Trendsetting Snakes

Hello everybodies!! This week was present week. I got my taxes back...got a bonus for working for my company for so long...paid off some bills early so I had some extra money...so I've been rolling in it for a bit. That's how I was able to buy this computer so I could get back to blogging! I've also purchased an external hard drive and have taken on the arduous task of ripping all of my CDs to it so I can get rid of some of the STUFF I have accumulated over the last 31 years. This is the second time I've moved and it is getting to be a big pain in the butt. I bought a Kindle...so hopefully I won't accumulate as many books as I usually do when I'm living in a comfortable place. I'm systematically getting rid of the paperbacks that I don't need to keep in my personal library. I haven't given up on the printed word just yet...but seriously...nobody needs to KNOW that I read the ENTIRE Twilight Quadrilogy. *serious face*

Ok...enough jibberjabber. On to the goods. The nail polish presents.

First off...since I'm balls deep in Konading again...I decided to pick up the 25 pack of Bundle Monster plates that I've been seeing around. For $21.99 you get 25 plates that might not be as wonderful as the Konad brand but they certainly give you a giant variety (AND THEY HAVE SKULLS!!!!!!). The etchings aren't as deep, so I've been using a thicker polish but I experimented quite a bit last night and as long as you are patient, there are really some great designs...it was totally a worth it purchase. Shipping was reasonable and timely and the website is easy to use to boot.

I also mentioned in a previous post that I ordered from Head2Toe. I mainly got some stamping polishes but I got a couple that were just plain pretty. I will link to some other wonderful bloggers' pictures if I can find them. They are obviously their own work, and not mine...I am just linking to them for reference. These are some of the blogs I frequent and go to when I need to see what polishes look like so I can order them online. Or I just follow them and ogle nail polish...you know...so follow them!!

China Glaze Trendsetter - my picture is below.

China Glaze Adore

Color Club Nothing But Truffle
Orly Country Club Khaki
Orly Lollipop

As always, don't mind the mess...this was pre-stamping so I didn't do anything too neat. I love this color though...it's REALLY UGLY! but it's one of those ugly colors that are so pretty. Click on this picture and look at it closely because it's got these gold and bronze flakes all through it...and oddly enough it compliments my skin so well.

So, last night, on a random nail polish shopping trip to Walmart, I decided to try some of the Sally Hansen Insta-Dry...they run a little thicker than normal so I thought they might be good. I figured, I'd be "that guy" and return them if they didn't...but they were all beautiful. All of the colors I picked up made nice, crisp images. Here's the colors I tested:

Lively Lilac - a light purple
Lightening - yellow
Lickety Split Lime - lime, duh
Brisk Blue - turquoise
Chinna-Snap - deep red
Mint Sprint - not mint at all surprisingly, it's teal

I also picked up Hard to Get, a regular old Hard as Nails white polish because I forgot I had the Konad special white...and that streaks anyhow so screw it.

And now we have arrived at the Nail Stamping part of our blog post. Sorry if it's been a bit long winded...but I love Nail Polish Present time.

I used:
China Glaze Trendsetter - base
China Glaze Hi-Tek - stamping
Sally Hansen Lightening - stamping
Sally Hansen Lickety Split Lime - Stamping
Bundle Monster plates BM-125 and BM-211

I used the snake skin pattern (with all three polishes mixed together)  on BM - 125 and the skull on BM-211. The skull didn't pick up terribly well, even when using the China Glaze metallic polish, but it ended up coming out kind of distressed looking and I like it. I did a few on each hand using the different polishes. Here's a better picture:

Ok! I think I've got that all out of my system. What do you guys think? Let me know if you would like to see something like this as a picture tutorial or video in the future.

The end!!!