52wkCrumpet27: Not worn enough

This is week 27 of Crumpet's 52 week challenge! The "rules" are very flexible and you have all week to accomplish the mani. As always, must be done on your own nails, using the colours suggested (or parts thereof).
This week's prompt: Music and Not worn enough (either each alone or combined). I chose Not worn enough as I had spied this old green a couple of weeks ago and thought "I need to use this again sometime". Today is the day!

This is a one coat base of China Glaze Agro (Hunger Games collection). I love this green!! The hue is an antique metallic shimmer, going into olive green. Fab fall-autumn colour. Very rich and a bit medieval (go Game of Thrones!). I wore it heaps a couple of years ago then stopped. Too many polishes, not enough days.

When this was dry I used acrylic paint and drew flower-fronds in grey shades all over. I like the grey-green combo. Out the Door sealed the deal. This is one of those manis I really like on myself and others. For some reason, painted flowers always look elegant and in some way artistic. I try other things, but always come back to something like this.

An InLinkz Link-up

Mind the Gap with waterfall accent

This is a mani I wore a couple of weeks ago featuring one of my new China Glaze polishes: Mind the Gap from the All Aboard 2014 collection. The tone is an olive based golden brown with shimmer. Really very pretty, albeit a tad autumnal for our kind of wanna-be spring. I applied two coats as a base.

Using a long art brush, I then painted a waterfall effect from the cuticle with five different polishes. I started with the red, did every finger then changed colours. In the end I added some dark green glitter. I top coated with Out the Door.

right hand

This was so popular that a lady ordered a nail set in similar colours for her race day outfit! I am still working on those, so will update on that experience later. In fact, I have done quite a few client manis with this design - really quite simple but effective.

golden tone in full sun

Colours used for waterfall effect:
Zoya Pepper (brick red)
Zoya Hunter (forest green)
Zoya Evvie (grey green)
Zoya Louise (chocolate)
China Glaze Winter Holly (dark green glitter)

2014 China Glaze haul

Today I finally found time to swatch some new China Glaze polishes and can't wait to share their coolness! I received these about four days ago and have been staring at them ever since. I have:
• Rest in Pieces (Apocalypse of Color 2014 collection)
• Choo Choo Choose You (All Aboard 2014 collection)
• Mind the Gap (All Aboard 2014 collection)
• Carpe Diem (Celebrate Courage 2014 collection) 
• Sheer Bliss (Celebrate Courage 2014 collection)
• Life is Beautiful (Celebrate Courage 2014 collection)

I thought these were the picks (well, my picks) of each collection. Judging from some online research; I found that a lot of the colours of the collections were near dupes to others and I just didn't need them. In time, I will use these in manis, but for now swatch sticks will have to do!

First up is Rest in Pieces. This is from their 2014 Halloween collection "Apocalypse of Color". Altogether there are six shades, but one is the glow-in-the-dark top coat and there are two pink-toned ones. I am always up for new groovy glitters and this does not disappoint. The base is clear with copper, gold and black flecks plus holographic bars. Copper is the dominant metal and that is a nice change from all the golds out there. I applied one thickish layer over a nude and I think this would look really good over other brown and gold tones.

I have two polishes from the 2014 All Aboard collection. That is a massive collection of twelve or so polishes and most – to me – were fairly non-eventful. I chose two that I thought were different and something I did not have.

mind the gap

choo choo choose me

Top we have Mind the Gap. This is a olive green golden shimmer that leans towards beige. A very pretty tone and opaque in two coats, but a third would not hurt. There is a bit of Princess Sabra going on but this is much darker and the quality is not as silky. Below is Choo Choo Choose Me – a very groovy and unique shade. The bottle looks purple in the direct dun, dark green in the shade. You have some Ozotic-esque type duochromes going on. And then again a bit of bronze. Definitely opaque in two coats.

I thought this could be close to OPI Peace & Love & OPI so I did a comp. OPI has much more purple tones to it. Choo is a bronze based duochrome.

L>R: life is beautiful, carpe diem, sheer bliss

L>R: sheer bliss (3 coats), carpe diem, life is beautiful

Then I have three polishes from the 2014 Breast Cancer Awareness collection called Celebrate Courage. I really like the fact that these three dry matte! The other three are red glossys – really not that exciting.

L>R: carpe diem, life is beautiful, sheer bliss (2 coats)

Carpe Diem is a pink tinged white. In the bottle it looks white but it is not. It rather has the colour of white wash when you add red sox!!! Very dainty, good consistency, two coats opaque. Life is Beautiful is a classic bubblegum pink, but in matte. Same consistency, opaque in two. Sheer Bliss is a vanilla tinged white. This has a much runnier consistency and you need three coats for opacity. I tried with two but you will note non-coverage on the swatch. All three are gorgeous and I can imagine them on bridal nails or as a good base for art.

Lynnderella Elf Assured

Dilemma nails. Believe it or not – come on, you won't believe it – I spent time on these nails. Inspired by Procrastinating Polish, I decided to do some water-spotting and then add glitter. Originally, I was going to keep with the aqua blue water spot idea but there was this glitter that I hadn't used yet. So, why not combine??? In my mind, yes. On my nails, hmmmm.

I started with two coats of China Glaze Neon and On and On. I love this pink neon as it dries matte and covers fairly well in two coats. Not perfect, but good enough for what is to come. And the pink pops. I top coated and let that dry before doing the water spotting. Like water marbling – or anything water-y – there is heaps of clean-up and organization and preparation and just plain "work" involved. But I was game and had website pages uploading in the background, so also time. I used Orly Liquid Vinyl for the black.

Then I added a coat of Lynnderella Elf Assured (a destash glitter). The glitter is pretty cool, though am still unsure of how to wear it: black, white, metallic teal and pink bits in a clear base. Well, one coat did basically nothing for the nails. There were little bits of teal and white and pink but not at all like I thought it would cover (fishy, fish, fish). So I added another. And fished around some more. I don't know, it just seemed to be the wrong background. Way too tone-in-tone. So in the end I added just a wee bit of teal glitter (LA Colors). Now, that was too much! I tell you - not enough here, too much there. Arghghghgh!

So I went to bed (after top coating of course). It is raining like crazy here so not a lot of pics. In the "light" the nails don't look have bad, but really nothing special. All my time invested in the water spotting was to no avail as you can't really see it.
So my dilemma is: raining here today. Will it rain tomorrow? Does the craft faire take place in the rain? Do I go in the rain? Do I pull out my rain gear and "just do it"? What if I drive there and it is not happening? Do I redo my nails so they look like something worth having for the faire? Do I leave them for now? Am I taking this too seriously? 
And..... on a completely different note: where the hell is the electrician, who stood me up yesterday and still isn't here today????

Saran wrap poppies

After I was finished, I realized these are probably poppies. Was going for red nondescript flowers but they do look like poppies. I got this idea off, I think, Crumpet's FB group - but I can't remember. Looked pretty much the same so I will give credit and thanks out there in the wonderful wide web of nail art to someone!

The base is two coats of OPI My Vampire is Buff - a neutral vanilla cream. This is a great base for art, not as stark as white but light enough to showcase what's on top. And it looks fab matte (as you will see below).

Using the saran wrap technique, I squished up a piece of saran wrap, dipped it in polish and applied it haphazardly to my nails. I used CND Vinylux Serene Green. This is a nice deep green. I didn't need much, probably one dip / hand.

I wanted a tomato-y red so chose China Glaze Hey Sailor and just did dot flowers. I pulled them together to form petals and then added Vampire dots on top of that and some black accents. Pulled it all together with top coat.

right hand

With whites and blacks (i.e. extreme darks and lights) I think it is a good idea to do cuticle clean up regardless. My lines were pretty good but these colours just seem to bring out the worst in a mani! I wore this a couple of days then decided to matte up the whole thing! There is something about pastels and lights that look great with a matte top coat.

In the photos it is hard to see a difference! But I can in real life. So, the three above pics are all with matte top coat. The mani is still looking pretty good after three days and I will also wear tomorrow to my second time out at the Queenstown faire. And I will continue to wear it tomorrow night (movie date night!) as I have no time to change. But am hoping to do something new on Sunday as I have some newbies that I am dying to wear.

OPI Navy Shatter over lots of blue

This is a new OPI shatter for me, got in a recent destash. I always thought navy blue is a nice alternative to black. The only downside to shatter is that it eats top coat, so I usually apply two thick coats.

I started with a black base then two coats of China Glaze Deviantly Daring. DD is a fab duochrome which shimmers teal. Very stunning over black and a polish I use often at Ripponburn. Great base for art, too.

Then I topped with a thin coat of shatter. That is key, thin coat. Shatter is weird because you don't think it is doing anything until presto, effect! A pretty simple mani, but very effective. The duochrome underneath adds depth and shimmer to the shatter. And the blues on blue add a bit of elegance. This was top coated twice with Out the Door.

Life is going along nicely here, though still a tad too full. Day by day one step closer to the end of the month and the café blues are behind us (I hope). Have been to another market and it was mega fab! Finished a custom pendant and even surprised myself! More in blogs later. "Day" job of marketing cinemas is also coming together really well with an Opening Night Gala this Sat eve!