NOTD: Color Club Fashion Addict, STAMPED!

Good morning everyone! You may have noticed there's a new look to the blog this morning! I'm trying to keep it simpler, but when your blog is titled "Sparkle and Shine Nails," you have to have sparkles in it! And I'm still fiddling with the color scheme, but I'm loving this purple/blue/pink thing going on (purple is my all time favorite, if you didn't know already, hehe).

So to break in the new blog look, I'm posting a NOTD with one of my all-time favorite polishes thus far: Color Club Fashion Addict! I put it up to vote last night on Facebook, and Fashion Addict was the first choice by everyone. Which I'm glad, because it is purple, and it's my dad's 49th birthday today! Both our favorite colors are purple, and this has a nifty holographic-wrapping paper quality, hehe. But since I'd worn it already not that long ago, I decided to spruce it up with a little stamping!

Now, my stamping technique, like many of my nail art skills, is still being perfected. And I only have the Salon Express stamping kit, with the five plates it comes with. With that in mind, it was hard to try stamping whole-nail designs, because the patterns on the plate are too small for my nails. I'm going to have to get some x-large plates soon!

My next challenge: Finding the perfect color. I've used Sally Hansen Xtreme-wear Celeb City for stamping, it's probably the best one I have FOR stamping. But it didn't show up properly on Fashion Addict. I stamped Celeb City on Revvvolution without a problem, but Fashion Addict is even more shimmery holo, and it blended too  much. My Sally Hansen Black Out was coming out too thin, as was Gunmetal, and didn't want to adhere to the stamp properly. I thought I'd get crazy and try an orange, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed...still too thin! Stamping on this holo color was more challenging than I had thought!

So I start grabbing any dark colors I have, hoping SOMETHING would work! I tried China Glaze First Mate (almost, but still too thin and didn't love the color combo), Color Club Jewel of a Girl (WAY too thin for stamping), and finally...China Glaze Stone Cold. I was like "Matte polish on holo? It's crazy enough to work!"

Closer look at the stamp, with flash.

No flash in artificial light.

A little further away, shows the nice shimmer in Stone cold.

Hand shot!

LOOK AT THAT HOLO GOODNESS!

I was sooo right, it looks awesome! Contrasts beautifully with Fashion Addict, has a neat shimmer when given a shiny topcoat that compliments the holo, and is thick enough to get a proper stamp with! I just had to be quick, because it was trying to dry too fast for me.

So my stamping skills are improving, and I'm learning what polishes I have that will work (I really don't want to invest in Konad polishes if I don't need to). What do you guys think? How have your stamping experiences been?

-Jessica (Sparkle and Shine)