Work Appropriate Tape Mani

Happy wonderful Friday!! I'm not even sure I'm ready for Friday because I'm not sure how it got here... I remember Monday and then BOOM! Oh well, as long as it's here, I won't question it - don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right?

 

The mani I have today is so not "me" but I really ended up loving it anyway. That gorgeous bronzy, shimmery color is L'Oreal's Brit Invasion. This was one of the first polishes on my wishlist and I've had it for quite some time but I've just now gotten around to using it. It's really beautiful and I couldn't quite capture it in these photos. The gorgeous gray-blue color is L'Oreal's Rainy Piccadilly. It had a great crelly-type formula and is such a lovely color! I'm sure I'll clash with most bloggers out there as most people are posting lovely, bright, colorful nails and here I am with a Fall-type mani - oh well! I always had to be different growing up so why change now? I couldn't decide on whether or not to add the striping tape so I consulted my fashion expert...my 6 yr old daughter and she said it was a must! Once I had it on, I actually wished I didn't but it was a little late for that and it gives it a little "bling" that it was lacking otherwise!

 

 

 

I'm so excited - my hubby and I will get to go on an actual date tonight! My mom is taking my two older daughters for the night and my mother-in-law is watching the baby while we're out on the town!! Woo-hoo! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

 

Oh yeah, if you are interested in participating in a short-term nailart challenge, let me know! I'm thinking of a challenge where we post twice a week for 3-5 weeks (don't have that figured out yet), so a total of anywhere from 6 to 10 manis. It's sure to be a good time so let me know! :)

Bondi New York Swatch and Review

Happy Wednesday! I know, I know, I'm late getting my post up but at least I'm here, right? That's gotta count for something! I was so excited when I finally got my email from Bondi New York that they had one of their brand-spankin' new polishes for me to try out and review for you! It was really tough choosing a color as they have some really lovely Spring colors available but I finally went with this little beauty called In The Limelight. Let me just say that their shipping was SUPER fast! I got my polish 2 days after placing the order - WHAAAAT? Sweet!

 

I must say that this polish has a very interesting consistency. At first coat it seemed a little finicky but by the second coat it had evened out really well. It's not completely self-leveling so you do have to pay attention to what you're doing but it's not bad at all. When it dried it had the coolest texture, almost rubbery and reminded me of the Illmasqua Rubber Brights line.

 

Even though this polish comes with the name of In The Limelight, my husband actually hit this one on the head when he said it reminded him of wasabi! He was totally right (miracles do happen!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bondi is a 5-free polish and the cost is $15 for a 15 ml bottle. I know that a lot of people will find that price point to be too high and to be honest, I don't know that I would be willing to pay that unless I found a shade that I couldn't live without. I think the colors are amazing for Spring and it was pretty easy to work with. I do, however have one complaint...the lid! These bottles are short and square and it made the brush a little unwieldy and uncomfortable. EDIT!!! The awesome folks at Bondi New York saw one of my tweets about the cap being uncomfortable to work with and tweeted back that it's removable. I checked my bottle and sure enough, I'm an idiot!! It's just an overcap and the cap underneath is a lot like the Butter London caps! Score one for Bondi - you guys rock!

 

And because I couldn't just leave it alone, I threw a tape mani on top of it! The colors I put on top came out a little weird but I think it looks cool anyhow! The color that looks reddish/orange is actually a hot pink from Finger Paints that has never had a label on it and the purple is Prosperity from Illmasqua which is a vibrant bright purple and ended up looking a little eggplant here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So what do you think? Will you be checking out some Bondi polish?

 

 

 

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!!

Neon Stripe Nails

Hello Tuesday peeps! Sorry I didn't get around to blogging yesterday, Mondays always seem to be here and gone before I can even think about it. It was a great day though and I even managed to squeeze in a nap!

 

I really love today's nail art and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out! Not only that, but it was easy and that's always a plus in my book. I think I'm finally getting the hang of this whole striping tape thing. Although I do have one role that has a crinkle in it and as I unroll it, it splits and really cheeses me off! The colors I used for undies, starting with the thumb are two coats of each of the following, Illmasqua - Prosperity, China Glaze - I'm With The Lifeguard, Catrice - Twist of Lemon, China Glaze - Papaya Punch and OPI - Kiss Me On My Tulips. The black was, of course, a England Camelot. I can see I'm gonna need a backup of that beautiful baby!

 

That's right...I have pink bubble wrap - who's jelly now? XD

 

Sorry for the tip wear, I decided to wait until the next morning to take pics and that was not the right decision!

 

I miss you guys, what's been going on with all of you - you've been so quiet! Hopefully you're just busy being fabulous!

KB Shimmer - Elle tape mani

Hey everybody! Sorry I have been so absent lately! With the kids being sick and then the holidays I have had a really hard time finding time to paint my nails and then photograph and then do the editing and then write the blog posts! I've gotten a few done up so hopefully if I can stay ahead of the game I will be posting on a much more regular basis!

 

Today I have a mani that I created by using KB Shimmer - Elle as a base. I have been wanting this polish forever after seeing all the gorgeous swatches on everyone else! Then my amazing friend Jasmine sent this to me along with lots of other amazing goodies!!! It's not an easy polish to do nail art over but I wanted to do something that highlighted it's awesomeness! So I decided on a simple tape mani! The black is a England - Camelot and the pink is Venique - Heel D'Orsay. What do you think? I kind like it! :)

 

 

 

I really should "do up" some haul posts because I did two swaps and a secret Santa and seriously scored big time! Besides, I like making you drool! See you soon, I promise!

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! :)