Happy Halloween!

I've seen a lot of great mummy manicures, and I've seen the fantastic spun sugar manicures (XOXOAlexisLeigh does a fantastic one here!), but I haven't seen anyone try to combine the two. (That doesn't mean no one has, just that I haven't seen it done in the many many blogs I follow).

So here it is. I did My First Ruffian (without actually referring to pictures I've seen before, so maybe it's more like a framed mani. My next ruffian won't have the underwear showing on the sides) and kept my left ring finger un-ruffianed for the art.

So on the bottom, we have Sinful Colors' Black on Black, then two coats of Sally Hansen CSM's Commander in Chic. On my ring finger, I put on two coats of the black, and then mixed 3 drops of Commander in Chic with 5 drops of White On to make a lighter, more bandage-y color. I taped my finger to avoid some mess, and taped off an area for the mummy's eyes, and mixed and stirred and mixed the combo color, for a long time. It was probably 5 minutes or so, before it got gummy enough to become stringy.

I followed the spun sugar manicure directions and it really, actually...worked! Amazing! Success isn't my normal outcome with these experiments.

I dotted on eyeballs and pupils, and I let the whole thing dry for about an hour, and then put on a topcoat of SV, which ended up ruining some of the definition of the strands, but I'm overall happy with my effort.

Happy Halloween!

Grab Bag Goodies!

I have a terrible time checking my mail -- I mostly have bills (that I already get and pay online), junk mail, and the ubiquitous political advertising that makes me like my chosen candidates a little less and hate the other fellas with the fire of 10,000 angry suns. And I voted like two weeks ago! Thank god the election is only a week away.

So...I get the mail every two weeks at best, every month or so more often. I signed up for MyGlam (now ipsy) and I love having a reason to check my mail once a month for that. I'm trying to branch out now, and having joined the Copious brigade, I have exciting stuff coming for not much money, every so often.

Anyway, I was super excited when Love For Lacquer offered five indie polishes for $25 a week or so ago, and was lucky enough to get in. She sent the five polishes above, which I poorly photographed under fluorescent lighting in my kitchen:

• 365 Days of Color - My Little Cuppycake (it looks exactly like angel food cake batter with confetti in it. My mom used to make one every few weeks and I'd sneak bits of it while she pretended not to notice.) I'm sure it'll find a home at some point, obviously if I attempt a cupcake mani, but I bet I'll find other places to use it.
• Dandy Nails - Caught in the Crowd (looks like a clear polish with aqua small hexes and maybe silver and copper tiny glitters). It totally caught my eye immediately, and I thought it was really pretty. I already know what I'm doing with that one, and you all will see it soon!
• Kawaii Nail Lacquer - Sparkler (a super cute clear lacquer with red, white, and blue tiny glitters, bigger red, white and blue hexes, and white bar glitter). I will definitely be using it in a patriotic-themed mani sometime next summer.
• Lacquer Convention - Galinda (a milky pink base with pale blue, holographic purple and pink multi-sized glitter). I think this might look really nice as a base to a jelly sandwich.
• Lacquer Convention - Snap, Crackle, Pop! (a clear lacquer with purple hexes, white squares in large and small sizes and fine holographic purple glitter) I really love the look of this one. I think it'd look lovely over a purple base or on top of white.

So my Halloween manicure will be coming tomorrow morning, but I was so excited to show off my haul! It's all lovely and I think I'll be able to put it all to good use. And see? My polish hobby *cough*addiction*cough* has me going to the mailbox more often (it's 3 blocks away! And I'm laaazy!) so my mail-lady won't have to bend or mutilate any more political advertising to fit it in around the bills and grocery circulars. It's a win-win!

Glittery Layer-y Frenchy Mani

I did another glue base coat, so I was committed to using glitter. Committed, I tell you! I pulled out my un-swatched "Aquanet" by Hot Mess, which is a lovely amethyst-y jelly with big hex and smallish square glitters. It was pretty in one coat with no underwear, but I thought it needed something...more. So I threw on a layer of "Across the Trailer Park" by Hot Mess, too. It made a lovely purple, with lots of variety. But I wanted more big glitters, so I threw in another layer of Aquanet, and sat and looked at it for a while.

That's never a good sign for my manicures. It needed something...more! Yes! What would complete this manicure? Why...a poorly-free-handed french tip in WnW's "Precious Petals!" It was exactly...too much.

It reminds me of something. I suspect it might be a bedspread I had in high school. Or perhaps my eyeshadow/lip gloss combination of choice back then. NO! I know what it is it reminds me of... my mom and I frankensteined a pretty velvet dress for winter formal in my junior year of high school.

See?

(I'm the girl on the left. With the bad roots. Ay yi yi.)

Matte French

So first, let me apologize for the state of my cuticles -- you can see a lot of residue from my clean-up attempt. It washed off later. Hmph.

I bought a matte topcoat the other day ($1.74!) at Target and wanted to do something with it. I had grand ideas but a simple french manicure seemed like a good idea. So I painted two coats of Sally Hansen's CSM "Haute Chocolate" (I really love the deep brown with red and gold undertones), and let it dry. Then a coat of NYC "Matte Me Crazy" topcoat. I've been using Seche Vite for so long that I really wasn't used to it being tacky as long as it was. I free-handed SV on for shiny tips, and I really liked how it looked. Minus the cuticle mess.

A few hours after my mani was done, I grabbed lunch, and taking a burger out of the bag, I barely touched the side of my thumbnail to the bag and half of the polish slid off.

I think I'll try a coat of SV before the matte topcoat next time I feel like going matte, which will likely be soon. :)

Copious and "Across the Trailer Park" by Hot Mess

I bought this gorgeous Deborah Lippmann "Across the Universe" dupe by Hot Mess, "Across the Trailer Park". It's here on top of three coats of Zoya's Frida.

I kept intending to do something nail-arty on top of it, but it was so lovely that I couldn't do it.

I didn't really need to put this over anything, either -- Across the Trailer Park is a really saturated blue jelly that probably would have worked exactly the same on its own. It has small green and blue hex glitters and blue micro glitter for extra glittery awesomeness. I did it on top of Elmer's glue as a base coat, and it peeled right off. Magic! I'll keep doing that with glittery polishes.

The Deborah Lippmann polish runs about $18 online, and this was only $10. Because I joined Copious, I had a $10 credit, so I ended up paying only $0.60 for this to come to me. Pretty amazing. There's a link to copious on the top right here, if you'd like to join -- I get a kickback, and you get the $10 credit, too. The seller wrapped it nicely in bubble wrap and included big star glitters that made me happy (and kind of sucked to vacuum up, since I wasn't expecting it), but it was an overall happy day.

No idea what I'm going to do with myself next. I want to try a mummy mani for Halloween, but I'm attending a party this weekend where I'd rather look elegant than spooky. I'll come up with something!

Flocks in Flight!

So for my Llama Nails weekly challenge, F, I had a vision. And as usual, the execution of the vision is....suboptimal. But I'm getting better.

I first mixed up sally girl Epic and Sally Hansen White On to get a sky blue for two coats. Then I sponged on more White On for clouds, and gave it a couple of hours to dry while I saw an arachnologist debunk the Spiderman movies (did they need debunking? No. But it was entertaining) at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

After I got back home, I cut up some masking tape and made mountain shapes. I didn't have a great mountain color, so I mixed some Sally Hansen CSM Good to Grape and Haute Chocolate (Walgreen's has all Sally Hansen CSM polishes for $1.88 right now! Go!) and painted it on, one nail at a time, removing the tape right after painting.

I used my smallest skinniest brush (I need a smaller skinnier one!) to paint on wide Ms to be birds in flight, with the V being on my middle nail, with the Haute Chocolate.

Overall, I think I got the effect I wanted, though as always, it would be better if I had steadier hands.

Inspired Leopard Print!

I was totally inspired last night by another blogger's awesome leopard print mani, here, so I had to try it myself.

I started with two coats of Sally Hansen's CSM Commander in Chic, dabbed on bright pink spots -- Circus by Andrea's Choice's Ringmaster, and poorly outlined them with Sinful Color's Black On Black, adding some extra marks and dots. I should have been less assiduous in outlining the spots -- it would have looked better with a little less.

I really like the colors together, and I keep staring at it. Early reviews from my husband sitting 3 feet away are that it just looks like splotches, but I think it looks pretty leopard-y. I like it, at any rate.

I'm going to do some serious cuticle work later tonight, though. I didn't think they looked so bad until I saw this picture!

NOTD: Fire! Flames? Something like that....

So my original plan here was to make a sun-rise gradient, but halfway through the process, I decided I wanted brighter red on the tips, so I changed it to flames by sponging on the color in a oval way instead of straight across, and added the blue dot like the center of a burning match.

I used Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Mellow Yellow, Sally Girl Amped, and Maybelline Keep Up the Flame for the gradient, and the blue dot is OPI Unfor-greta-bly Blue. SV is the topcoat. I think I

I did this manicure on Friday, and it hasn't worn well -- lots of tip-wear, and some other assorted chips. On the other hand, this morning I went to the DMV to renew a car registration for a friend, and the DMV lady went on about how cute my nails were and seemed agog that I had done them myself. It totally made my day. I bet she doesn't hear "you totally made my day!" that often at the DMV, so it was good for both of us.

Also! I found a really cool website for style stuff through another blogger, iHeartPrettyPolish: Copious. She found a great Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe dupe: here. It's by Hot Mess, and called "Across the Trailer Park". I joined up with Copious, and I'll put a link for anyone else interested in joining here. They offer $10 credit for signing up, so the polish will be free! (Well, $0.60 in fees, but it's got free shipping. I'm all about this!) I'll post again with pictures when it comes and I can show it off.

Abominable Beginnings...

Hi! I'm Mela. I'm new to blogging and pretty new to the delightful world of polish and nail art. I'm rather terrible, and I can pretty much guarantee that no PR people are desperate for me to swatch their formulas and describe each color in detail.

Still, I like to write, I like to show off my pathetic efforts, and I'm a sucker for positive feedback.

I joined the Llama Nails group on Facebook, and they have an alphabet challenge. This week's challenge is the letter "E", so I did "E is for Extraterrestrials". I did a Galaxy manicure, like so many I've seen done by better and more accomplished nail bloggers.

I used:
Sally Hansen Black Platinum for the base, and then sponged on sally girl Dumped, Mean Streak, Amped and TTFN. I put on a coat of sally girl Glitzy and Later to make stars, and painted on little alien dudes in green and red acrylics with white and black eyes.

It was harder to work with the acrylics than I thought it would be -- I'm learning, though!