Pink Polka-Dots for a Cure...

We're in October already, can you believe it?!? This year is flying by! Yesterday I did the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. This is the second year I participate and this year was even better than the first. Last year, it was just two of us...this year it was 4 (next year...maybe 100!!).

October marks the starts of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I thought I would celebrate it (and the race) by tweaking THIS mani that Denize did. I fell in love with it immediately. Finding a bunch of pinks that complimented each other yet weren't too similar was a bit tricky. I finally ended up using these:

-Sally Hansen Celeb City
-Hello Kitty Bubble Gum
-Milani Pink Rocks!
-Sinful 24/7
-OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries
-Zoya Lola

I had a great time at the race, there were sooo many people there. It always feels good to be a part of something so meaningful and to see so many people there dedicated to the same cause. Here is a pic of us after we crossed the finish line

I will be trying to go through alot of my pinks this month (along with a few other ideas I have cooking up).

I hope everyone's weekends are going great!!

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?

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??

Ahoy! I Love to Hate You

Good morning everyone! So I missed Pink Friday yesterday. Well, I actually didn't...I just didn't post it. We're doing some stuff around the house so I have no idea where my laptop is :( Ok, so a few months back China Glazed released their Spring Anchor's Away Collection. It included a nice variety of colors, but I felt like I had most of them. I did however pick up White Cap and Ahoy! which I will show you today.

I loved loved loved this color in the bottle, it looks like this in the bottle:
Isn't it gorgeous? It applied really well, 2 coats and it was completely opaque. It's a really rich magenta with golden shimmer and tiny flecks. The color has so much depth because of the flecks. In one word: LOVE. So here is my beef with it, it pictures HORRIBLY! My camera had a breakdown trying to capture the color. I took so many pictures because it washed out in about 85% of them. These were the best ones I took and they still don't do justice to it. The last picture is probably the most color accurate one. I think maybe if I had taken the pictures in daylight I would have been able to capture the color better. It's ok, Ahoy!...I still love ya :)

What's your hardest nail polish to capture??

Pink Wednesdays!

Happy Wednesday everyone, we're halfway there! Ok so I got this in a swap a while back and even though I think I will be wearing this more as a pedi color, I still really like it. I have to admit that part of the reason I got this was because I just LOOOVE the old Hard Candy bottles. Seriously, it's so cute to me! This is Peep Show. It's a semi sheer (it took 3 coats to be completely opaque) hot pink with purplish blue shimmer. In the bottle this very closely resembles Zoya Lola (which I LOVE!). I wanted to do something really simple for today's mani cause I'm just in one of those blah moods today. I used Konad pink polish on M57 and accented my ring and thumb fingers. The end result is a really subtle hot pink (if that's possible). It doesn't show up as much IRL as it did in pictures.



I like the monotone look, so I will have to find more color combos to try this with. What colors would you try for a look similar to this?

Today is also Admin Professionals Day and I got the prettiest flowers from my boss and a tub of Gummy Bears from one of my co-workers. :)

Pink Wednesdays!

Happy Wednesday everyone! We're almost done with another week! This is week 2 of Pink Wednesdays and today I bring you OPI DS Extravagance. This is a magenta pink scattered holo from the Designer Series. I love the base in this np. I describe it as a magenta-rose pink. I was gonna do some nail art, but I'm having real bad allergy attack (SMF at you pollen!!) and can't keep a steady hand :( Sorry everyone :'(

I love DS polishes. I might have to invest in some more soon, but I'm not sure what to get. What's your favorite DS polish?

Pink Wednesdays

I saw this on Chloe's blog (she does some amazing stuff, btw) and was super excited. I LOVE pink and this is a great way to get through some of my untrieds.

Here is the breakdown of Pink Wednesdays (taken from their page):
"Once Upon A Time….
A couple of nail bloggers decided to let their love for the movie Mean Girls manifest itself in the form of  wearing pink manis on Wednesdays.
In the movie Mean Girls, “The Plastics” always wear pink on Wednesdays. And while we’re not mean girls at all, we loved the idea so much that we tweaked it a little and made it our own.

 And thus Pink Wednesdays were born!"

Click here to read up on it.

I used Wet 'n Wild Black Creme (1 coat) and OPI Show it & Glow It! as an accent. I finally used my little heart rhinestones (aren't they cute?) I looove pinks! What's your favorite pink?

I crossed the pond and it was SPICY!

Thanks to MUA and to a wonderful swapper I got my hands on my first international polishes. This pretty came to me from across the pond. I NEED more UK polishes! This was a super exciting swap for me. I most looked forward to Accessorize Pink Spice. I have yet to find MAC Bad Fairy :( I do have Claire's Poison Apple but I just wanted another go at trying to find the "next best thing" I went a bit crazy with the pics because honestly I am in LOVE with this polish! As I'm writing this I look at it and it looks like a straight magenta foil. When I was applying it, it looked more orange-y and when I took pics it looked more reddish gold. All of these make for a great duochrome foil. I applied 3 coats because it's a bit sheer, but maybe I think I will apply 2 thicker coats next time. This picture is the most color accurate...





Gold and Pink





So sparkly!

 

Gold

Gotta love the duochromes! What's your favorite duochrome?

 

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)

                                                           

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

Artsy Monday: Hot Pink and Orange Leopard

Happy Monday everyone! I totally got off track this weekend in posting things. So this is my late Artsy Thursday post.

I started off with Rimmel Sunset Orange and Confetti Not Your Mother's Pink. I actually like the way this looks plain. I looked everywhere for Sunset Orange, and finally found it at Ulta.

I used Konad M57 and the Konad Special Black polish. I really need to remember to use lint free pads when using Konad. A few strands of lint got stuck to the plate, so when I stamped, the image smeared a bit. I tried to Photoshop it as best I could. But you can still see some of the smears. :( I filled the holes in the leopard print with alterating colors. I think maybe next time I'll use lighter shades for the spots so they show better.

I hope everyone's Monday goes great!

xox...L

Artsy Thursdays: Cupcake Nails

I did this last Friday, but I decided to wait until Thursday to post this. I'm giving myself a MUA 3 year anniversary mani. This was insipired this. Not sure what I'm gonna do yet though :|

Gahhh this took forever to do! But...I think this was because it was my first time doing something 3D (ring finger)

Thumb:

2 coats of OPI Show it and Glow it! over 1 coat of LA Girl Matte Lilac.

Index:

Sinful Beautiful Girl. BM20 plate with Konad Special White Polish

Middle:

LA Girl Matte Lilac

(Stripes) Matter Lilac and Beautiful Girl, (Cupcake) Sally Hansen French Tip White.

Pinky:

Matte Lilac with BM19 plate

I used these little silver 3D balls from Sally's.

I hope you like it. Happy Thursday

xox...L



Valentine's Day Mani

I was inspired by this mani. She has some great stuff...so check her out!

Here is a bit closer shot it the accent nail

I used OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries and Show It and Glow It! for the accents. I absolutely LOVE this color combination. I had to go back and get the rest of the Burlesque glitters because they match with sooo many colors. The heart was made with a dotting tool. Looking back, I should've practiced a bit more on the heart before I actually put it on my nail....but I was watching the Grammy's and was too disctracted. My index and middle finger have a really odd shape to them right now. I would file them down to shape, but I THINK I'm gonna let them grow a bit before I do that. I hope everyone has a lovely V-Day!