OPI Show It And Glow It - with Konad

  Last night I decided to try out an experiment.  I absolutely LOVE glitter-bomb polish, and have always worn it by itself; not even as a top coat.  But I decided to give Konading over such a polish a try, and I am fairly pleased with the results.

Outdoors, full sun, no flash

  This is three coats of OPI Show It and Glow It!, a gorgeous chunky glitter polish from their Burlesque line.  It is completely gorgeous, with the main colors being medium pink, blue and silver same-sized glitter.  It gives off a really great sparkle.  Be prepared to stare at your nails with this one!  Application was very nice, like most good glitters.  Dry time was great and there was minimal bumpiness to the finish - two coats of Seche Vite totally smoothed out any rough feeling.

Zoomed-in view of the glitter!

  As for my Konad experimentation, I used my favorite silver stamper Nicole by OPI Positive Energy and Konad plate m57.  While I wasn't sure originally if I was going to like the look of stamping over such a colorful glitter polish, I have decided I really like the effect.

Outdoors, shade, no flash

  What do you think - Konading over a glitter-bomb polish a yes or no?  Have you ever tried it?

Midnight Gardens Konadicure

  Becky came over a few nights ago and wanted me to do her nails.  She liked the MULTI-COLORED KONAD that I did before quite a lot, so we decided to do a similar design on her nails!

Indoors, artificial light, no flash

  For these nails I started out with two coats of China Glaze Midnight Mission, which is a very gorgeous shimmery dark blue with silver microglitter.  Application was really great, dry time was very speedy.  Overall a fabulous polish!  This is such a pretty blue, I can't believe I haven't gotten around to wearing it myself!  Soon, Midnight Mission... soon.  :)

Indoors, artificial light, no flash

  After applying Midnight Mission, I used Konad plate m54 to create the multi-colored rose design on the nail.  For the majority of the design, I used Nicole by OPI Positive Energy, which is a fabulous silver for stamping.  For the rosebud, I used Sally Hansen Lilac Chrome, which is a very old metallic pink that I have had for many, many years.  I had read elsewhere that the SH Chromes work well for stamping and I am pleased to report that they do indeed!  I topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite and was finished!

  I was really pleased with this manicure.  For the most part, I was able to get the design to transfer much more smoothly than the previous multi-color (although you can see I had a bit of problem on the middle finger with the pink rose).  The blue is such a pretty color, I only wish I could give you some daylight pictures to show how gorgeous it was!  But seeing as how it was 10 pm when we did this, no daylight.  The late time is also why the final product is a bit on the messy side, since Becky had to get home there was not much time for cleanup.  Anyway, Becky loved it and I did too, so overall I declare this a konadicure success!



  On an unrelated note, I have to share this photo with you.  I walked downstairs yesterday while holding my phone, and found my babies curled up on the futon having just woken up from a nap.  They looked so perfect I had to snap several pictures.  Apparently Leo does not see the phone as a camera (yet) so he is not quite as freaked out by it - good to know for the future!  Here is one of the many amazing photos I snapped.

Leo (r) and Luna (l)!

  Aside from the tan pillow, I think this picture looks like a photoshoot - I may have to edit the pillow out at some point, but for now this is the raw image (cropped).  Aren't they precious?  Haha, I hope you all meant it when you said in the giveaway survey that you wanted more kitty pictures!  :)

  Speaking of which... make sure you ENTER MY GIVEAWAY if you haven't yet!

Adventures in Marbling, Part Two

I decided to try out water marbling again yesterday, this time for the K-State vs. Iowa State game (KSU won, by the way)!  It was an interesting experiment.

Outdoors, shade, no flash

  For this marbling, I used OPI Purple With A Purpose, Sally Hansen Xtreme White On, and Nicole by OPI Positive Energy.  I ran into a bit of a problem with this marbling - the purple did not want to cooperate at all.  I think this was because it was older, a bit over halfway gone, and starting to get just a touch too thick.  I had a hard time getting it to spread out in the water - on three of the nails, this caused the polish to simply collect up and then didn't settle nicely when I dipped the nail into the water, resulting in a bit of a jumbled mess.  As such, I was planning on making a tutorial this time around, but decided not to since I was having issues.  I will try again soon and hopefully get something more workable!  The following is my right hand:

Outdoors, shade, no flash

  Also, please excuse the horrible clean-up (or lack thereof), since it was very late last night when I did this and I was in a huge hurry this morning when I was taking the photos.  They are not nearly that messy now.  :)

  I tried to get a bit more of a true marbling look this time, rather than just a few blocks of colors.  While I was more successful at that, I still lack any sort of clear pattern, even though I did all of the nails one-at-a-time this time around.  I blame my issues with the polish on this, although it is probably also inexperience.  Next time!




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By September 30th

Purple Mist and Swirls- Older Konadicures

I realized today that I never got around to showing you my nails, or my sister's toenails, from when I was down visiting last week!  So tonight I will share these with you.

Outdoors, partial sun, no flash

This is three coats of OPI The Color to Watch, a gorgeous shimmery lilac purple.  I really love this color a lot; it is very pretty on the nail.  The application and dry time was very nice as well.  Over this, I used Konad plate m64 with Nicole by OPI Positive Energy, which I have found to be a great stamping silver.  I was still experimenting with Konad here, and on this mani was trying to find the perfect scraping strength to apply to get the best results.  Therefore, the Konad is a little messy here since it was all experimental.  But still I found that this looked very pretty, and was a delicate wispy pattern and color combo.  I enjoyed it a lot!

I also did my sister's toes while I was visiting.  Toes are harder with Konad, since there is no way that the pattern is going to fit on a big toe (at least not any of the people I have tried so far!) so you have to put the pattern on multiple times.  I think for the most part this worked out for me, although there is a tiny bit of a gap.

Indoors, artificial light, no flash

Outdoors, partial sun, no flash

For her toes, I used three coats of Orly Out Of This World (two probably would have sufficed), which is a gorgeous dark purple with duochrome effect.  The duochrome in this polish is less than with Space Cadet, but it is still very gorgeous.  It is harder to get pictures of, especially on toes, and with the Konad pattern - I will be using it on my nails soon, I am sure!  I used Konad plate m65 with Konad Special White for the pattern, which I mostly got lined up on that big toe!  This was done very late at night when I was very tired as well, so it is a tad more messy than usual, but oh well!  Overall some very cute toes.  I am sure she is probably still wearing these.  :)

Don't forget to enter my giveaway if you haven't already (see below)!  Thanks to those who have entered so far.  I have some really great ideas for some larger, multi-winner giveaways in the future if I get more followers as well, so spread the word, I really appreciate it!

Evelyn Rose

I am back!  I had an amazing time visiting my sister and brother-in-law and my sweet baby niece, Evie!  She is just about the most precious little baby I have ever seen.  I am in love!

Evelyn Rose, 17 Days Old

Here I am holding her, and she is in her "My Auntie Love Me" outfit that I just had to get for her, plus I hat that I knit for her.  What a sweetie!

I miss this baby so much already.

I did find time while I was down there to do some nail play as well (in between loving up on my sweet baby and my sister having to feed her often).  I tried my best to give Christy some pampering, since as sweet as Evie is she is a bit of a handful and induces sleep deprivation.. haha.  So I gave her a manicure and a pedicure.  I will share the toes tomorrow; today we have Evelyn Rose inspired nails!

Outdoors, partial shade, no flash

Christy really wanted to use this new rose patterned Konad I had just recently purchased in honor of Evie.  And she loved this DS color - another new purchase that I hadn't used yet!  I have to say, I loved the DS - the application, the color, the dry time.. it was amazing!  I can't wait to use it on myself soon.  This is OPI DS Reserve, and I believe I used two coats (sorry, I can't quite remember, but that sounds right to me).  The Konad is plate m65, using Nicole by OPI Positive Energy, a really great silver for Konad stamping.  By this point, I have also gotten much better at Konad - I had practiced on one more mani on myself the night before (which I will share with you in a couple of days), and practiced just the right scraping pressure to get pretty results.  I think I have it mostly down now!

Indoors, artificial light, no flash

I also tried to be a bit cleaner, staying away from the cuticles as much as possible.  Still a bit messy, but better - I am getting there!  You might also notice a bit of a darker pink on the pinkie finger - we tried stamping over it but it didn't really work out, so that was the only finger that got tried on.  :)  This was a really sweet manicure, and I really liked the combo of the light pink and the silver.  And I LOVE the DS polish - I may have to get me some more of it.  Very pretty.

Thanks to all who are following, reading, and commenting!  I hope you continue to enjoy my posts!