Bridesmaid nails

Tomorrow I am a bridesmaid in one of my best friends weddings. We traveled 9 hours by car and it's looking like tornado weather for her outdoor wedding! I hope it holds off. The thought is tornados makes me so anxious!

When I asked her what she thought about my nails she said "have at it!" Um, I have 100s of colors, that's not helpful! She actually offered me an appointment for a mani/pedi but I only took her up on the pedi part, I don't want ANYONE touching my nails!

What I ended up with is Sally Hansen Conplete Salon Manicure in Downtown Rubies with a ring finger accent of Color Club Risque topped with Revlon Stunning. This is to mimic the diamonds we are both sporting on this finger now! In retrospect I would've put down a coat of red cream polish before the Downtown Rubies because it took four coats to get it opaque. I also left my acetone and clean up brush at home so please excuse my messy application. This is as neat as it gets for me!

52 Week Challenge Week 15: Easter

Easter! Always one of my favorite holidays growing up, all the pretty dresses and fun candy and egg dying. One year the day before Easter my mom was driving us to the grocery store and on the way there she ran over a rabbit crossing the road! I was so upset she ran I ER the Easter bunny!

Anyway, on to the mani. I used OPI A Dozen Rosas, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Sea and Be Seen, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear The Real Teal, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Posh Plum, and Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Yellow Kitty. I did a glitter gradient at the tips with OPI Servin' Up Sparkle. I'm liking the way this looks, I might do the glitter gradient for my wedding nails too. Without further ado:

Sally Hansen Salon Effects: Cut It Out

I love these strips for when I need a quick and fun mani. This pattern is super fun and I think in the future I might like to color in the flowers. For the first time using these I had trouble with chipping almost immediately. I also had one strip that completely refused to stick, it was dried out. But still, fancy nails minimal work!

These were provided for review from the company. Please note I have purchased this product before.

52 week challenge week 8: corset nails

Corset nails? The only thing I ever wear that laces up is shoes (are shoes?). I had to google images for this one. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White for the base, I free handed OPI Funky Dunky down the middle and used my dotting tools to make the grommets. I then used Sinful Colors nail art polish in black (I forgot the name and don't have the bottle) for the laces. I'm overall pleased with this but especially the thumb on my left hand.

52 week challenge week 4: plaid nails

Welp, I procrastinated on this week for a while. This spring I went to get a pedicure and asked for plaid. What I got was not plaid, it was lame. So that put me off of plaid nails. Plus, I didn't know what pattern to do. Then it hit me: my mans tartan. I crocheted him an afghan with it (holy hard! I really love that man!) so I'm intricately familiar with it. This is the Duncan tartan, my crochet version of it and my nails. I used Nina Ultra Pro in Salsa, Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Thinking of Blue, Kiss Nail Artist in white and OPI OPI Red (not a typo, they call it OPI red) topped with ProFX Quick Dry Top Coat.

52 week challenge week 2, French mani

Week 2 challenge is French mani. Now I'm not normally a big fan of French tips but I saw this on Copy That, Copycat and decided that this was French I could do. Well, it turns out I'm not so good at French manicures and really I just sort of half-a$$ed it after I realized that. I started off with Julep's base coat followed by a coat of Nail Envy. I then covered the yellow of my nails with Zoya Bela. For the tips I started off with Zoya Charla then dabbed Sally Hansen The Real Teal followed by Wet n Wild Blue Wants to be A Millionaire. It was pretty but not very mermaidy. It was also at this point I realized this is NOT nail art I'm good at so I said meh and finished. I used my Bundle Monster plate with Orly Silver polish for the scales. Topped it all off with ProFX Quick Dry Top Coat (which deserves its own post) and there we have it. Quite possibly the sloppiest french anyone has ever seen!
Til next week!
Loves!

Mint Chocolate Nails

I want to eat my fingers today! I recently embarked on a new "diet" called The Belly Fat Cure that limits carbs and sugars. Not eliminate, but cut down on them. So, being a week in I'm still craving all the crap I used to eat. However, the numbers on the scale and my waistline are motivation enough to keep going (plus, like body builders do, I'm allowing myself one cheat day per week). It's really easy and for the most part I don't feel like I'm giving anything up, although I know there is about 3 dozen unbaked cookies in my freezer and they are just calling my name. So, I decided to use an untried to make something yummy. I will probably use this technique to do a Dexter inspired blood spatter mani using white and red.

Ok, enough rambling about my panza. Here's what I did:

• Base coat of OPI Nail Envy
• 2 coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet.
• One coat of INM Out The Door topcoat
• Nubar Milk Chocolate Créme on the tips in a wavy, wonky sort of line, using a dotting tool to make the drip marks
• Another coat of INM OTD top coat

As far as application:
Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet was streaky on the first coat and leveled out opaque on most nails on the second coat. It's very highly pigmented and covered well. The color is a lovely mint green, maybe a shade or two lighter than ice cream. It doesn't have any blue leanings, it's a beautiful creamy, minty, grasshoppery color. Apparently Xtreme Wear doesn't have the same wide rounded brush that I'm used to with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure but no complaints about it. Formula was spot on, not too thick or too runny, although it is on the thicker side of the scale.The color reminds me of old doctor equipment, specifically a dental chair. I have no idea why I would make that association though. I don't understand how my brain works.

No flash, pretty color accurate

No flash

the most color accurate picture

Nubar Milk Chocolate Crème is fun. It really does look like milk chocolate. This is only my second time using this (the first being the leopard half moon fail) and both times as an accent. To achieve the drip look I just painted across the tips and a little strip or two down each nail, using my dotting tools (that I got on eBay for seriously about $2.50) to smooth out the brush marks on the drips. I am going to have to properly wear this Nubar on it's own some day. After I work my way through the rest of my Sally Hansen untrieds though.

So, what do you think of my dessert nails? Are you headed to your local ice cream store now? 

Flash

Flash

My favorite one! No flash

Picture taken with my phone outside, it was overcast so no sunlight.

Loves!

REMOVAL EDIT: Creams are always so easy to remove! Like buddah!

Sally Hansen CSM Golden Ticket

When I think about the name of this polish I always picture Gene Wilder eating the daffodil teacup in "Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory." I loved that movie as a little girl and still do, although I'm surprised at how dark it is. A classic for sure. "Violet, you're turning violet, Violet!" and the band Veruca Salt with their song Seether. Wow, I'm showing my age here!

Enough waxing nostalgic. Golden Ticket is a sweet gold micro glitter in a peachy rosy base with just a hint of red micro glitter. The overall effect is of rose gold or a shade or two brighter than a new penny. This is a super cool shade ad I'm glad I bought it, even though it's not my usual range of colors. Please excuse the chips, this was my third day of wear and I never seem to be able to wear anything for more than that, it always chips on the corners of my nails. I'm gonna blame it on all the crocheting I do but it also probably has to do with the peeling nail underneath. This was another purchase from eBay, which is one of my worst vices and favorite places to shop.

Look at all the pretty gold glitter!

 

Finally, a very sad day for me! I have been wearing a tea bag patch on my right thumb for 2 weeks and was just waiting for my UV light to come in so I could use a gel polish to fix the crack. It came in Wednesday but I had to work overtime Wednesday night so I didn't get a chance to fix my nail. I wore a bandaid over for 13 hours at work and somehow managed to break of the edge where my nail was cracked on my way home!!!! Waaaaaah! Check out the devastation! 

REMOVAL EDIT: This was easier to remove than larger glitters but I still went with the foil method. It didn't leave me with glitter in the cuticles or all over my fingers. I really am a huge fan of these Sally Hansen laquers. They're great!

Loves!

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Lagoon

First off, bubbles and brushstrokes? Really? Actually I don't mind brushstrokes but bubbles? C'mon!

So, application and drying issues aside I fracking love this color. Lagoon is another of my untrieds, and another eBay find. eBay FTW!!! It's a frosty teal, and in the bottle it looks duochrome. Sadly, it's not on as obvious the nail. The finish is a bit frosty, a bit metallic. Oh hell, I feel like I'm talking out my ass here. Just look at the pictures, you'll see.

I added an accent nail of some of my mom's new finds (she's recently decided she loves glitter polish and brought home four bottles the other day, three with holographic glitter. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree in this family!) Anyway, my accent nail started with SH Xtreme Wear Disco Ball but the holo effect was not to my liking so I topped that with Wet 'n' Wild Kaleidoscope. When I mentioned to my mom that Lagoon bubbled she said "Put some glitter on it," which reminds me of the dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding "put some Windex on it!" She's right, can't really go wrong with glitter.

One more thing: this color is remarkably similar to the blue in my tattoo. If the tattoo wasn't healing and peeling right now and looking like some sort of contagious skin disease I'd take a picture of the nails next to the new ink. I won't subject you to that nastiness right now though! Go ahead and thank me!

On to the lovely pictures!

I don't know how to flip this image! Argh!

Look at the prettiness!

Outside some sunlight

Indoors artificial light

Indoors, artificial light

Indoors

Close up of the accent nail

Indoors with flash

Outdoors some sunlight

Removal: I was happy to remove this but ONLY because of the bubbles, removal was easy but left me with blue aka Smurf fingers. Nothing another swipe of acetone couldn't take care of though!