Extra Toppings: Holo Top Coat!

I've ordered my first holo topper as soon as I realized how pretty holo polishes are - and let it sit there without use for too long....my fingers are always wearing something else and I forget to holo them, lol
So for this look I used the following polishes:

ULTA -Envy, Liquid Sky Lacquer - Holo Top Coat, Bonita - You Mint a Lot to Me

I've had Envy for years, and last week I used up pretty much my whole bottle on craft project (another dragon egg) and had to repurchase to make sure I had enough. And as you can see from the orange sticker, it's on clearance because it's being discontinued! At least I got a second bottle white there was still some left in the bins.
The Bonita polish is new in my collection - I'm moving over from purples to minty greens and picked this one up at Rite Aid.

I wore You Mint a Lot to Me for a few days with the holo topper before stamping over it. Whatever base & top coat I used this time around made the polish wear pretty well, so before taking it off I wanted to stamp over it, the green was just pulling me to use it...

Stamping done with Envy and MoYou London plate Sailor 04.
I've been meaning to try a summery/beach mani, and I think this design is actually fitting - there's more in the sea than just colorful fish, the plant life is pretty as well!

I really need to work more on my clean up and photography...close ups make me cringe, but this is all I got for now.

Stamping: Grey & Aqua

It's definitely been a while since I've made a blog post...work has really been putting a damper on any nail art :(  But I've been trying to post on IG a little bit more, username is koikitty if anyone would like to follow :)

So here's what I managed to put on my nails, in anticipation of #StampingSaturday but then I didn't see a linkup from The Fancy Side! :O

Base: Julep Braiden, stamping with MdU #24 (Aqua), PUEEN plate 32

#StampingSaturday: Pink and Green

My Saturdays seem to blur into Sundays! But that's ok.. there's still 5 days to add a post to the linkup ;)

With the recent Sinful Colors sale at Walgreens, I was surprised I only picked up 3 bottles - and one of them was a clear coat! My husband even offered to buy 3 more for me, but nothing drew my eye :o *shock* And after seeing how the new Color Foil polishes stamped, I couldn't wait to get a bottle for myself. Initially when I saw the whole collection and knew they stamped - I looked guiltily at my husband and said "I think I might need to buy them all.." Haha, thankfully when I found them in stores, there was only one I still wanted and purchased.

Sally Hansen Color Foil Titanium Flush, and Sinful Colors Peppered Amazon, stamping plate W202 from my AliExpress plates

Color Foil states that it works best with no base nor top coat, and I was afraid that it would smear if I applied one, so the pics are sans topcoat. I used my Konad stamper, as I heard these polishes don't like squishy stampers, and this dried super fast! You can see some uplifted bits around the edge of the design, as I'm still hesitating putting Seche Vite on it... But overall, I really liked how this turned out! And ever better, that these are pretty recent colors and I used them right away..not months later ;) 

An InLinkz Link-up

#StampingSaturday

I was still trying to decide on a design to stamp on Saturday when unexpected events happened...didn't get out of bed till noon due to feeling ill, and then going out with friends and missing all the daylight for photos, haha. But at least I was being social!

Stamping plate MoYou London Pro 4, I swear this design looked better in my head...maybe because my nails are always nubs so the design doesn't have enough space to look as beautiful as it was intended =/

At least I was pleasantly surprised that Sally Hansen Pedal to the Metal stamped enough to be seen :) And I've been planning to use China Glaze Rendezvous with You again <3

An InLinkz Link-up

Julep June 2014: Swatches + Free polish coupon

This month I picked the Bombshell box, and added on a few extra colors - for which I got 2 freebie polishes (Veronica and Marjorie).

#HePicksMyPolish, for the first time...

I'm excited to be joining #HePicksMyPolish this week and taking on the challenge! This isn't the first time I've asked him to help me pick out polish or designs, but usually he responds with "whatever you like" and I'm back to trying to get inspired to do something myself. This time it's official - and he knew it!

"He" is my husband, Sam. And he was really sweet about the challenge. He was heading out to work for an evening shift just as I got home from work, and I told him I was really anxious about work on Friday and stressed out thinking about what I will have to be doing. So he set down his things and went to my polish rack and started picking things our - as I heard the bottles clanking I kept reminding him that it's just 2-3 polishes, not a dozen! He came back downstairs and handed me my polishes, and said I should spend the evening on the challenge to take my mind off work, and to make something elegant. I don't think I got the elegant part, but we both think it's cute :)

Here are my materials:

Julep Kai - baby blue sea salt

Julep Mackenzie - sour apple green frost

Sinful Colors - Black on Black

I've actually never used these Julep colors, which is great because now I had to actually try them. On the other hand, I purchased them because I liked them, but they didn't scream at me "use me now!!" which is why I haven't done anything with them - I didn't have a design  in mind with green and blue. And now he's challenged me to it. I went for my stamping plates right away, and after looking through half of them, I picked MM19.
And this is what I made of it.

Verdict: I think he picked good :)

May 25-31, have him pick your polish!

An InLinkz Link-up

Mint Meadows

As I was doing my review of new Aurora Lacquers polishes, Mint Meadows inspired me to do just that- a meadow stamping design!

Vivid Lacquer plate 019, and SC Black on Black. Base color can be seen here.