NOTD: Happy Easter (Or, how I was beaten down by a manicure...)

Hello!

It's no surprise that on Easter Sunday, my stamping group decided to have Easter as our theme. I knew what I wanted to do, had it all planned out in my head, knew I'd do it Easter morning, all was good.

You know what they say: If you want to make God laugh, make plans.

First, after two months of sorting, packing, unpacking, sorting, trying to fit things into a small house, and still more sorting...my nails finally surrendered to fate. I know it's not surprising, but I was so hopeful it wouldn't happen. After all, I'd almost made it to the end; even though all of it (along with the weather) have shot my cuticles completely, and I've had a few little chips along the way, I hadn't had any bad breaks. But no; it was not to be. Finally I broke a nail big time...below the nail bed line. And not just one, but several--and on both hands. Luckily, on the worst ones my nail bed had grown out past the tip of my finger, so with a little gentle pushing back, I didn't have to actually injure the nail bed and bleed out. Hull breach avoided--but I am now Queen of Nubbins.

So, I made my first change to my design, simplified it a bit for shorter nails.

My original plan was to use China Glaze Tranzitions (Duplicityy and Modify Me), and stamp on them with my Bunny Nails DH plates, and a non-fast-drying topcoat. I tried three different ones. None of them worked.

Okay. 'Nother change of plans. Instead, now I decided to stamp the blue on the green and vice versa. Thank goodness, it worked:

Here comes Peter Cottontail

Hoppin' down the bunny trial...

Oh, but the story isn't done yet.

Since my Tranzitions artwork didn't work with the topcoat thing, I figured I might as well put top coat over the design; I figured it would just make it go to the darker colors. And that's when things went horribly, horribly wrong...The topcoat made the polish change, but not in a uniform way! It was all streaky and gross!!! It was so horrible, I didn't even mind when a cat hair got stuck in the polish--that was actually an improvement:

NO. Bad polish. BAD polish!

Wow, this is an epically horrible result--And I didn't have time to redo it, since I waited until Easter morning to do it. Ugh!! When I bought these, I figured, hey, even if I don't manage to find a way to use it for nail art, at least I can get two different colors out of each bottle, and that will be cool. Apparently not! Thank goodness I only bought three of these--and I'm regretting even that.

But, before I over-react, I need to play with them more. Maybe topcoat over the whole thing isn't the best idea, but that doesn't mean other things won't work. And I did like the manicure before I messed with it, so the colors are good as long as I don't put on topcoat.

Thanks for taking a look. Hugs!
M.

Preview of coming events!

Hello!

Just a quick post to let you know some of the things I have planned for the blog in the next few weeks:

1) New feature: Polished Pairings--this is designed to highlight layering combinations, particularly with an emphasis on glitter toppers, but not just limited to that. Sometimes these will include simple stamping that accent the pairing, and sometimes I'll let the combination shine on its own.

2) Review of Drikk plate Drk-C, with video.

3) Review of Pueen plates, with video.

4) My favorites: blue, green, and maybe purple!

5) The return of Fix My FAIL, in a new-and-improved format to broaden options. :)

6) A new challenge from the Nail Challenge Collaborative, with a monthly-shifting theme.

7) Reviews of multi-shaped studs from Born Pretty Store, along with a new-to-me pick-up technique

8) My first manicure-based Dupe Or No Dupe, where I see if two similar polishes look the same when used as the base of a mani

9) And plenty of Before & Afters!

Thanks for stopping by! Hugs,
M.

Review: Ruby White Tips Polish part 1

Hello!!

I recently discovered the indie brand Ruby White Tips, and were bowled over by the polishes--they're the sort of polishes I just adore. I knew I had to own some of the and review them for you, so I jumped at the chance to buy some of these at a reviewer's discount. I went a little overboard because I there were so many I loved and I couldn't narrow it down more than that, lol. I'll show you 3 today, and the rest next time. I'll show each color first and then talk about formula at the end.

The first one I have today is Vernita Green, from her Kill Bill collection. This is a lovely olive green polish with a liberal sprinkle of holographic glitter, and a teeny weenie touch of hair bar glitter for visual interest here and there:

Ruby White Tips Vernita Green, indirect outdoor light

Ruby White Tips Vernita Green, indirect outdoor light

Ruby White Tips Vernita Green, indoor light

I'm biased here for sure, because I just love this sort of green. I love when a polish takes a traditionally masculine shade of green like this and makes it soft and feminine; the holographic glitter definitely accomplishes that. The bits that look like little silver dots in these pictures give off crazy bling with the sun hits; you can see it a bit in the bottom picture. Unfortunately the sun didn't want to play the day I swatched this, but the feel is certainly captured here. :)

Following up on the non-traditional green theme is Lonesome Pine Trails. This is a creamy sage green polish with a soft sprinkle of holographic glitter and again a very tiny addition of bar glitter for visual interest:

Ruby White Tips Lonesome Pine Trails, indirect outdoor light

Ruby White Tips Lonesome Pine Trails, direct sunlight

direct sunlight

Blurred to show holograpic glitter

Direct light

This polish looks amazing in every light, and if it's possible, I might even love this better than Vernita. Okay, maybe not, I don't know, don't pressure me! Please don't make me choose!!! I want both of da pretties!!


Finally for today, there's Man Eater. She mentions on her site that demand for this polish has been hard for her to keep up with, and I completely get why. I'll be honest--I'm not even sure how to describe this one. It is a magic soup of amazesomeness. It has teeny glitter. It has slightly less teeny glitter. It has flakes. Or are they flecks? Hmm--are there occasional tiny glitter shards in there? I'm not sure. It's not quite a jelly, but not really a crelly either...And she doesn't give any clues on the site to make it any less of a mystery. Visual inspection of the polish in the bottle only helps so much. And that's okay--I don't need to know exactly what happened here. All I know is, with all of the stuff that's in it, it could have easily turned into a horrendous nightmare--but it all melds together and comes out looking incredible. Judge for yourself:

Ruby White Tips Man Eater overcast outdoor light

Whoa-oh here she comes

Watch out boys, she'll chew you up

Whoa-oh here she comes

She's a man eater!

I don't know how she did it. I don't need to know. I'm just glad I own it. A gorgeous shade of red with deep texture and depth. It's like a flakie that matured and got a healthy dose of elegant...and I'm in love. :)

Formula on all of these polishes were divine. With so much blingy goodness in them, I expected them to be a bit difficult, but I had no problems whatsoever; they were a pleasure to apply.

If you want a sneak peek of Poppy, one of the polishes I'll be reviewing in the second half of the collection, I used it in some nail art here.

In the meantime, you can find Laura's Etsy store here. Her polishes range from $8.25 to $8.75, and she has a mystery box for $12.75. She also has several charity polishes that I'll be talking more about next time. You can follow Laura on Facebook by clicking here. Of course her polishes are three-free and cruelty-free!

Thanks for taking a look! Xoxox,
M.

(The polishes in this review were purchased with my own money, however, I was given a reviewer's discount in exchange for my 100% honest opinion)

Easter Basket Nail Colors Featuring Zoya Nail Polish!

Transform Your Tips With A Mani Makeover...

 

Shine Beauty Beacon recommends revitalizing your beauty look just in time for Spring Holidays with lively lacquer shades from Zoya Nail Polish!

 

"Are you in the mood for a makeover? Spring is a great time of the year to do it--whether it's in your personal or professional life. People seem more open to renewal due to the change in weather, blossoming flowers, and the celebrations of Easter and Passover."

 

The Spring 2013 Zoya Lovely Collection shades all feature the long-wearing, vegan friendly and toxin-free* Zoya formula! 

Featured left: GeiGei (pink metallic), Piaf (yellow metallic), Blu (baby blue), Neely (creamy green) and Julie (soft purple metallic) 

 

*All Zoya Nail Polish and Treatments do not contain formaldehyde, resin, toluene, dibutyl phathalate or camphor.    

 

ZOYA IS THE NEW COLOR OF FASHION!

www.zoya.com

Before & After: Space Invaders Twinpost!

Hello!!

So, it's time for another Cheeky twin post with Dina of Secretary's Nail Art. :) We're on plate Cheeky 45, and we agreed to use the two top images from that plate.

Okay. So. Do you remember the game Space Invaders?? I am probably revealing a little too much about my age, but...when I was a little girl, there weren't too many video games around, and I LOVED the ones that did exist. Space Invaders was one of those, and I could play it for hours:

Flashback!!! 80's retro FTW!!!

When I saw the images on the plate months ago, I knew I was going to try to recreate me some Space Invaders! I started with a base of Wet n Wild's Nail In The Coffin; this is one of their tombstone bottle series, and while I love it for that, it didn't live up to what I hoped it would be. In the bottle, it's a black polish with multi-color glitter; on my nail, it's a black polish that may or may not have glitter in it--it's hard to tell, and that's just not good. This isn't the first black glitter polish that has disappointed me in this very same way; luckily, I did find one that I like, this one by A'dor Beauty Supplies, and honestly I think I'm going to stop while I'm ahead with that one. Anyway, here is Nail In The Coffin:

This was the very best shot I could get of the glitter--and it didn't show up that much in person.

Next I stamped using Cheeky 45 and Barry M Silver foil. With a dotting tool I drew in my cannon and the laser dots shooting out to kill the Invaders...OH NOES!! It looks like two of them are going to get past me....NOOOOoooooooooooo....

Wah wah wah...game over. :(

It's simple, but I had a blast making it. Took me right back to my youth! Hope it made you smile, and please don't forget to check out what Dina did, which should be up later today. :)

Thanks for stopping by! Xoxox,
M.

Six Spring Nail Looks With The Zoya Lovely Collection...

Color your nails LOVELY

The Spring 2013 Zoya Lovely Collection includes 3 dewy metallics and 3 fresh creams that pair together perfectly! Here are six spring-perfect nail looks to help you embrace the colors of spring...

The Nail Network works her nail art magic with a spring water marble featuring Zoya Nail Polish in Blu, Jacqueline, Neely and Julie! Visit The Nail Network for the full post and even more great looks.








The softer side of the galaxy - Makeup Withdrawal uses Zoya Nail Polish in Blu, Piaf, Julie and GeiGei to create a dream-like pastel galaxy nail look. Visit Makeup Withdrawal for the full post and additional pictures.















Sweet like sugar! Wacky Laki features Zoya Nail Polish in Jacqueline, Neely, Blue and Julie in a candy-like sugar spun manicure. Visit Wacky Laki to see how she created the look.
















When in doubt, polka dot! Beyond Beauty Lounge uses the entire Zoya Lovely Collection to create a colorful nail look perfect for Spring. Visit Beyond Beauty Lounge for more information about the look.  















Cutie-cles creates an ultra girly-girl gradient using Zoya Nail Polish in Julie and GeiGei. Visit Cutie-cles for the full post and additional images.


















For tips that resemble melting sherbert, try your hand at the dripping nail look. Visit Lucy's Stash for more images of this fun nail art featuring Zoya Nail Polish in Piaf, GeiGei, Julie, Blu and Neely.

ZOYA IS THE NEW COLOR OF FASHION!

www.zoya.com 

The Style Network Features Zoya Nail Polish Mini Color Cuties!

Perfect Easter Picks - Zoya Mini Color Cuties Are Just As Cute As Colored Easter Eggs! 

According to The Style Network, Easter Weekend is the perfect time to indulge in feminine, pretty pastel lacquer shades by Zoya Nail Polish.... 

"Although we're mad for tough chic--pointed nails, leather skirts, spiky jewelry--we also have a soft spot for the feminine and delicate. What better time than Easter weekend to bust out this kinder, gentler approach to style than with a manicure in a pretty pastel? Zoya nail polish has a suite of gorgeous nail polish hues to choose from, and they're just $5 a bottle." - Style Network 

The LE Zoya Mini Color Cuties are now SOLD OUT! Visit www.zoya.com for full-sized (0.50oz) bottles of the featured spring-perfect colors.

ZOYA IS THE NEW COLOR OF FASHION!

www.zoya.com

Zoya Nail Polish's Music Video Appearance!

Bright Like a Ray of Sunshine...

For the debut video of her new song, Waltz of the Forest (森のワルツ), Japanese Singer Ray Yamada polishes off her beauty look with Zoya Nail Polish! The stunning and talented singer-songwriter shared that she is a big fan and ALWAYS wears Zoya. Check out the pictures below for some behind the scenes and on-set shots of her music video mani (SO much ZOYA to choose from!) - don't forget to watch the video debut below!

ZOYA IS THE NEW COLOR OF FASHION! 
www.zoya.com

Before & After: Stipple manicure

Hello!

Today is my final purple-green-coral manicure from the Tri-Polish challenge!

I've been seeing a lot of brush-stroke manis, and they're cool, but none of them really inspired me to do my own...until I saw this one.  Instead of being a brush-stroke manicure, it's almost more of a stipple manicure, as though she just barely touched the tip of the brush to the nail. I love it, so I had to try to do it. :)

I started with my coral as a base, on the theory that it would make the manicure as light as possible given the two dark colors. I stippled randomly with purple, then green, then purple again, then green. Then I coated the whole thing with a light coat of China Glaze Golden Opportunity, a topcoat that has teeny holographic golden glitter:

It's a little bit like what Monet would have produced if he were on crack.

Or maybe toward the end of his career, when he was losing his eyesight.

In that spirit, I decided it needed some flowers! I stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM11.

Turns out, I love this technique (although it's a bit messy and as you can see I had a tough time with clean-up!) and I'm definitely going to do it again. I'm still on the fence about how these three colors went together, but I will say it looked a little less like someone threw the 1970s into a blender in real life, lol.

To recap the colors, my purple was China Glaze When Stars Collide; my green was China Glaze OMG A UFO; and my coral was Sally Hansen Snappy Sorbet.

Thanks for taking a look! Xoxox,
M.

Zoya PixieDust Collection Video Review From Ms Gold Girl...

Beauty YouTube Blogger Marnie (MsGoldgirl) dives into the matte, textured and sparkling PixieDust trend! Even with a more classic nail polish preference, Marnie can't get enough of the trendy, sophisticated and wearable shades! Check out her video review with tips, answers to frequently asked questions AND swatches of the Zoya PixieDust Collection for Spring 2013 below. PLUS - don't forget to watch through
to the end for a little giveaway action!  

Loving the textured nail polish craze? Click here to check out even more stunning shades in the innovative new PixieDust finish for summer! Available for pre-order NOW - Shipping April 15th or sooner.

 
ZOYA IS THE NEW COLOR OF FASHION!
www.zoya.com

Fab Fit and Fun - Zoya Nail Polish featured on The Talk (CBS)

Zoya Nail Polish on The Talk - Beauty Must-Haves Segment

Zoya Nail Polish is proud to be a part of the very first Fab Fit Fun VIP Beauty Box - a hand picked box of beauty products by Giuliana Rancic which was featured on The Talk (CBS) this week.

Here Lifestyle expert Chi-Lan Lieu introduces us to some of the hottest beauty breakthroughs to make us look gorgeous including the Fab Fit Fun (FFF) VIP Spring Beauty Box! Note - we are at the end of the clip :)


















 
ZOYA IS THE NEW COLOR OF FASHION!
www.zoya.com

Zoya Nails The Pastel Polish Trend In Teen Vogue Magazine

Looking LOVELY In Pretty Pastels Couldn't Be Easier...

Get a head start on Spring's most sought after lacquer shades! Teen Vogue Magazine recommends floral hued beauty goodies like Zoya Nail Polish in Julie - a soft wisteria purple metallic, Zoya GeiGei - a blushing cherry blossom pink metallic, and Zoya Neely - an earliest spring green cream.

Everyone can wear pastel shades! If you are just breaking into the pastel nail polish trend try freshening up a french manicure with pastel tips, add a pastel accent nail to a coordinating shade or have some fun with pastel polka-dots.


ZOYA IS THE NEW COLOR OF FASHION!
www.zoya.com

Before & After: Egyptian Era

Hello!!!

This week in the Llama Nails Time Periods challenge we're on to the Egyptian time period. I love all things Ancient Egyptian and was excited to do this manicure; I've been wanting to use my hieroglyphic image for ages. :)

There's a small story behind the polish I chose for my base color. As I've mentioned on the blog, while I've loved nail polish since I was a little girl, my obsession with it and nail art started when I discovered Konad about this time last year. Shortly after, when browsing through Ninja Polish, I discovered NerdLacquer...Before I even really knew what 'indies' were, I fell in love with it, based on the cool colors and awesome names (she had me at 'Entirely Unlike Tea'). I clicked on 'notify me when in stock' and waited. And waited. And waited.

After a while I sort of got the feeling something was up, and I decided to ask about it in one of my polish groups. I found out at that time that Amanda, the maker of NerdLacquer, had gone missing...nobody knew what had happened or if she'd ever be back.

I was sadface.

You can imagine my excitement when she showed back up again and announced she'd be starting to make polish again. Me and the rest of the polish universe. I missed her first release, because it was at a bad time for me. But her last restock was at a time I could make! So I poured over the polishes and made my list so at the target time, I could get what I needed before she sold out.

And that's when the story went to a dark, dark place.

Her restock was at 1:00 pm. I I refreshed, and suddenly things were in stock! I clicked, added to cart. Clicked, added to cart. Three more times. When I added the 6th polish, all within less than 30 seconds, the cart page came up...and I'd been cart-jacked. All of my polishes except two were gone. I wasn't sure what had happened--I'd never been cart-jacked before! I went back and the polishes were sold out now. As I did, it dawned on me what happened, and I realized I'd better go back and check out quick! I did, and a third polish had shown up--I still don't now if I clicked it or what--and I didn't look to see what it was, I just checked out as quickly as I could, so I wouldn't lose what I had.

When I finished my checkout, the time was: 1:04pm. In less than four minutes she had sold out.

I went to my receipt to see which polishes I'd manage to get, and there was one on there I hadn't intended to buy--The Ring. In the craziness I must have clicked on it, but I don't remember doing so. I was a bit worried about it at first, because gold polishes really aren't my thing, except for nail art. But then I figured, who cares! It's a NerdLacquer, and if I don't like it, I'm quite certain I'll be able to find it a loving home.

But I'll tell you this...I still have nightmares from the trauma of the cart-jacking...::sobs::...(kidding...mostly...lol)

When I got the polish, I was happy to discover it's a deeper gold color, and has red micro-glitter in it--we all know how I feel about red. So when I was looking to start my Egyptian manicure, I thought, what could be more Egyptian than a deep gold, with bits of red? Here it is:

NerdLacquer The Ring

NerdLacquer The Ring

Next I stamped over it with the hieroglyphic image from LLC-A, using Konad Black. On my ring finger I added an Eye of Ra with Sally Hansen Rapid Red, using Mash plate 36:

How cool is it the way that the gold glitters catch the light and peek out from under the hieroglyphs? I adore the way this came out, although I think I'd do it with Konad Red next time to make it a bit more opaque over the black stamping.

What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to check out the other Egyptian manicures, linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.

NOTD: Holo Doto

Hello!!

Time for manicure #3 out of 4 of Crumpet's Nail Tarts Tri-Polish Challenge! I accidentally became an over-achiever and used all three polishes in both today's manicure and Thursday's. :)

I've seen a ton of dotticures lately, and it has stirred me to do one of my own, so that's the direction I went. To refresh your memory, the three polishes I'm using are China Glaze When Stars Collide, China Glaze OMG A UFO, and Sally Hansen Snappy Sorbet. Here's how it ended up:

Okay, so I know it looks like I made a mistake and messed up one of the dots. Nuh-uh, not me!! See, what had happened was? Um...Um...Um...Okay, see, the dot? It decided to undergo meiosis? And it divided all cell-like and stuff? And it just happened! Yeah! That's what happened!

>.>

Thanks for taking a look at it, and please check out the other manicures linked below. :)

Xoxox,
M.

Lace Tutorial for Lulus.com

Lace isn't just for your grandmother's coffee table anymore, and it's certainly not restricted to special occasion outfits like the upcoming Easter best dresses ladies will soon be dawning.

Lovely lace adds instant femininity to any outfit, and depending on the color, can really spice something up to be sexy as well.

I wanted to bring the black and white embellishment on these lace trimmed matador pants onto my nails with today's Lulus.com tutorial.

You can read more about the look and what I think of it at the Lulus.com blog here.

Holiday Week: Valentine's Day v.2

So yeah, I know that Holiday week was last week and that I should've posted this yesterday as promised, but I wasn't feeling well and hubs was using the laptop to do our taxes.  From the outside, it would appear that I'm the sickest person in the world, huh?  I promise, it's all related to one issue, sinus disease, that will be remedied later this year.  Until then, though, I'm dealing with a chronic sinus infection causing me to run low grade fevers from 99.7-100.4.  At least I'm able to work from home right now, so that's good.  I'd hate to annoy everyone in my office with my sniffling and coughing.  It's kind of obnoxious right now!  Anyway, let's take a look at my epic Valentine's Day mani.  

I started out with a base of Color Club Halo Hue Miss Bliss, which is an ultra-holo barbie pink.  Unfortunately, I apparently didn't take any pictures of it.  Womp womp!  After my undies, I did a skittles using the following polishes:

Lynnderella Don't Drink this Pink, Glitzology Cupid's Arrow, Lynnderella Matter of the Heart, Rainbow Honey XOXO, and Lynnderella Angel Food.

Here are closeups of the bottles as well as macro shots of each polish.  I am in lust with pretty much every one of these polishes.

Miss Bliss

Don't Drink this Pink

Cupid's Arrow

Matter of the Heart

XOXO

XOXO blurry to see holo glitters

Angel Food

All of these polishes are so dense that you can't really see my holo undies at all.  

Don't Drink this Pink and Cupid's Arrow were both packed with so much glitter that they required the dab method.  The glitter to base ratio was heavily balanced toward glitter than base.  XOXO, Matter of the Heart, and Angel Food, however, were perfectly easy to apply.  You couldn't see the holo undies under the creme polishes for obvious reasons.  The only one that gives you a peak of holo goodness from the whole mani is XOXO.  

Here's another shot of them all together.

You can purchase Lynnderella here, Glitzology here, Rainbow Honey here, and the Color Club Halo Hues on eBay or Amazon.

Which of the six here is your favorite?

*I was not financially compensated for this post.  All items in this review were purchased by me for my own use.  The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.  For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy in the tab above.*