Day 15: Delicate Print

 
So this is the post I was going to do today but you get two today because as I said earlier I fell asleep. I would hold off on this and save it for tomorrow but I am hoping to have a review of the Shany Stamping plates for you tomorrow!So because this was going to be done on a Fav or Franken Friday I chose my fav metallic purple in my collection to stamp with, China Glaze Harmony. The base color is 3 carefully placed coats of Revlon Charming. I love the color of Charming but was not happy with the formula on this one! I found it to be runny and even after letting the first coat dry completely then next coat thinned out sections so I applied a thicker third coat when the second was still kind of wet and Seche Vite over coat 3 to hid some of the drag marks and streaks. Thank goodness for Seche! I will definitely have to practice with Charming to see if I can get a perfect coverage out of it because i really do love the color!

I used stamping plate m71 for the "delicate" pattern. I was going to wear this mani out for dinner (my step-father's birthday dinner) tonight but there was a problem with it. So I took it off, if I have time to pull off the mani I want to for dinner I'll either post it later tonight or tomorrow. So look at all the pictures (it's in every one) and see if you can tell what's wrong with this mani!

Okay if you haven't guess it I smacked my index nail while the under coat was still wet I guess, so it  smeared and wrinkled the stamp. I slapped on another coat of Seche Vite to semi-smooth it out for these pictures. I admit it's not horribly noticeable but once I know it's there it will drive me crazy!


Much Love, The Dragon Lady

***EDIT***
Didn't have time for the mani I had planned for dinner, also managed to rip off two nails on my swatching hand in the process. Grrr! I told myself that I would review this soak off nail gel that I got recently (to use for mom's nails) if I broke anymore nails so you might get a double review tomorrow of both the gel and the Shany plates. Good nighty all! Off to play with gel, manis, and redo my polish stash list since it hasn't been updated in almost 3 months!

Day 14: Flowers

This post was supposed to be for yesterday but I lay down and fell asleep before I could get the post finished. This is my Day 14: Flower mani for the 31 day challenge. For this mani I used Petites Baby Blue and stamped over it with Konad Special Polish in Blue Pearl with BM-205. Finished it off with a coat of Seche Vite and a little crystal flower gem on the accent nail.

I thought I'd see how this one looked mattified...probably should have done this before the little flower gem. LOL

Then I thought about this new color shifting shimmer top coat I got. So this is one coat of Nailene Artist FX (cool).

Hope you liked it, I did - I thought it was very Springy! LOL! Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Day 13: ANIMAL PRINT

Today I I'd get back to the 31 Day Challenge so... I am up to day 13 which is an animal print mani. I haven't ever done an animal print one before so this was fun. I chose to do snake skin print. For this mani I used 2 coats Wet n Wild Black Creme topped with one moderate coat of Color Club Nouveau Vintage.

I haven't tried Nouveau Vintage on its own yet but over black it looks like an olive green shimmer with some brown undertones. I then proceed to stamp over it using BM-215 and China Glaze Passion, Delight , and Robotika. Topped it all off with 1 coat of Wet n Wild Clear Nail Protector. It was very hard to photograph where you can really see the base color and the stamp detail.

I placed one drop of each of the three China Glaze at the top of my stamping image and then pulled my scrapper straight down so my image was filled with the 3 color in a kind of stripe pattern. I really like how it turned out. Even the imperfect stamping adds a sort of shedding snake quality. I'll definitely be playing with this pattern again.

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Day 12: STRIPES

For the 12th day of the 31 day challenge, I used Color Club Peppermint Twist (basically "Barbie" pink crème) the konaded a stripe design over the tips with black Konad special polish. I used part of a design from BM-209.

I don’t think this came out half bad considering I was stamping with an “assistant.” My assistant, of course, was my 2 year old daughter, “Love Bug.” And after helping mommy, wanted her own nails done. She chose Sinful Colors Let Me Go (a very sheer, pearl lavender almost duo-chrome – has a bit of blue sheen to it) and she wanted hearts so I “babynaded” her cute little nails with black Konad special polish using part of the heart design from m3 (and the small end of the stamper, LOL).

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Day 11: POLKA DOTS

Today I decided to start up the 31 Day Challenge back up from where I left off. I was feeling a bit uninspired by the theme "polka dots" and was perusing my shelves of polish for something that would "speak" to me. While doing so I apparently was also speaking to myself out loud. "What color should I use?" A small voice from behind me utters,"Lellow." I turn to see my 2 year old daughter standing there looking at the polish shelves with me. I laugh and said, "Oh yeah? Which one?" Not thinking that she'll actually answer, which of course, she does. "That one." (She chose Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow) "Okaayy...how about the dots?" "Blue...That one." (Here she chooses China Glaze Adore)

So, with that in mind, I give you today's challenge of polka dots designed by my two year old. LOL! Enjoy!

It actually came out better than I expected but I'm still not sure I'll be taking mani advise from her again soon. Things that would have improved this mani: more freehand practice work, better dotting tools- I have only 1 and it's really small, and not holding a wiggly toddler who keeps wanting to find a better angle to see what I'm doing. Oh well, maybe next time.

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Day 10: GRADIENT nails

This is my last 31 day challenge post for this month, I am taking a break to play with Christmas and wintery manis. I wanted something wintery as it is technically my first day of winter break. I went for the SNOW-mani, white shimmery, glittery, holo awesomeness. I used Orly Au Champagne (2 coats), with Sally Hansen Diamonds (1coat) as my base for this gradient. I started my second layer of gradient with Orly Winter Wonderland, then Jesse's Girl Firefly, then China Glaze Snow Globe and finally China Glaze Shooting Stars (all 1 partial coat).

I had a difficult time getting a picture that showed the shimmer, the sparkle of the glitter and the holo rainbow flashes all at once so here's several pictures to show the various aspects. I liked how this turned out but I don't think I will keep it past tomorrow.

Sunlight - you can really see the iridescent glitter from Snow Globe in this one

Sunlight

Outside in the shade

Blurry to show holo

Macro

 

I am headed up to my mother's tomorrow to do a Christmas mani for a party she has coming up so I hope to post pictures if I can talk her into something fun. She tends to favor warm, neutral colors and I am trying to get her to experiment with some gold foil and Christmas greens, and some glitter.

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Day 9: RAINBOW nails

I love this mani, makes me really not want to do tomorrows challenge. I went for a sort-of double rainbow, I did a rainbow sponge with Color Club Peppermint Twist (pink),China Glaze Peachy Keen (orange-peach), Lemon Fizz (yellow), Re-fresh Mint (green), & Bahamian Escape (blue), and Sally Hansen No Hard Feelings (purple). Then to make it EXTRA rainbow-y I topped it off with China Glaze Fairy Dust (holographic micro glitter in clear base).

I think that I will definitely be doing this mani again, every time I look at my nails it makes me smile. I just might re-do this for finals week.

**UPDATE** Fixed missing pics and part of post from Day 8: METALLIC nails and Day 7: BLACK & WHITE nails. =)

Sunlight

Sunlight

Inside with flash

Macro

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Day 8: METALLIC nails

Better late then never right? So here are my nails for day 8's metallic nails. Managed to score the Color Club Foiled set a couple days ago from Ross, which was AWESOME!! Especially as I was getting ready to buy it on eBay for about $18 more than I paid. I had just decided to just pop in and look at their nail polish and BAM! there it was and it was the last set. I guess the polish fairies were with me that day. LOL

Anyway, I used Hot Like Lava...I love this color! This is two coats, no base or top coat. This polish was pretty opaque in one coat, so I will definitely have to try konading with it too.

Macro

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Day 7: BLACK & WHITE nails

Well, I really like how this mani looks. I made my first two frankens and used them, unfortunately I seem to be fighting with my camera to be able to capture even a fracture of the awesomeness of these frankens. So I will edit this post tomorrow, hopefully to post some decent pictures before I switch to my rainbow nails. As for the 31 day challenge, I think I will be taking a break after day 10 and will pick it up in January 2012. There is a short 12 Days of Christmas I'd like to try, plus finals, one of the kids needs help with a report due in like a week, plus the vacation around the 28th to the coast. I think I will enjoy finishing this 31 day challenge more if I give myself some breathing room. I am not saying I won't try to post daily still, I just feel like playing with some wintery/Christmasy mani ideas while it's the season. Hope this doesn't disappoint anyone.

**UPDATE** Kinda sorta got some pictures to work. These really don't show the opal like qualities of these two polishes but you can kind of see it in the black polish. I think I need to build a light box.

Bottle macro

Nail macro

Bottle macro

Nails macro

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Day 6: VIOLET nails

I really liked how today's nails turned out. This is two coats of Sally Hansen No Hard Feelings, one coat of Sinful Purple Diamond, and a 3/4 sponge of Nicole by OPI One Less Lonely Glitter. I can't stop looking at my sparkly nails, and they are purple which is my favorite color.

Outside in sun

Outside in shade

 

Macro

That's it for now, need to go eat dinner then dream up tomorrow's black and white mani...

Much Love, The Dragon Lady