Madam Glam Endless Night

Told you I had one more Madam Glam to show you. =) 

Madam Glam Endless Night is a SUPER dark blue. An endless night, one might say. It looks black. Guys, it's not black! The bottle has a tiiiiny bit of blue going on in it (especially in the middle ridge if you use a color picker tool on your photo edit program haha) The formula is very nice, and one coat is just a but bluer. Still super dark though. This here is 2 coats.

I know you don't believe me, you think it's black. WELL. Here's another:

 Zoya Blu is on the bottom of this one, with Endless Night gradient on top, and why not, an Endless Night stamp using BM 203 . Told you it wasn't black! =D This bottle still shows pretty stinking black, but slightly more blue, yes? Angle of the light hitting the bottle. I couldn't get them quite the same. Aw well.
This color seems very versatile. I love that the gradient and stamps are a nice royal blue.

Overall, I would love to have more of these polishes.The formula is easy to apply, it stamps super awesome, and is so pretty.

Thanks for reading, and, if you were interested in purchasing any lovely Madam Glam products, don't forget to use my code, jo30, to save 30% off! Click here for the website!

♥Jo

Madam Glam Endless Night sent for honest review. Please see my disclosure policy here.

Zoya Blu and BM 203 were self purchased.

Gold n' Gradient

Hi all!
Wooo, I've been busy. School takes a lot of time!
Today I have a couple of fun things to show you from Born Pretty Store!
I've actually got even more fun stuff coming your way from BPS. All in good time.

We'll start with these cute awesome gold heartbeat stickers. OMG so cute! The chevrons make me so happy. =D

The sticker applied perfectly. I was able to remove and reposition it fairly easily, as long as the nail was perfectly dry an I hadn't pressed the sticker down tooo mcuh yet. The middle finger does have some fairly visible lines of the sticker. Not in the image, though! And, you know, not to anyone but me. So I think it's perfectly fine. I love these stickers and should probable get more because I WILL run out!

 Love!

So as you can see with this mani, I've got a nice gradient going on. This gradient is Zoya Neely and Venique Wing Tip White (which is like... GONE! Oh no!).
Generally gradients are suuuper messy, but yet another fancy product from BPS fixes that RIGHT up! I've seen plenty of people use similar products, so I was very excited to get this for myself. The white peel off liquid tape / peel off baseboat! If you were thinking of getting this, DO! It was so great to easily clean up leftovers from gradient. Water marbles, here I come(again!)!

 Left is before gradient (eww, smudge =P) Right is after. you can see the Neeley up on the tape.

I HIGHLY recommend putting lotion, or oil or something nice like that on your skin and rubbing it in before using this tape. It comes off so much easier that way. Just be sure it's off of your nail for polish! I also recommend a nice thick coat for easy removal.

And of course, if you want any of these BPS products, don't pay full price! Use my coupon code. =)

Thanks for reading, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

I'm sorry this isn't a festive look, but it's nice to have a break from all the festivities, right? =D
♥Jo

Born Pretty Store Review. The heartbeat stickers and white liquid tape were sent for honest review. Please see my disclosure policy here.

Zoya Neely and Venique Wing Tip White were self-purchased.

Great day for a wedding!

Hi friends! One of my very best friends of 10+ years got married today! HOW yay for her!!! =D
So, naturally, I had to have nails to match everything. =)

Her colors were purple and yellow. I almost bought a yellow dress and did yellow nails, but then I remembered purple is my fave color. Oh yeah.

So please enjoy these nails and this beautiful bride and her lovely bridesmaids. We've all known each other as long as I can remember. Such a happy day. :)

 

 Blurry. ☺

And now the nails. =D

The base is China Glaze Evening Seduction with a subtle gradient of OPI Skating on Thin Iceland and a less subtle Zoya Neeka. Purple. =)
My silly index nail so much smaller in width, Haha. I love it. =)

Happy wedding, Himi!!!! ♥♥♥ 

All for now! As always, thanks for reading!
♥Jo

Holographic is Best!

Hi friends! Today I have some Holo nails. I love them. There is actually a grdient going on, but you cannot tell much at all. =)

 

Pretties!!! This is Color Club Cloud Nine with a gradient of Angel Kiss, and you can see that if you just imagine hard enough. The stamping plate is BM 317 and that was hard to capture too, but I like it. !!

I've been having an awful hard time getting brightness correct. I thiiiink colors are correct, but between my phone, monitor, laptop, iPad and boyfriends those things, the brightness is never constant, and I have NO idea which of these things is calibrated right. Perhaps... I should try to calibrate my editing computer's monitor. =)
You'd let me know if  it looked bad, right!?!?

♥Jo

Matte and Stamps

Hi friends.
Coming up with blog post titles is hard. =)

I got a new light-box!!! Omg, my pictures are actually decent without really trying!!! I'm not one hundred percent in love with them yet, but oh booooy is it closer! =D

I recently got into instagram, and saw some super cute nails by user @ezjik_nails and just HAD to recreate them a bit. So pretty. =D

Please enjoy these new pictures with new improved lighting!!! =D

So much better, amirite?!
This is my clearance OPI Skating on Thin Iceland and Venique Steel Toe Stud. On the ring finger I did a bit of a perimeter gradient. I used stamping plate  BM225 from Bundle Monster for the design. I'm feeling a bit off my stamping game lately. Ah well. I quite love this design, and want to do it again when my nails aren't as itty-bitty! The mattecoat is from Warpaint Beauty, purchased at Hot Topic years ago... I wonder if they still have it.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time!
♥Jo

Born Pretty Store Foils - It's Autumn!!

Hello everyone! Today is another review for a Born Pretty Store item. This one required a bit of a learning curve, but I think it turned out quite nice!!!

Here we are!

Here is the ling to these foils from the Born Pretty Store. The foil itself is pretty long. It's this for about 2 feet! This is about 2 inches wide. Yuo can see the size of the leaves over my nails in the next shots. The holographic-ness of it is pretty clear on the plastic, but much less so on nail. Still there, though. =)

 SUPER weird glare that I'm hating in this shot! But the foil turned out alright!! I had to practice a LOT for this outcome...

Another angle to see the holo effect a bit more.

Quick review of the foil:
I truly was excited for this product. I was only discouraged at first try. The image didn't transfer well, it cracked and splotched, but with a few times of practice, I managed to transfer the image right over!! I really love the designs, however, I think individual designs are a bit harder with foils (not that I've tried others!). You need to be more precise this way.
Practice makes perfect!!
I did this design by doing my nails like normal, applying my Seche Vite like normal and having that all set and be pretty. Then, to transfer the foil I applied one thin coat of base coat (I use Seche Clear), let that dry for appox. 20 - 30 seconds, then apply the foil and lift the plastic. I did find that cutting the individual leaves away from the bulk was MUCH easier!
No top coat, ladies and gents. I heard topcoat cracks foils. I heard RIGHT! I put topcoat on one nail, and it got super cracked and ugly, AND lost all of it's holo effect. Sorry, couldn't get a decent pic of that. Just take my word for it. That being said, the foil is more prone to scratching off without topcoat. So, you win some you lose some with that...

I definitely want to go back and get more foils!! =D

BONUS:
The mani not leaved up.

 I used two of my new clearance lacquers: L'Oréal Liya's Red and Eva's Nude.

Gradient still so hard... Need to practice more! Also my ring finger nail looks silly and disproportionate. Hm.

~~~

I hope you enjoyed this here review and manicure! Don't forget, if you want these nifty nail fold, or other awesome nail stuff from the Born Pretty store, don't pay full price! Here's a 10% off coupon!!! =D

♥Jo

Born Pretty Store Review. The holographic foil was sent for honest review. Please see my disclosure policy here.

L'Oréal polishes self-purchased.

Dear Summer, Please Don't End

Hi all!
I got some winter blues the other day. Like, I was super sad because it's going to be cold soon. Ok, I mean in a few months, but still. I decided I needed at least one really good summer manicure to make me feel better, so her is a pretty!

All photos inside, with flash.

This is Zoya Jolene (bottle), and Zoya Jancyn. The gradient kinda workedish. Not too bad though. I'm REALLY pleased with the stamp. Its BM 318 with Julep Eileen. It's a very nice stamping polish I've decided. I'm pleased I didn't forget how to stamp so much.=) However, If I redid this it would be with a stamp over the gradient, and not just a solid color. Middle finger is Zoya Miranda Pixie Dust. I so love texture polish. I need like a thousand more!!!!

Sorry short post. But that's cool, right? =)
♥Jo

Burnt Look - Zoya Gradient

I really truly want to redo my nails every hour or so right now. It's like this blogging thing is taking over again and wants to be my top priority! All right, I'll let it have it's way for the time being! =)

As I said before, doing all things nail art is as if I'm relearning the technique. Turns out, nail art isn't quite like riding a bicycle! I tried some water marble, and ooooh boy. I have NO idea what I could have done so wrong! Nothing was working! The polish wouldn't 'bullseye' properly, too much falling to the bottom of the cup, and if I did manage to get a few drops right, they dried long before I could design it! I've been incredibly successful with marbling before, so I suppose practice practice practice.

Having said all that, gradients have been a challenge, too. However, this one at least turned out nice!
Here is some 'first try in years' gradients!

Outside natural light. With flash.

Outside natural light. With flash.

Flash indoors.

I don't like that middle finger, the gradient line is a bit harsh. That ring finger though!
This is Zoya Aurora, a beautiful purple holo. Not holo like some holos with tiny fine glitters, These glitters and bigger but ooooh so pretty. The black is Zoya Storm. I wanted to blame the lack of good gradient on the polishes, and that the glitters 'rise' when the sponge is sponged. But it's not their fault, and I know it.
I think this kind of looks a little burnt! It especially looked so in the darker light that I did them in. I think it may even make it a day or two!

Of course, the top coat is my go to top Seche Vite. Is there a fancy new topcoat out there now that I need to know about?

I feel that I have remembered everything about editing my photos. I think. I still have never mastered lighting. Outside daylight is best but it's much more difficult considering I only ever do my nails at night! I'm practicing that, too.

What is the next style, design, or technique I should relearn or try? I'm thinking stamping. Oh boy. ^^;

♥Jo