Wanna See My Melons?

After two coats of China Glaze Wicked Style, I was originally going to sprinkle on some loose glitter. But while I was looking for a good green, I accidentally dumped all of my mini bottles on the floor and happened to stumble on this little, nameless Sally Girl gem from Sally Beauty. It is similar to the loose glitter I was going to use, but the loose glitter is bigger and has more of a blue flash to it. The mini polish matches Wicked Style so perfectly, so I went with it, instead.

Sounds Like a 1970s Dream

Remember when I showed you my franken, Dragon Puffs, layered over Zoya Savita, at the beginning of the month, and it was a complete disaster?

Well, I found two polishes that I love as underwear for it! I actually couldn't decide which I liked more, so I figured I'd showcase them both at once in the form of a ruffian.

I know, I know... Ruffians are supposed to have a metallic at the cuticle. Yet again, another distinction that I don't really care about. In fact, I looked. I found no official "rules" stating a ruffian manicure must use a metallic polish. So I'm not that worried about it.

Anyway, I used China Glaze Wicked Style (pink) and Gothic Lolita (purple). I love Dragon Puffs over Gothic Lolita because it is a very close match to the base color of the franken. I like it over Wicked Style for reasons unknown. Even though it takes away from the purple of the franken, I just plain like it, and that's all the reason I need! ^.^

So I started out with the ruffian, switching the colors as an accent:

Swatch Fest Day 7

It all started with a Color Club, so it might as well end with one, too.

I bought this one off of Jeanie from Midnight Manicures about 10 years ago. Or, ya know, whenever glitter sandwiches started getting big a while back. Same difference. Even though I absolutely hated them when they first began, I wanted this one specifically to do a glitter sandwich with. Alas, Sugar Sheer was placed in a drawer and is finally making her 3-coat appearance a year later.

Shade

Swatch Fest Day 6

Today I have Claires Cotton Candy scented polish. This one was very difficult to work with. The first two fingers have topcoat, the second two don't. And there's hardly a noticeable difference. It is very much a topcoat consumer! As well, the glitter completely disappears on the nail and it ends up just looking chunky and nasty instead.

Swatch Fest Day 5

I'm just full of surprises this week! Today, I have a polish that I'm not so proud to admit that I own: Julep Rachel. I pretty much despise Julep as a company, but I got this one for free and I've never worn it. So...

Swatch Fest Day 4

Once again, my camera likes to screw things up and is trying to give this a gold look, when, in fact, it is green.

This one is 2 coats of Petites Daze. It is the only Petites polish I own. The other is their black, which, I believe is empty or nearly empty, and just waiting to be cleaned out and used for frankening. =P

Neither of these pictures are exactly color-accurate. The sun shot is close, but it is more of a cross between the two:

Swatch Fest Day 3

Before you gasp and say omg you're wearing red!? Who knew you even owned that color?!, hear me out...

I DIDN'T KNOW that I owned this polish! I rarely wear the few NYC polishes that I have, so I guess I've just always passed this over without giving it a second thought.

I have no idea when I bought it. Or why. I'm guessing sometime in December, specificly for holiday manis. Dunno.

I really am not sure exactly why I despise red polish so much. It could be for multiple reasons:

Swatch Fest Day 2

Not too sure about this one. Sure, it is a beautiful, dusty one-coater, but it bubbled like crazy!

The polish I am talking about is Revlon Perplex.

Shade

Swatch Fest Day 1

I haven't done a Swatch Fest in a really long time. My original intentions were to swatch every polish in my collection. Alas, it grows faster than I can keep up, and I realized how unrealistic that goal was. Especially considering all the motivation that I don't have to swatch 300 polishes! ^.^

So I decided to pick out 7 untrieds that either:
A) I really wanted to see a swatch of, or
B) Seemed like they'd be interesting.

Now, I am not usually one to sit down and swatch polishes all day long (honestly, I typically put a swipe on a white paper plate or paint palette and call it good until I feel the desire to wear it) because that's just too much acetone and drying time for me. Not to mention of the drying of cuticles and so forth; however, I can live with a polish change every day for a week.

So to kick off this Swatch Fest week, since I've developed a great love for nude polishes, I have one that I bought from Nailogy late last year while they were still open to the general public. The pictures on their website looked nice. I Googled swatches and they all looked great: a beautiful peachy nude. Then I got the bottle and it looked alright. Maybe just a tad too orange for my taste, but nothing I can't handle... Then I put it on my nails...

Taste the Rainbow

A week or so ago, ProfessionalDQ posted this video on YouTube and it inspired me to do these nails.

What? All this for one mani?! Yup! Including a red acrylic paint that didn't make it into the picture!! ^.^

Furry Friday - Nanook

With Mr. Nanook here, I have a little tale of lessons learned. I heard through the grapevine that it calms dogs down and it's better on them when getting spayed if you let them have a litter of puppies first. WRONG! Well, I should have researched said topic before we purposely got my husband's dog, Nikki, pregnant before getting her fixed. She had SIX puppies!

However, as soon as they were old enough to start playing and showing personalities, I knew this little boy wasn't going anywhere, regardless!! He was the best baby of the bunch! When we'd get home, all of the others would jump at the edge of their box wanting picked up or whatever, but not him. He would sit, calmly, at the back of the box, just waiting until his turn came to get some kisses and cuddling. He was and still is the sweetest, most loyal, best dog! Besides, who could let this adorable little face walk out of their lives?!

Everyone else is doing it, so I might as well jump on the bandwagon, too!

I'm talking about the fish egg nails. Or caviar nails. Whichever you prefer to call them. I am sure someone somewhere has decided to make some ridiculous distinction between the two, but I just don't really care... These nails have been popping up everywhere, and while I only have silver and gold bullion/micro (again, whatever you prefer to call them) beads, I wanted to give it a shot anyway... I put them over a base of China Glaze Aquadelic.

OH. EM. GEE.

I will never do these nails again as long as I live. It took me about an hour just to do my pinkie. Hence the reason I didn't do all of my nails. Even if I absolutely loved how these looked, it still isn't worth the effort.

I have some advice for anyone who has never done these nails but may have been thinking about doing them... DON'T!! Seriously.

The beads stayed on fine for me, but I started my nails at about 7:30 and wasn't done until close to 10, including base coat, topcoat and everything. While I did the pointer finger, I was playing Wii golf with my dad and husband, so it wasn't too bad. Take your turn, add a few dozen beads, shoot again, and so forth. So it wasn't horrific, but it is just not something I would like to willingly sit through again. =P

Who ever said purple and grey don't go together?!

So this was another 'messing around' mani, playing with different colors to see how they look together. I had the idea to do a gradient in two colors that don't seem to be a common combo: purple and grey. Then I decided to add pink and black also. So I used Kleancolor Pastel Pink, Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, L'Oreal Greycian Goddess, and a Petites' black:

I actually really love the gradient these made!

Loves Me Not

The name of this polish fits it so very well... Today, I have a misleading little beauty to show you.

See that lovely, color-shifting glitter in there?!

Fire Crack

Okay, crackle polish was amazing when it first came out; however, not only did that trend last way too long, but it quickly died for me. I think I have used crackle three times. Total. And I only own two of them...

Why do I hate crackles so much?

Well if you really wanna know...
1) They are never opaque, unless it is black, so the base color shows through (except I actually like the effect that gives on this look, it makes it all fiery, adding orange into the mix here and there).
2) They shrink your base color.
3) Half the time they don't crack right and leave huge spots of uncracked polish.
4) They're (or once were) WAY overused... Okay, I have seen blue crackle on green polish, and yellow on black. glitter on glitter, black over rainbow, and blah blah blah. They're just not that original. There are only so many looks you can achieve with a crackle. They're aren't diverse at all. They are kind of like magnetics (another polish I own a whole 2 of), I have seen the blue star, the swirl in brown, silver, black, red, magenta, purple and indigo. Horizontal stripes in green? Check. Vertical stripes in pink? Check. Diagonal stripes in gold? Check. Seen it all, not impressed anymore.

Crushed Shell Gradient

So I recently found a great sale on Apple Barrel acrylic paint at Walmart and got some of the huge 8oz bottles of paint for $2 a piece. Which is wonderful, considering the little 2oz bottles are just under $1!

Anyway, I decided to sponge (over a one-coat base of NYC French White Tip) a gradient with the 3 colors (sadly, there weren't many options) I'd grabbed: Grape Jam, Caribbean, and King's Gold.

After finishing the gradient, I stared at my nails, thinking now what?

CONGRATS!!

Sonogram Says...

Itty Bitty broke "the curse". I'm excited! ^.^

Boys and girls of every age; Wouldn't you like to see something strange?!

So ya know that giveaway I am having that ends in 4 days?? Well, included in the prizes of said giveaway is a set of three adorable little polishes from Disney that are in bottles shaped like Jack Skellington's (from the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas) head.

Of course, I bought a set of these for myself as well, because they're just too adorable to pass up, and I am going to show them to you today.

I even impressed myself with this one...

I would say that this is probably one of the best and one of my favorites that I've done to date.

You see, it all started as a hopeless mess...

With Reagan at the cuticles, Arizona in the middle, and Wednesday at the tips (told you you'd soon be seeing these new Zoya beauties I picked up!!), they began like so:

In messy, unequal thirds

From the Vault - Feeling Fruity for Fimo Fun

This, I believe was my first mani, or one of my firsts, with fimo slices. It was a "lemonade" mani. Apparently lemonade is now made with oranges, limes and kiwis, and whatever that thing with the rough-looking edges is supposed to be, too! O.o

Rainbow, Holo, and Stars... Oh my!

What seems like a century ago, I asked for name suggestions on some of my frankens, and this one was included. I loved the name that Nail Reflections came up with best! So... today, I have for you (over a base of Zoya Savita) Dragon Puffs!

This is a squishy mix of a few different rainbow glitters, the Claire's holographic top coat (though it's hard to see, and gives no holo effect), some star glitters from Kleancolor, and I have no idea what other polishes because I am terrible and writing down my recipes!

Savita

Really, I do like matte suede/velvet polishes... I just wish I loved them!

The one I have to show you today is Zoya's Savita.

I was testing different purples as a base color for one of my frankens, and liked this with it the best.

However, after I applied Savita, I decided it deserved it's own day of solo wear.