Waterfalls In The Nude

Hey, hey, hey!! I told you I'd be back! I've had a cold and have lost my voice so typing this is kind of nice since I feel like I can finally communicate for once! Of course at work, clients RARELY every call me but as soon as I lost my voice, the phone was ringing off the hook! Then the clients wouldn't leave a message so I didn't know who it was that called and I couldn't email them to let them know. One of them decided to contact my boss to say I wasn't getting back to her - UGH, really? I didn't get in trouble or anything but I had some annoyed clients.

Today I was finally able to talk on the phone but I sound like someone who has been smoking for 632 years! 

Anywho - on to much better things! This mani that I have for you is one of my favorites. I just had to try the waterfall mani so I started with a base of Essie Sand Tropez. This is seriously my favorite nude. It's tough to choose between this and Zoya Flynn but I think the Sand Tropez is more of a true nude and matches my skintone a little better. 

The waterfall was done using China Glaze - Peachy Keen, Sweet Hook and Dance Baby. I also used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mint Sorbet and then I added a touch of China Glaze - Fairy Dust. I seriously love Fairy Dust, it is the PERFECT touch of glitter to go on top of a nail art design. It's not too overpowering that it obscures the design which is really important!

 

Looking at these photos, I'm really missing my fingernails being this long but it's honestly just too dry right now. If I grow them much past my tips, they just curl really bad at the corners and then want to peel and break so better short than sorry!!!

Seriously guys, if you haven't tried this technique, give it a go! It's super easy and the color combinations are truly endless! The best part - it's quick and precision is not required!

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 #2 - Gradient

Goooooood Monday beautiful readers! I originally had a subtle purple gradient in the works but it was NOT working and looked like I had just globbed one really ugly color of polish on my nails. So for attempt #2 I decided to throw subtlety out the window and taste the rainbow! I started off with a base coat of OPI Alpine snow so that my colors would really pop! Then I applied three colors directly to a small piece of makeup sponge. I used China Glaze Adventure Red-y and Man Hunt and then Sally Hansen Lightening.

 

I love how bright and cheery it turned out, what do you think? 

 

 

Then, of course, I had to see what it would look like with some sparkle on it! This is just one coat of LA Colors Sassy Sparkle - talk about a glitter bomb, I love it!

Please be sure to check out the other challengers!!

 

Grey and Magenta Glitter Gradient

 HAPPY FRIDAY!!!! Finally, it's here!! I heart today's mani so much!! I've been wanting to do a glitter gradient for a loooong time and here it is! The base is two coats of China Glaze Concrete Catwalk. On top of that I painted a gradient of G-listen To Your Heart from Sephora by OPI.

 

Now, some of you may be saying, wow, that looks a little thick! It is! The whole time I was putting this on I was saying to myself, "I KNOW there's a better way to do this!" but, for the life of me, I could not remember!! It wasn't until after I was done that I asked my Tweeps for advice and, of course, they came through! You're supposed to sponge the glitter on so that the sponge soaks up most of the clear coat and only glitter is applied to the nail - DUH! Oh well, I still think it looks pretty stinkin' sweet! The other weird thing was that even though it was really thick, this stuff would NOT chip or peel - it was literally like concrete on my fingers!!

 



Inspiration Vomit Mani

 So, today's mani didn't end up as I had it pictured in my head! I think it's because I spend too much time looking at a bunch of other sweet nail art that my brain gets filled up with so many fantastic ideas at once and this is what you get...inspiration barf! For vomit I think it looks pretty good!

I really don't have my own aesthetic figured out yet. I gravitate towards really bright, loud colors but the manis I find prettiest are on the soft, subtle side and the two don't mix. I think that's why I've had success with paint splatter and water marble manis!

This beauty is 3 coats ( I think!) of China Glaze Flying Dragon then a pointless stripe of CG Jungle Queen somewhere under that sparkle. Why you ask? That's all part of not having a clear idea of what I wanted to do before I started! First I was going to add a couple studs, then carefully placed loose glitter then that turned into me painting a big glob of top coat on my nail and then dipping it in a big pile of glitter and voila!

It's pretty for vomit though, right? Do you guys ever have troubles with too many ideas? That's why I really like the idea of a challenge. In fact, I like the idea so much that some other awesome bloggers and I will be doing a challenge in November called The Lazy 15. It's named that because we didn't want to do a whole 30/31 day challenge because...well, we're lazy! Also, we're not doing daily posting but on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. You are ALL welcome to join in, we will be setting up an inLinkz for the challenge. The more the merrier, so join us!!!

 

Here's the lineup for the challenge and the dates! Start doing these now so you can get ahead!!

Friday Nov 2nd      1)Tape mani

Monday Nov 5       2) Gradient

Wed Nov 7             3) Dots

Fri Nov 9                4) Water Marble

Mon Nov 12           5) Galaxy Nails

Wed Nov 14           6) Favorite Color

Fri Nov 16              7) Feminine Nails

Mon Nov 19           8) Dessert

Wed Nov 21           9) Disney movies/characters
Fri Nov 23            10) Underwater Creatures inc. Water Mythical Creatures
Mon Nov 26         11) Fireworks/Bonfire night

Wed Nov 28         12) Fairy Tale

Fri Nov 30            13) Guilty Pleasure

Mon Dec 3            14) Where I'm from (a mani inspired by where you live!)

Wed Dec 5            15) Inspired by another blogger's mani

 

If you have questions or want details, ask in the comments or find me on Twitter! :)  

My First Indie - Different Dimension

Hello my sweets! How are you this fine Wed morning/afternoon/evening or whatever time it is in your part of the world?? I am doing fantastic! Today is another first for me - imagine that! I think it's fun that you guys get to be here when I experience each of these firsts...I swear I didn't mean that to sound weird!

One day I was minding my own business, tweeting away when Sara over at Chalkboard Nails just had to mention that Different Dimensions on Etsy was having a polish sale for just $5 a bottle! So of course I had to look and of course I had to buy one...or 5. She has some seriously cool polishes in there! I was a little worried because a lot of indies seem to be glitter toppers with not a whole lot of substance. Then I met Warm Fuzzies and it was love at first sight! I know it's weird but brown is my second favorite nail polish color and this one was a stunner! It's got such shimmer and color and it's such a smooth texture and goes on like a dream and just settles herself right down! This mani only took two coats for perfection. On the accent nail I added one coat of Honesty Feels A Lot Like Mean which is an awesome copper and pink glitter that goes on perfectly! Here's what you came to see...

Bonus macros for you because I love you! Do you SEE all that lovely shimmer? This polish looks like velvet, I love it!!

I would have to say that the only negative I have is that this polish dries slower than what I'm used to. Now that's not necessarily taking away from the polish - I'm just insanely impatient! I put on the second coat before the first was completely dry and then proceeded to put on a thick top coat before those were dry as well because that's how I roll! All in all, I certainly will be ordering from Different Dimensions again, the polish is fantastical!

Pretty, Red & Sparkly!

What's better than that? The main polish I used here was Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Red Velvet. It is of my favorites in my stash. The gorgeous red sparkle in this really does make it appear velvety. I was disappointed that there was no sun when I wanted to photograph this because only in the sun can you see the true sparkle of this beauty but I did my my best! The accent finger is Sephora By OPI in Be-Clause I Said So.

This time I will apologize for the fail on glitter shot, if I could control the sun I totally would! I really wish the sun had been shining!

See you all Monday morning with a BCA mani!

Swatch And Revew Butter London & Pomegranate Lacquers

TGIF!! Woo-hoo! Can you tell I'm glad it's the weekend? I'm exhausted and I don't want to work any more! I stayed up too late last night watching Avengers - I LOVE that movie, it is hilarious. The husband and I took our 5 yr old daughter to see it in theaters and she was laughing so hard that she was the loudest one in the theater! She does that when she gets excited though and we kept having to shush her!

Today I had to swatch a couple of the polishes from this weeks haul - I still have a ton to go! I will also apologize in advance for the state of my cuticles, I have been naughty about chewing on them! That isn't helped by the fact that it is extremely dry where I live and I can't keep enough cuticle balm on them!

I swatched them a little crazy so you could see several swatches on one hand because I'm lazy like that! Also try to look past the messed up middle finger, my daughter smudged it RIGHT before I was going to take the photos and, again, too lazy to redo it! And with a very needy 12 week old baby to take care of on top of a 5 yr old and a 2 yr old, I barely have time to do my nails the first time!

On mah index finger is one coat of butter LONDON Black Knight. On mah middle finger is one coat of BK over one coat of Pomegranate Princess of Persia. Mah ring finger is sporting two thin coats of Princess of Persia while my pinky has just one coat - although it was a thicker coat!

I'm having really mixed emotions about Black Knight. This is my first experience with butter LONDON and I think I need to try a few more before I make broad assumptions though. This polish was incredibly thick and gloopy and hard to work with. I don't know if I got a bad bottle or what. It would not even out or spread worth a darn! It also would NOT come off my cuticles although that may not be entirely the polishes fault. I have some jagged and dry skin! That being said it is GORGEOUS! It is also really nice after just one coat although two would just add to it's dimensionality. What is your experience with this polish? I have just heard so much good stuff about butter LONDON that I was sad when this wasn't what I expected!

Then we have the lovely Princess of Persia from Pomegranate Lacquers. This polish was divine and a joy to work with! I can't wait to try stamping with it. I was really surpised at it's opacity after just one coat which was the pinky! This polish went on like a dream and evened itself out. It was a perfect medium thickness and a total breeze to use! I HIGHLY recommend this brand and I got this awesome polish for half off!!! What do you think? Have you used Pomegranate polishes?

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!

Too Much Acetone!

Mah nails, they are a-changin'! Ugh I think I painted my nails 4 times today! I would get the base on and it would look really nice but then I would try to add some nail art of some sort and I would totally botch the whole mani even though I had a topcoat on the base, I just got frustrated and removed it all! My hands have had enough of acetone for a few hours at least! I eventually gave up and went with a base and glitter mani, lol! I actually think it turned out pretty cool, what do you think?

When I saw this Pinky Glitter by Sinful Colors in Walgreens, I had to have it - I mean, it was pink and glitter, what else can a girl ask for??

 

 So I was expecting that when I painted it over the black Sally Hansen Black Heart base that I would get a mostly pink shimmer. Imagine my surprise when this is what I got...

I apologize for the black on my cuticles - it would NOT come off!!

After I photographed the bottle and checked out the macro, it made more sense but still, where did all that pink go? Now I'm curious to try it over some other colors! Here's the macro shot if you're curious! :)

 

Oh, and hey! I finally got my Twitter account set up so come on over and follow me there or at bloglovin' too!!!! I need your validation to feel good about myself! HA!

 

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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