Hello everyone, welcome to Monday. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. Sorry for the radio silence here, it was one heck of a spontaneous weekend for me. I ended up going with my mom to see my sister in Iowa and have a girls weekend. We did so much running around and shopping that my body is actually sore. I shopped for the first time in Sephora and did some pretty major damage but I'm happy with everything from the entire weekend so that's all I really could ask for. I got back home last night so I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things :) I am already looking forward to the long weekend ahead though! Today I have a polish that I wore recently that I picked up during the Zoya Earth Day promo. I was torn between this one and Robyn but ultimately I went with Yummy because I thought it was more unique. Let's take a look at this blue stunner.
Zoya Yummy is a blue cream polish that Zoya describes as a light robin's egg blue or a sky blue. I would describe it as a medium bright sky blue cream with a hint of periwinkle. I think the hint of periwinkle dustiness really makes this polish something special. This polish had a typical Zoya formula that applied smooth and buttery on the nail. I used two easy coats with topcoat for all of my swatches.
Is this a polish you have in your collection? I am very happy with this color and am glad I went with it during the promo. Now I just need to wish for skies this color because the sky is black as night and the thunder is shaking the building....
Hi there guys, happy Friday. Yesterday was such a weird day because I was talking to my mom over email and within a period of a half an hour, I was all set to drive up to Chicago in the afternoon, and then head to Iowa this weekend. This was totally unplanned! If you guys know anything about me, you'll know I'm pretty much the least spontaneous person ever. So now as this post goes live, I will be on my way to Iowa with my mom to hang out with her and my sister over the weekend. Yesterday was kind of weird to say the least ;) Today I have a post I was really looking forward to. Awhile back, Cait from Polish Hound came up with the idea of "Nailstalgia" which was an idea to showcase older shades of polish that were more well known, some of them from her stash of untrieds. I thought this was a fantastic idea! Her first post featured China Glaze For Audrey, which pushed me to try the same polish from my stash. The idea took off and Cait as well as myself and Caroline from Good Lack, Nail! decided to make this a monthly post. The theme for this month was pink, but both ladies decided to try OPI Elephantastic Pink. What a perfect reason for me to hunt it down and add it to my collection ;)
OPI Elephantastic Pink is from the 2008 India Collection and it is described as a carnation pink cream. When I put this on my nails, the first thing I thought was.....pink salt water taffy. That led to a google image search of pink salt water taffy and my suspicions were correct! I loved the color of this polish but I found the formula to be a bit thin and streaky. I ended up needing three coats plus topcoat to even everything out.
Cinnamon taffy is my favorite but unfortunately I can't find any egg free kinds of taffy. I will still admire its pretty colors though :) I hope you guys enjoyed this post. Is this a polish you own? I have to admit I really fell in love with this one!
Hi guys, welcome to Thursday. It's a pretty typical day around here, work, warm weather, and storms. I'm trying to decide whether to go up to Chicago this weekend but I'm pretty undecided at this point :) Wow, that's probably the most interesting intro I've ever wrote (insert sarcasm here). Today I have a very well known polish that is at the height of its controversy at the moment. If you are unfamiliar, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue is a cult classic polish with a fantastic color and formula. Recently and without warning, Sally Hansen changed this polish, keeping the name, to a shimmery blue with a bad formula so I've heard. I'm keeping my mouth shut on the whole situation, but I wanted to show you the color that everyone is talking about.
So as a polish, Pacific Blue rocks. I thought the formula was smooth and buttery and I needed two easy coats for my swatches. I originally bought this color as a substitute for Essie Butler Please, which has a terrible formula and chips within hours on me. I wore this polish for a day and didn't even have tip wear. The color above is the true color, I had a normal swatch with the bottle but it ended up looking crazy neon and bright and I didn't feel comfortable showing that :)
When I wore this polish, I wore accent nails on my ring finger and thumb using dots in multiple colors. I ended up choosing China Glaze Highlight of my Summer, Barielle Topless in St Tropez, and Barielle Paradise in the Tropics.
Ultimately, if you want this polish, I would head out ASAP and try to find it at the drugstore. I looked for it and found the new polish but several of these older bottles hidden behind them. What do you think about this polish situation?
Hi everyone and happy Hump Day! I am very happy to report that I took my migraine medicine for the first time yesterday and it actually worked, yay! I felt like I had so much time for blogging and youtube after work and that makes me a happy girl :) Today I am really excited to share with you my favorite orange polishes. I feel like oranges can be so underrated and often ignored but as more time goes on, the more I love a good orange polish. Let's get right into it! The first set of photos are my favorite peachy orange polishes. I feel like every peach polish I try I end up loving, but I still haven't found that perfect true peach color. Julep Clara-pale cool peach cream, the formula is a bit difficult and it does need three coats but obviously the color rocks ;) Maybelline Color Show Bleached in Peach-this one is from the new Bleached Neons collection, which was supposed to be discontinued in May I believe, but I've still seen them in a few places around me. The color is a neon pastel warm peach. It is a little bit difficult and needs three coats but I think it's worth it. Zoya Cole-When I look at this one in the bottle, I think of it as peach, but on the nail it translates to a dusty peach. Another tough formula, needing three coats. It's slightly more crelly than a true cream.
Next up are some unique glitters and some medium orange tones. Deborah Lippman Million Dollar Mermaid-Do I need to even explain? A shimmery orange and gold glitter in a light orange base. NailNation 3000 Wrapped Candy-I included this one because the holo base is slightly orange and it also contained shredded glitters in a rainbow of colors, including orange. OPI Where Did Suzi's Man-go?-A melon mango cool toned medium orange cream. I find this color really unique because it's a cool toned orange. Wet N Wild Sunny Side Up-I included this orange, which is a warmer medium orange cream, because it's the orange I use the most for nail art, hands down. Zoya Thandie-A deeper cantaloupe orange cream and I love this one because it again has those cooler tones. A vein of silver shimmer is visible in the bottle but it doesn't translate on the nail. Perfect formula.
Now we're getting into some rich deeper oranges! OPI Bright Lights, Big Color-This polish was acquired on a trip to Marco Island, Florida, because I have a tradition of getting a bottle of polish from each place I visit. This polish is an orange shimmer but it has a really strong pink base. Great formula. Zoya Rocha-A vibrant red/orange cream and I picked this one specifically because it doesn't bleed when you clean it up, which is rare for oranges. The color is bright, vibrant, and juicy, and the formula is great. OPI A Roll in the Hauge-Another bright red/orange cream but this one is the warmer cousin to Zoya Rocha.
Zoya Amy-Fall in the bottle! This one is such a gorgeous shimmery orange, but like Bright Lights, Big Color above, it has a really pink base to it. Great formula. OPI A Woman's Prague-ative-This polish is a copper orange shimmer that leans much more bronze than Zoya Amy. Spellbound Nails Fall 'n Leaves-One of my favorite Fall glitters, this clear glitter topper contains gold, orange, black, and red glitters. Julep Autumn-Another clear glitter topper, I think this one is really unique because the metallic orange glitters are more melon cool toned and the red glitters are more pinky red.
If you prefer the video version, check it out down below! Let me know your favorite orange polish in the comments below :)
Hi everyone and welcome to Tuesday. Yesterday was kind of a weird day because I decided it was finally time to go see the doctor for my migraines. I ended up working a half day and then went in and had to do bloodwork, schedule an MRI, and then got some medicine to take. My MRI isn't until July 7th but hopefully I will have some relief with the medicine until then. Sometimes it just takes talking (or typing) about it to realize that you need to do something about it. Not much else is going on around here besides stormy weather and a typical work day.
Today's TT post was a fun one, inspired by food or drink. I had a hard time deciding what to do so I eventually took a peek at my "nail art inspiration" board that I made on Pinterest. That's where I found the picture below and thought it would be really fun to recreate. Sweets are my weakness and I saw all those pastel colors and knew that was the winning picture.
To create the base for this look I started with two coats of OPI Alpine Snow for the white frosting. For the inner vanilla cake, I made a ruffian and used two coats of OPI You're So Vain-illa. For the layers of frosting, I took some thin striping tape and taped off seven pieces on each nail. With a small nail art brush I dabbed on the frosting colors so that they wouldn't be completely uniform. Here's the frosting colors- Pinky/red frosting-Julie G Romeo Red/orange frosting-Maybelline Color Show Coral Heat Orange frosting-China Glaze Metro Pollen-tin Lemon frosting-Revlon Buttercup Mint frosting-Essie Mint Candy Apple Lavender frosting-Essie Go Ginza To finish everything off and make it look more cake like, I took the same small nail art brush and dabbed OPI You're So Vain-illa around the ruffian edges and in between the cake layers. I finished off with one coat of topcoat.
I hope you guys enjoyed this look, I had a lot of fun creating it. It was the perfect nail art to take up some time on a lazy Sunday afternoon :) Don't forget to check out the other Twinsies below, I can't wait to see what food or drink they chose.
Hi guys, welcome to Monday. I hope everyone had a good weekend. On Saturday, the hubby and I went and saw X Men and I have to say that I thought it was excellent. Yesterday we got our internet fixed in our house, which worked for a few hours, and then shut down again. I also spent yesterday nursing a migraine. Does anyone else have migraines or headaches on a regular basis? I've been having them every day and am seriously considering going to the doctor. I guess my hesitation is the unknown....I don't know what they do, if they run tests, if I'll have to go to someone else, and if in the end I'll actually get some relief. If any of you have gone through something like that, I would really appreciate a comment if you are comfortable sharing.
Today I have some quick and easy nail art inspired completely by candy :) Last week I wore the combination of OPI Funky Dunkey and Candy Lacquer Licorice Allsorts and on the way home from work I got the idea to go some candy buttons. I have always loved candy buttons. I was a weird kid that ate paper growing up so the paper backing on the back of the candy never bothers me, but I can see why that would keep some people from eating them haha! I haven't eaten them in years and I'm not sure of the ingredients but next time I see some I will definitely be checking.
As I mentioned before, I started with a purple base of OPI Funky Dunkey and wore an accent nail of Candy Lacquer Licorice Allsorts. To create the candy buttons, I started with some blue painters tape and OPI Alpine Snow to create the backing. Since the real candy buttons aren't uniform, I used a small nail art brush to create the dots instead of a dotting tool because they would end up more circular. For the pink dots I used OPI Strawberry Margarita, yellow dots were OPI Need Sunglasses?, and the blue dots were Zoya Ling. I didn't use topcoat because I wanted to keep the effect of the dots standing up off the paper backing.
I thought this mani was really fun and it was surprisingly simple to create. I hope you guys enjoy this look and tomorrow will bring another "sweets" inspired mani for Twinsie Tuesday.
Hi there everyone, welcome to Sunday. Sorry for no post yesterday, our internet has been pretty unreliable and unusable, especially this weekend. So we are spending this morning waiting from 8am until noon for the cable company to show up. This is actually our third weekend in a row doing this. The first was to fix our cable and dvr and this one and the last service call were for our internet. I didn't get a post up but I did get a new video out, which is my Summer nail polish picks and you can find it here. I've really been in the mindset of wearing whatever colors I want to for the day but I do have some oldies coming up as well as some fun nail art. Today I have an oldie but this is actually the first time I've worn it. China Glaze Sun Worshipper is a neon medium orange and it does dry to a matte finish. I was really happy with how bright and fun this polish was. The formula was a little thin and streaky and I used three coats with topcoat below. My only problem with this polish was that it chipped really easily, like big flakes peeling off by the next morning. That was pretty disappointing.
What do you guys think of this polish? Do you have it and have the same chipping problem? I really like the color but will probably skip a full manicure in the future because it really didn't last on me.
Hi there guys, happy Friday. Woo, finally Friday :) I got my wish of my eye exam this afternoon which means a half day of work for me. I plan on doing some grocery shopping and checking out the makeup at Ulta before my appointment. I'm excited for that. I also plan on filming today as well. I'm really trying to get myself on a schedule of filming and uploading three videos a week. I have one more for tomorrow so this is the first week I will have accomplished that :) Today I have some OPI swatch spam for you. Originally it was going to be a mish mash of a ton of different brands but that seemed a little funny so I opted to go with just three polishes. The first polish I have is one that I recently picked up at a Marshall's for half off normal price. It's not a color I would normally wear but I didn't have it in my collection so I picked it up. Oh boy did I fall hard for this color. Color to Diner For is from the Fall 2011 Touring America Collection and it's a shimmery maroon red. I can safely say I'm in love with this color. I used it as a base for nail art that ended up coming out bad, but I was very close to just putting it right back on. The formula was smooth and buttery. I used two coats without topcoat below.
Next up is OPI Funky Dunkey which is a polish that I wore a few days ago. If you follow me on instagram, you might have seen a picture of this with Candy Lacquer Licorice Allsorts as an accent nail (my husband told me this polish was like a purple Gobstopper so I took that and ran). This polish is from the 2010 Shrek Forever After Collection, of which I am desperately trying to collect all the polishes from :) So far I only have two but I'm keeping my eyes peeled. This polish is a medium cool-toned grape purple cream. I'm not sure how this relates to Donkey but it's a pretty color nonetheless. The formula was opaque on this one but I did find myself having to touch up some patchy areas with a third coat. I used two to three coats with topcoat below.
Last up is OPI Shorts Story which is actually what I'm wearing today paired with OPI Rose of Light. This polish is from the 2009 Bright Pair Collection and it's a cool-toned medium pink cream. This one definitely stands out in my collection because of how cool-toned it is. I found the formula to be smooth and buttery and I used two coats with topcoat below.
Surprisingly out of the three, I have to go with Color to Diner For as my favorite! Do you own any of these polishes? Which one is your favorite?
Hi guys, welcome to Thursday. Man I wish it was Friday haha! Again, it's been pretty boring around here. I'm planning on making an eye appointment after this post goes up, I'm going to try and schedule it for the afternoon, preferably tomorrow afternoon so I can only work a half day. I'll wait a minute...I don't want to overwhelm you with the exciting things in my life :) Today I have a battle of two glitter gradients. I have really been into reverse glitter gradients lately and today I have two very different versions. The first version I have is the funky gradient and it kind of reminds me of a fun cupcake. The combination is Essie First Timer with Glitter Daze Socialite.
For my neutral gradient, I chose a more work friendly subtle combination. This combination is OPI French Quarter for Your Thoughts with Ciate Ferris Wheel.
I think the winner for me is the funky version just because I really have a thing for color, although I did enjoy wearing the neutral one to work. Which version do you prefer?
Hi there everyone, happy Hump Day. Man it's been a boring week, I wish I had something more interesting to report :) Basically it's been having a migraine at work each day, then going home and recovering trying to lessen the migraine. My eye is feeling better but the headaches still persist. Despite the pounding head, I got home yesterday and wanted to do some nail art inspired by my nail of the day which was Essie Urban Jungle and OPI Save Me. I wanted to mimic the glitter colors in OPI Save Me, especially the bar glitters, so that's where I went. Obviously I used my nail of the day as a base and then I cut little strips of blue painter's tape to create the stripes. For the bottom stripe I used OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam!, the middle stripe is OPI The World is Not Enough, and the top stripe is OPI Gone Gonzo! I finished off with one coat of Seche Vite and that's all she wrote!
I ended up really loving this look and it was surprisingly easy to create despite how blingy it is :) I really like how the accent nail ties everything together and OPI Save Me is one of my favorites despite the bar glitter. What's your favorite glitter polish and do you like this look?
Hi there everyone, welcome to Tuesday. Not much of anything interesting going on around here, although this prompt fits extremely well on a day like today. It's going to be 92 degrees and the humidity is already off the charts gross. Definitely the kind of day where you stay in the air conditioning and never leave :)
Today's prompt was a fun one and I had so many ideas. It's funny because so many people love summer and I'm not actually that big of a fan. Our summers are so hot and humid that it's impossible to want to go outside, which then defeats the entire purpose of the season. There are a few things I do enjoy....the 4th of July, fireworks, camping, and fresh fruits and veggies from our yard. Today I went with a flip flop theme which is fitting for me because I wear flip flops like crazy in summer, even to work!
To create this look, I started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, a slightly grey toned white cream. I started by creating a black outline for the flip flops with OPI Black Onyx and then filled in the color of each one. I used alternating colors for the dots on the shoes and the backgrounds and then finished off with the black straps on each one. Here's a big 'ol list of the colors I used: OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, OPI Black Onyx, Essie First Timer, OPI Red, Zoya Rocha, Barielle Panama Pina Colada, Essie Cute as a Button, OPI Yellowpalooza, Essie Play Date, and Sally Hansen Pacific Blue. Topcoat is Seche Vite.
There you have it, my take on summer lovin'. What's you favorite part about summer?
