Polish Friends

Monday, January 31, 2011

Possible V-Day mani and Konad tutorial

I decided to do a tutorial on nail stamping, since I have had a few request. This is the mani that I did. For this I used China Glaze Naughty and Nice as the base. Then for the red/pink lip image, I used Sally Hansen Color Quick pen in Red Chrome, Silver lips are China Glaze Millenium, and the tips are OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Matte.

I get all my items together first


This is the image plate I'm using


Once you choose the image, you take your polish and and cover the image.

Then with your scraper, you scrape over the image, removing the excess polish


Then with your stamper, you place the rubber part and press, transferring the image to your stamper

Excuse the pup hair, I didn't remove it before I took the pic, eeek


Finally, all you do, is place the stamper above your nail, where you want the image to appear on your nail, and in a rolling motion, press it onto your nail.


The best tip for stamping, is to only use 100% acetone. After you stamp, wipe the scraper and stamper onto a cotton ball/pad, that has been soaked in acetone. I use a green coaster, and pre-soak the cotton pad in acetone, and set it onto the coaster. Then after I scrape, I swipe the scraper onto the pad, removing the polish, and then after I stamp, I wipe the stamper on the pad as well. You should also clean the image plate in between each stamp. Although I'm guilty of not doing this, lol. Oh and you do need to work fairly quick, because the polish, since being so thin on your stamper, dries quick.

Here I did the rest of my nails, and then did it over again with China Glaze Millenium.


Once I'm done, I take my mani double pointed q-tips, dip them in acetone, and clean up the excess polish from stamping, around my nails. I then do a coat of SV, and TADA




Last of all, I added tips in OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Matte




Sunday, January 30, 2011

Hello Kitty Funky French Nail Art thanks to Born Pretty

Here is another item that was sent to me for review from Born Pretty. It's their nail stamping image plate, M71, stamper & scraper.
Here is the mani I did.....How freaking cute is this!?!?1 You know what....I might actually leave this on all day! Yep, that's a record for me, lol.

Here is what I received. The stamper, scraper and the image plate


Most image plates have a very thin film that you might not even see. Just make sure to remove it.


and here is my nail stamping set-up, lol. I've taken control of one of our TV trays, can you tell. It works perfect though for stamping. Then I always make sure to have 100% acetone, my green coaster, for the cotton ball/pad soaked in acetone, image plate, stamper, scraper, and polishes I plan on using. Oh and after I took this pic, I decided to not use the Konad polish in white, but instead used black.


Grandpa, the pup, well 16 years young, we adopted a few months ago, just had to watch, lol.

Before I started stamping, I applied 2 coats my base coat of Brand 10, color #415, Pinky Promise



Now on to stamping. I used the flower image on the plate first, and used China Glaze Millenium for them. Then I used the cute Hello Kitty image, and Konad polish in black for that :)




Finally I did my black tips with Sinful's Black on Black and added a tiny rhinestone to her bow :)




















I LOVE this!! What do you guys think???

Also don't forget, if you plan on ordering from Born Pretty, don't forget to use my code: CHLOEK31 to receive 10% off.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Steel Me French Tips!!!!

Last night I was over at my neighbors house, just hanging out with all the other neighbors, and while the guys built a 'Man Cave', AKA igloo outside, lol, the girls hung out and did manis. I am still so fascinated with Essence Magentic polishes, that I just had to use one. I then wanted to do a funky french, and for some reason, I didn't reach for a black!!! I know......instead I wanted a blue. While scanning my new polish case, this Brucci stood out. I really enjoy this combo!!

For this mani I used Essence Steel Me & Brucci Blue Sapphire





Friday, January 28, 2011

OPI Black Shatter has arrived!!

YAY, Black Shatter is finally here!! I was soooo excited when it arrived!! I wanted to try 2 different manis, so I decided to layer it over a sparkly gold & then a flakie.

Here is the first one I tried....I did a base of Orly Luxe and then a coat of China Glaze Medallion, which FYI is my fave sparkly gold glitter! Black Shatter needs to be used over a 100% dry mani, and used VERY quickly. I actually prefer the smaller cracked looked, like in my previous post, but this is still nice.





Then I wanted to try it over a flakie, so I used a base of Love & Beauty, from Forever 21, and then added Nfu-Oh 50 over top.

1 word.......BEAUTIFUL!!


Now here it is with Black Shatter over top








Thursday, January 27, 2011

Kelier Black Crack Polish from Born Pretty

So Jessica from http://bornprettystore.com/, which btw, has some other amazing nail art items, sent me the Kelier Black Crackle Polish for me to review.
I will say that I had to play with it for a few minutes, to discover the best way to use this Crack polish, and here is what I learned. In order to get the effect I preferred, I needed my base coat to dry 100%. When it was, I applied a pretty thick coat of the Black Crack polish, and waited. Now unlike others I've tried, this one did take a smidge longer for the cracks to appear, but once they did, i loved it! Then I also learned that if you plan on using a top coat, WAIT. The Crack polish needs to be 100% dried. If it is not, when you apply it, it sort of fills in the cracks, and just looks like a plain old black polish.

Here was my final mani....Now I know this look isn't for everyone, but I'm a fan :P




The pic below is where I was playing in the beginning. My ring finger, 3rd finger, was the one that I let my base dry completely, and applied a thick coat of Crack polish over top, and also waited for the Crack Polish to dry 100%.

My pointer, middle & pinky, I also applied dry, but applied a VERY thin coat of Crack polish. This caused TONS of itty bitty cracks, which did look cool, but I preferred the fewer tad bigger cracks. Then you can kind of see how when I applied my top coat while the Crack polish was still semi wet, that some of the cracks vanished, and filled in. It was weird.

















If you are interested in ordering from Born Pretty, use my code, CHLOEK31, and get 10% off from now till March 31st, 2011,

Neon Rays

So to start off I apologize for my late responses yesterday, I was without Internet all day, due to the weather here :(

Okay, so I had this idea right after I did my first tape mani in this design. So I finally had the time and just love how it turned out. For this I used China Glaze White on White for the base, China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini & Color Club She's So Glam, and then Sinful's Black on Black.


















This is China Glaze White on White


Then I added Color Club She's So Glam


Then China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini



and finally China Glaze Four Leaf Clover


Finally I taped it off, you can see the tutorial here.