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Showing posts with label polish me silly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label polish me silly. Show all posts

Thursday, 24 April 2014

31 Day Challenge : Day 24 : Inspired By A Book

I'm not much of a book worm, but I have read many Stephen King books over the last few years. The master of thriller and suspense, I'm sure many agree. So it was obvious that I would choose a book from his vast collection.

“Want your boat, Georgie?' Pennywise asked. 'I only repeat myself because you really do not seem that eager.' He held it up, smiling. He was wearing a baggy silk suit with great big orange buttons. A bright tie, electric-blue, flopped down his front, and on his hands were big white gloves, like the kind Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck always wore.

Yes, sure,' George said, looking into the stormdrain.

And a balloon? I’ve got red and green and yellow and blue...'

Do they float?'

Float?' The clown’s grin widened. 'Oh yes, indeed they do. They float! And there’s cotton candy...'

George reached.

The clown seized his arm.

And George saw the clown’s face change.

What he saw then was terrible enough to make his worst imaginings of the thing in the cellar look like sweet dreams; what he saw destroyed his sanity in one clawing stroke.

They float,' the thing in the drain crooned in a clotted, chuckling voice. It held George’s arm in its thick and wormy grip, it pulled George toward that terrible darkness where the water rushed and roared and bellowed as it bore its cargo of storm debris toward the sea. George craned his neck away from that final blackness and began to scream into the rain, to scream mindlessly into the white autumn sky which curved above Derry on that day in the fall of 1957. His screams were shrill and piercing, and all up and down Witcham Street people came to their windows or bolted out onto their porches.

They float,' it growled, 'they float, Georgie, and when you’re down here with me, you’ll float, too–'

George's shoulder socked against the cement of the curb and Dave Gardener, who had stayed home from his job at The Shoeboat that day because of the flood, saw only a small boy in a yellow rain-slicker, a small boy who was screaming and writhing in the gutter with muddy water surfing over his face and making his screams sound bubbly.

Everything down here floats,' that chuckling, rotten voice whispered, and suddenly there was a ripping noise and a flaring sheet of agony, and George Denbrough knew no more.

Dave Gardener was the first to get there, and although he arrived only forty-five seconds after the first scream, George Denbrough was already dead. Gardener grabbed him by the back of the slicker, pulled him into the street...and began to scream himself as George's body turned over in his hands. The left side of George’s slicker was now bright red. Blood flowed into the stormdrain from the tattered hole where his left arm had been. A knob of bone, horribly bright, peeked through the torn cloth.

The boy’s eyes stared up into the white sky, and as Dave staggered away toward the others already running pell-mell down the street, they began to fill with rain.” - Stephen King - IT

So I tried to keep it simple, but Pennywise took a little more work. I think he's the best thing about the mani.

I used only one polish for this, my new Polish Me Silly - Shift Happens. I thought it was fitting to use a colour shift, as Pennywise shifts from innocent looking clown, to a horrific monster before your eyes, in the book. All other colours are acrylic paint.

Just 7 days left now! I can't believe I'm nearly done.

Check out what everyone else is doing for the challenge today.

 

Friday, 21 March 2014

Picture Polish - Ultra Violence & Friends

 

 

 

Today I decided to try out my first Picture Polish goodies from Rainbow Connection. They are the most pricey on offer, so I'm trying to be careful with them.

This was the finished result after the base polish, some chevron nail vinyls (which you can barely notice in the pic), and some stamping.

 

 

 

 

So here is the glorious Ultra Violence. It is a stunning glittery purple could have worn on it's own, but that's not me, not today anyway.

 

I was expecting a bit more from this, considering the very high price, as it needed 3 coats. But it sure does look pretty.

 

 

After that dried I added my chevron nail vinyls to my ring finger and thumb, and dazzled them with Picture Polish, Altered State, along with a top coat of the same for my index finger. I think this topper would be better suited to a black base but you do see there is a subtle difference here.

 

My middle finger and pinkie got a top coat of Polish Me Silly, Mind Blowing. And really I could have stopped there. Obviously I didn't.

 

 

 

Out came the MoYou stamping plates. Happy times!

The ring and index fingers were stamped with the Sailor Collection 03 plate, using a mix of both silver and gold Barry M foil effect paint. I stretched the images on the stamper as these are really too small for my nails. I'm pleased with how they came out.

The rest of the fingers were stamped with Pro Collection 06 using Konad special polish, Black Pearl.

From this angle you can see the underlying chevrons reflect in the light.

 

Monday, 10 March 2014

H K Girl - Glisten & Glow Top Coat

I've read so many blog posts reviewing the H K Girl - Glisten & Glow top coat, I just had to have it myself. Was it really all they were saying? Could I really replace my Seche Vite? There was only one way to find out.

I went in search of it, and the only place here in the UK I could find it was Rainbow Connection. For weeks, each time I checked, the standard size bottle was always out of stock. It appeared it was being bought up in bulk by converts and lovers alike and I thought I'd never get a chance to try it. I decided to take a gamble and bought the large 2.5oz bottle, (£23.50) which comes with bling and curled ribbon. Cute touch. A 2oz refill bottle is available (£22.50) but in my opinion, the half ounce and fresh bottle would be worth the difference in price. 

What the blurb says:

Top 10 Reason why Glisten & Glow HK Girl is so loved!
• Intense shine - crystal clear formula that applies smoothly, leaving a glass like appearance
• Fast drying – approx 1-2 minutes often less and your nails will be dry, as time passes it will dry more within 5 minutes or so it's rock hard!
• Durable, long lasting nature – customers boast that manicures last 5-7 days with little to no tip wear or chips.
• Holographic polishes love it! – Holos will not dull, in fact they are even intensified
• Smoothes and seals glitter polishes – 1-2 coats and glitters are tamed/smooth and without jagged edges sticking up.
• Adds extra shine to all Nail Lacquers – it can make a matte polish or a textured polish shiny. Cremes, jellies, crellies, shimmers, metallics etc are all left with that glossy glass like shine
• No Shrinkage! – G & G HK Girl top coat doesn't cause any shrinkage
• Can be used with Nail Lacquers that is tacky or dry
• Even consistency throughout the whole bottle – no extra thickness or gloppyness
• Nail Art/Nail Stamping friendly – once nail art/stamping is nearly dry it won't smear or smudge
This Top Coat is 2 Free! (no formaldehyde or formaldehyde resin and no toluene)

So I'm going to try my best at seeing what's true and what's not. 

This was my first try with the top coat. Just a simple mani with a couple of foil effect stamps. It was a dream to apply. There was no need to rush application, as you sometimes have to with Seche Vite, there was no streaking or premature drying. The formula was a nice consistency too. 
 Day 1 it was super shiny, and practically rock hard in 10 minutes. The initial touch dry was a little longer than Seche Vite, but ultimately, H K Girl dried harder, faster. There was no dings, or scrapes which sometimes occur with Seche Vite, (when you think it's dry and it's not). And on day 4, it was just as shiny, no surface scrapes or chips at all, but there was a little tip wear on the free edge, (I think we could expect this after 4 days), and there was shrinkage! I don't think there was as much as I would have got with Seche Vite, but it's there all right. I probably could have gotten away with wearing this mani a little longer, but 4 days was a push for me, getting stuck with the same nails. 




So these nails were done 2 days before this photo, and have survived housework, lifting 14kg bags of dog food, ten pin bowling and playing underneathe the hood of the car, without a single scrape, dent or chip. Pretty impressive really. 

And because the formula isn't too thick, I could layer the H K Girl over different designs as I added to it and my nail thickness barely increased at all.


The above mani began as a 3 colour gradient using Barry M Gelly's, Rose Hip, Dragon Fruit and Pomegranate. The ring finger is Polish Me Silly - Grape Intentions. It was then topped with Glisten & Glow. The next day Barry M Rose Quartz glitter topper was added to the gradient. and topped with Glisten & Glow. After survivng a lot of punishment, I stamped over with Konad Black Pearl & Barry M Silver Foil Effect and again topped with the H K Girl top coat. Including my base coat that's quite a few layers, but there's no thick build up I would often get with one layer of polish of a base coat and Seche Vite. 

I accidentally found that the top coat can hide some mistakes.


I was in a hurry and began stamping before the base polish was completely dry. The inevitable happened, and it wrinkled the polish underneath like it was cellophane. With the intention of redoing those nails later, I went ahead and applied Glisten & Glow to those nails, and miraculously as it dried, it smoothed out the wrinkles. The finished result still showed flaws in the stamping, but not enough to make me want to start again. 

On another occasion, I managed to dent my thumb before it was completely dry, but it too "fixed itself" as it hardened. Is this a miracle top coat? 

I've been trying out this top coat for over a week now, and I must admit, at first, I was dying to hate it. I've been such a Seche Vite fan for months now, and I didn't think anything could beat it. But all my mani's have resisted everything that's been thrown at them and has avoided that awful scuffs on the surface I would sometimes get after a day or two with Seche Vite. With Glisten & Glow, it remains as good as the day it was painted. I might not buy any other top coat again.