52wkCrumpet9: brush stroke and fav brand

This is week nine 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: brush stroke and favourite brand (either each alone or combined). I combined. I did have to research what brush stroke was, I was thinking of something different (fantail brush stuff). But then I remembered. And I used my fav brand Zoya - love their polishes.

I started with a two coat base of Zoya Arizona, a really groovy apricot orange. I am totally loving this colour right now. Obviously so much, as a lot of my clients are sporting it as well! You can really hardly see it in the end – even the Mr asked, "where is the cool orange?".

Then I started stroking/dabbing on three shades of Zoya, in this order, and then twice: Pepper (a brick red), Sooki (a tomato red) and Flynn (caramel). Towards the end I also added some Arizona so that I had orange towards the top of the layers.

I didn't take heaps of pics as the mani seems rather self-explanatory and kind of looks the same from every angle! And, I am suuuuper early this week as my son arrives from Europe on Wednesday!! He is moving here and we are all very, very excited and I want to spend time with him. So need to get heaps of projects done and some real work, so did my nails last night!
Take care girls x!

An InLinkz Link-up

Starburst flowers on Essie Sable Collar

Hi girls! I had intended to do a last gel mani for the whole week but that did not want to do what I wanted. I need to tweak that polish and try again and then I will write about that experience. Do want to give the colour a second chance before I call up the relationship doctor! So, I decided to do an acrylic mani on a hardly used beautiful brown.

Now, I am also totally behind in posting this (waaaay too much jewellery to make this week - but I guess that's a good thing) and I had heaps of film marketing to do as well. I am right now on my fourth day with this and it still looks totally fab - NO chips! I just gave it a new top coat to be shiny for tomorrow and there are zero chippos. I wonder...... I decided to use my old tried and true China Glaze Strong Adhesive base coat this time. Over the past months I have been using Seche Clear, mainly because I bought a jumbo refill size. It never as felt as good as the CG. And here is the proof as this mani is still rockin'! That usually doesn't happen with SC.

I started with two coats of Essie Sable Collar, a warm rich chocolate brown with a shimmer. A velvety brown. I think this is a beautiful winter tone and it covers very well in two coats. Then I got out the acrylics and a small flat brush. I wanted to create overlapping starbursts.

First, I mixed yellow and white (and water) and applied all the yellow flowers. Such a simple design, just dip the end of the flat brush in the colour and then apply in a wheel spoke type pattern. I keep cleaning off the brush by wiping and squeezing it together with my fingers to keep the tip thin and tight. Then, using orange and white and water, I did the same with the next colour. And again with a very very peachy light. I added some white dots in the middle of the flower and wherever else I thought they should be!

right hand

Top coat really brought it all together and smoothed out the acrylics. I waited a bit before applying so that I wouldn't smear any of the paint. Acrylics dry fairly quickly, though. and if you hover over the nail with the top coat (vs really applying it with force) you usually don't touch the art.

So.... like I said, have been a busy bee. I thought of this new pendant design, called Cosmic Dandelion. I haven't put it on etsy or anything. Well, I just finished it and tomorrow is the market. Maybe I'll sell it. And if not, we are away soon on holiday so why bother with etsy for the time being. I really like it (duh...) and think it would be a great larger painting.

cosmic dandelion

I don't know how everyone artsy is out there but not everything I make I like super duper 100%. I like everything, but see room for improvement, or not even - just didn't jell. Then there are objects I really really like, it all came together and just pops. I usually price these higher so that I can stare at them longer. And if someone buys it, then at least I got a good price for it. Then there is all the bread-and-butter stuff that always sells and I keep making. My wee bracelets for instance. I don't even put those on etsy; just little hand drawn hearts in a delicate charm. Wish me luck for tomorrow - last market for a bit. Really going to miss it!

Essie Resort Fling with sponged yellow tips

There has been a massive amount of nail mail coming through the door lately. I finally received my past Xmas, birthday and M-day gifts as Europe wouldn't allow anyone to send them to me with the post. Had to wait until someone actually flew to my country! So heaps of polish there. Then I invested in two new Essies from CandyGirl as they looked just too good to pass up. Up till now I have not been a fan of Essie. In the meantime, I have read up on them and, well, maybe I got a bad bottle.

This is Resort Fling from their 2014 Resort Fling collection. 'Tis a coral, but has an orange tinge to it. Not pinky coral like Selena from NOPI. A warm coral. Or soft orange. Now I read that Essie goes on streaky but the formula is supposedly so a-m-a-z-i-n-g that it all evens out as it dries. The only bottle I have is their Raise Awareness that gets a lot of use with my little old ladies. And I was never impressed with that.

True to form, the polish applied streaky and looked like it didn't cover. But I waited a tad before applying the second coat and yes! Coverage was absolutely there. A really pretty colour - great for spring and summer.... and holidays! This is two coats of Resort Fling.

I had another idea for this mani as I thought the colour was a jelly = sheerer. I wanted to do a sandwich with flowers, etc. But that did not work out as the second coat totally covered all the flowers! So, I jazzed up the tips a bit by sponging in gradient piCture pOlish Mellow Yellow and CG Foie Gras. From a distance the mani looks great, up close my nails look dirty!!! Ha! Note to self: brown on your tips is not always a safe choice.

This is late in posting as well. Seems I have a massive to-do list. Am trying to stay really positive but things are just crumbling around me it seems. We thought we had an offer in on the business, but that has yet to materialize, all so up-in-the-air. I owe so many notes and eMails, have been applying for jobs, and almost forgot my doctor's appt yesterday! Plan on doing my nails tonight, though. Oh, and packing up a pendant for Hollywood!

TPTjan1: red with orange and yellow stripes

Right off, don't know if I will be doing four TPT a month. I am also interested in GOT, but won't be doing that weekly, either. That just leaves no time for anything else in the nail art department. I think I will do two of each in alternating weeks. I love Crumpie's challenge ideas and want to take part as much as I feel like it - how's that for commitment!!!

TPT = tri polish Tuesdays (and... GOT = golden oldie Thursday). Each month has three (tri) selected colours and you are to do different manis with the colours through the month. January is red, orange and yellow. At least one of the manis has to include all three colours (rules are a bit nicer this year!), I decided to start with the three today as I may only do one more of this particular tpt.

I started with one and half coats of China Glaze Sunshine Pop (the half was on the top half of the nail) and a coat of Orly Holla. I don't like Sunshine Pop much. It has that 70s shimmer to it and looks cheap on me. Must have too much blue tones or something. My (mini) bottle of Holla got a nice big squirt of Seche Restore. Imagine that, new polish! I really don't like it but it is a great orange and the only other ones I have are either very pastel or neon. I top coated this before moving on.

baby george and the tri polish

Used nail tape to section off a stripe in both the yellow and orange areas. This was covered with one generous coat of Zoya Sooki. I only used one coat but did have to make sure it covered the yellow thoroughly. I did two nails at a time but let them sit a bit before top coating. I like Sooki, it is a nice tomato red. A good summer red. The true colour is somewhere between pic one and two way above. Late afternoon lighting, sun had just come out after the rain.

right hand

I like the colours of this mani but don't enjoy the mani. This is usually true with any tape manis. I just feel that my nails are so heavy with polish. You know how sometimes you paint your nails and they feel light yet sturdy. Today, my nails now feel heavy with polish.

Above my super bonus Georgie shot. George is our new kitten, he is just shy of seven weeks. Very cute, very loud, very lethal (in regard to arm scratches). He started out as all black but I notice a bit of white creeping in! Big brother Harvey cat is still pretty unimpressed, though he does occasionally say hi.
I am not alone in my TPT challenge days, so check out the girls below, too!

Sunburst gradient with Nostalgic Lacquer Athlete

Happy 2014! I started the year with a bright sunny gradient, inspired by one of my new Nostalgic Lacquer glitters. Erin sent me four beautiful glitter to review, along with the two I ordered from her. So I am currently the proud owner of six new NL glitter polishes!! Here I am using the Athlete from the Saturday Detention collection, a groovy orange, yellow and white glitter.

I started with two coats of OPI Goldeneye then gradiented China Glaze Orange Knockout (neon orange - finally a good use for it!) and Mariah's OPI Sprung over that. I didn't bother top coating that and just went ahead and applied the glitter.

The Athlete is a clear base with orange, yellow and white glitter. It has large white square glitter mixed with very small pinpoint white specks, and that would be the only drawback for me. I like the white idea, but the white bits are big and "loud". I would rather they be smaller. And, I have to admit, one rolled upwards and I had to pick it off after it dried.
What I really like are the orange and yellow bits with the white. A very summery glitter, and over my gradient or a solid metallic it looks great!

I had to fish and dab a bit to disperse the white around. But I only did that on the first coat. The second coat of glitter I applied normally and that seemed to fill in any spaces. I can also imagine some jewelry ideas with the glitter.

right hand

So... we started the new year with a kitten, six weeks old. The Mr wanted a kitten, but he will not admit that. He thought Harvey needed a mate. It does make sense, though. Two person household, two cats. And why not? They eat basically nothing so care is minimum and if we go away, taking care of two cats isn't much more difficult than one. Right now we are calling him George – king for a day! – but that will most likely change soon as his personality comes out. Behold, the tiny tot.