Feeling Awesome/Silly?

Happy Friday everyone! This week has seriously flown by, and I'm NOT complaining! So, in honor of how great fast weeks are I decided to wear Claire's Mood Polish in Awesome/Silly. It's a pink/light pink polish that has a hint of a shimmer (I couldn't capture it though). It's a bit sheer, so this is 3 medium coats +1 SV. Ready for the picture overload??

Under hot water w/no flash

Under hot water w/flash

Under cold water w/no flash

Under cold water w/flash

I'm sitting at my desk with naked nails wondering....what went wrong? I was so excited about this color, and it failed me BIG TIME! At least I took pictures of it before it chipped like crazy on me. Boo hooo!! I'm sure it was the fact that I had to apply SO MANY COATS to get it completely opaque and not streaky, 1 coat of base coat, 1 of Nail Armor, and 1 of SV...that's 6 coats of nail polish! I don't know how some of you ladies manage to pull off manis with that many coats. Hat off to ya'll!!

I applied this around 9pm last night, took pics, then went to sleep. I woke up this morning, took a shower, and by the time I was walking out of my house at 6 a.m. I already had a chip on my thumb! By 8 a.m. I had about 3...WTF!?!?!

I guess I will be naked for the rest of the day...Oh yeahhh!! ;) I plan to go home...take a nap with Bells...and try it all over again. I have to rock a full mani that will last me all weekend. I'm hanging out with the BFFs tomorrow night and going to see my parents on Sunday. They've been away on vacation for 3 weeks, I miss them like crazy!!!!

What are you plans for the weekend?

You Can Never Have Enough Minty Colors!

I was looking through my stash last night and I think I have no less than 5 minty blue/greens. WHAT?!? Who needs that many?? I do! It came down to Barry M Mint Green and Essie Turquoise and Caicos. I've worn Mint Green once before and I LOVED it...but in the end I decided with an untried. Here is T&C:

I wanted a simple accent that wouldn't be too over the top, so why not try matte?? With my dotting tool, I used Hard Candy Matte Top Coat to make the dots. Ok, so I went a little overboard with the dots (I was originally going to just do one nail)...but I loved the contrast between shiny/matte.

:::mental note::: swatch Mint Green

Is there a certain color you have alot of nps of??

My New Piece

I love art, in any form. I think it is a great outlet and a big stress reliever for me. My house is filled with random little things I make; I just can't sit still for too long :D My parents always took me to museums when I was little. They encouraged me to draw, paint, read, or just be crafty...I really thank them for that. I am trying to pass down those lessons to Bella. Like any normal child she watches TV, but she also loves puzzles, coloring, and painting. Any time I start on a new project, I get her one too. She sees me doing it, and she does it too. (Not for too long though, she gets bored easily like any normal 3 year old)

I have a few pieces hanging throughout my house, but my dining room is by far my problem area. I've changed the wall decorations at least 5 times. I was browsing around blogs (I can't recall the blog I got this idea from, sorry!) yesterday and ran across a great idea. I love art, why not make my own piece? I definitely wasn't gonna do it myself, I have no talent as a painter whatsoever :( Bella however, is a master at making messes!!!

So all it took was one eager child:

A canvas:

A little paint:

And a BIG mess:

And you get:

A masterpiece:

This is my/DH's office. I was going to take pics in the dining room, but by the time it dried Bells was already asleep and I didn't want to wake her up with my hammering (nails in).

I have two smaller canvases that are going to go on this wall. DH is out of town, and when I sent him the pics of this I could tell he was really bummed to have missed out on this. Little does he know, he's gonna do one with her.

Thanks for looking. I know this is a non-nail related post, but I think this is a great idea for anyone to do. It's pretty cheap and a great way to display your child's (or any loved one for that matter) talents :)

Simple French

I'm having a bit of a color block. I could not pick a color to apply for the life of me. We did housework all day long, so by the time DD&H were asleep, it was already about 10 o' clock and I was ready to go to sleep myself. I went with something quick, a simple french mani. It is so classic to me, you can never go wrong with a french mani.

I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlind White and Orly Bare Rose for the pink part, topped off with Insta-Dri Top coat and I was ready for bed

I cleaned up the tips with a little bit of acetone. I think French, a nude like OPI Bubble Bath (hmm...I think I will wear that next), and a red like this one are my fail-proof manis. (A really dark vampy like OPI Lincoln Park After Dark too, at least for me)

What's yours?

Hello Kitty's Gone Cheetah

So I know that I haven't done much nail art lately. I just haven't really been inspired by anything lately. Usually I see something and I think how could I possibly transfer into that onto my nails. Lately, not so much :(

My friends usually poke fun at my nail accents, and I guess they must miss them. One of my friends said she wanted to see a Hello Kitty nail. I figured this weekend would be good to try since we had no plans....ahhh gotta love relaxing weekends! I've been wanting to do a cheetah mani for a while so I combined the two:

I used OPI Glitzerland for the base and stamped with Konad Black. The spots are filled in with Orly Glitz & Glamour. I used 2 coats of Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, OPI Black Onyx, and The "It" Color. Ok, so here is where it got tricky for me because I knew I would never be able to pull off a decent bow. I got these stickers a while back at Sephora so I did a little experiment. I used MAC Obey Me and painted over one of the white bows. I let it dry for about 15 minutes, then I peeled it off. Some of the red came off past the edges of the bow, so I trimmed as best I could. I was pretty pleased with the outcome. It beats trying to paint a bow, then completely messing up my nails.

I was feeling a little artsy, so I did this on my phone :)

Hello Kitty Chic :)

If you have any ideas/inspiration that you would like for me to do a tutorial on, shoot me an email (bellas.box1@gmail.com) and I'd be more than happy to try and recreate it :)

One Month of Progress...

Hey everyone. This one is gonna be a quick post. I have a movie pajama party date with the most beautiful little person in the world. She's even making me popcorn! Ok...she's gonna try and feed me cotton balls, but we can pretend :)

So, a month ago I started my little nail growth experiment. I went from this:

To this:

You can still see the damage that the acrylics do :( But the new nail growth is really strong....I'm excited :)

I will do another update in a month to see where I'm at then. Thanks for all the tips :)

Let's Go Across the Universe

 I'm really resisting temptation here! I REALLY want to get the "Get This Party Started" set from Deborah Lippmann :(

So, to resist temptation (or maybe to convince myself I NEED it) I finally brought Across the Universe out from my untrieds. It's a dark blue jelly with blue glitter and blue & green hex chunky glitters (that's alot of glitter). This was the first "high" end nail polish I ever got, but never actually wore it. I read on several blogs that the base could be a bit sheer (it's a jelly after all), so to avoid that I used OPI Ski Teal We Drop as a base. I was wearing this the day I got AtU, so when the SA swatched it, she just applied a coat over it. I fell in love! So, I just did this again...this time 1 coat of STWD and 2 of AtU.

Look at all that glitter??

UGH! After this...I think I really need to get this party started :)

Have a great weekend everyone.

Nothin' says Texas heat like a Techno Red

Ok, so for those of you who don't have the pleasure to live in Texas or anywhere in the hot south...and having to get in your car after it has sat in a parking lot for 8 hours in 105 degree weather (yes, 105).....
I ENVY you! :D It is just entirely too friggin' hot! Nothing says HOT like NEON! And I thought...nothing says neon better than a line called neon, right??? ..........WRONG!

Don't get me wrong, I love the Milani Neon line (I have a few more that I will swatch pretty soon)......but neon they are not. Techno Red was a pain in the butt to capture. My RRs (which used to be where I took NOTDs is much much darker now, so it has been a bit challenging to take successful pics there. This is 3 coats. There was still some VNL, but I don't mind it at all. It looks so squishy!!

This is the most color accurate

I got Techno Red before the WnWs with the show titles (I'm not sure if those have an actual line name) came out, so if you're looking for a truly neon red....Everybody Loves Redmond is a gorgeous neon red.

Happy Friday everyone!!

Chanel...you are my guilty pleasure!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Am I the only one who buys a nail polish with the full intention of not wearing it until (enter time here)?? Before Spring & Summer came, all I could look at was bright colors...now that I "can" wear them, all I want to do is look at vampys and darker colors. I got Graphite a couple of weeks back and I told myself I would wait until it was cooler to wear it. I kind of wanted to wait to build up anticipation because I liked the color so much. (Chanel.com has the fastest shipping ever!) I was bored at home and Bella was asleep so curiosity got the best of me. I just HAD to put this on and see what it looked like. It did NOT dissapoint! It's a dark(ish)silver foil with gold undertones. This is 2 coats

Revlon is supposed to be coming out with a dupe of this, but when I saw it I felt that it anyone could dupe this, it would be Zoya. For some reason the finish on this reminds me of Edyta. I know it's not green like Edyta, but the foil and undertones looks like it has some of the same properties. 

But still, dupe or no dupe...there's just something about having the original feels a little better. I only have 2 Chanels (so far), but they are in my HG along with all my pretties :)

What's your np indulgence??

Week 3

Happy Monday everyone! How was everyone's weekend? I'm extremely sleepy this morning. Bella had a bad night (night terrors for a 3 year old are not pretty!), so of course....we had a bad night. But I have a Coke and a Caramel Mac (yes, I fully intend to drink them both before lunch, lol) so I should be fine in a few hours.

Anywho, here is my progress this week. I feel like I had some kind of growth spurt this week, which of course makes me extremely happy.

On another note, I'm wearing OPI La Paz-itively Hot and I've gotta say...I think this has become my go-to color for this summer. It's so perfect!

I love how well it play with the camera, you can even see the purple/blue :)

What's your go-to color??

Week 2

Happy Friday everyone!

I know it's almost time to do my week 3 entry, so this one is extremely past due. I took these pics on Sunday, but have been too lazy to upload them :( How was your 4th of July? I stayed home all weekend and relaxed with Bella and DH, we rarely get to just "hang" out...so I really enjoyed it. Here are week 2's pictures:

As you can see, they had no definite shape to them. It really irked me, so I filed them down a bit to more of a square-ish shape.

I can't believe just how much acrylics damage your nails, I just don't learn my lesson! They are super thin and brittle, Nail Armor is proving to be a lifesaver! I'm almost out of this bottle and I have noticed that once you get to the bottom, NA becomes difficult to apply. It doesn't go on evenly and it has gotten really thick. I was considering adding thinner to it, but doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of it?

Thanks for reading!