Guest Nail Stamping - Sister Kidnap!

Hey everyone! I recently had the pleasure of kidnapping my two sisters and making them let me do their nails! *insertevillaugh* We are so alike it's not even funny...so of course they both wanted skulls. I was happy to oblige.

This first picture is the nail art I did on my sister Cathy. She wanted black with polka dots...a favorite combination of mine. I used a Misa black because it's the best one coat black I know and a Sally Hansen white for the stamping. The polka dots were on a Konad plate and the skull was from Bundle Monster.

This design was what my sister Gina picked out. The base color was a really pretty Revlon gunmetal gray shade that she had floating around her purse. I'm sure I used China Glaze Millennium for the stamping. The swirls were a Konad plate (one I've used a million times) and the skull was Bundle Monster.

On to the business! If you read this blog...and would like to do a guest look...let me know! You can email me at maria@vaccarino.com or find me on Facebook! I'm currently looking for reviews, makeup looks or nail art. Give me a jingle.

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!!!

Dirty, Sexy, Glitter!

Got your attention? Ok, good. Don't get all hot and bothered though...it's just more nail polish. Of course, if you're like me...nail polish is enough to get you hot an bothered, in which case...I'll give you a few minutes of alone time...

All done? Good.

Here's what I used:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
Misa Dirty, Sexy, Money
China Glaze Millennium with Konad plate m63
Pure Ice Spitfire (pink glitter)
Wet & Wild Kaleidoscope (silver/holo glitter)
Seche Vite Fast Drying Topcoat

And look! I even cleaned up my cuticles a bit for ya!
Enjoy!

Nail Art Super Order!

I bought myself a present. I went to Bundle Monster and got the 25 piece stamping plates. A couple of them are going to be dupes for what I already have but a lot of it is new! It seems that I am on a nail stamping kick again. I get addicted to this stuff...but hey! You get to benefit. I promise I won't show you all the real janky manicures I do...like the one I have on right now...it's just awful.

I also went to Head2Toe and ordered some new polishes that I can use for stamping...and a couple that were just awesome. I know I've talked about this site before...but for any newbies, this is where I get all of my nail polish. They ship fast and everything is pretty cheap. $3 for China Glaze, Misa and Color Club...my favorite brands of polish. Orly is just $6. The Essie polishes are still $8 but there is really nothing they can do about that...it's expensive polish.

I will post an update when I get my packages. It's the first time I've ordered something to be sent to the new address so we'll see how it goes.

Good Morning Konad!

Hey guys! I have a little nail post for you today! There was a bit of time when I wasn't doing anything with my nails...but I've gotten back into it recently. Today I decided I was going to mess about with some of my Konading stuff...you will have to excuse the horrible execution. It looks cute...but if you look close...it's pretty messy.

Cleanup? What's that??

Anyhow, here's what I used:

China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
Sinful Colors Soul Mate (bottle shown)
Konad Special Polish Black with plate m57
China Glaze Millennium with plate m66
Nubar Diamont Top Coat (I find, with the Konad polishes at least, that this one streaks the least.)

Let me know what you think!

The Konad and the LIGHTNING!

Yeah...I didn't come up with the correlation between my favorite nail polish doohickey and Weeeeeeeeeeeeee! There is a blog out there called "Konad and Strife" which I thought was frigging hilarious and had to follow immediately. Sadly, the last post was in August of last year but there are still great entries to go through!

Anyhow, I just wanted to share my latest Konad creation. I got the two plates I was looking forward to and immediately needed to use them. The color combination was an idea from one of the Nail Boarders...although I don't remember which. When I posted this up there, I showed much love and adoration for their awesome idea.

I used:

Misa - I Will Survive

Color Club - Wild and Willing

Konad - Black Special Polish

Konad - Image Plate M64

As usual...excuse the mess. Even though I don't usually bother cleaning it up before I take my pictures, I doubly didn't want to with this...because I am a klutz. And I would have messed it up. And then I would have been pissed.

Not a lot of things in life make me angry. Fucked up nail polish is one of them.

The End.

I've got the biggest Konads around...true story.

Forth day straight at the gym. My body should be comatose right now but I figured that since I had about a half hour before work claims my soul for the day...I'd post some of the Konadding I've been doing. Pardon if my brain seems a bit addled (like you aren't used to it). We've already gone over how much I love the name. Deep down, while I'm just about licking 30...I still act like I'm 12.

I only have two plates right now. M51 and M57. I have two more on the way from WowSoCool. I've ordered from them before and the shipping is always very quick and very cheap...plus they are always running a 30% off sale if you put either xsparkage or sayanythingbrooke in the cupon code box.

Picture time!

First off, we have Claire's Dream Catcher with a little bit of China Glaze's Wagon Trail (a polish I lovelovelove to wear all on it's own). I've heard that the Dream Catcher is a poor girl's Chanel Jade...but I wouldn't know. I'm too poor for that shit. (Last I heard, bottles were going for $150 on eBay.) I'm not usually one for flowers, but this was simple enough that I decided to give it a try.

Next up is Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes, a half moon manicure with Misa's I Will Survive and a bit of Konad with the black special polish. This manicure lasted me almost a week before it started to look a bit haggard. I'm not sure if it was the cocktail of top and base coats I used or not, but...I was tired of it by the time I took it off. As you can see from the polish spots all over my fingers (I swear it gets in the strangest places), I'm not a very neat Konader. I got the idea for the half moon manicure from Plasma Speedo's YouTube.  I recently found her channel because somebody posted it on the Nail Board (which I frequent, Concertina3) of Make Up Alley. I love that site so much. I pretty much just stick to the NB, with the occasional foray into the FOTD and Makeup boards. Everyone is so nice and helpful on there, even when I have stupid questions. It has definitely become my favorite porn site as of late.

Enough of my verbosity. Last picture.

This is Essie's Mesmerize (a new favorite methinks) and Pure Ice's Silver Mercedes. I hate this one. I posted it on the NB and a lot of people said it looked good, but I can see all the tiny mess-ups and how uneven it is...and this is my GOOD hand! The other one looks like a real shit-show.

Pause for more coffee. Good lord I love my Keurig and my giant Guinness coffee mug.

I used the same cocktail on this last manicure as I did on the previous one - China Glaze's Strong Adhesion Base Coat, China Glaze's No-Chip Top Coat and Seche Vite, so we shall see how it lasts. Although, as soon as my new plates come in...I'm taking it off. It's kinda gonna be like that owl eating the Tootsie Pop...

The end.