THE LADIES NIGHT SERIEST PT. 2 - CHEVRON & AZTEC

Hola chicas!

For the second part of the Ladies Night Series featuring my friend Nikki, she opted for a spring hue with all the rage Aztec print and chevrons to compliment.

What I used:

• Kleancolors Pastel Teal (base, 2 coats)
• Kleancolors White (Chevron stripes)
• Bundle Monster plate BM423 (Chevron desing)
• Nail art brush
• Aztec print

I did 2 coats of Pastel Teal on all nails and then for the accent nail I used the digital mani technique to get the Aztec pattern into the nail and for the rest of the nails I stamped the chevrons using  White polish with BM423, as it came up a bit blurry I did a bit of detailing with a nail art brush to get it bold.
As I have said before, BM plates seem to me like they are not etched properly or maybe I just got a bad batch, but I always have troubles to get the image transferred (from plate to silicon) complete, this is a problem I don't have with the Winstonia ones.

Thanks a lot Nikki for letting me play with your nails!

THE LADIES NIGHT SERIES - CHIC & VIBRANT MANI

Hola! 

Last Friday I hosted a Ladies Night and had 3 of my gorgeous friends around for a mani session. I will break down the posts featuring each one of them in the next couple of days.
I'll begin with Patty, she opted for something clean and simple, 2 colors and some sparkle worked together with a geometric design using tape.

What I used:

• Kleancolor Signature Lavender
• Kleancolor Berry Burst
• Kleancolor Gold Shimmer

We started off with 2 coats one of my all time fav, Signature Lavender then waited for it to dry and cut the tape to a triangle shape, painted the triangle with Berry Burst and then outlined it with Gold Shimmer using a nail art brush to get most of the glitter. The contrast really pops out with the fine gold glitter but it looks both elegant and vibrant.

I never used Berry Burst before and and I have to say OMG this is one of the most incredible colors I have (hint, hint, OPI just released a neon collection and Berry Burst dupes with "Pull and Pur-Pull"), it's a highly pigmented neon that can go at 1 coat. Definitely will be wearing this shade A LOT this season :)

Thanks a lot Patty for letting me use your nails as canvases, my pleasure!

MOONY JELLY SANDWICH, ANYONE?

Hola chicas!

After all that easter-y mani vibe of the past couple of weeks I'm more than ready to move on and today I have this pretty girly-looking jelly sandwich mani and also reviewing part of my last Kleancolor's haul.

Red Fever looked "meh" in the bottle but I have to admit that once applied, it totally changed my mind. For this jelly sandwich I did 2 coats but if worn on its own it will take 3 to reach full opacity. The formula applies very smooth and the red shade have some orange tints making it very "pop", somehow reminds me of watermelon jolly ranchers to be precise. I loved it so much because is so great for layering and water coloring.

For the glitter coat, I picked Kleancolor Pinky Moon which is a sheer pink jelly base (if applied on it's own the base is actually clear) with round mini and bar holo glitter, now for the "moony" part, it also has moon shaped holo glitter bits and that is what it makes it to stand out. What I love about Kleancolor's glitters is that they are quite heavy loaded so there's no need to be fishing around for it, in this case for the moon bits, and even when these are a bit larger, applied rather flat on the nail surface. *NO TOP COAT as the 2nd coat of Pinky Moon did the job*

For the accent nail I used Kleancolor Wild City, now for this one I'm IN LOVE is a purple sand or sugar textured with bits of round glitter, it dries matte. It's a shame the picture does not do justice because it's really, really beautiful. I have other sand effects and I have to say that they're not as good.

So for this look, I alternated 1 coat of Red Alert and 1 coat of Pinky Moon for a total of 2 coats each and 2 coats of Wild City on my ring finger.

The downside of this mani is that it took quite a bit to get fully dry and had to re-do 1 nail after smudging it when I picked my baby off his chair and had to use the old "I'm impaired until my nails dry". That aside, I'm delighted with the final look and it was super quick and easy, no need for crafty techniques or tools ahh and no mess! 

What I used:

• Kleancolor Red Alert
• Kleancolor Pinky Moon
• Kleancolor Wild City



ONE LAST EASTER MANI

Just one more, before I can move on to next phase. This Sunday we are doing our baby's very 1st Easter Egg Hunt and I will sport a mani worthy of the occasion, yeah like I need excuses.

I found this pastel blue at a flea market last week (brand new) for a bargain and been itching to use it ever since, I'm using a easter-y stamping design and a matte finish. I can't say I'm delighted with the end result but it's alright. I love the baby blue color nevertheless.

What I used:

• Pure Ice's Bikini
• Bisu's Rosa Bubble
• Bundle Monster Plate BM402
• Color Club Matte-iffied Top Coat

Pure Ice's Bikini is a pastel baby blue creme that applies very easy, 2 coats was enough but 3 coats will do if wearing alone is intended.
Bisu's Rosa Bubble is a berry pink, almost magenta very vibrant. The formula is a bit thick making it great for stamping and when wearing on its own, 1 coater :) The best part? It was dirt cheap! I paid like $.50 cents for it.
For the stamping I decided to give the Bundle Monster plates another try and this time it worked perfect.

DINOSAUR EASTER EGG MANI

Pheeew!  I had to re-write this whole thing because we had a power outage due to high winds and gusts, the good thing is that I got to go home earlier, take a nap and then crack on with the blog.

I spent a good couple hours organizing and sorting my stash last Sunday and I did not had time to get a new mani. I'll be honest I got a bit of a block yesterday I was a bit tired and did not wanted to spend hours trying and testing a manicure but I was bored of last week's.

I did part of it while watching Game of Thrones, and by the time it ended I was pretty much done.

The end result looks to me like a dinosaur egg, could be like a easter dino egg :)

What I used:

•  Kleancolors Peppermint Breeze (1 coater base, wonderful)
•  Kleancolors Sangria Burst (for the stamping)
•  Winstonia plate W112
•  Franken glitter top coat (is not appreciated in the pic, but in sunlight it shines like the sun over the ocean)
•  Top coat

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! / SPRING FLOWERS MANI

Hola!

I'm heading to one of those super crazy bussy weekends, but is all exciting because it's our 1st Wedding Anniversary! We already changed plans about 6 times because we couldn't find a baby sitter for T.Rex. Seems like everyone wants to baby sit, just not this weekend ha ha.

And of course part of the celebration (for me) includes showing off a worthy mani, any excuse! and  just after posting the GOT mani (at some point I went  f#$% not posting, too late. but made it in the end) started going thru my stash looking for something to play with. I have a huge haul of kleancolors from my last shopping trip and a China Glaze I got from Sally's on Saturday and I wanted to use that CG because is one of my fav colors ever, with that in mind  and the wonderful memory of my wedding day, the colors of my theme, the feel and the vibe, I picked up these dried flowers that  I had like for 4 years. They are reminiscent of my bouquet and my bridesmaids and flower girls dresses colors.To add some "Sparkle Factor" that represents the sun shinning on the beach and the sparkle of both my rings and bridal gown embellishments I chose a chunky glitter.
What I like about this mani, is not only what it represents for me or the meaning behind it, but also because it's perfect for spring with the flowers and subtle shine. 

What I used:

• China Glaze Secret Periwinkle (base, 2 coats)
• Kleancolor Sugar Cravings

Sugar Cravings is chunky holo glitter specs in a clear base, applies very easy and the glitter load is quite full and heavy so no need for fishing. And you can always use the sponge technique to achieve better results.



Game of Thrones S.4 Viewing Party - And of course the GOT inspired mani!!

Well, well, well, unless you been living in a cave for the past 3 years, you all know or at least heard of Game of Thrones and this Sunday was the 4th season premiere. We got together with a couple of friends to watch the premiere, ate some lemon cakes and of course have a couple of drinks all in a very Westerosi fashion that is.

When planning the event we were throwing names for the food we were going to serve, some props and decoration ideas and then I thought, why not come up with a GOT inspired mani as well? How cool is that!?

I said I was going to keep my easter golden egg mani until Sunday, but I took it off on friday and started playing around with color and textures for the GOT mani, oh the possibilities! I planned to show off the mani and post this on saturday, but we went out most of the day and then we went next door to bbq, the clocks went forward on saturday night and we didn't realized it was nearly 4:00 am! I only got like 3 hours sleep before baby woke up and decided to go hyper all Sunday but finally got 5 minutes to get it done.

I suck at freenhand painting, so I used the digital mani technique. Printed the House Sigils and some crowns to alternate. I leaned towards the earthy and neutral colors, very Dothraki. Truth is that I wanted the decor elements to be the focus of the mani, not the colors, they would play more like a complement to weave it all together.

What I used:

• Kleancolors Sandstone (2 coats)
• Kleancolors Royal Privilege. See the asociation here? This is a textured polish, the finish is that of sand in a golden matte color, goes perfect with the theme.
• Digital print
• Rubbing Alcohol
• Kleancolors Top Coat

How it's done?

• Painted nails with base color, Sandstone, 2 coats. For accent nail used Royal Privilege, 2 coats.
• Wait for them to dry completely and procede with image transfer. Full details on how to transfer digital images, check the "digital mani tutorial".
• Top coat and Game on!

Here's the House Sigils I used, I hate Greyjoy so I didn't use that one. I'm showing off here the nude look before the image transfer and then the finished look. I loved the nude on it's own, very office friendly.

EASTER MANIS - The Gold Speckled Easter Egg Mani

Hola hola!

I don't know why, but yesterday I got a bit annoyed with my tribal mani, so last night (after my motherly and wife duties) I grabbed some pastels and decided to try an easter inspired mani. I just started swatching the colors and layering glitters to get an idea of what effects I wanted to end up with and I'm very pleased with the result, I might as well keep it until Sunday! It's basically a pastel skittles with golden flecks accent to add brightness.The colors looks so cute and the gold bits make it pop without being too much. I just loooved it! With Easter approaching I will keep playing with seasonal elements and colors, I have planned to make another pastel mani with some stamping or decals to wear on egg hunt day :)

For this Gold Speckled Easter Egg Mani I used:

Kleancolors Love for Pudding (Pink, 2 coats)

Kleancolors Pastel Teal (Teal/green, 2 coats)

Kleancolors Pastel Yellow (2 coats)

Kleancolors Pastel Orange (2 coats)

Kleancolors Signature Lavender (2 coats)

-For the gold bits:

Kleancolors 24 Carat (this is a heavy loaded but very fine golden glitter)

Kleancolors Almost Good as Gold (this one is a clear base with chunky holo gold glitter)

Make up sponge (optional)

Top Coat

How it's done?

1- Paint all you nails like skittles and allow to dry completely. If you don't want a skittle finish just pick whatever color or combos you want and alternate.

2- *This is optional, but I find the technique is more effective that endlessly layering and dabbing with the brush* Run the brush over the sponge like you would do over your nails, now dab the sponge on your nails. This will allow the glitters and bits adhere to your nail leaving behind the polish base on the sponge and will save you layering until you get the desired glitter load. Twice should do it, as we just want little freckles.

Or, just layer the gold glitter over the pastel base.

3- Give 2 or 3 minutes for the glitter to set and apply top coat.

Listo, doesn't it look gorgeous?

Shopping Trip

Hola Chicas!

How was your weekend? Well mine was pretty lazy, for a change! On Saturday I did my long awaited shopping trip to "The Nail Shops Mecca" in downtown and boy was it fruitful! It  was rather quick, more like an in and out sort of thing but I got 40, yes 40 new polishes. Well more, like 37 as I ended up with 3 that I already had, but it was a good turnover. I was able to find some pesky ones that I been looking around for quite some time now and I am very pleased with my purchases.

**All of them Kleancolors**

I will try to review as many colors as possible out from this batch but I will take it slowly, very slowly as I'm now tonking on with some Easter manis.
I will finish putting everything together and post something tomorrow night.
sweet dreams!!