Breast Cancer Awareness ~ Pretty & Polished You Are Beautiful + BCA

Hey dolls! I hope you all have had a great week so far. Tonight I have another extremely special breast cancer awareness combo for you all. Pretty & Polished has created a BCA duo where 100% (yes, 100%) of the proceeds will benefit a local organization called Little Red Door of Delaware County Cancer Agency, which offers a variety of support for those who have cancer. This includes cancer screenings and detection, as well as client education and support.

The first polish in this duo is You Are Beautiful, which is a light pink shimmer. The formula is somewhat thin, but not problematic at all. I would recommend applying You Are Beautiful with a careful hand to minimize brushstrokes. I used two coats for the photos below. 

The other half of the duo is BCA, a gorgeous glitter filled with pink hex glitter and tiny purple glitter. The formula on BCA was great; it was the perfect glitter to base ratio. I was pleased with the amount of glitter on the nail after just one coat, so I left it with that. To make this look even more special, I pulled out my new Bundle Monster stamping plates. Using Color Club Hot Like Lava, I stamped on pink ribbons from plate 321. 

I absolutely adore the way this turned out! I've always liked the way subtle stamping looks on others, so I decided to give it a go with this mani. Truthfully, I purchased the third set of BM plates specifically for this image. I barely use the second set, so I didn't think it made much sense to by the third. Luckily, I had a few Amazon gift cards from using Swagbucks, so I got the plates for a good price. The Pretty & Polished BCA duo will be available for the rest of this month so I hope you all will support her efforts.

Polish Days ~ Geometry

Hey dolls! I was so excited when the theme for this month's Polish Days was released. I had so many great ideas...unfortunately, none of them worked the way I wanted it to. I'll probably show you those fails at a later time. Yesterday I decided to take the easy route of stamping, which in actuality isn't that easy for me since I don't do it often. I started with two coats of Barielle Blossom, a gorgeous peach creme. After Blossom was dry, I stamped on geometrical patterns using Bundle Monster image plate #208 and a-England Saint George.

I'm pleased with the way this turned out even though it wasn't my initial goal. Sometimes you just have to roll with it. I love this color combo and Saint George compliments Blossom well. Make sure you take a look below at what all of the other ladies have come up with!

Milani Mint Candy

Hi dolls, I have a gorgeous drugstore find for you today; Milani Mint Candy. Mint Candy is a gorgeous mint polish that is filled with blue shimmer. The formula was relatively thick; so thick that I'll probably add a little thinner the next time I use it. Mint Candy is very pigmented and I could have gotten away with one coat, but I did two for depth.

 Gosh, I love this color! The shimmer is absolutely amazing and even more so in the sunlight.

Since it's Wednesday, I attempted to add a little pink by stamping on the mosaic image from Bundle Monster plate #208 using Color Club Hot Like Lava.

I probably should have left well enough alone. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. The image transfer was a little sheer in some parts. Oh well, you can't win them all right?

Happy hump day dolls!

Orly Fresh & Leopard Print Stamping

Orly Fresh and Leopard Print Stamping

The theme for this Monday's mani was animal print and I figured this would be a good time to try out stamping again. For the base, I chose Orly Fresh. This is a bright green creme that just brings a smile to my face. I'm beginning to really fall in love with Orly's formula. This was an easy two coats (the second wasn't really needed).

flash

flash

without flash

On to the stamping adventures...now that I've finally got the polish to adhere, I have to work on my placement. I used the leopard print image from BM plate 221 for this mani. I added one coat of Orly Snowcone and stamped with Orly Frolic. 

Its nowhere near perfect, but I guess its wearable (at least for one day). I really like Gumdrop and Frolic...I cant wait to wear them both as full manis. Let the stamping adventures continue...I wont let this get the best of me...lol.

How do you feel about this mani and the inspiration board above??? I've never paired green and leopard print...but I'm feeling it. I've got an idea of how I can put some pieces together in my wardrobe to rock this!

Floral Mani with Zoya Midori & Mira

Zoya Midori & Mira

The theme for this Monday in the PAA facebook group is floral. I'm using these themes as an opportunity to work on my stamping skills. I'm not much for nail art, so you guys have to just bear with me. Hopefully over the next few weeks you'll see some growth in my skills. I tend to look for inspiration in clothing and accessories. I thought the purple floral clutch was super cute and I used it for color guidance. I applied 2 coats of Zoya Midori first. While this polish was a little thicker than most of my Zoyas, it wasn't problematic at all. Midori is a beautiful shade of apple green with gold shimmer throughout. I really like this color...it reminds me of a midori sour!

in the shade

I used BM plate 204 to stamp the flowers on with Zoya Mira. The image is stamped on my thumb, ring, and index fingers.

Hmmmm...I feel just okay about this. I think the base color needed to be a little bit lighter for Mira to show up better. It actually looks much better in real life than it does in the pictures though. 

In other news, I just got a set of dotting tools in the mail today (they were ordered prior to me deciding to do a no-buy....besides its not polish anyway so it doesn't count..lol). Let the adventures in nail art continue...

Finally...Semi-Successful Stamping!!!

Hey dolls...
Just wanted to write a quick post to say that I finally had a semi-successful experience with stamping. I've had the new BM plates for almost 2 months now and they have not gotten much use. After some great tips from some ladies who are more experienced, I think I've finally got a hold of this. I was having issues with the polish adhering to the stamper and it was suggested that I buff it to roughen it up just a little. Buffing the stamper, along with applying more pressure on the plate, gave me this mani. I'm still wearing Barielle Do Unto Others...yup, I've had this on since Wednesday and I still love it!!! I stamped using Zoya Mira and BM plate 221. I topped it with Seche Vite top coat. Well here it is...

The pattern looks good on my index finger that I recently had to file down because of a side split. I really like it...of course it could be much neater and much more even. The color combo is cute though!  It doesn't help that my nails are sort of long right now so the full image plates aren't really big enough. I'm really only showing this as documentation for my growth in stamping. Hopefully the semi-success will keep me motivated to make more attempts. You can purchase your own set of BM plates on Amazon or any of the other nail art products below to jazz up your nails. 

Any constructive criticism or tips for stamping are greatly appreciated dolls!