For vacation, I had originally recreated the French mani with pink and white hibiscus flowers that I did earlier this month , but in the cleaning frenzy that usually leads up to a vacation for me, I totally ruined them :( So I decided to do something more travel-friendly, and more, well... me! So I took China Glaze 2NITE from the OMG collection and used Konad plate m79 to stamp metallic silver China Glaze Millennium clouds over it. The result of the chrome on holo is amazing in person. The silver clouds seem to be 3D. The almost float on the blue holographic background and as I move my hands the clouds seem sort of like they're moving against the background.
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Index to pinkie: (all China Glaze) Cherish, Metallic Muse, Adore, Cherish
Cherish: The yellowest of these greens, Cherish is from the Romantiques collection of frosty metallics. Careful application can negate most of the brush strokes when using this alone as a nail color, but it definitely has that tendency. When used as a Konad stamp, it is sublime; wonderful crisp images and gorgeous reflectivity.
Metallic Muse: This one is from the Khromes collection and these were a bit more smooth in application and a bit more reflective. It's the most minty of the three and is slightly lighter as well. It's sort of delicate. This one also makes an incredible Konad polish. I ran out to Sally to look for it when the Nail Art Contest prizes came in and I saw in the prizes how amazing it looked. I had to have it, too. And luckily now i do!
Adore: I love this blue-green polish so much it's not even right. It does show brush strokes if you're not incredibly careful, but the vibrant ocean-like hue is so worth it. It makes an amazing stamp, just like the others.
Our hometown WVU Mountaineer basketball team are in the Elite Eight, so I had to celebrate and support the boys for their game tomorrow night. So I used China Glaze Passion as a base and then used OPI DS Fantasy and Konad plate m78 to make this design . The blue is a bit more navy in person, which works out lovely. I also thought the stamp looked sort of like the WV "logo" with the W sitting on the V.
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I went into Sally Beauty on Wednesday night to get a backup of China Glaze Millenium, my go-to silver polish for Konad-ing. I was also hoping to find 2030 still on the shelves, but no luck. I did, however, find Metallic Muse which is a minty green sort of metallic polish from the same Khrome collection as Millenium. I brought it home and tried to figure out what I wanted to do with it first, and I started to imagine it over Essie Mint Candy Apple, so that's what you see here. Three coats of the Essie and then Konad plate m63 with China Glaze Metallic Muse made this simple design. What I like about matching a shiny metallic over a similarly colored creme polish base is that while in some lights, the contrast in finish is very dramatic, in others it's very subtle and you can't even tell there is a design. It's very evident in these flash photos, but in person it's quite a chameleon.
The world's most amazing green polish was my pick for this festive Irish holiday manicure. China Glaze Emerald Sparkle is a deep, rich emerald with teeny, bright jewel-toned green glitter. This polish is perfect for so many things; Christmas, St. Pat's, May birthdays (yay for Tauruses!!). With a simple golden celtic knot stamped on with China Glaze Passion and Konad plate s06, this may not have been the most creative or unique St. Pat's mani, but it has been making me super happy. The green glitter has such depth that the chrome-finish golden knot sometimes looks as if it's suspended above the polish. In other lights it looks like gold-painted green velvet. Either way, if you don't have Emerald Sparkle, you need it, hands down. What is your St. Pat's mani?
I loved how MAC Blue India was set off so beautifully by my gold ring, and I was inspired by the curls in the ring, so I used China Glaze Passion and Konad plate m77 to stamp a gold flower on top. Then I added clear rhinestones to simulate the diamonds. I liked the way this turned out.
Essence Nail Art Stampy Set ($2.99) and Nail Jewels ($2.49) available at Ulta
You guys know I'm a hardcore Konad addict, so when Essence came to the States and brought along the Stampy Set, it was a no-brainer. I picked it up at Ulta for about $3 which includes a stamper, scraper and a plate with 7 mostly floral designs. I thought I'd review it and tell you, compared to Konad, what I thought.
The first thing that really seemed different to me is that the plates from Konad have a paper backing on the bottom of the plates and this plate does not. I don't know what purpose this backing serves, but presumably it's to keep the plate more stable and strong, because a bent plate is a ruined plate. The stamper and scraper are very similar in looks to the Konad brand ones, but the actual smooshy stamper part is somewhat more smooshy and slicker in surface texture. These properties make it easier to pick up the design on to the stamp, but harder to transfer it to the nail. The scraper seems to have a bit of a longer blade than the Konad one, but it's very uneven and scrapes the living crap out of the plate. Not to mention the fact that only seems to scrape off some of the excess polish. I had to abandon the Essence one and use my trusty Konad one to finish the job. The plate is pretty nice except that it's a lot more flimsy than Konad plates, so it might not last long if you don't take good care to store it where it won't get bent. The images are fairly deep and create nice clear images when I use my Konad scraper. All in all, for $3 it's a good deal because of the plate alone.
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China Glaze Orange Pacific is one of the most vibrant and shimmery oranges I've ever put on my nails. It's a real eye-catcher, so since it's been sunny this week, I was in the mood for a fiery bright shade. I also got in some new Konad plates in so I wanted to try out some of the designs, and was stuck on this design from plate m69 that reminds me of flames, but really kind of looks more like zebra stripes. I settled on Orly Foil FX in Luxe for the image because the bright gold foil complemented the gold glass-fleck shimmer in Orange Pacific. So you see the final result, in bright light the orange is the dominating color, and inside the gold really stands out the most. Overall, I loved this combination and think it's going to be awesome for summer.
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I used China Glaze Admire and this swirly pattern from Konad plate m64 over Zoya Savita. I liked the bold shiny chrome over the matte finish and the pink sheen of Savita was really set off nicely by the pink chrome. I really liked this combo. I also tried it with Seche Vite topcoat which darkened the final product up a bit and made it much more shimmery in both the base and design colors. Below you can see topcoat on only my pinkie and middle fingers.
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For this Springy manicure I used a base of Barielle Blossom, which is the perfect mix of peach and pink. Then I used Konad plate m74 and China Glaze High Hopes to put this happy graphic floral design on it. The two colors are just a few shades apart making it quite a subtle effect. I loved the look of this one. High Hopes is a bright mango shade that looks amazing on it's own as well. If you're new to Konad, here's a video tutorial on how to use it. I buy my Konad supplies from wowsocool.com, which I definitely recommend as the shipping is shipping is fast and cheap (or free for orders over $20) and the service is great.
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