Essie Armed and Ready and Orly Solid Gold

Hi everyone!  Today I have a simple and fun mani to show you.  I've been pretty rough on my nails lately unfortunately.  I filed them down pretty short and still managed to have more chips and breaks in the last three weeks than the last six months!

Let's not dwell on that though!  On to the manicure!

Essie's Armed and Ready is another one of those shades that I resisted buying for a long time.  Though I definitely liked it every time I saw it in the store, I didn't buy it!  I ended up caving in and picking it up when I went to a discount beauty supply store with my BFFs last week.  It's a great olive green with a slight golden shimmer to it, which was being shy in these photographs.  In any case, I thought it would be a fun pairing with my new bottle of Orly's Solid Gold.

Both polishes are super easy to work with and apply.  I put down two coats of Armed and Ready.  It was a nice consistency and covered well, leveling nicely.  I did the stripe with the regular polish brush from Solid Gold.  It's such a great matte!  Not only is it gorgeous, but the formula is pretty darn amazing.  It dries quickly as mattes normally do, but it is really easy to get even coverage without streaking or getting too thick.  I had to do two coats of each stripe.  I then threw on a coat of top coat and called it good.

Thanks for reading!

Nail Art: Sailor Moon!

Hi guys!  It's been a while since I did some real complicated nail art, so I'm a liiiittle rusty.  However, I just couldn't resist doing a celebratory manicure for the announcement that there will be another Sailor Moon anime released next year!  I'm a huge Sailor Moon fan.  In case you were wondering or had any doubts.  I think I mention how excited I am about this at least once a day to my family and friends.  I do wonder how long before they get tired of it, but until then, I'm going to keep fangirling and doing SM manicures =D

I forgot just how much it stinks to photograph nail art that may have gotten a little bit messy while I painted it.  I apologize for not completely cleaning it up!  The background was done with China Glaze Splish Splash from the recent summer neon collection.  I put down a coat of white, then blended in Splish Splash.  I added the pink with Zoya Lara and the mint is a blend of Zoya Tracie, Wednesday and a little white.  Unfortunately, I don't have a good picture of it on its own, but it was actually really lovely!

I based this manicure on this clip because I LOVED the transformation scene when I was a kid.  Sailor Moon meant so much to me.  I watched the first season when I was in third grade every morning before I went to school.  Yep, this was before Toonami aired it.  I cried my eyes out the morning that they stopped playing it and started playing Samurai Pizza Cats.  (A show I could never love after it robbed me of Sailor Moon.)  She is seriously the best super hero ever!  

I had to make a stencil for the moon on my index finger after trying and failing to make it look like a moon the first couple times.  Everything else was freehanded with nail art brushes.  I also forgot how tiny I needed my brushes to be to work with.  I ended up trimming a junky one down to about half its size and it was still hard to work with.  But now I'm in the mood for nail art again, so stay tuned!

Thanks for reading!

Julep April Maven Box: IT Girl

I've been getting a little behind on my posts lately.  I have a bunch of photos that are sitting around, waiting to be edited, so it seems weird that I'm going to bump this brand new review to the front of the queue... But for the first time, I was really excited and  didn't end up with any complaints about my Maven box.  Last month, I was super excited, but Sofia betrayed me.  This month, I stuck with my usual box, the It Girl.

I sat down with my Maven Box last night and was going to swatch them, then do a mani with something else, but the thought occurred to me that if I swatched these colors, I probably wouldn't wear them for a while.  And I haven't done a lot of nail art because of how busy my schedule is lately, so I went browsing through things I saved for inspiration.  I first saw this pattern on Spektor's Nails and checked out the Youtube video by IndigoNova1.  It turned out to be an awesome way to showcase these colors.

I wasn't even sure I wanted the It Girl box this month because I actually have been secretly loving their care products.  I am addicted to my Argan Oil and their handcream from my St. Patty's Mystery box has been in my purse since I got it.  I really wanted to try "The Best Pedi Creme Ever" but none of the other boxes really spoke to me.  Fortunately, after I committed to being an It Girl, they had a promo to add on up to two more products from this month's box for $4.99.  Can you say perfect?

In person, I really love Niecy (bright pink), Jessica (pale blue), and even Penelope (pale pink).  The best part?  Best Julep formulas to date.  I'm most happy with Penelope, which was my base on everything except my ring finger, which I wanted to be an accent nail, but it's kind of too chaotic for that...  In any case, it went on in three nice, creamy coats.  I used Jessica as a base on my ring fingers and it was opaque enough to be a one coater, but to level it completely because I was being sloppy, I added a second coat.  Niecy is very opaque as well and I'm going to do a pedicure with her later today!

In any case, this is the best Julep box I've gotten.  I love the colors, especially together, and they actually really inspired me.

If you like this mani enough, come vote for it on the Julep monthly contest on the FB machine!

Thanks for reading!

Nail Art: Pinkie Pie!

Hey again!  Today I have a My Little Pony mani to show you!

Pinkie Pie is my favorite pony from Friendship is Magic.  My husband says that she reminds him of me...which I definitely don't mind because I love Pinkie Pie!  Even if she is a little crazy.

It's been a while since I've done any nail art and I can hardly believe it!  Shame on me for being so boring!  In any case, I'm really happy with how Pinkie turned out.  My hand was a little shaky with the brush from lack of practice, but she's recognizable!  

Thanks for reading!

Funky Shapes and Disco Biscuit!

If you follow me on the FB and Twitter machines, you might have caught that last night I broke the thumbnail on my blogging hand.  I was completely tragic, but not entirely unexpected.  A while ago, I was chopping onions and the knife slipped and nicked the middle of my thumbnail.  I was really happy at that point that I had fingernails to protect my fingers, let me tell you.  However, I did damage the nail.  As it grew out, it cracked and I used nail glue to help it keep from cracking anymore.  I considered investing in a repair kit, but it seemed to be working out just fine as it was and I didn't think about it.

Well, the last time I went to file my nails down, the crack had just about grown out and I was happy.  But then, after a few days, it broke.  It was really just a little chip, but the problem was that it wasn't across the top, it was diagonal from the tip down the side a little ways.  I really hate having nails that are significantly different in size, so I knew I would have to file them all down and got to work.

Which is where I decided to play with my nail shape and do some funky asymmetrical curves for kicks.

This is temporary, so if you hate it, don't fret.  I'm just always up for playing around with my nails.  Since I'm going to take them all down to almost nubs in a day or two, I figured it would be fun to play around with.

I did pretty well over the weekend and only bought one polish, Butter London's Disco Biscuit.  Aside from the awesomely bright and bold pink color and the beautiful glitter inside, the name is pretty much my favorite thing to say...  I am such an annoying person, I don't know how anyone puts up with me...  Anyway!  The only reason I ended up with it was because my hubby needed a get-out-of-jail-free card, and he knew that I'd been eyeing it and kept saying, "No, I don't need it..."  There's a big local specialty foods store a town over that we visit a lot/spend too much money at, and it has a big bath & beauty section.  They happen to sell Butter London cheaper than anywhere else, so score!  

I actually had a fairly good reason for not buying Disco Biscuit despite how much I kind of loved it.  It's very similar to OPI's Be A Dahlia Won't You, the major differences being opacity/consistency and the color of the flecks in each.  However, when I compared them on a wheel, I immediately thought, "OMG, let's layer them!"  This convinced me that I did, in fact, need Disco Biscuit.  Pink flecks + iridescent purple flecks?  YES.  PLEASE.  

It's a little bit hard to capture the effect in a photo, so I apologize if you can't see it very well.  It's so gorgeous and outrageous on my nails, I just love it.  This is two coats of Be a Dahlia with two coats of Disco Biscuit on top.

In any case, this is my first asymmetrical nail design.  I'm a little underwhelmed, even with sparkly rhinestone accents, but I decided to show it to you anyway. It's pretty basic.  I wanted the lines to kind of accentuate the shape of the nail, but I did a bad job...

My eyes gravitate to the bottle more than my nails here, so I don't blame you if you feel the same way...

DISCO BISCUIT!

Totally uncalled for, I know >_>

Thanks for reading!

Nail Art: Hello Kupo!

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I wanted to do a Hello Kitty manicure because for as much as I love her, I've never done one.  I got sidetracked though by my husband playing Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Which he bought for me  only to end up obsessed with, of course!)  I really wanted to do some nail art for that as well, so when I sat down to do this, I decided that Hello Kitty and Mog the Moogle looked awesomely similar.

My hand is still not as steady as normal, so I hope you can forgive the kitty on my ring finger.  When I text my BFF a picture, she said it wasn't bad, HK just looked like she's melting...  In any case, voila, some freehand art again!  

I really wanted to use my bottle of Mermaid's Tears by OPI because it was so nice and creamy when I swatched it.  

Also, I wanted to show you where I stand with my frankens!  If you follow my page on the FB machine, you'll have seen most of these next pictures.  They're bottle shots of the polishes that I blended today.  Not all of them, only four, but over the next couple days I'm going to show you more!  I got a big package this morning with half of the bases that I ordered and a huge selection of pigments.  The problem is that I am still missing the other bases and can't actually finish most of my recipe tests and then go on to bottling.  It'll probably take another week and a half to get everything...

But I am completely covered in glitter, thanks to this hobby of mine!

This is my new and improved version of Expendable Crewman.  I'm still on the fence about keeping their Star Trek names because I'm worried that they don't appeal to as many people as I would like.  Perhaps I can bribe some of you with a bottle naming contest?  We'll have to discuss this option when I get the rest of my supplies and finalize the colors!

A new version of I'm A Doctor, Not A Nail Polish!

Then we have the base color for Tiberius.  This is pre-glitter.  I'm playing with different sizes and colors in it at this point, but I seriously love the color in this pigment and I'm considering offering this shade without big chunky glitter.  We'll see!

Finally, I have what I'm calling "Pop Tart" thanks to one of my friends on the FB machine.  It's a white jelly with a bunch of rainbow glitter.  I have five bottles of this mixed and can probably mix two more before I run out of ingredients, and after that I may not offer it except in limited quantities, at least until I can get a bigger stock or find alternative glitters that aren't as pricey.  It runs me a bit more to produce than the other colors.  

If you're still with me, thanks for reading!

Valentine's Day: Pacman & Ms Pacman

My last post featured my BFFs and mentioned a contest that revolves around getting your favorite guy to sport some polish with you.  My hubby is a chronic nail biter who also destroys his cuticles like nobody's business.  However, out of love for me, and not wanting to have pictures taken with bloody fingers (Ew), he has spent and entire week pampering his nails for this manicure.

My hubby and I are total video game geeks, so when I told him about this contest, he was excited and actually suggested this before anything else.  

He took the night off from work for Valentine's Day, because he's a sweet kid like that.  We have a fondue dinner ever year and just finished our cheese course, which has us both stuffed.  I don't know HOW we're going to eat anymore...So we took a break to take some photos!

It was super fun to do his nails and even more exciting that he's not ripping them up right now!

And he loved them!  After we'd taken our photos, he told me, "You can paint my nails for fun again if you want!"

If you like us, you can come vote for us in the contest here!

Happy Valentine's!  Back to dinner!

Orchids!

I've kind of been sliding into a funk lately and I can't really tell why.  I know that things are starting to get odd when I start getting into weird sleep schedules.  Yesterday I slept way too much and today I can't sleep at all.  It's really hard for me to buckle down and write a blog post right now, but I have a cute bit of nail art to show you.

I honestly don't know why I painted orchids.  I have some weird fascination with them that has nothing to do with how pretty they are but more to do with how easy they are to kill.  My parents tried very hard for a while to keep potted orchids, but they all died in the end.  I guess it's that idea that you can't squish beautiful things into your control, but damn it if you won't try.  I do all the time.

In any case, this is my little attempt to capture them, in some way.  I ordered Zoya's Breezi from their new year promo for two polishes.  I am kind of in love with it, like fully and completely hooked on this shade of blue.  It's just so creamy and bold without being super bright.  However, I am totally on a search for the perfect shade of bright blue, which I am thinking Zoya Robyn might be for me, but suffice to say, I love Breezi today!  

Trying not to ramble is really difficult right now!  In any case, I put down two coats of Breezi and on my thumb and ring finger one coat of Milani Cyberspace.  Then I painted the leaves with Avon Olive Green and Icing Free Spirit.  Finally came the orchid flowers with the bottom of my China Glaze White on White bottle (Almost gone!!), Wet n Wild Through the Grapevine, Finger Paint's Black Expressionism and a bit of blending between the three.  

It was fun and I was almost ambitious enough to try my non-dominant hand...but then I decided not.  It got polka dots instead, but my nails are kind of ugly on that hand right now so I don't have a picture.

Thanks for reading!