Hello again & Halloween Manis

OMG has this post really been hiding in limbo this whole time!?!  *sigh*  oh well ,better late than never, right?  ....RIGHT!?!  lol

Hi guys.  I'll keep this short and sweet! =)

I'm still alive!  and I had a lot of fun playing with halloween manis!

Evidenced below:

Chartreuse grit and black glitter gradient

sorry if this looks gross, I was playing and kept adding stuff.  not really a *real* mani but it ended up looking cool so I snapped a couple pix.  thought I'd share! 

 OK
I realize these first 2 pix are slightly gross.  I was just playing around with this lynnderella polish I have and didn't do a proper mani or clean up.  But I thought it looked pretty cool so I thought I'd share!

Lynnderella Chartreuse Grit 1 coat over black

Franken - Skool of Hard Rox

Here's a polish I made the other day.  I was really wanting the new Essie "School of Hard Rocks," but I just don't feel right paying such high prices for a cream polish I can make at home for MUCH less money.

So I made it myself! =)

At lease I think I did!  lol.  I compared it to the Essie at the store and I'm sure they're VERY close! ;)

Lacquerish Original franken- Skool of Hard Rox!

Skool of Hard Rox - hmm.. dusty goodness!

different lighting this time just 'cause I can!

Anyway, when I first made it it was too green.  And not dusty enough!  But I think this time it's right on!

A dusty green-is blue-ish teal color that's neither too dark or too light.  It's so gorgeous! And very pigmented as well!  This is 2 coats with SV on top.  Sigh.  I think I'm in love!

For this franken I used a dusty green base (the ULTA version of OPI JITNB) and added a bright blue polish from dollar tree, some white, and some black.  Rinse and repeat until it looks right!  Plus I always have to add a bunch of thinner cause doing that much bottle opening and shaking makes things rather goopy.

Waddya think!?  XD

Route 99

OMG!!!

You guys are so awesome!

I'm totally at 99 followers! 

PPsssstttt----

Ya want a little sneak peak pressie?

A little bird send me another Lynnderella Polish.  God only knows why strangers think I deserve such wonderful gifts.  But I was so excited to see it, I couldn't sleep until I threw it on under a few colors and decided on a base color for a full mani.   

The awesomeness that follows is Lynnderella Connect The Dots.  This is now my MOST FAVORITE POLISH EVER!  Hahah...

I thought Snow Angel couldn't be topped.  Well I, my friends, was wrong.  

Observe:

Lynnderella Franken Polish: Connect The Dots over various base colors.

Lynnderella Franken Swatches Part 1 (pic heavy!)

Ok guys. I'm finally going to be nice and give you what you want.  Lynnderella swatches! Click to view larger.

Up first is Shape Shifter over WnW Black Creme:  (1 coat of each I believe)

Snow Angel (Lynnderella Franken!) VERY PIC HEAVY

Well, ladies. This post has been weighing on my brain ever since I happened across this polish (and all her mates!).  So, here you go.  I've got some pix of Snow Angel (SA) in the flesh to show. And bottle shots of all her friends.  Feel free to skip the rant and go straight to the pix if you want. No hard feelings, promise!  ;)

For those of you who don't know of her yet, Lynnderella is a very famous frankener (someone who mixes their own nail polish) on MUA. What little I know of her I learned from this interview I found on another blog.  You can read it here. 

Anyway, a few weeks ago I was approached by someone on MUA, I have NO IDEA who (they made sure of that!), and she said she wanted to send me a bottle of SA!  I was totally stoked, needless to say.  My BF was a little wary, but I have received a "RAOK" before by way of MUA, so... it wasn't TOO far fetched to believe.  So I gave her my address (after much convincing of the BF!) and lo and behold, the most GLORIOUS BOX OF NAIL POLISH EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD shows up at my door.

I seriously was like, speechless as I opened all the pretties.  I mean, the thought that some stranger that I don't even know went through the trouble and expense to send me this huge box of nail polish just blows my mind.  Why me?  Why now?  And actually, on the day she first contacted me, I was having a really hard time.  Bad day to say the least.  Nothing worth getting into, but isn't it funny that her timing just so happened to coincide with my bad day?  I thought so.  Anyway, lemme just say- Karma can be a real pain in the ass, or it can be a wonderful thing!  Just depends how you live your life I guess.  Not that I'm all holier than thou over my Karma and a box of nail polish! LOL.  I just couldn't help but make the connection.

If you've read this far, congratulations! You made it thru my rant!  LOL  And now, ladies, onto the main event.

Lynnderella's Snow Angel Franken

Photos are Clickable to make them LARGER!

Lynnderella Snow Angel

I mean, wow.  Have you EVER seen a white polish look so good?!  I wore one coat of SA over a base of I think it was 3 coats of Essie Marshmallow, which worked PERFECTLY as a base.  This polish is SO GORGEOUS!  I've heard about it on MUA and I have to say, it definitely lives up to my expectations.  White pearl glitter in a sheer white base that doesn't look all bumpy and gross and you can actually see the pearl-ish shimmer of the glitter!?

Let me tell you guys, before I owned this polish, I TRIED to franken it for myself.  I failed MISERABLY!  LOL  It ended up looking like the glitter was coated in white polish (which it was!) and just overall yucky.  But this.... *sigh*  I wish I knew how she did it!

And the rest of the polishes in that box were equally spectacular.  Let me show you what was inside:

Lynnderella Frankens: Snow Angel, Mercurial, Shape Shifter, The Glittering Crowd, Chartreuse Grit, Nosegay, and Magenta Crunch

Lynnderella Frankens: Snow Angel, Mercurial, Shape Shifter, The Glittering Crowd, Chartreuse Grit, Nosegay, and Magenta Crunch (from the back)

Here they are close up:

More Bottle Shots

You can click these to make them LARGER!

Snow Angel Bottle Shot (yes there are 2 of them!!!)

Mercurial and Shape Shifter (holo stars, diamonds, hearts, hex!!!)

The Glittering Crowd, Chartreuse Grit

Nosegay, Magenta Crunch

Aren't they GRAND!?!  I LOVE THEM!!!  Swatches will definitely follow at some point.  I'll try not to make you all wait too long on those... but we all know how much of a pain swatching glitter can be! LOL! So for now, bottle shots will have to do.

Wanna see what else was in the box?  Oh yes, there is more.....

Nail TeK Hydration Therapy Moisture Balancing Top Coat, Nfu Oh Aqua Base, Catherine Arley 674, Gosh Holographic (the good one), WnW Party of 5 Glitters, Unt Color PR070, J2 Glitter Light Purple, Revlon Street Wear Prince Charming, and CG NailSlicks in Midnight Forest... FEW! That was a LOT! ;0)

 OH!  But that's not all folks!  These goodies just HAD to come along for the ride!  XD

Zoya Apple, Manic Panic Nail Lacquer Hellfire, Petites Virgo, Essie Steel-ing the Scene, Bary M Vivid Purple, Jordana Purple Rain

I mean, wow.  So yeah. There's my haul.  And my story.  Some nice lady (I'm assuming) somehow came across me on MUA (searching wishlists maybe? SA was on my w/l) and offered up a very coveted polish.  But the package that came in the mail was something way bigger.

I really felt like I was unwrapping a box of love!  As corny as that sounds.  It helps to have moments in life where it just feels like the Universe is vindicating what you're doing.  Regardless if you can't pay your rent, or afford the best food for you critters, if you're doing the BEST you CAN in life, I think that's enough.  I hope it is anyway.



Until next time my pretties.  Love and NP to you.  And remember- have you hugged a MUAer today!? ;)

Wet N Wild Prancer over WnW Black Franken

OK. It happened. I gave in to the hype.  I've participated in and created my very own, FIRST, holiday mani.  And it was AWESOME!

WnW Prancer Holiday LE over WnW Black Creme Franken

Hmmm...huge red glitter yummy-ness...

Oh yeah, look at that shine!

So, I finally did it.  And it wasn't so bad!  I have had this franken for a while, but never wore it until now.  I'm not sure if you can even tell, but it's a mixture of WnW Black Creme with some holographic silver thrown in. I love frankening with WnW's black creme. It makes any polish I can come up with a one-coater.  And I LOVE that!  I used the glitter, also from WnW, from the Halloween Limited Edition Display this year.  It's so sparkly and yummo!

Here's a straight up Franken I did with the holo glitter in WnW Clear.

It's a rainbow in a bottle, alright...

Blurred for xtra rainbow effect!  XD

Now I'm pumped.  I've got Bundle Monster plates on the way, and I'm ready for more Holiday themed mani's!  I'm thinking I'll do a "Winter" theme next.  I think there's a snowflake design in there somewhere I can use as soon as my plates arrive (from Hawaii!) . . off to plan some winter wonderland nail art!

Wish me luck!  XD

Etsy Inspired Snow Leopard Konad Mani

For this look, I was inspired by a set of fake nails I saw on Etsy.  Click here to check them out!

I loved that they were matte instead of shiny and I loved that they used one of my favorite color combinations, blue and grey.  So, of course, I had to try this look out for myself! 

Good thing I had the right Konad plate on hand (m57)!

Here's what I did:

Snow Leopard mani inspired by Etsy nails

Topped with Essie Matte About You!

I LOVE this look!  I opted not to do the accent nail like the Etsy seller did.  She painted the ring fingers the opposite way and used a blue base with grey accent dots. (Honestly, I just forgot to do it. haha!)

OK. First, I did my usual Nail Magic treatment coat.  Then, 2 coats of China Glaze's Strong Adhesion Base Coat.  Then I did 2 coats of China Glaze Recycle for the base.  Topped that off with Konad Special Polish in Black for the leopard print using the m57 image plate.  And finally, the baby blue polish was a franken I made by mixing China Glaze Flyin' High with a bunch of white.   I added those dots with a toothpick dipped in polish.  Et, voila!

Mais, non.  That's when I ran into trouble.  I tried to put a coat of Out The Door on top of it to get everything to dry faster, and this happened:

Holy streaking polish, Batman!  That's one stripey pinkie!

Yeah, the OTD topcoad did not play nice with the Konad Special Black polish.  I'm sure it was totally dry, but it still smeared like a mother.  So....

I had to resort to using my goopy bottle of Seche Vite. If you apply it carefully in a glob and just push the glob around without touching the brush to the polish underneath, it doesn't streak (usually). 

After I waited for that to dry, I applied the Essie Matte About You and all was well in the world of polish for me!  ;0)

One more shot- you can't really see the streaking from normal range, anyway.

Yeah, you bad.

Lemme know what you think...and as always,

Love and nail polish, ladies!