Second sewing FO: Cambie!

nothing to disclose




YAY!

Pattern: Sewaholic Cambie
Fabric: Heather Ross Briar Rose Cricket Clover in Yellow Clover (quilting cotton)
mods: added fabric to skirt

I feel in LOVE with this fabric the instant I saw it. I work in an Irish pub; I have a shamrock tattoo; I needed this fabric like air. I had a hard time choosing what color I wanted, since there were 3. The others had a more chartreuse green, and had I been able to see them in person I probably would have picked one of them. But going only off pictures on the internet, I knew this would be a safe bet. (And thank you to Anna for getting it to me!)

I used a vintage zipper that belonged to a family friend whose sewing stash I inherited. It is a metal zipper painted white, that has quite a lot of wear but looks really neat. It quite clearly had been used in a previous garment and removed. I did an exposed zip although I don't have any pictures of it.

I'm pretty happy with the fit of the dress. It could be better, but I was erring on the side of being not too tight because the muslin seemed tight. It doesn't bother me enough to take it in, but if I make another one, I will make the bodice tighter below the bust. The sleeves/straps are GREAT! I love not having to worry about wearing a specific bra for a dress or even a strapless one. I could probably even wear a sports bra for when I dance on St. Patrick's Day.

Verdict" A+ would make again

St. Patrick's Day nails 2013

*All products here were purchased by me for my own wear and review. 
This is: CND Stickey base coat, Gelish base coat, two coats of RCM 'Dress for Success', two coats of China Glaze 'Running in Circles', one coat of Poshe top coat, stamped with BM-221, and one coat of Poshe top coat. Accent nail has one coat of Ninja Polish 'Shamrock Floam' over the CG with a bit of twee & honey 'Viscera' and a coat of Poshe top coat.

Happy (belated) St. Patrick's Day! It is a HUGE day for my because I work in (and my family owns) an Irish pub. I see more family on SPD than on Christmas. No exaggeration. Naturally, I need awesome nails.

When "Running in Circles" came out, I remember lots of people saying, "This is the green version of Riveting! It's beautiful!" Somehow this stuck out in my mind and I still love my Giants playoffs mani, so I did a green version based on that. I fell in love with Ninja Polish 'Shillelagh' and 'Shamrock Floam' as soon as I saw them, and had to incorporate 'Shamrock Floam'. ('Shillelagh' deserves its own manicure on a day that I won't be stuck in a very dark pub. And pictures of me WITH a real shillelagh because I do have one.) I bought a TON of SPD polish and was only able to wear a bit of it. I do love green polish so I don't see this as a problem because I have no problem wearing it on any given day.

The interesting thing about this mani is that I completely forgot the Gelish top coat step. And didn't have very good results. RCM isn't the most durable to gels (on me) so that really didn't help. It started to crumble on a couple of my fingers and lead to me taking this off after only wearing it for a couple of days. Also, it looks like tipwear here but it was shrinkage! Poshe! :( Going back to my beloved (and much cheaper) Jordana top coat immediately.

Here's a picture of me with my super cute shamrock shirt found at Target. (tiny hat also from Target!)


I am also wearing Sephora + Pantone emerald green fake eyelashes, but didn't take a close-up to show them off.

My "work" outfit for the day, since I was dancing, was this:


I was very excited to wear my new Jig outfit! Not only is it hella cute (especially compared to my last Jig outfit, seen in the middle there) it is a lot lighter and cooler to wear than a kilt or an Aboyne outfit. And it's one zipper and an apron tie versus five different items of clothing. I'm excited to do some more competing this year, even with the "no polish" dress code. I'll be posting some nude toned manicures for sure! :)

Pretty & Polished 'Irish Brawn'

This is CND Stickey bas coat, Gelish base coat, two coats of Gelish 'Black Shadow', Gelish top coat, one coat of Pretty & Polished 'Irish Brawn' and Jordana Quick Shine top coat.

I am a total SUCKER for any bright glitter in a dark base. I own quite a few polishes like this, in various shapes and colors. If someone put out a line with a polish like this in every color of the rainbow, I would buy them.

That said, I like 'Irish Brawn' performed. It was not too thick or thin and the glitter didn't get lost in the base, as often happens in polishes like this. The glitter application was very random, which I like. My thumbs ended up with a LOT of glitter. The effect on my ring finger made it almost look French tip, which was unintentionally awesome! If I worked someplace other than a dark-ass bar, this would have been my St. Patrick's Day day-of mani. Instead, I opted for something a little brighter which I will post soon!

*All products here were purchased by me for my own wear and review. 

a-England 'Dragon'

This is CND Stickey base coat, Gelish base coat, two coats of Gelish 'Runway For Your Money', Gelish top coat, two coats of a-England 'Dragon' and Jordana Quick Shine top coat.

I've just recently acquired a-England polishes and I am kicking myself for waiting so long. The holo isn't as holo-y as it could be but somehow that doesn't seem to matter with how gorgeous these are (usually it does). They're very pigmented and apply beautifully. I highly encourage you to pick up some a-Englands if you don't already have any!

'Dragon' is a yellow-toned medium green that is probably a bit lighter than pictured here. It has a copper duochrome and a scattered holographic effect. It was perfect to wear at the beginning of March when I wanted to get into the St. Patrick's Day spirit without being SHAMROCKS AND RAINBOWS for three weeks.

*All products reviewed here were purchased by me for wear and review. 

Christmas mani #2 featuring Candy Lacquer "Rudolph's Treats"

This is three coats of Gelish "Runway for Your Money" with a coat of Candy Lacquer "Rudolph's Treats". Accent nail is a taped Christmas tree using China Glaze "Winter Holly" for the tree, Candy Lacquer "Dippin' Dots" for the ornaments and a fished out giant piece of glitter as the topper from Kleancolor "Afternoon Picnic". All topped off with two coats of Poshe top coat.

As soon as I saw the Candy Lacquer polishes with all round dots, I *had* to have them. They are really fun! They are something that is a lot cuter to me and in close up pictures than anything else, because you can't tell the difference between the round and hex unless you're really looking. (As I'm typing this, I can't tell when they're at keyboard's length.) Also, I had a bit of an issue with the glitter separating from the base in the round glitters. I own several other Candy Lacquer glitters and haven't had this issue with any of the others, so I assume it is related to the round glitters. A little shaking and everything is back to normal, so no biggie!

I didn't like this as much as my other Christmas mani, but it would be pretty hard to beat that one! I'm not sure what it was, but something about this one just didn't "click". I'll try "Rudolph's Treats" over another base in the future and see how that works. (I'm getting all kinds of ideas now, but it's after Christmas! Day late; dollar short.)

Happy New Year! New Year's nails coming soon.

Christmas nails! featuring the Hungry Asian "Candy Cane"

This is three coats of Gelish "Black Shadow", with one generous coat of The Hungry Asian "Candy Cane". Accent nail has one coat China Glaze "Twinkle Lights". All topped with one coat of Jordana Quick Shine top coat.


"Candy Cane" is a clear/slightly shimmery base with small red and white matte hex glitter and small green matte square glitter. It spread very well. I used the dabbing on method to apply it, because it is somewhat thick but that helped get maximum glitter on the nail.

"Twinkle Lights" is a clear base with tiny red, green, and gold glitter.

This was my first time using any of the Hungry Asian polishes I have, even though I've got a few minis. (I'm not sure why, because they are almost all colors that will go great over gel, but that's another subject entirely.) I can't recommend it more enthusiastically! Not only are her polishes very cute and quite often stuff that you don't just see everywhere else, she adds personal touches to every order. The labels are hand-drawn and every order has a cute little handwritten note inside. I adore stuff like that! It will keep me coming back over and over more than anything else. Plus, the quality of the polish is wonderful. And you know being TartanHEARTS and all I don't have to say that I adore the heart-shaped bottles because it's too obvious but I will say it anyway! I know I would be justified buy full-sizes of any of her polishes because they are so beautiful, but I can't get over how cute the heart-shaped minis are.

I'd also been sitting on China Glaze "Twinkle Lights" for a year or so. I was surprised at how much I liked it on the nail! I wasn't sure, because it seems a little muddy in the bottle. Not so on the nail! The red and green stand out from the gold very distinctly.

Over-all, I wanted to put this back on after a week. I didn't so I could wear more Christmas-themed polish but I would have been happy putting this right back on.

*All polishes featured here were purchased by me. 

China Glaze Winter Holly

Above is three coats of China Glaze 'Winter Holly' with CND Stickey as base coat and Jordana Quick Shine top coat. (This ATE top coat, and I'd recommend Seche or Gelous!)

I found this beauty at CosmoProf, and it was the only one in the CG Holiday Joy collection that I picked up. I'm relatively sure they didn't have 'Glistening Snow' because I couldn't have passed that puppy up. Anyway, 'Winter Holly' is a nice, mossy green glitter with gold and (possibly?) a few holo glitters in the mixed. You can see the glitter better in the slightly blurry second picture.



This is WH without top coat. ... I LOVED it that way! It was kind of suede-y and really nice. This leads me to believe this would be great mattefied, but I haven't tried it yet. I liked the texture of it without topcoat, as well. I actually liked it better without top coat than with!

The CG Holiday Joy collection is available all over the place, including Head 2 Toe Beauty for $3.25.

RCM 'Dress For Success' over black

Shown above is Red Carpet Manicure 'Dress For Success' over Gelish 'Black Shadow', with one, two, and three coats.

Thanks to whomever requested this! I know it's how it was intended to be worn, and it looks fantastic! My favorite is just one coat.

RCM 'Dress for Success'

This gorgeous polish is from RCM's new Shimmering Nights collection, which is amazing. I checked out all four at Ulta and settled on 'Dress for Success' initially. Filled a void in my small but growing gel collection, and is now my only green.

(photo from RCM's facebook)

RCM calls this color a yellow, which I completely disagree with. I'd call it chartreuse, sure. These colors were designed to wear over black, but I don't have a black gel (yet), so aren't super opaque. I wore this over two coats of ProGel 'Trophy Cup', which is an opaque gold glitter. It covered it quite well, and on a couple of edges where the green doesn't totally cover the gold, I get a real idea of the opacity of the green, which is much better than what I expected. I'm left wondering whether I could have just done 3-5 coats of 'Dress for Success' with no VNL.

The glitter almost looks like a holo, but isn't. The label is a holo, and you can see the difference in the second photo. There is a bit of a range in the glitter that almost verges on being a duochrome. (Maybe like a very light version of 'Zombie Zest'.)

Verdict: in a world where there aren't a lot of green gels available, this is a gem!

St. Patrick's Day mani #5

This is two coats of my own franken, with two coats of Sally Hansen No Chip top coat.

I would be lying if I said this was anything other than the pinnacle of my St. Patrick's Day manicures. On the nail, this stuff reminded me of astroturf! I ended up passing this on to my buddy Jessie (who makes gorgeous jewelry which can be found here) and  I hope she loves it just as much as I did.

What I used to make this:
- Wet N Wild "Kaleidoscope", one bottle dumped into bigger, empty franken bottle
- Martha Stewart "Emerald" glitter. A TON! I just eyeballed and did a lot of shaking.
- Martha Stewart "Peridot" glitter. Just a bit, to give it a little multi-color effect

"Kaleidoscope" is (as you can see) a silver glitter in a clear base. It's fairly sparse, so I thought it would be a good candidate to add more glitter to. I used a rolled-up post-it note as a funnel, and shook like hell. I added a bit at a time, which made it a lot easier. This, I think, walks to line of almost having too much glitter. It will pull itself off the nail if you don't have enough on the brush. Easy enough to fix, though.

This is my first franken in a couple of years, and I think I'm going to do some more!

St. Patrick's Mani #4: Icing 'Evergreen'

This is:
one coat Nailtiques 2+
three coats Icing 'Evergreen'
one coat Poshe top coat

If you love nail polish, and you love glitter, you need to go to Icing. I know I posted about their Magnetix polish (totally worth the $9!), and I initially ventured in there for it. I found a GOLD MINE of amazing glitter polishes. I picked up three of them, because they fit my March green polish thing:


From l to r: Icing 'Lemme See Your Peacock', 'Happy Go Lucky', and 'Evergreen'.

'Lemme See Your Peacock' is blue, green and hot pink medium-size hex glitter in a clear base.

'Happy Go Lucky' is big green, silver holo, and gold holo glitters in a clear base. BEST GREEN GLITTER EVER!

'Evergreen' is a forest green jelly with forest green and gold micro glitter suspended in it. It reads a lot greener in the bottle than it does on the nail, as you can see. The gold glitter, which is too big to call shimmer and definitely too uniform to be called fleck glitter but looks almost like a fleck glitter on the nail, really makes this color shine. I just wish it had been as green as it looks in the bottle.

St. Patrick's Day Mani #3: Icing Magnetix Green

This is:
one coat Nailtiques 2+
two coat Revlon Top Speed 'Emerald'
one coat Icing Magnetix green
one coat Poshe top coat

If you haven't tried magnetic polish, run out RIGHT NOW and get some. Seriously. It is really, really neat.

I like these polishes a lot, because they have a totally interesting design where I end up looking at my nails a thousand times a day but it's not glaring or super high contrast. The magnet on these is fairly easy to use. It has a cuticle rest, which makes it a lot easier than having to just hold it above the nail. I did hit my nails a couple times, as you can see on the pinkie nail. It was pretty

Since it's March, this was my St. Patrick's mani #2. I'm dying to try the gold magnetic polish, but it'll have to wait a week. And that's okay by me. I do LOVE green nail polish!

St. Patrick's Day manicure #2

This is:
one coat Nailtiques 2+
two coats Revlon Top Speed 'Emerald'
one coat Poshe top coat
'Emerald' is a good medium green cream. It is opaque in two coats and is the perfect green for St. Patrick's Day.
I actually can't say that much about it, because it is simple and very much beyond reproach. It is decidedly green in any light, and never shows black the way a lot of greens do in dark light.
It is also a perfect base for stamping, glitter, or a crackle top coat.

You're wearing a green dress. Is that because you're Irish?

March, for me, is an orgy of green and glitter. And green glitter. I work in an Irish pub, and I do Scottish Highland dance. This makes St. Patrick's Day a huge deal. (We started really planning in January.)
To celebrate this, I do green polish starting March 1st. Today I've got China Glaze 'Holly- Day' on. This is a great medium green cream toward the yellow end of green. It went on streaky in one coat and opaque with coat two. I'm debating adding stamping or glitter over this. Maybe some shamrock stamps!
This is:
one coat Nailtiques 2+
two coats China Glaze 'Holly-Day'
one coat Poshes top coat