Peppermint Swirls

Happy Friday guys! It's almost Christmas and I'm starting to get excited underneath all the present wrapping stress. How is the apocalypse today treating you?

Today I have a mani I just couldn't help but try, I knew as soon as I saw this adorable look created by A Girl And Her Polish. Take a look at my version below:

Natural light

Polishes used:

• Seche Rebuild base coat / Seche Vite top coat
• Sinful Colors Snow Me White
• Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby
• Zoya Logan
• Confetti Lots O Dots
• Red Angel stamping plate RA-110

I learned a few things while making this one. Firstly, I learned that while Essie makes lovely colors, I will never again pay $8 for a white polish. I finally finished my bottle of Essie Blanc and when I opened this new bottle of SC Snow Me White I was kind of amazed at the difference. If I was more careful I bet I could have made this a one coater! Secondly, I am way out of stamping practice. This is the first time I used any of the half moon shaped plates but man I had the worst time trying to line them up in any kind of decent fashion on the nail. Hence the dot garlands across the top lol. The ring finger came out the way I imagined but the others are all a bit off. I love the look anyways. It keeps making me smile every time it catches the light and all the little holo sparkles light up ^_^

I guess I need to get back to stamping work cause man am I rusty. Do you guys have a type of stamping image you just do not get along with?

Swatch Day - Essence Gorgeous Bling Bling

Wednesday everybody! I have a sore throat and it is icky. I need cough drops like whoah. 

Today I have a lovely color to show you and it's my very first Essence polish. Let's take a look at one of my absolute new favorites, Gorgeous Bling Bling!

Shade

Shade

Sunlight

Sunlight

Close up golden flakie shot!

Polishes used:

• Seche Rebuild base coat / Seche Vite top coat
• Essence Color & Go Gorgeous Bling Bling

Just like my other two new to me brands, I am now a huge Essence fan. Firstly, I loved the brush on the Color & Go bottle. It wasn't quite as huge as the Sally Hansen Salon Manicure brushes or the Wet n Wild Megalast brushes but it WAS wider than a normal straight brush with a nice rounded end. On my pinky it was a one swipe brush, who doesn't love that? Formula wise, also no disappointments. All pics are three coats but I could have easily done just two and reach full opacity. This is such a gorgeous color, I guess that's why they put it right in the name lol. In person and in low light it comes across as a really beautiful burnt orange type color and it gets a nice bright almost brick tone in the sunlight where the gold flakies realy shine through. It would have been nice to have around in the beginning of the fall but I still feel like this is a very winter appropriate color. I have holiday mani plans for it already! Wear time so far has been great as well, these pics are after a few days with still no tip wear. I really have nothing like it in my collection and at only $1.99 I really won't feel guilty getting a back up bottle. My only problem with this polish is that it doesn't retail closer to me haha. 

Orange tones may not be traditional around this particular holiday but dang it I like it! What kind of non-traditional colors do you guys like this time of year?

It's About Time!

Happy Monday everyone! Yes, it really is a happy one because this weekend my best friend got engaged!

I've known my best friend for 12 years now, and for at least 9 of those years she has been dating one of my other best friends (who I call my brother and he calls me his sister). So if you're wondering why the title of this post is "it's about time", it's because that's what pretty much everyone who has ever known them said when we found out the great news haha. So of course this called for celebration nail art!

Polishes used:

• Seche Rebuild base coat / Seche Vite top coat
• Essie Master Plan
• Sinful Colors Firefly
• Heart shaped rhinestones from the dollar store
• One piece of loose hex glitter from Born Pretty Store

Pardon my winter/overworked hands. I've gone through like a half a tube of lotion in the past few days to no avail. Yellow and gray are one of my friend's favorite color combinations so that part was a given. When I first got the assorted shaped rhinestones from the dollar store I was all like "wtf who makes hearts yellow" but I guess I owe the dollar store an apology cause these were immediately what I thought of when I started this design. The one piece of loose hex glitter photographed dark but it's a bright shiny silver and is supposed to be the diamond on the band of the ring. The pics and my rough hands make this look a lot thicker and rough than it is, in person it comes across as a really sweet and delicate mani and I'm totally loving it. That little piece of glitter really catches the light and sparkles like a little itty bitty diamond and we all know I love anything sparkly so this is a winner!

CONGRATS TO MAH BESTIE AND MAH BRO! I love you guys!

Swatch Day - Butter London No More Waity Katie

Happy Friday all! I am taking a break from abusing my hands making holiday jewelry gifts to make hot chocolate ice cream cones for an office party for my mother. Yes, they are as awesome as they sound. If you are intrigued and in need of a last minute cute thing, I highly recommend taking a look at Designs With Heart for some basic instructions.

Look how cute they are! I use craft scissors to cut the tops of my bags all fancy like and some cheap holiday colored ribbons.

These things are taking over my life (and kitchen table) >.<

Now on to the swatch of the day! One of my never tried before brands that I picked up at Ulta was Butter London. Until now I had only been able to drool over the many shades from afar. When I got there in person I had a reaaaaaally hard time choosing one color, but in the end it was No More Waity Katie that called out to me the loudest. She is a stunner!

Polishes used:

• Seche Rebuild base coat / Seche Vite top coat
• Butter London No More Waity, Katie

NOTE: I really don't feel like my pictures do this polish justice, so go check out the review of this at The Polishaholic, you will not be disappointed by her gorgeous photos.

I bought this polish solely on the look in the bottle. It wasn't until I got home and read some reviews that I learned a lot of people had issues with the formula. I will admit, I was like oh crap what did I just do to myself. However, I was very happily surprised! I had pretty much none of the application or formula issues that I had read about, such as bald spots and streaking. This polish is very much on the sheer side and both pictures are with three coats, though I think I could get away with two thick ones if I had to. I am so in love with this gorgeous grayed out dusty purple and those bright purple sparkles are perfect! The glitter was nice and even, no fishing needed. The only real problem I had with this was (again) taking decent photos of it. It did get a little gritty with all the glitter and it is a bit top coat hungry, I would recommend whatever method you prefer for removing glitters with this one. I have seen it layered over Zoya Caitlin to get amazingly close to bottle color if you don't feel like using a full three coats. I will be planning to layer this over quite a few things in the spirit of experimentation. I think I am now a Butter London fan, now to hunt down Wallis somehow.

I hope you all have a great weekend, I will be elbow deep in hot chocolate mix and using my jedi mind powers to will my poor broken nails to grow.

Swatch Day - Zoya Logan

Happy Wednesday guys! Anybody else seriously dragging butt today? I am sleepy!

Due to recent dog sadness, my super awesome husband was kind enough to brave a trip into Ulta and he bought me three new polishes. Now that's love! All of them are from brands I have until now never gotten my hands on. One of those happens to be today's mani.

Polishes used:

• Seche Rebuild base coat / Seche Vite top coat
• Zoya Logan

This gorgeous green foil is Zoya Logan, my very first Zoya polish! I can now say I understand the Zoya love, this polish is a stunner in every aspect. I was looking for something in the Christmas green realm since my only other dark green is on it's last legs, boy did I find one! Foils entertain me almost as much as sparkles and holo polishes so the fact that this turned out to be a foil was an unexpected bonus. The formula was a dream, pictures show two thin coats but I probably could have gotten away with one generous coat. The pigment is nice and rich on this one. No signs of gritty texture like some foils have and one swipe of top coat made it nice and super shiny smooth. I am now ridiculously curious about Zoya cremes but I'm on a no buy for a while after these new three and all my birthday polishes. I was totally eyeing up Zoya Kelly while I was there cause I love gray and come on, it had my name on it! Alas, she shall have to wait. Logan will be plenty to keep me occupied for a while, I really think I would be hard pressed to find a better Christmas green. Speaking of which, you know I couldn't leave this plain!

Glitter tips! For these I added a coat of Essie As Gold As It Gets over Zoya Logan and then I placed red glitter from the Born Pretty Store on the tips. I called it my Christmas mani warm-up. So far I've had Logan on for a few days with minimal tip wear. Zoya has lived up to the hype for me, I'm a fan! Have you guys ever tried a new brand and fallen in love?

Swatch Day - Pure Ice Girls Best Friend

Happy gross rainy Monday everybody! Well, it's gross and rainy here anyways. After life being a total jerkface for the past week and a half I think it's finally safe to say I can blog again! YAY! Before I start I'd like to say a very big thank you to all of your kind words on my last post, I know Schaden would also say thank you for helping me feel better.

Today I have one of my birthday polishes to show you, Pure Ice Girls Best Friend. It's a very appropriate holiday cranberry sort of red with a lovely little sparkle thrown in. Ready to look? Yeah you are!

This is the most color accurate photo for most lighting.

It matches my blood, now THAT'S how you accessorize!

In bright, direct light this polish turns a gorgeous  bright cherry red. 

Stamping fun!

Polishes used:

• Seche Rebuild base coat / Seche Vite top coat
• Pure Ice Girls Best Friend
• Zoya Logan for stamping

There is one thing about this polish that bothers me. The name has no apostrophe. Yes I know that's really got nothing to do with the way the polish wears but dang it I had to go back and edit this to take all the apostrophes out and for that I am irked. Aside from the grammatical issues, I really like this little number. Girls Best Friend is from the Metro Chic line and I found mine in Walmart on a crazy disorganized shelf that you would come to expect from Walmart. I was drawn to the dark cranberry in the bottle and it just looked like nothing I had in my collection.The top two pictures are very color accurate to what they look like in person, a nice deep sparkly red. If you get closer to a light source (or you suck at taking pics like me and have an issue with the flash) you will see it lighten up quite a bit to a cherry sort of red. You may notice a red mark on my index finger, it is not stray polish. I whacked myself with the chasing hammer while making jewelry >.< If nothing else the fact that it matches the polish should really give you a nice illustration of what a perfect blunt force trauma red this color really is. The formula was pretty good, all pictures show two fairly generous coats. For the amount of sparkle in it I really expected it to be a little more gritty and top coat hungry but it was pleasantly neither. I will however say that it started to wear and chip after a day of hard use. Also, like all reds, it decided to stain my nails a tiny bit even with base coat. I don't know what it is about me and reds but every freakin time, I swear. Overall I still call this one a winner in my book and you will no doubt be seeing it much more as Christmas fast approaches. I had been really kind of jonesing for China Glaze Ruby Pumps but now with this in my collection I feel like I can wait. It's by no means a dupe but it's in the same general idea and it's close enough for me. For now. Oh god I have a problem.

Thank you again for all your kind thoughts and words, you guys are super awesome. As a token of appreciation I give you a smiley cat.

Is it too late to copyright the term "blunt force trauma red"? I feel like Crayola needs to know about it.

For My Schaden

Unhappy Friday everyone. I hope you all had a much better Thanksgiving than I did.

I hope you will pardon the lack of nails today, I really just don't have it in me. Last night we had to take one of my best friends ever, our 13 year old Keeshond named Schaden to be put to sleep. It was time and we didn't want her to suffer any more than she had already begun to. 

Goodnight my sweet Shady Lady, I will never ever forget your gentle spirit that always made me feel better no matter what.

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Wednesday everyone, tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Happy belated Thanksgiving to all the Canadians :P This is a short and sweet one, there's food to cook!

For today I knew I had to show off some turkey love, completely inspired by the most adorable Thanksgiving mani by Lydia at Sekhmet's Purple Castle. I just love her turkeys so freakin much! Mine are not even close to how awesome Lydia's are but I still love my lil guy.

Normally this is where I tell you the polishes I used but this was an impromptu polishing session using many polishes that are not my own. Translation: I followed my mom to her normal nail appointment and I played with a bunch of polishes at the salon. I do know that they were all OPI with the exception of the black which was China Glaze Liquid Leather. Also Mr. Turkey was done with a striper polish brush that I kept cleaning between polish colors. The orange was a neon with a silver/orange glitter over it. The lady who does my mom's nails took a picture of my turkey before we left lol.

Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday with friends and family! See you on Friday after I make a few attempts at dragging myself out of the food coma >.<

Swatch Day - Pure Ice Pardon My French

It's Monday but that's okay, cause this week is Thanksgiving and that means I can stuff my face!

Today I have a swatch of one of the polishes from my birthday haul, Pure Ice Pardon My French. It was a total pain in the butt to photograph, not just because I haven't found a decent place to take photos here yet but also because this sucker is packed with glitter. I did however manage to take one accidental ridiculously awesome picture so I'll lead with that, put your best foot (finger?) forward and what not. Take a look!

Polishes used:

• Seche Rebuild base coat / Seche Vite top coat
• Pure Ice Pardon My French

This polish is part of the new Diamond Couture line from Pure Ice now that they are owned by Revlon. It caught my eye because I haven't really seen any glitters this particular kind of fall color. This is a very dark brown almost black jelly base with gorgeous bronze colored small glitter and larger hex glitter. I got quite a few compliments on it, so it's definitely an attention grabber! All of the above pictures are two coats and application was nice and easy. The formula was a little thick with so much glitter packed in but it flowed off the brush without a problem and there was no need to fish around for the larger pieces. I do feel like this was a little easier to work with than some of my older pre-Revlon Pure Ice polishes but that may be the glitter, so I will have to wait until I swatch the other non-glitter color to make that call. This feels a tiny bit textured on the nail but it's hardly noticeable and it's not what I would call top coat hungry by any means. Overall this is just a unique fun color in my collection and great for fall, I'm glad I got it. I did add some orange glitter from the Born Pretty Store (as seen in my last post) to make it a little more festive for Thanksgiving and it looked super awesome but of course I couldn't photograph it for crap. It's just as well cause by that point it was going on a few days and it finally chipped, gee shame time to change the polish hehe. 

I'm off to start searching for my little food chopper in preparation for making turkey stuffing later in the week. Are you all looking forward to Thanksgiving too?

Born Pretty Glitter Review

Happy Friday everyone! I have some awesome stuff for you today so let's dive right in, shall we?

The awesome people at Born Pretty Store sent me some shiny things to play with! The item I'll be showing you today is a set of loose hex glitter in an assortment of colors. As I'm sure many of you know, they have been dubbed glequins by The Nailasaurus. The specific ones I've used in the following mani can be found at this link to the item named "12 Colors Nail Art Shiny Glitter Powder Sheets". 

Ready for the awesome? Let the review begin!

The glitters arrives in these adorable little containers that made it super easy to pick your colors. They were also easy to open, a plus when you're like me and don't think ahead and all of a sudden you have wet nails and you're like "uuuhhh oh yeah I have to open things". Keep in mind my pictures do these colors no justice, if you follow the link to the product page they have many pictures that are very color accurate. Man I need a light box. As you can see each container is packed, you certainly get your moneys worth! I seriously doubt that I could get this much glitter with this much color variety for anywhere near the price if I went to say Sally's or Ulta. I will be set for loose glitter for a long time!

That one teal one that caught the light is pretty color accurate.

Polishes used:

• Seche Rebuild base coat / Seche Vite top coat
• Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint
• Sally Hansen Blue Me Away
• Born Pretty Store glitter

I started out with the pinky and went a little crazy but hey, maybe I'll start a weird pinky accent nail trend. I picked two colors of glitter that in retrospect I probably shouldn't have but I have tons of colors to play with in the future. My photos don't really show how contrasted the dark blue and teal glitters really are but in person it's a very distinct difference and I love it! To apply these little shiny guys was very very easy and requires no special equipment of any kind. All I did was stick a toothpick into some top coat, pick up a piece of glitter with it and place it on the nail. That's it! I also am very happy with the overall look and I'm sure I will be doing it again with more contrasted colors. These little glitters throw some awesome shine and sparkle when they hit the light and with a quick swipe of top coat they've stayed put and nice and flat with no problems at all. Now I know why everyone has been using them, they're awesome! 

Overall, here's my take on these. They have a great price, you get a ton of product for little cost, they are high quality and very easy to use, and they come in their own little storage bottles. There is no downside to these babies!

Have you tried glequins yet? If not and you would like to, follow this lovely link and use the coupon code the Born Pretty Store was kind enough to provide for my readers!

Thanks for reading, I shall have more glitter for you in the near future!

Sandy Messed Mah Junk Up

Long time no see, everybody! Just as I get into the swing of things after moving, Hurricane Sandy was all like "Oh, you want to post regularly? Allow me to sing for you the song of my people. *ridiculous wind sounds*". Also as I was cleaning up after the power outage and taking care of the grandparents, my birthday happened! It was cray cray around here. (Did I seriously just type that? I feel like I may be too old to use that phrase....)

Now then, I got a fun package in the mail today that will have a whole post to itself on Friday. It will be super sparkly! Until then, I have some birthday haul pics for you. I haven't swatched them yet (I know, I'm lame) but I have some nice bottle shots since the sun decided to come out for a while. Take a look!

Loot!!

Pure Ice Girl's Best Friend

Pure Ice Girl's Best Friend is a gorgeous berry shade with golden flecks. LOVE! This bottle shot was taken in direct sunlight but in normal light it's quite a bit darker. On me it looked more like a cranberry winter shade, definitely glad I picked it up! This shade is part of the new Pure Ice Metro Chic line just released since they were acquired by Revlon. 

Pure Ice Pardon My French

Pure Ice Pardon My French caught my eye with it's gorgeous bronze glitter, both small and larger hex shapes. Again, this is a direct sunlight shot and it's quite a bit darker in normal light. The glitter is very visibly dark brown brozed color in what looks to me to be a blackened jelly base. Don't quote me on that just yet though as I haven't given it a try, but soon! This one is part of the Diamond Couture line.

Both of these were the standard $1.99 Pure Ice price that we all have come to expect, plus one for Revlon on that front. More to come on the formulas once I get them swatched. For more information on the new Pure Ice lines, visit this awesome post on it by Nouveau Cheap.

Revlon Moon Candy Meteor

Revlon Moon Candy Orbit

Revlon Moon Candy Universe

Revlon Moon Candy Milky Way

These pretties are part of Revlon's Nail Art Moon Candy line. I was curious about them ever since I saw a few swatches over at The Polishaholic. So far I've tried Orbit on my toes and aside from the little bit of challenge from the bottle shape all went well and sparkly. I haven't had any flakie shards poke through socks yet so we'll see how they handle finger wear. I will say the one I tried was super pigmented and only took one thin coat of the base color which made me happy.

I think that about sums up my last week and a half or so. Hopefully everything stays settled because I can't wait to show you guys what showed up in the mail in Friday's post. I hope you all were safe and warm through the storm! Knowing many people affected seriously by the harsh weather, I'd like to take this spot to toss out a link to the American Red Cross for any who would like to donate to relief aid. See you all Friday!

This Post Is So Corny

Happy Friday guys! Got any fun plans for the weekend? I will be making jewelry with my niece, and let me tell you all that kid is entertaining!

Today's mani is not original at all. Not even close. I'm pretty sure everyone has tried this one at some point but I just couldn't resist. I mean, it's Halloween for cryin' out loud and who doesn't love some syrup coated sugar? Well, aside from diabetics. I apologize if the following nail art offends anyone who can't enjoy this full on sugar rush of a holiday to it's full extent.

Polishes used:

• Seche Rebuild base coat / Seche Vite top coat
• Sinful Colors Firefly
• Wet N Wild Sunny Side Up
• Sinful Colors Snow Me White
• Confetti Lots O Dots

I am totally feelin these sparkly little candies. Also I'm pretty darn proud of how my lines turned out since I freehanded them with the polish brush. Gotta love the ones that make you feel like you're getting better! There's really not much to this one and it's not a new concept by any means but I'm happy I tried it anyway. The only downside was how much of a pain in the butt it was to photograph for some reason. I've been looking for an excuse to use Lots O Dots since I bought it and this was perfect. You can't see in my photos but it's a really cute little silver/holo glitter and I'm glad I picked it up since it was only $2. 

Fun fact: I bought this polish solely because of the name. My husband has a World of Warcraft character named Lotsodots and I just couldn't resist.

Guys, I totally just noticed that I hit 100 followers!! Thank you all so much for taking the time to read the stuff I type, you guys are all awesome! I will be planning a giveaway to celebrate this little milestone in the near future, so thanks for sticking with me and stay tuned for some fun stuff!

Great Googly Moogly!

Happy Wednesday all! Having a good week so far? Mine has been thankfully uneventful and I've been able to get some crocheting done. I'm making a blanket for my grandmother!

Today's mani is in no way at all practical for everyday wear. In fact it didn't even last more than 20 minutes but I still love it. I freaking love googly eyes! I'm a firm believer in the theory that googly eyes can make ANYTHING funny. One of my favorite websites is nothing but Magic the Gathering playing cards with googly eyes on the monsters (Magic Cards With Googly Eyes). I seriously can't look at them without laughing. So of course when I was grocery shopping and saw a pack of googly eyes for less than a dollar you know there was no way I was leaving without them. The following mani then happened and made me laugh hysterically like an idiot at myself for like a half hour.

Polishes used:

• Seche Rebuild base coat / Seche Vite top coat
• Maybelline Color Show Go Go Green
• China Glaze Electric Pineapple
• Googly eyes

I did a thin coat of Go Go Green with a second thin coat of Electric Pineapple for my monstery green background, then when it was dry stuck on some little googly eyes. I stood in the kitchen shaking my hand near my head to hear the googly eyes make noise for like five minutes and giggling. My husband is now more sure than ever that I am insane. But how can you even care when there are freaking googly eyes on your hands?! YOU CAN'T! They're just too much fun! I may need to hit up a craft store for the super tiny ones and see if they can last more than about 20 minutes with some top coat cause man I loved this.

Are you guys doing anything fun and silly in preparation for Halloween?