I thought it would be a great idea to try my nail polish stamps with gel nails. Guess what? It doesn’t work. Like, not at all. It was late at night and I had to do something! I needed easy holiday nails now! I pulled up an old standby, “ruby pumps” by China Glaze. WIth each brush stroke a memory filled my head. How is it I have so many memories with this color? I started to recount all these memories and I realized I’ve had this color for 25 years. 25 freaking years! Unlike other colors, this one is a deep and sparkly red and perfect for the holidays. I tended to wear it for parties and special holidays events. This wasn’t a color for just any day. I guess that’s why I can look back to so many different times I wore this color. I always wore it for something special. And now “ruby pumps” has 25 years of special memories attached to it.
Tag Archive: china glaze
I found this post in my drafts folder. Maybe it already posted, but I decided to post it here. Just in case, you know.
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I found this post in my drafts folder. Maybe it already posted, but I decided to post it here. Just in case, you know.
Share this:
I wanted something that celebration growth of the season. So I added golden confetti to symbolize the sun over green to represent the plant life that depend on the sun. While its a color combo that doesn’t really match any of my clothing (darn!) I think the nails look pretty good!
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I have been having so much fun with my new dotting tool that I decided to go for leopard print nails.
I started out with basecoat, then added a glittery gold backdrop. I didn’t even bother to let it dry before blobbing dark brown spots all over.
Last I smeared black polish on my dotting tool and drew little crescents around each brown blob. I also added tiny black brackets around some of the blobs. If I did them again, I would make the print smaller, so there were more spots on each nail. But, I think this t rned out pretty good. Almost too good. I’ve been piecing together these emails overly coordinated outfits by pulling every last animal print everything out of my closet. And I have a lot.
So, my recommendation for today is, if you happen to be working 6-day work weeks and feel like you have no time, put together an outfit that makes you feel fantastic. It’s a simple thing you can enjoy all day long, even with all of life’s daily pressures and stresses.
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I have been having so much fun with my new dotting tool that I decided to go for leopard print nails.
I started out with basecoat, then added a glittery gold backdrop. I didn’t even bother to let it dry before blobbing dark brown spots all over.
Last I smeared black polish on my dotting tool and drew little crescents around each brown blob. I also added tiny black brackets around some of the blobs. If I did them again, I would make the print smaller, so there were more spots on each nail. But, I think this t rned out pretty good. Almost too good. I’ve been piecing together these emails overly coordinated outfits by pulling every last animal print everything out of my closet. And I have a lot.
So, my recommendation for today is, if you happen to be working 6-day work weeks and feel like you have no time, put together an outfit that makes you feel fantastic. It’s a simple thing you can enjoy all day long, even with all of life’s daily pressures and stresses.
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I have been drooling at this bright green color I haven’t worn in forever for a few weeks now. But, my purple hair is still bleeding purple and staining my nails, so I might as well cycle through ALL the purples. I haven’t worn the China Glaze Purple Crackle color my mom got me in a long time, either. Why not combine the two? I imagines the bright green would contrast nicely under the purple, but it was so bright it altered the Crackle color a bit. An extra coat would have been fine, but you can’t put two coats of Crackle on. You can do a thick coat, but the density of cracks is inverse to the amount of polish on the nail. A thick coat results in one fat crack that just looks like you messed up your nails from far away. Enter, Incredible Hulk Nails! Cause that’s what I think of when I see them.
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See what I did there? See, I always get a little nervous when it’s time to do 4th of July nails. I love holiday-themed-costumes, and getting in the spirit, but I am leery of coming of as one of those Proud Americans. I am truly grateful for the many fortunes benefitted to me as an American citizen, but, like so many, I share in the shame as well. I won’t dwell here, this is, after all, a nail blog, not some political thing. But, it’s important to recognize the tentativeness I feel every time I don myself in red, white, and blue.
But then, the country announced that all states would recognize gay marriage. All during Pride week. So, I thought about painting my nails in some sort of rainbow fashion. While I have every color of the rainbow, none of them would contrast well or work with the nail stamps. And I had to use my nail stamping kit! So, red, white, and blue it is. And, boy am I PROUD of the results!
I started with CND super sticky base coat. I painted China Glaze 1258 “So Blue Without You” on my last two nails. Oh, I love this color! SO shimmery! I painted Sinful Colors’ 852 “Good Girl” on the rest of my fingers. I shocked the boy with this color. It is the most classic, shiny, red nail polish out there. It was so bright, I think it blew him over with visions of Marilyn Monroe and waitresses across America. Then I had to eat a popsicle. ‘Cause it’s hot out side!
The warm weather did a great job on the nails, they dried instantly. Then I took a couple Shany nail plates. This is where it gets fun. I covered the blue nails with white stars (Revlon 510 “Sure Thing”). My nails instantly turned into Wonder Woman panties! Dooooioooooode! Best nails ever! Then I added white stripes on the red, completing the look of the American flag. This manicure is inarguably the best plating I’ve done yet. Cuz Wonder Woman! I finished with CND super shiny top coat.
To make it better, I had to ride down to Capitol Hill afterward and, not only did my manicure last, I touched the rainbow. In Capitol Hill, even the crosswalks are gay! I could care less about marriage, but I think America has made a powerful step forward. And I am proud.
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As I prepare for the giant Fremont summer solstice festival, I thought it would only be fitting to have my nails take part. I searched my nail stamps for a sun. Oddly enough, I have three moon designs, several stars, and endless winter designs, but not a single sun, and with the exception of a cocktail glass, nothing even remotely summery. Time for new nail stamps, I say! I eventually decided on sunshine yellow polish with sparkely golden disks to represent the sun, er, or many suns.
The yellow color is “show stopper”, a Pure Ice shade that I put on after my OPI natural nails base coat.
I painted an accent nail in China Glaze’s “mingle with cringle”. It was part of a Christmas set. Seriously, why are nail polishes so focused on winter? Amyhoo, I then topped the yellow off with golden confetti disks. I applied them with tweezers, which naturally set many disks flying, as suns do, all over the living room. I drenched the nails in CND super shiny topcoat and discovered that the confetti is so think that it created a leeward side. I had to smear the topcoat around in several directions.
I went to bed, pretty happy with myself for creating a manicure that actually represented the solstice.
But then, I was awakened from horrific dreams. Apparently, one of the disks got a snag. They are kind of a thick tin foil, and the snag felt like the sharp end of a soup can after it’s main attacked by a can opener. In my dreams, this snag translated to countless daggers jutting out of my nails, causing a bloody masscre of everything I touched, both to my pleasure, and to my horror. I woke up, looking at my nails and thinking they were the ugliest things I’ve ever seen. Luckily I am no newcomer to bad dreams and I adjusted OK. So, there’s the summer soslitce for you! Seriously, I think they will be super fun for the celebration, and I’m looking forward to enjoying more sun!
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For Steamposium, I decided to paint my nails with a modern Victorian theme. I cut out nail-shaped pieces of lace, and pressed them onto Sinful Colors Rich In Heart. This is one of my favorite colors, one of my favorite colors; a dark gothic bronze. 
While the 2nd coat was still wet, I pressed the lace on top. It looked fantastic! Then, to seal the lace on the nail and smooth out the finish, I added a top coat. This is wear it all went wrong. The color below wicked u to the lace when wet, making the lace look like nothing more than a pile of textured dirt.You can see this look on the thumb of the below picture: 
I opted to wear the nails with the lace exposed, which looked great. However, with nothing to protect the fabric, it caught on everything I touched and because torn and stringy within a day. It was so bad that the cashier at the grocery store thought that I had affixed cobwebs on my nails for Halloween!
I think the trick is to use only black lace, so that any wicking of polish doesn’t change the look of the lace. When searching other nail polish websites for lacy looks, I noted that all lace was indeed black. Now I need to get some black lace and try that out!
On the Other Hand... 