Cherry Blossom Store: Stripes review

Yay Christmas mani!! Okay, not so yay. This month got away from me. Work has been crazy busy for the past two weeks, we had our Secret Santa box opening which I was supposed to blog about today and I haven't done a thing to prepare for the big day in any way... Well at least I have a menu for Xmas day.
So I actually have two versions of this mani. The first one looks really crap, I had it one for a day and I took it off. I started with two coats of Nubar conserve on my pinky and thumb.

On my Simply Neat miracle mat I laid down the stripes vinyl from Cherry Blossom store. They were easy to work with and I had no problems of note. I like vinyls like this, as I can't lay down a vinyl in a straight line to save my life. I painted in the lines with Tip Top gold mine and Nubar conserve. When that was dry I painted two coats of Sinful Colors snow me white over it and waited for it to dry.

So that was my first mistake... I should have rather painted my nails white and used a clear coat for the stripes. I hate cleaning up Snow me white. My second mistake was being too impatient with my top coat and I smeared it. So this looks very very kak (shit).

My second version is so much better. Or at least I think so. I used polishes from my SS box. When I saw the Essence The little Xmas factory polishes, I knew I had to have them. So I sent Michelle over at Ordinary Misfit a message and asked very nicely if she came across them if she wouldn't mind getting them for me, I was quite happy to pay for this and by happy coincidence she was my SS. Anyway, I started with two coats of let's take an elfie. It's slightly thick, but I assume that's because it's glitter-ish.

I did the same with the vinyls again, but this time using I still believe in Santa Claus and meet me under the mistletoe, both polishes from the little Xmas factory. I used a clear polish and I was a bit more patient this time round when top coating.

So I like the colours of my first mani, but I prefer my second. What do you think? I am a little torn. If you're like me and need all the help you can get with straight lines, you can get these vinyls here.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Cherry Blossom Store: Spiral stencil and stickers review

Today I have another Cherry Blossom Store review for you. You can find the previous one here. I wanted to try a different technique with these vinyls. I have seen some people on Instagram place the vinyls on their Uber mat or Simply Neat miracle mat, blob polish on and then use a scraper to blend the polish into a gradient.

So first off I started with one (thickish) coat of Sinful Colours Snow me White on my index, middle and ring finger. I painted two coats of Essence island hopping on my pinky and two coats of Essence ever young on my thumb.

I tried peeling these vinyls off the backing, but it did the same as the previous ones. So I ended up picking the insides out first. I then stuck my vinyls on my miracle mat, blobbed on island hopping, ever young and island hopping again, scraped it down and peeled off the vinyl. I alternated the colours with the other vinyls. Waited for it to dry a bit and then painted a coat of Essence absolute pure (clear) over it. Once that was dry I lifted it off my mat, placed it on my white nails and trimmed it down to size.

So this was much easier than last time. Especially since there was no lifting, but then I didn't stick the vinyl on my nail. So there is ways to work around it.

What do you think? I got quite a few compliments on this mani. I'm not sure why it's so difficult to peel these vinyls off the backing though. It's the first vinyls that I have this problem with. These are available in the store for R15 on sale currently. You can find them at the following links:
Instagram
Store

Thanks for stopping by.

Cherry Blossom Store: Flower pattern stencil review

A couple of weeks ago Weheartnailart shared Cherry Blossom Store's profile on their Instagram account and since I loved their vinyls I decided to trust their judgement and went on over to Cherry Blossom's page. There they asked if people wanted to review their products. So I jumped at the opportunity as I have never really done a proper review and really wanted give it a try. So I mailed them and Bianca got back to me, asking me to have a look at the store and letting her know what I like.

I had to blow up the pic a bit so you can see the details.

So first, a little about them. The store has only been around for a couple of months, it started with the lack of all things nail art related in SA. They vinyls are made by Bianca herself, she and her friends test it out, the stamping plates and other nail art stuffs are from trade companies. Bianca is also looking into importing Born Pretty and Moyou products in the future. Good luck to that!! She is also open to making custom vinyls. Shipping is free over R350, otherwise it will be R55-R65 via overnight courier. You can find them at the links below.

Instagram
Store

Anyway, enough yapping, Bianca sent me a couple of goodies, which I didn't take a pic off (chop). The vinyls come in a plastic baggie with a tag that explains all things vinyls. First up is the Flower pattern stencil. I love this design, when I first saw it I immediately thought of stained glass. I started with two coats of I love Hean black on all my nails. Top coated and waited for it to dry. Once that was dry I started peeling the vinyl off the backing and oh my gosh, what a mission. I tried multiple sides, angles, but in the end I just sat picking out the little inside things.

It does say to try peeling from a different side if you having trouble, which I did. Some sides were better than others.

I then used Hean 281, 276 and 278 all from the Jungle Pop collection and tried for a radial gradient. Which didn't come out quite the way I wanted, but looks good nonetheless. The other problem that I had was that the vinyls kept lifting while I was sponging the gradient on. It's not quite obvious in these pics, but if you look at the tips you'll see where the colour bled under the vinyl. I eventually folded the vinyl under the tip of my nail to prevent it, which helped a bit. I feel that I should mention that I didn't touch the sticky part of the vinyl, tweezers were my friend.

So all in all, I really like this vinyl. People saw what I was trying to do with it, but the question is would I recommend it? To be honest, not really. It's time consuming having to pick out the insides of the vinyl and having it lift while sponging on a polish is very frustrating. And for me this is sad, as I really liked this design!!

What do you think of it? I do have more things coming your way. Hopefully it will fare a little better. I really hope it does. If you are interested in these vinyls you can find them here, they are going for R25 for 16 stencils.

Here you can sorta see the difference in the amount of thingies left behind, the result of peeling from different angles.

Thanks for stopping by and reading this long story!

Twinsie post with Michelle: Inspired by Michelle

We at it again... Doing twinsie posts... They may become triplet posts (tripsies? tripletsies?) Joyce from What's on my nails today? may or may not join us... Depending on her schedule. But I kow she's joining us today. So the theme for the upcoming posts will be "inspired by". This month we doing by each other, but from the new year(as we (meaning Michelle) will be taking a break over December), each of us will pick one mani off our lists to recreate. Taking turns and hopefully this way we will shorten the list. And if we happen to have each others name, we will redo our own mani. Because how many times have you not thought of doing it differently?

Anyway, so for today's one I decided to do this mani. I wanted to start off easy...

I didn't copy Michelle's design as I wanted to put my own twist on it. It is "inspired by" after all, which is apparently different to "recreating". I don't know, anyway I started with two coats of Parental Advisory Polish fuck me boots on my pinky, two coats of I love Hean black on my middle finger and two coats of Hean 273 from the Jungle Pop collection. Top coated and waited for that to dry.

Once that was dry I used the "extras" from the diagonal alley vinyls from becauseishop as I couldn't find my straight vinyls. I need a better way to organise my vinyls, any tips? So I taped sections off. On my index and ring finger I used I love Hean black and on my middle finger I used Hean 273 to paint in the gaps.

And of course a flash pic just to show off that holo goodness.

What do you think? I really liked this mani, it's so elegant. Do head on over to Michelle's and Joyce's and give them some love. I do know what mani Michelle wanted to do, I wonder if she changed her mind. Mine is a surprise though and so is Joyce's.

I can't wait for my left hand thumb to be decent length again. I hate this awkward hand pose.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Blue Skitlette

This is another mani that was more or less inspired by Joyce... I sat down and thought " What would Joyce do?" "What colours would she use together?" And this is what I came up with.

I started with two coats of OPI Eurso Euro on my thumb and index, two coats of I love Hean 870 from the pastel collection on my middle and ring finger and two coats of I love Hean 854 from the sugar collection on my pinky.

The stamp is plate BP-L003 and I used Eurso Euro to stamp with. I then added two flower decals that I bought a whole bunch of from Aliexpress.

For some reason this pic looks very blurry and I have absolutely no idea why. Anyway, what do you think? Does this count as a skitlette? My first one ever (nevermind the one I copied from Joyce).

I really like how this turned out. I'm actually busy doing a couple of reviews for you. I'm hoping to have the first one up by next week. Hoping being the key word here.

Thanks for reading!

Twinsie post with Michelle: Another Halloween mani

Hiiiii, my name is Cindy (Hiiiii Cindy) and I have an awkward hand pose....

Happy Halloween people... and yes I have resorted to using Cindy over here because of the nail break I had last week. Anyway, I have gradient galore here.

On my pinky is one coat of Tip Top Purple Reign. My thumb and index two coats of TT Grape Dance. On my middle and ring finger I started with two coats of Hean City Fashion 176 as the base of my gradient. For my gradient I used (top to bottom) TT Purple Reign, TT Grape Dance, Hean I Love Hean 878 from the Pastel collection and CF 176 at the tip. Top coated and waited for it to dry.

Once it was dry I used graveyard vinyls from becauseishop. Stuck 'em down and then used essence the black cat (latex matt) for the graves.

I didn't top coat after that as I wanted the mix of shine and matte. I think it adds a different aspect to it...

What do you think? And as I mentioned in the caption, this is a twinsie post so do head over to Michelle's and give her some love. We have also decided to try and do a twinsie post every month... The theme, working through our inspired list. I have so many mani's that I've wanted to recreate (so does Mich), but we never get to it... So that's what we going to be doing once a month. Hmmm, I wonder, anyone wanna join? I guess we could make it a triplet post or something like.. (so that's my something special Joyce ;p)

Oh and whoever remembers the old Batman cartoons on TV, don't you think that the tombstone looks a little like Batman from the intro, where he jumps onto to roof into a crouch and then stands up? I'm totally rocking Batman right now :D

Thanks for stopping by!!

Itsy Bitsy Spider

So I'm kinda running out of days before Halloween to post my mani's... Got something special lined up for Monday, I just hope I don't forget it.

For today's mani I started with two coats of I Love Hean 870 from the pastel collection on my middle and ring finger. The rest is sporting two coats of I love Hean black.

For the spider webs I painted a layer of clear polish on my miracle mat and stamped using SC Snow me White and QA26 from BornPretty. Then I painted a layer of I love Hean black over the web part, once it was dry, peeled it off and positioned on my nail still showing the base colour.

For the spider I used stencils from Revlon. I only saw these for a limited time at Edgars' and then never again. I stuck the stencil on my miracle mat and used Essie Leggy Legend. Once the spider was dry, I peeled it off and stuck it on my nail. Top coat and Voila!

What do you think? Oh you see my thumb nail... Bugger tore off. Kak (really) sore and yes there was blood. Real Halloweeny. So for the moment I have to rely on Ms Cindy to make an appearance.

Thanks for stopping by!

Franken-zombie monster

So I'm not entirely sure what to call this since people saw different things... Some saw zombies, some saw monsters, some saw the hulk and I just tried to do Frankenstein...

I started with 2 coats of Tip Top As the Beat Grows On on all my fingers. On my thumb I used zig zag vinyls and I love Hean black. On my pinky I used straight vinyls.

On my index and ring finger I used plate QA26 from BornPretty and Essence stampy polish black and stamped what looks like stitches randomly.

For my middle finger I used my Simply Neat miracle mat and drew the face... And stuck it on.

So what do you guys think? I got quite a few compliments on these... Guess it's the neon green, since my drawing skills suck.

Thanks for stopping by guys.

Acid drops

I hope everyone is doing well. I've been a bit under the weather, but not so much anymore. I decided that I'm only going to post halloween mani's for this month... Or I'm going to try at least.

So first up, I'm wearing two coats of Hean black from the I love Hean Collection on all my fingers.... And then I remembered I didn't want all my nails black and just painted a coat of Colors by Llarowe Gemini Rising on my middle finger.

For the drips I used vinyls from becauseishop. I can't remember if these are ones I ordered or if it's ones I won... Either way, go visit B's shop, she's got some cool and geeky things in her shop.

I love how this green looks over the black...

This is a shot with the flash on, just to show off that holo-y goodness. And I'm super impressed that my colleagues actually guessed my theme correctly. Monster and alien blood. Works for me.

What do you think? BF said I should have used blue instead of the green, but I don't have blue holo!! It would have been awesome!

Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by Joyce (read I copied her)

I'm trying to post regularly, but also trying to build up more posts, so I'm slowly getting there. I've been following Joyce from What's on my nails today? for some time now and I am so envious of her skitlettes. She makes everyting go together and make it seem super easy.

Joyce recently did a summer skitlette here. And I totally fell in love. And I had to give it a go, which it wasn't easy...

I started with two coats of Hean 274 from the Jungle Pop collection on my thumb and index. My middle and ring finger is sporting two coats of Hean 235 (Ordinary Misfit). My pinky has two coats of piCture pOlish Heavy Metal.

So I decided on a darker holo, as it's winter here by us (well technically spring) and on Ordinary Misfit instead of white. For the stamping, I used Nubar Silver Mist and HeHe 43.

I'm not sure if I did Joyce's mani any justice. What do you think? I'm a little on the fence about... And I really need a clear stamper. I can't wait for our Secret Santa to be over... Just so I can start buying things for me again.

Thanks for reading!

Rosey-ish

I've been staring at this minty colour polish from the I love Hean Pastel collection and I was itching to use it. And when I did I was slightly disappointed, as it required 3 coats to be opaque, but this is only my laziness showing. It's a beautiful colour though.

So I started with the three coats. While that was going I used my Simply Neat mat to make the decals. I used my white Essence stampy polish and BP-73. I then randomly coloured in the roses with I love Hean 877, 874, 876 and 871, all from the Pastel Collection.

Peeled off the decal, stuck it on my nail and then, because I felt like it, dotted two flowers on my index finger.

The roses didn't quite come out the way I wanted, but it was easy and cute. What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by.