Glam Ute - Maybelline Ruby Rhinestones, Born Pretty BP-L004

I said there'd be more stamping posts, so here we go!

[What's going on?]

I think this one was a bit of a fail, and I'll say a bit more about that later...

[Bottle to nail: Maybelline Ruby Rhinestones (2 coats)]

The base is the deliciously glamorous Maybelline Ruby Rhinestones from the Color Show Sequins collection. This is a pink jelly base filled with small and large pinkish-red hex glitter, plus lots of fine black glitter darkening it up and giving it a bit more of a vampy edge.

[2 coats: Maybelline Ruby Rhinestones]

Here's a better look at the glitter combination in this polish. Good formula on the thicker side with dense glitter payoff. These photos show two coats with one thin layer of topcoat.

[2 coats: Maybelline Ruby Rhinestones]

Super sparkly and leaning enough pink to not be a regular red manicure.

[Base: Maybelline Ruby Rhinestones (2 coats);
Stamping: Born Pretty black stamping polish + BP-L004]

I then used Born Pretty black stamping polish to stamp a lattice pattern from Born Pretty plate BP-L004. Hmmm! Well it was meant to be a lattice pattern but it ended up looking more like the checkerplate pattern you see on aluminium toolboxes, say on the back of a ute or something, lol!

[Base: Maybelline Ruby Rhinestones (2 coats);
Stamping: Born Pretty black stamping polish + BP-L004]

As far as I can tell, the Born Pretty stamping polish was a bit on the thin side, not filling the etchings fully and easily getting scraped off. A test with my Konad stamping polish gave a much better result. Oh well, it was interesting anyway!! Sparkly red ute box mani achieved! =p

Candy Wrapper - Revon Watermelon Fizz, Color Style 38

This mani did not go in the direction I intended!

[Top Coat: Revlon Watermelon Fizz
Glitter: Color Style 38]

So I picked up this random topper at Haymarket because I can't resist purple nail polishes, even when they're a bad idea.

[Color Style 38]

This is Color Style 38, which is a multichrome lavender-gold-teal bar glitter and foil flakes. Look, I thought it would be pretty! But it was pretty awful to be honest. It was too pale to stand out and the foil flakes looked rather horrible.

But then I rescued the mani!

[Top Coat: Revlon Watermelon Fizz
Glitter: Color Style 38]

I added two coats of Revlon Watermelon Fizz on top, which is a red jelly polish. That was enough to hide the sins of the topper and the gold shine came through the red jelly beautifully. Thank goodness for jelly polishes!

Acid Break - Orly Here Comes Trouble, Konad Black, Bundle Monster BM-208

I'm really getting into stamping this year (finally!). I'm still kinda hopeless at it but I'm getting there!

[Radioactive turtle or something...]

Here's a mani from earlier in the year combining some bright glitter with a black contrast stamp.

[Bottle to nail: Orly Here Comes Trouble (2-3 coats)]

The base is the always gorgeous Orly Here Comes Trouble, a super bright grassy green glitter. Excellent coverage in 2-3 coats, and super twinkly!

[Bundle Monster BM-208]

...which makes it an excellent backdrop for some black shatter stamping! This here is Bundle Monster plate BM-208, and I'm using that pattern on the left there.

[Base: Orly Here Comes Trouble (2-3 coats); Stamping: Konad Pearl Black, BM-208]

I first topcoated my base of Here Comes Trouble and then stamped the design using Konad Pearl Black (?), a deep black with slight shimmer. Then freehanded some tips with the same polish. My nails were pretty short though! So not much of a french tip going on here...

[Base: Orly Here Comes Trouble (2-3 coats); Stamping: Konad Pearl Black, BM-208]

I then topped everything off with a nice shiny layer of topcoat and it's all done! I've been experimenting a lot with stamping but it's a bit frustrating trying to get finer patterns off the plate if you don't use thicker polish. I'm really puzzled that I did some really good stamped manis in previous years just using random polish from my stash....! Definitely gonna work on it, so look out for more stamping in upcoming posts!

Snowy Night - OPI Muppets World Tour

It's cold in Australia, cold enough for snow in some places. So this one is apt!

[Top coat: OPI Muppets World Tour]

This looks a little bit like snow against a night sky. Or maybe I just have a vivid imagination. :P

[Unknown??]

I have no idea what base coat I used here. It sure looks rich and lovely. I thought it might have been Chi Chi's Fully Sic but it doesn't match my own swatch. It could be LA Girl Punk, maybe? Mystery for the ages.

[Top coat: OPI Muppets World Tour]

I really like OPI Muppets World Tour against a dark base. I did swatch it over here, and it makes a gorgeous silver-white polish on its own too. Muppets World Tour is a silver foil with predominantly silver and white hex glitter. There's the odd blue hex glitter too but they aren't prominent against the dark base.

One coat of Muppets World Tour against a dark background gives the polish a new cool, almost gritty look.

Raspberry Ice - Layla Cherry Diva, Essie Peak of Chic, Essie Hors d'oeuvres

Usually when I combine more than two polishes together, my love for shiny ends up overwhelming any hint of good taste I may have started out with... I'd like to think this is one of my more successful attempts!

[Glitter cupcake]

This here is a combination of three shiny polishes, all in different ways. The base is Layla Softouch Effect in Cherry Diva which I've previously used here. After a few days, I got bored (and also picked up some new polishes I was dying to try out!) so I added a bit more shiny!

[Bottle to nail: Essie Peak of Chic (tips); Base: Layla Cherry Diva]

 I first started out with a glitter gradient french tip of Essie Peak of Chic from the Encrusted Treasures collection. Peak of Chic is a lovely snowy combination of white and silver holographic bar glitter in a clear base. Definitely gonna try it out with some shades of blue for a snowy winter manicure one day!

[Base: Layla Cherry Diva; Tips: Essie Peak of Chic]

This mixture kinda reminds me of a raspberry coconut cupcake or something...

[Bottle to nail: Essie Hors d'oeuvres; Base: Layla Cherry Diva; Bar: Essie Peak of Chic]

I then tipped everything off with a dabbed layer of Essie Hors d'oeuvres from the same collection. So it goes vaguely from least blingy to most blingy as you go from lunula to tip. Or at least that's the idea...

[Base: Layla Cherry Diva; Bar: Essie Peak of Chic; Tips: Essie Hors d'oeuvres]

I did skip topcoat though to preserve the suede-matte finish of the Layla Softouch base. All in all, I think it turned out alright!

Grape Jelly - Happy Hands Laughing in the Dark

One of my birthday presents from ev! Yes, I'm just getting around to trying them now.

[Happy Hands Laughing in the Dark]

Isn't this gorgeous? Such a lovely purple polish. Laughing in the Dark has a purple jelly base and red, pastel green and yellow hex matte glitter as well as round yellow matte glitter. What a zany and beautiful combination! The glitter payout is great and I loved wearing it!

Scale Mail - Essie Hors D'oeuvres

Today I've got some pretty terrible photos of a pretty fantastic polish! Sigh~ It's always the lovely ones that photograph badly... you'll have to take my word for it then!

[Bottle to nail: Essie Hors D'oeuvres (2 coats)]

This here is Essie Hors D'oeuvres from the Encrusted Treasures collection. This beauty is opaque in two coats and super ultra blingy! It consists of heavy champagne gold shimmer with dense silver hex glitter in two sizes.

[2 coats: Essie Hors D'oeuvres]

The silver hexes give a mirrorball effect to the finished manicure, while the gold shimmer fills in the background so you don't get any bald spots. I was also very impressed with how flat the glitter lays. Once it's dry, it's like scale mail over my nails, whoa!

[2 coats: Essie Hors D'oeuvres]

Wear time was pretty good too, and no fishing for glitters here! Definitely recommended for lovers of teh shiny! =)