Goodbye March Greens....

March was definitely the month for greens. I went through quite a few of my green untrieds, but I HAD to end the month with one of the my most anticipated untrieds. Nubar Reclaim is my very first linear holo.

SV, why must you shrink so much?

I have a few other holos, but this one is unlike any of the others that I have. With scattered holos, the base pigmentation is not so strong. So it's really a lighter washed out base with scattered holo properties. This one is different because its green-green (ha!) and yet, just as holo-y. I took quite a few pics to show it's amazingness :)



Ahhh....the rainbow





Even without flash you can still see it





What a great way to say goodbye to March. I still can't get over how fast this month has gone by. After trying reclaim, I definitely need more linear holos. What are some of your favorites??

Peace & Love

Happy Wednesday! I have been playing with this idea in my head for a while. I TRIED to do a another mani, but I need a whole lot more time for it. I think that will be my weekend project. (Stay tuned for that one). One of my favorite pieces of jewelry ever is a necklace that I have that has a dove (my favorite) and a blinged out peace sign. It's very similar to this one. I combined this idea and my favorite tee and came up with today's mani:

Index:

BM07 stamped with Konad black over MAC Obey Me

Middle:

WnW Black Creme with silver dots from bornpretty. I LOVE that Black Creme is a one coater! My "&" sign came out a bit lopsided :(

(Edit)

Ok, so here is a quick tutorial on how I did the ampersand. Since I had only done one coat of Black Creme, it was pretty much dry by the time I got to my middle finger (I did this finger last). With my dotting tool I scratched on to the nail where my design would be to use it as a guide. I then traced about the length of where 2-3 balls would go at a time (so that it wouldn't dry) and just pasted one little ball at a time. This one nail was actually alot faster than I originally anticipated. I found that when the balls started to dry, they actually dried as a "string". Once I was done with the design, I went back and just lightly repositioned the "strings" to where I wanted them to go (as they were easier to manipulate because they were already stuck together) instead of trying to move them around as I was placing them on the nail. Then I applied 2 coats of SV to "seal" the design in.

Ring:

Dotted heart using Milani Red Sparkle over Zoya Kelly

Pinky:

MAC Obey Me

I'm in a very Beatles mood today :)

Everytime I wear Kelly I remember why I love it so much! It's just sooo pretty.

So....here goes one from the vault:

It was Christmas-time, can you tell???

Thanks for looking!

Leopard Blues

Remember the story about the remote's untimely death at the hands of the one they call Bella and her weapon the dotting tool of torture? This was all that was left of him...

I had a little too much fun on Photoshop last night, huh?

Ok, so I love blues. I think it's one of my favorite colors, so I constantly find myself reaching for blues when picking my manis out. I steer more towards brighter hues (a la Blue Me Away and Pacific Blue). I decided on a darker color, but still one of my more frequently used ones. OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui is described as a medium dusty blue creme. Dusty in my mind meaning "muddy". I used this color alot in the fall, but I think I can manage to get away with using it for a few more months. The weather really influences my color choices. I know it's crazy...but I can't help it :) I've been wanting to do a full on leopard mani because I've seen it a bunch of times on MUA. (Jiloverz does some pretty awesome mani's. Click here to see the inspiration). I think I will wait until my nails grow out a bit to do this on all of my nails. For now I just did two leopard nails:



I used Orly Glitz & Glamour for the base (I LOVE this gold). G&G goes on so smoothly, which is not the case for most foil finishes that I've used before. I got this on clearance at Sally's for 1.99 a while back...I'm bummed I didn't get more, lol.

I SUCK at freehanding, so used is Konad M59 and the spots were filled in using Zoya Cheryl and OPI Ya'll Come Back Ya Hear? And because I was feeling artsy here is what it looked like in my mind, lol

I wish the whole world was cross-processed :)

I love animal prints, what's your favorite??

A French Affair Indeed

I had been waiting forever for my stuff from BornPretty to come in. It finally did! I'm pretty excited to try it all out. Bella beat me to it though. I got a set of dotting tools and while I was getting dinner ready she used one of the dotters to pry out half the buttons from my remote. So that remote is totally destroyed. I was FUMING...but it's my fault for leaving them there. Why do kids do these things!?! She knew she was in big trouble so she promptly put herself to bed right after dinner.


I had a pretty crazy weekend. My BFFs came over for a girls night in on Saturday. Long story short....I ended up with like 4 chipped nails. Even more filing down :( I knew I wanted to do a girlie color next, so I went with French Affair.

Had it not been about 9 PM, the application would have been way better. This is 3 coats. I'm actually not too crazy about this on me. Not because I don't like the color....I just don't like how dark my hands (as compared to the rest of my body...they're way darker) are :( Anywho, I wanted to do something really girlie for this.

Here is a close-up of the stones and pearls from BornPretty (click here to visit their store). Aren't they super cute? (I'm not too sure about those giant beads though)

Here is my girly French mani...

For this mani I used the third ones on the left from the cover (index finger). As usual I used Konad Black. It's starting to dry up. Do you guys know if I can apply thinner to these? M59 on the thumb. I LOVE this plate. It has this bow and another polkadot one. This is the one with the snowflakes. M79 on the index and ring. I am really hating my index finger right now. It's not square, oval, or squoval. It's just lopsided :( I tried to hide it as best I could, can you tell? LOL! I'm not really sure what else to do with these pearls...what do you ladies think? Thanks for reading and......


Kirstie Alley FTW! (Yes, I'm watching DWTS)

                                                           

Spring is On It's Way

We had the most perfect weather all weekend! Mid 70's and clear skies. How can I not be inspired? Nothing says Spring is here like the birds and the bees :)

For this mani I used OPI The "It" Color. It's a bit sheer, so this is 3 coats. Not the easiest color to work with, but totally worth it in the end; it reminds me of egg-yolks :)


A while back I ordered some heart rhinestones, pearls, and a set of dotting tools from BornPretty and they FINALLY came in. I couldn't wait to use the dotting tool. This was the smallest dot. I used BM20 to stamp my thumb with Konad Polish. I was going to do my whole nail, but I'm a bit hung over so I did not have the patience to tape it off or try and restamp my thumb. Plus, I think the off angle shows off my lil' bee's stinger more :) The black dots were done with WnW Black Creme and the daisies were dotted with WnW French White Creme. The flowers were really easy to do, just one center dot followed by dotting the petals. Since the polish was still wet, the rhinestone went on without the need for the usual clear polish to make it adhere. I applied a coat of SV to seal all the colors in. In total this took about 30 minutes (3 coats take a while to dry)


I REALLY hope the weather stays this way for a while. DH is coming home this week so I hope we can enjoy some quality outdoor time with Bella before it gets too hot. (Houston weather is brutal in the summer).


Thanks for looking:)


                                                    

Barielle Elle's Spell and TGIF!

So this has officially seemed like one of the longest weeks in a while! I have almost given up on the idea that I will be finishing the nail art challenge which is a total bummer. Bella will be going to school in the fall and I am having a home visit tomorrow (why on a Saturday when all I wanna do is rest??) so I've gone crazy cleaning my house (-_-). Needless to say, it has taken a toll on my nails and yesterday I had to file them all down. I had chipped two of them and kept picking at the sides, so they ended up really deformed. I figured they're gonna grow back fairly quickly so....I have nubbins :D

I am a bit late to the game because this is by no means a new release. Elle's Spell was a part of the Winter 2010 Holiday Hustle Collection. I recently got this on Amazon because I looked at a few Ulta's and had no luck finding it. Barielle has a monthly contest. This month's is to win the entire (6) holiday collection. You can find more info and register here.

This shows off the flakes. Seriously, how gorgeous is the bottle color??





This is more true to what the red actually looks like.



Up close of the flakies



Elle's Spell is described as a jelly red with multi-colored foil flakes. This is 3 coats and 1 of SV. I like that with 3 coats it's completely opaque (covering any VNL) but yet it retains its "jelly" properties. It gives the color/flakies alot of depth. I did a little reading and saw that some people were applying a dark base under this to bring out the flakies more. I tried this on a piece of paper (I will make an edit to show this) and decided that I'm just not in a vampy mood. I'm sure that a dark base under this will make for a great winter color.

Have a great Friday ladies and wish me luck on our home visit!!!

Laura :)

Need a perfect summer pink? Meet My Magenta

So after my trip to the beach last week my hands seem about 78 shades darker. Everything I wear looks totally different now. But, this is by far one of the best pinks there are out there in my opinion. Most of them tend to pull orange or red on my skin depending on what the undertone. This is not the case with How I Met Your Magenta. Wet 'n Wild totally scored with their new fastdry line. The colors are all so rich in pigment and they are really easy to apply. This one is a pink with gold shimmer. I wouldn't call it hot pink, but more of a rosy pink. This is 2 coats +1 of SV. Dare I say this is my favorite from this line so far? Perfect for spring/summer.

Here is a close up so you can see the gold shimmer:

It reminds me of those crossbred roses that have pink and a bit of orange like these:

I don't usually like roses, but these seem to be good inspiration for nail polish.

Ready for summer,

Laura

Nail Art Challenge (Days 19, 20, and 21)

Hey everyone! How are ya'll doing? It seems like forever since I posted anything so I have a few posts to put up. Bare with me :) I'm still two days behind....I will dedicate a full day to nail art one day to catch up. Ok so let me get started. Day 19 was a total bust. I started off with Essie Splash of Grenadine. I love the Kardashian sisters' nails, they always have the nicest nails. Khloe posted it here. Although on me it looks way lighter for some reason:

I used BM20 and SH Coral Rush. This is an excellent np to stamp with. Actually all of the Insta-Dris seem to be really good for stamping. Perfect one-coaters too. Here is my end result:

19 of 31



I will file this mani under the FAIL category. I really dislike this one. I think the coral color was too much for the base and it just looks off. Maybe if I had picked a lighter color they wouldn't have clashed so much. Oh well, you can't win them all (-_-)



Day 20:

With all the holo craze going on lately I decided to pull out an untried. This is Milani HD. I tried OPI DS Coronation and I loved it. This one is even better in my opinion. The holo is way more apparent and scattered. It's a bit sheer. I only did 2 coats, but I'm sure had I done another one, it would have been completely opaque. Here it is alone:

Most of my manis are done at night since I wait until Bella is asleep so I rarely have sun pics. This pic does not do it justice AT ALL! I did some Konad Zebra Stripes with their "special" polish.

20 of 31

I liked this one the best out of the three I'm posting. I think this would look majorly FIERCE with a LBD! :::insert sexy growl here::: The holo is also a little more apparent in this pic. I am so glad I invested in the black Konad polish. I have the worst luck trying to stamp with black and this makes it a whole lot easier to get crisp, clean lines.

Day 21:

You know how sometimes you have this idea in your head and you THINK it's gonna look super cute..then you actually do it and you HATE it?? This is totally one of those days. So I really like french manis. I think it's a cute way to do something subtle. I've been wanting to try the BM french tips. It seemed like a good idea :|



21 of 31

I have a bad habit of not putting my polishes up after I use them. I have this box I keep what I'm gonna use for the day in. This was there, so I thought....why not? I used CHG Hologram and stamped it with SH Coral Rush. (Can you tell I'm on a holo trip? LOL) It looks kinda Christmasy to me.

Ok...that was a looong post. Thanks for making it to the end.

Handwriting Tag!

Hey everyone! I've been slacking once again, but I've been so BLAH lately. And I had a few NOTDs to post, but I forgot my camera. So I will TRY and do them when I get home. Anywho, I saw Morgan post this on her blog, and I thought it was a pretty neat idea. So here is mine:

If you want to do one of your own here are the questions you need to answer:

1. What is your name? And your blog name?

2. Blog URL

3. Write: the brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

4. Favorite quote

5. Favorite song

6. Favorite band/singers

7. Say anything you want

8. Pass it along to a few bloggers

It's always fun to do these random things. I wish I had nicer handwriting...but at least it's all even.

How about you ladies, do you like your handwriting?

Nail Art Challenge (Day 17&18)

I have been totally slacking! I'm off from work and my laptop at home is super slow. So here is yesterday's mani:

17 of 31

 

I hadn't yet tried a dotting tool mani yet, and since I have probably wore out the shamrock plate I tried it out. I was going for a french tip, but I think my dots went up way too high. :(

Here are the colors I used:

-Milani3D HD

-China Glaze Laser Lime

-SH Emerald City

-Zoya Edyta

-Nina Leaf Me Alone

I like the mixture between finishes (shimmer, holo, and cremes). I think it contrasts well. I had better luck with this than with my previous dotting tool experiment. I worked one color at a time, so the polish didn't dry up on me like it did last time.

My DH decided to give me the day off today and when I woke up he had headed off to work and dropped Bella off at the babysitters to give me some "me" time. Good call! I have been watching HOUSE all day long and laying on my couch. So since I have this new found love for mood polishes I wanted to try another one out today. I went with Claire's Peaceful/Confident. It was a total bust! Like...no color change at all. I applied 3 coats and still...nothing! I took like 8667578679 pics and I could see no change at all. This mani overall was a letdown. I did some flowers with gold Konad polish and those weren't that visible either. It just like I randomly placed the rhinestones :( Booo for day 18!

18 of 31

I celebrated St. Patty's yesterday by going to the beach, so I knew I needed to wear something that would really pop in the sun. I wore OPI DS Coronation. It's a silver holo. The application was really nice, and the holo really popped in the sun. Like with most holos (in my experiece) it ate up my top coat. I should've applied two coats of SV. Here it is with one: (excuse all the sand in my cuticles, lol)

Here we are. Galveston water is more like dirty puddle water...no amount of Photoshop can change that, lol

Have a great weekend everyone!

Laura :)

Nail Art Challenge (Day 15 & 16)/ Glow in the Dark Ring

So yesterday I spent most of the afternoon making rings. I don't know how, but I managed to stab myself in the face with my pliers. Ha! I think I was so afraid to break a nail that I'm almost glad it was my face and not my hands. Sick huh? I had to make up for the day I missed so I applied a BM stamp to my already applied color (SH Blue Me Away).

15 of 31



I know I said I was gonna stick to greens for the month, but the day was soooo pretty..I just had to do a blue! Once I took that off I was fully planning on doing a nude. Do you ladies watch The Bachelor? Well, Monday I watched the finale and I just loved Emilie's nails. The opaque-almost white look looked gorgeous on her. After reading around a bit I found a couple of colors that I wanted to try and I fully intended to use one of those. Buuut...since I THOUGHT St. Patty's was today, I went with OPI Jade is the New Black. 


16 of 31



What a poor excuse for nail art, huh? I used the gold Konad special polish to stamp the clover. I think overall this week has been a bit off for me. But, today is my Friday; major PLUS! The whole ring making threw me off, so as a little extra...here is one of the rings I made yesterday:

The owner of the bead shop said she had just gotten these in and that they were glow in the dark. Who doesn't want their jewelry to glow in the dark?!? How cool is this stone?? I'm a total nerd and this reminded me of Lex Luther stealing Kryptonite from the art museum in Superman Returns. Ha!

Side Note:

I really need to figure out how to stamp twice on the same nail. I'm not sure how the ladies with really long nails do it to get overall coverage (other than with the XL stamps). What techniques do you use to fully stamp your nail if the plate is too small?

Wire Wrapped Rings/Jewelry

I am feeling pretty meh, so no nail art today. I do have something from the vault. I was erasing some pictures off FB, so I'm posting a few here. My friends have actually inherited the majority of these...lucky them, haha!

Moonstone (one of my first rings)

Moonstone with pink wire



Rectangle Gumdrop



Covered Rectangle Gumdrop

Lemon Gumdrop

Cotton Candy





Pink Cotton Candy

Square Cotton Candy

Poison Apple

Apple

I love naming things after food. Ha!

Thanks for reading :)