Pushing Black The Curtain

This is going to be suuuper quick, mostly pics for now, but I was so excited to show you guys what I did last night that I couldn't wait. :D

Let's just say: Sinful Colors Whipped + OPI Designer Series Extravagance + striping tape = pure AWESOMENESS!  (IMO, anyways...I'll let you decide for yourselves.)

I used two coats of Sinful Colors Whipped on all fingers but the pinkie which got two coats of OPI DS Extravagance, and after they were thoroughly dry (or so I thought), I used striping tape to create a V & carefully filled in said V with a medium-thick coat of Extravagance and quickly whipped (haha!) the tape off. ;) I just LOVE the contrast of the sultry, sparkly magenta with its beautiful scattered holo glitters on top of the sexy matte black. Oooh!  Aaah!
Whipped applied very  easily, aaalmost a one-coater, but I really wanted it to be an intense black.  Dry time was average, about 15 mins.  I thought it would be faster since mattes usually are quicker drying, but oh well.  I'm so prone to getting bubbles in my polish, I probably wait longer than necessary between coats now.  I'd rather do that than end up with polish acne, I can tell you that right now!!!  I hate those darn bubbles with a passion!

OPI DS Extravagance was a birthday gift from my roommate last year, I purchased Sinful Colors Whipped at Wal-Mart for $1.99, and a friend of mine ordered the striping tape from Amazon as part of my Christmas present.  I think there are like, at least 10 different colors in that pack and I'm sure it came from China or Hong Kong because she was freaking out about it getting here in time.  Good thing we had our Christmas in January!   :P

"...A few of my fAAAvorite things!"

...Yes, I'm singing Sound of Music in my head! hehe  I just wanted to do a quick 'lil post because this manicure makes me so happy, despite its MANY imperfections and yes, nail blogger no-no's, so I hope you'll bear with me & be forgiving.  And maybe enjoy it anyway. :)

So, the 3 things about this that make me happy:
1) A-ENGLAND!!!!  As a birthday gift to myself, I made an unprecedented 5 bottle purchase (usually it's only 2 or 3 polishes of any given kind at one time) and they just got here on Friday.  I cannot get over how superb these polishes are!

2) Stamping!!  Or more specifically, stamping with MoYou London plates!  They are simply amazing and if you enjoy stamping, you really should invest/treat yourself to some.  The cost is a bit higher since they do come from London only and your purchase on their site will be in GBP (pounds sterling).  Let me tell you, their currency is much more powerful than ours!  Ouch.  But these plates are worth it!

3) Sushi!!  Not only did I get to experience it last night with my mom & dad & sister, but I've now gotten all of them to try it. :D  WIN!  It was an uphill battle for the last few years since I discovered it, gracias a mi mejor amiga en el mundo (my best friend in the WORLD).  Oh and did I mention I also had sushi on my nails?!  And no, I do not mean because I was using my fingers instead of chopsticks... Let's take a look, shall we?

I give you A-England Rose Bower with an accent of Sinful Colors Rich In Heart, stamped image in Konad special white polish from MoYou Suki plate #3.  Sadly, I no longer see it on the site! :-/

Rose Bower was a color I didn't think I'd really ever want to purchase, but after seeing this post, I was SOLD.  And now I clearly love it, since it was the first one I used!  It's THE most brilliant red shimmer with scattered holo.  In the shade, it's a more muted raspberry.  Still beautiful!  One coat here, I should've done two because my painting skills sucked. *no fault of the polish!!

Rich In Heart is so not  brown/copper like it appears in the bottle below.  Grrr.  Why did my camera keep pulling the brown tones?!  It's actually a beautiful almost black red shimmer (in 2 coats).  You can what I mean on my rice bowl accent above. :)

The tips were all chipped after one day because of work.  -_-  Thanks work!  You pay for my polish AND ruin it!

That 'lil accent was my favorite!!  A piece of nigiri (type of sushi) - sliced raw fish with a molded ball of rice underneath, usually with a dab of wasabi in between the rice and fish.  I wasn't planning to get this stamping plate, but when I saw the smiling sushi pieces, I was again, SOLD!  lol

I've been wanting to do a sushi mani to coincide with a sushi dinner for awhile now. :)

So, to tally it up:

1) A-England Rose Bower = $10 (Sinful Rich In Heart = $1.98)

2) MoYou Suki plate = £4.99

3) Sushi = umm, my parents got the bill :D

The feeling of happiness looking at my nails & spending time with family = priceless!

Challenge #10: Re-creation

Good evening, lovelies!! :)  Today was my 3rd 12-hour work day in a row, hence why no post "on time" last night... I managed to get the 1st coat of base colors on & promptly fell asleep.  Somehow I found the strength to complete the mani tonight - huge thanks go out to a homemade Big Train chai latte. ♥  At long last, I have re-created this fabulousness from the queen of glitter placement!  Mine is of course not nearly as good by a long shot, but for my very first attempt at what she does, I must say I'm rather pleased. :) ...mostly with the fact that I persevered!

I used: SinfulShine My Kryptonite (2 coats), Zoya Noot (2 coats), and OPI The Living Daylights (meticulously placed with an orange stick!), Duri Rejuvacote (base & topcoat), plus a thick layer of Seche Vite to seal and smooth the accent glitters.  I know, this is highly atypical of my lengthy, wordy posts but honestly my eyelids are about to close!  I promise I am going to come back and expand on this mani and probably add another pic or two, as well as discuss my finds & follies and with this technique. ;)

Challenge #9: Match OOTD

Most of you probably already know this, but at first sight, I had to ask myself a few times: "match [OOH-tid]? What the heck is an oohtid?"  Google to the rescue!  OOTD = outfit of the day.  Well, this fell on the 25th - yeah, yeah, I'm not very good at meeting these deadline days - which obviously was a Saturday.  I typically don't even make it out of my pajamas most Saturdays!  BUT yesterday was a rare exception because I had to go into work for 4 hours of training.  So if I had  to go to work, I was going as casual as possible: jeans and a warm, comfy sweatshirt.

Fig. 1:  My Under Armor sweatshirt :)

Ahhh the never-ending complaint of polish bloggers: NEONS DON'T PHOTOGRAPH CORRECTLY!  This is actually a light neon peach, not orange. -_-  The neon fuchsia thread is pretty close though.  

Ok, so before I show you the resulting mani, I will warn you that super macro is SO not kind to detailed work with tiny brushes. :(  And getting an evenly symmetrical UA symbol is well, I'm going to say impossible.  For this medium anyway.  

I used Pure Ice Kiss Me Here for the base color, then took my L.A. Colors white striper to "sketch" the logo, and outlined it first with Sinful Colors Dream On (my very first SC purchase a couple summers ago), then filled it in with a Wet Seal neon peach polish that does not have a name.  I used cheapo brushes from a cheapo megapack I got at Wal-Mart for $4.77, baby!  Some of them actually work pretty darn well, I must say.  But ANYthing looks awful at the mercies of super macro + XL photo size. :-/  So I'm sorry for the assault on your retinas!

Oh, and I finished it off with NYC Matte Me Crazy because blue jeans and sweatshirts are not shiny. ;)  In case you hadn't noticed.

Fig. 2: My horrid recreation of said sweatshirt

I suppose this could be considered "indecent exposure" and I should be jailed for my indiscretions.

Ufff.  This kinda makes me shudder!  And WHY does China Glaze First Mate photograph much lighter than what I'm seeing on my nails right now?!  Sooo frustrating.  But hey, I gave it an honest try, and I think that's what counts!!  Not backing down from the challenge.  Which leads me to explain why Challenge #8 is mysteriously missing... it's supposed to be "Studs" and I do not own any because I don't like them.  There, I said it.  I don't.  I think they just look weird, and I'm not a huge fan of stuff sticking off my nails.  Except for tiny rhinestones... they're cool as an accent.  So I WILL do something for this "Studs" challenge... I just need to get creative! :)

Neon nailsies and a bit o' life!

Hello and Happy Saturday evening to you all!  Since I was off work on Friday and going out of town, I decided to do a "funky" mani with neons (love 'em but I feel weird wearing them to work) and attempt a technique I've never tried before but recently saw in a tutorial video on YouTube.  It did NOT turn out like I envisioned because I could not find a small enough brush. :(  But it was still kinda cool, and I enjoyed it for a couple days. :)

First of all, can I say that as much as I love the neon mint color of ChG's Highlight of My Summer, the formula is HORRENDOUS!  :O  It gets sooo streaky, and yet, giant ridges build up in other places and it's just a royal pain in the butt to get decent coverage.  I think this is three coats.  Dry time was decent at least.  The accent nails are a polish I've showed you before; Maybelline Pretty in Polka.  I love their jelly/black & white glitter polishes! Drops of Jade is also in my stash. ;) 

As you might have guessed, the technique is one-stroke brush flowers, but mine did not really turn out.  I stupidly got the white and the pink (NYC French White Tip & Sinful Colors 24/7) reversed for the first two.  I'm not even going to try to describe it, so if you want to see how the pros do it, watch this awesome video!

So, since I only have & only wanted  to show you one photo of that mess, on to "life!"

Last weekend my little brother and I made the long-ish (6 hr) trek to New Ulm, MN to visit our mom's sisters and their "kids."  We're actually all around the same age...my brother and I both have cousins there that are the same age as us, and one that is smack dab in between us. :)  It was a really nice weekend and it felt good to finally reconnect with them.  It'd been YEARS since my brother saw that side of the family, and about 2 years since I'd been to New Ulm for a visit.  Plus it was nice to have someone to share the boring drive with - other than when he was driving like a boy and ruining my gas mileage!

Clockwise from R:  Jane (my aunt), Hannah (her daughter), me, Morgan (my brother)

Here's us having a sushi FEAST at a pretty spectacular place in Mankato. :)  Thankfully, we all enjoy sushi and so I thought lunch in the big city was in order!  Hannah had heard of this new place from a couple friends and they happened to have a $15.99/person all you can eat sushi lunch special.  I don't know how the 4 of us managed to eat only 3 rounds of 3 rolls...plus the most amazing crab rangoons as an appetizer - they were seriously to DIE for - like Turkish delight or something! lol
Somehow the sushi was very filling and totally delicious.  Mmmm.  Darn, now I want sushi!  :P

It was Oktoberfest while we were there - New Ulm is a very  German town, complete with a Glockenspiel & it's home to Schell's Brewery, so Saturday afternoon we walked around downtown and happened to catch the petting zoo as they were packing up...

Now that's not something you see in MN every day!  He was really cool... as we walked up, he kept saying: "Hello," and "I love you."  At least I think  that's what he was saying!  There was also a kangaroo, some other kind of big bird, a llama, a dromedary camel, and a couple other things I can't recall.  Hannah's 2-yr-old daughter was there before us with her dad, and she called her mom & kept repeating: "camel!" :D  It was pretty cute.  She knows a lot of animals for being only 2!

Now, on to TODAY!

I almost wan't going to include this, but since my friend's costume & my shirt kinda go (color-wise) with the mani I showed you, I figured meh why not!  Plus, I'm pretty excited that I did my first-ever 5k run/walk today!!! :D  Let me tell you, if someone said to high-school me (who about died every time we had to do laps for gym class) that in 10 years I'd be running a 5k of my own free will, I would have literally rolled on the floor laughing.  But, wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles; here I am...

Here's me and my lovely friend, Janette, who convinced me to do this with her!  So up until 8 days ago, I'd never really run a day in my life, other than when absolutely necessary. :P hehe

I have no idea what our exact times were (the timing device they were using kept freezing because it was so cold) but I'm guesstimating it was around 45 minutes?  And we walked a lot of it.  But I'm pretty proud of us!  It was surprisingly not nearly as bad as I thought and all my mental freaking out and worrying about being the last ones to finish was for naught.  We'll probably do another one in Fargo in May. :D

Oh, this guy greeted me this morning when I was about to sit down by my mirror to get ready.  I'll spare you the big photo!  Needless to say I got ready in the bathroom instead.

ISH.  I HATE spiders!  When my roommate got home, I had her kill it. :P  I'll usually kill them, but I was already on edge with nerves about the run. 

Have you ever accomplished something you never thought you'd do?  If so, I'd love to hear about it!  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this post even though it wasn't all about polish. ;)

Birds of a feather flock to...Orly fOWL Play!

I did this post as a guest post a number of months ago for Guilty As Charged in her absence, but she had some issues with the scheduling feature so I just figured I might share it here on my own blog as well, in case you guys missed it, and because I will be out of town this weekend with positively no  time to do a post. :-/  So I really hope this isn't considered "bad blogger form!"  I just l♥ve this mani and could share it over & over again! LOL


My original mani plan ended up having an element that just would not work, so after going back over the ideas I'd had for this post, I decided this one was much more fitting anyways, since Haleigh's blog features such great nail art.  I hope mine is worthy of being here!  I give you Fowl Play:

I cannot even tell you how excited I was to find out that OPI's Merry Midnight has an almost exact dupe.  I wanted MM after seeing only one photo of it, but when I discovered it was going for upwards of $25 on eBay, I was quite sad.  Then along came a comparison post (or several!) with Orly Fowl Play, and with some trepidation, I headed back over to eBay.  This time however, I was overjoyed to find I could get my dream polish for only $5!!!  Mmmm...just feast your eyes on that vampy purple, flaky, sparkly, rainbow-y goodness!  

Being a huge fan of plays on words, I had a "liiiightbulb" moment and realized that freehanding an owl as an accent nail would mean I could entitle my post Fowl Play! ;-) hehehe

Isn't he a cute 'lil guy?!  :-D  I think he needs a name...any ideas?  

Mr. Unnamed Owl is composed of Zoya Reagan, Sinful Colors My Buoyfriend, Zoya Arizona, and just any old black & white for the eyes, against a background of OPI Can't Find My Czechbook.  The color combos are truly endless, which is super fun!  :-)  I don't actually have a nail art brush set, but a detail brush from my roommate's set of craft brushes (from Wal-Mart) worked just fine.  I also used a pin - yes, A PIN - for the beak & the dots on the owl's body, as well as the black pupil & the teensy, infinitesimal, tiny, microscopic white glint on the pupil.

In case you were curious, I did end up doing my right hand because I really want to be able to wear this mani for a few days, so I had to at least attempt to make my hands match!  He's a tad...deformed, but still loveable. :-)  OH!  I almost forgot - the branches are China Glaze Ingrid.  Pretty much the only brown I have in my stash.  And of course, it has a fine gold shimmer in it, so my apologies, but Houston, we have a sparkly branch!

The application of all these polishes was really great.  Ok, yes, I used most of them in minute quantities, but I was glad to see they were all very opaque as there was a lot of layering going on!  This is only two coats of Fowl Play.  I think I would classify it as a couple-shades-lighter-than-eggplant purple jelly base, but it's highly pigmented, so the coverage is great - as is the drying time.  I've had SO many issues with bubbling cremes lately, so this was quite a welcome relief.

If any of you have read my blog, you know I'm very long-winded, and I'm sure I could continue on about this mani, but I feel I've kept you long enough, especially since this is a guest post!  I leave you with one final shot:

Thank you so much for reading!  I hope this inspires you to be creative & boldly go where you've never gone before...on your nails. ;-)  Or in life.

~ Emily :-)

100% dotticure, 100% fun!

I have played around with dots before (some of you might remember this mani & this mani), but I've never done a full-on dotticure.  So the other night I busted out a bunch of fun, vibrant cremes and a super sparkly foil and just went for it!  I thought the colors looked awesome together in the bottles, but I wasn't such a fan once they were on my nails in tiny dots. :-/  I'm not entirely sure why...maybe it just felt too kiddish for me?  My inspiration was this dotticure from The Polish Playground, and I think I like her color palette much better.  Feels more grown up & refined!

I used one coat of Sinful Colors My Buoyfriend on all but my ring finger, which is two coats Sinful Colors 24/7 (no undies) which I will again tout as the perfect chalky neon pink!, then used Zoya Arizona, Essie Mojito Madness, My Buoyfriend, 24/7 and Skinfood Glipop Pedicure Sparkle 05 (annoyingly "named" yet gorgie South Korean polishes!) for the dots. :)  All sealed with some Seche Vite.

In an uncharacteristic move for me, I'm only showing you one photo of this mani, simply because I didn't really love it.  I think it might have to do with the fact that the first thing that popped into my head once I had it all done was: Día de los Muertos sugar skulls.  e.g.:

Yes, this is a cookie, but you get the idea.

I hate skulls.  Can't even believe I'm putting this on my blog! :P  Anyhoo, maybe some of you will find this super fun and awesome...  if anyone wants a dotticure for Día de los Muertos, come see me!

Cheap Thrills, part 2 -- Nail mail? NOPE. Nail fail.

Oi.  I hate when what seems like a great mani idea in your head turns out to be a total wreck.  That's what happened here, unfortunately.  At the time I bought it, I obviously did not know that one of my three Fing'rs Heart 2 Art polishes had the consistency of quik-set cement.  Nor did I have my Seche Restore at that time. SO this is what came of it:

What you see here is Fing'rs Set in Rhine-Stone, Sinful Colors 24/7, and Hit Polish Companion Cube on the accent nail, plus a sticker/decal thingie from the Heart 2 Art Travel pack.  

Set in Rhine-Stone was just so messy & unmanageable...it was nearly impossible to do a thin coat, because giant gobs of polish kept sliding down the long brush stem (remember the bottles are almost identical to Julep's), and when I did get a thin coat, it was insanely patchy.  

Also, it felt like it dried super fast, but yet, it took FOREVER once the nail was covered.  Maybe it's more accurate to say it got tacky really fast, which made multiple brush strokes & self-leveling out of the question.  Hence the strange ridges & layer-y looking areas. I didn't even bother to put on a top coat on all my nails because I knew this would be coming off later that evening.  I'm sure a TC would have made things look a lot better, but I was so disgusted I couldn't even make myself give it a try.

24/7 was nice & easy to work with, and holy moly is it ever an amazing neon pink!  I love it!  It's more of a light, chalky yet very TRUE neon pink.  I really should show it next to Kleancolor's Neon Pink.  24/7 it what I really wanted all along; I just didn't know it.  Of course though, true to form for neons, it is not photographing well.
-_-  Grr.

I thought the sticker thingies were actually going to be more like those water decals I've read about on misc. blogs, but alas, they're more of just a standard sticker which have never worked for me in the past.  However in the past, I did not know what a top coat was, let alone that such a thing as Seche Vite existed.  So I slapped on a heavy coat of SV, and what did I get?  A sinking sticker.  And a bubbling glob of SV that wasn't so "vite" any more, apparently, since I mooshed it on something which only added to the failing mess.

Oooh!  Here you can get a better idea of the awesomeness that is Sinful Colors 24/7!  And the fact that my nails are all long, shapely, and the cutes are neat & moisturized.  Ahhh I miss those days!  My nails seriously ARE NOT GROWING now & despite a million cuticle oil and balm applications a day, they're still dry & hangnail-y. :-(
P.S. I really debated about this photo because it's an awkward pose, but meh, whatevs!  If it disturbs you: look away!!! ;-)

Hit Polish's Companion Cube was a fun grey jelly with pink hearts, medium silver holo hexes, & medium matte black hexes.  This was one coat, with a bit of the dab & spread method.  Hit Polish seriously has a TON of amazing polishes with more creations being added all the time.  I have a few others (like Lullaby) that are just gorgeously fun, and Concrete Jungle is on my wishlist.  Check out www.hitpolish.com for all your bank account draining needs! ;-)

So, there you have it, ladies.  I gave it an honest-to-goodness try!  And now I have to go to bed because reliving the ishyness has worn me out.  And I do have to get up for work in about 5 hours.

Goodnight!!  And SMILE! v  :-D

Summer fun with Maybelline Polka Dots + matching crèmes

 Good eeevening, daaahlings!  LOL, I guess I’m in a goofy mood tonight.  And this is a rather “funky” manicure, so I guess it fits. J

After months and months (ok, not really that long) of admiring the new Maybelline jellies on other peoples’ blogs & wishing they’d arrive in my Wal-Mart already, I SPOTTED (haha!) them in a Walgreens & managed to restrain myself & purchase only the one I really wanted: Drops of Jade (since I was getting 3 Sinful Colors as well, and earlier that day, I’d scooped up 3 of the new Fing'rs Heart 2 Art polishes from those fun Wal-Mart displays).

Polishes, L-R: Drops of Jade, My Buoyfriend, 24/7, My Kryptonite, In Mint Condition, V.I.Purple, & Set In Rhine-Stone

Immediately after I left Walgreens, I was thinking about the hot pink version of Drops of Jade, but oh well, I don’t live anywhere near a Walgreens, so my loss, I guess.  L  Well, whaddya know: not even a week later, I was perusing the cosmetics section in my local WM, and lo and behold, there stand four of the Maybelline Polka Dots and three of their new “Holographics” (*cough – aka lame duochromes- they need some bloggers working there so they get their finishes straight)!  And wouldn’t you know, one of the four happens to be Pretty In Polka. :D  Yay!!  While perusing my stash, I discovered I had two colors that would be perfect matches to the jellies.  And thus, my mani was born:

For some reason, the SinfulShine refused to photograph true to color! It's coming out much more blue & muted in these photos than IRL. Grrr.  Although I don't feel too bad - even the swatch on the SC website looks like this! lol

My original plan was to use OPI Mod About You (perfect 50’s pastel pink) and Maybelline Green With Envy (perfect 50’s mint green), but once I saw how they all looked together, it was not a pleasing combination (sorry, Essie - I was sad too).  Ergo, plan B! ;-)

I started with a thin coat of each jelly (well, over the obligatory base coat of course) and one medium coat of Kleancolor Neon Pink & SinfulShine My Kryptonite from Sinful Colors' new line with Gel Tech (very shiny, I must say!).  Both of the latter were smooth & easy to use (although the Kleancolor brush wasn’t the best - I’ve used worse) and OPAQUE IN ONE COAT! :-D LOVE me some one coaters!  And then I decided to do a medium-thick coat of the jellies, which covered beautifully and had a great payoff of the small & medium black & white matte hexes.  Dry time was good on all four polishes.  Jellies continually & pleasantly surprise me with their quick dry times. J

The small fuzz begs your pardon for ruining the lovely, squishy aesthetic

If you haven’t picked some up already, I would highly suggest getting one or two (or all!) of the Maybelline Polka Dots.  The bottle is small, but for only $2.97, I don’t mind. J  The other colors are orange, blue, and clear with the same black & white glitters.  Which I’m thinking would be fun to use over any color – I saw a neat skittles mani on another blog using the clear one.  I would include the image here & credit the blogger, but that still feels wrong to me, so just head on over to Google to see what I’m talking about. J

I hope you are enjoying the hot, hot days of summer!!  Just remember; before long it'll be -60 million degrees & snowing! (at least, it will be here in northern MN)