NOTD: Gemmed Funky French + Tutorial

I do wish I'd used slightly smaller rhinestones for this look, but other than that it turned out mostly as planned.  And while the tips & ring finger may look like a dark blurple, they're really Wet n Wild Black Creme topped with Savvy French Rose Opal Frost:  

Here's the tutorial:

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Black & Silver Circles Nail Art + Tutorial

Whew! Time flies when you're ... well, I wish I'd been having fun but really I was sick for almost 2 weeks & absolutely drained tired by the time I dragged myself home from work.

This design started out with a base color of Savvy Chrome, which while it doesn't dry to an actual chrome finish, it is a very nice silver & does not have any issues with brush strokes:

On top of that I added some broken concentric circles with black acrylic & a clear rhinestone in the middle:

Here are my favorite nails:

And here is the tutorial:



Thanks for reading =)

~Colette

Haul - Hunger Games, Color Club Magnetics & Layla

If it's not one thing it's another ... for those of you who don't follow the Fan Page, Frisky has been quite sick & so I've been spending some time with her.  She is curled comfortably, close on her blanket on the chair next to my computer right now.

Anyway, this haul post has been a ridiculously long time coming.  I originally shot the haul like a month ago, but I wanted to include the swatches with the blog post & didn't get around to editing those until a few days ago.  Here's the haul vid:

& for a closer look at the bottles - first China Glaze:

Top row are all from the Hunger Games collection - Harvest Moon, Fast Track, Hook and Line, Stone Cold, Smoke and Ashes & Luxe and Lush.  Bottom - First Mate & Long Kiss.

The Laylas, which at this point I have worn each of them & I am so in love:

Black Metal, Silver Galaxy & Metallic Sky.

The Color Club Magnetic Force colors - which, on a side note, are exactly the same down to the name as the Finger Paints magnetics.  FAIL Finger Paints, for shame:

Steel of the Night, Electro-Midnight, Hipnotic & Magnetic Force.

& the last of the magnetics (for this haul) from Claire's:

The Unnamed Silver & Unnamed Green.

My OPIs from the Holland collection:

Vampsterdam - which I recently used in a tutorial - Dutch 'Ya Love OPI?, Gouda Gouda Two Shoes & Wooden Shoe Like to Know?

My very first Illamasqua polishes, which I received for review:

Radium, Bacterium, and from the Theatre of the Namesless collection, Taint & Vice.

And lastly Milani (top) & Savvy & Finger Paints (bottom):

Hot Pink, Lavender, French Rose Opal Frost, Chrome & Comet's Collar.

Finally, here's the swatch vid!

I am not making anywhere near the progress I would like playing catch up.  But just know that I'm also nowhere near ever giving up blogging!  I will fit it in somehow, eventually.

Thanks for reading.  

~Colette

(These Illamasqua polishes were sent to me for review)

NOTD: Pretty Pink Petals Water Marble + Tutorial

Sometimes it takes longer than others to find compatible colors for water marbling, but it's always worth it =)  For this design I started with a base of one coat of Wet n Wild Wild French White & one coat of Savvy Fairy Twinkle.  Then I marbled with Savvy Red Caviar, OPI The One That Got Away, Rimmel Addictive, China Glaze Strawberry Fields & Savvy Fairy Twinkle.  I had a few issues with color bleeding but overall I really like the final look - unfortunately no sun the past few days:

Here's a shot of the bottles all lined up (in reverse order from what I have listed above) - the Fairy Twinkle actually does have that golden glimmer on the nail, but it didn't come across in any of the pics:

And my favorite nails, left index, middle, ring & thumb:

Finally the tutorial:

Next tutorial I think will be a blue version of the zig-zag & polka dot funky french I did last Easter.  Thanks for reading.

~Colette

Guest NOTD: Savvy Blush + Maybelline Jewel's n' Berries

I think this is really soft & pretty - Mom started with Savvy Blush, which is not one of my favorites on it's own because it's just a watery, clear pink color - but with Maybelline Jewel's n' Berries sponged on the tips, it makes the perfect base color:

 

Thanks for reading =)

~Colette

NOTD: Extreme Green Water Marble + Tutorial

There'll be lots of green in the near future =)  Thought I might as well get started with a bang LOL.  For my Extreme Green water marble I started out with a base color of China Glaze Paper Chasing, then marbled PC, China Glaze Jolly Holly, Sally Hansen Emerald City, Savvy Andrea's Mint & China Glaze White on White:

 

 

My favorite nails - left ring, middle & index, right thumb:

 

And a few of my experiments - you can see what the combination would have looked like with a white base, as well as some of my other color combinations, and the other clover designs that were turning out a little too big to fit on my nail:

 

 

And of course the tutorial:

 

 

I was able to track down the final Tronica polish today!  I went to a Sally's in St. Paul that I'd never been to before & now I have them & OMG & Kaleidoscope all in neat rows on my desk getting ready for pics & swatches.  Very pretty, even if China Glaze does have such a limited color palette when they thing holo ... Tronica is not a dupe for OMG, but the colors are the same.  The same as Kaleidoscope as well with the exception of 2 colors.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

~Colette