Indie Brand Manicure Contest Entry

Nails by Kayla Shevonne is holding a nail art contest and I, like a ninny, have waited until the very last minute to post my entry even though I finished and photographed it weeks ago. The theme of this contest is Indie brand polishes. Everything, or nearly everything, used has to be a polish made by an independent nail polish brand.

In order from pinkie to thumb I used: Chromatological Constructs (CC) Kashmiri Namkeen Chai, CC Chough, Nail Venturous Lacquers Granite, CC Kashmiri Namkeen Chai, CC Chough.

On the pinkie and index nails I did a gradient using CC Bai Hao (Oriental Beauty). On the middle nails I gradiented with CC Chough.

I then did a glitter gradient on the pinkie and index nails with Sonoma Nail Art Clockwork. I used CC Bai Hao to create the lace patterns and the design on the middle nail as well.

With a toothpick I placed individual glitters from Sonoma Clockwork onto the lace patterns.

Chromatological Constructs is a line I have been working on myself over the last six months. Chough is a polish from the Corvus collection. Bai Hao and Kashmiri Namkeen Chai are from the Camelia Sinensis collection. These polishes are not for sale yet but one of my goals this summer is to get the materials I need in bulk to be able to produce these for sale.

Fashion's Night Out Nails

How many of you attended Fashion's Night Out? Did you know that the event isn't only located in NYC? That's right! There are 16+ countries with cities and towns that hold FNO events all over the world! And I'm lucky enough to live in one of those towns! Ok, so it wasn't anything near the extravaganza of NYC but it was still fun and who doesn't love an excuse to dress up?

And of course I had to do something special with my nails! Luckily I had gotten my BOGO promo order from Zoya the week before so I had some new pretties to play around with. I chose Zoya Dakota as a base color. I love how glossy this polish is even without topcoat!

Taken indoors, no flash. 2 coats of polish, no topcoat.

Taken outdoors, 2 coats of polish with topcoat.

Then I used Essie As Good as Gold for a funky french tip:

Taken indoors with flash

And stamped with the same using Cheeky Jumbo Plate H:

 Taken indoors with flash.

Taken in full sun

I kind of wish I had stopped there but I had really wanted to use Zoya Katherine also since, you know NYFW 2012 collection, it was FNO, yada yada yada. Oh well, here's what my nails looked like layered with one coat of Katherine:

Still pretty, but not as blingy as before. So when you make a boo boo what do you do? Add glitter! I used Sonoma Polish Clockwork on the tips to bring that bling feel back:

Ahhhhh! Much better! 

And what is FNO without some swag? There were no freebies in town but I did find a store with butter London polishes and 20% off everything in the store!

 From Evergreen Pottery

 Tramp Stamp and Dodgy Barnett from Macey's

Facinator, scarf and a back-up tin of Smith's Rosebud Salve from The Village Emporium

So how about you? Did any of you have fun during FNO? Tell me all about it!

Franken Sweets

Ok, this has taken a bit longer to post than I had planned, sorry about that!

So, in my last post you got to see two of my newest frankens stamped over white. In this post you get to see both of them as full manis! First up I have Rooibos (See my Franken List for the polishes I used to create it). I meant this to be a bit more of a burnt orange than it turned out but I think I like it just the way it is. I know my clients the day I wore it loved it. One of them even basically said that she'd buy it off me if I had my bottle with me!

Anyway, without further ado, I give you Rooibos (two coats plus top coat):

There's an obvious copper/gold shimmer but if you click the photo to see it larger there are also glimmers of pink and green.


Next up is Sugar & Spice, a lovely frosted gold with subtle copper shimmer (two coats plus top coat):

I absolutely love how this one came out, although I might consider adding more of the burning leave reflects from TKB to it for more copper tones. As you saw in my previous post is is an excellent stamping polish.

And then I decided to add an accent nail so I used Rooibos on my ring fingers:

And just in time! My bottle of Clockwork from Sonoma Nail Art's sale arrived so I added a coat of that on the accent nail as well and another layer of top coat:

What a perfect combo <3