I'm so attracted to . . . Magnetix!

Hi Readers!  Today I'm rocking another one of my Icing Magnetix polishes.  Lucky for me I have a polish "wifey"  I am way to smart and will not brave the mall swell and drive miles away to hit up Mayfair Mall and its Icing store.  Lori has gotten me several things from Icing when she goes--she totally knows I'm going to love something and texts me when she's there lol!  She picked up both the raspberry and the green/gold one for me a few weeks ago.  Today I put on the gold one and LOVE it!  What I don't love about it is getting the magnet cap too close and sticking it on your nails!  You can see I did that a couple times on my nails here

As cool as it looks here it still bothers me a bit so I decided to stamp on it!

I love how this turned out!  You can see the awesome abstract design AND the magnetic effect of the polish!

Here's a nice close up--check out that sparkle!

To get this look after painting my nails with two coats of the gold Icing Magnetix I used the striped magnet to get the design then stamped with Kleancolor Black using BM203.
So far I've been quite successful stamping on magnetic polishes.  I have 2 more left in my arsenal and am hoping to grab up a couple China Glaze ones soon.  What do you think readers?  Do you like the stamping over the polish or would it be better left plain?


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

Mermaid with an attitude!

Hi Readers!  Today's mani features one of my favorite nail polish finishes--Duochrome!  I love, love, love, love, LOVE duochrome!  And I'm old school readers--I'm not an Ozotic or Hits duochrome, I'm the ORIGINAL duochrome--Sally Hansen.  I have alot of prisms I think last count I had 24--I've got 2 more on the way to me too woot!  You first saw this mani yesterday when I was holding my Ragnelle dupe.  I like to call this my naughty mermaid mani--a mermaid with attitude therefore she must be called MISTRESS!  This is a dark but gorgeous mani!

To get this look I did two coats of the gorgeous Sally Hansen Black Tie and then stamped with Peripera P044 using images on BM208 and BM209.  After stamping on all but the accent nail I sponged the tips with Sally Hansen Black Diamond and then on just the very tip I used Sally Hansen Prism in Pink Rose Diamond.

I took this shot in the hallway using just the overhead light

Pretty cool!  Very dark I love it!  Here it is with flash

Here's a picture of all the polishes I used

I'm lucky enough to have a few of the Peripera polishes I just love the cat handle!!
Well what do you think readers did you like this dark mermaid or would your rather see a happy blue or green mermaid??


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

Franken Friday--Gawain and Ragnelle a Black Knight and Tart With A Heart dupe

Hi Readers!  Today I'm featuring to fantastic franken dupes.  Yes I called them fantastic--yes I pretty much broke my arm not once but twice when I made them.  Why?  Well I've duped Butter London's Black Knight AND Tart With A Heart. I made Gawain the Black Knight dupe in November, but it wasn't until this week I made Ragnelle the Tart With A Heart dupe.  Where did I get the names?  Sir Gawain was a Knight of the Roundtable.  Ragnelle  was his beautiful bride.  
Here are a couple of pictures of the Gawain my Black Knight dupe

Here's another view

I personally don't have Black Knight but I made this for a few of my nail polish friends, one of which has it, and said it's darn close!  Actually she told me she likes mine better HA!
I really hadn't thought of making the Tart With A Heart dupe but then I got to thinking well why not.  Again I don't have it and had to go strictly by pictures and this is what I came up with.

As you can see the day I made it i was rocking a cool mani therefore it's not swatched on my nails lol!
The only reason I decided to dupe Tart With A Heart in addition to Black Knight was because of the fantastic layering combination I first saw of it on Scrangie's post.  
Here are Ragnelle and Gawain together

I've created some side by side shots of Scrangie's layering and mine as well as bottle shots of Butter London's Black Knight and Tart With A Heart and my frankens Gawain and Ragnelle--here they are

Here are the pics of my Ragnelle layered over my Gawain

Isn't it gorgeous???? Here's a close up!

I mentioned I had seen this layering combination first on Scrangie's blog--you can view it here.  Did you check it out??? Did you see this post of Scrangie's already? How do you think I did with these dupes readers?  I think I nailed it! Here is a side by side comparison of Scrangie's layering and mine

Mine friends often refer to me as the Franken Queen.  After this duping I'm not arguing!  I made both of the bottles of my Gawain and Ragnelle for about $6 and that's not each that's $6 total.  I believe the Butter London combo was $25--now that's a savings I can get behind!


What do you think readers?  Is this a close enough dupe for you or would you rather pay the big bucks for the originals?


Just for kicks readers here's a lovely painting I found online of the beautiful Dame Ragnelle and her Knight, Sir Gawain

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

Throw Back Thursday--Tie Dye!

Hi Readers!  My friend Amber recently posted her tie dye mani on her blog and it reminded me of a tie dyeish mani I had done this summer using neon.  

I got TONS of compliments on these nails when I wore them and while it might look hard to do it really isn't!  I did a stripe of each of the 4 neon colors I had (make sure it's a fairly thick coat) and then take a needle and go side to side across the nail.  You want to do only one nail at a time as you don't want the polish to start to dry.

I'm not really a huge fan of neon but I have to say I did like this mani.  My friend Amber's Tie Dye mani is fantastic--please make sure you check it out here.

Short and sweet today readers!  Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Liger Liger Burning Brite!

Hi Readers!  My apologies to William Blake but today's mani is so cool I had to steal a line from his poem!  I think I've mentioned before I have a super nice nail friend named Destany.  I like to call her Igor, but her name is really Destany. She's the driving force behind Confessions Of A Sarcastic Mom.  For my recent birthday she sent me some awesome nail mail!  I'm not a huge fan of pastels or light colors--I'm all about the vamp.  BUT I absolutely love and adore all things glass fleck.  Here's a pic of my bday mail from Igor--does she know me or what???

Here we have OPI Black Cherry Chutney (a lemming of mine for awhile now) Spoiled in Bite Me, a one of a kind franken made just for me, and the Serena set with Love Is A Rocket and Pros & Bronze.
I've heard about how pretty Pros & Bronze is for layering but I was blown away by how truly pretty it is.  I had the perfect idea in mind for a mani using it now let's see if I pulled it off!  I was going to need OPI Brisbanne Bronze and some tape along with it though!
Here's my tape mani so far--2 coats of Brisbanne Bronze and then two coats of Pro & Bronze taped off!

And then the stamping!

I just love how this turned out! Here's a nice closeup

I can't stop staring it!

To get this look I did a 2 coats of OPI Brisbanne Bronze.  I taped off Brisbanne Bronze so I could do 2 coats of OPI Pros & Bronze.  I did a coat of Seche Vite and then stamped with Kleancolor Black using M78.  It looks complicated but really it's not!
Here are the polishes I used

I love the "liger" image on M57 it's really versatile in my opinion.  


Just what is a liger?  Leopard and a tiger I would guess!  I don't think William Blake was thinking of a liger when he wrote this famous poem though

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright,

in the forests of the night.

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies,

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

what dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare it's deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And watered heaven with their tears,

Did he smile, his work to see?

Did he who make the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright

In the forests of the night.

What immortal hand or eye,

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Did you have to read that poem in high school or college readers?  I read it in high school and loved it.

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

A Valentine's Mani--What's Love Got To Do With It?

Hi Readers--what's love got to do with my Valentine's Day mani?  Quite a bit actually!  Sunday was my birthday but no mail on Sunday's.  Here's a little something you don't know about me readers--I'm a third shift sleeper.  I don't work on Monday's so here I was laying in bed reading a wonderful hot romance at 2pm and I get a text that says GO GET YOUR MAIL!  My first thought was "well, I never!" My second thought was "I need to get my son to get the mail".  When he came back inside I was still in bed but I asked was there a package and he said "there are 3 packages"  OOPS I better get up!  I'm not going to bore you with all the packages--not that they weren't all great, but one package in particular blew me away because it was a secret birthday surprise put together by a few of my nail polish girlfriends.
Behold the the package!

Did you see that readers???? Clarins 230!  The Holy Grail of Nail Polish!  A few of my closest nail polish friends--Amy, Anissa, Charlotte, Chelsea, Chilli, Destany, Kimberly R, Line, Lori, Lyncia, Marcy, Marissa, Nicola, Rebecca, Raquel, Rhonni, Sarah and Stephanie got together behind my back and plotted to spring this wonderful surprise on me!  I'm not going to lie readers, I bawled like a baby when I saw this.  My son had to open the tied bag for me and I started shaking when I saw the shape of the gold cap.  And just so you know how hard I was crying--I was doing the sobbing thing like you do when you watch Maverick holding onto Goose's dead body in Top Gun and the medics come up to him in the water and say "Sir, you have to let him go, sir".  Yeah sobbing like that if you know what I mean.
Now this isn't the first time I'm seeing Clarins.  A few months ago the wonderful Taylor of Nailed To the T sent me a decant bottle of hers after my uncle died.  She wanted to do a little something to cheer me up.  I was SUPER stingy with my bottle from her though and vowed to only do a mani a year with it. 
No matter how much I love Clarins I just could not justify it inside of me to buy a bottle of it on ebay--thankfully my friends did it for me and I now have a brand new full bottle of it.  No more stinging for me!
Anyone who knows me knows above all else I love duochromes.  Duochromes are the best nail polishes EVAH!  And what makes Clarins so incredible is the  fiery red micro shimmer that shifts to gold to green to even teal it's AHmazing.
  
Here I am sitting in the dark trying to capture some of that shift

Here's another attempt

Here it is in the light--AHmazing shimmer!!!!!!

I couldn't stop there readers but you know I couldn't cover up this gorgeous color!  Here it is short and sweet.  The ringer finger means love, the thumb means double happiness.  Put them together for love is double happiness!

Here's a close up of the fiery shimmer!  I just love this polish SO much!

Usually I get the short end of the stick on Valentine's Day because it's so close to my birthday.  But this Valentine's Day I'm a winner winner chicken dinner!  I hope you all have some friends as wonderful as the friends I have readers!


To get this look I layered Clarins230 over OPI Black Cherry Chutney (ANOTHER birthday present from my super good friend Igor).  Then I stamped using the Chinese symbol for Double Happiness on BM203 and Love on BM225 using Sally Hansen Gold Chrome Pen.  Here are the polishes I used

I hope you all have friends as wonderful as the friends I have readers!  


Happy Valentine's Day 
XXX OOO
Laurie

A Red Hot Red!

Hi Readers!  So how are you about the whole vampire trend?  I'm totally on it BUT I'm not a Twilight or True Blood fan.  No my vampires are definitely Mick St. John of the now defunct Moonlight--CBS really dropped the ball on that one in my opinion--and The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward as well as Midnight Breed Series by Lara Adrian.  If you like your vampires alpha and edgy with absolutely no sparkles check out the books by those ladies they are fantastic!
As I mentioned earlier I like to name the frankens I make after my favorite books.  Lover Eternal is by far my favorite in The Black Dagger Brotherhood series.  It's the wonderful romance between Mary and Rhage and I'm not going to lie I bawl my head off when I read it.  Yep you guessed it I'm a big re-reader.  I was lucky enough to meet the author, JR Ward, a couple of years ago and she autographed my copy for me!  It was awesome meeting her and chatting with her about my love of Mary and Rhage.
My franken Lover Eternal is a mix of browns and reds, flakies and glitter.  It's a gorgeous dark and vampy red brown.  I did the cardinal sin of frankening in my book and I used some expensive polishes to make it--still I gambled and it paid off.  Here it is you can see for yourself this is definitely not a fail!

That pic is kind of blurry but it shows the color really well.  Here's another view

Here it is with flash--it glows from within!

One last pic of it showing the flakies buried within the polish

Do you franken readers?  If yes, what are some colors you've made?  If no, why not???  If you don't because you're worried it won't turn out, don't be, just forge ahead and see what gorgeous polish you can come up with!


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