My First Nail Stamp

I have owned a few nail plates for a while, and have played with them a little bit, but I haven't really taken photos to share. Until now. :)

I managed to grab OPI's Last Friday Night (from the Katy Perry Collection) about a month ago. It has fine blue and silver holographic glitter in a light blue jelly base.

OPI's Last Friday Night

(taken in my new light box)

I applied Seche Clear base coat, 3 coats of Last Friday Night, and then Seche Vite top coat. I then stamped over it with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Night Flight using Bundle Monster plate BM 224 (the swirly pattern on the plate).

I loved how these turned out. Not too shabby for my first official attempt to stamp, right?

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

It's Heeere!!!

Yup, my new light box arrived.

It actually arrived more than 3 weeks ago, but I didn't have much time then to tinker with it too much.  Boo.

 Here's the box it came in.  Please excuse the open flap, in my excitement, I had forgotten to take photos before I opened the box. :p

Here it is, out of the box.

It came with the light box that folds into a storage bag, 4 background cloths, a mini tripd, and 2 lamps for lighting.

Here is the whole set-up.

I can't wait to start using this!

Thanks for reading and harve a great day!

Light Box

Now I've really done it.
After several weeks of debating whether I should get a light box or not, I have finally decided to go ahead and get one.  I figured there was no point in writing about nail polish if I can't occasionally show photos of them on my nails.  And I bought it just in time, too.  August 31 is the last day of Sears' One Day Coupon Event, where you can get 5 to 15 percent off the selling price.

I got mine for around $28, excluding tax + shipping.  This is what I got, in case you're wondering.  I'll take a photo of the actual set up once it arrives.

So, hopefully, I can start showing swatches of polishes, nail stamping, etc. with my new light box.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 2011 Fall Colors

Here are a few of the colors from Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear collection for fall 2011.

(L to R) Deep Blue Sea, Midnight Sky, Time to Shine, Very Cherry

(Without flash, hopefully the colors show better)

These shimmery polishes have little flecks of very fine glitter which blend smoothly with the metallic cobalt blue, dark gray-black, bronze, and bright pink-red polish base.  I love the fact that I could wear these and have the effect of glitters, without the pain of removing the them later on.  I think I will be wearing these plain (no layers), although I think they will look amazing with a dark base, too.  I'm not sure how opaque they are (as always, I haven't swatched these yet), but I can't wait to find out. :) 

(L to R) Set the Stage, Twinkle, Twinkle, Pumpkin Spice, Teal-y Cool

(Without flash, hopefully the colors show better)

I'm not sure if Set the Stage and Twinkle, Twinkle are really part of the Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear's fall release, but they were on display with the rest of the collection.  In any case, these two were beautiful glitters.  Set the Stage is a blend of fine gold and silver glitters and larger hexagonal gold glitters in a clear base.  I wore this as a manicure for work, and I got a lot of compliments on my nails.

Twinkle, Twinkle is a similar blend of fine silver and purple holographic glitter with larger flecks of hexagonal silver holographic glitter suspended in a clear purple base.  I wanted to wear this as a mani,but I'm not sure how work appropriate this is.  Otherwise, I would definitely wear this this weekend.  Can you imagine it by itself, or layered over a nice cream color?  Love, love, love.

Pumpkin Spice is fine orange glitter in a clear black base.  I picked it up and pretended it was China Glaze's Fortune Teller, which was released several years ago for Halloween and is one of the hard to find polishes (in my opinion).  If you own Fortune Teller, you can see that Pumpkin Spice is nowhere close to it (I can tell that much from the beautiful swatches of Fortune Teller online), but until China Glaze brings it back (please, please, please), I will have to content myself with this.  Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with Pumpkin Spice and I will be wearing this in the weekends close to Halloween, but unfortunately, it does not stop me from drooling over Fortune Teller.

Last is the teal-aqua glitter polish, Teal-y Cool.  It consists of fine gold and aqua glitter and larger blue and green glitter in an aqua base.  At first glance, it looks more like a summer color, but I can see layering this over a black polish and wearing it over the holidays. 

 P. S.  I did not haul all of these in one go, they were purchased a few at a time over several weeks. :p

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!