Thursday, November 29, 2012

I was busy! :(

Here are a couple manis that I did over the Thanksgiving break and wasn't able to post.

The first is Ulta's Concrete Evidence with Pinata-Yada in a reverse gradient.


While at home, I ended up raiding my Mom's polish collection and found Sally Hansen's Shell We Dance and...a sharpie! Shell we dance is very sheer and I had to do about 5 coats to get it to this color. I also discovered that Mom does not own a fast dry top coat and because I had to do so many coats of this, I spent about 2 hours waiting for my nails to dry :/ But here's the result!


Happy Polishing :)

Is it too early for a Christmas mani?

Autumn and Winter are by far my favorite time of the year. I love being able to bundle up on the couch next to the fire with my hot cocoa and a great book. Reading and nail painting are essentially tied for favorite things to do so don't make me choose! (Maybe I'll do some book reviews on here occasionally...hmm). Anyway! The past few days have finally begun to be gloomy and cold (only took to the end of November!..but that's what you get in California) and driving home after work with the sun already down and all the Christmas lights up really solidified the feeling that it is in fact winter! My favorite! 

I was feeling inspired by the time of year and landed on PRESENTS! Everyone loves to give and/or receive gifts and I've been slowly finding presents to give to friends and family so it seemed fitting. 

I used, YET AGAIN (sorry!) Sephora by OPI's Mr. Right Now because it is my all time favorite red and I am going to have to go buy more soon. My striping accents (you have no idea how many times I checked to make sure that didn't say stripping accents...) are Ulta's Concrete Evidence and a mini Sephora by OPI called Already Famous that came as part of their winter Tinsel Town Collection

Monday, November 26, 2012

Essie Beyond Cozy Gradient

It's winter! And after Thanksgiving it finally feels like it! Yay! My favorite! 

Err...well it doesn't snow in my part of California, but a girl can dream, right? I am pretty envious of the those in the cold snowy weather because all I want to do is get bundled up and go play in the snow all day long!

I suppose painting my nails wintery-ish will have to suffice for now, though. So! I present, another gradient look (this time done following proper technique!). I used Ulta's Smoke Screen and Essie's Beyond Cozy for my gradient colors (with a foundation of white).







Happy Polishing.




Sunday, November 18, 2012

Let sleeping nails lie? Pfft!

I am incapable of just letting things be. I like to tinker. I will change my phone background every few days because I'm bored with the current one. My blog background, style and layout will no doubt change several times in the coming months. The same happened with my nails tonight. It's a wonder I've been with the same guy for 7 years ;) 

Tonight, I was especially jonesing to paint my nails but I was still completely in love with my mani from last night. So I started browsing patterns online that I could possibly make work with what I already had going on. About 3 pages in and I came upon this one: 
Source: http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_type=all&includes%5B0%5D=tags&search_query=navy+blue+pillows&page=1
I could have gone with a free hand attempt at this, but I wasn't really in the mood for the potential screwup that could occur and the fallout afterwards. So I went with taping instead. Still a pretty terrible idea! 

I ALMOST gave up on this pattern and had to get pretty innovative in order to make it happen, but here is the result. 

I even managed to get both thumbs!






Happy Polishing.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Zoya Share the Love!

I just discovered a really cool deal from the people over at Zoya
From Zoya's website...

When someone clicks on your personal link and sets up an online account, a $5 coupon a coupon for a FREE Bottle of Zoya Nail Polish will automatically be placed in their account and can be used immediately on their current order. TIP: If you use this coupon and add 2 more polishes to your order, you get free shipping too! The coupon will appear in the "My Coupons/ Promos" section of their "My Account" Page.

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal in my opinion! Here's the link that gets you a free polish :)

https://www.artofbeauty.com/rd/0159A8BA

Happy Polishing!

Blue ombre makes my heart happy!

I used to think I was strictly a red/pink polish kind of girl. However, Essie's Butler Please converted me to blues in two seconds flat. Lately whenever I see a blue polish I've been snapping it up and I finally have enough blues to attempt an ombre look.

Most ombre nails I see have the thumb painted white and then the chosen color gets progressively darker as you move toward the pinky. I'm not always a fan of white and in this case I felt like it would have been far too drastic a change to go from white to dark navy blue. Instead, I went with a blue to grey sort of ombre effect and I love it. I get to use Butler Please, as well ast my new Zoya Natty!


From the left:




Electric blue with Butler Please all the way over to a shimmery/glittered out grey with I've got a Herring Problem. I wasn't sure I would like having the glitter mixed with all the cremes, but I think it adds some extra pizazz.


There are many color options for an ombre mani. I'm thinking as Thanksgiving nears I'll go with some oranges and reds for a fall look. 

Happy Polishing.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Zoya Blaze

A quick swatch of one of my newest Zoyas, Blaze. Blaze is part of Zoya's winter 2012/2013 Ornate Collection and oh my goodness is this a stunning color! Wow. I don't even...

It's a great full coverage purple with lots of holographic glitter that is incredibly easy and smooth to apply and makes me want to dance with how lovely it looks as it sparkles in the light. 


Happy Polishing :)

Monday, November 12, 2012

Argyle For Audrey

The argyle pattern seems to be a growing classic for nail art aficionados. I thought I'd give it a shot myself and provide a quick and easy tutorial as well :) For this design, I used China Glaze's For Audrey as a base, Klean Color Neon Sapphire, and the white is Milani's White on the Spot. The sky is the limit on the color combos for this, as well as which nails or how many nails you do. 

I am right handed and my poor brain starts to hurt if I try and use my left hand for precise work, so painting my right hand was a bit of a challenge for me. If you're like me, the first few times of painting straight lines doesn't always go as planned. It might be the most traumatic event in your polishing day if your attempt at a straight line suddenly looks like a elephant decided to paint it by holding the brush awkwardly in his trunk and then lumbering by your nail, hoping to hit something. Likely, as soon as you see this happen you realize you'll have to restart.

Despite failed straight line attempts, the argyle pattern is not too difficult to complete. 







Once you've got all your line work done, add your favorite top coat, let it dry, and VOILA! Argyle wonderful-ness to make your nails happy! 




Happy Polishing. 



Friday, November 9, 2012

Boyfriend, boyfriend.

I was struggling a bit with what colors to go with tonight so I asked my lovely (and possibly color blind) boyfriend to choose for me. He took the job very seriously--paused the show he was watching and settled in with my case of polish to find the perfect color. He started with a florescent yellow...um, no. I had to remind him it was fall and that wouldn't fly. He finally settled on two Kleancolor polishes, Red Alert and Fuchsia Glitter. But here's the thing...these colors look pretty swell together...my questionably colorblind boyfriend who often argues with me over the actual color of his shirt...chose some nice polishes...
Source: http://gifguppy.com/movies/jurassicpark/hfsitsadinosaur.html & Jurassic Park 1993
Okay, all joking aside, I decided to slap these colors on and go for it! I decided to add some Essie Matte About You because honestly, who doesn't love a good matte?

Happy Polishing. 


Disco Biscuit

As is well known by many, the quality of polishes varies by brand. A majority of my collection consists of Milani, Kleancolor, and Sally Hansen which are lovely brands in their own rights. Each have some unique and beautiful colors that many people yearn for. Then you have brands like Essie, OPI, and China Glaze that run you a few dollars more a bottle and are likely the most polish popular brands. However, once you leave the $8/bottle range, I tend to tap out and wait for a miracle of a sale to happen so that I can purchase the highest end brands. One such brand is Butter London. I was lucky enough to have someone purchase this for me and when I opened the box yesterday to look at the color, it was love at first sight.

Meet Disco Biscuit, "a tropical hot-pink nail lacquer with an undercurrent of tiny iridescent glitter particles." Can we please talk about how great a name that is? I have no clue what it means but I think it's perfect. It's very possible that because the brand is in fact based out of London, my American self has yet to encounter the situation where that name would make any sense. Possibly a drug tripping reference in which seeing this color would be all the more exciting. Regardless the name, the color speaks for itself.
The formula of this is really great. This is about 2 coats with Seche Vite on top. 
The best way to describe this polish? Is magical bubblegum fairies dancing on my fingertips sufficient? :D

Happy Polishing. 

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Outfit inspired

Someone challenged me to do a manicure inspired by one of my favorite items of clothing. For me, that happens to be an awesome skirt made by CottonOn, an Australian based clothing store that has amazing deals and excellent quality clothing. Here's a terrible picture of the pattern to give you an idea of my inspiration.

I recently purchased Essie's Butler Please and I'd like to spend a moment just remembering how stunningly amazing this polished looked on. When I put this baby on my poor neglected fingers, I about fainted from how crazy amazing it was.

An electric and "indulgent bright blue" with a creme finish that may be my favorite blue to date. 

I mean, let's be serious. That is so stunning. I may have stared obsessively at it the entire time it was gracing my nails with is presence. Alright, so electric blue isn't exactly understated in its own right, but since I matched the blue with my skirt and fell in love, I decided I couldn't part with it and went with just my thumb for the rest of my design.

I apologize for the overkill of photos, but I just love this these colors. Yes, I want to marry them. 




The Butler Please is 2 coats and Seche Vite on top. The striped thumb is (colors from left to right):
Navy--Kleancolor Neon Sapphire 
White--Milani White on the Spot
Blue--Essie Butler Please
Lavender--Kleancolor Lavenbaby
Orange--Zoya Natalie

Happy Polishing.