Battle of the Topcoats - Part 1!! HK Girl Vs Seche Vite

Immediately after finishing the mani.

Shortly after finishing the mani - you can see some shrinkage already occuring on the index finger.

Shortly after finishing the mani - all good!

Both my HK Girl and my Seche Vite are quite low, as you can tell. They've both been thinned to be workable and both apply similarly to the nail. Each one had a tiny bit of smudging on the stamping if I wiped the brush over it too many times, so in that regard the performance was the same.

However within hours of finishing, a clear winner began to emerge. The nails with Seche Vite were already showing some serious tip wear/shrinkage.

Shrinkage/tip wear on the SV nail.

Within about 48 hours, I had some chipping on the SV nails. You may notice that I had to file my nails a bit before this photo was taken - some rough edges were catching and I didn't want any breaks, so the index finger looks less severe than reality. As you can see, the HK Girl nails are still looking quite good!

Winner: HK Girl!!

Bin Chic's Boutique - St Val's Heart, St Paddy's Shillelagh and The Trickster

I wanted to pop one more quick post of the remaining swatches from the BinChic Jan-April polishes before I get into some fun stuff coming up. I loved all of these polishes and can't wait to show more designs including them. The thermal is extremely reactive and the formulas are buttery if a tiny bit streaky on the more metallic finishes (to be expected). Enjoy these! I sure am!

February - St Val's Heart

Super pretty cherry red with a pop of pink shimmer, what's not to love?

2 coats.

Sunlight Macro

Sunlight

Flash (look at that shimma!!)

St Paddy's Shillelagh

This green is so gorgeous! I wore it in my pre-St Paddy's Day green madness as well. Love the shimmer!

2 coats.

Sunlight Macro

Sunlight

Flash (to show the shimmer!)

Flash - another face of the color

The Trickster

 Love how thermally reactive this was, it was really difficult to capture a fully warm picture because it changes so fast!

3 coats.

Cold, Flash - shows the shimmer.

Cold, Natural Lighting.

Cold, sunlight.

Natural temperature, Natural Lighting.

Natural temperature, sunlight. (Shimmmaaaa!!!)

Warm, flash.

Warm (quickly changing), sunlight.

*Press Sample*

A Busy Few Days of Swatching!

While writing out full length posts for my blog has been a bit difficult for me lately, I have been keeping up with my nails. The last couple of days I've started working on swatching my polishes for my pinterest collection. I thought I would share them with you all here and remind you that if you like my swatches, you can find them regularly on my Instagram. Once I've completed the projects I owe for Christmas (crochet requests from my Etsy shop - details in the future) I will get back into my normal programming for blogging.

So without further adieu, some of my swatches this week.

Eat Sleep Polish - You Can't Sit With Us

Eat Sleep Polish - Great Sexpectations

Eat Sleep Polish - The Turtle and the Hare

Aly's Dream Polish - Hottest Pink

It has been a month.

You know one of those ones where life intervenes and everything you want to do is sidelined for the important and super un-fun stuff? Yeah, one of those.

I miss blogging. I miss writing. I miss having time to do my nails every day. But I have been working on some fun stuff.

A scarf for a friend, nicely tied in a bow here:

A few pairs of slippers, some fingerless gloves and several bathroom oragnizers have also been keeping me quite busy.

I know this isn't my usual nail related post, but here are a couple of mani's I have done recently to tide you over:

Carpe Noctem Cosmetics - South Haven Sunset

I know I've shown this one before but it's just so gorgeous! I needed to wear it again. Look at that gold shimmer come through, it really does look like a sunset doesn't it?

I have high hopes that in the coming week I will be finishing up many of my near-complete projects which should open up some free time to get back to my nails and my blog. I hope you're all doing well, tell me in the comments how has the past month been going for you?

Setepmber is Stamping Month Update!

Stamping month update number two! This stamping guide has proven to be a little challenging. I only have two large plates and a handful of small circular ones so I have only a select number of images to work with. I've had to get creative and make up some of my own themes for a few of the days. Here's my update to today and for daily updates along with swatches and random mani attempts please follow me on Instagram here!

Day 7 - Hearts

KBShimmer A Touch of Glass stamped with A England's Dancing With Nureyev

Day 8 - Dragons

KBShimmer Plum Tuckered Out stamped with A England's Princess Tears

Day 9 - Fish.

I didn't like my first attempt at underwater creatures, so I went for a new theme. Travelling with a view.

Cadillacquer Crystal with Mundo De Unas #16 stamping.

Day 10 - Trees

I went with a beachy theme using Girly Bits #islandtime as a base with Mundo De Unas #6 stamping

Day 11 - Books

Today is supposed to be a book theme. I don't have any book stamps, so instead I decided to tell a story with my stamps.

A handsome Prince Charming, an adoring Princess, they fall in love, and live happily ever after in their castle. (So cheesy.)

This is Lilypad Lacquer Vixens Wear Violet with Mundo De Unas #1 stamping.