Proof for my addiction to stamping...

Hi!  Sorry for the long absence between posts :(

Today I did (yet another) stamping manicure!  I'm officially addicted to stamping; it's so easy and fast and makes your plain manicure look so insanely awesome haha

I used:

1 coat base coat

2 coats China Glaze VIII (it looks like a black, but it's a really dark purple)

Bundle Monster plate BM-206 and China Glaze Poetic for my stamping color

1 coat of Seche Vite top coat

 From far away it definitely looks black, but up close you can tell it's purple, especially in the bottle.

The first coat was a little watery and streaky, but the second coat made everything nice and opaque.

 Bottle to show you that it's actually purple haha

 Stamped!  The China Glaze Romantique collection is really great for stamping cause they're all metallics, which are usually very opaque.

 It ended up not really showing the base color, but it did make it brighter :)

Thanks for reading! <3  I'll try to do some manicures that are non-stamped soon hahaha

Betsey Johnson Takes a Trip to the Dark Side

Do you ever have this AH-MAZING nail design in your head, but when you go to execute it, it totally fails?  Well, I have this Betsey Johnson perfume that came in this super cute box with pink and yellow leopard print, and I was gonna stamp and recreate it.  However, long story short, I ended up going with a simpler design: zebra tips.  (Since I originally was going for a Betsey Johnson print, and ended up doing black, I made up my title kinda randomly haha)

I used base coat to help with staining, one coat of Wet N Wild Black Creme, and I stamped with Konad  Special White and Bundle Monster plate 219.  I used Seche Vite for top coat (I love how fast it dries, but it smells like all the chemicals in the world have been put in that one half ounce bottle :P

Sorry about my middle finger, I was a little over-zealous with the cleanup :)

Also, my room is still under the paintbrush (but it's almost done!) so still no solid background or bottle shots.  I used a Lululemon bag with all those wonderful inspirational quotes on it for my background haha!

 Flash

 Flash

 No flash

BM-219 with the ever-so-subtle red circle

I really liked this one!  It was simple and quick to accomplish.  

Thanks for reading! <3

The Most Beautiful Nail Polish You Will Ever See :)

Okay, so maybe my title is an exaggeration, but this is still unbelievably gorgeous.  It's Layla Hologram Effect in Ultra Violet ($15.50 for 10 ml...sorta super expensive but worth it haha)  I applied one coat of Nfu Oh's Aqua Base (a special base coat for holographic polishes), and two coats of Layla Ultra Violet.  It dries super fast, and it's a bit sheer, but the rainbows cover up any VNL (visible nail line).  No top coat, cause I've heard it dulls the effect.  Yes, they chip really easily without a top coat, but it's worth it.  Anyways, enjoy burning your eyes out with glorious rainbows!

 Full sun

 Full sun

 Full sun - sorry about the fuzzies stuck to my nails, the cotton pads I use to remove polish sometimes get stuck to my nails :P

 Shade

 Indoors with flash

Indoors without flash

I've been putting off using this for a long time because the bottle is small and I don't wanna waste the polish :)  But I finally forced myself to use it and I am SO glad I did!!

What do you think of holographic nail polishes?

Thanks for reading! <3

I'm a nomad.

After 15 years of the same pink-striped-and-rabbits-having-tea wallpaper in my room, I'm finally stripping it all off and painting it a solid color.  (and when I say me, I mean my mom is doing most of it :) Thank you mom!!) Because of that, I've temporarily moved out of my room and into my brother's room while he's away at Marine boot camp.  So that means no pictures in my black-paper set up haha  Thankfully it wasn't raining so I took my pictures outside.

Also, I completely forgot to take bottle shots!  

For this manicure I used one careful coat of Nails Inc Baker Street, one thick coat of Essie Shine of the Times (a flaky similar to Nfu Oh 38), and one coat of Essie Matte About You top coat.  I took some pictures before I mattified it, and some after :)

 Shade, before matte top coat

 Shade, before matte top coat

 Sun, before matte top coat

 Shade, after matte t.c.

Macro flakies look so cool!

 Sun, after matte t.c.

 Shade, after matte t.c.

And just because she's adorable and still thinks she's a puppy, my dog Goldie <3

There you have it!  My first manicure as a part-time nomad.  :)  I really like this combination of the blue and the flakies!!

Thanks for reading! <3

OPI Just Spotted the Lizard - Spiderman

I just recently bought Chanel Peridot OPI Just Spotted the Lizard from The Amazing Spider-Man collection (which was an amazing movie by the way!  See what I did there?? :)  It's an exact dupe for Chanel Peridot, which is great for us who will never spend $26 on a bottle of nail polish!

The formula was good, but a little thin.  I used 3 coats for this manicure.  I barely have any duochromes and I have been wanting this ever since it came out!

 OPI Just Spotted the Lizard

 Under a bright desk lamp, the duo chrome-ness wasn't as visible as natural light

 Natural light.  Is this not the coolest nail polish?

Well that's it!  OPI retails at Ulta for $8.50 :)
Thanks for reading! <3

Summer Days Manicure :)

So with my last manicure, my mom said, "Oh! It kinda looks like a ladybug!" so I thought, hey, why not do a ladybug on my nails :) haha I tried to make it look like a blue-skied day with green grass and a ladybug as an accent.  

 L to R: China Glaze Hey Sailor, CG Sky High Top, CG Entourage, Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, Wet n Wild Black Creme

 For pointer, middle, and pinky: one coat of basecoat, two coats of CG Sky High Top, and then I sponged on two coats of CG Entourage.  (for the sun I just dotted on a drop of SH Mellow Yellow)

 Accent nail: one coat of CG Hey Sailor.  I suck at freehand nail art, so I painted WNW Black Creme onto the edge of an old gift card, and then set it on my nail.  It got a little wobbly though hahaha

Then I just dotted on the spots!

Thanks for reading! <3

Yet Another Dotti-cure :)

Have you ever cut your nails and then realized later you cut off too much?  That's what I just did.  So now my nails are really short, and I'm mad at myself.  Hahaha but I'll deal with it :)

I wanna start off by saying this is not my best manicure; I was uninspired and the color combo ended up being blah instead of WOAH like how I originally imagined it.  I probably won't wear this for very long.

 L to R: Essie Lights (original post here), China Glaze Custom Kicks (also used here), China Glaze VIII

 Basecoat, 2 coats of Essie Lights, a middle row of dots (using a bobby pin) with CG Custom Kicks, and filled in dots with CG VIII (actually a dark vampy purple, but it showed up black and blah), top coat.

I also switched my background to black instead of white.  I think it looks more professional-like ;) haha! Thanks for reading! <3

Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet

Hey!

Today I did 2 easy coats of my favorite mint polish - Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet.  Then I took Sally Hansen White On and did some dots with a bobby pin, and topped it off with a thick coat of Seche Vite.  Not much else to say :)

 L to R: SH White On, SH Mint Sorbet

I'm gettin' fancy with my watermark! Hahaha :)

That's it! Kind of a short post, but it's a simple manicure :)

Thanks for reading! <3

Cow Print Manicure

Hi guys!

So I've been working on my stamping skills and a couple days ago I did a cow print manicure :) I used Sally Hansen White On, Wet N Wild Black Creme, Bundle Monster plate BM-222 and a Konad stamper.  Please excuse the horrible application of the polish haha it was hot outside and my white Sally Hansen is getting all thick and goopy and gross :P 

SH White On, WNW Black Creme

Mooooooo!!! :)

(Base coat, 2 coats SH White On, Black Creme for stamping, and Seche Vite top coat)

 My favorite nail (it was on my right hand...surprisingly my left hand ended up worse than my right...)

 Konad stamper and BM-222

I used 

Ta da! Cow print :) haha I was about to do a zebra print and then I noticed the cow... :)
The black didn't work as well as I wanted to for stamping.  If you look at the close-up of my favorite nail you can see it's pretty thin.  At least it showed up!
Thanks for reading! <3

(Late) Fourth of July manicure!

Hi everyone!

So I would've posted this yesterday, but I was too busy with 4th of July stuff ;)

My sister and I spend around an hour doing our nails and it was so fun cause we used my Bundle Monster stamping plates for the first time!

Supplies used:

-nails inc. Baker Street (see post here)

-China Glaze Hey Sailor

-Konad special white polish (I got it on amazon.com for about $5)

-BM plates 201 and 206

-Konad stamper/scraper (I just used an old gift card for the scraper so I didn't scratch my plates)

-Seche Vite top coat

 L to R: nails inc Baker Street, CG Hey Sailor, Konad special white

 Ta da! Haha okay so for all my fingers except my ring finger, I used two coats of Hey Sailor and stamped with BM 201 to represent the stripes on the flag (I didn't have any plain stripes hahaha).  Then on my accent finger I used two coats of Baker Street and stamped it with two stars from BM 206. After that all dried I put a thick coat of my fast-dry top coat over it

 Close up of the stars

 Blurry close up of the stripes haha

 BM-206 (star)

 BM-201 (stripes)

 Patriotism! Hahaha :)

My sister's nails. I forget which BM plate she used for the fireworks...I think it was BM-213

Since it was my first time stamping I made some errors (like not lining it up correctly).

I'm not gonna post a stamping tutorial right now just cause I'm not a pro, and if you type in "Nail art stamping tutorial" into Google you'll get countless hits :)

Thanks for reading! <3

Nails Inc. Baker Street

Hi!

I have a really pretty (and popular) color today: nails inc. Baker Street.  It's really popular ever since Beyonce wore it haha :)

It's a gorgeous cobalt blue with a perfect, self-leveling 2-coat formula (one if you're careful).  I got this at Sephora on sale for $10 (the crystal cap version originally sold for $20) for .33 oz.

 Crystals! <3 so pretty haha

 It's a little darker in real life...it looks really bright and springy here but it's a few shades darker.

The cute box it came in! Haha packaging is everything ;)

That's it! A short post with only one actual swatch picture...

Thanks for reading! <3