ABC Challenge 'E' - Essie No More Film

Hi all!

So, when I sat down to do my nails I knew I didn't want to use an Essie for this challenge day because that was too easy. Then I found an untried Essie and that resolve went out the window.

I chose Essie No More Film and layered Sally Hansen Snow Globe for the bigger hex glitters, then Spoiled My Saturn Broke Down and finished it off with Essie Matte About You.

I did this in such a hurry that it looks sloppy. No gusta :(. I  like the actual mani though, its just that my cuticles were acting up and being all dry and weird so polish seemed to stick to them. No More Film has such a wonderful formula, I can't believe I haven't tried it before, this was just one coat! I'm pretty sure it's going to work great for stamping too.

Now I'm off to do my nails because I refuse to be naked on my birthday! :D

Have a great day lovelies!

31 Day Challenge Day 22 - Inspired by a Song

Hello lovelies! Mondays suck as usual. Let's go straight to the point.

Today's prompt is 'Inspired by a Song'. I'm very tempted to just put the pictures and the first person to guess the song in the comments gets a little prize..... Yeah I think I'm going to do that.

I started with two coats of Illamasqua Kink, from their Theatre of the Nameless collection a while back, which were all rubber finishes. I'm so in love with this forest green, its flawless and fall-y! Other colors I used were Milani Rapid Cherry, Sally Hansen Grass Slipper, Pop Beauty Turquoise, Essie Little Brown Dress and black China Glaze crackle.

Now, I went pretty literal with the song lyrics and the images on my nails. The song is from Radiohead, btw. I rediscovered this song recently and fell in love with it all over again. It was insanely popular and is still used in movies and shows to this day, so that's why I'm venturing to try this guessing game.

Ok, may the best lady with a weird music memory win!

For less complicated interpretations of songs, make sure to visit the other bloggers participating!

 

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner

-Kat at Hooked On Polish

-Diana at Nails By Diana

-Aly at Wonderland Beauty

-Meredith at Perfectly Polished

-Nicole at The Color Republic

-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails

-Cee at Absolutely Cee

-Sam at Polished Art

-Nail Narcotics

-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed

-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches

-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 

-Mixed Mama

-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine

-Patty Greenberg

-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 

-Mari at Nailista 

-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 

-Gini at Sassy Paints 

-Chameleon Stampede 

-Pam at Nail-E-Glance

-Me, Myself, and Polish 

- Robin Sparkles

31 Day Challenge Day 12 - Stripes

'Morning!

I'm finally posting the Stripes prompt for the 31 day challenge. Thank you guys for being understanding, we had a family issue and I spent the weekend at my aunt's house in Miami. I didn't even buy any polish while over there, so you just know I had no time to spare!

Back to nails. I saw this kind of tape mani at Manicurator (post here) and I loved the irregular sized stripes so I decided to recreate that. I have to say though, this was one of those manis where I had no idea what to do and I just sat at my polish table staring at the drawers of polish with an empty mind. Then I remembered I had wanted to wear China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise so I had my boyfriend pick a color that would work well with it. He chose Sally Hansen Grass Slipper.

I really like how these came out except for that fat tip on my pointer finger, but that was because I dinged the polish underneath and was too lazy to redo it. One tip though, make sure you have different size tape, I used striping tape for the whole thing and had to place almost 5 stripes together to make the wider spaces.

As you can see, I'm hopelessly behind and busy with school. This weekend really made a dent in my time :\. Either way, I'll try to get the animal print nails up (which should be posted today) as soon as I can.

Make sure to check the other blogs for stripes (and probably some animal print).

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles 

31 Day Challenge Day 5 - BLUE!!!

Hi ladies!

If you read my blog with any sort of regularity or even if you've just seen my haul posts, you'll know of my love affair with blue polish. It's just so pretty and there's so many different blues and I need them all. So imagine my surprise when I realize I've never posted the bluest blue that ever blued.

I used two creamy delicious blue coats of (one of) the most perfect blues - Nails Inc. Baker St!

The only problem I have with this polish is that I never know what to combine with it. I've tried stamping in gold, silver, black, white and another blue and it just never looks *right*. Like the color is so electric it just doesn't play well with another polish. This is the only combo I liked - Sally Hansen White Veil (Bonus: it's an untried). 

It's difficult to describe the glitters in this polish, they're pale white but matte-y and the golden hexes. Very pretty. I almost bought this once but left it in the end, then I saw this post at Imperfectly Painted and needed it. Of course, then it was nowhere to be found. I finally found an intact display at a random K-Mart.

In reality, Baker St. is a bit deeper in color, think more of a Superman blue. I took this cellphone pic to try and show the color a bit better.

The color is still a little darker but photoshop was NOT cooperating in altering the color either. If you even admire any blue polishes - you need this one.

Also, YAY for a long weekend! Do yo have any plans? I'm going to a beach house in the south of the island. Just learned about this last night, but still pretty cool :D

Now go check the other ladies and their blues!

-Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 

Essie A Crewed Interest vs Sally Hansen Sorbet

*This is a scheduled post, I'll be back the 24th. Maybe 25th if I'm too exhausted*  

'Ello!

Just a quick comparison post for today. I mentioned in yesterday's post how Sorbet was so much more peach than Essie's A Crewed Interest and, while nobody asked me to, I had already taken the pictures for a comp so here ya go :D

I have Essie on my pointer and ring finger, and Sally Hansen Sorbet on my middle and pinky. Like I said, Sorbet is definitely more peach while A Crewed Interest leans more salmon-y pink-ish. Can you tell I'm not great at color descriptions?

Also a quick shout out to Kelly from Kelly's Nail Blog who tagged me with the Liebster Blog Award. I haven't had time to do the actual questions (I will, promise! I love badgering you with useless facts about me), but I didn't want to let it go unnoticed without saying thank you. Also, check the girl's blog, she's really got some great nail art and posts! I'm itching to try her psychedelic tie dye nails but, after seeing her say her back hurt for a day after doing them, I'm putting it off....

Have a good day!

A Girly Sorbet Cloud

Hey guys! This is the first of a couple scheduled posts I have for you since I'm going to be on vacation until the 23rd. At the moment I don't know if I'll be taking my laptop with me so, to be on the safe side, let's say I'll respond to any comments when I get back.

Now, this is sorta kinda a Monday fail for me. It's not that the design came out terrible per se, but I think it looks a little cluttered and not as crisp as I would like. Let's just say it's half-a-fail.

I did some clouds a la Nailside! I've had this on my to-do forever and even did some on some false nails but it never made it's way to my own nails. For some reason, I decided to dot on the rest of the nails with the same cloud colors which were Sally Hansen Smooth and Perfect in Sorbet, Revlon Gold Coin and Essie Marshmallow.

I have to say, Sorbet is kind of awesome! The only other peach I have is Essie's A Crewed Interest and it looks so pink next to this one. I have no idea if this goes with my skin tone or not but I loves it. I also chose Marshmallow so you could peek a little at the gold underneath and give it a softer look overall.

Btw, those aren't the same 2 pictures up there. I only now realized how similar they look....my bad. What do you guys think? I'm sort of regretting the dots. I also had to redo my middle nail because, the first time, it looked like a seriously bloated french tip or a messed up gradient. It wasn't good, is what I mean.

Have a good Monday while I'm vacationing it up ;) (Technically I leave 8am of tomorrow though so I'll still suffer the Monday blues with you).

Summer Fun Challenge Day 7 - Summer Stylin'

EEP! This challenge has flown by, just one more to go!

For today we have Summer Stylin', meaning something inspired by our fave summer fashions. As always with these challenges, I *JUST* (see the asterisks? It means I'm serious) came up with a great idea that would have been soo much more in tune with the theme but, alas, it is 3am and I'm scheduling this before sleep. Maybe one day I'll create the mani in mind as an ode to one of my most used things!

Back to the nails; I was pretty stumped so I just took inspiration from the shirt I was wearing while shopping earlier in the day. I use this type of loose-fitting shirt with a little tube/bra thingy under them. It's one of the few things that don't make me want to murder the boyfriend when he hugs me and I'm overheating. It's 'fresh' is what I mean, comfortable to wear in the heat. Oh nevermind, just look at the pretty pics:

For this look I used the big fan brush that came with my brush kit. I've recently learned it has many uses for makeup, but I'm yet to discover how else to use it for nails. I just placed some drops of polish on some parchment paper, dipped the brush and painted my nails with that. If I got too much on the nail I would brush it off with one of the clean sides of the brush. I'm holding the actual shirt in the second pic there so you can see where I sort of got the idea. I definitely ran in another direction with it though.

Then, because it looked so empty, I stamped with Wet 'N Wild black creme and DRK-A.

Why two different stamps? BECAUSE I CAN. Mostly because I couldn't decide which one I wanted to stamp with, but also because I can. Who's gonna complain about two different stamps? No one right?! NO ONE?!

Sorry, I'm a little yelly. If you're interested in knowing the polishes I used or a more 'in-depth' instructions, let me know! Always happy to oblige after I've had some sleep.

Have a good Tuesday! Sidenote: the new Spider-Man movie is pretty damn good! Poor Tobey.

Yellow Can-Pattern Stamping

Happy father's day to all of you that celebrate it! I personally celebrate "my mom was a good father('s) day" and "older brother is closest thing I have to a father('s) day", so to all of you with unconventional families, happy day to you too!

Nothing super exciting here, just a fun experiment I had to try. I'm reaching into the vault of unposted manis for this one. "The Vault" is just manis I didn't post for some reason. Nothing wrong with 'em, just didn't love them so you never saw them.

Months ago I was at my mother-in-law's house and she had this cute little yellow can with a blue pattern that caught my attention and I realized I could recreate it with my stamping plates and so I did. I used Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow and L'Oreal Jet Set to Paris and random plate to stamp with. Either Red Angel or Bundle Monster since those are the only ones I have.

Like I said, nothing wrong, just didn't love it so I never got around to posting it.

Also, you might have noticed/read on other blogs about the problem with the malware warnings. I haven't had a warning yet and I hope none of you guys have either! I did a scan on the site and took down my blogroll for the time being just to be extra safe. 

Not a lot more to say, I'm headed to the beach to eat a LOT of food with the fam. Have a good Sunday everyone!

Luxurious Stamping with Essie Little Brown Dress

Hey all! Sorry there wasn't a post during this weekend but I didn't have time to schedule anything before my little boating trip. If it makes you feel better I'm completely roasted from my idiotic sunburn so I'll probably peel soon :(. DAMN YOU past me that did not reapply sunblock!

Enough complaining, back to the nails... A couple of weeks ago they were showing The Other Boleyn Girl and there was a scene where the king was wearing this gorgeous ... thing (it wasn't a shirt, or vest or any other piece of clothing I can name). Point is, it was brown with icy blue embroidery, very rich looking. Of course, the first thing I thought was "Hey! I can do that on my nails!".

For this I started with two coats of Essie Little Brown Dress, a good dark chocolate shade, and stamped with RA-112 and Sally Hansen ColorQuick Pen in chrome blue.

I didn't really wear them as a full mani because I was in the mood for something brighter when I tried this, but you can bet I'll be doing this again and wearing it for a while. Also, my stamping hasn't really been great as of late and I feel reinvigorated with this one :)

Next up I have the really awesome mani I did for the boat trip so keep an eye out for that! I sincerely hope no one is in pain like me and you can enjoy your day!

Sally Hansen UpTempo Plum

Hi guys! And by guys, I mean girls. I have no illusions about a man ever seeing this blog. Except my boyfriend, and even he doesn't really stay long.

Today I just have a quick swatch and stamping because I'm not really feeling well lately so I haven't been polishing as much as I should ;). Today's polish is Sally Hansen UpTempo Plum. I found this a couple weeks ago on clearance for $2, and it looked so pretty in the bottle! A blackened duochromey shimmer with pinkish to bronze shimmer. Crazy right?! Unfortunately, that does not translate to the nail at all. See for yourself.

It just looks black! How frustrating. I'm so glad I didn't pay full price for this polish. For reference, here's a bottle shot.

See all the prettiness that's lost on the nail? Oh well. To cover up the sadness I stamped with BM-201 (I think) and Sally Hansen chrome pen in purple.

Thank you for looking and I'll see you during the week with your regularly scheduled polish! Enjoy what's left of the weekend :D

One More (Vertical) Gradient!

Good morning! Sorry, I know, it's Monday.

For today I'm going to show you a bright, spring mani that I did using the same sponging technique as my last gradient except I sponged them up the nail instead of across like we've been seeing. I started with one coat of Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow and sponged using Mellow Yellow and Sally Hansen Sun Kissed.

I really can't stress enough how easy this technique is. You just brush both your colors directly onto the sponge and, when you sponge, make sure you move it around a little, that way you get a better blend of the colors. For reference, this is the tutorial I used from The Beauty Department. There's also this one by Sammy at The Nailasaurus that I'm itching to try.

Thank you guys for looking! Do you have any color combinations you've done or want to do? Any that you'd like to see? Let me know in the comments! I really do enjoy hearing reading anything you have to say.

May your memories of the weekend hold you over until Monday is gone!

Black and White Challenge Day 7 - Black and White with Glitter

I can't believe we're almost done with the Black and White Challenge! Today is day 7 and we have to do Black and White with glitters. Now I only really had one idea, which is a bad thing about me, I usually only get one idea and if it doesn't turn out like I thought I'm stumped on what to do. And that's what happened today.

I don't have a lot of glitters because I just abhor (it's a word!) the removal. It makes me sad sometimes because I see all this sparkly goodness in the bottle and pictures but a couple weeks ago I found the China Glaze Some Like It Haute glitter (I used it previously in this post) on clearance so I bought it. I've also been itching to try my hand at tape manis, specifically stripes, but I don't really like applying top coat twice in one mani because I love peeling my polish too much and this doesn't help. Finally I caved with the idea for this challenge.

I started with two coats of white (Sally Hansen Hard to Get) and let that dry overnight, then taped and sponged on the black glitter. Black and white with glitter!

Now I don't really love it. My taping was uneven and the texture difference between the polishes drove me a little nuts, but I do still like it in theory so I'll probably try it again but with regular polishes. It probably would have helped to apply glitter first, tape, then apply the white but, like I said, I didn't want to deal with the removal.

Thank you for looking as always and remember to have a little look-see at the other blogs participating!

Purple Glitters 

Colorfull bottle

Biba's beauty corner 

Taya 

Nail crazy 

Mateji ustvarjata 

My nail grafiti 

Colores de Carol 

Emerald sparkle 

Wacky Laki
Omgnoodles
LACQUERED TIPS  
WelcomeTo Brianna's World! 
Pink Polish Addic
My Little Vanities
Posh nail art
Biberlee - Džumbus
Oje Gemisi Kalkiyor 
The Nail Buff

Black and White Challenge Day 4 - White Base with Color

Beware of the fail ahead! You should probably avert your eyes, it's not pretty.

Still here? Ok then. Today is day 4 of the Black and White Challenge from Mateja at Purple Glitters and Dolores at Colorful Bottle. The mani of the day was white base with some color and I thought of watercolor nails! Mind you, this only happened because I failed hard at creating the mani idea my boyfriend gave me.

Behold!

Sorry for the less than stellar cleanup!

I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Hard to Get and I was really liking the stark white nails! It made them look longer somehow. I almost didn't watercolor at this point. I should have listened to myself.

Oh. They look like clown nails or something. I tried to replicate Chalkboard Nails' look but I didn't have the same colors and I just don't like the ones I chose. I'm not even 100% on which color is on which nail because I changed them up between nails when I saw they didn't spread or mix like I thought they should. The general idea though was red, yellow, blue and purple. A lime green snuck in there on one nail too to see if I could salvage it but, alas, it was too late. 

I'm sorry I don't have anything better to show you but after a day of dress shopping I'm just too beat to redo them. Not to mention that I already missed the challenge "deadline" on almost every time zone (I think?).

Remember to see what the other ladies participating came up with! You probably need it after seeing mine.

Purple Glitters 

Colorfull bottle

Biba's beauty corner 

Taya 

Nail crazy 

Mateji ustvarjata 

My nail grafiti 

Colores de Carol 

Emerald sparkle 

Wacky Laki
Omgnoodles
LACQUERED TIPS  
WelcomeTo Brianna's World! 
Pink Polish Addic
My Little Vanities
Hooked on polish
Posh nail art
Biberlee - Džumbus
Oje Gemisi Kalkiyor 
The Nail Buff

Spring Dots and a mini haul!

It all started because I needed cotton balls. So I went to Walgreens and no cotton balls to be found, but I did score two polishes. Then K-Mart and I found cotton balls! And one more polish. Then since Sally's is right in front of K-Mart I had to go in. So two more polishes.

I would have gotten a better pic but someone was being nosy.

So I got Sinful Colors Green Ocean because of Nouveau Cheap's posts about it and Essie Navigate Her because of Vampy Varnish's post. Then Milani Rapid Cherry because of AllLacqueredUp's post. Finally, China Glaze Luxe and Lush just because I wanted it (Yes, I can think for myself) and Some Like It Haute because it was $1.99.

Now, if you read any other nail blog you know about Sarah's contest at Chalkboard Nails. The rules are simple, just use a dotting tool. Today I had so many ideas swirling in my head and I finally settled on this mani. I think it came out cute but I don't think I'll be submitting it just yet, needs some tweaking.

I used 2 coats of Essie Nice is Nice as a base and the "flower" colors are Sally Hansen Grass Slipper (or Limestone) for the light green, Revlon Jaded Night for the dark green accents, Sally Hansen Hard To Get for the white and Bettina Art Deco Purple for the dark purple. Same colors for the dots adding Wet 'N Wild I Need a Re-Fresh Mint.

I messed up my pinky a little bit but you get the idea. I tried different different ways of stamping the dots on each finger since this was mostly for practice so sorry for the inconsistencies!

Hope you like it!

Sally Hansen Dorien Gray

After the break I didn't really feel like doing any crazy colors, I wanted something subdued that wouldn't call attention to my sad little nub so I reached for Sally Hansen's Dorien Gray. I'm sure many other blogs have featured it since it's pretty old but a good classic gray to have. Two easy coats and you're done. But of course, that wasn't enough so I added a coat of Finger Paints Twisted for some fun.

And I didn't really love it. I tried mattifying it to see if that would help, but not really. So I decided to stamp it with RA-111 and Sally Hansen Silver Sweep.

Sorry the pics are so yellow, I took these at work.

Just look at the gorgeous flakies under the stamping! It looked like little windows into awesomeness. I really wasn't going to buy any of the Finger Paints flakies because I didn't think I needed them. I only caved in to Twisted because I was afraid of regretting it later. Only negative is that it takes FOREVER to dry and I didn't really want to add 2 layers of Seche Vite so there was a lot of waiting around.

Thanks for looking!