A little late: ABC Challenge - "J" is for June Pearl and Jonqal Nail Art

Hello Lovelies. I'm late with this post (and several others) due to a family emergency. As many of you know, my Father-In-Law passed away early Thursday morning after a 7 month battle with Lung Cancer. It was much more sudden than expected, and we spent Wednesday trying to get Brian back home. My FIL was a wonderful man, loving and with a wicked sense of humor. I'll never forget h quickly he embraced me, and most of all...the love that he showed my daughter. I could talk about him for days, but honestly it's hard right now. So I'll just move on to the polish stuff.

The giveaway is still going. Please help to spread the word! I'm not as active right now so any help is much appreciated. You know you wanna win Daring Digits' new 80's Hits Collection!

Also there are rumors that GFC is going away. As far as I know it's Google Reader that is going, but I plan on posting a BlogLovin link here as well. :)

My letter J Manicure is a partail fail, but was still fun to work on. The base color is June Pearl, a polish made in honor of my Mother and Lung Cancer victims and survivors everywhere (Ironic that I was wearing that...I know.) made by the fabulous Ketlyn at BG Cosmetics. It is part of the Lung Cancer Awareness Collection and 50% of the proceeds from these polishes goes to Lung Cancer charities. I promise to post this alone soon and give more details. I'm exhausted and it's hard to focus right now.

The design is inspired by Lucy's Stash and her Jonqal nails. The basics of this design are fairly simple, yet it's not as easy to master as it looks! I used my black MASH nail art pen for this, and in retrospect I think using a thin striper brush and acrylic paint would have made cleaner lines. I still have no idea what the weird reddish purple shadow at the edges of the design are, but okay. I really want to play with more of these designs. Mine will probably never look as amazing as Lucy's, but it's always fun to try. You can check out all of Lucy's awesome nail art on her blog. If you haven't followed her yet, you are really missing out.

I snapped these pics quickly and they are obviously not my best work. Sorry guys, my mind really has been elsewhere. I promise to actually care about lighting and stuff in the future.

Definitely not my best work, but I tried! I had originally intended to wear June Pearl on her own, but I could not get this pattern out of my mind. It looks so cool! The only problem I had was with the Mash pens. They worked well enough for the design, but they are very messy if you have to work anywhere near the edges of your nails or your cuticles. In fact, I had to scrub the hell out of my cuticles and nails with a nail brush for a good 10 minutes to get most of it off. Hence my poor fingers looking like mincemeat here. I love nail art pens, but these are acrylic pain pens, and that means acetone is useless to clean it all up. Alochol works on the nail, but for some reason once this particular pen's paint is on your skin, it just smears around until you scrub it off with soap and water. That won't stop me from using them - I'll just have to protect my cuticles first!

I'll be back tomorrow with some more of the new 80's Hits Collection from Daring Digits. Posts may be a little sporadic for a few more days, but I'm working on getting back, even if it's just as a distraction.

In the meantime, don't forget to check out all my lovely lady friends and their "J" manicures!





Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

ABC Challenge: "I is for Ikat"

 Hello Lovelies! Happy Wednesday! That means another ABC Challenge post!!

Today's letter is the letter "I". I struggled with this one - so many cool options! But in the end, I decided on an Ikat print, since it's been on my to try list and I really wanted to play with some cool new goodies sent to me from Mash Nails. That and I figured a few of us would try out Ikat designs and we could be twinsies!

Since Ikat print is so bold already, I decided to go even bolder and use Neon colors. Nevermind that neons do interesting things to my skin tone - I dig bold, ulta bright colors on occasion. I chose Orly Skinny Dip, a bright blue neon with some secret shimmer as my base color, and whipped out my Mash Nail Art Pens in black, white, and pink.

Click "read more" to see the final result!!

I started with 3 thin coats my base color, Orly Skinny Dip. Unfortunately Skinny Dip proved to be streaky, bubbly, and gloppy. Thankfully my awesome HK Girl Top Coat evened things out beautifully. Next I went in with my Mash Nail Art Pens. I used the white pen to creat the Ikat print triangle shapes, then the pink to add the splash of color at the center. Finally I outlined the white with my black Mash Nail Art Pen and added the black area to the center of the pink. Add topcoat and voila! Easy Ikat!

I loved this look shiny, but couldn't help but think a Matte top coat would look really nifty, so I grabbed my Mash Matte Topcoat and added a thin coat over my designs. I really love the way this turned out!

My skin tone doesn't like neons, and I promise you it doesnt really look this washed out IRL. :)

Not too shabby, right? Neon felt pretty ambitious for my first attempt at this design as well as my first go with Nail Art Pens!

Despite my issues with my base color, the rest of this design was so easy. The Mash Nail Art pens are so easy to use, highly opaque, and pretty darn precise. The Pink is a bit more Vibrant IRL, but my lighting really wanted to wash that color out along with my skin tone. The pens are the kind where you depress the tip to get the polish flowing, then just use on your nails like an actual pen. It did not take much pressure at all to get them saturated with polish, and I was highly impressed with how long I could use these without needing to depress the tip for more polish. The only issue I had was with clean-up, and that's my own fault. I did not wait for the nail art pen polish to dry completely, and that created a bit of gloppiness around the bottom edge. When I allowed my right hand to dry completetly before cleaning up, I had zero issues.

Mash Matte Top Coat is equally impressive! It works quickly, leaving a perfect matte surface on each nail. I've washed my hands countless times since I applied this, and my nails are still just as matte as the moment I applied this top coat.  I've tried almost every matte top coat out there, and Mash Top Coat is now my fave! This is the same Matte Top Coat i used when I shared Daring Digits Ricky, and that manicure held up just as well. Love it!

You can pick up Mash Nails Nail Art Pens and Matte Top Coat on their website at Mashnails.com. The nail art pens retail for $5.99 each, and the Matte Top Coat is currently on sale for only $3.99!  Time to stock up!

What do you think of Ikat print? Have you tried any Mash Nails products (I personally think their stamping plates are awesome!)?

Be sure to check out all of the incredible "I" Manicures that the ladies have created for your viewing pleasure!





Stay tuned for a couple of post tomorrow - including White Owl Lacquers and some awesome Handmade Jewelry!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber


**MASH Nails products provided for review. Please see Dislaimer/Legal for more information**