Saturday, May 31, 2014

Fruit Week II-Cartoon Lemons

Hi everyone and welcome to Saturday.  I actually got up at seven this morning which is out of the norm for me.  We are headed to Soda Fest in about an hour and the hubby is super excited.  I plan on playing with polish when I get home and that is exciting for me :)  My husband is planning on staining my wall rack this weekend so I had to take down all my OPIs that were hanging up.  That led to me biting the bullet and counting my entire OPI collection.  If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that I came up with 249 OPI polishes.  I always wanted to remain blissfully ignorant but I'm kind of glad I did it so now I can catalog them on Pinterest.  I won't be counting the rest of my collection anytime soon though ;)

Today I have another fruit mani.  I'm a little on the fence about this mani so you'll have to let me know what you think.  I went for a cartoonish, non-realistic version of lemons.  Let's check them out!


To create this look, I started with a base of Essie Where's My Chauffeur, which is a beautiful dusty turquoise that sat on my lemming list forever until I recently found a bottle.  I started with white circles in OPI Alpine Snow and a dotting tool.  I then took a small nail art brush and OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana to create the body of the lemons.  For the inner parts of the cut lemons, I started with Essie Licorice to draw the lines and then went over them to tone them down with Barielle Banana Drop.

And look at that...we just happened to have a lemon....




There you have it, let me know what you think!  I also have a new video going up soon if you are interested in that.  It's a video of my favorite nail polishes from May.

Friday, May 30, 2014

Fruit Week II-Artsy Pears

Hi guys...TGIF :)  Yay for Friday, now just to get through the work day.  I'm excited for the weekend because we have some really fun things planned.  Tomorrow we are going to the Homer Soda Festival which has over 250 flavors of soda to sample.  My husband always loves the weird specialty flavors of soda in the grocery store so I knew he would get a kick out of that.  Sunday I'm going to try to convince him to take me to the movies to see X Men or Maleficent.  I haven't decided which I want to see more.  Have you guys seen either of them and if you have, what did you think?  

Today I obviously have another fruit mani, which will continue tomorrow and Sunday as well.  Tomorrow's is a surprise but I did get a request for mangoes so I will be doing that for Sunday.  Other than that, we have moved straight on to Summer here with storms and weather in the upper 80's.  Our fruit trees are doing nicely in this warm weather so I even got a shot at the end with a developing pear....we have two pear trees in our yard.


To create this pear look, it was relatively simple.  I started with a base of OPI Suzi Takes the Wheel, which is a warm toned grey.  I started with a dotting tool and OPI Don't Talk Bach To Me and created the outline of the pear.  I went in with the same dotting tool and Zoya Jacqueline for the creamy centers and then did another layer of OPI Don't Talk Bach To Me in the center of that.  I finished off with the stem and details with Essie Licorice and a small nail art brush.




That's all she wrote, have a good Friday everyone!

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Fruit Week II-Orange Slices (+a bonus cat)

Hi there everyone, and welcome back to another installment of fruit week.  This is going to be a quick post because I'm going into the field for work today, basically 7-8 hours of driving is what it means.  I'm just getting some caffeine into my system before I head out as I am a notoriously bad morning person. Although, I do have some positive news to share.  The first is that I won't be quitting youtube videos.  I just think I needed some outside encouragement and a little breather.  The second thing is that I have a new plan of action for my health.  If you follow regularly, you'll know that I have gone through a few years of struggle with diagnosing my food allergies, and although I've avoided all those foods for a year now, I still don't feel like I'm thoroughly better.  I did a lot of research into leaky gut syndrome, which was briefly mentioned to me a year ago, although at the time I didn't understand what they meant, and now I'm going to take steps to heal my body and hopefully this will lead to more energy, less problems with weight, and no more random allergic reactions (I'm looking at you shellfish).  I just wanted to let you guys know because I am really excited and hopeful about it.

Enough yammering and onto the nails!  Today I have some orange slices that I based off of generic computer clipart.  I thought the final result was kind of funky and different so that's what I went for :)


To create this look, I started with a base of OPI Taylor Blue and then taped off vertical stripes on my ring finger and used OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam!  I wanted the stripes to stand out more but I ended up messing up that orange so they were more covered than I had planned.  For the oranges, I used a small nail art brush and started the outline with Essie Licorice.  For the lighter inner orange I used Wet N Wild Sunny Side Up and for the darker orange peel I used Barielle Fire Me Up.  I finished off with some details in Essie Licorice and one coat of Seche Vite.




Oh yes, the bonus cat.  From time to time I like to include a bonus cat picture, just because I like seeing other people's pets in their blogposts.  I took this picture on Sunday of my cat Lucy on her leash in the yard.  Yes, we walk our cats around the yard on leashes.  One can't get enough, one is okay with it, and one is terrified.  Lucy here is the one that is okay with it.  Ridiculous?  You bet :)


There you have it, oranges as fruit week continues.  I actually have everything planned out for two more days but I am stumped on a fruit for Sunday.  If you have a request, let me know!

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Fruit Week II-Teeny Tiny Grapes

Hi everyone and welcome to Wednesday.  I want to thank everyone for your kind words when I expressed my uncertainty about continuing youtube.  I honestly didn't know if anyone even cared but now that I see that people do, I am much less inclined to just quit altogether.  My biggest concern was using work time to watch videos but yesterday I proved to myself that I can stop doing that.  I think I just need to sit down and take some time to organize a schedule and things will be much better.  So, thank you to everyone who left an encouraging comment yesterday, it did make a difference.  I also took some time to relax last night and just hang out, which I think I needed :)

Fruit week continues on and I have to admit that I have had so much fun coming up with all these new fruit designs, even my husband throws around his thoughts for how to make the fruit look more realistic :)  For today's fruit, I chose to make teeny tiny bunches of grapes.  I hadn't planned on doing grapes but I found a picture that had all three colors and that inspired what you see below.  It's funny because I had never tried red grapes until I was an adult.  My mom only would buy green grapes so I assumed that all red grapes had seeds in them.  Do you have a grape preference? ;)


First, I'll start out with what I did and then I will break down the many colors that I used.  This look was super simple to create and the only tool I used was a small dotting tool.  I started with one layer of dots, let them dry, and then went in with a second lighter color in the same tone to give the bunches more depth.  I finished off with the stems and then topcoat.

Polishes used:

Base-Zoya Dot
Stems-OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys
Green Bunches-OPI Did It on Em and Maybelline Color Show Lime Accent
Red Bunches-OPI 20 Candles on my Cake and Zoya Kate
Purple Bunches-OPI Honk if you Love OPI and OPI Pamplona Purple




I really like the final look of this mani, especially with how easy it was to make.  It's definitely something that could be done on the non-dominant hand as well.  Let me know what you think down below! 

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Twinsie Tuesday-Follower Requested Mani (Fruit Week-bananas)

Hi there everyone and welcome to Tuesday.  It's the first day back after a nice long four day weekend.  The weekend was awesome!  Friday was mostly a relaxing after the work week day, Saturday was spent hiking in Indiana, Sunday was a recovering after hiking all day Saturday, and yesterday was spent playing board games and watching a movie at our friends house.  Not too shabby if you ask me :)  

I had a lot of time to think over the weekend and it has been on my mind that I might stop doing Youtube.  I do have multiple reasons but the main ones, to be completely honest, are financial and personal.  I want to be completely honest with you guys and so I have to say that it kind of became an obsession of sorts.  It started going into my work life (meaning...watching videos) and that just isn't right.  I've always had a hobby I've really enjoyed, before the blog it was scrapbooking, but I feel so much pressure to keep up with the latest makeup, trying to look camera ready when that really isn't who I am, and taking so much time just wanting to keep up with watching all the latest videos and putting less time into my blog.  The decision isn't set in stone, but I just wanted to say how I was feeling about it.

Something I never wanted to suffer was my blog and I apologize for that.  Starting fruit week has really sparked my nail art love again and that makes me really happy.  Enough rambling....time to get into the post :)  Today's Twinsie Tuesday theme was a follower requested mani, which was much tougher than I thought.  Finally yesterday I got my first request from Cait at Polish Hound, who requested bananas for fruit week.  If you haven't seen her blog, you should (hint hint....awesome swatches and a ridiculously cute dog).


To create these goofy little bananas, I started with a contrasting base color of OPI A Grape Fit, which is a red-toned medium grape cream.  I started by creating the dark banana outlines with OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys, a dark brown, and then filled in the bananas with OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana.  I added the lines in the bananas with the same dark brown and then added stems and bottoms using a medium chocolate brown, Essie Fierce, No Fear.  I finished off with Seche Vite.




I hope you like these silly little bananas, and yes, I had to include one spotted one because bananas never seem to stay fresh in my house.  Also, I did eat the banana right after the photos.  Thanks again to Cait for the request and don't forget to check out the other Twinsies down below.

Alaina at The Little Canvas
Amanda at Amandalandish
Chelsea at Nailed Blog
Elizabeth at Did My Nails
Kelly at Tuxarina
Lakeisha at Refined and Polished
Marisa at Polish Obsession
Róisín at Cuti-CLUE-les
Stephanie at A Little Polish
Traci at DrinkCitra

Monday, May 26, 2014

Fruit Week II-Papaya Ruffian

Hi there everyone, and happy Monday and Memorial Day.  I hope you have a fantastic day planned, but I would just like to take a second to thank all of those brave men and women who have served and who are serving to keep us safe and preserving our freedom.  I hope we can all just take a second and be thankful today.  

This week is a special week because it's a continuation of a fun concept from last year...fruit week!  Last year in July, I came up with a fruit design and people liked it so much that I turned it into a full week of different fruit designs.  I made kiwi nails, a dragonfruit ruffian, grapefruit slices, three different watermelon designs, and cherry nails.  This week I will be bringing you seven different fruit manis that will be completely different than last year.  Can you tell I'm excited?  :)  Also one more quick thing...tomorrow's TT theme is a follower requested mani so if you have a fruit you would like me to re-create, leave me a comment below!

Today I'm kicking things off with a papaya ruffian.  I've never actually had papaya before so I'm not sure what it tastes like haha!  I saw one split open at the store on Friday and thought that it would be a great way to kick off the week.


To create this look, I started with a base of the yellow leaning green, Zoya Tilda.  When looking up pictures of papaya, I noticed a pinker more mauvy toned flesh and an orange toned flesh so I wanted to incorporate both.  For the orange papayas, I used OPI Where Did Suzi's Man-go? and for the mauvy papayas, I used Essie Mamba.

To create the insides, I started with a dotting tool and used Essie Licorice to create the black dots.  I then came in with an orange that is on the sheer side, Zoya Cole, and used a dotting tool to spread it around the seeds and throughout the seeds.  I finished off with one coat of topcoat.

 



There you go, kicking off fruit week with something a little more exotic.  I would love to know what you think of this design and if you have a specific fruit for me to try, leave me a comment down below!

Sunday, May 25, 2014

LE OPI Hello Flamingo Collection Swatches

Hi there everyone, happy Sunday.  Yesterday was a busy day because the hubby and I spent the entire day at Turkey Run State Park in Indiana.  We usually go once or twice a year and do some hiking and fossil hunting.  This time we spent the entire day, hiked and fossil hunted, had lunch and sat around, and then did more hiking after lunch.  Man am I sore today haha!  It was fun though, plus I got a ton of people watching in.  Does anyone else have fun people watching?  Today is going to be a pretty chill day, the only thing planned is a bonfire and s'mores.  

Today I have swatches of two Limited Edition (ahhhh, there are those words again) OPIs, the bad thing is that they can only be found at Cosmoprof, which requires a beauty license to shop at.  I got these polishes through my friend who I swap OPI polishes with every month.  This Hello Flamingo collection consists of two new polishes, Flamingo Tini Pink and Feel The Mo-heat-oes Green, along with four re-released shades, including Alpine Snow, You're Such a Budapest, No Room for the Blues, and Pink Flamenco.

First up is Flamingo Tini Pink, which is a pastel bubblegum pink cream.  The formula on this one was really good and I only needed two coats for full coverage.  I also used topcoat for the photos below.



The second of the two new polishes is Feel the Mo-heat-oes Green, which is a pastel mint green cream.  The formula on this one was a bit tricky, thin but buildable.  If you are familiar with the thin-ish formula of OPI You're Such a Budapest, this one had the exact same kind of formula.  I used three thin coats with topcoat below.  I am obsessed with this color, it's really pretty!



There you have it, two new OPIs.  I was lucky that my friend surprised me with these, my back up option would be to have asked my hairdresser, who is fine with picking up polishes for me.  Will you be picking up these polishes?

Friday, May 23, 2014

Jindie Nails: Strawberry Cupcake and All of the Lights

Hi there everyone, happy Friday.  I did something a little naughty and took the day off work to have a four day weekend.  It must seem like I take off so much time but we do get five weeks vacation a year.  The work is very high-stress, ergo the high amount of vacation.  Also...it was my husband's idea, so I'll just put that one on him :)

I mentioned recently that I had a huge amount of polish that came in at the same time so I've shown many swatches lately.  I hope you guys don't mind!  I recently ordered eight mini bottles of Jindie Nails polish and figured I would show them as I swatch them.  This is my first experience with Jindie Nails and I am very happy so far.  

First up is Strawberry Cupcake.  I have to be honest, I ordered this one solely on the name.  I couldn't help myself.  This polish is from the November 2012 Winter Chic Collection but I think it's a polish that could be worn year round.  The base is a pastel pinky purple crelly that's filled with different shapes of glitter in teal, berry, grape, turquoise, aqua, white, and periwinkle.   I don't have a ton of experience with glitter filled crellies but this one applied so well and the glitter was not lost in the base.  I used two easy coats with topcoat below.




The second polish I have to show you is All of the Lights, which is a glitter and shimmer filled topper.  The glitters are mostly circles, with a few hexes, and a ton of silver and teal shimmer.  While I assume this is a holiday polish, there are so many colors of matte and metallic glitter that I think it would be pretty over pretty much any color of polish.  I used one coat over OPI You Pink Too Much which is a neon pink with blue shimmer.  The density of this polish was really good and there was no digging or fishing for glitters.  I found it best to dab a blob of polish on the nail and then spread it around.  Swatches are one coat with topcoat.




Yay, yay, yay!  That's my final verdict on both of these :)  I have six more pretties to share with you and I can't wait to wear them.  Do you have a favorite Jindie nails polish?

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Comparison Request: Essie Haute in the Heat and Philly Loves Lacquer Blue Holos

Hi there everyone.  Just a quick third post for me today.  I got two different comparison requests today so I did them really quick after work.  

Comparison 1: Philly Loves Lacquer Absecon vs. River Rink vs. Love Those Wildwood Days


Absecon-The lightest of the blue holos, it almost looks icy next to the other two.

River Rink-The medium of the blues, strongest holo.

Love Those Wildwood Days-Bright medium sky blue.

Comparison 2: Essie Watermelon vs. Essie Style Hunter vs. Essie Haute in the Heat


Watermelon-Lightest of the three.

Style Hunter-The most red of the three, slightly darker than Watermelon.

Haute in the Heat-A touch more raspberry than the other two, darkest of the three.

I hope this helped, feel free to leave me any comparisons in the comments :)

New Video: Zoya Earth Day Haul

Hi there everyone, welcome back.  Today I have a new video of the eight polishes that I purchased in the Zoya Earth Day promo from last month.  Let me know which shades you got :)  So far I've swatched and posted Wednesday and I've worn Aurora.  These will definitely be popping up in Swatch Spam in the near future!


Essie Haute in the Heat Collection (Part 1)

Hi there guys, welcome to Thursday.  I woke up this morning and can definitely say that I feel loads better.  I ended up leaving work at lunch yesterday and napping and resting the rest of the day.  I feel much more normal today though, and I don't look like a hobo stumbled into work :)  I also would like to point out that I must be the only person that didn't realize that Memorial Day was this weekend.  I'm not sure how I missed that but I didn't figure it out until yesterday.

Today I have three polishes from the Essie Haute in the Heat Collection.  This collection was a complete surprise to me since the Too Taboo collection just came out.  I randomly saw these polishes at Kohls and couldn't figure out what they were until I saw a random press release.  They only had a few colors and I have yet to find the rest.  I know for sure there's a bright orange, which I skipped on, and a chocolate brown and a cream nude, which are the two I'm looking for.


First up is Essie Strut Your Stuff.  Look at that bright blue!!!  This polish is a bright medium marine blue cream.  The formula on this one was fantastic and I needed two easy coats.  I did use topcoat for all the swatches.  One thing to note is that this one did leave a blue stain on my nails after a few minutes.



Next up is Essie Ruffles & Feathers which is a really interesting green.  This polish reminds me of the jungle green crayon in the Crayola box.  Does anyone else relate colors back to Crayola colors?  I do!  This polish is a medium jungle green cream with a great formula.  I used two easy coats plus topcoat.




Last up is a color that looks very familiar!  Essie Haute in the Heat is the namesake of the collection and it's a deep pink leaning red.  This one is extremely similar to Essie Watermelon as well as Essie Style Hunter.  I did compare them on a swatch wheel and Watermelon is the lightest, Style Hunter is one shade darker than Watermelon, and this one is a touch more raspberry than the other two.  The formula however is amazing on this one!  I only needed one coat, it was so opaque.  I used one coat plus topcoat.




Have you heard of this collection before and do you plan on picking any up?  Hopefully I'll be able to find the other part of the collection soon :)

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Colors of the Rainbow Gradient

Hi there everyone, welcome to Wednesday.  I am still recovering from my shellfish incident, but I did go home at lunch time yesterday and slept for a straight two and a half hours, then ended up going to bed at 9:30pm.  That's pretty much all that went on yesterday, sitting in a Benedryll induced stupor.  

Today I have a manicure that I did last Sunday.  It's not exactly what I had planned but I figured I would show it anyways!


I used a makeup sponge and my Liquid Palisade to do my gradient and I started with a base of OPI Alpine Snow which is a plain bright white.  The colors I used were:

Pointer-Maybelline Coral Crush, Maybelline Coral Heat, Essie Fear or Desire
Middle-Maybelline Bleached in Peach, Barielle Banana Drop, Barielle Mint Ice Cream Cone
Ring-OPI You Are so Outta Lime, China Glaze At Vase Value, China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle
Pinky-Essie In the Cab-ana, OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender, Maybelline Ultra Violet

I then finished off with one coat of Seche Vite.




Let me know what you think of this mani.  I think the pointer finger is out of place because it's too bright.  Maybe I'll give it another try with different colors.  Have a great Wednesday everyone.