Hi everyone, happy Hump Day! Wednesdays always make me laugh now because of that commercial with "happier than a camel on Hump Day". I've always loved camels for some reason and I think that commercial is so cute. Yesterday was my first day at the gym and I thought I did pretty well. I made it 35 minutes on the inclined treadmill and am actually not too sore this morning. I am going back for more today.
This weekend I did a marathon of Halloween manis and today is my most festive one. When I think of Halloween I think of black, orange, green, and purple so I wanted to create something with all of those colors. I usually don't do skittle manis because I think I'm bad at them but I like this one because it's slightly more uniform. I will describe the colors below.
Below are the colors I used:
Pointer: China Glaze Flying Dragon
Middle: OPI Stand in Lime For Days
Ring: Zoya Suri
Pinky: Essie The More the Merrier
I started with a different base color on each finger and then taped off a diagonal using blue painter's tape. I then alternated colors on the tips. The purples got a shimmery orange, Sinful Colors Cloud 9, and the greens got black, Essie Licorice. I then rotated colors and used the bottle brushes to create stripes. The black stripes are Essie Licorice and the orange stripes are OPI My Paprika is Hotter Than Yours! Finally I finished off with dots of China Glaze Glitter All The Way, which is a mix of green, gold, purple, and either orange or red glitter.
Overall I was happy with this one. I need to work on my freehand stripes but other than that I was pretty pleased. What do you think?
*Press Sample
Hi everyone, welcome to Tuesday. If you read my post from yesterday, clearly you will see I was having a bad day. I always feel guilty after writing such posts, but I know that the blogging community is an accepting place for the most part. Thank you to everyone who posted a comment, I do read them all and appreciate the advice. As for my plan of action, I re-joined the YMCA yesterday and am starting a fitness schedule today. As for the rest, I'm just going to see how it goes and go from there.
Today I have a really amazing trio of polishes to show you. It's like a combination of all of my favorite colors of cream polishes, minus the blue of course :) This trio is a set of custom polishes that were created as a collaboration with the clothing designer Rolando Santana for his Spring/Summer 2014 Fashion Week collection. The inspiration for his collection came from the iconic artist Frida Kahlo. This collection is The Rolando Santana Alegre Collection.
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| Bottle shots in sunlight |
The first color I have is called Natasha, which is a rosy nude cream polish. I loved this polish! I've always been a fan of opaque nudes because I think they look so chic and sophisticated and this polish definitely delivered. The formula on this polish was perfect and it covered fully in two easy coats. I love the muted rose color of this polish because it makes it special compared to a regular nude polish. All polish swatches are without topcoat.
Next up is Maria, which is a purple fuchsia cream. I had a hard time capturing the cool-ness of the tone of this polish, so it needs to be said that the second photo is the most color accurate. There was really nothing about this polish I didn't like. For me I would describe it as a cool-toned medium plum color. The formula was fantastic as well. I used two easy coats.
Last up is Sara, which is a bright sunny yellow cream. My favorite color is yellow so I really loved this polish. This polish is so bright and cheerful! As far as yellows go, this one had a pretty good formula. I used three thin coats to create an opaque finish.
Overall I was incredibly impressed by this amazing trio. I thought all of the polishes were standouts, including the nude. Let me know what you think!
*Products in this post were received in exchange for my honest opinion.
Hi everyone. I won't say welcome to Monday however. It's like the biggest reminder that we are the furthest we could possibly be from the weekend. That was my thought driving to work this morning, yikes! Right now I'm a little conflicted and I will tell you why. If you've been following my blog, you'll know that I was tested for food allergies in June. I cut out gluten, dairy, wheat, rye, eggs, and peanuts. They told me it would be life changing, I would feel so much better and have so much energy and honestly, I don't. I mean, to put it in perspective, the hubby and I will go grocery shopping on Saturday, maybe run a few errands, and then I have to come home and take a nap because I'm so tired. I just don't think it's normal for me, a 26 year old, to be so exhausted. I sleep eight to nine hours a night and have to drag myself out of bed each morning. Also, the best thing about all this (sarcasm alert) is that I eat healthy now, as opposed to eating junk food, and I weigh more now than I ever had, even having to buy new clothes. I called the doctor and they want to run more tests but it's going to be more money. My question to you is, what would you do? Just accept the way things are or suck it up, pay the money, and get the tests done?
Update: The other possibility is that I just have too much stress in my life, which all comes from my job. They just continue to give me too much work, way more than I can handle. The other option is to join a gym. My mom suggested it because she thinks it would get rid of some of my stress and help me sleep at night. I guess that's option 2.
Geez, sorry about that! Now to the real reason you visited today...the nails! I wanted to get into some fun Halloween designs so I sat down this weekend and did the candy corns from yesterday, vampire nails, Halloween colored nails, and zombie nails. They should all be up this week :) I think today's nails are my favorite of the bunch.
I started with a base of OPI German-icure by OPI. I just love this shimmery vampy maroon color! I then took OPI First Date at the Golden Gate and used the brush from the bottle to create the blood drips and a ruffian on my ring finger. For the black of the mouth I used Julep Cleopatra and finished off with the teeth using a small nail art brush and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. My vampire teeth were inspired by a mani done by MissJenFabulous.
Congratulations if you made it this far and the first paragraph didn't scare you off! :) You get bonus pictures of a KITTY! My light box sits on the floor near the couch and has seen better days. It's made of cardboard, duct tape, and white poster paper and has been through a move as well. It's sad but because it is on the floor, the kitties like to investigate when I'm there. So without further ado, I give you Immie, our four year old tabby.
Entering the lightbox....
In our household we call the following look "burning your brain". For some reason all of our cats like to look directly into lights.
Take my picture please?
Hi everyone, welcome to Sunday! Another relaxing day for me today :) This morning I woke up to a Snow White situation happening in the driveway. A squirrel was on the roof, two bluejays were flying around doing some sort of mating dance and a cardinal (actually our house mascot which I named Lloyd) was attacking the side mirror of my car. I guess we do technically live in the country :) I would count yesterday as a pretty good day. The hubby and I went with our friend to go see Gravity in theaters. I feel like I'm sort of conflicted on how I liked the movie. I thought it was visually stunning although the most stressful movie I've ever seen.
Anyways, when we got home I figured I would relax with some Halloween themed manis and Breaking Bad on Netflix. I just rewatched all of the first four seasons and am now getting into Season 5 which I haven't seen. I did multiple Halloween designs yesterday and I'm quite proud of them. Today I have the simplest of the designs....candy corn stripes.
For this design I started off with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. Next time I will use a pure white but I couldn't find one easily. I used painter's tape and then did one coat of OPI My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours! and then another layer of tape and finished off with China Glaze Happy Go Lucky.
I'm quite pleased with the finished result. Would you sport candy corn nails? :)
Hi everyone, happy Saturday :) I am happy to be hanging out around the house this weekend catching up on my Netflix and nail blogging. I am a homebody so a nice relaxing weekend at home sounds ideal to me :)
Today I have a collection of five polishes that I won from a giveaway. I've seen swatches of polishes from Rainbow Honey but today is my very first time trying them out. Let's just say...I was really impressed! Summer of 199X Part II consists of three shimmery creams and two glitter topcoats. These polishes are extremely interchangeable with one another.
Apple Kid
Apple Kid is a shimmery rosy fuchsia cream. Application was great, I used two coats for the photos below. This color is so bright and pretty. I loved the shimmer in all of the creams.
Tessie
Tessie is a shimmery periwinkle cream. I thought this was another fantastic color and it applied perfectly. Two coats with no topcoat below.
Mint Flavor
A shimmery mint color....yes please! I love mint polishes and this is nothing like anything I own. The mint color is so bright and vibrant and I love the addition of the shimmer. Another easy application, two coats without topcoat.
Magic Cake
First of all, I love the name of this polish :) Magic Cake is a glitter topper with neon glitter in pink, blue, and green. I used one easy coat over Tessie.
I Miss You
I Miss You is a combination of pastel glitters including butterflies and hearts. I had no problems with this polish, including getting the big glitters out. They came out of the bottle normally with no digging involved. I used one coat over Apple Kid.
Overall I was really pleased with my first encounter with Rainbow Honey. I loved each and every one of the polishes and thought they were unique and stunning. I especially love the versatility of all of the polishes. Each of the glitters would pair perfectly with the creams and look great together. What do you think of these polishes, let me know in comments :)
Hi everyone, happy Friday!!! I apologize for the seemingly boring swatch posts the past couple of days. I've been under the weather but am still going to work so I've just been posting some swatches that I already had done. Case in point....my nails are nakey today! That is definitely not something I am used to. I'm pretty sure it's due to the changing seasons here in the midwest. If you aren't familiar with midwest weather, we go from freezing our butts off in the morning to sweating our butts off in the afternoon, usually with a thirty to forty degree difference between the morning and the afternoon. And that is why I have a cold :)
Anyways...today I have another two simple swatches which came from my Julep box last month. I usually choose It Girl which has three polishes, but this month I went with Bombshell. This month came with a double ended eyeliner which included black and brown. For some reason, unknown to me, I don't own a brown eyeliner (yet I own purple, navy, and teal) so I didn't mind having the eyeliner instead of an extra polish.
First up is Cleopatra. I was really excited when I saw the polishes this month because I don't own anything close to either of these. Cleopatra is a "black latex" polish which to me means that it's in between a glossy cream and a mattified polish. It's matte but it still has some shine if that makes any sort of sense. I'm just going to go out there and say it....I feel like a badass when I wear this polish! I just love it and I think it's going to be perfect for Halloween. I used two easy coats for this polish.
The second polish I received was Valerie. I was equally excited to see this polish because of it's unique color. Valerie is a very blue leaning deep green with great gold shimmer. I've never seen a polish like this and I think the color is fantastic. One more thing about Valerie...she's a one coater! I used one coat with no topcoat for my photos.
Overall I was really pleased with my Julep box this month, I actually think it's been my favorite so far :) And...happy feel of the day....I just got the news that my grandma's cat who has been missing for several weeks was found and is now back home. Yay!
Hi everyone, happy Thursday! One day closer to Friday :) Today I have a quick post of a polish that had been on my wishlist since it came out. OPI Stay the Night is from the Mariah Carey collection that came out at the beginning of this year. Let's get right into it.
Stay the Night is one of OPIs liquid sand polishes and is made up of black texture and red glitter. The formula was a bit sheer so I used three thin coats for my swatches. I also thought that this polish dried very quickly as well. I really love how the red pops against the black.
I am still on the fence about textured polishes so I really got this one to try with topcoat. Boy does this baby shine with topcoat! The red stands out so much more and to me it makes the polish looks like burning embers in a fire.
Overall I was pleased with this polish. I love how it looks both with and without topcoat, but I think it's most beautiful with the addition of topcoat. I also think this polish would make a really great accent nail as well.
Did you pick this polish up? Which do you prefer....textured or shiny?
