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*

Red Week Day One!

This week is Red Week on the blog, and a few of my blogger friends are also participating!

The Red I used is Models Own Red Alert, which is an awesome true red, with a creme-jelly finish. It took 2 coats to be opaque.  Then I stamped with my Salon Express SE11(dupe for Konad M57) down the middle of the nail using Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

Be on the lookout for other red posts this week! 

XOX Caitlin

Check out my other besties participating in red week, and add your own submission!

BFF Challenge: Black and White

Today's BFF Challenge is Black and White.  It was my day to choose again,  and I just love how black and white nails always turn out.  These came out amazingly, and I am super happy with them!

I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White as the base then I used a makeup sponge to sponge on Wet N Wild Black Creme.  I then used my salon express konad dupe stamp  to stamp on the lacy tips in Sinful Snow me White.  I absolutely love the way this looks!

And a closer photo with the Topcoat Bottle: HK Girl from Glisten and Glow.

I love love love the way these turned out!

XOX Caitlin

Check out these other amazing ladies!

Thiamere of On Beauty Stuff & What Else's

Pram of My Nail Polish Addiction

Bec of Lacquer Dreams

Kerrie of PishPosh and Polish

Emma of Manicurity

Alyssa of Fancy Phalanges

Sally Of Nail Pron

"I don't know what to think" Mani

 A while back I purchased a few of the China Glaze Hunger Games polishes on clearance. I am a sucker for clearance, and I hate paying full price for anything.

I put on Dress Me Up as a base coat, and I just have to say, THIS IS NOT MY COLOR. lol. This color does not go with my skintone at all. It made my hands look weird, and I really hated the color on its own. I'm sure that it looks pretty on other people, but on me, it just doesn't flow. lol. The color in online swatches looks like a more camel toned, but on my nails(and maybe its just because of my skintone) It looked much more like a nude blushing rosy color, with a touch of peach and a touch of camel.  It just has a mauve vibe. I wanted to like it so bad, but I just couldn't.

Since I had this color on that looked terrible on me, I figured why not do a little stamping and post it as a fail on the blog, so here it is! I don't actually think that it looks that bad once it has the stamp on it. I used Orly Glitz (sidenote: my glitz isn't glitz&glamour like most, it just says glitz on the bottle, does that mean anything? lol)

I used the Red Angel stamping plate RA109 for the flower image. 

Well, I don't love it, but it isn't too bad. What do you think?

XOX Caitlin

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

Subtle Stamping: Essie to Buy or Not to Buy

Sorry I haven't been very active recently! I purchased some new nail foils and I have been experimenting with them, and searching for a top coat that doesn't crinkle it.  

I found this Essie for $2 at my local Rite Aid and I used Sally Hansen InstaDri Whirlwind White for the stamping, which I also found at Rite Aid on clearance. 

Essie To Buy or Not to Buy stamped with Red Angel RA114. 

Dragon Nails

I put on Floam yesterday, and all I could think about is how it reminded me of dragon scales.  So I decided on doing dragon floam nails. :)

I think these turned out really cool.  I am totally in love with these, and I don't want to take them off!

I used Acrylic paint for the dragon face, and then stamped Red Angel Plate  RA111.  This is over Lippmann Almost Paradise, and Nailventurous Floam.

XOX Caitlin

Stamping Sunday: Unnatural Animal Print

Today for Sunday Stamping, the theme was unnatural animals. Sooo i did a green and blue zebra. ;)

I used Zoya Mitzi as the base, and stamped with Kleancolor Metallic Sapphire, and my Salon Express plate. I didn't use a topcoat, because i wanted the zoya matte to stay matte. :)

XOX Caitlin

Stamping Sunday: Queensday

 Stamping Sunday.  I haven't participated in a while, and since yesterday I moved all my stuff home and got settled, I thought I would go ahead and participate. :)  Today's theme is Queensday, because it is Queensday in the Netherlands!

For the base I used Revlon Royal, then I stamped using Cheeky CH11, Then I took the seed beads from the dollar tree and i made the Crown design and put dots on the nails where the lines from the stamp crossed. I used gold beads.

Its kind of hard to top the amazing Union Jack nails, but I think that these look pretty cool. :)

What do you think? Do you like it?

XOX Caitlin

getting ziggy with it

Sooo I don't have anything really new to show you guys yet, I wore those awesome Union Jack Caviar nails for 4 days. (that's the longest I have been in a few months! lol)

Tomorrow I am moving back home, and moving my stash as well, and so all my pretties are all packed up and ready to move home.  When I get there, I may do a stash post when I get my polish desk all set up. :)

Also, I have an idea for some awesome Michael Jackson nails that I am going to attempt tomorrow.  I went to the Michael Jackson Cirque Du Soleil show tonight, and it was AMAZING.  I am such a huge MJ fan, and the show was so amazingly awesome.  The acrobatics are so amazing, and they are all so flexible and talented! If you ever have an opportunity to see a Cirque show, definitely go!  It is such an amazing experience.

Just so this post has a photo, I have a photo of some stamped nails I did about a week ago, I used China Glaze Traffic Jam as the base and stamped with white using a Red Angel plate, I don't remember which one.

XOX Caitlin

Day 17: Creative Lacquer Challenge Gradient Ombre

I loved my nails so much yesterday, and today's challenge is gradient/ombre, so I did another today. :)

Today's ombre is Pink. :)

I started with a base of Sinful Colors Snow Me White
The pinks used are:
Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream
Color Club Trippie Hippie
Zoya Renee
China Glaze Traffic Jam

Then I stamped with Red Angel plate RA112
with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Silver Sweep

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 13: Creative Lacquer Challenge Vegas

I knew I would figure out a way to use the naked girls on the red angel plates! lol.  The challenge for today is Vegas nails.  and I did these dancing girls on my nails.   they were supposed to be fairies, but Red Angel didn't print their wings, so they were naked girls on my plates, rendering them useless until today for this mani.  What do you think?

The base is Pewter from Love and Beauty from Forever 21
The red is Color Club Cadillac Red
 the black stamped is Wet N Wild Black Creme
The dancing girls were on the Red Angel Plates RA111, RA112, RA113

XOX Caitlin

Day 10: Creative Lacquer Challenge Superheros

For todays challenge I chose WonderWoman. :)

The Red is Cadillac Red from Color Club. That is my favorite red at the moment. 
The blue is Royal by Revlon.
The stamp is from the Cheeky Set CH4.

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

Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge: Inspired by a Book

"Just for the record, the weather today is partly suspicious with chances of betrayal.”

For my choice in the Purple Crumpet Fairy Challenge I chose Inspired by a book.  My all time favorite author is Chuck Palahniuk(the Author of Fight Club), so of course I am doing one of his books. :)

My inspiration today comes from Diary, which is my favorite book.

"Misty Wilmot has had it. Once a promising young artist, she's drinking too much and working as a waitress in a hotel. Her husband, a contractor, is in a coma after a sucide attempt, an his clients are threating misty with lawsuits over a series of vile messages they've discovered on the walls of houses he remodeled.
Suddenly, Misty's artistic talent returns. Inspired but confused by a burst of creativity, she soon finds herself a pawn in a much larger conspiracy that threatens to cost hundreds of lives. What unfolds is a dark, hilarious story from America's most inventive nihilist, and Palahniuk's most impressive work to date."

This book has some really neat cover art, and i want to show you my nails inspired by it.

Waytansea:

My left hand:

And I wanted to add an artistic picture in here. :P

Have you read anything by Palahniuk?

What is your favorite book?

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