Polish Stunt Double: NOT Girly Bits Eggnogoholic

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 You've heard of nail polish dupes, but that's not what this is. A polish stunt double is a polish that has some prominent features in common with a loved or lusted after nail polish, but on even the most basic examination, the two won't be confused. Think of it as really wanting a strawberry milkshake, but getting a strawberry smoothie instead. It is still good, will satisfy your craving for something fruity and creamy for a while, but you will eventually want to get your hands on that strawberry milkshake. Allow me to show you a polish that I really want and how I am curbing my craving for that nail polish.

Winnie the Pooh birthday nails

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This is a manicure from about a little more than two months ago. I wanted to give my daughter a gift of one of her favorite characters on my nails for her 5th birthday. She hasn't enjoyed getting her own nails painted lately, because she wants to play all the time and not sit for the 10 minutes needed for a manicure. So, these are my nails, painted for her. I hadn't cleaned up my cuticles yet when I took the pictures, so sorry about the mess. Isn't Pooh adorable?! He is stamped on my nails using Wet n Wild Black. I also love this yellow polish: Sinful Colors Lets Meet. It is the boldest yellow that I actually like and the glass fleck shimmer is lovely. It didn't yellow my nails the way that Sinful Colors Unicorn did. I was wary of all yellow polish for a while after Unicorn made my nails look a chain smoker's stained nails. Yuck! . . . But, like I said, Lets Meet is a beauty. Here it is unadorned by Pooh.

The Winnie the Pooh stamping plates are available from Light in the Box for $1.99. Shipping does take a while, but the stamping plates that I have used work well.

Are there any colors of polish that you just hate wearing? Have you ever found a shade that, to your surprise, you loved?

Have a great day.
~Alexis

TARDIS Galaxy Nails

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Hello, readers. Tell me, are there any other Doctor Who fans out there? I've watched some of the old episodes and some of them are pretty good, but I am addicted to the series that came out in 2005, helmed by Russell T. Davies and now Steven Moffat. The most recent new episode aired on Christmas and the next season isn't due until this fall!

I needed some new Doctor Who and found it through looking at the little TARDIS on my ring finger all week. Strangely, it did soothe my longing. Let me tell you a little bit about the manicure.

I painted a base two coat of Wet n Wild Black topped with INM Out the Door Northern Lights. I then sponged nebulae on all of my fingers except the left ring finger using Wet n Wild White. I sponged over each nebula using three different polishes per finger and edged each nebula with Julep Melissa and Hard Candy Beetle. I dotted white stars all over my nails. Finally, I topped the entire galaxy mani with another coat of Northern Lights. I love that holographic topcoat! It really was the icing on the cake for the manicure's starry effect. Here is a video so that you can see the flashiness of the topcoat. It was a gorgeous day and it seems that everyone in my neighborhood was mowing their lawns, so I apologize for all the motor noise.

For my TARDIS accent nail, I painted the shape in white and topped it with Revlon Royal. Using a small nail art brush, I painted the windows, sign, and lights on the police box. I used a thin line of Revlon Midnight Affair to outline the corner and roof.

Ugh, was this a chippy mess! By three days in, I had about 5 noticeable chips that just kept getting bigger. If I hadn't worked so hard on the manicure, I would have removed this after four days (five days at the most). Wet n Wild Black will go back to being a stamping or dotting only polish.

I really love galaxy nails. It is a bit time consuming to create the manicure, but I think the results are worth the time investment. If you're interested in trying out galaxy nails, you can check out the same video tutorial that I used. Emerald Sparkled's video shows just how easy it is to create these celestial bodies. Have fun!

Have you done galaxy nails? If you have, I'd love it if you provide a link to photos if they're online. Doctor Who fans, how do you deal with the long absence of the Doctor between seasons?

If you have a moment, you might want to check out the awesome giveaway on Colores de Carol. The giveaway is great, but her blog is fantastic!

I'll be showing you some very subtle stamped nail art on Illamasqua Load next week. Have a good week.

~Alexis

Green Ocean glitter gradient manicure

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Hello again. Today I share last week's sparkly manicure. Following the tutorial from The Hungry Asian, I created this green glitter gradient french manicure. First, I painted the white of my nail with Sinful Colors Green Ocean, then a second coat of Green ocean extending a little below the white onto the nail bed. The next layer of polish I added was Finger Paints Twisted and I finished off the glitter with Wet 'n' Wild Kaleidoscope. I then painted the whole nail with a clear gloss polish and finally a layer of quick dry topcoat. I was happy with the effect, but if I were to do it again, I think that using a more opaque polish than Green Ocean as the bottom layer would give an even better effect.

This manicure held up remarkably well, much better than I expected from a glitter manicure. Green Ocean goes on pretty thick, so I expected tons of chipping. At the end of the third day, I had a bit of tip wear and a tiny chip on the edge of my left middle finger. By the time I took off the polish, after six days, there were very small chips on both thumbs and a chip on each middle finger.

I love the look of glittery polishes, but oh, how I hate removing them. It seems to take forever and my hands are covered in sparkles afterwards. By the way, sorry about the blurry images. I will try to be better about that.

We put an unstained door up in the entrance to the family room about two months ago. I knew at the time that I would finish the door with Briwax, a wood wax that leaves a rustic finish with a beautiful patina. Briwax works best when it is a little warmer and you definitely need to open windows. I was finally able to wax the door with the warmer weather and while it didn't beat up my nail polish, it did a number on my fingernails. I wore a double layer of gloves and took off my gloves to discover two chipped nails. I still need to do one more coat of wax, so I hope that my nails survive it all.

I also learned why you should stain or finish wood as soon as possible. You can see little finger marks in this picture. Oh well, I'll have to live with that bit of imperfection.

Next week's manicure will be festive St. Patrick's Day nails. I'll post early to show off the green in time for the holiday. Until next time, take care.

~Alexis