Katie's Nails: China Glaze Techno and OPI Ink

Hey everyone! How is your weekend? I bought 15 Sinful Colors... oooops. 99 cent sale at Walgreens ends tomorrow, and a new collection is out! It's called the Castaway collection and has 8 gorgeous new colors, most with Grecian themed names. Of couuurse I bought all of them.. you know me and my Sinfuls! So I'll have a swatchfest soon and post them all. Yay, and thank you Nouveau Cheap  for letting me know about this great new collection. :) 

So I have family in town this weekend! My grandmother, aunt, uncle, and three cousins. Needless to say it is busy around here and I am one happy girl. I love my family being around and I wish they'd come more often! My awesome cousin Katie lets me do her nails, and they are lovely. Long and thick. I wish I knew what her secret is! So for this mani she picked OPI Ink, one of my new favorites, and because she has a soft spot for mattes, we used Hard Candy Matte-ly In Love as a top coat.

THEEEN we sponged on some China Glaze Techno for a sort of funky french-sponging combo! They had one gorgeous baby, lemme tell ya. Here's a few pics- aren't her nails beautiful??

lamp light

blurred- look at that holo!

One coat of Seche Vite Quick Dry to smooth out the glitter, and voila. Beautiful.

I hope everyone is having a great day! Special thanks to Katie for the use of her lovely nails as my canvas. YAAAY

Love,

Rachael

Colorful Camo + Stamping

Hey lovely followers! How's everyone tonight? It's a little after seven pm for me. I have an eight am class tomorrow so I tried to get this mani done earlier than usual. I'm a night owl, so I always end up being up too late despite my best efforts. Oh well.

ontoooo the goooods! For today's mani I thought I'd do more sponging. I started with one coat of my only decent base coat, called Seal the Deal from Bath and Body Works. I've had it forever and a day, and just haven't gone to buy a better one yet. I'd love to hear about your favorite base coats in the comments! :) 

Then I used one coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Lacey Lilac. I love this color. It's a soft pastel purple with a fantastic one coat formula that dries very quickly. For about $2.5o a bottle, it's perfect all around! You can see it underneath the sponging here. Sorry, forgot a pic of it alone =/ Then I sponged on Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear- Blue Me Away!, Zoya - Ali (the pretty hot pink), OPI - Mermaid's Tears, which is the barely visible pale green, and Sinful Colors  - Snow Me White. I used torn off bits of cosmetic sponges. They're so squishy!

the hot mess I ended up with after sponging. I just used the back of one of my stamping plates and put a drop of each polish as I went along. 

Then I topped with a coat of SV, and when that was dry, I stamped SHANY plate m76, pictured below, with Kleancolor Metallic Black.  Then another coat of SV, and voila!

indoor light 

up close!

L-R: SH- Blue Me Away!, SH- Lacey Lilac, OPI- Mermaid's Tears, Zoya- Ali, and SC- Snow Me White

Konad Stamper in the fleshhh. Er, plastic. I love this thing. $2.99 on amazon.com.

Not really sure what that design is.. Sorta looks like someone dragged through it with a needle. Oh well, it's fun!

Hope you liked today's mani! I'd love to hear what you think. For my second time sponging, I don't think it's too bad! And my cuticles are much better than they used to be, thanks to Burts Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream, and SH cuticle oil, and lots of patience. 

Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day :)

Rachael 

First Spongicure!

I may or may not have made up that word. Haha... just in case, I won't take any credit :) Today I wanted something bright and fun, and since I actually had time during the day I took advantage of the nice lighting outside. It's very windy and cloudy here but the pics I took turned out rather alright, especially when compared to the pics I've taken before!

Sooo on to the gooods. I started with a base of Zoya- Ali, a really gorgeous hot pink that dries to a satin finish. I found this beauty on sale at Ulta and had to have her. I probably say that a lot.. haha. This is two coats of Ali since it's a little streaky, but that may have just been my application. I'm no professional! On my ring finger is one perfect coat of Orly- Sweet Peacock. I can't get over how beautiful this blue is. Deep and metallic, with dreamy one coat application. Orly really astounds me again and again. This first pic is the most color accurate. Ali is not a peach or a coral, she's a true magenta, and the color didn't come through in the pictures.

Sweet Peacock. Look at that shine!!

then I sponged Sweet Peacock onto my other nails. This is my first time sponging and I really liked the effect. Much easier and faster than stamping.

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a little blurry, but look at that shimmer

topped with a coat of old faithful, Seche Vite Quick Dry

shimmershimmershimmer

Zoya Ali 

Orly Sweet Peacock

I'm quite happy with the result of this mani. Kinda reminds me of a superhero, though I'm not sure why! 

What do you think? Do you like combos of super bright colors like these two? 

Have a wonderful day!!

-Rachael