Nails4Dummies GIVEAWAY!!!!

I am sooooo excited to share today's post with you because it's a GIVEAWAY!!!!

 

I really debated whether or not to do one of these. I initially thought that I didn't feel right asking people to follow me just to be entered in a giveaway but when it comes down to it, if you don't like what you see, you can always unfollow but I love the idea of getting more people to see my work. I started a blog so that I could share, so I should share with as many people as I can, right?? And who doesn't love free stuff? Crazy people - that's who!

 

So who wants to see the prizes?? I know I do!

 

Prize pack #1 includes the Zoya Fall 2013 Cashmere collection, 2 Jordanna Glitters - LA City Nights and Gemstones. Revlon - Heavenly, Whimsical and Girly and OPI You Only Live Twice. A 16 pack of diamond-shaped glequins, some hole reinforcements (I know, weird!) for helping with French tips and ruffians! Some Nutra Nail Speed Dry Top Coat, some adorable animal fimo cane slices, 3 pots of shaped glitter thingies (don't quite know what you'd call them!), an adorable set of mini stamps, and and owl notebook and some pointy orange sticks that are great for watermarbling! Then I also put in some of my handmade goodies which includes a Coptic stitch notebook (that pink & black swirly thing!), 8 paper-pieced gift tags (the pics don't do the detail on these justice!), a set of 4 SUPER strong magnets that you will wonder how you lived without! Finally, you will also receive 3 pairs of handmade earrings - phew! That's quite a lot of stuff...can I enter my own giveaway! ;)

Then for lovely prize pack #2, you will receive a Color Club - Poptastic Collection (yes, those are full size!), Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - Moonlit Dance and Honeymoon Red, Sinful Colors Sinful Shine - Pragmatic and All The Rage, Sinful Colors - Irish Green and Green Ocean, Pure Ice - Come Closer and Freedom and Wet 'n Wild Megalast - Telescope Vision (sorry there's a glare on that one, it's a mega-glittery polish with a bluish jelly base!). You will also receive some pointy orange sticks which are great for watermarbling, a cute little clipboard notepad, some colorful shape-thingies and some hole-reinforcements perfect for French tips and ruffians! Then you will also receive some handmade (by ME!) goodies that include a Coptic stitch notebook (that cute thing with deer and owls on it!), a set of SUPER strong magnets (seriously - they are AWESOME!) and two pairs of bead earrings!



 

 

Wow - pretty prizealicious isn't it? I thought so! I will be making this open INTERNATIONALLY!!! I'm only leaving it open for 2 weeks though because I'm really impatient! The winner will be drawn randomly from the entries. If you are not 18, I will require a parent's permission to receive a prize but other than that - go! Enter at your own risk, muahahahahahahaha!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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!

Pure Ice Tape Mani

Hellllloooooo Monday! Sorry it's been so quiet around here lately. Two of the kids and myself were sick and my oldest daughter had dental surgery and that was NOT fun! But we're all back among the living again and back to blogging, yayyyy!

 

I stumbled upon this massive Pure Ice display last week and once I was finally done drooling I picked out 8 or so new polishes. A lot of the colors there were nothing new or special but they had some really great glitters. The magenta polish in today's mani really surprised me by being a jelly, I wasn't expecting that but I was happy for sure! The purple polish refused to photograph properly and looks quite blue in the photos but I promise that it's a gorgeous deep purple!

 

The magenta polish is Speechless and the purple is Last Chance. The glitter that is paired with the magenta is It's Complicated and the glitter that's paired with the purple is Never Satisfied. Even though the names are sort of depressing, the polishes themselves were fabulous and I'm quite happy with them, especially for less than $2 each!

 

St. Patty's Day pretty much came and went without any notice from me...pretty sure I wasn't even wearing green either!

 

I'm so sad that my nails are so much shorter than they were in this pic. They were a perfect length and then this awful weather dried them out and one broke so I filed them down and they were still a decent length until two days later when another one broke and now they're pretty short. Not quite nubs but still short! We had a week of temps in the high 50s to mid 60s and I was in love and this week is supposed to only get into the 30s and it's snowing right now - I'm a sad clown!!

The Lazy 15 Mani #14 - Where I'm From!

Happy Monday everyone! Sorry I've been a little MIA this last week! Work has been crazy busy in addition to doing craft fairs and taking care of three small children! Something just had to give and since the kids insist on being fed and clothed, I decided it was my nails! I actually did this mani on Thursday night because I thought it was supposed to be the Friday prompt and shortly after I started I realized my mistake. I could have taken off the base coats but I was already excited about my USA mani and inspiration is hard to come by these days so I went with it!

 

I also want to apologize to all the other participants of The Lazy 15 challenge. I started this whole thing but I think I've missed 3 of the challenges at this point. The reason is simple. I don't like to be told what to do! It just isn't my style to plan and I totally prefer to fly by the seat of my pants! I don't think it would have been so bad if I would have gotten ahead of the challenges but I was doing them late the night before! It will probably be a long time before I do another challenge, if ever!

 I'm really loving this mani, it was a lot of fun and so random! I think my thumb is my favorite!

 

Here is what I used, finger by finger:
Pinkie: Finger Paints - Laugh My Art Off, Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - Red Velvet (one of my faves!) and some tape!
Ring finger: China Glaze - Adventure Red-y, Pure Ice - French Kiss and some silver glequins.
Middle finger: China Glaze - Glistening Snow ( I can NOT get this polish to stay on my fingers! It always peels completely off in one whole piece!), Pure Ice - French Kiss and a paper punch and some painter's tape.
Index finger: OPI - Alpine Snow, Pure Ice - French Kiss, China Glaze - Adventure Red-y, Gosh - Silver and a dotting tool!
Thumb: Pure Ice - French Kiss and striping tape. The tape that looks pinkish was actually a bright red but for some reason, when I added the top coat it changed color a little but I still love it!

I missed you all and I hope to not fall off the grid again any time soon! :)

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!

Floating Butterfly Mani

Hello sweet little muffin tins! Sorry, that's one of the nicknames I call my daughters! Today's mani is my first attempt at freehand nail art. It's not awesome but I hope it's not terrible either! It was inspired by a similar version that you may have seen with a bumblebee but I like flutterbys much better!

 

The base of this bit of loveliness is Sinful Colors Cinderella. It's a gorgeous light blue with a pink shimmer that's even better in person! The colors on the butterfly include Wet 'n Wild Black Creme and Sunny Side Up, Pure Ice Free Spirit and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Frutti Petutie and Good to Grape.

 The butterfly was so cute and delicate in my mind's eye but came out more like a giant bug on my finger! I didn't think it was enough of a fail to warrant never trying again though so beware, you'll be seeing more freehand from me! Hopefully I'll improve a little!

 

 

As you can see, I also added some cute little rhinestones because I couldn't just leave the poor thing alone! So did I fail miserably or is it passable for a first 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! :)

Metallic Fall Mani and New Toys!

Hey y'all watch this! Okay, totally joking - I'm not that much of a redneck! As Honey Boo-Boo would say, "you'd better redneckenize!"

Can you tell I'm tired? I'll also apologize in advance for all the bubbles in this mani. I was doing it very late last night and trying to get it done before the baby had a fit so I was putting on thick coats and not waiting for them to dry!

I don't normally do fall colors - I'm much more apt to wear summer colors all year long! This time around though, I was inspired by all of the beautiful Fall manis I've been seeing. I actually had to buy some fall colors just for this mani because I only owned a couple and they weren't what I was looking for. Since I have a ton of polish coming in the mail I made myself stick to some cheaper polishes so I got these four from Pure Ice:

 

They are Magic, Jaguar, Electric! and Purple Reign. It's my first time using this brand and I'm not sure what to think. It went on beautifully but the brushes, especially in the Magic was really crappy. The bristles were stiff and they were all smashed up in this one. Then it took forever to dry. I don't know if that was because I was impatient or if it is really that slow! Of course I'm used to fast-dry polishes so that didn't help!

For this mani I used 3 coats of Jaguar as the base and then I used the stencil technique found here on Chalkboard Nails and it worked like magic! I don't know why I didn't think of using painters tape before - DUH! The accent finger is waaay to many coats of Traffic Stopper Copper from Sephora by OPI. I kept trying to cover this one bald spot on the nail so I have like 4 coats and that was waaay too much but it looks pretty cool!



I was so excited because I found these 5 paper punches for $.96 each at Wal-something or other. I've  got all kinds of ideas for them, muahahahaha!



What do you guys think, is this one a success? Also, I want to know, what is your favorite white polish? I'm looking for something decent that doesn't take 4 perfectly applied coats to use as a base!

My Pathetic Nail Polish Stash

Okay - I used to own about 10-12 bottles of nail polish, not one of them costing over $5 a bottle.Then I made the mistake of trying some China Glaze and then some Essie and THEN I tried Illamasqua - I am in so much trouble! I don't have a very big stash right now but I thought I would take some "before" photos so that we can see how my baby is growing. If I could afford it, I would own 300 bottles by now but we'll have to start slowly and work our way there. So here are some pics - I started out having them sorted by color but then I would find one that should have been in the last group 2 photos ago and I got lazy so you get what you get and you don't get upset!

Cover Girl Cabernet, Maybelline Red Comet (those two are so old!) Sephora by OPI Be-Claus I Said So, Sally Hansen Red Velvet, Sephora by OPI New Year's Red-Solution, Sally Hansen Shining

 N.Y.C (label came off, sorry!) Venique Lost In Bermuda, Sephora by OPI Just a Little Dangerous, Sally Hansen Royal Romance, Wet n Wild Wild Card, Wet n Wild Eggplant Frost, Wet n Wild On a Trip, Sally Hansen No Hard Feelings, Wet n Wild Buffy The Violet Slayer, Illmasqua Prosperity



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Avon Suede Soft Violet, Pure Ice (my daughter peeled this sticker off!), Nicole by OPI Gone Wishin', Nicole by OPI Rainbow In The S-Kylie, Sephora by OPI G-listen To Your Heart, Wet n Wild Fergie Hollywood Walk of Fame, Wet n Wild Party of Five Glitters, NYC Big City Dazzle

Wet n Wild Sparked, Sally Hansen Strobe Light, Sephora by OPI Beam Me Up Hottie!, Sephora by OPI Traffic-Stopper Copper, NicHaole by OPI Have A Heart

Avon Decadence, Wet n Wild Through The Grapevine, Wet n Wild Hannah Pinktana, China Glaze Traffic Jam, NYC (another one my daughter got to!), Wet n Wild How I Met Your Magenta, Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter, Maybelline On Fire, Sally Hansen Pretty Petunia, China Glaze Exceptionally Gifted

Sally Hansen Blushing Bride, Maybelline Color Show Fuschia Fever, Avon Feisty, NYC MoMa, Wet n Wild Lavender Pearlescent, Venique Heel D'Orsay

Sinful Colors What's Your Name, Sally Hansen Lapis Amethyst, NYC Water Street Blue, Pure Ice French Kiss, Wet n Wild Saved By The Blue, NYC  Pier 17, Wet n Wild Caribbean Frost

China Glaze Custom Kicks, Sephora by OPI Tempted By Teal, Sephora by OPI Who Let The Dorks Out?, Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint

Sally Hansen Save the Date, Sally Hansen Lavender Pearl, Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal, Sally Hansen Celeb City, Wet n Wild Silvivor, NYC French White Tip, NYC Bowery Black, Sally Hansen Black Heart, Maybelline (no label!), Wet n Wild The Gold & the Beautiful

NYC Park Avenue, Essie Merino Cool, Sally Hansen Cafe Au Lait, NYC Canal Street, Wet n Wild Sunny Side Up, NYC Lexington Yellow, Sally Hansen Limestone

Well, there she blows! All 73 bottles! I know pathetic, right? Well, I'll be changing that soon, muahahaha! Also, while I wish that every bottle I own could be Essie or OPI and the other nice polishes, my bank account can't handle that kind of stress so I will continue to be an equal opportunity polisher. Besides, a lot of the cheap stuff is really decent for the price!

If you see anything that you would like swatched, please aske me! Sorry for the inconsistency in the pics, I was trying to get the very last of the fading light for true color photos so I chose the pics that translated the colors best. Also, I'm still being out-classed by my Canon Rebel T3i - this thing is a beast and I need to learn to use it!
 

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