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

Revlon Royal Jelly Sandwich

Hey everyone, remember me? Yeeeeaaaahhh, sick kids again...or still? I'm sick and tired of them being sick and me being tired! I have lots of beautiful nails to show you guys but it takes so long to edit photos and post that they've never made it to the blog :(

 

I've had Revlon Royal in my stash for a long time and had never used it (cue collective gasp) so I decided to bust it out. I get it now. Oh. My. Goodness! Such beautiful jelly goodness! I paired it up with Wet 'N Wild Fergie Collection - Kaleidoscope Eyes and it sure is purdy! I must have taken 50 pics of this and it was hard to narrow it down!

 

So without further ado...go ahead and drool!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really hope to post at least once more before the weekend but we'll see what life decides to throw my way!

Whimsical Undies!!

I know what you're thinking and get your mind out of the gutter! A couple of weeks ago I finally decided to try out my bottle of Revlon Whimsical. So I slapped a coat on my naked nails...and then another...and another! By the third coat it still wasn't opaque and I wasn't a happy camper! I had seen some really pretty swatches of this polish and I wanted mine to look like that too! So I asked my Instagram ladies what was going on - did I get a bad batch? I was quickly informed that I needed to put something under this polish. I know that some of you are thinking, "duh Lindsey!" Well, I really don't ever use undies unless I'm doing nail art like a watermarble or something. Usually when I use a glitter polish, I prefer to use enough coats to make it mostly opaque.

So once I had accepted the fact that I needed some undies, I asked for suggestions and there were quite a few readily given! So I decided to try them all and share them with you! Each of these swatches is shown on it's own and then with 2 coats of Revlon Whimsical on top.

The first five polishes I tried are as follows from thumb to pinky: a England - Camelot, Wet 'n Wild -Megalast On A Trip, China Glaze - Lemon Fizz, Essie - Butler Please, OPI - If You Moust You Moust.

Next up in thumb to pinkie order is Catrice - Am I Blue Or Green?, MUA - Frozen Yoghurt, Essie - Go Overboard, China Glaze - For Audrey and GOSH - Silver.

And the third set is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - White On, Sinful Colors - Cinderella, Wet 'n Wild - Tickled Pink, Wet 'n Wild - Lexington Yellow and China Glaze - First Mate.

What do you think? Any you love, hate? I kinda like them all!

Abstract Stripes and Dots Nails

Good morning everyone, how are you all doing this fine Tuesday? I'm COLD!! When I went to take the kids to school this morning it was 12 degrees - brrrrrr! I had a pretty quiet weekend but I kind of like it that way. I haven't painted my nails in about 4 days so I'm really hoping to have time to do that very soon because I'm starting to jones for a nail polish fix!

 

I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do when I started this mani. I just grabbed some polish, a striper and a dotting tool and this is what came out of that! The base is two coats of Wet 'n Wild Megalast - Wet Cement. I really love this color!! It's mostly a brown but it has a touch of gray in it and it's a truly lovely neutral. Then for the stripes and dots I used Wet 'n Wild Megalast - On A Trip, NYC In A New York Color Minute - Lexington Yellow, China Glaze - For Audrey and OPI - If You Moust You Moust.

 

I really love how this turned out - what do you think? My husband even commented that he liked that and he usually couldn't care less - score!

 

Sammiches Are Good!

I just love that all of you get to come along with me for all of my nail art firsts! This time around it's my first jelly sandwich! I'm not sure what took me so long to getting around to doing this but I suppose it was my lack of jelly polishes! When I saw this yellow jelly, however, I had to have it and I picked up the glitter polish at Walgreen's and had a $1 off coupon so it only cost about $2! I really like how it turned out and will likely do one again soon!

The polishes I used are Revlon Top Speed in Crystal Glow and the glitter is Wet 'n Wild from the Fergie collection called Kaleidoscope Eyes. What do you think, did I do okay?? My only problem I ran into is that I'm NOT patient and I sat down and did all 3 layers, one right after the other so it took FOREVAH to dry!!

 

Black and White Sugarspun Nails

Happy Tuesday! Where did Monday go?? I feel like I totally missed it this week but I'm not going to complain at all! I decided to try the sugarspun technique and I think it turned out fairly well. I wish I had more time to chitchat but as I'm typing this, the baby is yelling at me!

 

I used one coat of the amazing a England Camelot for the base and Wet 'n Wild Megalast Break The Ice for the "icing"! They kind of look yummy, right? Don't worry, I didn't lick my nails...much.

 

 

 

 

Frosty Plum Mani

Hello Monday! I kinda really liked this mani! I have struggled with figuring out how to use these fancy little pearls and I was surprised that it turned out as well as it did! At least I think so - you might be sitting there, scratching your head and wondering about my sanity! Don't worry...most people that know me do that all the time!

 

The white is Break The Ice from the Wet 'n Wild Megalast line. I really love this line. For under $2, it has a fantastic formula, great colors and I love the big brush! This color is a lot frostier than I managed to capture and is really quite beautiful. The purple is Jordana Glitters - Purple Glam. This polish was a wonderful surprise for me, almost a jelly sandwich in a bottle and I really love the shade of purple. I was actually able to look past the "hairy" glitters as they were very small and the polish was so pretty!

Are you guys proud of me that I managed to blog again? I'm proud...I patted myself on the back and gave myself a hug! I will see you soon!

The Lazy 15 Mani #10 - Mythical Creatures

 Happy Friday lovelies! I hope all of my American friends had a lovely Thanksgiving! I ate too much as usual so it was good!

I was pretty excited about this challenge and knew exactly what I was going to do for this one and I even had a sweet prop to pose with! I got this dagger years ago because I have a fascination with Asian decor and dragons. I really hope you guys love this as much as I do because this is one of my favorites!

 

 

The polishes I used was OPI Alpine Snow for the base and then I sponged on a gradient of 3 different Revlons - Golden, Bonsai and Rain Forest. I then stamped over that with Wet 'n Wild Black Creme and Mash plate 48. I don't usually go with these types of colors but I thought they were much more "dragon-like" than my usual pinks and purples!

 

Please be sure to check out the other challengers! :)

The Lazy 15 Mani #5 - Galaxy Nails

Okay, so I have to admit that this challenge had me worried! I have never done a galaxy mani before and it looks so complicated! But with a good video tutorial and some patience, I don't mind how it turned out at all! I will admit, however that this was my second try. The first time I tried to be too "perfect" with my design and you just can't do that with this one. You have to let go and trust that it will turn out right in the end because as I was doing this I didn't think it looked very good. I pushed through anyway and when I was done and stepped back from the process, I was actually surprised that it really looked like a galaxy!

 

Have you tried out this mani yet? You really should, it's fun and you'll be surprised at the cool results you'll end up with!

 

The polishes used were as follows:

 

Maybelline Color Show - Blue Freeze

NYC Long Wearing - French White Tip ( I actually preferred this to my OPI Alpine Snow for this mani because it wasn't as opaque and you don't want big, obvious globs of white on this mani!)

Sally Hansen Hard As Nails - Hard Lemonade

Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - Fuschia Bling Bling

Wet 'n Wild Wild Shine - Tickled Pink (I mixed this and Fuschia Bling Bling together to get the perfect pink!)

NYC In A New York Minute - Water Street Blue

L.A. Colors - Sassy Sparkle

 

Now go forth, check out the other challenge entries and try out this mani for yourself!

The Lazy 15 Mani #4 - Water Marble

This was easily one of my favorite challenges on the list, I really love water marbles! I'm not an expert by any means, I think this is only the third one I've done but I think they are so fun! For this one I wanted to try to do something that I've never done before and I started by painting each nail a different color of glitter and then I marbled over the top with black and clear polish.

 

I do NOT recommend this if you're just starting out marbling as it was quite frustrating! I had to try out about 6 different top coats before I found one that worked well in the water and didn't dry too fast but I managed it! I actually had to dip my index finger twice because the first time there was only a tiny bit of the black on the nail.

 

I think it turned out pretty sweet, don't you?

 

The polishes I used were:

Sally Hansen Hard As Nails - Black Heart

Wet 'n Wild Wild Shine - Clear Nail Protector

Finger Paints - Purple Palette

Finger Paints - Laugh My Art Off

China Glaze - Glistening Snow

Sephora by OPI - G-listen To Your Heart

Orly - Royal Navy

 

I was pretty proud that I used 4 untrieds on this mani, woo-hoo! Please be sure to check out the other wonderful artist in the Lazy 15 and have a fabulous weekend!!!

 



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? 

Hidden Rainbow Mani

Can you believe it? I'm posting again, yayyyy! I had so much fun with this mani. I finally got my striping tape and had to try it out. I also used a cool rainbow effect I found that gives you 6 of the 7 colors of the rainbow (poor, poor indigo!) by only using 3 polishes! WHAT? That's right, if you want to know the secret, check out Simple Little Pleasure's YouTube video. I could seriously lose hours watching this girl do nail art! One of the reasons I love her so much is that she actually talks during her video. I can't stand videos with no talking and awful muzak playing *shudders*!

The polishes I used are Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Frutti Petutie, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Lightening, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Freeze! and Wet 'n Wild Black Creme. after sponging on the rainbow with a tiny piece of makeup sponge (I used a tiny corner for each color), I put down a top coat and let everything dry COMPLETELY! Then I put on some striping tape and put down one thick coat of Black Creme and once I removed the tape I had a gorgeous rainbow! A couple of must-know tips for working with striping tape are to remove the tape immediately after you're done polishing that finger!! Also, it really helped me to have all of my little strips of tape cut and hanging off of the edge of the table ready to go.

I was so ticked off that I fudged up my index finger by bumping it on the table and then my topcoat issues ruined the whole dang thing. I tried to use my gloopy one first and it left big dents and wouldn't spread so I tried my el cheapo Wet 'n Wild topcoat that I got for free to smooth it out, big mistake. That topcoat sucks. It never dries and it isn't very shiny so I was left with a bubbly dull mess, *SIGH*. Oh well, you live and you learn, now I only use that topcoat for applying rhinestones and fimo cane!

Wet 'n Wild Fergie Dutchess Swatches and Review

It's been so long since I've seen you all, how have you been! Okay, so I only took one day off but it felt weird! The truth is that I don't have any posts in my back pocket so I'm posting as I paint and the baby didn't let me paint my nails on Thursday night but I managed to squeeze one in for you today, aren't you lucky?

When I saw Dutchess from the Wet 'n Wild Fergie collection, I just had to have it! Who doesn't love a bright blue and purple glitter? As I was putting on the first coat I got worried. It was uneven, thin and very sheer. Imagine my surprise when upon the second coat it was like a totally different polish! But there was still something weird about it...just take a look!
  

See what I mean? The glitters are a mix between matte and shimmery! It was almost like a suede glitter! There was a main base of matte navy glitter with some sparkly purple and blue glitters mixed in. It looked pretty cool but how do you top coat something like that? Do you mattify it...

Or do you use a shiny top coat...

What do you think? I was really looking forward to the matte topcoat but it ended up just looking really dull. The shiny, on the other hand, was AH-mazing! I swear, this glitter seemed to "dance" in the sunlight - I just kept checkin' myself out!

The weird part is that when I finally got a chip in it, I picked at it, as I am wont to do and the whole shebang just came right off! Then of course I had to finish what I started and the polish peeled completely off each finger with no tearing or crumbling. I didn't even have to work at it! That was fine with me because I wasn't really looking forward to removing such a heavy glitter polish anyway. I'm not sure if it would be like that with all base coats or if it was just my combo of the polish with the Sally Hansen Miracle Cure base coat.

I really did like this polish, it's fun and different than anything I've seen! Plus, for $3.49 it was a good buy!

Dots and Waves Mani

Hey pretties! This mani was a lot of fun to do! I used craft scissors and tape for the waves and my trusty dotting tools for the dots - imagine that! I'm not feeling very witty so let's get right to it!

The gorgeous purple is a new color from the Wet 'n Wild Megalast line. This one is called Disturbia. I couldn't quite capture the shimmer in the photos but this is a gorgeous polish! The green is Avon Speed Dry+ in Don't Be Jaded. I love this green, it's minty-colored and awesome!

Here are some pics of just the purple:

 

Here's the whole mani, what do you think?