Pris' Nails: Glitter

Showing posts with label Glitter. Show all posts

Friday, December 7, 2012

Winter Holiday Challenge: Gingerbread and Candy Canes

Onto the second day of Crumpet's Nail Tarts' Winter Holiday Challenge! And it's such a sweet one! But no matter how sweet, it turned into a disaster. Nothing came out as I expected and I ended up with plan F (fail)... :-p

Last night, I started alternating Snow Me White (Sinful Colors) and Velvet Bow (China Glaze) to get that candy cane-y red-and-white striped look. I went to bed, worked the whole day, and spent most of my evening in the kitchen, making different desserts I've been craving. And, while preparing these amazing meringues with candy cane, I accidentally gave myself a (real) chocolate french tip. Had I actually tried to achieve this look, it wouldn't have been as perfect!!

After cleaning up (both the kitchen, and myself), it was time to finalize this sugary mani. Since stamping worked so well for one of the last challenges, I thought it'd be quick and easy. Oh boy, was I wrong... Maybe it was the polish (I used the same as the above), maybe I wasn't getting the technique right, it just didn't happen for me. I used Bunny Nails Holiday edition plates HD08 and HD10. My candy canes didn't come out that neat, and my gingerbread man is missing a leg. Hubby must've eaten it! ;-)

Time to spice it up, 'cause nothing worked as I'd planned! Bring on the BLING! (yeah, I tend to go back to old challenges...). Pinky fingers received a coat of O Canada! (Julep). Middle fingers were topped with Love Always, Candy Cain (Pretty & Polished), fishing for some of the big glitters. Thumbs closed the bling-y portrait with Ring In The Red (China Glaze).

The glitters cheered me up a bit. Not enough to make me like the results, though...

Hopefully I'll be more satisfied with the next ones.

Can't wait to see the sweet concoctions everybody else came up with! :-D

xoxo

PRIS

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Three Challenges, Two Manis

Cheating last time wasn't enough. This time I had to combine three challenges! However, it's two completely different manicures... :-p

First up is #PolishDays #BLINGnails edition! The lady running it all forgave my cheating last time, let's see if she'll accept it this time around. Hopefully the many sources of 'bling' will make up for it! (To read a bit more about Polish Days, check my debut!)

Hannah (aka Polly Polish) asked us to "get our bling on!" inspired by her recent engagement (Congrats, btw!). I started to Gleam in Blue (Essence)! But even before even thinking about the sparkle, the first thing that came to mind was my white gold wedding band. Perfect chance to try on Ninja Polish's He Went to Jarred, a 12K white gold flake top coat.

Onto the next blingy source: jewelry! Most of the jewelry I own were gifts from my grandma. There's this white gold heart with a light blue centre that I love (have I mentioned blue is my favourite colour?). The pendant was drawn in Bring On The Snowflakes (Sephora by O.P.I.) with a small brush.

Grandma recently gave me a (silver) bracelet full of pendants, among them an Eiffel Tower (Paris is her favourite place in the world). That transported me directly to the night hubby and I were admiring the sparkly tower. I reproduced it in Na Mira 3D (Impala) over Black Expressionism (Finger Paints), using a striper.

Enough bling!

Next up is the "Winter Holiday" Challenge - Snowflakes and Snowfall. It was represented above as a snow fall of white gold, and with the sOPI polish. Could there be a more appropriate name? ;-)

I'll redeem myself with the last up, which is also acceptable for the previous challenge: "Let It Snow!" Challenge - Snowflakes.

Base colour was Fire (Revlon) and I stamped the snowflakes from Bunny Nails Holiday edition plate HD05, using French White Tip (New York Color). It was the first time I was actually happy with a stamping attempt. Guess I'm finally getting the hang of it, although I'm still far from perfect!

Rounding up, I have a blingy mani (that ended up being sentimental as well), featuring a white gold flake snowfall, and a red wintery snowflake mani. How's that for kickstarting the challenges and the holiday season? :-D

Can't way to see the other ladies' manis in all three challenges!

xoxo

PRIS

Friday, November 9, 2012

Choose Me!

Still in love with Essence, the one I picked next was Choose Me.

I didn't expect it to be a sheer glitter polish, so I got disappointed at first. I needed 2 or 3 coats (can't remember exactly) for opacity, and removal was a nightmare (as with any glitter polish). But the colour is gorgeous!!

It's probably better as a layering polish than as a stand alone. Haven't tried it yet, but I'll post it here when I do. :-)

xoxo

PRIS

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Failed Frankening...

I know, I know... I haven't posted in a while and now I'm backdating to keep up with my anal self... :p

Now that the This Is Halloween Challenge is over, I can go back to posting my manis in the order they were done.

I started with one coat (yeah, it's a really quick drying one-coater!) of Gleam In Blue (Essence), before playing around with some 'frankened' top coats. I bought some glitter samplers at my local Michaels, but had a not so pleasant surprise once I started mixing it with some of my sheer polishes.

First I wanted to prepare a "chocolate chip" like top coat, so I used dark small glitters in the sheer base. After a while, I noticed the glitter bled quite a bit, making the whole thing darker...

The second attempt wasn't successful either. I used a few drops of blue (Jeans - Colorama) mixed with the sheer polish, and threw in small blue, red, and silver glitters, and a bigger silver glitter as well. Lots of bleeding again, making it purplish. Not bad, but not what I was aiming for...

I still have tons of sample glitter bags, and probably all have this bleeding problem. I'll keep playing with them for now, and maybe buy better supplies next time around.

At least I loved the Essence polish! Application was easy, drying time was super fast, and did I mention it's a one-coater?? ;-)

xoxo

PRIS

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Jelly Sandwich

Life was a bit like a stormy sea, and having Ocean on my nails couldn't be more appropriate! ;-p

The Winter term at school was coming to an end, and along came exams, essays, and not a lot of time to do my nails... Layering was the perfect solution to change the look a bit and unwind from one of my finals.

I was aiming at a Jelly Sandwich. My first ever, even though I've already published the second one on my Polish Days debut.

Instead of using a glitter polish, I decided to go for a flaky: Paz e Amor (Impala). It's a clear base polish with blue and green flakes, which was part of my nail care package sent by Cleide.

Flake coverage was not enough with one layer, and I didn't wanna thicken it up too much. Sponging (with one of those make-up ones) was the perfect solution to stamp lots of flakes on the nails, while soaking up most of the clear base.

After a couple of days showing off all that flaky sparkle, I finalized the Jelly Sandwich with the main component missing: the Jelly!

The blue addict in me chose Royal (Revlon) for the first Jelly experiments. It looked gorgeous on the nails, and I was pretty happy with the results. Too bad the pics don't show nearly as much as my eyes could see. (hubby's calling me poetic today... :-p)

Another monster unleashed: layering and sandwiches!

xoxo,

PRIS

Friday, August 31, 2012

St. Paddy's!

Last St. Patrick's Day, hubby and I were invited for a St. Paddy's potluck. We were told to be creative with green stuff - dishes, outfits, etc. Joe (the host) demanded a green curry meatball prepared by the chef (hubby), and my contribution was worn on my nails. ;-)

Mom called my nails tacky, I had to explain it was St. Paddy's!

The green base coat, Ivy League (Sally Hansen), was opaque in 2 coats. The Gold and The Beautiful (Wet n Wild) was free-handed on the tip, because my attempts with tape were not successful. Luckily, the gold glitter in clear base does not highlight the imperfection.

The rainbow laid on top of Chow Chow (Risqué - Risqué ♥ Dogs collection) was an attempt at a dry marbling. I can't remember all the colours that were used, but it was a bunch of different brands. Which leads me to my lesson learned: use the same brand, so the colour expand equally and the layers of the marble are similar. Not perfect, but I was quite happy with the results!

And there's always a pot of gold at the end of (or under?) the rainbow. To reach full opacity, I used 3-4 coats of the gold glitter. The shamrock was a free-hand design with Ocean (Revlon) following a tutorial.

To complement the nails, I wore a green dress and put on green eye shadow. ;-D

xoxo,

PRIS

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

MBOH or "How do you like your eggs?"

As mentioned before, I am not writing in real time. To show how my nail 'skills' evolved in time, my posts follow the chronological order (or most of it, anyway) in which my manis were done...

I'm also catching up on some delayed posts, as the end of the summer's been crazy busy around here!

OK, onto what matters! :-)

March Break Open House is the opportunity high school students have to visit our University before applying, or accepting an early offer.

Each Faculty has its own colour, and ours is orange. As a good staff member, I wore the company's colours, both on my T-shirt and on my nails. :-D

I had a few oranges in my collection, but none of them were the bright shade I needed to rise to the occasion. Hubby was working on a Sunday afternoon, so I went on a nail polish expedition and came back home with Sunny Side Up (Wet n Wild). That IS how I like my eggs, by the way... ;-)

It's not an easy polish to work with. Streaky, pooling on the cuticles, long drying time. Even after 3 coats, you could still see some dragging...

To cover those slight imperfections, I layered a coat of Star (Risqué) on top. It's a clear base with holographic silver glitter. The glitter looks like white spots in the shade, but sparkles beautifully in the sun! And we were lucky enough to have an early Spring week, so the pictures shows a bit of that sparkle.

I got all sorts of Springy comments about my bright orange nails from both work colleagues and professors! And they went really well with some of my mommymade skirts. ;-)

Even though that heat went away after a week, we had a lovely summer this year. Can't really complain of the weather...

xoxo,

PRIS

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Polish Days: Olympic Nails

Here comes another edition of Polish Days! And this time, it's #PolishOlympics!!

Check out my debut, if you wanna know more about it!! :-)

Once again, Hannah (the lady behind Polly Polish) is doing an amazing job organizing this polish addicts round-up!

If you'd like to take part in the next Polish Days, check out how it works!

Onto the nails:

It all started with a blank canvas: Kate (Julep). One streaky coat, covered by a generous second coat.

The Olympic Rings were composed with dotting tools.

Jet Set To Paris (L'Oréal), Amarelo Pop Art (Colorama), Black Is Back (Essence), High Line Green (New York Color), Fire (Revlon) were used for the larger colourful dots.

Smaller dots with Kate on top gave the illusion of rings.

The flags are the story of my life: born in the US, raised in Brazil, living in Canada.

The red stripes were free-handed with the aid of long striping brush, using Big Apple Red Creme (New York Color).

Azul Biônico (Colorama) is responsible for the blue sky, and Kate sealed the deal with the stars.

For Brazil, the canvas was High Line Green (NYC), free handed over by Lexington Yellow (New York Color) and Azul Biônico (Colorama).

A hole punch through a film of Big Apple Red Creme (NYC) is responsible for the perfect Maple Leaf. Applying the tiny leaf is somewhat of a challenge, and a top coat is my best friend during the process! ;-)

Some themed glitter gave the sparkle this mani needed to shine. What, you don't remember the glitter? No problem, here's another pic! :-p

On my pinky, you can see America The Beautiful (Julep). Didn't pick up any stars, though. On the thumb, O Canada! (Julep). A (Canadian) friend said it reminded her of Christmas, and it made her happy! ;-)

I had so much fun with these Olympic Nails! A little bit was added each day, and by the end of the week I had the complete set.

Thanks again Hannah for organizing this. And thanks to all the ladies who are also taking part on #PolishOlympics! It wouldn't be a Polish Day without each and every one of us! :-)

Make sure you check 'em out!