Illamasqua Collide-- BCA Pink Wednesday Week One

Good morning, friends!!  We all know that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month, and the fact is there's not one of us out here that hasn't been affected by this disease in some way.  In my family alone, I've lost my grandma and a great aunt to it, and have one aunt who's beat it.  One of my cousins recently had her last round of chemo and gave birth to a healthy baby boy on September 27.  Next up for her is surgery to remove the tumors.  Terrifying as it is, breast cancer is no longer the death sentence it once was, and for that... we should all be thankful. 

When Andrea at Finger Painting Fingers invited me to be a part of a very special Pink Wednesday series, I couldn't say no.  In an awesome instance of polish serendipity, my local Sephora just started carrying some new brands, including some core line Illamasquas, so my first pink is suitably special.  Today I'm wearing Collide.

Collide is a super vibrant, creamy neon pink, happy and beautiful, and perfect for the occasion.  It's surprisingly easy to photograph, too, compared to my last venture with neons.  These are color accurate, lol.  This color is this bright!  I used two coats and a top coat.  This formula's a little on the thin side.  The brush is a good one, small and tapered.

In closing... eat right, exercise, do your monthly self checks, go to your doctor.  Take care of you.  In the words of Kiss, "It ain't a crime to be good to yourself." ;)   

If you're interested in joining in, click on the top button on the right hand side.  It'll lead you to Andrea's main page for Go Pink Wednesdays.

Labor Day Neons

Happy Labor Day!!  I'm trying sooo hard to hold off on wearing my fall colors until fall officially arrives.  This week's going to be a hot one, so that ought to keep me motivated to not start trotting out all my rich, delectable cremes and dark duochromes quite yet.  Today I'm going full-on bright with a couple neons, Sinful Colors Summer Peach (pinkie and ring) and Sinful Colors Dream On (middle and index).  Remember coloring your nails with your highlighters in grade school?  That's what neons will forever remind me of.  

Most of us know how neons dry matte.  I wanted to take a couple pictures of that because it does look kind of cool, and I've never seen a photo of neons without topcoat (at least, not that I'm aware of).  However, I prefer my nails slick and glossy. :)

Can I just say how maddeningly inaccurate these pictures are?!  I had some serious reservations about posting this one at all.  The last photo is the closest to accurate of the orange, Summer Peach, but it's really much brighter and not as yellow.  Dream On, the purple, is darker and more bluey.   

These Sinfuls have a nice little formula and good brushes, which is not always the case with this brand.  But for under $2 a pop, it's a great way to try out a trend, even if you wait till the end of the season to do so. ;)

So, Labor Day.  The last "official" day to wear white.  I've got my nephew's fourth birthday party to attend this afternoon, and I'm contemplating if it's a good idea to wear white capris to the occasion.  My nails would look totally sweet with a white outfit, but I'm leaning towards no.  I can just see grass stains and colored frosting wreaking havoc on them. lol.  

Have an awesome day and thanks for reading! <3

Needle Marble #1

Good morning!!  It's a new week in Gosia's ABC challenge, and not only am I knocking out all of this week's letters in one mani, but... brace yourselves... I'm doing art.  If you've been reading for a while, you know that I'm not a fan of it on myself but that I've made a couple weak attempts.  As in life, I appreciate the abstract forms.  Some of my favorite techniques are those that create marble effects.  Water marbling is gorgeous but requires more time, materials, and effort than I'm interested in putting in at this point.  Needle marbling, however, is something I've felt early on I could get on board with.  This tutorial at Liquid Jelly helped make my first go at it fun and simple.  Here's what I did.

I'm pretty stoked at the turnout.  I used Milani White On The Spot as my base, Sinful Colors Dream On for the purple, and SC Summer Peach for the orange.  Per the tutorial, I used two coats of white, let them dry fully, then added a third coat and a generous drop of the accent color, and went to work with the needle.  You need to do one finger at a time and work quickly.  The results are pretty neat looking, and I will be using this method again (hence the #1 in today's title, lol).  

So how does this fit in with the challenge?  The letters o' the week are MNOP, so I've got a Needle Marble in Neon Orange and Purple. :)

Thanks for reading!! :)