Barry M Black Magic!

Today I am taking the easy route. I have a busy day ahead, catching up from being "snowed in" yesterday. I left my right hand "fail-art-less" (almost sounds like fartless haha) because I am not going to even attempt it with my non-dominant hand yet! LOL I need to get better with my right hand first! Anyhow, I wanted to try out my Barry M Nail Effect in black, and I thought this was the perfect time. Black and orange crackle on one hand and Jack O' Lanterns on the other, Happy Halloween LOL!

Barry M Black Magic is your typical black crackle. I am sure many of you are sick of seeing black crackles by now. Honestly, I still enjoy the crackle look, but black wouldn't be my first choice. Which is why it was the last one of my Barry M still left to try! Now that I have tried all of their colors, and most of the other brands of crackles, I still say that Barry M makes the BEST crackle polish. I have never had issues with the effect, like I have with other brands. It always turns out perfect! I highly recommend this brand for crackle polish. So if you are not quite over this trend like me, and you are looking for a good crackle polish for a decent price, Barry M is the way to go! They currently have black, white, pink, and blue and they retail for appx $6 with the currency conversion.

Artificial light, no flash. WITHOUT top coat.

WITH top coat.

Very Tony the Tiger-esque, don't you agree?

Barry M Black Magic retails for £3.99 and can be purchased at barrym.com.

Barry M crackles... THEY'RE GRRRREAT!! LOL

(source)

Soft Landings Towels!

I received a sample of Soft Landings Towels and I want to tell you about it!

First off, I wonder when you do your nails, what do you put underneath of your hands? A paper towel perhaps? A placemat? Or maybe nothing? What about when you do nail art? What do you use to dab and wipe your brush on? What is protecting your surface from nail polish and remover? I am guilty of using a placemat and/or paper towels. But now I have something better, and that is Soft Landing Towels! 

Soft Landing Towels are used by nail artists all over the world. They can be found in spas as well as in people's homes. These towels are absorbent, they trap acrylic dust, are contamination free and lint free, and are so soft to the touch. They can also be used for facials and waxings.

Here are some photos of the sample I received...

There were two towels in my package, they measure 18"x16". Here is one of them laid out for you to see.

A close up of the thickness. They are thin, but very durable!

A macro shot of the fibers. Looks itchy but trust me, it's super soft!

Kathy Weltman is super nice! You can certainly reach out to her for any questions about Soft Landings Towels.

For more information, visit softlandingstowels.com.

You too can request a free sample. Click HERE to get yours!

Soft Landings Towels is also on Facebook! Click HERE and tell them I sent you!

The Pumpkin is always oranger on the other side of the patch!

It's time for some more Halloween Nail (fail?) Art by yours truly! This time I wanted to try pumpkins. I am still unsure if I like how it turned out. I REALLY liked the pumpkins before I turned them into Jack O' Lanterns. I should have taken pictures at that point but I totally didn't think of it. Ah well, you can use your imagination LOL.

I used several polishes for this design. I started out with Illamasqua Insanity for the base color. I then added some vertical brush strokes of Catrice Rusty But Sexy. After that dried, I painted the entire nail with Zoya OC Cooler. For the leaves I used Barry M Spring Green, Essence Check Me Out and Essence High Spirits. Next up was OPI Black Onyx for the eyes and mouth followed by Barry M Yellow. Lastly I applied a layer of Seche Vite.

Artificial light, no flash.

A happy pumpkin family!

Pointer and middle fingers

Ring and pinky fingers

Close up of the leaves

What do you think?

Personally, I feel like the more I practice, the better I will get. I am naturally artistic, sometimes I just lack inspiration. I also have to get used to the brushes and wait until my coffee wears off so I am not shaking LOL.

Illamasqua Insanity!

Today I want to show you Illamasqua Insanity. I have some more Halloween nail art planned, and needed a good orange for the base color. It turns out that Insanity and I have a love-hate relationship. I love the color as well as the name, but I hate the application. I started off with two coats and it looked lumpy and uneven. So I added top coat hoping that it would smooth it out. Well I think it just made it look worse. I was quite frustrated because I wanted this polish to work! Once it dried, I added another two coats over top of the top coat haha. Then one more coat of top coat (are you following me here) and VOILA! Perfect orange creme! Amazingly it dried quickly even with all of these coats. I love the brush, it is perfect. I also love the lid/cap (whatever you want to call it), it was easy to hold. Overall I just love this brand. I think they are alluring and sexy. I want them all.

Artificial light, no flash.

Can you guess what my nail art design will be? LOL

Illamasqua Insanity retails for £13.50 at www.illamasqua.com.

It's not nail art, it's FAIL art!

Let me start off by saying that I am my own worst critic. I am hard on myself when it comes to nail art (as well as many other things in life). What you see here may be a great job in your opinion, but what I see here needs improvement. I will not settle for less than perfect! LOL

For my base color I used Zoya Dove. Then I sponged Catrice Sand Francisco over top. I used OPI Black Onyx for the lines, OPI Alpine Snow and Big Apple Red for the eyes, and Seche Vite for topcoat. I did smear some of the eyes because I did not wait for it to dry completely. I tried adding some white to "fix" it, but that only made it worse because the topcoat was already on! But you can't tell unless you are looking really closely. I also got some weird black line on the pinky, it looks like a fuzz or a hair, but its the Black Onyx! LOL perhaps my polish was getting gooey and stringy towards the end? Ugh, see how critical I am about this! Anyways, onto the pics, I hope you like it better than I do! ;-)

Artificial light, no flash.

So what do you think? Be gentle! LOL

Zoya Dove!

In my last post I mentioned the nail art brushes that I bought today. I was excited to try them out, and I already had in mind the nail art design I wanted to attempt. But before I show you that, here is a post on the base color I used.

Zoya Dove is part of the Intimate Collection. I bought this collection when Zoya was having one of their awesome promos for it earlier this year. Zoya describes Dove as: "Soft, delicate light neutral gray with an opaque, glossy creme finish. Unexpected and flattering, as a wear-with-anything neutral with a twist." I think everyone needs a basic gray creme in their collection and this is a great choice. This is my first time using Dove. I applied three coats for best coverage as two left me with some uneven spots. It's one of those cremes that needs top coat to look smooth. I love Zoya's brush as well as the shape of the lid (or is it a cap-I always forget which one it is haha), it is very easy to hold. Dry time wasn't bad even with the three coats. I may have found my go-to gray (or is it grey-again I am confused)!

:-)

Artificial light, no flash.

Nevermind the dang top coat bubbles! LOL

Zoya Dove retails for $8 and can be purchased on zoya.com.

Glitter Gal S707 Silver Sparkle!

I was in the mood for something holographic today, so I decided to try out Glitter Gal Silver Sparkle. Since it's not a "Halloween themed polish", I added some "spooky" stamping which you will see later in this post! ;-)

Glitter Gal Silver Sparkle is a silver polish with a kick! It has teeny holographic "shards" that sparkle and shine. The holo effect is not as strong as the 3D Glitter Gals, but it is still beautiful in it's own right. Previously, I have tried out Black Sparkle and loved it too. I had zero issues with application, and dry time is super fast even with three coats! Unfortunately, top coat did weaken the holo effect a little.

Artificial light, no flash.

Now let's make it "spooky" LOL...

I added webs and spiders with Bundle Monster plate BM13. I used Konad Special Polish Black and Essence Red-y to Go. I haven't stamped in a long time, so I am impressed that it didn't turn out worse LOL!

What do you think?

Manic Panic Hellfire!

Next up is Manic Panic Hellfire. This is another nail polish that isn't officially Halloween themed, but I am calling it that anyways LOL. Hellfire is a black jelly with red glitter. It takes at least 3 coats to look this awesome, but I don't mind it. Of course you can also layer it over black to help conserve the polish (these bottles are only .25oz). The brush is a little thick and does not seem to be of high quality, so it takes some getting used to when it comes to application. I think it's a great polish for the price though. Hellfire is naturally shiny on it's own, but I added top coat to help smooth it out. You can still see a couple of bumps at the tips of my nails. I did wrap them though! LOL

Artificial light, no flash.

 What do you think?

Manic Panic Hellfire retails for $4 on Drugstore.com. Click HERE to shop!