Melmer Stash Pics 2011 (Pic Heavy)

I hope everyone had a great holiday! After working so hard all month it's nice to have a few days off to actually relax and get things done around the house. That being the case, I had a moment to put together my brand new Melmer I got for Christmas! Melmer is the nickname for a 3 drawer storage unit from Michael's, basically the mini version of Ikea's Helmer storage.

The new space gave me a whole new organizational opportunity, so instead of storing everything by brand like I was doing before I decided to arrange my bottles by colour instead. I think this is going to be an ideal way of doing things for now, finding a colour or comparing a few is going to be a lot easier now that they're all in the same spot!

So to bring 2011 to a close I thought I'd show you the new and improved stash au Lisa!

Oh hello top drawer

Featuring: Blacks, whites, greys, silvers, gold, yellow, orange, red, pink, brown and crackles

Silver glitters, whites

Black, grey, silver

Yellows and golds

Oranges

Pinks

What? MORE pink? Who would have thought..

Browns and crackles/shatters

Reds

More reds

Drawer 2: Blue, green, purple

Purples that lean pink

Purples that lean blue

Blues

Blue that leans green/turquoise

Blues that lean green and various bluish glitters

Greens that lean blue

Greens

Greens that lean yellow

Third drawer! Base coats, top coats, treatments, tools

Isn't it exciting? I went through and  made a spreadsheet of all the name brand polishes I have (a handful of my polish came from department store kits that were gifted to me as a teenager) and it came to 164 bottles. I didn't count the top coats and base coats either. So there we have it! If someone had told me I had that many greens I would have told them they're crazy... Funny to see I have loads of 'em!

I hope you enjoyed, feel free to ask me about any polish you see above.. whether you want the name or even a swatch.

Lisa

NOTD: Newsprint Manicure & Tutorial

Ahoy there!

Turns out my life is a little chaotic right now to actually blog, but I had some free time this afternoon so I decided to check back in. My nail polish obsession is continuing to grow and evolve into quite the hobby, and I'm finding myself starting to experiment with variations of a regular old manicure.

The one I've been playing with this week is called a Newsprint manicure. The first one I did I used only text and it turned out beautifully.

 

The base colour is American Apparel's "Cotton".  This was a great choice for this mani because it really contrasted the lettering from the newspaper .

Following this I decided to try things out with a variety of newspaper cut outs, including: advertisements, crosswords, photos of people's faces, comic strips, etc. I found that I had a difficult time with any images with a lot of grey and little contrast. It was hard to get definition from the print. However, I was surprised when some colour lifted from the paper onto the nail! I wish I had used a lighter polish to actually see this a little bit better. 

You can see some blue and peach on my middle finger from the comic strip

For that manicure my base colour was Rimmel's Grey Matter.

Instructions (sorry, I don't have a pics for the steps yet - baby blogger still!):

Things you will need:
Base coat
Light shade of nail polish
Newspaper
Scissors
Rubbing alcohol
Shot glass/small cup
Top Coat

1. Cut out strips from the newspaper, slightly larger than your nail. Choose sections/images that have high contrast, anything with too much grey won't turn out nicely.
2. Pour rubbing alcohol into shot glass, set aside.
3. Apply your base coat and your polish and wait for it to dry completely. Don't use drying drops, as you will still be applying your top coat later on.
4. Dip your thumb nail into the alcohol and wait 10 seconds. You want to make sure the nail is completely saturated.
5. Apply a strip of newspaper on your nail face down and press firmly for 5 seconds. Make sure you are covering the entire surface.
6. Once you peel the paper back the image will be printed on your nail! Repeat with your other nails.
7. Apply your topcoat only once you've finished all your nails. Try not to rub the print before applying it because it could rub right off! You absolutely need a topcoat for this manicure.
   Tip: Apply the topcoat generously! I dropped it onto my nail in dollops and simply guided it across to cover all the print. If your brush touches the ink or you don't have enough polish on there you could smudge your work (see my thumb nail in the first photo).
8. Wait for your topcoat to dry completely and voila! You're done!

Hopefully I get a little more into blogging now, we'll see how things get rolling.