Polish or Die

Gold leopard print with new Konad stampling plate m93

Kelli (Polish or Die) — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 19:36:56 +0000

Hey everyone! I’m briefly coming out of my hiatus because nailpolishcanada.com so kindly sent me one of their newly released Konad stamping plates to review. They are selling 5 new Konad stamping plates if you’d like to check them out. They are also going to be giving away all 5 of these plates, and you can enter to win them at this link.

I ended up chosing Konad plate m93. I was drawn to this plate because of the anchor stamp. I have been looking for a stamp with a single anchor, but all I have been able to find before this was one with a tiled pattern. Needless to say, I have a manicure planned that will be featuring this stamp!

For now though, I wanted to use the leopard print full nail stamp. I have a couple leopard print stamps and I feel like they all give you different looks. For this manicure, I used Zoya Blaze as the base color. I couldn’t get this to photograph right, so I’d say it’s lighter in the picture than it is in actuality. For the gold stamp, I used China Glaze passion. I used China Glaze Herd That with a dotting tool to add a little pizazz in places.

As always, I’m really impressed with the Konad stamps. They always stamp well because they are well-made. The size of the plates is enough to cover my whole nail, unlike some of the lower-end plates. AND I am SUPER excited to use the anchor stamp so just wait!

As for my return into the world of nail blogging, I have four more weeks that I am going to be spending away from home. That’s out of 15 total, so that’s not bad at all. I should be able to get back into the swing of things then because all I will have to do is study (read: procrastinate) for my board exams and then go on interviews. I’m excited to go back home and be done with things!

Pink and gold giraffe print

Kelli (Polish or Die) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 01:19:23 +0000

I know I have been compleeetely M.I.A, and I am very sad about this. I’ve been on my acting internship, which essentially is med school talk for “work your ass off.” No promises I’ll be too actively posting in the next month or so, but I’ll definitely try. Hope this post will hold things over for a little bit. This is Zoya Mieko with China Glaze Passion (my favorite stamping polish) stamped over it with Bundle Monster plate BM 313. Let me know what you think.

Navy and gold glitter geometric stamped manicure

Kelli (Polish or Die) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:44:15 +0000

Sorry again for the very limited posting, I still have a week and a half of surgery left and I’m trying to study for the shelf exam. This was done with China Glaze I’m Not Lion as the base nail polish and Zoya Ibiza stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM-322. Thanks for stopping by!

Neon and gold glitter Aztec tribal print

Kelli (Polish or Die) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:21:58 +0000

I first realized I was a sucker for tribal prints 3 years ago. I’m surprised the trend hasn’t died out since then. The base polish is China Glaze – I Herd That. The design is done with neon pink and blue, black and white nail art pens. Thanks for visiting!

Oxblood Red Swatch: Essie Skirting The Issue

Kelli (Polish or Die) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 22:06:38 +0000

Hey everyone! Here’s a very quick swatch of Skirting The Issue by Essie, which is a deep burgundy red. The pictures were taking with (I think) 5 coats, but it was still very manageable and didn’t seem too think. It dried in a reasonable time without getting goopy. I still think it would have worked well with fewer layers, but it would not be nearly as dark. I like how the jelly finish works with the vampy color. I hope I have a reason to wear it soon!

Illamasqua Lament with gold hexgon sequin stripe

Kelli (Polish or Die) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 04:14:08 +0000

I’m still on a pseudo-hiatus while I’m on my surgery rotation, but here’s Illamasqua Lament with a gold hexagon sequin stripe accent nail. I got the glitter on ebay, it was a great deal!

Spaceships and Saturn – from the Instagram archives

Kelli (Polish or Die) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 14:00:06 +0000

I’m still on my surgery rotation, so sorry about the lack of updates! For this week, I’m posting an old manicure I did. It’s Zoya Ibiza and Carrie Ann over Layla Coral Glam holo. I stamped it with a plate from the Cheeky Summer Collection (which is great because of the BIG plates and amazing packaging). I’ll look up the exact plate number soon!

Red Konad French manicure, carpet catastrophe

Kelli (Polish or Die) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 08:42:07 +0000

Today was my day off. When I woke up this morning, I noticed that parts of my carpet were a little bit damp, but only in a couple places. I brushed it off and kept getting ready, but then I realized that it was getting wetter and wetter each time I walked on it because the carpet pads were soaked. I tried to figure out where it was coming from, but my bathroom, washing machine, and water heater were all totally dry and there were no leaks in my ceiling. We called the handyman for my apartment complex, and he was pretty perplexed as to where it was coming from also. He decided to check the neighbor’s to see if it was coming from there. Lo and behold, the toilet had been clogged and overflowing and there was no one home. So my carpet is covered in, more or less, poop water! Haha, well I’m lucky I was home and it was my day off so that I could get someone to come by to look at it.

My Saturday manicure is a French manicure in Essie Scarlett O’Hara over my naked nail, with top coat. I used Konad stamping plate M19 with 2 stamped layers of the Scarlett O’Hara. Thanks for listening to my rant!

Nail polish swatch – Illamasqua Monogamous

Kelli (Polish or Die) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 04:03:41 +0000

I just started my surgery rotation, so I’m going to be going on a bit of a hiatus. I’ll try to post something about every week and we’ll see how that goes. I have a lot of neutral pink polishes because I can get away with them in every setting. This is Illamasqua Monogamous, which is a semi-matte/satin pinky nude. I love Illamasqua blushes, so I had high expectations for this polish. I really love the color and finish. The thing that I couldn’t get the cuticle line to look good no matter what I did. If I applied normally, it would drag near the cuticle and get streaky. If I tried using a thicker layer, I would flood my cuticle. I used 3 coats + topcoat for these pictures. I generally prefer colors that I can get away with using as few coats as possible, so this was another downside for me. If anyone has any advice for tricks to use this polish, I’d love to know!

Polish days: Something new – day of the dead water decals

Kelli (Polish or Die) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:00:32 +0000

Well, it’s kind of far from Dia de Los Muertos, but I found these water decals and I really wanted to try them. I had never used water decals before, so when I heard the next Polish Days event theme was “something new,” I knew what I was going to try out. The water decals are just the skulls, which you can find here on ebay. I painted my nails white first since the decals are clear and black so that the skulls would be white. Next, I just drew around the outline of the skull with as many bright colors I could find. I ended up essentially scribbling a lot, but I like how it came out!

You can find the Polish Days event page here. Be sure to check out the other Polish Days manicures using the link below and host of the event Polly Polish!