Irish Plaid on Gold

March is a time to have some fun with your nails. I have decided to sport my Mad Plaid this week.




Step 1: Go for the Gold, I found it at the end of an OPI "rainbow" at FlipFlops, where I go for nail and hair "spa" days.

Step 2: Grid it with my trusty m57. The Konad Apple Green and gold was fun, but a little too simple. I knew the plaid was coming, so I was happy. I rocked it for a day, and then...

Step 3: Stamp the plaid from m64 using Konad Black. Nice! It's fun, and I can still go to a flower accent on top for the weekend to girl it up a bit. Or not...



I love to do a full nail design like the ones found on m57, m60, m64, and several of the more recent plates (it's like they heard my prayers to the nail goddesses!).

But from what I have seen in other posts, I seem to do it a little different. Rather than paint the entire square, I paint a line along one edge and then squeegee the polish across the design. Occasionally I have to double scrape, but I find it works great. You don't end up with swirls of unevenly surface-dried polish mixed in, and it makes everything a bit faster...not to mention it's less messy and/or wasteful.

Here is a video on how I apply a full nail design. I hope you like it! It's only the green fishnet from m57, and at the end when I do my thumb you can see how I stitch the two stamps together to cover the entire thumb by using foil wrapped around my finger to help me keep the first stamp clean.

I have done the m64 plaid alone, but once I saw it with the second layer peeking out from under the patterns with it's little zip of color (in this case Apple Green) I decided that the extra dimension was too charming, too unique. If I do plaid, I don't want it to be a *snore*

This plaid also looks awesome on a natural nail, you don't need a basecoat at all for it to look fashionably finished. Got to love a Full Plaid, it's my gold at the end of the rainbow!

Konad Swatches lists most of the colors of Konad Special and Princess Special Polishes available, as well as reviewing them.

I agree with most all of her observations, and her blog is great. Very cool had to share!

Lip Ink Haul!

Oh Goody! My order to restock on Lip Ink semi-permanent lip colors just came in, and I love the Energy Red--totally cool! and the free color they threw in happened to be one I was tempted to order---Glitter Red! It is just a subtle shimmer, not an all at glitter. And the Hypershine turned out very glossy, it is very thick so feels just a bit sticky on the lips. Flavorless, but stays put really well...better than the regular shine. I went for broke and paid the $55 for the 2 oz bottle of shine, since my last one lasted two years it is well worth it and I will use it to refill my tubes (if I can keep track of them!).

I also ordered the shimmering lip plumper, one full size in Snow Spice that is scented like clove, and the other a trial size called Bubble Gum, that smells faintly of cinnamon. Lovely shine with shimmer, the snow is a little more opaque than I had thought it would be.

Man I wish I could start selling this. It's so pricey that I am outright cringing but the tubes last forever and the color stays on all day without smearing or printing my mugs and my hubby's mug whenever I steal a kiss. But I feel like I need to do one or the other (nail art or lip ink), and there is definately a great market for the Konad. This time I ordered directly from LipInk.com, since absolutely NO ONE sells it in Oklahoma anymore. Hate ordering lip colors online, but I know with the lemon toner and color layers that I can play with it if it's not exactly what I want. So now my color collection is back up to six, I threw away the Lava Red in a fit of cleaning and totally regret it now. No such thing as too red, is there? So now I have Earth Red, Energy Red, Ruby, Glitter Red, and Lemon Toner. The toner turns the ruby to a gorgeous Coral, and removes the blue undertones that I find not always desirable. I may do a video, but hate the idea of having a close up of my lips. I will have to think about it.