Pastel Bundlemonster Stamping

I did this design that I really liked:

One of the BundleMonster plates with Konad Princess Special Polish in Pop Green (I think it was Pop Green at least... they don't have labels...) over Hard Candy Sky (the new version.)

I was really happy with how this turned out, but I sorta ruined it while doing my mom's nails so I had to take it all off and do something else. I wanted to keep the design, but this time I thought I'd try it over purple:


This is the same stamp and polish over China Glaze Light As Air. Pretty also, but I think I really prefer the look of the green/blue combination.

Bundle Monster has such great full nail patterns, they're just so small... Maybe Konad should do more new designs!

Christmas Eve Mani

I really like how this one turned out. Very appropriate seeing that it just started snowing as I type this :)


This was:
Two coats of China Glaze Frosty
Konad m59 in Light Blue Konad Special Polish
Color Club / Art Club silver gems from the holiday gem wheel
INM Out The Door Northern Lights in Silver, fully shaken

I originally tried to do holo silver snowflakes but they didn't show up at all! So then I tried to do gold snowflakes (you can see it on my pinkie) but it looked to warm and un-snowlike. Finally settled on the baby blue Konad polish and it was perfect. Not much contrast, which I like for this design. Added the gems because it didn't look icy and sparkly enough for me and then the Northern Lights because it still wasn't sparkly enough.

I did fewer gems on the left hand just to see how it looked:

I think I like more gems better.

So, I guess it's not specifically Christmassy... More like a winter-themed nail art. Ooh, it would even make a great Hanukkah mani, too.

I'm thinking I want to do something with a green base on Christmas Day. Maybe start with China Glaze Jolly Holly, then do something with gold and red and jewels? Hm. Better start brainstorming.

Since I probably won't get a chance to post tomorrow, I want to wish you all a merry Christmas! ♥

Christmas Stamping Nail Art

I've been wanting to do some Christmas Konad nail art... Problem is, I can never come up with an idea other than using one stamp and one color... Plain... So I tried something different this time. One of them turned out perfect, the other not so much...



This is the one that turned out great. Subtle yet sparkly and very festive. I stamped Bundle Monster snowflakes in GOSH Holographic and SpaRitual Golden Gleam over my day old Essie Silken Cord mani. It's hard to see the holo on the snowflakes in these pictures, but they were subtly holographic in real life.


And then I had this great idea for some Konad stamping...

... That didn't turn out the way I pictured it at ALL. *sigh* Why can't I do nice Konads?! I partially blame the Migi nail art pens I tried to use. They're so runny and watery, I can't figure out what to do with them, which is partially why I have never reviewed them. This was China Glaze Snow as a base, snowflakes with Konad m59, candy canes with Konad m12 and Konad Red Special Polish, Bundlemonster holly leaves with the Migi green pen.

I tried to fill in the bows on the candy canes and the veins on the holly leaves with the Migi pens, but they were so runny they just oozed into a blobby looking mess. I should have just left them alone. I filled in the berries on the holly leaves with Konad red special polish which was nice and thick and made good, non-runny circles.

Did this on the other hand. The star on the Christmas Tree is from the Color Club holiday nail gems wheel. I like the way these holly leaves look much better.


I need more practice. I think I'm going to try something different tomorrow.

Faux-nad

Thought this was funny, had to share:

...What foil?

(Also; Look at the little lobster/crayfish- isn't he adorable? Awwweeeeeee)

EDIT: Since a couple people asked (and Blogger still won't freaking let me post comments)- this is actually one of the faux-Konad "nail art stamping" plates from TransDesign :)

Konad WIN :)

After I peeled off that last Konad fail-icure (bad habit, I know!), I decided to give the Konad another try and actually came up with something GOOD! Not necessarily creative or unique, but it's not ugly! Yay!

Of course, I used my old reliable combination of black base + holo design. Can't really fail with that.


I intentionally blurred the last to to get some of the holo effect to show up. You might need to enlarge it. The stars are holo and they look really 3-D against the black background! Pretty sweet. I'm actually still wearing this. I like.

Which reminds me, I don't think I ever posted the Casey/Gold mani I did a while back. I know I mentioned it on Twitter... I get distracted so easily. I have thousands of pictures I never remember to post... The minute something new and shiny crosses my path I forget about everything!

The base is Zoya Casey, which is arguably one of the most sexy yet classy and posh vamp shades in existence. But, it is a creme, and after wearing it for a day I needed to embellish it a little. The color for the design is Milani Melt In The Sun, also an amazing color, very glass-fleck sparkly sorta like Nubar Venetian Glass but sparklier. Yet another thing I have forgotten to post. I used a Bundle Monster plate for this, so it's technically not Konad, but it's still nail art stamping.

My pictures didn't pick up the design very well, but it reminded me of a rich brocade tapestry type of thing. Something you'd see in a museum or a castle. The glass fleck finish of Melt In The Sun makes the edges of the design soft and irregular so it really looks woven or embroidered!

And one more Konad from last year... Pretty damn cheesy but I must admit I liked how it turned out!

I remember that I did this one the day Liebe Ist Für Alle Da was released. The base is Sally Hansen Red Carpet, a Ruby Pumps clone but still incredibly hot, the fishnet is Konad Black and the stars are China Glaze OMG. Konad over glitter is one of my most favorite things ever. The way the glitter flickers through the lines... ah, so gorgeous.

On another topic, someone just asked me why I stopped posting nail polish... I haven't! I'm just not super excited about anything nail polish at the moment (at least until Zoya and China Glaze winter/holiday come out!) and I'm really having fun posting more makeup things. I'm not just a polish addict, I'm a super beauty product junkie! It's been really refreshing for me to switch up my posts and I'll keep doing it until it's not fun anymore :) So don't worry, I haven't abandoned polish. I know I have a million things I haven't posted... I feel it looming over me all the time... all these polishes and swatches and pictures... like I'll never catch up on things I want to post or photograph... But I'm trying!

Konad Fail :(

I've really been in the mood to Konad lately... problem is, I'm horrible at coming up with good color combinations and design selections. I usually end up using one of the same plates I always use (m57 ftw!) and silver or gold chrome or holo for the stamp. I wanted to try something a little different this time, and, well... you'll see how it turned out.

This is the right hand... note the difference between the right and the left:
Despite the inconsistent star placement, somehow this hand turned out a lot better. But, still. Ugh.

My first mistake was picking the Wine Red Konad special polish. In the bottle it looked so pretty and I expected to look more purple-ish when it was on the nail, but no... it didn't. It combined with the drab olive to form this sickly brown-red-blood disgustingness. I showed Mr. Scrangie and he said it looked like rotting camouflage. That actually sounded pretty cool to me, but I felt the need to cover up the mess a little, so hey, why not add some gold chrome stars!

China Glaze 2030 is one of my go-to never fail Konad colors. That wine red Konad special polish must be pretty potent because it leeched into the gold after it had dried! You see that? Weird globby red spots in my gold stars!

That, combined with the smudging of the lines from me pressing too hard combined to create a design that I imagine would be what it might look like if David Bowie were to take a crap on my nails.

Best thing ever: Orly Royal Navy

Orly Royal Navy. I don't know if I've ever felt this strongly about a blue polish before. I've always loved blue, I find that blue polish really flatters my skintone and I wear it quite often. I have a rather obscene amount of blue polish. But this blue.... I've never seen anything like it. It blows all my other blues out of the water. First of all, it looks like a creme but if you look closely it is accented with tiny little iridescent green glitter flecks a la Pure Ice Heartbreaker. They are not a stand-out feature of the polish- this does not look like your usual jelly plus glitter combination. It mostly strikes me as a creme polish with subtle glitter accent. The glitter is so small it's almost more just fine shimmer, but you can see definite pieces and particles.

Second, this is insanely vibrant. It's dark but bright at the same time. It must have some neon pigment to it because it dries semi-matte. It is the brightest bluest richest blue I've ever worn. It's so blue that it even looks like there's a hint of rich violet added to it.

It was truly love at first sight. It was much different than I anticipated- from the promos I thought it would be like a blue Ruby Pumps, but it's so much better. I saw the bottle and I think I got heart palpitations. I can't even describe how much I love this. And, just when I thought it couldn't get any better than this, Mr. Scrangie commented on it. He said, "Holy crap, that's crazy! That's so vibrant, it's insane." It gets his seal of approval too! Ha!

I wore it for a few days in a row and decided to try to spice it up a little more and ended up with this:


...Which I think looked okay, but I don't know how much I like the speckled silver stamp. I think I want something more crisp looking next time. Or perhaps a stamp in bronze or gold would look cool against the blue too.


But now I'm obsessed with this polish. I keep reaching for it. I'm wearing it on my toes right now and it makes me want to wear sandals just so I can keep looking at my feet.

Konad Code

Since I can't get my editor thingie to load so I can add it to the sidebar, I figured I'd post a quick note here until I can add it permanently.

Konad has approved free shipping codes! No word in if we'll ever see discount codes again, though. :(

So, to get free domestic Priority shipping on orders over $20 from OCNailArt.com, enter 'scrangie' at checkout and select priority shipping.

First try with BundleMonster

I just found out about this BundleMonster thing what... last week? But I wish I'd learned of it sooner!

For the people who have no idea wtf I'm talking about, BundleMonster is a company that sells various things and among them are these marvelous Konad-style image plates. Basically they're off brand Konad plates with more interesting designs.

The first design I tried was the stars and I forget which plate number that is, but I think you can only order all the plates at once now so the star will be in there somewhere.

First, with Konad Black special polish over BB Couture Coal Miner. I like this very much.


Then with China Glaze Millennium over Coal Miner. Pretty, but after wearing these around for a day, I think I prefer the black-over-grey. That and my chrome designs sometimes come out funny cause I work too slowly.

A strange thing I noticed with this particular design is that it seems... too deep? After I scrape the plate and pick up the image, there's always a lot of polish left in the large star.

The plates seemed pretty similar to real Konad plates with a few obvious differences. First, these BundleMonster ones are SHARP!! They have no paper backing like Konad and they feel really thin. They require you to remove the protective plastic film on the face of the plate before use and I nearly sliced every finger open trying to complete that task.

Second, the full nail designs aren't as big as Konad's designs so if you have larger nails, you'll have to stamp twice or something because they're short and narrow.

I'll try out some more designs next time I'm inspired to do so, but my first impression of these was definitely a good one.

Uncharacteristic Konad

This is a base of BB Couture For Men Intake Valve with Konad plate m73 stamped in Konad Princess Polish Grey Pearl. This is very uncharacteristic of me.... A soft flowery Konad? But I really enjoyed how this one turned out and I wore it until it chipped. Intake Valve is a total chameleon. Sometimes it looks like a pale putty color and sometimes it looks like a light pink/light mauve. And the Grey Pearl? It's purple. At least I think this is grey pearl. Konad Princess Polishes don't seem to have labels on them... or they fell off... one of the two. But yeah. This one is a soft shimmery dusty lavender.

I use plate m73 with this particular design a LOT, but I've never done such a feminine looking arrangement of colors with it. My favorite design with m73 is chrome gold like China Glaze 2030 over China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, and I think I've posted that one before.

I was admiring this manicure on my fingers on the day I stamped it when suddenly I realized what it reminded me of... This looks like those floral print turtlenecks my mother-in-law wears. (>.<)

Wire Stripper Konad

I was inspired to do some Konading the other day and I kinda like how this turned out. Maybe next time I wouldn't do the golden knobs on all four fingers (I skipped the thumbs and did a different design using the same Konad stamp), but I really wanted to try them.

The base is BB Couture For Men Wire Stripper with China Glaze Millennium as the stamp. I can never remember the plate numbers, so I don't know what plate this was.




And oddly enough, every day since this I've had some sort of nail art on my nails.

Public Service Announcement

Okay, there are a couple things going on in the polish blogging community that I'd like to mention. *taps microphone* Ahem... hello? Hello? Is this thing on? Check... check...



First of all, OC Nail Art has generously increased the value of the 'scrangie' discount code! Instead of 20% off, it's now worth 30% off. And they still honor all competitor's codes, so if you have a code for more than my 30% off, it will apply to your order! How about that. Isn't that awesome?

Edit: Since it's been asked, I do not receive any commission from Kathleen at OC Nail Art. There is no personal benefit for me. It's all for you guys- it's a discount, nothing more!

And on a Konad related note, on to the next announcement...

Sasse's 'Nad Stamping Stampede is doing a Halloween mani contest, where one of the prizes is the Konad Coraline Set A. Head over there to check out the other prizes and submit your entry!

And last but definitely not least...

The lovely Diana at Painted Lady Fingers is having a Painted Halloween Lady giveaway! The prize is a bottle of rare, discontinued Essie St. Martin Mint and an original Halloween painting by Art By Sarada. This painting is amazing- I had a little freak-out when I saw it. It's pretty much the coolest painting EVER.

In Memory of Konad Week - Awesome Deal from OC Nail Art

I know a lot of you are going, "WTF happened to Konad week?!"

I got two posts into Konad Week before the thought of posting the same thing for a week straight bummed me out too much to continue. That, and I kept getting interrupted by cool new stuff. Important lesson learned- I need variety and if I force myself to do the same thing for more than a few days it makes me not want to do it.

I'm still going to post all the Konad stuff I was planning on posting, just not consecutively. It makes me happier that way. I'm very sorry if I let any of you down by not doing 7 solid days of Konad. There will still be Konad posts, I promise.

Anyway, to make up for it, I have great news from my gal Kathleen over at OC Nail Art! Here are the details:

Effective August 11, 2009, OCNAILART will honor all competitor's coupon codes... if you see a competing Konad e-tailer with a coupon code and you want to use that code - just enter it at checkout and you will receive that discount!! And as always - shipping is FREE on all orders over $20 (after discounts are applied) - even INTERNATIONALLY.

If there's a code out there that doesn't work at checkout, Kathleen might not be aware of it. Just send her an email and she'll add it! http://store.ocnailart.com

And if you don't know of a code to use, there's always 'scrangie' for 20% off :)

Konad Plate M39 with Konad Purple Special Polish (dark purple butterflies)

Konad Coraline Kit B and ATTACK OF THE BUBBLED POLISH

Okay, I'm going to warn you ahead of time: my polish looks horrible. Remember when I complained about the humidity ruining my Illamasqua? Now you get to see what I was talking about! It was hot and humid and I applied my polish near the air conditioning vent because I was so hot... and this is what happened.


But then I thought I could cover it up with Konad! Well... not quite... but I did get a few pictures out of it. And instead of removing all my polish, re-applying and waiting for it to dry after each set of Konad pictures, I removed just the Konad design. So, please, ignore the smudgy, bubbled polish.


Anyway. Konad Coraline Kit B. Here's a picture of it from Konad's website:

The kit includes four image plates (CO2, CO3, CO4, CO6), three full-size Special Polishes (Psyche Pink, Yellow, Blue Pearl) and a special purple stamp and metal scraper.


Plate CO2 with Yellow special polish. Flowers, a cat with a funny tail, boots, a squiggly heart that looks like the Smashing Pumpkins logo, Coraline saying "talk to the hand", Coraline saying, "wtf?", another flower.


Plate CO3 with Psyche Pink special polish. A Dragonball, pissed-off Coraline, a worried or surprised-looking Coraline, a dragonfly, a Scottie dog silhouette, a seated Coraline in a raincoat?, Coraline doing the 'mime stuck in a box' thing.

Plate CO4 with Blue Pearl special polish. A Key, Coraline saying, "Oh &*^*&%!!", Coraline looking to the side and holding something, Coraline looking to the left and smiling, a beach ball looking thing, a crooked bat, creepy grabby hands.


Plate CO6 with Yellow special polish. Creepy grabby hands french tip, flowers made of paperclips french tip, Button-and-crossbones french tip (Jolly Tailor?), squares french tip, leaves/hearts/Smashing Pumpkins logo french tip, swirly french tip.


All of these images transfer very nicely onto the nails- crisp lines, no missing parts of the design, good size. The special polishes in this one rock. They're opaque and interesting.

Now, I have not seen the movie Coraline, nor have I read the book, so I don't know the meaning behind any of these images. I'm assuming the animals have names, and the poses Coraline is doing are from scenes in the movie.

This is a really cool set, lots of really fun designs. My personal favorites are the dragonfly, the boots, the scottie dog and the flowers. I thought I would like the bat the best, but it doesn't look too much like a bat on the nails, just kinda... squiggly?

Set A is even cooler than this one, so stay tuned for that.

I got my kits from OC Nail Art- use code SCRANGIE for 20% off!

Starting off Konad week!

Okay, Konad Week got off to a very late start. New collections take precedence over old stuff since they're more useful if they're posted before or at the same time they're released... So Konad had to wait a couple days.

I'll make up for it by carrying it into next week!

Anyway, to start things off, here are some random pictures of me playing with Konad plate m70. I've discovered a few new favorites!



My goal for this week is to review one or both of the Coraline Konad kits, possibly review my prize from the OC Nail Art contest (the Konad Salon Pro case!) and post a few pictures of Konad designs on my nails. I've been trying to do a Konad tutorial but I keep messing it up and starting over... I need a second person to take pictures while I'm doing it!

Upcoming Posts?

Okay, so I won't be around long enough to do an actual post today, so how about some nice bottle pictures?

All of these are things I'm trying to swatch for upcoming posts. Some are new, some are old, some are harder to find. Personally, I love looking at bottle pictures... maybe I should do some more often!




Have a great weekend everyone!