for the dots.


Make sure you check out my other partners in crime for

Debbie at The Crumpet - http://thecrumpet.blogspot.co.uk
Missy @ Gnarly Gnails - http://gnarlygnails.blogspot.com
Nayade at Toxic Vanity - http://www.toxicvanity.com
Alyssa at Fancy Phalanges - http://fancyphalanges.blogspot.com/
Misha @ Enigmatic Rambles: www.enigmatic-rambles.blogspot.com
Carrie @ LeSamowen:Life, Love, and Nail Polish: http://lesamowen.blogspot.com/
Basia (or Bazzia) @ polish my mind: http://polishmymind.blogspot.com/
Isabel - Little Fairy: http://isaspinods.blogspot.com/
Stella - My Wet Nails: http://mywetnails.blogspot.com
Michelle-Lacquer Or Leave Her!: http://lacquerorleaveher.blogspot.com

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


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Sunday, June 10, 2012

Sunday Challenge Hot! Hot! Hot!

Hi Readers!  The challenge in Adventures In Stamping this Sunday is Hot! Hot! Hot!  I'm featuring a mani with hot colors but also one with a special place in my heart.  Relay For Life has hit my town this weekend.  And this is the first year my family attended since the death of my beautiful sister Lisa.  She died from triple negative breast cancer just shy of her 45th birthday.  She was one of the best parts of my life and I miss her terribly.  I honestly did not want to attend this year but my mom wanted to go and asked if I would go with her.  My wonderful sister Lynelle and best brother in law in the world, Chris, said they would go too so I felt good knowing I would be surrounded by family.  Losing someone to cancer is hard.  It changes your life forever.  It's nchanged our family dynamic.  I have a lot of anger still and didn't really want to go because I was angry and bitter others have survived but not my sister.  After talking to some friends about this--wonderfully supportive friends, who didn't make me feel like crap for feeling this way--I realized that while my sister did not survive someone else's sister did.  And for that I should go and celebrate the event.  This is the mani I chose to wear for those women who's sisters did survive
I did a lovely gradient using 3 holos, Sally Hansen Mandarin Garnet, DS Ruby and or course my beloved Ozotic 621--I love 621 it's the best red holo EVAH!
I stamped with Milani White On using Mash-38 and RA110.
 Checked it out in the sun the day of the event!
Lisa loved red I think she would have liked this
I think it turned out pretty good!
Here's a small world Readers.  Every year we went to this Relay with my sister to support her and walk the survivor lap (as she did survive 8 years after her diagnosis) I would run into a guy I went to Junior High School with and who I also worked with at one of the many banks I worked at in my life.  His name is Bob and even though we had't seen each other for years he recognized me right away as I did him that first time.  Every year after that we would run into each other on the track and talk and catch up.  I saw both him and his wife again this year and he mentioned he hadn't seen me in awhile so I shared with him Lisa had succumbed to her cancer and died in 2009 which is why we hadn't come for awhile.  We talked about how hard it was but that it was good for me to be there and I noticed my mom was talking to his wife, who I knew was a nurse but I didn't know she had actually been one of Lisa's nurses for her chemotherapy care.  So what a very small world.


I truly hope cancer has not touched your life Readers--to those of it whom it has my heart goes out to you.  


I hope you all have a fantastic day!
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Saturday, June 9, 2012

Out with the old in with the new!

Hi Readers!  Today I have another neon gradient! OMG stop already.  And seriously I had to take this sucker off after a few hours.  It was just too bright for me lol!  I decided to do this mani two different ways on each hand to show you the differences between the old way of gradienting and the new way.  The old way I used to do it was to sponge on each color one at a time and try my best to blend in.  The new way I'm doing it AND loving it is by painting the sponge directly with the polish in the order I want it on my nails and then dabbing onto the nail to blend.  Some people say you need to use a damp sponge--I have used both damn and dry with the same results.  I have also placed the polish in the order I want it onto a stamping plate and then dabbing the sponge into it and then dabbing onto the nails--again the result is pretty much the same.
Here's the pics hopefully you can see for yourself the difference.  First up is the "old" way.  I started with a base coat of white and then sponged on the neon
OOOH I forgot to mention I attempted a neon water marble lol!  Trying to marble with neon is SUPER HARD.  I was trying for a neon flames look and failed miserably!  To get this look I started with a base of white then dabbed on a bright blue I used H&M Nail Him! then I went with La Femme Beauty in Ulta Yellow and I was disappointed because I really wanted to keep the blue blue however the yellow over it caused it to go green.  Next up I sponged on China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasty and finished with China Glaze Purple Panic at the tips.   
While this looks okay it does not look like the smooth gradients I've been doing lately
I marbled by ring and thumb as accents since there was no way I could stand doing an entire mani of neon marbling lol!
See how the blue muddied into the yellow for this marble?  Neons do not drag well at all!
Now here's my normal as of late gradienting
This one is much smoother, instead of seeing chunky pieces of color they look well blended.
This is just WAY too bright for me though lol!
I did do a top/bottom comparison for you though so it's easier to see the difference between the two.  The top is the new, better and smoother way and the bottom is the old chunky and clunky way!
What do you think Readers?  Can you tell the difference between the two?  Does one appeal to you more than the other?  Did this post make your eyes bleed because it was so bright?


Thanks for stopping by!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!
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Friday, June 8, 2012

Summer Challenge Hot! Hot! Hot!

Hi Readers!  Today I have another mani for the Summer Challenge over at the Purple Crumpet Fairy in Facebook.  Today's challenge is Hot! Hot! Hot!  I did this mani not really thinking of the challenge but honestly it fits in great!
I decided to try a water marble I had seen done on Professional DQ's You Tube page awhile ago.  Please check her out here SHE IS AMAZING!
First up is my neon tiger water marble!
How cool is this?  I love to water marble over a gradient!
Here's a little collage I put together of the mani because it doesn't stop here!
In keeping with the youtube tutorial I did a purple neon zebra on the right hand!
This one turned out SO cool!
Here's the collage I put together for this one!
I should have thought to do this with the left hand but didn't but here's how the neon gradient looked for the purple zebra before I marbled it!
Pretty hot hey????  Check out the before and after!
And check this out!  After I had done the tiger I noticed th.e back.  Those Louboutin mani's got nothing on my tiger backs!
What do you think of this one readers??? Did I walk around with 2 different mani's on each hand--HECK YEAH!


I used China Glaze Neons again for this.  Tiger is Flip Flop Fantasy and Orange Knockout.  For the purples I used Pink Voltage, Purple Panic and Flying Dragon.  I really love how they turned out.  I didn't use 2 drops of a clear with doing the zebra though and I think I would like it better if I had.  I'm sure I'll be doing this sort of mani again!


Here's my The Carly I did with this mani
Which one is your favorite Neon Orange Tiger or Neon Purple Zebra?


As always lots of gals doing the Summer Challenge--please check them out when you can!

Debbie @ The Crumpet - http://thecrumpet.blogspot.co.uk/ 
Alyssa at Fancy Phalanges - http://fancyphalanges.blogspot.com/ 
Lucie @ Lucy's Stash www.lucysstash.com 
Vic @ Glowstars http://glowstars.net 
Rychelle @ Colorsplash Nails- http://colorsplashnails.blogspot.com/ 
Missy the Manicured Maniac @ http://melissahenderson95.blogspot.com/ 



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