Mandarin Orange Green Tea

I still have tea on the brain. Can't help myself. The stuff is so good and tasty. As I was brewing a pot of Mandarin Orange Green Saturday night I was just staring  at the box lost in thought, when I suddenly got the "ah-ha hey wonder if" idea again. So while the coffee pot was still doing it drip thing I grabbed my book of stamping plates. I didn't have what I was looking for, but came up with this. I could have sworn I had Konad plate m66, but sad day I fear it was only on my wish list. So this mani was born in place of what came to mind. I fear a shopping bug bit me after realizing my lack of said plate though... but that will be fruit of a post in the future. Lucky for you, sad for my pocket book.

For this look I used OPI- Skull & Glossbones and Mermaid's tears. Konad special polishes in white and black were used for stamping. Bundle Monster plate BM06 and Faux-nad plate m51 were used for stamping.

To get the faded green into grey, I used a makeup sponge and sponged Mermaid's Tears half way up each nail. I focused more color on the tips and did lighter pressing as I went up. The stamping makes it so you can't really see where the two colors end and begin, but the sponging also comes into play so there isn't a harsh noticeable line.

Did you notice I said I got inspired Saturday night... yea didn't actually do my nails until Sunday since I got so lost in shopping that I was staring, or shall I admit to drooling over nail plates and such that I was on the computer for over 2 hours straight before I hit the submit button to order. Left no time for polishing. Sunday was however very boring sitting at the inlaw's house since my car had to be worked on. I was smart enough to bring my supplies with me.

If you have the bundle monster plates, and know which design I used, then you know I was not able to achieve this look with just one stamping of it on each nail. Most of my nails have two or three stampings of the image to get it all the way across each digit. Only one stamping of the faux-nad was used. I have to say I usually stay away from my china made faux-nad plates for the reasoning that the plates are so deep, the images tend to  blur/ bleed and not look clean. I did a few test runs on my mixing palette with the polish before I went to my nails. I found that if I let the faux-nad design dry for about 10 seconds after picking it up off the plate and then pressing it the surface to be stamped, it transferred much more smoothly with fewer blowouts of the image. If you have any of these deeply etched plates I would love to hear what you have done to make stamping work better them. I have had such a hard time with them that I ignore them. I spent the money and don't want to just throw them away.

Beware the Tea fiend here... it may inspire again. Happy Polishing!

A taste of Chai Tea

This here is a super simple mani. But I have had tea on the brain lately, and Chai has been in heavy rotation. As I was flipping through my stamping plates I saw this print and had an "ah-ha!" moment. This print reminds me of oriental rugs and spices. Which is what Chai tea reminds me of. I am sure you can see where this lead.

So for this I used China Glaze in Classic Camel and stamped with Konad special polish in Chocolate. Plate used for this Konad- m83.

Hope you all are having a wonderful last week of August. I know I am enjoying the time I am getting with my boys before they return to school.

Happy Polishing!

FOTD: Corpse Pinup

Boredom struck again. Today (yesterday as of posting this) I bring you corpse like makeup.

All images are clickable for more detail or a better view.

Now a true corpse would be more toward the grey side of blue, lighter in shade and without bright fun pops of color... but common pinup needs some jazzing up.

Similar to the Zombie pinup look, I used my basic foundation and brushed pigment powder over it to set and color. Then I came back in with more shades of blue and blackened blue to amp everything up.

Again with the pigment I made a custom shade. This time it took four different products to get this exact color. Not even going to try to tell you what I used or how much of each. It was just a lot of mixing.

Love this lipstick color. Its a Mac color. Very pink but not over the top when used with everyday looks... here on the other hand its hello pink lips.

I have on false lashes here, and my bottom lashes line has lashes drawn below it with black liquid liner. For the slight pink tinge of the cheeks I used Sugarpill's Dollypop with a blush brush very lightly.

Yeah.. I made a bunch of weird faces... and check out the missing tooth. Yes that is real. Part of my adventures while I was away. If this were a blog about my life I would have pages to write, thank goodness its just a beauty blog.

Colors used for this look: Mac- Plumage, Pink Nouveau. Sugarpill- Royal Sugar, Bulletproof, After party, Dollypop. Coastal Scents- Lagoon Mist. Elf- lashes, black liquid liner. 

Okay I went pic happy... hope no one minds my goofiness. After I darkened my eye socket area with plumage, I went back in with Royal Sugar over a glitter primer. If you haven't guessed already I was somewhat inspired by Time Burton's Corpse Bride here with the eyes. Though Elf lashes suck ass... they are cheap $1 lashes I bought for a hair show I participated in. My model needed to wear 3 pairs of lashes (double top/single bottom), and since lashes usually are expensive for personal use (but reusable) and I had to supply all of my own make up, tools and even hair stuff, I went for the cheap-o's. Was not about to spend over $30 on a single use false lash look. I bought a few extras in the case of a mess up. Putting them on someone else was easy. On myself not so much. Elf''s lashes do not keep shape and its a bit hard to keep one eye closed and the other open. Ending rant now.... *huff huff pant pant*

Yes you can see really well above where the lash adhesive pulled the make up away when I had to adjust them. Makes me frown... but whatever. Perfection is not always needed. Most of my images you couldn't even see the line... yay for bathroom lighting picking it up. Darn those vanity lights =P


Hope you enjoyed this... as always, Happy Polishing and maybe even make-up brushing loves!

Saw- Im bloody puzzled

This didn't turn out as well as I was hoping, mostly due to my inability to focus. My mini-me's were terrorizing each other and the cat while I was trying to be creative. Made for lots of mistakes and the unwillingness to start any of my nails over again.

Still as a fun attempt I like most of my nails.

The nail I was most excited to do, and the most disappointed with was Billy. If you don't know who Billy is, he is the puppet who appears on a TV screen when talking to victims, but sometimes appears in person. Billy gives the victims their instructions to get free from their traps. The nose is what makes his face really. And well I completely messed it up so the face doesn't look right.

Pinkie finger on one hand was supposed to have a partial puzzle piece, but it just looks like a black blob. And the bloody puzzle piece just doesn't look right to me either.

So that leaves what, bloody drips and red swirls. Perhaps I will have to try this again when I don't have misbehaving children in my midst. But, I am a believer in sharing my failures and triumphs since I am human and can't always make awesome nails.

Thanks for looking, Happy Polishing!

FOTD: Zombie Pinup

I was bored yesterday and sat down to play with my makeup kit, and suddenly decided to attempt zombie green skin tone to match my nails. Well once I perfected it, I couldn't stop just there... I went all the way and came out with this!

For this look I used Sugarpill- Absinthe, bulletproof and butter cupcake, Nyx- Secret World palette, Lancome- Artliner in Aubergine, and Coastal Scents- matte white pigment.

If you have ever used Absinthe I am sure you are wondering how I got the mint green from it... well that is where the matte white pigment came in. I custom mixed Absinthe with matte white and brushed it over my regular foundation after using a green color corrector on my lightly on my nose and cheek bones. The minty green custom mixed color was somewhat of a setting powder as well as an overall color.

To get all of the shading I used a dark green from the Nyx palette as well as some copper brown. Layering the colors from lightest to darkest to get the overall effect.

Next I'm going to attempt blue! We will see how that goes.

As always happy Polishing, and maybe even brushing if your working on some crazy makeup!

Im Baaaaack!!

Well it has been a long while. School took longer than expected and life in general just got in the way of finishing school. But I am all graduated now, moved 20 miles from where I was living previously, and now have a new laptop(since my previous one which had been in and out of Geek Squad more times than I can keep track of finally died to where they refused to fix it and they FINALLY replaced the damn thing). Thank goodness for black-tie protection YAY!

So onto the first time consuming mani I have done in months. And in theme with my blogs name, meet my zombie themed nails.

Colors used in this mani are: China Glaze- Snow, Pink Underground, Re-Fresh Mint, Four Leaf Clover, and Rose Among Thorns (neon) OPI- Skull & Glossbones, and Lincoln Park After Dark, Sally Hansen- Nail art pen (black)

Since I cant exactly photograph both of my hands at once here is the other hand. I mirrored the design sort of... well just put the same image on both fingers. All of this was done free hand with dotting tools, brushes and the nail art pen.

Hope you all have been well. I have a bunch of ideas in my art book I am itching to share once I get them out on my nails to stick around.

Happy Polishing!