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!

Stampin' Stars Mani

Happy Friday everyone!! I am soooooo ready for the weekend. I have had way too much work to do and am totally burnt out! I had so many ideas of what mani to do today but I just kept running out of time because the baby decided she wanted to be with me every second of the day! Of course, I had to oblige her and we spent most of the day cuddling :) So first I put down a black base. There's something so awesome about a super glossy black polish and this is my favorite right now. It's Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in Black - creative, right? It goes on so nicely and only takes one coat for perfection! I had to take photos of it with just the black because it was so pretty, do you want to see? Too bad - here you go!

Then I really struggled with what I wanted to do on the black base. What I finally settled on were some Mash plate stars stamped in Pronto Purple. I love the way it looks. It may not be exciting but it was still cool! So that's what I'll apologize for this time I guess, because it's not very exciting!

I'm going to try and give the baby another pedi today and maybe have the pics up tomorrow, we'll see if she's up for it and if I'm feeling patient enough! :) Oh, and I forgot to watermark these photos but I didn't want to delete them and do it late at night so if you steal it I will curse you. I will curse you so hard. I will also send my minions after you - so don't steal!

Illmasqua Rubber Finish Nail Varnish Swatch and Review

Hola chicas! Okay...now that we've exhausted my Spanish vocabulary, on to the mani! What can I say about Illmasqua Rubber Finish Nail Varnish? Well a lot since I like to hear myself talk! The first thing I love about these are the amazing colors and the one that caught my eye first was the beauty in this review - Prosperity! This is a beautiful, blue-based royal purple. The other thing is that this polish has an incredibly unique rubber-like finish that isn't like any polish I've ever seen. It goes on very smoothly, evens out really nicely and dries very quickly! In these photos I have just ONE coat and no top coat!

 

Oh yeah, and my apology this time is going to have to be for my yellow skin in these pics. No matter what lighting I used for this polish I could NOT get the color to photograph, it kept coming up blue so I had to do the color correcting after the fact to show the true color of the polish and my skin looks yellow as a result!



Okay, now let's move on to what drives me so nuts about this polish. What kind of top coat do you use with a rubber finish polish? None was my immediate first thought. Well, I tried that and boy does this polish chip fast! So I tried both a matte and a regular top coat and both of them changed the effect of this polish so it was kind of like, what's the point? To show you what I mean I did a side-by-side comparison of the different finishes. 

My middle finger is with no top coat, just the yummy Illmasqua polish. Then on my middle finger is the matte top coat. Notice how it dulls the rubbery shine and it looks kind of streaky? Yeah, not cool! Then on the pinky is the regular top coat which completely destroys the rubber effect. It's really pretty when it's shiny but just not the same!

So do I think this polish is worth it? Yeah, I'd have to say that I love it even though I'm not quite sure what to do with it (kind of like my kids!) I don't know that I'd buy a whole bunch of these but I really like owning at least one, it's something new for my stash!

 

 

My First Gradient Mani

I decided to be brave and try one of the more "scary" nail trends out there right now! For me, this one ranked right up there, just a titch (yes, titch!) below a water marble but I thought to myself, it's just paint, I can remove it if it's bad! So I forged on ahead!

I think I did pretty dang good for my first try! The only thing I will apologize for this time is on my middle finger I had an oopsie and I should have fixed it with the sponge but I wasn't thinking and used the brush. So you can see that finger is a little messed up!

I painted a white pase using OPI Alpine Snow. As soon as I went to clean up the mani I realized my mistake in doing this. it was hard to clean up the edges of the mani and not have a tiny bit of white peeking out so next time I will use one of the gradient colors as the base - duh! See, I told you this was Nails 4 Dummies!

Anywho, on to the good stuff! The colors I used for the gradient were China Glaze Below Deck and Joy and then that's Lancome Midnight Rose at the tips. I painted the polish directly onto a makeup sponge which I had cut down for not only manageablity but so I could get more than one mani out of it! Then I dabbed it onto my taped-off finger. After it dried I went back over it again and then topped it off with my new, non-bubble-inducing top coat, Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Top Coat which I am loving right now! In case you're wondering I used the same little bit of sponge for all 8 fingers and 2 thumbs and both coats as well! Here's the non-perfect but completely satisfactory photos!

In 'da sun!

 

 

In 'da shade

 

Trust me, if I could do this good on my first try, you can do it too, give it a try!!!

Julep Gayle and Some Stampin'!

Hello my little schmoopie-woopies! Can you tell I'm goofy today? If you can't it's because you're a weirdo like me - CONGRATULATIONS!!!

 

It seems like I always have to apologize for something in my manis and this one is no different. The top coat I was using is one I've only had for about 3 weeks but for some reason it has decided to really thicken up and I don't do anything halfway so when I slapped my usual thick coat on it left ugly bubbles on my otherwise lovely mani! *sniff, sniff* No worries though, I have since replaced her and moved on!

 

On to the mani... The base was 1 coat of Gayle from Julep. Oh. My. I think I moaned while putting this baby on! This polish is so gorgeous and applies like a dream! I hope all Juleps are that way because momma is in love!!! The only thing I will say is that if I would have known how pigmented she was, I would have been much more careful when I was painting because she was a real pain to get off the skin!  Here is a shot of Gayle alone and one of her mattified just for giggles!

 

Then I used Sally Hansen Hard As Nails in No Hard Feelings and stamped over Gayle with Mash plate 41. I'm loving the second set of Mash plates. I had the first set and was very disappointed because none of the full nail designs were big enough but they are so much better with the second set! Here's a couple pics of the final mani complete with air bubbles!!

 

I really want to try a water marble very soon but with the baby I don't usually get more than 20 minutes at a time to do my nails and I do NOT want to be interrupted in the middle of a water marble! Until next time - God bless!

Polish Us Pink Mani #1

CANCER SUCKS! There, I said it! I wish cancer would die!

I think most of us have had to deal with cancer in one form or the other in our live's and we all know how bad it sucks and how helpless we feel to do anything about it. There is something though that all of us can do. We can spread the word and raise awareness and that's what a bunch of us nail bloggers are doing. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month so we're all going to be rocking some pink manis on Mondays in October. This didn't hurt me too much since pink is my favorite polish color!!

So do your boobies a favor and go let the doctor squeeze on 'em! We are so lucky in the US to have so many fantastic resources available to us in the terms of treatment and education when it comes to cancer and here are just a few:

Treatment:
Cancer Treatment Centers of America - they have truly amazing and compassionate care!
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Education & Resources:
BreastCancer.org
BreastCancerAwareness.com
National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.

Here is my fun little mani to support the Polish Us Pink crusade!! The base is two coats of China Glaze Exceptionally Gifted and then I stamped on that using China Glaze Traffic Jam and Mash plate 48. This was only my second attempt at stamping so I was pretty pleased, what do you think?

 

The World's Cutest Pedicure!

Gooooooood morning my lovely polish enthusiasts! I have something extra sweet for you this morning. Apparently my little angel Ella who is just 12 weeks old loves herself some Pomegranate Lacquer! She is swatching Fiery for you today!


Let me apologize in advance for two things. First off the pictures are not great, I have new respect for people who photograph infants, I must have taken 100 pictures and these were the best of the bunch! I don't know why the little stinker didn't just sit pretty for me? Second, this girls cuticles are a mess! I don't know what she was thinking, how embarrassing! But without further ado, here is the worlds cutest pedicure!!

 

 

 

 

 

Isn't that adorable? I may be a little biased but who can resist baby toes? Certainly not me!!! Have a fabulous day!