Saturday, July 30, 2011

Just A Note....

I wanted to thank you lovely ladies for following my blog! I just love creating new designs and I REALLY love to share them with you! It's been two weeks now and I think we're off to a great start and I'm excited to hear your thoughts and opinions. I would absolutely LOVE to take requests! If you have any ideas please feel free to share them with all of us!

I have pretty much just been playing/experimenting and posting a ton of pictures with little to no description. I am going to go back through my previous postings over the next couple days and add some needed information to go with all those pictures :D Sooooo.... Please take a moment in the coming week or so to brief over some of my old posts to see 'what's new' :)

I personally love to see websites with lots if pictures vs lots of text and only a few pictures. I started wondering though if maybe I am over-doing it a bit and slowing down your computers!?! Please feel free to drop in your two cents on the matter.

Also wanted to mending that I got some new GOODIES in the mail that I can't wait to share with you all!!!! Be on the lookout Monday afternoon!!!

Thanks again for Following my blog, it really makes it worth it to me that you all like what you are seeing!!!

XO,
Gypsy

Mint Apple w/ Teal-y Fast using BM#221

Friday, July 29, 2011

'Mint Apple' by Sinful Colors

My 'new' cheap polishes from the local nail salon!






So I take some advice that I read somewhere about a gal going to her local salon and asking for old polish hoping to get it for pennies on the dollar. Well I didn't get them for that but I did get some and oly paid $7 for all three!! I was in my local Sally's Beauty Supply looking for a Holo or something really stunning to knock my socks off and found pretty much nothing :( They had only the most common colors and nothing on sale (not a 'GOOD' sale) I asked for anything holographic and they said they had nothing :( :( :( Walking out dissapointed as we walked back to our car I noticed a nail salon right next door :) We went in, me remebering that ladie's story, and I asked the gal at the front counter if they had any old polishes that they wouldn't mind selling. She looked confused and I quickly told her that I was stamping nail art and needed old thick polish to test with. She was very accomodating and let me look through all they had. I found these three beauties!!! The first one, China Glaze is a true holographic polish and also retired. It was nearly dried up and only had about 1/8 of a bottle left in it :( but it WAS a holo! I said that was too bad and she said They wont use it so I could have that one OMG, just to try it would at least tide me over till I found 'the one' :) The other two are Color Club and I have never seen them for sale in any of the shops or local salons around here. I need to do some research but I think they are European. I'm guessing English not French. Anyhow, the silver one (no identifiable name) looks very much like a holo and is AMAZING but I think it is actually a multi-chromatic dimentional polish :) Again, I need to do some homework on it and get back to you with 'The Facts' lol. This bottle was 80% full and she sold it for $4 and the purple 'Supa-Fine' LOL glitter polish was about 50%full and she charged me $3. I was thrilled! I am really loving the Color Club but think I may need to EBay it. Moral of this story, a big smile and a freindly tone can get you sparkly things:) But we women have know that all our lives, NO? tehe


These pics are testing the purple super fine glitter polish with and without a base coat. The pic on top left is one coat on top of Wet n Wild 'Soul Mate'  and the bottom left is one coat with no base. The pic on the right is with two coats each. And the purple nail next to the bottle is with three coats. As you can see you can achieve the same depth and density with one fewer coat by starting with a similar color base first. BTW this is a real stinker to take off. I will research this as well to find the best ways to remove glitters and if I forget REMIND ME! The tone of these photos is incorrect and i haven't had time to adjust the hues so take a peek at the Pacific Mani post to see that it is a pinkish purple not a blueish purple.


OMG my very first HOLO!!!

Get it together, storage solutions

Polish and supply storage

How I store my Bundle Monster image pates

Nail care-cuticle creams (My Favs)

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

My Silvers and Greys


This is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'Celeb City', a very nice glittery polish.


This is LA Looks silver, looks almost exactly like the Sally Hansen doesn't it??!? Well the only difference other than the price is that the Sally Hansen is a bit smoother. Maybe the glitter is a little finer and that's why. But honestly there really isn't much of a difference between these two.



This is my Favorite of all silver! Sally Hansen Insta-Dri 'Silver Sweep'. It is my 'go to' for stamping. Always gives a full, clean print! It is a metalic polish without being glitter based so it is extremely smooth. If you stamp then you should have this polish!



Here are all three of them in the natural light (they were really off indoors). Left to right are the Celeb City, Silver Sweep and then the LA Colors silver


Here are my only two greys (for now..hehe). Both are Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear. The one on the left is 'Wet Cement' and the right is 'Gunmetal'. I really love both of these. The Wet Cement is a great neutral (without being boring) base and the Gunmetal is a great softer alternative to a black.

Talking about silvers and greys has got me craving some holo! I really want to get my hands on so GOSH!

What are your favorite Greys? Favorite Silvers? Favorite holos?

My Golds


I just got this gold a couple days ago and WOW-ie! does it have some BLING! It's very eye catching. Every time I look at it I think 'Goldfinger' LOL! Punny HeHeHe Anyways it is Revlon metalic #925 'Gold Coin'. I have used it for stamping but the only color it looked good on was black and on my Coco a-go-go even then it was kind of subtle. It may also work OK on other really deep base coats. Also note that if you use this for stamping it leaves behind some glitter on your image plate so you might have to clean it twice. Yeah, it's a bit of a stinker! I think I will mainly use it a base color. I would love to try stamping the zebra stripes on this using the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Coco a-go-go on this.



I got this one on the same day @ CVS for just $2. It's Confetti #093 'Debutante'. It looks more 'copper-y' in the picture than it really is but that is exactly why I bought it. I wanted a bright yellow gold and also a copper/antique gold as well. I think it's a great color and a great price. As far as stamping it really only worked on the black and on my Coco a-go-go just like the Revlon, a little dissapointing but not a deal breaker and not as much of a glitter-y mess :)



This is and isn't a gold, sorta, kinda, maybe :) But it was close enough to make it in with the other golds. This is Pure Ice 'Jaguar'. It needs two to three coats to look gold instead of glitzy cream but I really like it for a subtle gold. It looks great as  base when using the cheeta image plate with a dark brown or black. BTW don't even try to stamp with this one it's far too thin and light on any color.



Here are all three together to compare :)

Have any golds to reccomend? Have any of you found a good gold for stamping with?

Steals and Deals spotted @ CVS


I got a kit like this last week but with different colors and I love it! I love being able to sample new colors without much of a 'finacial commitment' :) There are 8 .29oz bottles plus a decent little medium grain file.



If I didn't already have these colors in my striping polishes I would have got this kit. I would have liked to try that blue but I resisted.