Blue and Green Glitter Mani

Today I have a gorgeous glitter mani to share with you all:

Light Purple Mani with Orange and Blue Accents

Today's manicure was designed around an awesome polish that I recently purchased, KB Shimmer's 'Mauve on Over'.

'Mauve on Over' is a light purple crelly-based glitter polish from KB Shimmer's 2014 Winter collection. It contains a mixture of aqua, navy, and orange glitters. I honestly can't believe how much I love this polish! It's a slightly unexpected colour combination that totally works.

I distinctly remember my first impression of 'Mauve on Over' when I came across it while shopping for polish on line. At first glance, I was completely thrown off by the orange glitter in the mix, as it seemed like it didn't belong. However, I found myself being drawn to the polish. I remember moving on, and then coming back to the same page to look at the polish again and again. Eventually I decided that the polish was absolutely perfect, exceedingly gorgeous, and that I simply had to have it! LOL!!!

I love when something challenges your expectations, and then manages to change your perceptions of what is beautiful!

Here is a picture of the two polishes that I used to create this look:

Polishes Used

KB Shimmer ‘Mauve on Over’

Color Club ‘Diggin’ the Dancing Queen’

Earlier this summer, I did a post about some of the colours in Color Club's Poptastic Neon Pastel Collection. I mentioned that I was unable to get one of the polishes in the collection, as the site that I purchased the order from was sold out of it. The missing colour was 'Diggin' the Dancing Queen', and as you can tell by today's post, I finally managed to get my hands on it (and get it on my hands, too!). It was so worth the wait - this colour is ridiculously beautiful. It's such a soft, feminine colour, but so bright and eye-catching all at the same time. The entire collection perfectly embodies that intriguing mix of soft and loud. I am so psyched to finally have them all.

Here's a shot of the completed collection:

Color Club Poptastic Neon Pastel Collection

Color Club ‘Feathered Hair out to There’

Color Club ‘Hot-Hot-Hot Pants’

Color Club ‘Disco’s not Dead’

Color Club ‘Under the Blacklight’

Color Club ‘Til the Record Stops’

Color Club ‘Meet me at the Rink’

Color Club ‘Diggin’ the Dancing Queen’

Overall, I a really love today's manicure. It's always great when you get to wear two or more polishes that you really love, and they also happen to look great together!

Pastel Neon Paisley Skittles Mani

In my last post, I did a simple manicure using 'Hot-Hot-Hot Pants' one of the colours from the Color Club 'Poptastic Pastel Neons' collection. For this manicure, I decided to use the remaining colours that I owned from the collection to create this paisley-printed skittles mani:

In my last post, I mentioned an embellishment idea that I had, to use with these bright pastel colours. The idea was to stamp over them with white stamping polish, as I have done in this manicure. White seems to be the perfect colour for combining with these 'Pastel Neon' colours - it keeps the look fun and light and doesn't overpower the already eye-catching colours.

Originally, I was thinking about using simple white stripes for the stamping image, however, I've already used my stripe plates for a few manicures, while so many other plates in my collection have gone unused. So I decided to try something else. I chose my paisley-themed Messy Mansion plate mainly because I just recently purchased it and was excited to give it a try!

Polishes Used	Plate Used
Color Club ‘Feathered Hair out to There’
Color Club ‘Disco’s not Dead’
Color Club ‘Under the Blacklight’	Messy Mansion  MM48 ‘Paisley Theme’
Color Club ‘Til the Record Stops’
Color Club ‘Meet me at the Rink’
Konad Special Polish in White

I like the end result, but the only problem is that there isn't a lot of contrast with the delicate white lines of the paisley print stamped over the yellow and light green shades, so it's hard to see the details of the stamped image. In retrospect, a stamping image with thicker lines would have probably worked a little better. Polka dots would have been lovely as well!

Pastel Neon Coral Manicure

I recently bought 6 of the 7 polishes from Color Club's Poptastic Pastel Neons collection. I would have bought all of them, however the website that I bought them from didn't have the last colour. I was so excited when they arrived, because I had heard so much buzz about them on YouTube, and on various blogs - I just couldn't wait to try all of these gorgeous colours! I decided to start with the one that caught my eye the most: 'Hot-Hot-Hot Pants', a pretty shade of pastel coral.

Color Club Poptastic Neon Pastel Collection:
Hot-Hot-Hot Pants

I really love this shade! It's been a long time since I've worn only one polish, with no glitter, accent nail, or nail art! I honestly was at a loss when trying to think of something to do to jazz this up. I think the colour already stands out, all on its own - so it doesn't need much in the way of embellishments. I did have one idea, but by the time I thought of it, I had already gotten used to the plain colour, so I've decided to save the idea for my next manicure!

Here is a picture of the remaining polishes that I own from the collection:

Color Club Poptastic Neon Pastel Collection: The Remaining Colours I Own (L-R)

Feathered Hair out to There

Under the Blacklight

Disco’s Not Dead

Meet Me at the Rink

‘Til the Record Stops

The polish that I am missing is a pastel purple shade called 'Diggin' the Dancing Queen'. I'm still keeping an eye out for it, so hopefully I will be able to complete the collection.

Verdigris Mani

Today’s manicure was inspired by ‘rusting’ copper. If you've ever found an old penny that had been exposed to a winter’s worth of melted snow and rock salt, perhaps on the ground or on the floor of a car, you may have noticed the pretty shade of light blue-green patina that forms on its surface.  This is called verdigris, and it’s one of nature’s more beautiful forms of destruction! I've always loved the combination of copper and light blue because of this phenomenon.  Here’s the manicure I created based on it:

Verdigris Manicure

To create this look, I used Revlon Brilliant Strength in ‘Captivate’ as the copper base coat, Color Club ‘Blue-Ming’ as the verdigris, and Konad Special Polish in White as an accent. To create the ‘splotch’ effect on my nails, I used a full nail image from Bunny Nails' (Halloween-themed) plate HD-C, and the crest on my ring finger was done with a decal image from Messy Mansion plate MM18, ‘Shabby Chic’.

Polishes Used:
Revlon 'Captivate' and Color Club 'Blue-Ming'

This is my favourite verdigris manicure to date. Around 3 years ago, I tried to do a similar mani using China Glaze’s Crackle Glaze in ‘Crushed Candy’, a blue crackle polish, and Zoya’s ‘Penny’. I actually went back and found the picture to do a comparison.  Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I took a picture while it was fresh, so the one I found has major chipping and wear. Also, this was well before I had started stamping, and learned very many nail art techniques. 

Verdigris Manicure Comparison: Original vs Current Versions

Back then, I remember being thrilled about the manicure, which is why I wore it so long, and took a picture! Over the years, I've always remembered it as one of my favourite looks from the past.  I’m so happy to be able to improve upon it with some of the techniques I've learned over the last few years (but mainly in the last 10 months or so since I started stamping).  Who knows, as I continue practicing and picking up more skills and techniques, maybe I’ll have to revisit this mani in a few years time to showcase even more improvements!