Rainbow Dots Nails!

Hello Monday warriors! I hope your weekend left you well-rested and ready for the week ahead - I know mine didn't! ;)

 

Today I have something simple and cute for you - rainbow dots! The base is three coats of Essie - Lapis of Luxury. It's such a pretty blue but so sheer! Then the dots, in rainbow order are Lancôme - Miss Coquelicot, Bettina - Resort Starfish then Art Deco Yellow. The green is a Pure Ice polish that the label has fallen off of and I'm too lazy to look it up! Then for the blue we have Pure Ice - French Kiss. Up next is Barry M - Indigo (which you can hear me rave about in my top 12 polishes vid here!) And last, but not least is Illamasqua - Prosperity! This was fun and simple to do and I love the way it turned out!

 

 

I hope your Monday is as restful and relaxed as it can be!

Lancome Vernis In Love Swatch and Review Pt 2

Hello everyone! I'm back with part 2 of my 3 part review of some of the polishes in the Lancome Vernis in Love collection. For full disclosure purposes, I want to let you know that these were provided to me for review but I wouldn't let that affect my review, so no need to worry!

Again, just as in part 1, the formula and application on all of these polishes was nothing short of perfect! It amazes me how time and time again, no matter what the color, the formula was completely consistent and applied like a dream. The polish stays exactly where you put it and I never had to worry about flooding my cuticles unless I was feeling extra clumsy! Each picture shows two coats of polish followed up by one coat of Seche Vite unless I note otherwise.

First up is Miss Coquelicot (154M). Isn't she gorgeous? This is the absolutely quintessential red polish! I also want to mention that while this polish was perfect in 2 coats, I managed to bump my hand before it was dry so I added a third coat to cover my boo-boos. So this pic is three coats with no top coat and isn't she shiny and perfect? I just kept starting at my nails because this is such a perfectly striking pure red. I find it is very sophisticated looking and not garish at all - siiiiiiigh, perfection!

 

 Next up is Rose The and no, it's not "the", it's the French word for tea but I have yet to figure out how to get the proper accent mark over my "e" and I'm too lazy to figure it out now! I was totally "meh" over this color. It honestly reminded me of my grandmother and wasn't flattering on my skintone at all!

 

 

Then we have Violette Coquette (419B). I really liked this shade as it was completely unique in my stash. It's perfect for Spring and I don't think these pictures quite do it justice.

 

 

Next up is Noir Caviar (585N). I love a good grey and this was a gorgeous dark grey. I'm not a fan of colors that aren't black but appear that way because if I want my nails to look black then I'll wear black! I was worried that this polish was going to be one of those but it surprised me that as dark as it was, I wouldn't mistake it for black at all! Can you see that hint of blue in there? I love it!!

 

 

Finally we have Rose Boudoir (375B). This is one that I already owned and love completely. It's a beautiful deep raspberry shade and is very complimentary on my skintone! I love how pigmented and saturated this color is and I'm so happy to have a backup bottle because I'm pretty sure I will be needing it!

 

 

Which is your favorite from part 2? Have you found any colors that would make you willing to pay for one of these precious gems? I honestly think that everyone should own at least one bottle of Lancome polish, it truly is perfect and I'm pretty sure I sigh while I'm applying it every time! Also, even though it's painful to do it, these polishes are amazing for watermarbles and stamping too although not the most cost effective!

Lancome Vernis In Love Swatch and Review Part 1

Hey awesome readers! Today I have my first ever "real" review! What I mean by that is that the wonderful people at Lancome sent me some polishes to review for you! I was so excited by this because I can honestly say that, in my opinion, Lancome has the best formula out there. That's not to say that it's my favorite brand, but I haven't found another brand that can equal their formula. I tried out a whopping 14 polishes and each one of them had the exact same consistency and ease of application. I'm not even kidding! I was completely expecting some differences between colors as you find with most polish brands but there honestly wasn't any difference!

 

With that said, I'm not going to detail the formula and application for each color since they were completely the same. Unless otherwise noted, each of these is two coats of polish topped by a coat of Seche Vite. This polish stays exactly where you put it on the nail which minimizes cuticle flooding. It's a self-leveling polish but I will say that if I didn't wait at least 10 minutes between coats that it didn't level as well as I needed it to but that was more my impatience than any flaw in the polish!

 

I will reiterate again how PERFECT the formula is on these polishes. It has a dreamy consistency and is so easy and effortless to apply. The two things that stop this brand from being my favorite are that there isn't a really wide range of colors. They tend to stick to more classic and work-wearable shades which is really great but I can't live without lime green, blue and neon pink! Also, they are on the pricey side. The bottles are a tiny 6 ml and cost about $15! Before I received these for review, I only owned 4 of their polishes but I treasure each and every one of them! My advice is to find one of their colors that you can't live without and grab it!

 

First up we have Rouge In Love (112B). The reason I list the numbers in parenthesis is that Lancome has the terrible habit of only putting the numbers on their polish bottles! The only place you will find the color name is on the actual box so make sure to make a note of it before you throw the box away! This color is one of my absolute favorites from this Vernis In Love collection!! It's a bright, cherry tomato red and is the perfect pop of sophisticated color! It was more of a crelly and I adore this polish!

 

Next up is Chocolat Mordore (270N). I know that most people aren't too excited about brown but it is honestly my favorite color! I know, that sounds crazy! This is a gorgeous, rich chocolate brown without being so dark that it looks black. I will certainly be wearing this one often! 

 

Next up is Jolie Rosalie (311M). This is the quintessential pink. It's a light bubblegum pink that isn't so bright that it's neon but certainly isn't a pastel. I'm not sure how often this color will find it's way to my nails but when someone says, "pink," this is the color that pops into my head!

 

Then we have Rose Pitmini (343B). I really liked this color a lot more than I thought I would! It's a very sophisticated pink but is also rich in color. It's a new shade to my stash so that was really nice and I think it will compliment a lot of different outfits in my closet. It's a perfect blend between fun and professional!

 

Finally for today we have Beige Dentelle (240N). I really thought I would hate this one. I looked at it and kind of shuddered but tried it anyway and I was really surprised with how much I actually liked it! I'm not sure how often I'll actually wear this one but I certainly think it has it's own beauty!

What do you think, which one was your favorite out of these five? Also, be sure to be on the lookout for the rest of the polishes that were sent to me for review purposes because there's lots more to come!

Giraffe?

ALRIGHT!!! Who took my week? 'Cause it's Wednesday and I don't remember Monday or Tuesday! Ugh, actually, work is crazy and I have two kids with eye and ear infections - yuck!!!

I was totally debating on whether or not I should post this mani because I'm not a huge fan of it but I decided that after taking the time to do it, I was going to show you my hard work! The base is two coats of Catrice - Twist of Lemon which I made matte with Lancome Magique topcoat. Then I stamped it with a England Camelot and Bundle Monster plate 313. I really love that Bundle Monster is making the positive and negative images for some of their designs, it makes it so much easier to do a complete mani without having to thing too hard and I like that!

These came out looking a little like a giraffe print which I didn't intend when I started but, then again, my nails don't usually end up the way I intended!

The Lazy 15 Mani #11 - Fireworks/Bonfire Night

Helllloooooo Monday! I've got a good feeling about this week, how about you? My husbands birthday was yesterday and for a few weeks he is 9 years older than me - tee-hee! Then my oldest daughter's bday is on Wednesday and she is going to be 6! Then my bday is Dec 11th and then Christmas, whew! It's a crazy time for us with all of that and Thanksgiving as well. Neither my husband nor I get birthday or Christmas presents this year as we got ourselves iPhones and that was not cheap! :)

 

This was kind of a crazy mani and I used a ton of different polishes as well as my new nail art brushes I ordered from ebay - yay! It took a month to receive them from China but they finally got here safe and sound as well as some glequins, yay! Okay, without further ado, here is the mani! I'll list the polishes after the pics because there's so many! :)

Here's the list!! Lancome Noir, Revlon Royal, OPI Alpine Snow, Bettina Art Deco Yellow and Glamour Flame. LA Colors Sassy Sparkle and a teal glitter (no label). Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Pronto Purple, Pure Ice French Kiss, Sinful Colors Dream On, Nicole by OPI A Million Sparkles, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City. 8 of those were in my untrieds so yay for that! :)  See you all on Wednesday!

Vampy Stampin' Mani

Hello peeps! Gonna keep this short and sweet 'cause I'm running a bit late this morning! The base for this mani is Color Club By Design which I mattified with Givre Magique by Lancome. Then I stamped on top of that with Noir from Lancome using Mash plate 46

 

Then I just had to check out the whole thing matte and I like it!! I was then planning on using a shiny topcoat and adding some studs but the baby thought mom had already spent enough time on her nails! By morning it was chipped - boooo! That's what I hate about matte top coats, they chip and dent so easily!!

That's all for today!!

Polish Us Pink #2 Ombre Dotticure!

Good morning lovelies! We are back for another Breast Cancer Awareness manicure! I finally got to play with my dotting tools and it turned out pretty good if you ask me! After I looked at the photos of this I realized that the colors on the index and middle finger should have been switched so that's what I'll apologize for today because I have no sense of color!

Before I show you the mani, I want to say a HUGE thank you to Missy over at Gnarly Gnails for the sweet new blog layout! Not only is she an incredibly talented nail artist and sweet person but she is also a graphic designer! Did you see the little social media icons in the sidebar? They're little polish bottles! She freakin' made those :o ! So go follow her blog if you don't already because she's a bowl of awesome with a double scoop of awesome sauce on top!

The base polish is one coat of Julep Olivia. I. Love. Julep. It was beautiful and easy to apply! On the thumb is China Glaze Traffic Jam, index finger is Lancome Rose Boudoir (another amazing formula!), middle finger is China Glaze 108 Degrees, ring finger is Wet 'n Wild Lavender Pearlescent and pinky is Wet 'n Wild Tickled Pink.

 

I will certainly be breaking out my dotting tools again soon. They were easy to use and I love the polka dots!

My First Gradient Mani

I decided to be brave and try one of the more "scary" nail trends out there right now! For me, this one ranked right up there, just a titch (yes, titch!) below a water marble but I thought to myself, it's just paint, I can remove it if it's bad! So I forged on ahead!

I think I did pretty dang good for my first try! The only thing I will apologize for this time is on my middle finger I had an oopsie and I should have fixed it with the sponge but I wasn't thinking and used the brush. So you can see that finger is a little messed up!

I painted a white pase using OPI Alpine Snow. As soon as I went to clean up the mani I realized my mistake in doing this. it was hard to clean up the edges of the mani and not have a tiny bit of white peeking out so next time I will use one of the gradient colors as the base - duh! See, I told you this was Nails 4 Dummies!

Anywho, on to the good stuff! The colors I used for the gradient were China Glaze Below Deck and Joy and then that's Lancome Midnight Rose at the tips. I painted the polish directly onto a makeup sponge which I had cut down for not only manageablity but so I could get more than one mani out of it! Then I dabbed it onto my taped-off finger. After it dried I went back over it again and then topped it off with my new, non-bubble-inducing top coat, Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Top Coat which I am loving right now! In case you're wondering I used the same little bit of sponge for all 8 fingers and 2 thumbs and both coats as well! Here's the non-perfect but completely satisfactory photos!

In 'da sun!

 

 

In 'da shade

 

Trust me, if I could do this good on my first try, you can do it too, give it a try!!!

Huge Weekly Haul!

Oh Lord, I hope my mother doesn't read this post! She would die if she saw how much stuff I got this week! Honestly, I'm not even 100% sure if this is all of it, I may have missed a couple of polishes I got at the store! Don't worry, I don't plan on making this a regular habit so there's no need to call an interventionist! Without further ado, here is a shot of all of my nail swag - details to follow after!

Okay kids - on the top row here is butter LONDON Black Knight. Then comes Julep in Gayle, Olivia and Donna. Next is Lancome in Rose Boudoir and Midnight Rose. Finally my first Pomegranate polishes in Fiery and Princess of Persia!

In this fine row is China Glaze in Man Hunt, Below Deck, Joy and 108 Degrees. Then it's my little Essie in Overboard and Color Club in By Design and finally OPI Dutch'ya Just Love OPI? Then a sweet little 7-surfaced file that I love!

I also got some Pure Ice at the store, colors are Magic, Jaguar, Purple Reign and Electric! Then I also got my first set of dotting tools from Mash - yayyyy!

 

Here are my new 2012 Mash plates - soooo psyched about these and my OPI Alpine Snow!

Whew! That is a lot of stuff! My wallet is in some serious pain but my fingers are seriously happy! Also, in order to validate my purchases and make myself feel a little better I would like to know, what is the most you've spent in a month on polish and accessories? Come on - 'fess up!!

If you want to see something swatched or have any questions, just let me know in the comments! :)

Lancome Rose Boudoir Swatch and Review

Hello sweetpeas! I had the best nail mail day yesterday and got all kinds of new polishes that I've never tried! It was really hard for me to choose so Aneela from Rise and Shine Beauty suggested I try the Lancome Rose Boudoir and that solved that! :)

I was instantly in love with this polish. I've always loved Lancome's cosmetics but this was my first time trying their polish - it certainly didn't disappoint! It applied like a dream and was smooth and even on the first coat. I used to coats for more opacity. You can still see a VNL in the photos but I really didn't care! This polish was a gorgeous pink/red creamy shade and it was so beautiful! I normally only spend half this amount on polish but this stuff was so worth it! :) Ignore the bubbles, those are due to my really thick top coat - I need to go shopping for a new one!

This shot was taken in the shade, the color ended up being darker than I imagined but I really love it!

 

This was indirect sunlight which brightens the color up a little and brings out the pink!

 

This polish gets a 9 from me. The only thing that would make it a 10 was if it could reach full opacity in 1 coat! What do you guys thing, would you wear this? Oh, and here are pics of my haul from yesterday and I still have more coming! :o