Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Yay for Pink Wednesday!

Sooooo, here is today's mani. I tried out a new to me color, although it was part of last summer's collection from Essie. I picked it up as part of a mini set at Walmart a few weeks ago on clearance. I don't recall seeing this particular when the entire collection was released, but then I wasn't really all that impressed with most of the colors anyways :P

Today's mani was done in Super Bossa Nova, which is a pretty, shimmery, darker bright pink (if that makes sense). I needed three coats of it for opacity. Love the color; unfortunately, I had horrible tip wear after less than 24 hours, and that's with Poshe base/topcoats. Glad I didn't pay full price for this!







Little reminder: I will be starting that new 30 day challenge tomorrow. I have lots of pretties to show for it!

Not perfect.......

But not too bad either, lol!

This is the mani I was sporting yesterday, I'll be putting today's up later tonight. Yesterday, I gave one of my new China Glaze Magnetix a try. While it's not too terribly difficult, it is an exercise in patience. It took me several attempts to get 8 fingers to look alike, and we won't even discuss my thumbs :P

The instructions included with the magnet tell you to use a single coat of the color. The one I chose, Pull me Close, most definitely needed to thin coats, since it's a pretty blue-grey frost. You do need to have a steady hand for this; my problem wasn't necessarily bumping the wet polish, it was the design coming out nice. But here is what my final result looked like.


The mark on the middle finger wasn't from bumping it, it was from the polish reaching up to the magnet! It was kinda cool watching it.




I certainly need more practice; maybe next time it won't take me so many tries to get them to look the same :P

Saturday, February 25, 2012

When you can't pick just one color.......

You do a Skittles mani! Well, that wasn't exactly my problem when I chose to do this; rather, I have seen some nicely done Skittles manis and wanted to give it a try myself.

Most people I've seen do this used 5 colors, which is fine. There's nothing wrong with that. The problem I had was picking only 5 and wound up with 10 colors. Let's start with the left hand.


Ok, thumb to pinky: OPI's Short Story and Ogre-the-Top Blue, China Glaze's Gaga for Green, OPI's Funky Dunkey, and Zoya's Sooki.






Now for the right hand. Sorry if these seem awkward, it's not easy for me to take pics of my right hand because I am very right handed lol.




Pinky to thumb: Zoya's Dita, OPI's Rumples' Wigglin', China Glaze's Aquadelic, and OPI's No Room for the Blues and Flit a Bit.






So there you have it! This was such an easy and fun mani to do. I may have to give this another go some time, with different colors.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Bit of a fail for Pink Wednesday =\

I thought today would be a good opportunity to try out two new things: Pedal Faster Suzi! from OPI and a plate from the newer Bundle Monster set.

The base color came out nice (go to the OPI swatch page to see it alone). I love this color, it's so girly and perfect for early (lol) spring. It did take three coats for opacity but it's worth imo. Topped with SV and let that all dry.

Now, I got this set of plates last week and I was just excited about it. From what I had and seen, the full nail images looked like they would work on my wide, long nailbeds. So I picked one and went to work. I don't know if was the black I used or if I just need some practice, but yeah, didn't come out as nice as I would have like. Some of the image didn't want to pick up from the plate or transfer to the nail, which you can see on my middle and ring fingers. I think the combo is pretty, just could have looked nicer =\






Also, on March 1st, I'm gonna be starting a 30 day challenge. Y'all are welcome to join me! I did not make this one up, it was posted in a FaceBook group that I'm in, so I don't know who the creator is. Let's take a look at it.


Some of them I may change up a little, since they almost don't apply to me, and I may go out of order on this one as I did the last one. Stay tuned!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Max Factor's Fantasy Fire

Good morning! Welcome to Friday! Are you anxious for the weekend? All I'm really looking forward to is trying to edit more swatch pics and relaxing with the hubs :)

I bring to you a much coveted recent release, Max Factor's Fantasy Fire. It's a UK release only, so you're not gonna find here in the States :P I managed to get in on a swap for this beauty, and I'm so glad I did. From what I understand, it's a pretty close or dead on dupe of Clarins 230. Now, I don't own that or can recall seeing pics of it; all I know is FF is gorgeous. Here's a pic of the bottle:


See? Gorgeous, huh?

For today's mani, I layered two coats of that over two coats of OPI's Road House Blues. I kinda wish I had chosen something lighter, but oh, well. The only, only, little disappointment I had is the blue you see in the bottle pic didn't translate to the nail. Maybe if I had used a lighter a base it would have; we'll have to see. The first set of pics I have are outside in the sun, the last in the shade.












Then I have some indoor pics, one with a flash, one without. Sorry for the blurrieness in the second, it was almost impossible for me to take a clear pic. But you can see some green and gold in that one.




Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A not-so-Pink Wednesday!

Good evening and happy Wednesday! I hope tonight finds everyone well :)

Since I did a pink mani for Valentine's yesterday, I decided to do something different for today. If you take a look at yesterday's post, you'll see a little brag about my haul over the past weekend. Today's mani features one of those colors.

I was really excited to see that China Glaze had some bright, less Easter-y colors for spring, since OPI and Zoya had practically the same colors in their collections. One of the colors I picked up was Gaga for Green, which is an apple green. Don't get me wrong, I like the dusty greens in OPI's and Zoya's collection, but they're very similiar to OPI's Mermaid's Tears, which I already have.

Gaga for Green is a little thick and a bit hard to apply. For this mani, I did two coats, but if I were to wear it alone, I would do 3. I just love the color, so theweird formula is forgivable :P I topped that with SV so it would dry faster, then applied two coats of Sinful Colors' Green Ocean.

Green Ocean is a gorgeous blue-green flakie. You don't really need it if you have Zoya's Maisie, they're practically the same from what I can tell. Anyways, 2 coats of Green Ocean and 1 coat of Mattely in Love, DONE.








 





Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone has something nice planned for today. Hubs and I went out over the weekend, since trying to get into a restuarant this time of year is just impossible.

First, I want to share my (for me) epic haul.


Left to right: OPI's Pedal Faster Suzi!, Kiss me on my Tulips, and Vampsterdam, and China Glaze's Pull me Close, Instant Chemistry, Glittering Garland, Gaga for Green, Kinetic Candy, Lorelei's Tiara, and Fairy Dust. Behind them are mini roses my hubby got me :)



These are stamping plates from Shany and Bundle Monster, and Max Factor's Fantasy Fire.

Now on to today's mani! I started out with one coat of OPI's Kiss me on my Tulips. This is such a gorgeous color. It was almost a one coater. Layered over that were 2 coats of OPI's Gettin' Miss Piggy With It, with one final coat of OPI's Do You Think I'm Tex-y?, all topped with SV. While I love this, it came out much redder than I intended.








That wasn't festive enough for me, though lol. I grabbed a couple of Born Pretty plates and my Konad Special White, and stamped on some cute little hearts. It didn't come out quite how I had pictured but it's still cute :)






Have a great day, no matter what you have planned!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Got busy again......

Yeah, it was a busy weekend, and I ran of time to try and post my mani from Friday. It wasn't anything special, just a holo polish :)

So, the sun finally decided to come for awhile on Friday, which was great since I decided to do a full mani with OPI's DS Sapphire. My only, and it's a small one, disappointment with it is it isn't truly sapphire colored. It's more a lighter blue, and still very pretty. I did three coats for this mani and topped with SV, and let that all dry. Then, using one of my Born Pretty plates and Konad Special White, I stamped some flowers on. Topped again with SV and done! Nothing real fancy but still a bit springy.





Thursday, February 9, 2012

It's been a busy week!

And because of that, I've been slacking on posting. I was only able to get pics of one mani, the one I had on Tuesday. Had to be up waaaay to early yesterday for work, so pics weren't possible for my pink mani =\

So, for the past month or so, it's been more or less spring here......... except for the last week. The weather has just been so gloomy and miserable looking, I decided a spring colored mani was in order! But which color? Hmmmmm....... how about a water marble?

Mind you, this is only my second successful water marble. It didn't come out quite the way I had hoped, but not a complete fail. Using all OPI colors, my base was 2 coats of Rumple's Wigglin'. All others were Mermaid's Tears, Planks A Lot, Pink Friday, Sparrow me the Drama, and Ogre-the-Top Blue. Sorry for the blurriness in the third pic >.<











Also, good news! I finally, finally started adding swatch pics. I'm completely done with my OPI swatches, so go and take a look! Everything I have swatched is in my stash =D

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Go Red for Women!

As you may or may not have known, yesterday was Go Red for Women! Day, sponsered by the American Heart Association. Go Red for Women! is used to raise awareness for the higher risks women face against heart disease and heart attacks. To find out more, please visit the official site: http://www.goredforwomen.org/

In honor of this, I chose to do a red flakie mani, which turned out so much prettier than I thought. My base color was 2 coats of the Ulta Holiday exclusive Speak for Your- Elf! from OPI. This is a gorgeous, darker red, almost jelly- like color just packed with red micro glitter. SFYE just might be one of my fave reds :P

After that dried, I applied two coats of my very first Nubar, Nubar 2010. I think I found another brand to love! <3 SFYE is beautiful on its own, but 2010 made my nails look like they were on fire! I loved this mani, so much so that I'm gonna do my pedi in this! My pics aren't the greatest, but then the weather wasn't the greatest either yesterday.







Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Happy Pink Wednesday!

Yep, it's Pink Wednesday again!  Sometimes, it's a little difficult to come up with a mani for this specific day every week. I don't want to bore everyone with the same look, but on the other hand, there are some looks I'm just loving right now, such as today's feature.

Can you guess what it is?

If you guessed flakies, you're right! :P It's even colors I've showcased before, but I changed the mani just a little bit this time. Started with 2 coats of Be a Dahlia Won't You? from OPI. This is perhaps one of my favorite pinks; it's a medium pink chalk full of glass flecks to make it sparkle. Just lovely.

I let that dry, and applied 2 coats of I Lily Love You! and topped that with SV. Once that was all dry, I applied on coat of Matte-ly in Love from Hard Candy. This is the first I've matted something other than a creme polish, and I really like how it turned out. BADWY? practically glows even though it's matte. Take a look!







Oh, and I was right about yesterday's mani. That was prolly one of the most difficult glitters I've ever had to remove, and that was using acetone >.> As fun as it was, it may be awhile before I use it again lol.