12 Days of Christmas: Candy Cane Nails

Good Morning Babes! Today is day 4 of the 12 Days of Christmas challenge. Candy Cane Nails is what we have going on today. I chose blue candy canes because those are the yummiest ones to me. My base is Bettina Vintage Jean, stamped with Blue Years Eve by China Glaze, Passion Purple by Dr's Remedy, BM ip 207, and SV at my tc. I chose this ip because the stripes aren't small like traditional candy canes, so I wanted to switch it up a little bit. Its came out as a fail because I didn't line up the stamp properly but I just didn't have enough to to completely redo the mani, so hopefully you see what I was trying to achieve. I'm still really under the weather, so please excuse this mani.
My Challenge Mates:
Carolina - Colores de Carol

Tera - Nails in Nippon

Marta - Chit Chat Nails 

Here's an idea of how I intended to stamp across my nail so that it would look more like the stripes on the candy cane.

Do you like my blue candy canes? The blue isn't exact but its the closes I could get. Have you checked out Tera, Marta and Carolina Candy Cane mani's yet? Thanks for stopping by to let me share with you. See you tomorrow for Wrapping Paper Nails.


Kisses
Marketta

My First Gradient

Good Morning Babes! Today I'm showing you my first gradient mani. I used Bettina Art Deco Purple as my base and sponged with Bettina #28. Art Deco Purple is a medium toned purple cream polish. It's very watery/runny and the brush holds a lot of polish, but its easy to work with and is perfection at two coats. ADP is very pigmented, almost fully opaque in one coat, and dries to a super glossy finish. The swatches below are all done with no TC except for the stamping which I used SV as my top coat. The gradient has NO top coat, can you believe that shine?! 



With flash

  And here's a swatch of  my base Bettina Art Deco Purple. I bumped my ring finger :(

What do you think of my first gradient? Thanks for stopping by :)




Kisses

Marketta

Pumpkin Patch Manicure

Good Morning Babes :) ! This past Sunday we went to the pumpkin patch and had so much fun that I wanted to start off my Halloween mani's with something fall but still Halloween. There were pumpkins all over the place and leaves all over the ground, it was just all so pretty. I used all Bettina: Art Deco Brown, Nature Trees, Resort Sunrise, Resort Starfish, and Metallic Copper. I stamped with BM 210 and BM 224 using Konad special black polish, with Seche as my top coat. Art Deco Brown is what I used as my base, the formula is AMAZING, only took one coat to reach opacity, and dried super fast. Then I sponged (using a piece of makeup sponge) orange, yellow and green in no specific order and I didn't care if they were the exact same, I actually wanted each nail to look a little different. I used plate 210 with copper, then stamped slightly to the side using black for all fingers except for my ring/accent finger. On my ring/accent finger I used plate 224 and black. Here's how it turned out...


No flash

And just for fun I used Essie Matte About You to see how it looked mattified. Love It!

Here's a swatch of Art Deco Brown on its own. As you can see there's a raindrop on my index finger lol, it was starting to rain but I was determined to get at least one decent picture. Below are the colors used and the pumpkin that my little monster picked out.

How do you like my pumpkin patch manicure? I think it came out ok for my first sponging attempt :) Thanks for stopping by ;-)~


Kisses

Marketta

Bettina Topaz

Good Morning Babes! Today I have Bettina Topaz for you from the Gems Collection. The formula was good and easy to work with, it did need 3 coats however and dry time was a bit on the long side. I stamped using Bundle Monster plate BM224, Konad special polish in white, and Seche as my top coat. The finish had a glass like finish with micro shimmer, GORG! This color was beautiful but I had a hard time capturing it when I was taking pictures so I will definitely be re-visiting this beauty.

Here's Topaz on it own after painting the previous night. As I previously stated it took forever to dry and even after applying Seche and letting it sit for the normal amount of time that it takes Seche to dry my other Bettina's it STILL got messed up! So I will definitely be swatching this again when I have plenty of time on my hands.

What do you think about Bettina Topaz? Its actually very pretty but I just couldn't get a good picture to save my life. Thanks for stopping by!


Kisses
Marketta

Zoya Purity Stamp-icure

Today I have a simple stamp-icure (as I call them) for you. I stamped using BM 205 and Color Club's Hot Like Lava and Foil Me Once. I didn't want it to look super so I used two colors for the stamp and I like how it came out. I haven't swatched the Foiled Collection yet but they are really good to stamp with! Here's how it came out:

For the base I used Zoya's Purity. This is the best white polish that I have found so far, its very clean and a white that you can actually wear on its own. Two easy coats and so easy to paint with. It also dries very fast to a nice glossy finish that doesn't need a top coat but I always use one.

How do you think it came out? I think its cute! :)  Thanks for stopping by!


Kisses
Marketta

Purple Passion: A mani for Brittany

One of my best friends Brittany was the biggest supporter of me starting a blog, and even though she doesn't blog she was one of my first followers. Her favorite color is purple and she loves shopping and shoes, so I thought I would do a few purple manicures for her :) . I used OPI's Funky Dunkey as my base color, BM plates 213 and 221, and Konad special polish in black. Here's what I came up with:

Animal print and heels <3 ! I was going to do all leopard print but I had another plate sitting out from doing a failed Halloween stamping and there were shoes on that plate also! VOILA! Funky Dunkey is actually just a tiny bit darker than how it photographed, it was a little hard to capture inside and out today, but its close enough :)

Just to try out my new topcoat I put on INM Northern Lights which is a holo, after Seche Vite of course.



Outside with flash

Here's Funky Dunkey with a top coat of INM Out the Door (a thinner version of Seche Vite thats perfect for just wearing colors plain, SUPER FAST dry time). The first coat of Funky Dunkey was really streaky but cleared up and evened out perfectly on the second coat. The brush holds a ton of polish so you will want to remove some first. So what do you think of Brittany's Purple Passion mani? I love how it came out!

Kisses
Marketta

Pink Wednesday

For today's Pink Wednesday I used all OPI. My base color is two coats Steady As She Rose, which is a dusty pale baby pink that has a slight grey undertone. The formula was great and easy to paint with. I stamped using Bundle Monster plate 215. First I stamped with I'm Indi-a Mood For Love, then went over it with Sparrow Me the Drama. Sparrow Me the Drama came out much lighter than I anticipated, so it didn't have the exact effect I wanted but it still came out cute.

If you look close you can see the Sparrow Me the Drama scales. Below is Steady As She Rose which I used for the base. It was hard to capture the true color of it today.



Inside with flash




Outside


What do you think of my snakeskin stamp-icure? I think next time I will definitely use darker colors.


Kisses
Marketta