Sparkly Black Comparisons & The Lustful Zebra

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I did some comparisons of sparkly black polishes for you this morning, and have the pictures for you. I compared Hot Topic Iridescent Black (IB), OPI Baby It's "Coal" Outside (BICO), and Sally Hansen Salon Raven's Wing (RW). In half the pictures, I only looked at the OPI and SH because clearly, the Hot Topic is more sparkly than either, and the other two are very, very close to one another.

When I finished with that, I tried to do a new technique for today's mani, but it was a bust. So instead, I went with reliable old favorites: Color Club Pink Lust as a base for a Zebra Konad mani. I didn't use a thick enough coat of top coat on my middle finger, which caused a bit of smudging. The smudging shows under the magnification of the pictures, but not just walking around, so it's staying. Here's my Lustful Zebra mani:

That's all for today, Dear Reader. Love and nail polish to you!

A Red Hot Gift Wrapped up in a Bow

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I simply have a little Konad fun for you, with OPI's Red Hot Gift.

I know it's a little over the top cutesy, but that was the point, so I'm happy with it.

Speaking of gifts (nice segue, huh?) if you haven't entered the current contest, or if you have new ideas for it, please enter! It's open through the 6th to all readers worldwide, and whoever has the most creative use for the OPI Get In-Spider-ed set gets the set. You name will show as you enter it, so you don't have to enter your full name, and your email address will only be used to notify you if you're the winner. Here's a picture of the prize and the entry form.

Love and nail polish to you, Dear Reader!

Precision Sprinkles Collection

Hello again, Dear Reader!

I told you I had more in store for you! That "more" is Precision's Sprinkles Collection, a fun collection of glitters. In the pictures, I used three coats and most are not totally opaque, but surprisingly, they're opaque enough for me. These glitters are unique from others I have in that they're fine glitter (making for easier removal) in a jelly base rather than clear or matching opaque polish, and the delicacy of the fine glitter and jelly texture somehow make the VNL I have with some of them okay with me. The pictures show the three coats over Precision base coat (because it's the fastest drying for swatching), with the bottle pictures being in direct sunlight and the hand-only being in less direct light. I absolutely love these - I love all things sparkly, and these are very sparkly! Here they are, in alphabetical order.

First is 18 Carat Cake (yes, I know it should be Karat - talk to the manufacturer about that, not me!), which is a sparkly 18 Karat gold.

Next up we have After Dinner Mints, a stunning pale blue-green glitter.

Now we're to my second favorite, Hazel & Gretel, which is a pumpkin colored jelly with silver and pumpkin glitter. I don't know what they were thinking when they made this polish, but I'm glad they were thinking it!

That brings us to my favorite of the bunch, Red Velvet Cupcake, a deep pink jelly with pink and silver glitter. Again, how they thought this up, I will never know, but Precision has my gratitude for this one!

Next comes Shake Your Bon Bon, a silvery baby blue.

That brings us to the last in the collection, Taupe It Off with Sprinkles, which is a taupe jelly with taupe and silver glitter.

Pretty cool, aren't they? And you know what? I have more Precisions on the way - I am in love with the application, dry time, and shine of these polishes. These are also available from sparkling*nails (that's a link to her listings of them), who's my favorite seller on ebay. She combines shipping, and orders over $100 to the US and Canada (so very easy to do in her store...) ship for free. I'll give the ol' disclaimer: I don't benefit at all if you buy from her, I just get to be happy that you, Dear Reader, are getting the good stuff first.

This time, I think that's all I've got for today. Love and nail polish to you, Dear Reader!

Precision Get Loud Collection

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have lots of fun pictures for you of Precision's Get Loud Collection. We knew I was in trouble when I posted that Purple Hooter weeks ago, my first Precision, and loved it - a whole new line for me to acquire! I'm working on it rapidly, and this collection is FUN! They're honestly the most neon neons I've ever seen, and they're opaque (no dreaded VNL!) and nonstreaky, neither of which is true of most neons. They do not have a have a topcoat for shine, and since neons dry matte, the their true potential isn't captured here. They're also the bigger .55 oz bottles, which makes me feel like I'm getting a better deal on them, since that's at least 10% more than a regular bottle of polish.

Let's get on with it and get to the pictures! They're all fun, so they're just in alphabetical order. A few notes about the pictures - they're two coats over one coat of Precision base coat (my favorite for swatching, because by the time I've done the 5th nail, the 1st is dry), and my camera doesn't like neons. They're all even brighter in real life than in these pictures.

First up is a highlighter yellow called Got An Idea?. I have a few highlighter yellows, but none opaque, so this is my favorite of them.

Second in line is called Kiss Kiss Tang Tang, which in real life is actually the color of Tang. It brings me back to 1976 when my dad would mix up a pitcher of Tang for us.

Next up is one that's tied for my favorite, Lime A Dozen. This green is even brighter than Sinful Color's Irish Green, which I would not have thought possible.

Now we have the other tied for my favorite, My Little Peony. It's an amazing neon purple, not too purple, not too red, just right.

That brings us to a true neon orange, an orange even I will wear, called Orange She Hot.

Finally, we have Pink-adelic, which isn't really pink at all. It's a neon that's the color of Hawaiian Punch (with a few tweaks, this could have been the 1970's Beverage Collection). It's not pink, but it's a fantastic color, and I won't hold its name against it,

So this is Precision's Get Loud Collection, and they will indeed help my nails get loud. I got mine from sparkling*nails (that's a link to the listings), and she's the only online source I know of for these. The good news is that she combines shipping and orders over $100 (easy to do for me in her store!) ship for free to the US and Canada. My usual disclaimer - I don't benefit if you buy from her, I just get a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that you, Dear Reader, are getting the good stuff.

That's not all I have for today! I edited a great number of pictures this weekend, and will post another Precision collection shortly. Until then, love and nail polish to you, Dear Reader!

Mastering the Konad

[EDIT: Since I wrote this, I've modified the routine in two ways. First, I use pure acetone as the remover (it dries immediately, eliminating the step of drying the plate), and I use felt rather than cooton pads, which leave no lint. Otherwise, proceed...]

Good afternoon, Dear Reader! Today I thought we'd spend a few minutes going over precisely how one goes about using the Konad. I took as many pictures as I could, but without a third hand or a photographer, I couldn't get one of the actual stamping of a nail. We'll use what I've got, and please post any questions you have and I'll try to answer them.

You'll need to start by doing a mani or putting a coat of clear polish on your nails. That's Step Zero. From there, we can start to Konad! I usually wait about ten minutes after finishing my mani with quick-dry top coat to begin stamping.

1. Start with the image plate on a flat surface.

2. With a cotton pad moistened with polish remover, clean the plate.

3. With another dry cotton pad, dry the plate.

4. With your chosen Special Polish, paint your design lightly, making sure that you get polish in all the grooves.

5. Take the scraper (I prefer the plastic one) and set it just to the right of the polish (assuming you're going to scrape right to left) at a 90° angle to the plate, and firmly scrape the polish you've just applied, holding the plate still with your other hand.

The scraped plate will look like this:

6. Take the stamper and put the bottom edge of it just in front of your design and roll the stamper over the design to pick up the polish.

The rolled stamper will look like this:

7. Line up the pattern with your nail, and using the same rolling motion, apply the pattern to your nail.

Repeat steps 1-7, including cleaning the plate, remembering that speed is the key once you've started Step 4. If any polish remains on the stamper, use your polish remover pad to clean it, and wipe off the scraper as needed.

I stamped this pattern, then my tips, and this is what they looked like:

I waited about five minutes for the Konad polish to dry, during which time I used acetone to remove the excess black polish from my fingers, then added a thick coat of Seche Vite to the mani, and here's the finished product:

It takes practice to master the Konad, but this is how to do it. Love and nail polish to you, Dear Reader!

Some YSL Rich Coffee & My Sister's High School Uniform

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Let's start a Sunday morning out right with some Rich Coffee from YSL.

Now that the coffee's perked us up a bit, we can move on to today's NOTD, which makes me think of my sister's high school uniform, which was brown houndstooth on off-white. Obviously, my colors are a little bolder, but I thought I'd do a mani that makes me think of her today because it's her birthday. We're just under a year apart in age - for twelve days in September, we're the same age, and that fun little window closes on September 28th. So Happy Birthday to M, and each time I look at my nails, I'll think of her high school uniform... Those were fun days for us (but our poor parents!) - I went to the public high school and she to a private one, so we spent a great deal of our free time together and were very close. Good days indeed!

On to the mani pics...

So these are my nails of the day in tribute to my sister, Dear Reader. If you haven't entered the contest for the most creative mani with and for the OPI Get In-Spider-ed Set, please give it a go. The contest runs through 10/06/08 to give you lots of time to think of fun things, and the entry form and picture of the set are at the bottom of the post below.

That's all for now, Dear Reader, Love and nail polish to you!