DS Extravagance

Hello ladies!! Did everyone have a good Memorial Day? It was so nice with this 3 day weekend! Saturday my cousin had her 2nd child, Reese, Sunday was my birthday (which just makes me a year older and that I don't look forward to), but it was nice to see family. Allen and I went up to Arkansas to see my mom and grandparents. I gave my mom a manicure and showed her what I enjoyed doing in my spare time lol.
I wanted to out her camera- she has a brand new Nikon DSL. I wanted to see if I just couldn't take pictures or if I need a new camera. Ha! So...I guess I need to start saving up!

So, I used Seche Clear basecoat then 2 coats of OPI DS Extravagance, and 1 thick coat of Seche Vite. This was my first OPI DS. I found it at a Ulta when I first started polishing earlier this year.  I have found one other that I really liked that was available in stores, Mystery. Anyways, I've never worn this until  now, and I can say that it's MUCH more beautiful on my nails that it is in the bottle! I LOVE it! It's much more holographic than I expected. I just thought it would be shimmery and glittery, but it's really  more holographic than anything.

I was amazed how easily and awesome photos were to take and ended up looking with my mom's expensive camera (of course).  The difference in hers and mine is uncanny. I just need so many other things than a $1100 camera! Guess I should really start playing the lottery...

Color Glaze and Rhinestones

Well, I have been getting really behind in posting swatches, but I have been a busy girl. Nothing out of the norm, just not enough time to do everything...
I really enjoyed doing this look and thought it turned out really well.

As I was reading one of my favorite blogs, the Nailasaurus, it dawned on me how she got her nails so shiny...I felt so stupid. Use a thicker coat of topcoat, duh. So, I started combining my bottles of Seche Vite and came up with 3 bottles from oldest to brand new. Works like a charm and it dries much faster than I thought. I mean, that's why it's a top coat, right? Anyways...

This look was created by using a basecoat then used 2 coats on 3/4 of my nail using Color Club Rad Nomad, which is the purple grayish color and then 2 coats of China Glaze Kinetic Candy on the other quarter. I used 3small black rhinestones and then used 2 thick coats of SV! Voile!

Zoya Birchbox Blogger Collection

Hey there polish people!! So, I have a few posts, but I wanted to share this first! I have googled this and nothing comes up so here is what I received as an email yesterday and I couldn't resist!

If you are subscribed to Birchbox you will get this email as well. A couple of months ago they had a contest to introduce 3 colors exclusive to Birchbox for Spring 2012 that is designed by bloggers. How awesome is that! You can get the collection for $22 with free shipping. I thought it would have been pretty cool to give an extra discount if you have a beauty blog, but all is well and I already ordered mine! In fact, I got an email about an hour ago saying that my package has already shipped!!! Yay!

ALSO, check out Birchbox Facebook page and you will find this:

I haven't entered yet, but I found it AFTER I had already purchased my collection so I would only do it for fun. You should check out the 3 bloggers that won: The Small Things Blog, Eleventh Gorgeous, and Capitol Hill Style.

I can't wait to get my collection, swatch it and share! Happy polishing!!

Well, Shift Happens...

FINALLY my Girly Bits order came in!! I waited about 2 months, but it was worth it! These are the Frankens that make polishing worth waiting for lol. No, seriously people, this polish is craved for, along with many other namesless indie brands that are being sold on ebay for 3 times what Chanel and MAC are priced at (like Lynnderella). These are polishes that aren't avaliable in stores and I think it is sooo cool that I have to wait 2 months to get 1 polish! That means that Pam, the creator/maker of Girly Bits, sits there and mixes these bottles herself. Then she writes a little "thank you"note to every buyer! How sweet is that?!! I got my package all wrapped in purple tissue paper with a purple ribbon tied around it with a sticker and a hand written note thanking me!

Well, I wanted to buy like ALL of them, but then I had to pay bills too....so I bought Shift Happens, which was her new popular polish and I got an older but awesome Sailor's Delight, which is not shown here today, but I have worn it and can't wait to swatch it and post about it!! You can see it here on her blog.

You might be wondering, well this is not what it looks like on other blogs...EXACTLY. I wanted to catch this sheer shimmer in all of its beauty- au naturale. Plus, this week I've been on this sheer shimmery thing, so I wanted to try out Shift Happens naked. Other blogs have it over black, which I think looks awesome and really shows the "shift" in colors, so I thought I'd do something different. 

Ever since I saw the post by Jen from thepolishaholic.com I knew I had to have a bottle! One day I noticed while on facebook, Pam's Girly Bits page showed up on my news feed. I saw that she was having a facebook pre-order sale for her polish. I got my email ready and saved to be sent off at 8 a.m. sharp! I wanted to make sure I got this polish!!!!

So, I did the most simple mani with this polish I could think of for this look.  I used Seche Ridgefiller because it had a pearly tint to it instead of just clear and I thought would give a slight tint to help the sheerness Shift Happens.  Then I applied 3 coats of Shift Happens and used 1 coat of NYC clear polish as a top coat.  I probably could have used 2 more coats of Shift Happens, but I like the sheerness that I got, so I stopped at 3. It ended being this pink, peachy color with a hint of orange and purple *hint the shift*.  Pam is very talented and I can't wait to buy more from her collections!

Spring Layers

It has been a while since my last post. Things are still crazy and not much has changed.  That hasn't stopped me from painting my nails every other day, but I haven't had time to take pics and post....or I'm just too damn tired...BUT! Good news for me...I FINALLY made a lightbox!! Yay! I tried waiting around for a box, but I finally bought one at Wal-Mart...how sad. My husband makes fun of it, but it's just a box to him. So, I had to take some pictures after I made it. So, without further ado, my first post with a lightbox! (I can't tell much difference if you ask me, which is rather depressing.)

I used CC Stuck on You as a basecoat. I've been experimenting with basecoats lately, but I never keep my polish on long enough to really tell a difference other than the application of my first layer of polish, which does make a bit of difference depending on what kind of polish I'm using (glitter, creme, sheer, etc.) I then used one coat of Finger Paints Pop Rock Pink from the Spring 2012 collection, which is actually more a peach color than pink, i think. I love this but wanted to try some layering witht this mani, so I continued with one coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure (419, the new color release). I bought this a while back, but haven't worn it yet. I LOVE it, and can't wait to try it again. It's this beautiful light sheer shimmery pink that makes me think of sparkly cotton candy lol. At this point, I didn't want to go too far and change the color I had created.  So I used another color I had bought a long time ago but  haven't ever worn. One coat of Pure Ice Busted, which is a very shimmery iridescent purple and pink. Lastly, I finished with a coat of Northern Lights Cut the Door Holographic Top Coat Silver. I've seen this in Sally's and finally decided to try it. I only used one coat, so I didn't get much out of this, but I will try again with a darker color to really see what this offers.  I had fun with the layering and will try again soon with some different combinations. 


without my flash, in lightbox

Hope everyone who is in this part of the US is enjoying this beautiful weather (minus all the devastating tornadoes and storms). I was reading an article on global warming yesterday and how this March's warm weather has broken thousands of heat records in the US and is an exact example of global warming. So, with this, enjoy your week wherever you are and happy polishing!!

Red Re-Vamp with Essie

Good day ladies!! What a wonderful, normal, drab Wednesday. At least the weather is nice:) I wanted to try to spice today up with a little color! Last night I was sitting there looking at my polishes trying to decide what to do.  I am always doing different colors and realized I kind of miss the classic manicure- red. But, I'm trying to experiment with different looks, so I thought I would try to re-vamp this common but always stylish mani.

clambake, really red, fishnet stockings

With this in mind I picked my favorite reds and went to work.  I didin't do it on purpose, but the 3 reds I used are all Essie. I started off with CC Stuck on You basecoat then I applied a small half moon with one coat of Essie clambake, which is more of a dark orange. This color is a little sheer, which I liked, so I left it that way and didn't want to go any darker since I was doing a gradient. The trick complete one nail at a time before each polish has time to dry. So, next I used from half-way up (a little before where I stopped with clambake) and applied one coat of Essie really red, which is just what it's called, just a classic red. I kind of used my brush to mix the 2 layers of colors together to give it that gradient look. I used Essie fishnet stockings on as the top layer. I used the same tecnique by kind of using my brush to mix the 2 colors together then applied a small second layer to the very top to give me a more gradient look and blend the colors. As soon as I finished one hand I used a clear top coat to blend the colors even more. I let all that dry for about 15-20 minutes then used one coat of old Seche Vite (which is thick now and I love it!)

Boho Spring Glam Nail Art

Good evening all polish ladies!! Hope everyone had a great weekend! We had a great time visiting my family in Arkansas and letting everyone meeting Kade. It was beautiful weather here!
So, I have been working on this post for a couple of days, but keep falling asleep as I'm trying to edit and post my pics lol. Being married/having a family and swatching and blogging is hard to juggle. There's just not enough hours in the day, but I'm still trying...
I had bought these little silver ball nail art thingys at Sally's a while back, but never used them, and when I picked out my main color, Color Club New Bohemian, I knew what I wanted to do.

I started out with Seche Base Coat RidgeFiller then I used Sephora by OPI Queen of Everything at the bottom of my nails- only about half way up. Then I used 2 coats of Color Club New Bohemian over the silver to create a half moon look. I love how easy it was to apply this pastel creme. The second coat was so simple to apply and looked so shiny even without a top coat. I was wanting a silver glitter bottom, but the glitter wasn't thick enough so I used 2 coats of Nerd Lacquer Carbon Allotrope. I let all that dry then used to coat of Seche Vite (a new bottle) I then put a small amount of the Nerd Lacquer on as a glue for the nail art dots. I used my MASH tweezers to get them on my nails. I didn't put a top coat over the nail art because I didn't want any excess top coat to become lumpy.
Overall, I was very pleased with my result, and can't wait to some more nail art and try something different.