New Zoya Polishes!

I just got my new Zoya polishes in the mail. I was so excited because I was able to get 3 polishes shipped for only $16+tax, which is pretty good.This is the last time you'll see me posting about new polish, because my birthday money is officially spent! I'm ok with that because it will take me a while to make manis out of all these new polishes, anyway. :)

Here they are! I'll get some manis with these new colors after finals week. I have too much studying to do for now.

Zoya Myrta, Areetha, and Chloe

So, check this out - At Zoya, a coupon code for a free bottle of Zoya Nail Polish will automatically be placed in your account and can be used immediately on any new order if you set up an account today. Also if you use this code and add on 2 more polishes, you get free shipping (that's what I did). The coupon will appear in the "My Coupons/Promos" section of their "My Account" page. Woohoo!

Click here to visit their website and check out the goodies!

Coral & Lavender

I decided that I needed to create a mani with coral and lavender as these are my two favorite colors for the spring this year. It took me a while to come up with something, and executing it also took a while, but I am pretty happy with the results. Check it out!

Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac and Wet n Wild Blazed

Here it is without the flash

I painted all my nails coral, except the ring finger, then used tape to section of 'stripes' and painted over the entire thing with lavender. Here is an image of the work in progress, so you can see how I did it. Here is an image of the nails before I added my design.

These are the scissors I used to cut the tape and make this design. They cut a scalloped edge, and I just cut thin strips with the design to go over my nail in 3 stripes.

 Here is an image of the nail taped off. Sorry the photo is a bit difficult to see, since the tape since is clear and the picture did not come out very crisp.

I was actually going to do something on the ring finger, but decided to just leave it plain, since I have way too much homework and studying to do this weekend. I can't wait until I get more free time! Since finals are in one week, there is a good chance I will only get one post in over the next week and a half, so please try to bear with me on that. Thanks for looking!

Copy Cat Sat - Meow!

Welcome to the new addition to my blog - Copy Cat Sat(urday)! I have seen so many awesome manicures that I want to try lately, so I decided to make one post a week about someone else's work and put my own spin on it. I'll be starting next week, so get pumped! :)

These are my precious kitties - haha they are like our children. :)

Eeeeeeeeeee! My nail mail came today!

I am seriously so excited right now! I ordered Konad stamping plates and a stamper online and it came way earlier than they said it would. I was told May 1st, so I am beyond excited right now. I don't have enough time to do a mani tonight (too much homework), but I'll post one soon. In the meantime here is a pic and a list of what I got. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this includes the Konad stamping nail art kit with a stamper, scraper, and mini white polish. I got 8 plates total: M57, M63, M76, M77, M78, M79, M80, and M81. The shipper also sent me some cute fake nails, which I don't usually wear, but since they were free, I'm sure I can find a use for them. Yay! Yay! Yay! :)

Botanical Mani

So, I don't necessarily LOVE how this one turned out, but I put in a lot of effort, so I am sharing it anyways! I used a dotter to do most of it (aka a pin stabbed into a mechanical pencil eraser), and I like the way the flowers turned out. I was attempting to paint ferns on my nails with a floral accent, but the ferns did not quite turn out how I had imaged them. Turns out they are harder to draw than I thought! I was inspired by a recent trip I took to the botanical gardens here by my home. Take a look!

KleanColor Sweet Orange, China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, Sally Hansen Pronto Purple, NYC Taxi Yellow Creme

Here it is with the flash!

This one was my favorite nail - apologies for the tipwear - it's only been one day, but I type all day at work!

Let me know what you think, or if you have suggestions on how I could have done this better. Thanks for looking!

So many awesome giveaways right now!

I have seen so many giveaways happening lately, I decided I need to share some.

The first one I want to share is from Konadlicious (Vintage Musings of a Modern Pinup). It is crazy awesome. I can't even believe that she was able to get so much for her followers. It's insane. Without further ado...

She is giving away polishes from Cult Nails, Ninja Polish, Glitter Gal Australia, NerdLacquer, Laquistry, All That Glitters, ORLY, Dollish Polish, Le Beauty, You Mix Cosmetics, OPI, Pretty and Polished, and earrings from Beasy Wendy. I'm not even kidding. The giveaway closes May 16, 2012. Here is a link - you should totally follow this blog - it is awesome.

Vintage Musings of a Modern Pinup - Konalicious

Next, we have a giveaway from Lacquer Pamper. This is her first giveaway, and it's a pretty good one. Lots of great polishes that are all new. She is giving away 11 items including butter London Bluey, Ulta Pinata-Yada-Yada, ORLY Cuticle Oil +, Revlon Liquid Quick Dry, Nina Ultra Pro Wet Glaze, 2012 Cracked Savior, 2012 Cracked Trinity, 2012 Cracked Tomorrow, 2012 Cracked You & I, 2012 Cracked Apocolypse, and 2012 Cracked Immortal. This giveaway ends May 23rd. Here is the link. These polishes look great, and I love the Ulta polishes! This is another great blog that you should definitely follow.

Lacquer Pamper

There is a giveaway from piCture pOlish going on right now as well. This polish looks awesome. They are giving away 4 polishes from the Ozotics collection. I have never used piCture pOlish, but I've seen it used in a lot of other blogs, so I had  to enter this one. It ends Wednesday 4/25, so enter soon! :) Here is the link.

piCture pOlish

There is also a giveaway from Scarlet Nail Diaries for reaching 10,000 views...looks like I've got a long way to go to reach that status! :) Anyway, she is giving away a bunch of cool polishes from her country which I have never heard of before. They all look pretty nice. There are a bunch of glitter polishes and there's also a few holos in there. The giveaway ends May 15th. Check it out and follow her blog!

Scarlet Nail Diaries

AND, another giveaway from Smashley Sparkles, which you should definitely check out. This girl does AMAZING water marbles, in my opinion. :) She is giving away a bottle of China Glaze GR8 to 2 lucky winners. It ends April 24th at midnight, so there is only 1 day left one this one! Check it out and foloow this blog - tons of inspiration, especially with color.

Smashley Sparkles

I just found out about a giveaway for a polish that I've been DYING to try, but thought it would only be fair if I gave everyone else a shot at it too. :) Soooooo, she is giving away Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream - yay! This giveaway ends May 15th. She also has another giveaway going on that ends April 30th, so get in on that one too! There will be 5 winners, and each winner will get to choose 1 of the polishes from the Model's Own Beetle Juice Collection. So, the first winner will get first pick and the second will get their pick of what is left and so forth until the last winner. The 5 polishes to choose from are Model's Own Pinky Brown, Aqua Violet, Tropical Sun, Copper Pot, and Indian Ocean. Get it!!

Nail Polish Anonymous
And finally, there is a giveaway from Sparkle And Shine Nails for 3 China Glaze Nail Lacquer colors of your choosing from Sally's. Any 3 you choose, including the new Hunger Games colors. I think this is an awesome little giveaway. Here is a link to her facebook page. She always posts great stuff, so you should definitely like her on facebook. Check it out!

Sparkle And Shine Nails

That's all I've got for now. I've been thinking that I might create a permanent page to house stuff like this so that it is all in one spot. We shall see. It all depends on how busy I get. :)

Birthday Nails

This mani isn't really just a birthday theme. It can be worn anytime. I just wanted to take extra time and come up with a really nice design using some of the new colors I got recently. This was done using tape to create my straight line, as learned from Chloe's Nails. I love the color combination I chose for this with the more shimmery colors at the tips of my nails. Here it is!

Wet n Wild On a Trip, NYC Tribeca Silver, and Wet n Wild Teal or No Teal

I absolutely love how this turned out. My camera washed out the color a little bit, the green and periwinkle were a bit darker, but it's pretty close to correct color-wise.

Giveaway at Lace & Laquers

So, I'm no one special, but I'm really getting back into doing my nails and have been following a TON of other blogs to help me with ideas. See my blogroll to check out what I've been getting inspired by. One of those blogs is called Lace & Laquers and I love all the indie polishes she swatches. It helps me to find out about new things that are out there, which are not mainstream. Most of them are completely unaffordable for me, BUT, when I have money again, I'm definitely going to try some of this stuff out. She has a giveaway going on right now, and I'm loving the fact that it comes with 2 colors I already own and love so much I actually needed replacements, AND it comes with candy. The giveaway can be found at her blog Lace & Laquers. Check it out and follow her for great swatches of all the indie polishes out there! The giveaway ends 4/25!

Also, I swear I am almost done with my birthday mani - it's looking good so far, but I just don't have much time. I added a color this morning before work, and then did some more today during my lunch break. So, it will probably be posted tonight. :)

Hair Store Goodies and Wet n Wild On a Trip/En Voyage Polish Review

I am having way too much fun with my birthday money. :) Here are a few pictures of the nail stuff I got today. I'll add these to my list of polishes over the next few days.

From left to right: Kleancolor Sweet Pink, Starry Meteor, Sweet Orange, and Firework

Here is a picture of this new Wet n Wild polish I got last week. I'm a little disappointed in it, but I love the color so much, I'm still going to incorporate it into a full-blown mani tomorrow (Sometimes I have to do my manis in stages). The color dried quite a bit darker than it looked in the bottle and the wide brush on it made it a bit more tricky for me to get nice even strokes of polish on my nails. It ended up bubbling pretty bad too, and I don't usually have that issue, so I'm thinking it has to do with the fact that I kept having to go back over the nail with the crazy giant brush it came with. Anyway, since the color is gorgeous, I'm going to let the negative stuff slide. Some topcoat should hide the bumpy, bubbly texture. I'll try to post pictures of my full mani tomorrow.

The Hair Store

My good friend from work told me about this magical place a few years ago, and we finally went to her favorite one today. It was awesome. They have everything in there a girl could ever need, and at great prices too! There was tons of nailpolish including kleancolor and O.P.I. and it was only $2 for the kleancolor polishes. They had O.P.I. for $4.50 but it was only a limited selection of colors. They also have all kinds of jewelry annd hair accessories, and yes, even hair. It was all I could do to remain in control. I got 4 new polishes, a stiper brush, and a pair of earrings for $12. No joke. The store we went to is pretty far away from where I live so I'm on a mission to find one closer to where I live. I'm sure there is one. I'm so excited to find a whole new selection of awesome nail stuff! I'll post the new polishes later tonight. I'm also working on a mani right now as I sit in the school parking lot waiting for class to start, so I'll probably have it posted by tomorrow at the latest.

Milani One Coat Glitter - Gold Glitz

Out of all my new polishes, I had to try this one out first, so I have a couple of pictures to share. Overall, it is a very nice color. I feel like it doesn't look so great with my skin color, but it would be gorgeous on someone with darker skin. As far as the glitter goes, though, it's awesome! It went on very smoothly and the picture I'm about to share is just one coat. It covered very well in just one coat and I probably won't have it on for long, so I didn't bother to do a second coat or even add topcoat. Take a look!

Milani One Coat Glitter in Gold Glitz

Here's a close-up picture of the bottle. There are two different colors in there. One is a classic yellowy gold, and the other is closer to bronze.

Here you can see the different colors better. Overall a really nice polish. They had a bunch of different colors, so I may need to get more. :)

New Additions to my Polish Collection

I got a little bit of money from my mother-in-law as an early birthday gift. :) I decided that I would allow myself to spend about $20 on nail polish - and I did awesome. I found this mini China Glaze on clearance at Sally's for only 49 cents and then hit Target where I found the Sally Hansen on sale for $2.48, and of course picked up a couple of my favorite NYC polishes in some colors I haven't tried yet. They're only 99 cents a piece, so it's always a good deal. The Sinful Colors was from Target at well. I think it was $1.98. I also went to CVS where I found the rest of these. None of them were on sale, so I was selective. The Essie was the most expensive, as usual, at $7.98, the Wet n' Wild polishes were $2.99 and I think the Milani was around $4. I had to have this one, because it is a new one-coat glitter, and I just have to try it! Yay - and I got away with spending less than $25! Check it out!

Left to right: China Glaze Mini Ruby Pumps, NYC Tribeca Silver, Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter, Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac, Wet 'n Wild Teal or No Teal, essie shine of the times, Milani Gold Glitz, NYC Big City Dazzle, and Wet 'n Wild On a Trip

I'll be trying all of these out over the next few weeks, so I'll be sure to include whether or not the Milani glitter actually goes on in one coat.

My New Favorite Moisturizer

So, I got this Dial NutriSkin Moisturizer as a sample with some soap that I bought, and it is amazing. I tried it out for the first time yesterday, and it feels so nice on your skin, is absolutely not oily at all, AND today, my hands still feel super soft. Keep in mind that I took a shower last night before bed, and washed my hands at least twice last night after I had put on this moisturizer. Normally, after all that contact with water, I have to put on more moisturizer. I am so impressed!

Easter Nail Art

I spent some time today doing some legitimate nail art and am seriously so excited to share this. I'm so proud of my handiwork right now! I started with a green base and did the design using a small pin as a dotter (I still don't own a dotting tool), the accent nail is freehand. It took a while to do because I have tremors and they were especially bad this morning for some reason, but I can't believe how great it turned out. Even my husband was impressed - take a look!

Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Mint Sorbet, Revlon Cafe Pink Pure Ice Super Star

Sorry for the ridiculous amount of shininess around my cuticles, we were trying to catch a ,movie and as I was rubbing cuticle oil on, I was told that we needed to leave. I thought we had more time! So, anyway, that is my Easter mani. I hope you like it - I know I do. I just hope I can get it to keep looking this nice for more than just a day!

Purple Sparkly Lacy Nails

I found this nail art done by Chalkboard Nails, and loved it so much, I had to try it. The funny thing is, the original person who did this said she didn't really like it. I, however, love how girly it looks and I think I might try it again but with brighter, more opaque colors. I had the same issue she did, using a sheer polish, I had to build it up a bit at the tip of the nail to ensure coverage, but I got a TON of compliments on it regardless (I've had it on all week already). So, here it is!

Pure Ice Busted and Pure Ice Superstar!

LOVE IT! There will definitely be additional versions of this mani.

Dotted Mani

So, I decided to enter a contest (why, not?) and there were some requirements for the nail art. I decided to go with dots because I hadn't tried it before. I don't have a dotting tool, but I saw an idea from The Beauty Department to make my own. I ended up using a pin with a larger round ball and it worked very well. Here is the original mani. After I got this done, I couldn't resist adding a little bit more.

Loreal Shock Proof White, NYC Penn Station, NYC Greenwich Village, Wet 'n Wild Blazed, and Orly Sunset Peach

After that, I make a dotting tool using a pin with s small ball and added little white dots to my ring finger nail.

So, my first dotting experience went pretty well. I tried to pick colors that reminded me of a sunset I saw in Massachusetts last summer. It was already almost dark out, but the sun setting just over the water created this awesome purple to orange effect. It was gorgeous!

Abstract Spring Colors

So, I actually saw this first from Little Nails, but it looks like it was originally done by Nailside. Anyway, I loved the idea and had to put my own spin on it, so I pulled out all of my brightest springy colors and went for it. I cut up my own pieces of tape, which was a bit difficult - it was very hard to get them nice and straight, so some of my lines are a bit less perfect than I would have liked, but I still love how these turned out.

This blue is actually a pearly white I mixed with a dark blue years(ok a whole decade) ago, NYC Uptown, Orly Sunset Peach, Wet n Wild Blazed, and Solar FX Wanna Play?

These polishes are all so old, I'm not sure if they still exist. The Orly was a gift back when I was in high school...a LONG time ago, and so was the Solar FX. With some of my polishes, I add ethyl acetate if they start to dry out, but I don't think I did that with any of these ones, so I am thoroughly impressed! I found some more tutorials from other sites, so I'll be trying out some more ideas soon!

Pink Meets Green

So, upon more inspiration from Chloe's Nails I decided to do another mani using tape, but this time, I had learned my lesson. I'm seriously so excited about how this turned out, and I can't wait to get even better at this. It is so much fun to sit down and get crafty on my nails. I got compliments by the ton on this one, and on Pinterest, it was repinned A LOT. So, I know I'm getting better. :) Here it is:

China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, Loreal Shock Proof French Tip White, and NYC Greenwich Village

Now I just need to improve my photo skills, and I'll be good. The color is not accurate in the photo. This shade from China Glaze is actually quite green, but I couldn't get my camera to cooperate, and eventually just gave up. I am so excited about how nice and smooth my lines look, though, that I don't care. More to come soon!

Failure - Tutorial Copy Gone Bad

I'm sharing this even though it turned out pretty bad. I figure my learning experience may help someone else. I saw the idea to use hole reinforcers to make neat heart-top shapes from The Beauty Department, and was maybe a little too confident going into this. BUT, since I learned so much, by the time I got to the left hand pinky, it was turning out pretty good. :) Without further ado, here is the pic. Try not to judge too harshly - I'm learning!



Loreal Shock Proof French Tip White, Maybelline Express Finish (something pink - the label has rubbed off), NYC Uptown

  The good news is that I learned that I need to peel the tape/enforcers off right away to get a nice line with no smudges. My next mani will be way better, I promise.

My First Scotch Tape Mani

After looking around at some of the pins my friends posted on Pinterest, I came across Chloe's Nails and was immediately inspired to try this out. I have an unhealthy addiction to these NYC polishes. They are so cheap, I can't help picking up a couple every once in a while. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, although I have since learned that it is best to pull the tape off right away, so the edges come out more crisp. Well, I've got it down pretty well now, so I'll share some better attempts at this later on. Here is a picture of my first scotch tape mani.



NYC Greenwich Village over NYC Manhattan

 All in all, I was pretty pleased with how this one turned out. My beloved NYC polishes are a bit thin and it took a few coats, which may have also been part of my problem. In the future, I will try it out with polishes that go on easily in one coat.

Valentine's Day Crackle Mani

I got some Sally Hansen Crackle polish for Christmas, and had been dying to try it out. Since it was the weekend before Valentine's Day, I decided to try my hand at drawing a little heart on there as well. The result was a bit busy, but I still liked it. I did something similar with my toes, but skipped the crackle. Here is a picture of how the nails turned out.



Loreal Sock Proof French Tip White, Avon Cotton Candy, and Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat Cherry Smash

 I loved the way these nails turned out, and I promise they will get better and better as I get more practice.

I'm On The Interweb!

Welcome to my nail blog! I have recently rekindled a passion for painting my nails and trying out new nail art. When I was a teenager, I painted my nails every couple of days, created my own nail polishes, and tried out different designs. It's been a long time, but I recently started painting my nails again, and how wonderful it is! It has been a kind of therapy for me. Life has been a bit difficult for me over the past few years, but starting a few months ago, I began doing my nails after being inspired by a co-worker. Every Saturday, I sit down and spend a few hours coming up with a design and then painting my nails. I thought it was about time I shared my handiwork somewhere else besides Pinterest. So, here goes. I hope you enjoy what I have done, and feel as inspired as I do to create beautiful nails.