Holo Stamping with franken: Boom Boom Ba

It's about time I showed another of my Spectraflair frankens, isn't it? This one, I've named Boom Boom Ba, and it's made from one bottle of Essence Break Through with a tiny amount of Spectraflair and some clear polish to thin the base. It has a fairly subtle holo effect, but it's just enough to add some life and dimension. My bottle of Break Through is one of the old ones, but according to the Essence website, it should still be available in their newer Colour & Go line.

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Here it is in full sun. This is two coats Boom Boom Ba, stamped using Color Club Revvvolution and Cheeky Jumbo plate D. My bottle of Revvvolution is not as holo as I'd like it to be, but I'm not sure I'd call it a dud bottle, as it's still very nice. Hopefully you can see the effect here in the stamping. This is the most true-to-color photo of the bunch, as the others pull too blue.

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 Here it is under my full spectrum lamp. As you can see, the holo effect is slightly less, but still visible, especially in the bottle. Again, this is bluer than the polish is in real life.

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This is full shade, and the holo effect is completely dampened, but it's clearly not a plain cream polish. It has depth, but no rainbows.
Here's the song inspiration behind my franken name, complete with a video from the TV show (Dead Like Me) where I first heard and enjoyed the song:

Great song, great show.

China Glaze New Bohemian Luster

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China Glaze Swanky Silk. Two coats, with topcoat. This is from the Fall 2012 duochrome collection, and hopefully you can see here that it goes from a neutral, greenish-gold to a dusty rose gold, in a lovely chrome finish. This was quite pretty, but I think three coats would've been better. Formula was great, if a little thin and sheer, but application was a breeze. It was so delicate and ethereal!

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This really reminded me of Black Hills Gold - they make beautiful gold jewelry with combinations of green, yellow and rose gold. I'm pretty sure there's at least one dupe floating around, but I don't own any, so no comps this time.

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And because I can never leave a mani alone, I stamped over it! I used Swanky Silk's collection mate, China Glaze Deviantly Daring, and BM315 for the paisley pattern. Not my best work, but it's pretty all the same.

Fuzzy Sweaters

Recollections glitter and flocking powder

Yep. I did it. I jumped on the fuzzy nails bandwagon. But I added my own twist - glitter, of course! I was inspired by some Martha Stewart sparkly flocking powder at Michael's, but I already owned the glitter and this flocking powder was on clearance, so I mixed my own. Both the glitter and the flocking powder were by Recollections, also found at Michael's.

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I shook them up together in a little zip baggie, but my teeny silicone bowl was perfect for application, because I dipped rather than the traditional shaking over the nail. I tried shaking the mix over, but wasn't happy with the coverage - it went on thicker with dipping for me.

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I started with two coats Revlon Wind Fall, then used a slow-drying topcoat as the tacky surface for the sparkly fuzz to stick. (I swatched Wind Fall here, if you want to see it alone.) I then dipped each nail into the bowl, lightly tamped down the fuzz with my other hand, and brushed off the excess. Done! How easy is that!

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Here's a shade pic, because the glitter was easier for the camera to pick up in the shade - it just kinda twinkles out of the sea of fuzz. Anyway, this mani lasted about two days, surprisingly - including one shower and several handwashings. I removed it when it started developing bald spots. I loved it, though - so different and cute! I kept petting my nails that first day. But putting my hand in a pocket or purse sure felt odd, as the fuzz wouldn't glide smoothly like nail polish does.

China Glaze On Safari Fall 2012

So, late to the party again, but this time I have an almost legitimate reason. My swatches came out carp. I tried to do everything right, like using cuticle oil to help my manky cuticles and applying extra-carefully. The sun even cooperated! Everything was great, but when I went to edit the photos, almost every one was completely inaccurate to my eye. Clearly I need to play with my camera settings some more, because most of the colors were distorted and washed out in direct sunlight.

I was too lazy disheartened by my fail to take fresh swatches, so I'm substituting my less-exciting-but-more-color-accurate nail wheel swatches this time. Don't worry, I'm sure these will make an on-nail appearance at some point, because they're great colors.

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From left to right: Adventure Red-y, Prey Tell, Man Hunt, Exotic Encounters, Elephant Walk, I'm Not Lion. All two coats, no topcoat and no application issues that I recall. My favorite by far and away is I'm Not Lion (naturally). Remember to click the pic to see it larger.

Two full sun swatches did come out all right, so I'll include them to make myself feel better for posterity.

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Prey Tell. Two coats here, no topcoat. Lovely, vampy burgundy jelly with great opacity.

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I'm Not Lion. Two coats with topcoat to maximize sparkle. Angling my hand like this allowed some of my nails to be out-of-focus, showing off that gorgeous rainbow sparkle! Honestly, out in the sun this polish was like having little champagne-colored disco balls on my nails. ♥♥♥

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Bonus stamping pic of I'm Not Lion. This reached whole new levels of awesome! I loved that the stamp was just transparent enough to still sparkle through. I stamped with Pure Ice All Night Long and BM319.
PS: Pardon my playing around with my watermark, just trying to figure out the best placement. Kinda liking the 'hide the hideous cuticles' positioning. 

The China Glaze products mentioned in this post were provided by a representative of the company for consideration. All opinions are mine.

Wisteria Lane

For this look, I started with a base of Sally Hansen Lavender Cloud, then sponged Sinful Innocent and Rimmel Rags to Riches on the tips. The flowers are stamped with American Apparel L'Esprit, Ulta Celebutante and Hot Topic Bright Lavender, with my Essence stamping plate. Then I mattified it.
This is one of my favorite designs I've done in a long time. I love the textured look of the grass and the depth added by using three different purples for stamping.

Chester Cheetah

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Cherimoya 5 Stars, stamped with Sally Hansen The Good Earth, using BM221, topped with Essie Matte About You. I loved this! Doesn't it look like animal print velour?

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Shiny, just because.

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Cherimoya Matte·n·a 5 Stars by itself, one coat, no topcoat. Gorgeous copper penny matte foil. Love that it only needs one coat! Definitely a suede finish, my favorite for mattes.

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And with shiny topcoat. This pic makes it look a bit earwax-ish, but that never occurred to me while wearing it, so it wasn't really noticeable.

Daisies

Anybody else ready for spring? As soon as I had Orly Fresh on my tips, I knew it needed some flower action. So, I got out my dotting tool and added some! The pink is Sinful Daredevil, the white is Wet n Wild French White Crème, the orange is an unnamed neon Pumpkin polish and the yellow centers are China Glaze Sunshine Pop.

Here's the very aptly named Orly Fresh on its own, two coats. Lovely jellyish green crème, close to neon but not quite there. I don't use Orly very often, but every time I do, I can't help but think I should use them more often! Formula is awesome and I had almost no clean-up, which is nearly unheard-of for me. Why don't I have and use more Orly's?

Vault 106: Life of a Manicure, Deconstructed

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It's not uncommon for me to get bored with a mani quickly, but I'm too lazy to remove it and it still looks okay, so I just add something. Yes, I confess to polish ADD. This time it turned out alright, if a bit thick. Here's the final manicure after about 5 days. This shows the stamping, using plates BM03 and fauxnad M96. The blue is Sally Hansen Navy Baby and the white is Love My Nails White.

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Sans stamping, this layer shows one coat OPI Big Hair... Big Nails. Mmm, jelly sandwich, anyone?

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Here we have three coats Sinful Deep Red Ocean. Starting to look a bit thick already. But SO sparkly!

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Back to the beginning, this is two coats China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy alone. It's a typical neon, so it dries matte, and I liked it that way. It's so bright! Love this one.
Whew, that's a lot of layers! Did you follow all that? Are you polish ADD, too?

Icing Mood Swing Romantic/Relaxed

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Icing Mood Swing Romantic/Relaxed, three coats, no topcoat. Beautiful peachy-pink shimmer that dries matte. Cold fingers to show bottle color.

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And with topcoat, as it normally looks on me. I love wearing mood polishes when my nails are long like this. Instant funky french! This is a great color combo, too. The yellow is one of those rare shades that looks great with my skintone, and the peach is equally flattering.

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My husband came up with this stamping idea - he wanted something that was reminiscent of flames, and used the mood polish to its full potential. I used China Glaze Foxy and BM212. It looked much cooler in real life, with the mood polish changing color, and my stamping mistakes not so noticeable.

Vault 106: Pink Marble Flowers

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Best water marble I've ever done, before or since! And I blame Colette over at My Simple Little Pleasures. When you click the link, you'll see I totally ripped off her design (right down to 3 of her 5 color choices), but you'll also see a tutorial on how to do it yourself.  For my rendition, I used (in order from dark to light): Savvy Red Caviar, OPI Let Me Entertain You, China Glaze 108 Degrees, China Glaze Strawberry Fields and Savvy Fairy Twinkle.

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I really loved her matte version, too, so I copied again after a few days' wear. One difference that makes it my own is that I slapped on a coat of sparkly stuff ($OPI Wild About Shimmer) before the mattifying stage. The sparklies looked better in person, I think. I wore this mani for a whole week, and it was a wrench to finally take it off! Now that I've pulled it out of the vault, I will definitely have to do it again - maybe purples this time.

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I also used a different base under the marbling: Essence Hang Loose, probably 2 coats, but I'm not positive. Gorgeous color, and I'm a bit mad at myself for frankening most of it, as it was limited edition. Anyone know any dupes?
Incidentally, you must follow My Simple Little Pleasures, if you don't already! This is just one of MANY fabulous nail art designs, and she specializes in water marbling and video tutorials. Besides, Colette lives in my area, and I always support the local chicks. Hi, Colette! 

Sweet and Girly Valentine

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One more Valentine's Day mani. This is 4 coats of Sinful Cinderella, with hearts stamped using plate BM202. I really like how sweet and delicate this turned out. Click to enlarge and see the beautiful sparkle in the Sinful polish. I really adore the color, but 4 coats is excessive - next time I'm wearing underwear!

Vault 106: A Galaxy Far, Far Away

I did this last year, so I don't remember what colors I used, but it'd be pretty simple to duplicate, using whatever you have. I started with a dark base, then sponged two or three colors on lightly and randomly, pouncing off extra with a clean side of the sponge. Next I used a sparse microglitter topcoat, and stamped the stars using China Glaze Millenium and plate BM14. Then I hit it with a coat of China Glaze Matte Magic.

Here's shiny, but I think I like it better matte.