Illamasqua Gradient Stamped Houndstooth Mani

In this mani I used Illamasqua Muse as the base, stamped with a gradient houndstooth.  I love how this looks on the nail, and will definitely be experimenting with it more in the future!  The black and white used are Wet N Wild Black Creme and Sinful Colors Snow Me White. Plate used was Cheeky CH13 with the variation of a houndstooth.

To get a gradient to use as the stamped image instead of the base image, you add 2 colors to the stamping plate on opposite ends letting the two colors touch in the middle.  From there you take you old gift card and scrape directly across where the two colors meet, in order to mix the two colors in the middle without moving one color to the opposite side and to spread the color evenly across the image plate. where the two colors meet is where the color has mixed, and in this case, Black and white create grey in the middle. I hope that makes sense!

What do you think? I love it!

XOX Caitlin  
* All products in this post purchased by me*

Essie No More Film with Stamping

For these nails I used Essie No More Film as the base.   It is a blurple that leans more purple in real life.  There are hints of blue though, so it is really hard to photograph. I got No More Film with copious credits last week when they gave $10 extra.  I am still waiting on 2 other polishes, and I plan to do a dupe post of the many blues I have now. lol

The formula was really great, it covered in 1 coat, but I did 2 for good measure. I then stamped with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White using Cheeky Ch10 for the stamp.

I really like how this one turned out. It kind of reminds me of cool wallpaper. lol

XOX Caitlin

Day 16: Creative Lacquer Challenge: Rainbow

Today's challenge is Rainbows.  I did one mani earlier, that was an EPIC fail, so I had to re-do it to something that was decent to post. :P  This turned out AMAZING.  I absolutely love the way this turned out! Lets just get on to the pictures!

 Isn't that a beauty!

So here is how I created this mani: I used a cosmetic sponge to paint the polish on my nails.  it is as simple as that.

 Here is a photo of the sponge next to my thumb so you can see how the gradient worked itself out.  I literally just put paint lines on the cosmetic sponge and it soaked it all up and when I dabbed it on my nails the colors magically blended together.

and a photo of all the fingers for good measure. :)

I started out with a base polish of white, I used Sinful Colors Snow me White

The colors I used for the gradient are(from base to tip):
Color Club: Pucci-licious
Color Club: Chelcea Girl
Color Club: Twiggie
Color Club: Almost Famous
OPI: Orange mini from the Spookette set
Color Club: Cadillac Red

Stamping: Wet N Wild Black Creme
Cheeky CH5

I love this manicure! What do you think?

XOX Caitlin

Day 14: Creative Lacquer Challenge Funky French

Ahhhh the Prismatic Collection.  These glitters are the hardest thing in the world to photograph.  I never wanted them from seeing all of the swatches, but when I saw them in person I had to get them. 

I used China Glaze Prism from the Prismatic Collection for the funky french.   I really hate glitters, because they are such a pain to remove.  this one was no exception, it was a pain in the rear to remove, but it is just so pretty it was worth it.
 The stamp used for this funky french is from the Cheeky Set CH23

Do you have any of the Prismatics?

XOX Caitlin

Sunday Stamping: Black and White

In the Adventures in Stamping group on Facebook the theme this week is Black and white. <3

this is what I came up with: a hearts accent nail. :)

I used the mini OPI white from spookettes, and wet n wild black creme.  The plate is Cheeky CH15.

XOX Caitlin

Review Matte-n-a Mystery

I found this polish in a local Beauty Supply in an almost full display.  The Polish is Mystery From Makeup Cherimoya  and the line is Matte-n-a-.  As the name suggests the whole line of these polishes are matte.

First I would like to say that these polishes stink to high heaven.  The smell is worse than Kleancolor, It is so strong and just smells like it's not 3-free.  For some reason I can not access the Cherimoya site to see if they are or not, so for right now I will assume they are not.

In the bottle Mystery has me sooo intrigued.  Then when I polished my nails with it, it really was a mystery.  I liked the polish before it turned matte.

Here is the polish Matte on my nails:

 I thought it was a really pretty and the shiny-ness of it made me think it would be great for stamping, so I also stamped it on my one nail to see how it would do.  It stamped well, but I had to work fast, because the matte pigments make it dry super fast, so I had to move quickly. (I used Cheeky Plate CH5)

 Then I wanted to add a top coat to see the amazing shiny-ness that amazed me at first, and I was not dissappointed.  I think that these polishes should stay shiny instead of matte, because it's so much prettier in my opinion. 

Also, the Seche Vite I used was old, and smeared the stamp, which was a disappointment, but I didn't have enough on my brush and my brush swiped against the stamp, so that was mainly user error.

Here is a bottle shot if you are interested:

Final Thoughts: I don't think I will be purchasing any more of these, they just stink too much for me, and at $2.99 I don't want to pay for something that stinks that bad.  I am also not a fan of the already matte polishes, because I have a matte top coat, so i feel like I could add the matte if I wanted it to be mattte, but that is just me.  And I think that these polishes are so much prettier before they are matte.

What do you think?

XOX Caitlin

Cheeky Image Plates *Pic heavy*

A few days ago someone in the Adventures in Stamping group pointed out these awesome image plates on Amazon, and clicked the link.  The images were adorable, and the price wasn't to beat, so I jumped right in and ordered them.

Unfortunately they are out of stock right now, but hopefully they will be back in stock again soon. This is the link to Amazon here.

I'm going to start with info about the plates and questions people ask, and then show pictures of all of the individual plates, so hopefully it will help someone out!

First off, these plates have a backing.  So that means you won't get cut like the Red Angel or Shaney plates. I really like that it has this.

Here is a comparison of the size of the images compared to a Konad, Red Angel, and the two different sized images on their plates.  Some of tthe images are smaller than others, but it's not a huge difference.  I still have trouble covering the whole nail though.

Now on to the Image plates.

There are 26 image plates in the set.  These pictures aren't in order for some reason, but they skip a few numbers anyway.  here they are:

XOX Caitlin