Sad Panda

Yeah, I am a sad panda... so I made my nails match my mood. I have to put one of my pets down. My poor Russian blue has a nasty wound on his leg that wont heal and has been like this for over 2 years. Over time the toxins from the tissue going necrotic over and over finally started effecting his whole body. He has been getting really skinny towards the end now too. Mickey is really going to be missed. I have been putting off going in for a few months now but I can tell its getting close. He is to the point where he limps all the time and will cry in pain when he isn't being touched or bothered. It breaks my heart.  Ringtail will be missed dearly. He has had a long life, 10 years. I wasn't his first owner, but he has been a spoiled loved on thing since he came into my family four years ago.

A small photo tutorial of how I did this, then I shall go back to sulking and mauling my boy while I can.

I did this all by hand. No plates needed. I used China Glaze- For Audrey, Orly- White Out, OPI- Spiderella, Seche Vite fast dry top coat and a few tools for dotting.

First I used a base Coat of For Audrey over the whole nail.

Next I made half circle-ish looking things at the tips for the pandas face.

Then I added black ears and the black area for around the eye (not pictured is the black nose dot.... i failed to photograph that step)

Then I doted white into the black and then a smaller dot of For Audrey for the eye color...

And tada... panda bears.

Ok now I am going back to snugging on the couch with my Mickey. Well that is if he will let me. (an older image of Mickey before he became sick... and check out that nasty 70s couch I had 3 years ago... eww!)

Happy Polishing!

Chez Delaney's Halloween Contest

Want a chance to win something super fab? Go check out the contest at http://www.chez-delaney.com/delaney.html for a chance to win the large image stamping plate shown below!

There are two ways to win. First you can enter your stamped Halloween Mani at chezdelaney[at]yahoo[dot]fr

Second you can sign up for the sites newsletter on the website. Two winners will be selected. Good luck everyone. Contest ends October 31st.

Happy Creepy Polishing!

Treat

As I promised yesterday here is a treat. The franken I did yesterday is the base for this Mani. I named that franken Jacks Lament.

I used a bunch of stuff to make this Mani. I had things covering half my dining room table. Good thing I was home alone.

Colors used were: Franken- Jacks Lament, Opi- Spiderella, Opi- Redy to strike, Opi- Black Cherry Chutney, Konad Princess Polish- Apple Green, Konad Special Polish- White, Konad Special Polish- Black,

As you can see I used 5 plates for this Mani... that's alot for me. Maybe alot for most people really.

Plates used were: Konad m13, Bundle monster BM12, BM13, BM04, and Faux-nad m35

From pinky to thumb: Bats around the word halloween, monsterblood against a rusty wall, a cyclopse and his chains of bondage, a black cat and bloody paw prints, a swarm of zombie girls.

I tried to get my thumb design to show up but it really didn't photograph well. Its zombie girls. The crap-camera makes them all washed out something terrible.

Happy Polishing!

Jacks Lament

This is my first ever franken. Today I was looking at the handful of oranges I have and swatched them all... only to come to the conclusion that three of them were pretty much the EXACT same color. Two of them were dead on. The OPI Halloween collection I got had a color named Heeeres Jack and I had Tangerine Scene. Well the two colors are/were an exact match. No joke at all... I swatched them on paper, on my nails and then on spoons just to be sure. So I decided I didn't need two bottles of the exact same color.

I poured half of Heeeeres Jack into Tangerine scene (which I have used a lot of over the past couple of years) and started mixing stuff into it. Don't ask me what all I added because I honestly don't remember. All I knew was that I wanted a glittery orange with some holo bits in it. And Jacks Lament was born.

Here is a close up of Jacks Lament. I may add a bit more glitter to it but I do like this alot. I think for a first time at frankening this turned out fantastic. I could be tooting my own horn, but eh. I plan on trying more frankens in the future. This was a spur of the moment thing. I have been meaning to order some empty polish bottles, but keep putting it off.

And finally a picture of my franken on my nails sans flash. I have a special treat featuring this polish for you guys tomarrow. So check back!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Monday... Happy Polishing!

How I store my supplies

So I know everyone has their own way of storing supplies, but I thought I would share mine. Perhaps it will help someone who is having storage issues. First image is toolbox. I think I got this at Target but it has a tray and the lid has a compartment area with a snap closed lid. Makes organizing my various tools easy.

This is a 100 slot photo album. I picked it up after getting sick of having to flip thru plates all the time and cutting my fingers on the sharp edges. Those faux-nad plates can be nasty. This keeps everything compact and organized (yeah I have a slight bit of OCD).

Inside my photo album I have stored plates and all of my decals, stripes, foil lace etc. Really makes looking thru and for things so much simpler than digging thru a pile of bags and sheets of decals looking for something.

This here is my collection of scrapers. As you can see i have the basic scraper from Konad, a plastic one and then razor blade with holder. I personally find that the razor blade works the best. I can replace the blade when it gets too dull, my plates don't get scratched as much and the paint is smoothly removed in one swipe as opposed to sometimes two which has happened many times to myself with the basic Konad scraper.

Three of my stampers. My double sided stamper. Love the smaller side for little designs. Then I have the basic large stamper and a faux-nad stamper that came with some faux-nad plates I ordered off EBay.

These little empty jars are a staple in my freelance makeup work. But I have come to use them for my nail art as well. They are wonderful for storing glitter hex, loose shapes and other various things. Most items come in small bags that are a pain to get the decorative shapes out of and back into. These make working with them so much easier. I get these small screw cap jars from Coastalscents.com

Well this is all I have for you today. Happy Polishing!

Why did the Lizard Cross the Road?

Why did the Lizard Cross the Road? To get to the next nail of course! So yesterday I was mad at my chipped nails, mad at the crappy camera mad  about it seemed everything. Just one of those days. Earlier in the day I was listening to the radio and they did a segment about things that are better than or just as good as sex for people. Some called in and said foods, others messages, coffee, shopping, etc. I realized last night that giving myself an amazing Mani does it. Its like an amazing high.

This Mani is a redo. I had this awesome design on my camera that broke. I had a post all ready to go too, and I just decided to delete everything but the title and start over again. I changed it just a TINY bit from what I did the first time and feel I should write about what I did specifically for the pictures I have now.

My base is L8r G8r by China Glaze. I love this color and only wish I could find the rest of the OMG collection. They are my lemming. I love the Milani holos but the two are very different. Yes they are holos but the OMGs are very fine holos. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to do a swap with someone for a few of them if it ever arises.

I used Konad Special Polish in Green for the "Road" and Konad Princess Special Polish in Apple Green for the Lizards.

Plate BM15 of Bundle Monster was used for the lizards. If you couldn't tell by the picture. Then again you never know when someone is going to be a bit blond and not pay attention. So I shall just cover my own arse and state the obvious!

Bundle Monster plate BM11 was used for the road. The strip that looks like a bubble curtain. Or maybe dots? Eh I suppose its all about how you perceive things.

This is the full look in direct sunlight.

And in regular light. Kinda blah lime according to the camera. To the naked eye no matter what lighting I can still see the halo a bit even if its dim... but sunshine equals BLING!

That's all for today Ladies and Gents... Happy Polishing!

Zoya Spoons

I gave into the hype and bought some Color Spoons. They are pretty neat to say the least, though I have to admit I am not super impressed with all of the colors. For instance, two of the colors I choose as spoons are exact duplicates of so called "the new color of fashion" from the wicked and wonderful plate they sent me for free. Ummm excuse me, but isn't that kind of a no no?

Update: I do have to admit that after taking pictures with a different camera the colors do look a bit different, but I will still say that in person to me they look too close for me to even tell. Maybe a camera can pick up the change more but my eyes not so much until photographed with a crappy camera... I am maintaining my distaste for the laziness of it all. The other pictures I had of these showed what my eyes say, the colors are too close for them to be called "new."

The first almost dead on is Mimi for Julieanne (w/w). I can see a VERY slight difference. Though this is so slight that it might as well not even be there.

The same can be said for Sam and Stacy (w/w). The colors are so close to each other that I highly doubt I would notice the slight difference if two people were wearing the colors and sitting next to each other. I would assume they had on the exact same polish. Common when I think limited line I think of colors that are far off from what I can find in the regular line.

Aside from my mind boggling discovery, I was pleased by a few colors I had picked for spoons. I have never used Zoya before and am looking forward to a future order of three to five polishes. I am limiting myself since my polish shelves are kinda outta control. I have my eye on a bunch of Christmas colors already so I am really trying hard not to go crazy. Need to focus on colors I don't have anything close to right now.

Something I love about these spoons that I am not sure if anyone else has realized, they can be used for swatching. I tested this out already on a spoon I though was just ugly. Polish came out really easily. I hate swatching on my own nails. So I think since a few people have asked about swatching some of the hauls I have posted, Ill do a post in the near future with my Spoons and the polishes I posted about. Also a wonderful way to recycle instead of just throwing them out.

Nina, Tallulah, Mimi, Jo, Trixie, Dovima

Pinta, Vanessa, Sam, Adina, Laney, Jancyn

Ivanka, Charla, Robyn, Gaia

Wicked and Wonderful Plate: Kelly, Stacy, Burke, Kristi, Cola, Shawn

Kym, Carrie Ann, Karina, Cheryl, Julieanne, Edyla

I did have to change this post a bit since I typed it up seeing how I had to re-photograph things. Sorry for some slightly blurry images. I really hate HATE the camera I am using. Again it is better than nothing until I can save up for a replacement.

Happy Polishing Y'all!

Trick or

This is the crap-tastic Mani that looked alot better this morning before I did a bunch of house cleaning today. I really do not like my spare camera. I just found it in a box that was buried under a bunch of other boxes in a closet. I have been cleaning and unpacking things all day. I moved across country back in June... and lets just say I still haven't finished unpacking everything. There is a high probability that I wont before we move next year either. (we are hoping to move into a house) I have alot of things that need to be sorted or gotten rid of and its so much easier to just leave the boxes hidden away. That whole out of sight out of mind thing.

Okay back onto nails. For this Mani I used Mummy May I by China Glaze. I have got to say I really do not like the way these Halloween awakening line glitters go on at all. They look real nice, but man are they thick and chip easily. I am wearing a base coat, two layers of Mummy a layer of top coat, my stamping/ painting, then another layer of top coat. Still I have chips and tip wear after 12 hours. Not impressed to say the least. I noticed the same issue with Ick-a-bod-y. Zombie Zest seems to be a bit more forgiving but not by much. I usually love china glaze polishes but these seem to be off for some reason. I still love the colors and will continue to wear them, but to anyone hoping for long lasting wear you have been warned.

Here is another image of my nails with the flash. The flash really shows all the scuffs and abuse I gave my polish today. Note to self, clean THEN polish. Darn my random need to polish this morning and then my sudden need for order in my house! Also I really cant remember which plates I used to do this, I used three different ones and currently I would have to climb over and move a bunch of things to get to them to find out. If anyone is really curious let me know and Ill update this post later with the info.

Still no word on my images for my other posts. Some I can redo, others I cannot and will have to redo mani's for. *sigh*

Happy Polishing Lovelies!



Just keep my kids away!

Apparently my kids plus technology is a bad thing. I have four blog posts ready to put up. They are all typed up but I need to add the photos to them. So I went to get my digital camera from my purse. My family had a get together with my fiances family the other day and I put my camera in my purse in case I wanted to take pictures. That was a big mistake. My five year old jumped on my purse. I didn't think anything of it at the time. Well I am sure thinking back on it now because my camera is broken and I cant get my images off the camera. Oh, and low and behold the LCD is cracked in two places which makes taking pictures impossible since I cant see what I am taking a picture of. Update: the above pictures was taken with my camera phone.

I am very frustrated. My lovely tech head of a significant other was woken up by me rummaging thru boxes and drawers searching for my old camera. It wasn't found as of yet. I have some images to retake now and he promised to try to get the data off my SD card. I do love that man. He does wonderful things with broken stuff. Sadly he cant fix my camera. I am crossing my fingers that I find my old camera or I am going to break my bank and end up buying a new one. I enjoy taking pictures too much to not have a decent camera around! The old one is a pain in the butt to get a clear image but it is better than the nothing I have at the moment.

So I am sorry for my lack of good posts. I have them lined up I swear... just could take a day or two before I am able. Darn my chipmunks! First my oldest messes up the laptop and now the youngest breaks the camera. I am sure something else is bound to follow. They are destructive little ones I tell you.

Until I am able to take pictures, (because camera phone pictures are just not worthy of posting) Happy Polishing!

Atlantic lights

Glitter plus stamping always equals large amounts of awesome in my book. Halo glitter plus stamping equals ubber amounts of super awesome. Yesterday when I was pondering over what color to change my polish to I looked at my oldest son and said "you choose one." He got a big grin on his face and grabbed Atlantic by China Glaze. Apparently he has been wanting me to wear this polish since I got it. Kid loves shiny stuff!

And wouldn't you know it. The youngest boy wanted his nails painted too while I was working on mine. He didn't want the stamping done though.

Mmmm another image  of all that glittery goodness.

I used the pastel green for the image. I believe its Konad Special polish Pastel Green. Honestly looks really close to white. I am tempted to add some green pigment to it to darken it up.

The plate I used was Bundle Monster BM21.

Happy Polishing!