Happy 4th of July!

Today is Independence Day for Americans so Happy 4th of July everyone!  It's a gorgeous, but hot, day here.  I'm hoping to spend some time with my little sister and our grand nephew.  I was up at the crack of dawn sleeping in until about 7am lol!  I got some cleaning done, got some blogging done, and now I'm hoping to read some hot cowboy romances! Woot!  Here's my mani for today's big day!

Even though I have tons of stars plates and even some stripes plates I wanted to do something different for this "stars and stripes" day so I went with needle marbling

Both hands actually turned out pretty similar which made me happy!

Needle marble is such a fun and easy process! I hope you all try it sometime!

A few of my friends got together to show off their 4th of July mani's too! Check 'em out!

ANOTHER MERMAID MANI??? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?

Hi Readers!  Let me just start off by saying in my defense I hadn't planned on this being another mermaid tail mani BUT I feel I had no other choice lol!  I planned on a glass fleck and glitter gradient and it just took me to a mermaid tail mani!  This glass fleck and glitter gradient turned out pretty bad ass!

I actually thought about leaving it as is and not stamping over it!

For about a minute!!! LOL!

Man do I love how this turned out!

I wasn't really sure about using the gold over it but my friend Charlotte told me to use gold and man was she ever right!

All these colors went so well together!

I used one of my new Color Club Take Wings as the glass fleck finish--Metamorphosis never looked so good! Then I tossed in my Peripera Aqua glitter and topped it all off with Jordana Cosmic


Here's a before and after

This might just be my favorite mermaid mani OF ALL TIME!

After my gradient I stamped using the McGuyver of polishes China Glaze Passion SO really Passion is living up to it's McGuyver name!  I used Mash-46 for my stamping image--I really love this image alot, it can be many things who knows next up I might use it for a dragon scale mani!


Here's a picture of the polishes I used

Aaaaaand I almost forgot to show you the ring I wore with it! I made this one a super long time ago but they went well together!

Apparently I'm not sick of wearing mermaid mani's Reader's--are you sick of looking at them????


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

Monochrome Monday!

Hi Readers!  I've got another we interrupt your regularly scheduled mani post today lol!  Instead of my MSMD Monday I'm doing Monochrome Monday we a few of my friends.  I did this mani with my friend Claude in mind!  First up the monochrome black and white

I really love how black nail polish looks on me!  I think it's because i have such pale skin

Here I'm wearing Milani Black Swift and White On.  The work great as a base color and are fantastic for stamping!

Here's the design I chose for my Monochrome Monday!

My friend Claudia loves owls so I did this mani totally with her in mind!

When I first saw this image on BM309 I knew I had to do it for Claudia lol!  I love the little single owl--he looks like a grump!

Here's the before and after comparison shots!

Make sure you check out what my friends have come up with for their Monochrome Monday Mani!

We interrupt the Sunday Stamping Challenge for OPI Just "Spotted" The Lizard!

Hi Readers!  I am totally and completely bypassing the Sunday Stamping Challenge because one of my wonderful friends in France sent me a highly coveted bottle of OPI Spotted! OMG! OMG! OMG! Honestly there isn't much more to say about this amazingly cool crackle type polish.  Here's the deal on it though, Readers, from what the nail polish world has heard about it, it won't ever be released in the US by OPI due to patent issues.  I can only hope and pray that means someone else in the states is nailing this formula down! I was so giddy with joy when I found this bottle in my mail box I didn't even really know what to do with it.  I was panicked thinking it wouldn't really work but seriously it's the easiest crackle ever!  You put it on and it works instantly!  


I decided to get clever and the first time out I put it on over OPI's Just Spotted The Lizard

I have never had a bottle of something so unique before!

And can we also get a shout out to Just Spotted The Lizard? Holy Shizz! It's freaking gorgeous!

Mr DeMille I am TOTALLY ready for my close ups!!!

Closer still Mr DeMille!

I tried to do some pics in the shade to see the change in Just Spotted The Lizard but they didn't work out the way I wanted them too

And the flip side

It even fits the right hand!!

What do you think of this one Readers?  I got it to wear along with the bronze "slave" ring I have.  I know it looks rigid and uncomfortable but really it isn't!

Sorry to disappoint anyone hoping for a Sunday Stamping Challenge mani today but there is no way I could not tryout my Spotted!!!

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

Hooray for Bollywood!

Hi Readers!!! HAPPY SATURDAY!  I am so glad it's the weekend!  Now that I'm working again I have a ton of stuff to get done around the house.  Chinchilla cages need cleaning, the kitchen floor needs mopping (omg I'm going to pawn that one off on my son I hope) and since I can't remember the last time I dusted the living room I'm putting that on my list too!  It's a cloudy day here and a bit dismal and when those days happen I like to put on a bright mani to cheer up the joint lol!  I saw a mani like this in the Adventures of Stamping group by the super cool Val.  She does some really neat mani's and I loved hers the second I saw it.  She called it her "Bollywood" look.  It's a gradient of Bollywood inspired colors and then stamped to give the impression of Sari cloth.

This is definitely a bright cheerful look for a dreary day I think!  My friend Samina posts all the lovely clothes she wears and this mani reminds me of her so much!

Here's a lovely collage I put together of my Bollywood mani!

Is anyone doing anything fun and fantastic this weekend?  It seems since I'm not I need to live vicariously through someone else!


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have great day!!

Good, Bad, Better!

Hi Readers!  I'm going to tell you something that you might want to make sure you're sitting for.  Ready?? Clarins 230 ruined my mani.  Yes you heard me--Clarins 230 totally ruined my Illamasqua gradient!  I thought it would be awesome to gradient with the Illamasqua's I have--Phallic, Scarab, Baptiste and Virdian and it was! It turned out great

I gradiented Baptiste with Scarab and Phallic with Viridian and look--it turned out great!  Normally when you put Clarin's 230 over both Scarab and Baptiste it looks amazing so I thought hey I'm going try it over my my gradient.  FAIL!

YIKES this is just a hot mess!  I was pretty upset about it because before putting on the Clarins 230 this was a gorgeous gradient.  Check out these before and after pics

I really didn't want to take it off because honestly this is an expensive mani! Illamasqua's aren't cheap and neither is Clarins 230 so what to do--what to do?  In the process of trying to figure out how I was going to save this craptastic mani I got nail mail and in the package was China Glaze Passion!  Lo and behold it saved the day!  From now on I will refer to Passion as the McGuyver of polish!

Look at how gorgeous this mani is now!!!I LOVE how the Clarins 230 peeks out under the stamping!

It just blows me away that a polish I snagged for $4 in a blog sale saved this ultra expensive mani from the garbage!

I stamped Passion over my Illamasqua gradient using the leaf image from BM 210 and the peacock feathers image from BM 212.  It is so lovely now!

Here's the star of the show!!

I am definitely going to make some jewelry like this!  I'd like to try ring and matching necklace! But in the meantime I tried on a few rings I had laying around to see how they looked with it.

This one looks great with it I think!

This one's okay but not as great as the peacock.  

What do you think about this mani Readers?  Did you think it looked okay without the stamping over it?  Do you agree with me and think the Clarins 230 ruined a great gradient?

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

Pinch me! I must be dreaming!

Hi Readers!  Sometimes you do something even you can't believe you did.  That's how I feel about this mani.  I know last week I did a couple of mani's that matched the blouses I wore to work and today is another one of those mani's.  This one is pretty incredible.  I know when you look at it you think holy cow how did she do this but trust me when I say this is a super easy mani.  

All this mani required was some sponging!  I started with a base of Zoya Pasha then I sponged on a dark grey franken I made some more Pasha and a few dabs of white and voila!  I tried to do an accent nail with black and then multi colored stamping on my ring finger but honestly you can't tell the difference lol!

I used my new BM plates for this mani and I am just loving these plates!  I chose images from BM 313 for this one.  Some of my girlfriends told me this looked like mother of pearl.  I don't know if I see that I thought it looked more like tile flooring lol!

It's just SO hard not to keep staring at it!

I wish i had a ring to go with it I might have to work on that!

Now here's where the awesome part of this mani takes place--check out how well it matches the top I wore!

AMAZEBALLS!
I will definitely be using this BM 313 plate again with some different colors!  Thanks for stopping by!! I hope you all have a fantastic day!