Mish Mash Challenge Week 9 - Blue! Bandana Inspired Nails

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Ever heard the old saying "If it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all"? Well, that has been my week. First my tripod. Then my lights. Then my SD card literally crumbled, taking swatch photos of 3 different polishes and my Mish Mash Challenge mani to the grave. Now I'm having technical issues with my white balance and lighting. My photos are coming out very red and I'm having to color correct every single one, which takes for-freaking ever because I am a total amateur and have no clue how to really color correct in less than 3 hours. Seriously. I'm so frustrated that I had a few days where I just wanted to give up. I won't, because I am stubborn and I refuse to let these issues win, but man! I was just not happy.

But, I do have a post for you today! A very late post, but better late than never.

This week's Mish Mash Challenge theme is blue, and we all know how much I adore blue polish. I decided to whip out one of my fave shades of blue and do some stamping since it's been ages since I've stamped.

I chose Sinful Colors Gel Shine in Blue Suede Shoes, a gorgeous Dusty Blue, as my base color. Then I stamped using Sinful Colors Gel Shine in Set The Mood, a darker, yet still dusty blue, and Dashica plate SDP-A for the stamping. I love tone on tone stamping and this is one of my faves yet.  I'll get into the polishes in a bit, but first, pics!

 Since my photos are coming out with a heavy red cast, I had to color correct these to get the polish colors true to life. Which I do NOT like doing, but since I can't seem to fix it yet, I don't have a choice. :( Polish *is* true to color though!

Can I just say that I love these colors? I bought these specifically to use for tone on tone stamping and I am damned happy about it! I adore dusty blues (I have a ton) - in fact, they're my fave colors to stamp with. This particular mani is one my all time faves since the colors are just gorgeous and I love the design.

My base color, Blue Suede Shoes, has a wonderful formula and applies like butter. No issues at all, which was surprising since these polishes are on the thick side. Opacity is excellent - this could be a one coater, but I use 2 out of habit. Dry time was excellent and this baby had incredible shine, even before top coat. Love it!

The stamping color, Set The Mood, Is just as gorgeous and also a true one coater. I'm really digging the Sinful Colors Gel Shines for stamping, however....with this one, I had a very odd issue. If you look closely you can see I had some bubbling - but only right over the outline of the stamping design! What the..? I'm thinking it may due to the thickness of the polish, but I'm not sure. I'm going to pick up the black Gel Shine and see if it does the same thing. I'm out of Konad Black and since these are so thick and opaque, I'm thinking they may be a good alternative. If it does this odd bubbling only over the stamping though, I'll be bummed. Thankfully it's not noticeable IRL and most people don't go around with macro lenses!

What do you think of this mani? Are you a fan of tone on tone stamping?

Be sure to check out all the awesome Mish Mash Challenge Sistah's and their awesome blue manis!

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I'm hoping to be back later today with the start of some serious Indie spam, but I make no guarantess since I'm going to be trying to fix this darn photo problem. I will be back tomorrow though, even if I have to spend another 3 hours color correcting photos (it sucks to be an amateur!).

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber




*Product(s) Featured purchased by KLK. Please see Disclaimer/Legal Page for more information**

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Saturday Stamping w/ Dashica Beauty Big SDP-A!

Hello lovelies!! I have great news! You may remember this post, where I shared my results with Daring Digits incredible cuticle scrub. It's now available for purchase on DDPolish.com in 4 scents: Peppermint, Vanilla, Citrus, and Unscented. The scrub runs $5.25 for 2oz, which is a steal considering how well it works. Also available is Ashley's incredible Cuticle Oil Balm, which I'll be showing you within the next day or so. I suggest picking up a few of both - they have totally saved my skin!

Today I have some stamping to share with you. I really miss stamping sometimes, and I'm trying to make a point to break out my stamping supplies more often. A couple of weeks ago I ordered one of the big plates from Dashica Beauty along with the XL Stamper, and they arrived yesterday. Once I had the plate in my hot little hands there was no way I could resist doing some stamping.

I chose Nina Ulta Pro Li-Lacing Discipline, a soft lilac purple, as my base color. I used one of the swirly images from Dashica Beauty's Big SDP-A Plate and stamped with Konad White. The images picked up perfeclty and the XL Stamper is just amazing. The only issue I encountered was that the XL Stamper head tends to either sink down into the stamper, or, if you choose to use the cardboard disc to keep the head where it should be, it falls out. This made for some uneven transfer and I wasn't able to line up the image correctly. After I was finished, I glued the stamper head into the handle with gorilla glue, cause there is no way I'm messing with that thing every time I want to stamp. ;)

I love this image. I've seen this on a few blogs before and knew that I had to have it. There are actually 2 versions of this image on the Big SDP-A Plate, this one and a smaller version. I'm sure you'll be seeing them both several times since it's my fave image.

I love how this turned out. I don't stamp with white often, but I love the contrast of the white against the purple. It's definitely one of those manicures you can't miss! I do wish my stamping were cleaner and that I had been able to line up the stamper correctly, but now that I've gorilla glued the stamper head, that shouldn't be an issue. Gorrilla Glue - can you tell I wasn't messing around here? ;)

I'm already browsing the Dashica Website for more of these image plates. The images are engraved perfectly and transfer with little to no flaws every single time. They are large enough to cover longer and wider nails and they have the reverse images so that your left and right hands match instead of one hand being kinda backwards. 

What do you think of this mani? Do you have any Dashica Beauty plates?

I'll be back with BGCosmetics and Daring Digits tomorrow, as well as Laquerlicious and White Owl Lacquers to start the week!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber