Julep Sandra and a tape mani!

Hello ladies! I know, I've been slacking on posts. I was feeling pretty under the weather the past few days, but I'm trudging on today.

Today I'm sharing a mani that I wore last week (see how far behind I am? Sheesh!). It just happens to coincide with Pink Wednesday this week! Yay!! I actually made my Pink Wednesday post! ;)

This lovely is Julep Sandra, a gorgeous, bright, vibrant, almost neon pink with some very subtle purple-y shimmer. My camera positively flipped out over this color. It hates neons, which stinks since I adore them!

Details:
1 coat Julep Nail Therapy
1 coat Instant Artificials Base Coat
2 coats Julep Sandra
1 coat Seche Vite

See the very faint purple shimmer in there? I love this color! Julep scores again! But alas! I don't know how to leave any color alone for more than about 20 minutes, so I added some scotch tape chevrons using my trusty craft scissors and Sinful's Black on Black! Voila! Instant nail art!

I loved this mani so much that I wore it for almost 4 days! Amazing, I know! I really wish that I had more time to play with nail art these days, but my son has launched headfirst into his terrible 2's, so I'm ready to fall down once he is in bed.

Sandra was a dream to apply and gave me zero troubles, so no need to write it all out, right? Julep did not disappoint on this girl. I only wish my camera wasn't on crack and could actually handle bright colors!

Hope you all have an awesome and safe 4th (to my ladies in the states) and a happy Pink Wednesday! Thanks for dropping by, and as always, Happy Polishing!

-Kimber

Pink Wednesday! (Better Late Than Never Version!)

I almost missed posting today due to inadvertently forgetting what day of the week it was. The city was basically shut down on Monday so my daughter didn't have school, and that always leaves me a day off. Thankfully I realized it wasn't actually Tuesday at the very last minute, and threw together a quick mani.

This is Sally Hansen HD in Byte layered over Wet N Wild Black Creme. I loved it on it's own, but had to see what it would look like taped off with some more black. This is what I ended up with:

This was definitely a fun mani, despite having some OCD issues with it. My OCD is raging lately and when "Pro Manicure" woman basically destroyed my cuticles, the cuticle area on my middle finger became swollen and is still rather puffy and red. That makes my nail bed somewhat shorter than the rest, which in turn drives me insane (Good thing I always place my watermark over my middle finger, right? haha!). I can handle losing my length due to carelessly whacking my hands on things, but having one nail bed shorter than the rest is making me a bit crazy! I'm working on it, though. Wish me luck. OCD can be a bear.  At least I'm not letting it take over everything and I'm working hard to get it back under wraps.

Enough about that though! I am loving Byte layered over Black! This is actually 3 coats over the black, since I wanted it to really pop. It looks amazing with just 1 coat as well, but has a bit more purple to it. If you want the pink to really shine over that black, I would use at least 2 coats. However, don't go past that if you can't handle your polish looking a bit heavy and thick.

I'm still editing pics for tomorrow's post! It's taken awhile since I took hundreds of pics of all 3 polishes that I'm planning on sharing with you, and I've had such a hard time narrowing it down! Until then....

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Happy Pink Wednesday!

I have to admit that I came very close to skipping Pink Wednesday this week since I just finished the 31 day challenge and really didn't want to do another mani where the color or theme was chosen for me. However, I had recently acquired a new pink polish and was itching to wear it, so I gave in! It took me a long time to decide on what I was going to do with it, though. I had originally planned on doing another tape mani, but that would make 3 in a row, and I wanted something awesome, but also something that I hadn't done in awhile. I finally settled on water marbling, but I wanted to use the new pink and black, and the pink doesn't ring out very well. It needed a polish that spread well to push it into the ring, and none of my blacks managed to do that. I was bummed out, thinking that there was no way to marble with this pink. Strangely enough, I also have a new purple polish that I've been wanting to try out, and that one did the trick! It ringed beautifully as soon as it hit the water, and was able to spread the pink out with it, making it possible to water marble with the pink after all.

For this mani I started with my usual base coat of Instant Artificials and 2 coats of Orly "Oh Cabana Boy", a beautiful hot pink with subtle blue shimmer. I then marbled with Oh Cabana Boy and Revlon "Decadent", which is a stunning blue/purple - not quite blue enough to call it blurple, but it does have the blue to it. I then used a very light coat of Essie "Carnival" (One of Essie's rare glitter topcoats pre Luxeffects. Carnival is a  sparse Holographic Glitter in a clear base.), and topped it all off with Seche Ultra-V.

Please forgive my pics! I was groggy when I stumbled out to take these pics this morning and didnt realize that I still had cuticle balm stuck in my cuticles! Ack!!


First, with flash:

Outdoors, Direct Sunlight, left hand:

Outdoors, Direct Sunlight, Right Hand:

And in shade, right hand:

I didn't think I would love this color combo as much as I do! In person, it's just stunning. Bright and fun, yet not as in your face as my last water marble.  The light coat of Carnival added just the right amount of sparkle without being overwhelming. I'm actually keeping this on for more than 12 hours.  I also just love how my right hand turned out. As I progressed, I was able to make crisper designs, and since I used a smaller cup to marble, the designs were small enough to show more than just a few swirls.  Very awesome since I'm so used to having just a few swirls when I marble with my nails at this short length.  I forgot to get pics of my thumbs, but I was able to fit the entire flower design on them.  I can't wait to try out the smaller cup marble again!

I am expecting my new MASH 2012 stamping plates tomorrow, so expect a stamping post soon! I have no idea what color I'm going to be posting next; I have so many untrieds that it's almost impossible for me to pick! I plan on wearing Wallis, Big Smoke, and layering with Essie Luxeffects Shine of The Times this week, as well as swatching the last of my Sally Hansen smooth and perfect polishes.

Speaking of swatching, do you guys think I should swatch more? I'm not sure what you want to see, so I'm asking for some input here! :)

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

31 Day Challenge, Day 26: Inspired by a pattern!

Hi guys! Here is my catch-up post of the day! I had a blast with this mani as well, even though it's not something that I'm all that great at. Practice makes perfect though, right?

For my pattern I chose simple Polka Dots. Yes, I know. One of the challenges was polka dots, and I've never really been all that into them, but as soon as I layed down my base color I knew that I had to do some polka dots instead of the plaid pattern I had originally planned on. I love how it turned out, and I'll definitely be wearing this combo again.

I chose Zoya Phoebe (one of my favorite blues and my very favorite matte shade) as my base color and added dots using a dotting tool with Orly Oh Cabana Boy, and of course, topped it off with Seche Vite. My lighting was a pain in the butt today, so these are taken in the light box using the daylight lamp for some and lamp and flash for the others.

I am loving this color combo! I love blue and hot pink, and this mani just brightened my whole day! Now I'm off to work on my "Inspired by Artwork" mani. Wish me luck!

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber