KOTD: Atomic kitsch

Just a quick post today. Busted out my stamping plates for the first time in a while so I figured I might as well document the extra effort. I love this kitschy 50s atomic pattern...

click to enlarge

I wish I had better photographing conditions today. Utterly depressing low-hanging clouds pretty much snuffing out any semblance of light. In real life, this mani is much more fun and bright. I used Essie Butler Please (2 coats) and stamped over it with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Just in Lime which, despite my lying picture, isn't the slightest bit olive green but a zingy bright lime. The plate I used was CH 46--a fun outer space themed plate from Cheeky's summer 2012 collection (available here). Top coat was Seche Vite.

Working on more posts for the coming week, including swatching my new Pure Ice glitter polishes I talked about here, a "what I'm loving right now" post and a post all about my new favorite Youtube beauty vlogger. Stay tuned!

are bad pics better than no pics?

So, I thought about it and decided--what the hell,  I'll post all my bad cell phone pics of the manis I've done over the past few months. VIEW AT YOUR OWN RISK. In addition to being shot by inferior equipment in inadequate lighting, these pics feature work that was never intended to see the light of day--that means there's all kinds of ragged, dry cuticles, sloppy application & little to no clean-up. Think you can stomach it?

Orly Pre-amp stamped with Konad special white. This was sometime in late December...

Zoya Fei Fei stamped with Wet N Wild Black Creme. Mid December, maybe??

Purple ruffle mani done with more purples than I can remember and a dotting tool. 

My New Year's nails. China Glaze Blonde Bombshell stamped with Wet n Wild black creme with some decals thrown in for good measure. 

Icicle nails! The baby blue base  is a new for 2013 New York Color polish (I can't remember the name for the life of me and I can't find the bottle--arrgh!). The icicles were done with a Kiss nail art striper and then I topped it with a subtle teal blue glitter polish by Confetti (which I also can't remember and can't find...doh!)

Wacky acid trip nails! I started by making a bullseye pattern with all the bright colors from the China Glaze Cirque de Soliel collection, then I stamped over all that crazyness with Konad Special white. Utterly headache-inducing!

More colors from China Glaze Cirque du Soliel (my husband got me the entire collection for Christmas--told ya he was awesome!!). This is a base of Hanging in the Balance, dotted with Def Defying. The smaller dots inside the bigger dots are Hanging in the Balance again, which ended up taking on a dark green hue over top of the chartreuse--unintended but I still liked it!

So that's just a little glimpse of what I've been up to nail-wise over the past few months & what I thought was unworthy of blogging about. Ugh I cry just looking at those poor dry cuticles!! ::::rubs Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle cream feverishly into fingertips:::: I promise, cuticles, as God as my witness, you shall never go thirsty again!!

Depression Awareness

October is depression awareness month. Green is the ribbon color. Being that I have battled severe clinical depression pretty much my whole frickin life, I felt compelled to do a green manicure dedicated to raising awareness of this most insidious, relentless and ubiquitous disease.  

Mani consists of:

L'Oreal Project Runway The Muse's Attitude

Color Club Kiss me Under the Mistletoe

Bundle Monster image plate 

Seche Vite

For me, depression is very much a physical disease. Chemical imbalances (yes, friends, chemicals are physical things) cause it. For me, that is every bit as REAL and tangible as, say, a tumor is for a cancer patient. Depression has never been "all in my head." It's not simply a matter of "cheering up and getting over it." When those chemicals shift and I feel myself going down, there isn't a whole lot I can do. It's as if someone turns the volume up on gravity. My bones are suddenly made of lead. Getting up becomes pretty much impossible. As does concentrating. The space between my ears fills with static and even when I force myself out of bed & try to make myself engage in some kind of activity, I catch myself standing & staring into space. I hate it. It wastes me and there is nothing I wouldn't give to be rid of it. Depression has been with me since I was a small child. I can't remember ever being without it. And, no matter how many pills or hours of therapy I throw at it, it still remains with me and probably always will. I'll spare you the worst of the details; suffice it to say I am lucky to be alive right now because I know so many people do not win the battle that I stubbornly fight to keep going each day and there were too many times that I, too, came dangerously close to losing. 

If you suffer from depression, I'm sure lots of this rings true for you, too. If you don't, please take the time to educate yourself and please don't ever assume that someone who struggles with this disease does so willingly.

who doesn't love a crazy animal print?

I luuurves me some leopard and zebra print--especially when they're in wacky colors and they're on my nails.

Awwwww yea!! This mani consists of:

2 coats of Color Club Electro-Candy

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Purple Posy lightly dabbed onto the nail with balled up Saran Wrap (the effects of which is pretty much invisible in these photos)

leopard print is from a konad plate stamped with Wet N Wild black creme

skully decal by Fing'rs

Seche Vite top coat

And I even got the chance to do nails that aren't mine for the very first time. I only wish my nails were as naturally long and strong as hers are. She asked for blues and purples and zebra:

Base color is Sally Hansen Insta-dri Blue By

Stamp color is Sally Hansen Insta-dri Orchid Express

zebra image from a Cheeky plate

Seche Vite top coat

Parchment nails!!

Ok, before I even get started on this post, let me just say I'm SO sorry for going MIA for a week. Crazyness ensued and I couldn't find time to prepare any posts. Hell, I had to even rock nekkid nails for a few days (gasps of horror) because squeezing in a mani was impossible.

Things are settling down a tad now (nothing is ever truly calm 'round these parts), and I finally got a chance to play with my new Bundle Monster stamping plates. YAY! I used the text stamp on plate 311 to create parchment nails:

Sorry about the annoying upsidedown pics. I always forget to flip the stamp so it will be the right side up for showing off on blog posts...

True, it's not the most attractive mani in the world, especially when I don't take time to neaten up my cuticle lines but I'm still happy I actually achieved the idea I was going for--ancient, worn, dirty, yellowing paper. 

This is what I used for this mani. 

First I painted my nails with L'Oreal Walk on the Beach. Then I lightly sponged over it with Essie Case Study. After that, I took OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys and sponged that along the perimeter of my nail beds to really make the "parchment" look old. Maybelline Sunshine got lightly sponged on top of the whole nail to give a more yellowed look. 

Finally, I stamped over everything with Wet N Wild Black Creme, top-coated with Seche Vite, did a crappy clean-up job and voila.

I am LOVING the new Bundle Monster plates. I'm sure I'll be posting about them again soon!

distressed stamped nails

I love the look of layered, distressed paint--where the top layer is worn away and you can see the underlying layer of color peeking out. I've been playing with ways to recreate that look on my nails (I'm sure there is probably a blogger out there who has already perfected this, but for some reason I decided to re-invent the wheel and try to figure it out all by myself)...

My experimentation has led me to double-painting my nails--one coat of color and then another coat of contrasting color on top of that. Then, using a fan brush dipped in acetone, I strip away the top layer just enough so the underlying color can be seen.

Anyway, so that was what I did to create today's mani. Then I stupidly stamped over my distressed polish WITHOUT taking a pic of what it looked like pre-stamp **head--desk**...observe:

(click to enlarge)

So anyway, here's all that I used to create this mani:

I started out with 2 coats of a no-name L.A. Colors lime green creme (it came as part of a 6 or 7 bottle "brights" set that I found at TJ Maxx sometime last year. Then I laid down a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-dri Blue By (a summer 2012 LE shade that I recently found in my Walgreens clearance bin). After that, I poured a capful of pure acetone, dipped my fan brush in it and stroked it across the blue polish until the green was visible in places again. Of course, I can't live without some kind of glitter in my mani, so I added a coat of Pure Ice Rescue Me, an awesome translucent lime green jelly polish with this killer duo chrome green/blue glitter in it that just GLOW (speaking of which, this polish actually does glow in the dark and it is BRIGHT too--but I was more interested in the tint and the glitter this time)...all that got a coat of Seche Vite.

While I was waiting for the Seche Vite to work its magic, I suddenly go the itch to stamp, so I busted out my BM 208 plate and my Konad Special white polish and used the 2 shattered images--ya know, shattered...distressed...I figured it goes with the whole deconstructed look of all this. And don't get me wrong, I like the stamping...I just am kicking myself for completely forgetting to get a pic of my nails before I stamped...oh well...

I'll be doing other manis like this soon. Maybe I'll even do something crazy like post a tutorial, if you're interested, of course...

So have you done any nail art experimentation lately?

Lemon-lime stamped nails courtesy of Sally Hansen and Walgreens.

The other day, I mentioned a ton of Limited Edition Sally Hansen Insta-dri and Complete Salon Manicure polishes that I found on clearance in Walgreens. Of course, I hauled my butt off when I found them and here's a mani I just did using 2 of the colors I picked up.

outdoors, sun

outdoors shade

outdoors, more shade

outdoors, even more sun

For these citrusy stamped claws, I used 3 coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Buttercup and then stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-dri in Just In Lime using the lime-slice looking image from Cheeky plate CH13. Both these polish shades are from Limited Edition Spring/Summer 2012 lines--the CSMs are from the 2012 Tracy Reese Runway Manicures collection. Maybe if your Walgreens has as awesome a clearance section as mine does, you might be able to grab these for cheap. I'm also still spotting  the displays for both these LE collections at my Target, Walmart and CVS for their full price (which is why I was shocked to see them already clearanced at Walgreens).

 I always jump at the chance to get cheap Insta-dris because they are usually such good stamping polishes and Just In Lime didn't disappoint at all. Buttercup, however, was a bit of a pain to work with. 3 coats and it was still somewhat streaky. Glad I only paid $3 for it (as opposed to the regular Complete Salon Manicure price of 7.49!)...

Have you scored any awesome clearance hauls lately?

Patriotic monkey claws!

Happy 4th of July, USA! Hope you're all enjoying your day off. Me and my family are just having a real chill day at home--just us playing in the yard and grillin some burgers and later on we'll shoot off some fireworks we bought, cuz it ain't the 4th unless you're blowing something up, amiright??

So, of course, being a proud lacquerhead, I had to dress my nails up for the Holiday. Behold the uber creative (*sarcasm*) mani I came up with:

Gee...stamped stars and stripes & some red &  blue glitter on  a white thumb. Yea, I know I'm a nail art visionary...

Polishes used are: Revlon Frankly Scarlet; China Glaze Ring in the Red; Orly Stone Cold; Hot Topic BlackHeart Beauty 'Royally Screwed'; Finger Paints Papier Mache (both for thumb and for stamping); OPI Gettin Miss Piggy With It....and the whole she-bang topped off with Seche Vite of course!

Well, off to enjoy the rest of the day with the kiddos. Have a happy and safe 4th!

An open apology to OPI Just Spotted the Lizard

Dear Just Spotted the Lizard,

I understand if you're mad at me. I would be mad at me too. How dare I post such horribly embarassing pictures of you that don't even come remotely close to capturing your true fabulosity & magic? And then I had to go and make it even worse by doing a bad stamping job on you. Sally Hansen Insta-dri Co-Co a Go-Go led me astray. Actually, no I shouldn't blame Sally. It's not her fault I placed my stamps all wickity wack and then did a half-assed job cleaning up my cuticles. 

Anyway, Lizard--(is it ok if I call you Lizard?), I pray you can find it in your heart to forgive me and let me have another chance. You are truly an amazing polish--Chanel Peridot's got nothing on you (well, except for a big fat price tag). You're JUST as multi-chromatic on the nail as you are in the bottle (despite my horrible pics that show otherwise), and easy enough to apply (you have to admit, you could be slightly thicker and you know it but it's nothing I can't work with if I just wipe the brush well to prevent pooling at the cuticles). I was thrilled to see you were gorgeous, shiny, opaque and brush-stroke free in 3 light and easy coats...other polishes could learn a thing or 2 from you...

Ok, I'll be quiet now and give you your time and space.  I'll be waiting with poorly-polished fingers crossed.

Love,

Mama Glam

Thanks for putting up with my lunacy, faithful readers. Youze Guise are awesome.

Spam on the cheap!!! Cleaning out the 'To Post' folder, the NOTD edition!

Here's a ton of NOTDs that have been collecting dust on my hard drive. aaaaand GO! (click on pics to enlarge--and there's a ton of them)

Up first is a series of lousy shots of a gorgeous mani. This was Essie No More Film topped with Essie As Gold as it Gets topped with (oh yea I'm talkin triple decker layering) Ozotic 529 Elytra. I couldn't get a good shot because the sun decided to fall out of the sky for like a week straight....yea I really need to fix my lighting situation cuz when you live in New England, you can't depend on the weather to give you the light you need!

Shifty shifty...

 Next is a Love and Beauty polish called "Dusty Blue" stamped with Color Club Gingerbread Man. Love and Beauty polishes are sold by Forever 21 for $2.88 a pop and they have an endless selection of beautiful colors (with annoyingly generic names), many  of which are dupes of much pricier brands (I'll have to do a post on the Love & Beauty dupes I have). Also, LA Girl makes Love and Beauty polishes and you can sometimes find the exact same colors marketed under the Love and Beauty name--but for a few bucks cheaper. Score!

 Here we have the lovely Zoya Apple (which, incidentally, Love and Beauty has an exact dupe of called "Yellow Green"---see what I mean about those names)...this is one of my favorite greens ever, yet somehow I didn't get a single good shot of it here...Love those gorgeous gold flecks!

 Next is that Cos Bar for Target polish I mentioned yesterday. It was, unfortunately, a let down. That fun, tangy lime green went gold on the nail--which wouldn't be a problem if I didn't already have a ton of gold polishes that look like this. Also, the formula was annoyingly thin--a 4 coater. Worse yet, I noticed bubbles allover my nails, so I decided to stamp it with a leopard pattern and add some nice, gaudy bling. Bimbo nails!!

 I saved the best for last. This beauty is "Holy Cow" made by F4 Polish, an awesome trio of polish-frankening sisters whose shop can be found here on Etsy. Holy Cow is made up of fine black glitter, slightly larger square white glitter and a healthy sprinkling of holographic microglitter. I layered a thin coat over NYC Sidewalkers for this mani but it can easily be opaque all by itself in a few coats. It was a smidge on the thick side, but a few drops of Beauty Secrets thinner solved that.

Looks like granite!!

Hope you enjoyed my spamathon! Hooray for the 10 little canvases at the tips of our fingers!