Sunday, March 31, 2013

NOTD: Stamping with OPI

Nail Of The Day: Geometric Stamping with OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons and OPI Red Lights Ahead Where?

Happy Monday.  Hopefully you are one of the lucky people that gets Monday off...I am not one of those people :)  It's nose to the grindstone for me at work today.  I'm loaded down with work, a particularly huge project, and I am planning on putting my headphones in and getting down to business.  Now that I've said it, I have to do it right?  I can't believe it is April 1st already.  It's almost been a year since my hubby and I bought our first house and it feels like the time has flown by.  I have to say I am really excited for April.  I am excited for warmer weather, flowers spouting around our house, hopefully trees and grass that will turn green again, and the asparagus in our garden should be sprouting soon.  Hopefully by the end of the month, we will have our sugar snap peas planted in our garden if the weather is warm enough.  We had amazing snap peas last year, you could eat them right off the vine.  That was really cool.  I hope great things happen in April.  Enough of my yammering :)  Today I have a simple stamping mani.  Can you tell I'm obsessed since I got my stamping plates?  I just love the looks I can create!


I started off with two coats of a light tan/nude color OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons.  I really loved this polish.  There is just something about opaque nude polishes that get me every time.  The formula was perfect!  I might need to see if I can get a full bottle of this since I just own a mini.  I can see myself reaching for it often.  I think it made my hands look really sleek and pretty.  I used Pueen stamping plate 04 in a cross hatch type pattern.  I stamped with OPI Red Lights Ahead Where? and finished with a top coat.  I'm not a huge red person, but I used this polish earlier in the day for a Disney challenge and it definitely covered in one coat.  Really nice!  Unfortunately my camera decided to die right as I was taking these pictures, that is why there is only one.  So to make up for it I will just make the picture really big :)  Haha, hope you enjoy!

"A" Manicure

"A" Manicure: Essie Absolutely Shore with Ulta Blue Streak

Second post for the day!  I am participating in Erica's Nails and More ABC Challenge.  Today is the very first week of the challenge so we all had to come up with a manicure featuring the letter A.  I chose Essie Absolutely Shore because I just love the pale mint color.  I wanted something cute so I chose to stamp bows using Ulta Blue Streak.  For a little bit of wild, I stamped a zebra print on my ring finger.  Hope you enjoy!






 


Ice Cream Sunday: Strawberry

Ice Cream Sunday: Strawberry Ice Cream

Happy Easter Everyone!  I hope you are enjoying your Sunday whether you celebrate or not.  I will be watching movies and eating peeps and my last non-dairy chocolate bar (sounds yummy right?).  I should be doing work, even though I don't work on the weekends, but that has yet to be determined :)  Today will also be a double post day because I am participating in Erica's Nails and More ABC Challenge.  Anyways, today for Ice Cream Sunday I chose Strawberry which is my second favorite ice cream flavor.  This mani didn't come out how I wanted it to and I might want to re-do it later.  See below for details.


I wanted the look of a saran wrap mani but every time I try it, it ends up taking up the polish underneath.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this?  I wanted that look but knowing I couldn't get it to work I took the nail polish brush and just dabbed it on.  It ended up looking chunkier than I would have liked.  I started with three coats of a pale sheer pink, OPI Passion.  I then dabbed on China Glaze Shocking Pink, and did a french tip with Essie Limited Addiction.  The only nail that I did like was the one with the stamped strawberries.  I used a Pueen stamping plate with Essie Limited Addiction and OPI Jade is the New Black.  I will have to re-think this and try again in a few weeks.



From left to right: China Glaze Shocking Pink, OPI Jade is the New Black, Essie Limited Addiction, and OPI Passion

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Mint Polish Comparisons

Mint Swatch Comparisons: China Glaze Keep Calm, Paint On, Essie Absolutely Shore, and Essie Mint Candy Apple

Happy Saturday everyone!  Not much going on here, just lounging around and watching movies.  I love those kind of days :)  Today I have a comparison of three mint colored polishes.  I've been on a real mint kick lately, from some home decorating, clothes, and nail polish colors.  I just can't get enough mint.  I even gravitate to them in the store.  I swatched three polishes, one China Glaze and two Essie.  For all the swatches I used no base coat or top coat and two coats of each.  For the photos, I used China Glaze Keep Calm, Paint On on my pointer and pinkie fingers, Essie Mint Candy Apple on my middle finger, and Essie Absolutely Shore on my ring finger.  This is what I used in each photo plus a bottle shot of each polish.  Keep reading for my thoughts on all three polishes.  I hope you love mint as much as I do.  What do you think of mint?  Love it or hate it?


The three colors with a bottle shot of China Glaze Keep Calm, Paint On.  This is a brand new color from the Avant Garden Collection.  This color is a pale mint with a shimmer finish.  I really liked this color, I used two coats for the photo above (pointer and pinkie fingers).  My only concern was the polish was a bit thicker than I normally like.  Good coverage though.


This picture includes a bottle shot of Essie Mint Candy Apple.  This polish is shown on my middle finger.  Out of the three, this has the strongest mint color and had no shimmer.  Shown is two coats.  The polish was a little bit difficult to work with  to get full coverage in two coats.  I think the color was worth it though.  It is my favorite out of all three.


This picture is of Essie Absolutely Shore.  Two coats are shown on my ring finger.  This was the thinnest polish of the three but if you are careful you can get away with two coats.  This polish is a very pale mint green with no shimmer.  I liked this one very much.


Bottle comparisons of all three.  I though the first two would be more similar based on the bottle shots but they are quite different.  I love all three.


Thursday, March 28, 2013

Easter Mani using China Glaze

Easter Mani using yellow, teal, and pink China Glaze

Hi everyone and happy Friday!  I love Fridays because that means the weekend is oh so close.  I unfortunately have to work today but I've heard that many people get this day off.  I had a different Easter manicure lined up for today that I did a few days ago but the one I did last night really trumped it.  I was so happy with it I had to take pictures right away so I could edit them and get them ready for today.  First a picture and then I will explain :)


I started out with two coats of yellow,  China Glaze Happy Go Lucky.  This is my only yellow polish and I really loved it.  It is so bright and cheery!  I've heard bad things about most yellow polishes from a number of brands but I was surprised with this one.  It was the first yellow I've ever used and I will be reaching for it a lot in the future.  The formula was good, it dried a little bit slower than regular polish but the thickness and color were very good.   Yellow also happens to be my favorite color!  I then using Pueen stamping plate 12 in a floral pattern using a dusty teal green color, China Glaze Exotic Encounters.  No problems there.  When I was finished, I thought it needed a little something extra.  I took a bobby pin and put pink dots where the dots occurred on the stamping pattern using China Glaze Escaping Reality.  I think is my favorite manicure to date!  What do you think?




Wednesday, March 27, 2013

NOTD: OPI Glitter Manicure

NOTD: OPI I Have a Herring Problem and The Living Daylights


Hi everyone and happy Thursday...almost to the weekend!  I was feeling a little stressed yesterday so I opted for a shiny glittery manicure to cheer me up.  I didn't exactly choose spring colors but I think it's passable :)  I started off with two coats of OPI I Have a Herring Problem.  I got the mini of this polish a couple months ago and have been wanting to try it.  I really liked the color of this polish and it had a really good formula.  In most light it leans grey on me even though it is a "greyed out" blue color.  OPI The Living Daylights is one of my only glitter polishes so far but I absolutely love the unique color combinations of glitter that OPI used.  I love this glitter because it contains teal, silver, gold, and copper colored glitter.  So unique!  For a glitter like this I would normally think holidays, but in this case I think the blue helps to tone it down.  I've still got it on today, chip free!  I keep looking at the glitters and how shiny they are, I love that.  Hope you enjoy and have a good day.


Monday, March 25, 2013

Essie Mirror Metallics Collection

Essie Swatches: Penny Talk and No Place Like Chrome

It's Wednesday, Wednesday....half way through the week and I'm just fine with that!  I know the Essie Mirror Metallics collection has been out for a while but I recently picked up No Place Like Chrome and felt the need to show off my picks (plus this collection is still in stores).  I picked up Penny Talk a few months ago after seeing it all over Pinterest.  I couldn't help myself :)  I've heard complaints about this collection drying very quickly but for me, that is a positive.  Both polishes in the photos were two coats, no base or topcoat.  My only complaint is that they do chip fairly quickly but I do like that I can throw on a coat or two and it will be dry almost instantly.  Every time I go to the store I still look at the blue metallic and the purple metallic but I haven't been able to pull the trigger on those.


Essie Penny Talk is a pretty copper metallic polish.  Photos are two coats with no topcoat.  The formula was good, although it did show a little bit of brush strokes.  Very quick drying!




Essie No Place Like Chrome is a silver metallic polish.  Good formula again and very quick drying.






First Time Stamping using OPI

First Time Stamping: OPI My Vampire is Buff and OPI Vant to Bite My Neck?

Hi everyone!  Happy Tuesday!  Today I will show my first stamping manicure.  I did technically try once before but the polishes weren't right so I didn't want to subject anyone to that :)


 


A while back, the blogger ChitChatNails posted a review of Pueen stamping plates that were on sale on Amazon.  Since I had never heard of any brands of stamping plates and because they were ridiculously on sale, I went ahead and picked them up.  I also picked up a Konad stamper and scraper with my order.  The Pueen set came with 25 stainless steel stamping plates with four full designs and two mini images on each plate.  It really was a great value.   I started off with two coats of OPI My Vampire is Buff.  This truly is a favorite polish of mine right now, it's just perfect...color, formula, opacity.  I contemplated buying a second bottle as a backup but I didn't know if that seemed ridiculous or not :)  I used stamping plate 02 and OPI Vant to Bite My Neck?  This purple was the perfect polish for stamping.  Obviously it's not perfect but I don't think it was bad for a first try!  







Sunday, March 24, 2013

Julep Maven Box-March 2013

Julep Maven Box-March 2013 (My First Box!)

Hi everyone!  Another start to the work week, although I will be taking a snow day today.  We got a massive amount of snow yesterday and last night so it looks like winter here.  All in all we got about a foot of snow although some places in the driveway are over a foot.  One thing that does make my day brighter is my first Julep Maven box.  I've seen posts about the March maven boxes but mine was different I think, either I've only seen some posts not featuring the polishes I got or everyone's first box is the same.  Anyways, the two polishes I received were Robin and Stefani.  I did take a picture of the box, but it was on my phone so the pictures didn't come out.  I chose boho glam, so you get two polishes and the product that month.  I received the two polishes, a mint cucumber foot scrub, and a hand exfoliation cream.  I will say that I really liked the foot scrub.  I've used it once since I got it and it worked really well.  The smell was good, it warmed up on contact like it advertised, and my feet felt really smooth afterwards.  It's not something I would go out and buy myself but I ended up liking it and will be using it again.  Read more about the polishes below.


Robin is a medium robin's egg blue.   These are my first Julep polishes and I was really impressed with the formula.  I used two easy coats for this polish, with no top or base coat.  The formula was smooth, dry time was average, and the color was fantastic.  A warning though-this one stained my nails pretty badly but that wouldn't stop me from using it again in the future.  I've already used it several times since I got it.



My second polish is Stefani.  It's a shiny gunmetal grey with a touch of gold shimmer.  I was a little worried when I read the description when I picked my box because gold really isn't my color.  I was pleasantly surprised when I tried it though.  The gold shimmer doesn't really stand out, but it ups the shine value of the polish giving it that something special.  As with the first polish, this was two easy coats with no topcoat.  






Overall I was really impressed with my first Julep Maven box.  I loved the products I received, the colors, and the quality of both the products and polish.  My April Julep box will be on its way soon!


Ice Cream Sunday!-Mint Chocolate Chip Mani

Ice Cream Sunday!-Mint Chocolate Chip Mani

I've spent two weeks going back and forth on a themed post once a week.  I kept thinking and thinking and couldn't come up with anything.  Finally this morning it hit me...Ice Cream Sundays.  The premise behind Ice Cream Sundays is that I recently, for about a month and a half now, developed a dairy allergy.  This includes ice cream, which I love so much.  So instead of thinking about not eating creamy delicious ice cream, I decided to put the designs on my nails.  Hence the double post today.  For my first theme post, I chose my most favorite ice cream ever-Mint Chocolate Chip.  This also incorporates one of my favorite nail trends right now-mint nails.  Hope you enjoy!  Nail colors are discussed below.




Greens used (from left to right): Essie Mint Candy Apple, Hard Candy Gummy Green, Ulta Mint Condition, China Glaze Keep Calm, Paint On, and Essie Absolutely Shore.


Browns used (from left to right): Essie Little Brown Dress, OPI Sprung, OPI What Wizardry Is This?, and OPI When Monkeys Fly.


Dotticure: OPI Euro Centrale Shades

Dotticure: With OPI Euro Centrale Shades

Hi everyone.  I hope the weekend is going well.  Today we are hunkering down inside due to the winter storm.  They are calling for 5 to 12 inches of snow.  I mean, it's almost April, what is the deal?  To counteract this, I went with another fun spring manicure.  I got out my collection of OPI Euro Centrale shades and decided to do a design with dots using a bobby pin.  I started with two coats of OPI Can't Find My Czechbook.  I love this shade of blue, it's just perfect.  I let the blue dry and took different shades and followed the curve of my nail.  I used OPI Vant To Bite My Neck?, OPI Eurso Euro, OPI My Paprika is Hotter Than Yours!, and filled in the rest of the nails with dots in OPI Suzi's Hungary Again!.  It was very simple but I really liked the look.  



Saturday, March 23, 2013

Diagonal Manicure in Cool Colors

Diagonal Manicure: Zoya Blu and China Glaze Budding Romance


Hi everyone!  Just a quick post today since it's Saturday and sunny out.  I'm happy to say that we had all of our windows successfully installed which is good because tomorrow we are supposed to get 7 to 12 inches of snow.  So for now I will continue to boycott snow and winter temperatures with spring manicures :)  This manicure is familiar to the manicure yesterday which I did in warm tones.  For today I decided to do some cool tones which happen to work better with my super pale skin tone.  I picked two of my current favorite polishes, Zoya Blu and China Glaze Budding Romance.  I went for a quirky combination and have to say that I love how this manicure turned out.  I used two coats of Zoya Blu, which I have already raved about, and topped it with China Glaze Budding Romance.  It's kind of mix of a creme and a jelly in a bright olive green color.  It won't be everyone's cup of tea but I really liked it, from the formula to the color.  I used one coat of budding romance and no topcoat for the photos below.  Enjoy your Saturday!


Friday, March 22, 2013

Neon Diagonal Mani

Neon Diagonal Mani: China Glaze Mimosa's Before Mani's and Shocking Pink

Fridays should be fun so I went with a funky french mani today.  I wore this mani for the first day of Spring, even though it was freezing here and still is.  I just couldn't help myself!  I used four coats of China Glaze Shocking Pink which is a bright neon pink that just screamed spring to me.  Outside it was just so neon and amazingly bright.  Four coats sounds like a lot of work, but this polish dried really quickly (it also dried matte).  I didn't have striping tape so I stole some blue painters tape from my husband's work bench and cut it into little strips.  I let the pink completely dry and then put the blue painter's tape diagonally and painted one coat of China Glaze Mimosa's Before Mani's.  This polish is brand new from the Avant Garden Spring 2013 Collection.  This polish is a really pretty peach creme with a touch of shimmer.  Before the peach polish dried, I removed the tape and then finished with one coat of Seche Vite topcoat.  Have a good Friday everyone!



 

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Zoya Summer 2013: Stunning & Irresistible

JUST LIKE THE SUN, YOU ARE THE CENTER OF ATTENTION!
STUNNING & IRRESISTIBLE
Twelve new Sun Inspired Colors for Summer 2013.

Summer brings the sunniest colors to nails! Including six super shiny creams and six fresh foil metallics to put all the focus on the brightest shining light in any room - YOU!

 Zoya SUMMER 2013: STUNNING Collection
Darcy - Sunny Yellow Cream - Full Coverage
Thandie - Citrus Orange Cream - Full Coverage
Micky - Amazing Coral Cream - Full Coverage
Yana - Rubine Red Cream - Full Coverage
Josie - Grassy Green Cream - Full Coverage
Rocky - Serene Blue Cream - Full Coverage

Zoya SUMMER 2013: IRRISISTIBLE Collection
Kerry - Yellow Gold Foil Metallic - Full Coverage
Amy - Red Orange Foil Metallic - Full Coverage
Tinsley - Rose Gold Foil Metallic - Full Coverage
Bobbi - Hot Magenta Pink Foil Metallic - Full Coverage
Hazel - Blue Green Foil Metallic - Full Coverage
Rikki - Fern Green Foil Metallic - Full Coverage
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Shipping April 15, 2013
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Zoya Blu: A Review

A Review of Zoya Blu

Happy Thursday everyone!  Today we are getting new windows installed for our entire house so I figured I would go with something that had some outdoor inspiration. Zoya Blu is a new color from the Spring 2013 Lovely Collection.  It reminds me of a crisp blue sky and that's why I chose it.  I will admit that this is my very first Zoya polish.  I had never tried this brand and had no idea what to expect.  I will say that I'm blown away by the quality of this product.  This polish is a sky blue creme pastel and the photos are two coats with no topcoat.  It was smooth to apply.  Because it was a pastel, the first coat was streaky but this evened out after the second coat.  The second coat didn't pull, wasn't streaky, and was just thick enough to provide full coverage without taking forever to dry.  I have to say, this is one of my favorite polishes in my entire collection and if I could, I would go out and buy the entire Lovely Collection.  Good job Zoya!