NOTD: Four Leaf Clover Water Marble + Tutorial

This one was (obviously) for St. Patrick's Day =)  It took some doing to find the right colors, to get a very small inner circle that would fit a whole clover on my nail.  Base color is Orly Wandering Vine, then the marbling is done with WV & Orly Green Apple - I used the darker color as the base because I didn't want GA to be quite as bright as it is in the bottle:

IIRC, I was attempting to place them all similarly - but then I may have given up & just gone for randomness once that failed LOL.  Either way, I was very happy with the final results, and here are a few of my favorites:

And of course here is the tutorial:



I thought at the time that with a little tweaking &  some different colors, this basic design would also work really well to do a butterfly marble - but I haven't gotten around to actually trying it yet.  One more thing on my miles-long to-do list LOL.

Went to the State Fair yesterday - AWESOME time as always, and my cousin joined our family mob this year so we were 6-strong wandering around.  Of course I will have some Fair Food to show you guys - I'm thinking I may turn it into a slideshow this year, but I haven't decided for sure yet.  I didn't quite get to everything I wanted - but that's what trip #2 on Saturday is for!

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Green w/ Gold Scribble (Revlon Emerald City + Gold Coin) + Tutorial

This did turn out to be my St. Patrick's Day manicure, base color is Revlon Emerald City, drag marbling done with Revlon Gold Coin:

 

Here's the tutorial:

 

 

I didn't get as many designs for St. Patrick's Day done as I actually had in my head ... guess I'll have to save them for next year =)  Because its time to move on to Easter now!

 

Thanks for reading.

 

~Colette

Guest NOTD: Sally Hansen Sequin Scandal (+ bm03)

Mom asked me to recommend a polish to match her outfit that she wore to the Ash Wednesday service - it was gold, and I thought I could match it but I couldn't - so I went dark instead & she liked my choice of Sally Hansen Sequin Scandal:

 

After a few days she wanted to change it up a bit with some shamrocks for St. Patrick's day - and I am SO PROUD of her.  I told her I would Konad her if she didn't wait too late, but she wanted it done right as I was finishing editing my latest tutorial, so I asked her if she wanted to do her own.  I was a little wary ... as you know there can be quite a learning curve for Konad.  But I sent her off with image plate bm03, stamper, scraper & China Glaze Passion, and after I while she came back to show me this:

 

 

Excellent placement!  Only using part of the stamp for most of her nails! And double-stamping on her thumbs!  All of her own initiative =)  A really good first konadicure.  Yay mom!  I am so proud of her LOL.  Thanks for reading.

 

~Colette

NOTD: Zoya Tangy + m71*

I have been waiting for St. Patrick's Day so that I could use this shamrock image, from Born Pretty image plate m71*.  I think it's just perfect.  I did the stamping with Green Konad special polish, and the base color is Zoya Tangy - which is very fun & bright, & if you get it at just the right angle you can see almost an orangish duo-chrome, which was of course impossible to accurately capture in pics so you'll have to take my word on it:

 

 

I got this a few years ago during Zoya's "Green Friday" - so if you participated in that lovely event, dig this one out & hold it at an angle, I was really surprised to see the color flash.

 

Thanks for reading =)

~Colette

NOTD: Clovers/Shamrocks + Tutorial

Uhmmm... oops on taking a pic of this green pre-nail art.  I think that's pretty much always a sign that I'm really up too late doing my nails LOL.  So of course there are some things I would fix with this - but overall I liked it, it was super-festive & fun to wear.  I stuck with just 3 leaves except on my thumbs with I did lucky 4 leafed-clovers.  (I also made the mistake of connecting them in the center on the thumbs ... it made them look much sloppier)

For my base color, I used Nina Ultra Pro Emerald City (I did just get this, I swear, my hauls post is coming soon LOL).  Then for doing the clovers (or shamrocks ... although apparently clovers can have 3 or 4 leaves & shamrocks always only have 3), I used China Glaze GR8.  The holo was not super-apparent, but it was still a nice sparkly gold:

On another note, have I mentioned lately that I am a complete spazz 95% of the time? I JUST noticed today – after almost 4 months mind you – that I mis-spelled my name for my YouTube account…. Instead of SimpleLittlePleasures it shows as SimpleLittlePleasues.  I don’t know how my eyeballs managed to skim over that for so long but talk about irritating … of course, since I’m already at the character limit, I actually could not have it the way I wanted, it would have to be SimpleLittlePleasure … grrr.

Anyway, that’s my little mini-rant.  Since there’s no way to change it I’ll probably just complain about it at random intervals.  Because no way in hell would I start over, lose my subsribers & all the views my tutorials have received.  Especially since I can’t even have the name I want anyway.  My consolation is that my channel name does match the proper name of my blog, so … yeah.

That’s out of the way, enjoy the latest tut =)



Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: NUP Vintage Velvet

Just a quick post, this is a color that I picked up on clearance in one of my small hauls (none of which I've gotten around to posting yet...) & is another good green for St. Patrick's Day.  Nina Ultra Pro Vintage Velvet is kind of a shimmery frosty color, and the Konad is done with Black Special Polish & image plate s1:

I'm doing a tutorial in just a moment, so I hope to have it edited to post later tonight =)  Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Sinful Show Me The Way

So, in the interest of St. Patrick's day, I've been trying to work my way through some of my unworn greens =)  This mani lasted me a couple of days, I started out with Sinful Colors Show Me The Way, then I added a coat of Matte Magic ... then I thought I'd do some nail art in glossy topcoat, but I really wasn't thrilled with it, so you'll see in the last pic that I ended up going over that with MM again:

I haven't had anything that my nails look like lately, but this little butterfly thing was on a co-worker's desk & I was immediately struck by how similar the color was =)

For the 2nd day of this mani, I added some Konad, with image plate m72.  I used L'Oreal Yellow Buzz for the stamping.  I was originally going to use Ghetto Fabulous, but when I tested it on the pinky it was almost invisible, so I switched from gold to yellow.  This is the first time I've used this design, I like it a lot better on my nail than on the plate.  I also used a glossy topcoat this time,:

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: My 1st Ruffian

I have to say my first because I definitely see myself doing this design again.  I picked a green & a gold to go with my current St. Patrick's Day color theme, but I kept it a really dark green to stay true to the original look.  I didn't want to do any nail art really, but to spice it up I flipped the colors to give myself accent nails on ring & thumb.  Gold is China Glaze 2030, green is Finger Paints Evergreen Dream, here is my take on the Ruffian manicure both the glossy before & after Matte Magic:

I have to admit I'm kind of in love.  So simple, but the crescent at the cuticle adds some interest & just a little something special.

Now, one thing I did want to touch on was in regards to using a matte topcoat with a chrome polish.  My first experience with this was a Konad that I did (original post HERE), and basically if you use matte over plain chrome, you get something completely matte, whereas if you use matte over a chrome with a glossy topcoat on it, you get a satin finish.  I tried to take a couple pics illustrating the point on a nail wheel, with the light hitting at a couple of different angles - the left half has a coat of Seche Vite, and the top half has a coat of Matte Magic:

Anyway, my point is that I prefer the more satin finish to the total light absorption of the uber matte.  It still throws back a little light & keeps it from being (IMO) totally boring.

Lastly, I don't have a tutorial of my own to share for this look, but here are two you can take a look at.  The original backstage CND footage from the Ruffian show:

& a quick tutorial from Nihrida:

Have you rocked the Ruffian?  I'll admit I feel a bit late to the game on this one, I keep seeing it on everyone else's blog =)  I'd been meaning to do it for about a week before this actually made it to my nails LOL.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

NOTD: Green Sponged Swoop (+ Konad & Matte-ified)

Well, it started out supposed to be a swoop at least ... I've been seeing swoop designs on other blogs, in my head it combined with the urge to do some sponging with 3 different colors, but on the nail I didn't have much of a curvy swoop to my lines, they're more plain diagonals.  I still like the way it turned out though; I used 3 colors from Wet 'n' Wild, Jade (lighter green), Morbid (darker green), & Shield (metallic tip):

(Although I used more colors, this is the same basic technique as I used in THIS Purple Sponged Gradient tutorial.)

Then I decided to change it up for the next day, so I stamped it with White Konad Special Polish & image plate m64:

Then I added a coat of Matte Magic & this is how it turned out:

I wasn't sure what I thought at first, but it grew on me, it was really different from anything I normally wear.  You know, with St. Patrick's Day right around the corner, I think this could be a fun mani, either version, for that holiday.  Hmmm, I'll have to do some more green designs.  I have to admit it appeals to me more than pink for Valentines Day did LOL.

Thanks for reading =)

~Colette