31 Day Challenge (v.2!), Day 29: Inspired By The Supernatural feat. A England Camelot

Hello Loves! Welcome to Day 29 of the 31 Day Challenge! I can't believe we are so close to the end. It's been so much fun doing this challenge with everyone. I've learned so much (again) and made some great friends along the way. The end of this challenge is going to be very bittersweet indeed.

Also, this post is pretty pic heavy, but be sure to stay tuned - I'm sharing some personal pics at the end this time!

Today's challenge is Inspired By The Supernatural. This prompt has always seemed kind of odd to me, given the other challenge themes. It just seems a little out of place. However, I had alot of un with it this time around.

I love the Paranormal and watch a lot of Paranormal Investigation type shows. I love T.A.P.S, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal State, Haunted History, the list goes on. If it's based on the paranormal, odds are I've watched it. One of the most interesting things to me are EVP's - Electronic Voice Phenomena. I'm a huge skeptic, believe me, but hearing some of those EVP's is just awesome and creepy at the same time. Since EVP's are so interesting to me, I decided to use them as my inspiration for today's challenge.

I started with a base of A England Camelot, my go-to black and the best black polish out there IMO. If you don't have Camelot, you need it. I have yet to find a black that maintains consistency, is fully opaque in one easy coat, and applies as perfectly as Camelot. Then I grabbed Heaven Nail Lacquer in True Blue and my medium striper brush and created some EVP frequencies. I know, they look a lot like a heart monitor, but trust me, they're EVP's. :) For my accent nail I incorporated the letters EVP, using the same fuzzy line technique as the other nails. I topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite (which is still bubbling like crazy over most of my polish. I can't wait until my A England Top and Base coats arrive!!) and VOILA! EVP Nails!

I'm really happy with how these came out! It's kind of fun to have Paranormal Nails! They're also a pretty good conversation starter. ;)

This is what my son, Dexter, thinks of this manicure:

Dex really needs a haircut!


And this is my Manicure Companion, Charlie Cat. She usually hangs out next to me while I'm working on my nails (getting cat hair all over me). She also would like to let Adina know that she has a kitteh crush on Tristam, and would like to share some catnip with him.

Be sure to check out the Supernatural Manicures that the Varnished Vixen's have conjured up!

Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles  

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
 -Kimber

Heaven Nail Lacquer Island Color

Hi guys! Today I have the one polish in my stash that is sure to stain anything and everything within a 30 foot radius of where you are polishing. I'm only kind of kidding...

Meet Heaven Nail Lacquer in Island Color. I found this brand while *gasp!* Grocery shopping at Albertsons about a year ago. They recently released new colors and re-designed their bottles (another CG look alike) and since I'm a sucker for neons, I grabbed a few. Island Color was the first to jump out at me, and I couldn't wait to try her out. She's actually one of my fave colors, a gorgeous deep Indigo leaning Violet neon with an almost rubbery satin finish. Unfortunately, she has some serious attitude and does not like to play nice! I guess this is why most people don't haul at the grocery store, right? ;)

When I sat down to use this baby, I wasn't prepared for what she dished out. She certainly wasn't this badly behaved when I swatched her on a nail wheel! On the very first nail, she came out fairly runny, but she also had a surprise in store! The polish, although thoroughly shaken and rolled, separated and left a watery streak of Violet mixed with chunks of heavy pigment on the nail! No amount of mixing, thinning, shaking, taking a blowtorch to this baby helped. It happened on every single nail! Of course this led to serious flooding and streaks as well as some bubbles and obviously uneven surfaces. Yikes! You would think I would've just given up on her, but I love this color enough that I grit my teeth and pushed on. Although not perfect, this was my result (please forgive the staining and cuticles. I did this on Tuesday and was doing a nebulizer treatment while polishing and just didn't have the energy to mess with cuticle remover just yet):

I love this color, and I love this finish. I really wish she wasn't such a delinquent polish!

I also took the opportunity to try out my Orly Flash Dry Quick Dry Drops since I wasn't going to be using top coat for this mani. They did speed the drying process, but only slightly, and I noticed that it seemed to significantly decrease wear time. Usually with this brand I get at least 2-3 days without any major wear, but this time my mani lasted less than 24 hours before I had huge chunks missing. It literally popped off like dried wall paint! I'm not certain, but I may think the Flash Dry Drops made this polish brittle. I'll have to try the drops with a better brand to see what happens, it may be a case of incompatible chemistry.

Hope you all are having a fabulous day! Thanks for dropping by!

Next up: Zoya Surf, Maybelline Color Show, some top coat reviews, X Out Nail Art, and a teeny bit of Spiderman.

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

30 Days of Blue: Gradient and Stamping

As you guys know from my previous post, I am very sick at the moment, so I'm keeping this short and sweet.

Awhile back I came across Oooh, Shinies! and just fell in love with this woman's stamping. Seriously, if you haven't seen her manis, you are missing out! Anyway, I came across an awesome stamped gradient that she did, and I just had to try it out. I used different polishes, but the end result is what I was looking for. Now if only I wasn't attempting this mani while struggling to breathe and so loaded up on medications that I shake like a Parkinson's patient. No, really. The high doses of Albuterol have my hands so shaky that was literally the best images I could manage while stamping. It's sad, but at least IRL the smears and inability to line up my stamps very well isn't noticeable. In fact, this mani received a ton of comments while in gradient form during my 6 hours in the ER yesterday, and even with it's funky stamping job it's been noticed today. I can't wait to be back to normal and be able to stamp normally. Seeing all those awesome stamping manis really makes me want to whip out my plates and play!

So here is the gradient: I used 2 coats of Wet N Wild Megalast I Need A Refresh-Mint, then sponged on Heaven Nail Lacquer in Honolulu Orchid, and added some Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Blue Me Away! on the very tips. I apologize for how unforgiving my macro setting is. Makes the gradient appear all lumpy! I promise I top coated it to smooth it out!

 And here it is with the ultra shaky stamping: After 2 days of wearing just the gradient I finally grabbed my Konad Special Polish in Black and stamped with the Zebra image from Bundle Monster plate BM 223. I'm so bummed that these meds make me so shaky since I just love how this looks! Sometimes I get caught up in sharing my latest and greatest polishes and forget how much I love to play with my polish and create awesome, bright, fun manis. I really need to get back in touch with that. The entire reason that I started really getting into polish again was due to manis like this! How soon we forget, right? You guys don't mind if I do fun manis, do ya?  Anyway, feel free to point and laugh at my wonky lines and inability to keep from smearing my darn stamps! Yikes! Oh! Also enjoy how unforgiving my macro setting is. Dig the drops of cuticle oil that you can actually see hanging out on my nails! *head desk* See how sloppy I am when I'm sick? I'm playing. Trust me, I know just how sick I am and these are great shots of one hell of an amazing mani considering how close to hospitalization my happy ass is. :)

Hope you are all having a better week than I am, and thanks for dropping by!

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber