Snow White Mani

Today Bella has her Halloween/Fall Dress-up Day and Festival at school. I'm pretty bummed I don't get to see her until the afternoon :( They asked all the kids to dress up as their favorite book character, so she wanted to be Snow White. That worked out PERFECT for me because we just recycled her costume from last year and I still get to see her in this year's costume on Halloween :) This is our first actual school function, so I decided to do a Snow White mani to show my support, haha!!


I decided to do an apple accent on my ring finger and a crown (to represent the Evil Queen) on my thumb.


Here are the colors I used:
-Thumb: 10 Pinky Promise w/OPI Glitzerland & ChG Medallion accent
-Index: Zoya Sooki (2 coats)
-Middle: MAC Spirit of Truth (2 coats)
-Ring: SH Red Carpet, OPI YDKJ & Green-wich Village
-Pinky: OPI The "It" Color (3 coats)

I rarely show my right hand since I have a hard time drawing decent accents with my left. But here is my left hand...it just had to get into the action :)


I did an apple accent on my right thumb and WnW Black Creme with a bow Konaded (is that even a word??) with BL Knees Up (I can't wait to do a full mani with this!!) to represent Snow White's hair/bow.

Bells loved this mani so I did her nails too!!

I LOVE these fat little fingers SOOO much!!!

This was Bells last year. Hopefully I can get a good picture of her today :)

She even had a matching apple candy bag

These little felt candy bags are super easy to make. I made her one for her costume this year. Check out my tutorial HERE if you want to learn how to make these :)

OPI Russian Navy Suede

Having an olive skin complexion can be kind of tricky when it comes to alot of colors....there are some you can't pull off AT ALL. Buuuut...there are others than you can absolutely wear and get away with, one of those is blue. Blues is my friend! Last year I was so into China Glaze Little Drummer Boy and had been looking for another blue in the same family to use as my go-to color this upcoming winter. I found it!! OPI Russian Navy Suede is just so pretty.


It's a matte navy blue with silver and purple flecks. I saw it a while back and picked it up at Ulta a few months back. I'm in serious purging mode and after shaking it for a good 10 minutes it was good to go.

Artificial Light/No Flash



Artificial Light/Flash

 As much as I love this color, I'm just not a huge fan of mattes. I HAD to add some shine!!

It's sooo pretty....ahh I love those blues!

What's your favorite nail color family??

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.

May the Fourth Be With You...(womp womp womp)

Okay so as I have mentioned before, I'm a big Star Wars fan. So today being May 4th/Star Wars Day, I did another SW inspired mani. I mean come ooonn...who doesn't love Star Wars?!? (Please, don't answer, haha!)

I was originally going to just do R2D2 on my middle finger, but once I did...it was too plain. I think I might have gone a bit crazy with it in the end. I hate when that happens!! :(

Here are the colors I used: SH Celeb City, WnW Black Creme, WnW Blue Wants to be a Millionaire, OPI Fiercely Fiona, and Cover Girl Disco Dazzle.

Thumb:

I went for light sabers for this. I taped off the lines to make the actual beams of the light sabers. I then dotted where the handles would go.

Index:

This was Jango Fett from Attack of the Clones.

Middle: R2D2. I freehanded the lines and just cleaned them up with a thin brush. There were way too many lines to try and tape this off. This was the first time I actually did this, and it worked really good. I considered doing a tutorial on how I did it, but since I wasn't sure if it would even work (and not smear the silver), I decided against it. I will do a tutorial one day (put that on my to-do list).

I left my ring finger alone because this was at the point where I realized my mani was wayyy too busy. Otherwise I was going to try and recreate the Death Star on this nail. My pinky was supposed to be the "stars". I'm still mehh about this one.

I found this online, how cute is he?!?

Overall I like the mani, I seriously can't get enough of the silver/blue combo. I feel like a superhero when I wear it, lol.

Anywho....happy Star Wars Day! It's my not-so-secret guilty please and I don't care who knows it!! Haha :)

What's your secret guilty pleasure?



This Should Have Been My Royal Mani...

Happy Monday everyone!! I decided to take a break this weekend and I did not open my computer at all. I spent time with my BFFs on Saturday, so Sunday I was nursing a really bad hangover; I spent all day yesterday on my couch. It was AWESOME!! Ok so I did not do a Royal Wedding mani, partly because Friday I was nursing Thursday's hangover. (UGH...this sounds sooo bad, lol) I saw A-England on MUA and well, who isn't a sucker for holos? Everyone, meet Tristam:

If I had done a royal mani, it would have been this with a stamped silver crown. Ahhh how beautiful did Kate look??

Tristam is a scattered blue holo. The holo in this isn't like any of the other holos I have, this one is much finer and it looks almost linear. This is 2 coats and it's completely opaque. 

Thanks for looking :)

La Vida Es Una Lucha

Happy Tuesday (or my Wednesday, since I'm off on Friday)!! So I HAVE to get one of these tees. The guy who is doing my shoes is a crazy awesome artist and this is one of his pieces. How awesome is this?!? It's a play on words because Mexican Wrestling is called "Lucha Libre". This is roughly translated into Life is a Fight.

He said he thought it would be pretty cool to do this on nails, so because curiosity got the best of me I HAD to try to recreate this somehow. Here is what I came up with:

The blue I used is WnW Saved by the Blue (it's a gorgeous cobalt blue, reminds me of SH Co-Bolt Blue, only lighter), Sally Hansen Celeb City and WnW Black Creme. I scotch taped the lines on my thumb (I was going with the wrestling theme and this was the "ropes"). I freehanded the mask with the brush end of my dotting tool and then just filled it in. His face was made with a dotting tool and filled in with a brush.

We got into talking about how I do my nails since he works mostly with markers. Like...a major conversation about what I can/can't do my nails with and he posed a really good question. Could I use the same oil based acrylic markers he works with on nails? I stopped by my art supply store and picked up a few colors just to try them out. It was an EPIC FAIL! The colors stayed on the nail just fine, but the moment I tried to put any TC on, the colors ran and the image distorted. I Googled this and in theory, it SHOULD have worked, but I'm not sure why it didn't. His solution was to just apply the clear coat he works with (a spray) and tape off the nail so it wouldn't get everywhere. But, what about the rest of us who don't have clear spray paint? I think maybe if it was acrylic paint that is brushed on it would have worked? Have any of you worked with acrylic paint before? Anywho, needless to say..I have extra pens that will more than likely find a new home :|

You've Got a Friend in Me...

So, I'm taking Bella to see Toy Story 3 on Ice tomorrow. It is one of her (and my) favorite movies and I am so stoked to see her reaction tomorrow. I Googled some ideas and I came across something that looked similiar to this and it was PERFECT for what I wanted to do for tomorrow. Here is what I came up with:

Here are the colors I used-

Thumb: OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys with ANDY freehanded with WnW Black Creme.

Index: M79 stamped with Konad White

Ring: SH Lickety Spit Lime for the face. His outfit is China Glaze Blue Paradise and the collar is OPI Funkey Dunkey. I used the French tip guides to tape off the blue then freehanded the collar. With my dotting tool I made the eyes with WnW French White Creme and with a toothpick I used WnW Black Creme to make the eyes.

I can't wait for tomorrow. I'm sure I'm more excited than she is. But then again, who doesn't love Toy Story?!?!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

:::EDIT:::

Here is a picture of Bella after the show. They have this mini fountain park outside the stadium and we hung out there after the show for a bit

Essie Borrowed and Blue

Happy Thursday everyone! So I was walking through Ulta the other day and I almost missed the tiny Essie Wedding Collection 2011 display. It was seriously small.



I wasn't too excited about any other the colors in particular. They all look pretty dupeable IMO. The one I couldn't resist getting was Borrowed and Blue. It reminded me of the Tiffany's blue, only lighter and not so aqua-ish. Essie has a way of seriously sucking me in with their advertisements. Doesn't it look gorgeous in the picture? In real life...ehh...not so much.



The real life color is much more toned down. I had a really tough time capturing the blue to this because in pictures it came out a bit washed out and it just looked white :( The application was pretty nice though. I was expecting it to be streaky, but it wasn't. I applied 3 coats just to get more blue. As I was applying this I thought this is probably a dupe for HC Sky. I will have to pull that one out and do a comparison. What do you ladies think of this blue??



My Favorite Pair of Shoes

I have a thing for Converse! I'm on a mission to own as many colors as I can, so far I'm up to 6 pairs, but the teal ones are by FAR my favorite of them all! A while back I did a Chuck mani on MUA

My nails were much shorter back then (this was in December I think). The closest color I had to match my shoes was OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui. SSFS is a gorgeous blue, and I love it...but it doesnt quite match the color of my shoes. Then alooong came Sally Hansen Blue Me Away. It is a perfect match!! So I decided to recreate this mani, I even added an additional accent.

The white tip on the ring finger was done with Scotch tape. For the laces and black trim I used Sally Hansen Nail Art pens like these, and just applied rhinestones to the lace holes. For the thumb I used my dotting tool and freehanded the star with OPI Simmer and Shimmer.

I'm even having a separate pair of Chucks custom painted. I can't wait for them to be ready so I can show everyone! This took me a while because I was watching DWTS...yes, still Kirstie FTW! The cleanup took a while because blues are just a total PitA to remove, they stain horribly! I'm sure you can see it in my cuticles. my accent nail is actually horribly stained :( Oh well, I still love you BLUE!

Thanks for looking :)

Sally Hansen Co-bolt Blue

Did you guys know April is National Child  Abuse Prevention Month? Ok, so I work at a children's hospital, and I can honestly say that working there has given me a whole new perspective at both childhood and motherhood. I cherish the childhood that I had because I never had to face the truly heartbreak that some patients face. And as a mother, it makes me appreciate the fact that I have a healthy child and never take month a moment for granted with her. This is on the front gates of the hospital all month long, it says "Because if you don't hold my hand, who will?

This has been sitting in my drafts for a while. It's Sally Hansen Co-bolt Blue. As with most Insta-Dri's, it's good enough to be a one-coater. I decided to test out my theory and this is one coat (plus 2 of SV). It's a metallic cobalt blue.

I also majorly hauled and putting a bunch of stuff up for swap. I can't wait to sort it out :)

Happy Saturday!