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

 

Acrylic Paint Splatter Mani

Hello my fellow polish addicts! I'm so excited to share my mani with you today because it was so much fun to do and I think it turned out pretty good! I've been loving the paint splatter technique and finally decided that I was brave enough to try it! I wanted to use acrylic paint rather than polish though because of several reasons. Acrylic paint is much cheaper, it dries flatter and it washes off with water so if you mess up a nail you can just rinse it off and start over! Then when you're done with the mani and your top coat is dry you can just wash the mess (and there WILL be a mess!) off your skin - no acetone! With as dry as it's been around here I can use all the help I can get!



I used OPI Alpine Snow for a base coat. Then I just put a small bit of paint in an old ice cube tray and add a few drops of water to thin it out. Then use a regular paint brush and hold it over your nails and tap it until you like the way it looks. Wait until the acrylic paint is dry before attempting a top coat - I learned this the hard way!! It will smear all over the place and you will have some funky looking nails! Here are my instruments of torture:




Here is the awesome mess that I made! You could tape off around your cuticles and that would make the cleanup a little easier if you want but I didn't!!



 

And here is the finished product! I'm thinking of making a video on this technique, what do you think, should I? I don't know, maybe paint splatter nails are "over," but I still like them and I never claimed to be fashionable!



 

My next attempt may have to be a water marble but that may be a while off - the idea still scares me a little bit! :)

Fave Manis And Random Question Of The Week

I hope you have all had a magically fantastical weekend so far! It's been a good one for me! This blog has been so much fun and I've  gotten to meet some seriously awesome people! I have also looked at, literally, hundreds of manis this week - especially due to the 31 day challenge that's going on in the nail blog world. They were all amazing but there were a few that really stuck out to me and I wanted to give them a little nod here on my blog. So here are my fave 3 of this week!

This first one is from my friend Dot over at Young Wild and Polished. Her name is actually Nicole, but it was her alter ego Dot that did this mani! How fun is this?

Now here is a truly "ooh-ahhhhhh!" mani from Jeanette over at The Swatchaholic! This is what she calls "baby steps" in water marbling! I just keep staring at this one because there's so much awesomeness going on here!

 

Next up is from Bregje over at Oooh, Shinies! I was SO in love with this beautiful color combo that I went and ordered both of the polishes! Now I just need to get that stamping plate!

 

 

And finally comes the prettiest water marble I have ever seen! It reminded me of candy and Summer and who doesn't love that! The crazy part is that Sarah from Chalkboard Nails admits to struggling with water marbles. If that's struggling, sign me up!

Wow, now thems is some purdy nailz! I'm beginning to feel just a little bit of hero worship here, lol!

 

Now onto the random question of the week. I'm a total weirdo and I don't mind showing it to the world so I'm hoping to bring out the little bit of weirdo in you too! So here is the question, I'd be much obliged if you would post your answer in the comments!

 

Q: If you could make a hat out of any food, what would it be?

(told you I was weird!)

Dot Mani - My First Attempt

Today I'm bringing you another mani to laugh at! This is actually my best so far so I'm actually kind of proud of it - HA! Since some of the dots ran together I'm almost tempted to call it a "blob mani!" I think Blob is the slovenly cousin of Dot over at YoungWildAndPolished. If you check the link you will see what a pretty dot mani looks like!

I had actually tried about 3 other manis before this. I'm not sure if I'm actually happy with it or if I was just tired of trying! So here you go...your joke of the day!

Let me just make an excuse for myself - I realized after I was done doing this that the end of the paintbrush I was using as a dotting tool had a little sliver of plastic sticking out so it wasn't completely round. There, that explains it, right?

 

All three polishes were Wet n Wild Megalast and they were I Need A Refresh-Mint, On A Trip and Through The Grapevine. I absolutely love these three colors, especially together. I want to do a splatter mani with them, or maybe a water marble, but I'm not there skill-wise yet!

Why Another Nail Blog?

So why, with so many nail blogs out there would I want to create another? Good question! The main reason that I'm doing this is because I love to talk - I love the socialization and since I don't have any friends offline I have to get my fix somewhere! I think I don't have any friends because I'm one of those "lazy friends" that never calls and never asks you to go anywhere or do anything - ha!

Another reason is because I am a chronic cuticle chewer. It's awful! It's actually not technically my cuticles but the skin around my fingernails - gross right? Now you know why I don't have any friends! Look at this ~

 

~ and that's actually good compared to what it has been! I'm hoping that posting pictures of my hands on the net wil force me to stop trying to eat them!

 

Also, I have been incredibly inspired by some other beautiful nail blogs recently and I kept thinking to myself, "I want to be part of that group!!!" So you would assume that I have some artistic talent, right? You, my friend, would be wrong! In fact, last time I painted my nails I made one heck of a mess but I keep trying anyway and I love all of the pretty colors!

 

Now you might understand the name of the blog because by now you're probably thinking, "wow...this chick's an idiot!" I hope not!!! Actually I was hoping that I could take you all on this journey with me and make it an interactive thingamajig!

 

So, please, leave me some comments and let me know if there's anything you'd like to see this dummy try with her nails. I've currently started a regimine of Nail Magic to harden my nails, Burt's Bees Cuticle Balm to try and soften up my ragged cuticles and Burt's Bees Almond Milk Beeswax Hand Cream to make my skin all soft and nice!

 

Stay tuned very soon for pictures of my tiny stash! I'm taking inventory now so that I can see how bad my obsession gets! Because, unfortunately, I'm like a magpie and every time I see a new polish I'm like, Ooh, shiny! The only thing that stops me from having a massive collection is because I'm a broke mother of 4 with bills! :)