10 Day/Week Challenge - Rainbow Nails

Day 2 of the 10 Day/Week Challenge is Rainbow Nails! Of course I had to do skittles, since I have not actually tried it before. I fell in love with it instantly. I wanted my colors to be super bright, so I had to get a bit creative with my rainbow. Since I did not have shimmery, neon, glassfleck-y colors that went with my rainbow theme, I created the look with layers. After I had my rainbow skittles, I decided that some stamping was needed. Here's how it turned out.

For the pinky, I used a neon pink from Spoiled called Tip Your Waitress, then added NYC Classic Coral Creme (a pretty pink shimmer) over top. For my ring finger, I used a neon orange from Spoiled called Jail Bait, and then added Spoiled Vitamin C over top to add some shimmer. For my middle finger, I did a coat of NYC Tribeca Silver, then a coat of Spoiled neon green called Permission To Proceed, THEN a coat of Zoya Snowsicle on top. My pointer is similar to the middle finger, except, I used a pretty blue shimmer polish I got from Bath and Body Works years ago for the middle layer. If it did have a name on it at some point, it doesn't any more, so I'm not sure what to call it. My thumb was done the same way as my middle and pointer fingers, except I used a purple polish from Spoiled called Checkin' Into Rehab for my middle layer. I like the way these turned out, and couldn't stop staring at them, especially when I was out in the sunlight. :)

After that, I stamped over them with Konad Special Polish in White with these little clouds from Konad plate m79.

What do you think about my take on Rainbow Nails?

Copy Cat Sat - Nailside

So of course most people have probably seen all of the cool tutorials that Nailside posts, but I just had to try out her clouds technique. They are so cute! Since I wanted to try out some of the new polishes that I have, I decided to use a couple of my new Julep polishes, and my beloved Zoya Wednesday-love this color! Check it out!

I started with Julep Mandy, which is a bright pinky-red. I will say that as with the other Julep I tried, the application with this color was not pleasant. You would think that for a polish that they charge $12, it would be awesome, but it really isn't any better than other polishes I have tried. In fact, it was worse than some of my cheaper polishes like NYC and Wet n Wild, which are actually pretty good polishes in my opinion. Happily I only paid a penny for mine, so I can't really complain.

After that, I started my first line of 'clouds' using Julep Jessica. This is a nice sky blue and goes on in one flawless coat. I have no complaints about this one other than the fact that I have a hard time getting the right amount of paint on the brush. I think it's because of the shape of the bottle, but it kept wanting to suddenly make giant drips, so I had to swipe it on the rim of the bottle lots of times before I got the right amount of polish on the brush. It went on really nice and smooth and is wonderfully opaque. Out of the three Julep polishes I got, this is by far the best one. And it's named after me, so what's not to love?! :) Here is how it looked at the second stage.

Here it is with the flash

Without the flash

Last, I swiped on my second set of 'clouds' with my favorite new Zoya color called Wednesday. Love love love this color! It is so pretty, and it went on like a dream just like all my Zoya polishes. After that I added some topcoat, and that was it. These were fun to do, and I can see myself using the same design in the future with all different colors. Hope you enjoyed my copy cat mani!

10 Day/Week Challenge Day 1 + A Happy Surprise!

First, I will share the surprise, then the mani. :) I'm am so excited I actually won a giveaway. I'm especially excited because it is for a very pretty Nubar, which is a brand I have never tried. It is from ambianceshop.com and I just wanted to post a thank you to her for having the giveaway and giving me the opportunity to try out a brand I probably never would have gotten to try. Thank you so much, Marnie!

Now, on to the nails! Day 1 is Pink Nails, and somehow I actually had a hard time with them. What?! I know - I love pink! Plain pink nails just seemed so boring though, I couldn't handle it, so since I had on some boring nails for work, and didn't feel like starting from scratch, I decided to layer...and then because that wasn't exciting enough, I decided some nail art + stamping was needed. :) Check it out.

Now here are the boring nails. This is Spoiled My Silicone Popped. It's a good color, I'm just bored with how plain it is, but it's great for when you need to be neutral, like at work.

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......................

And here they are with a layer of Kleancolor Sweet Pink on top.

Still not entertaining enough for me. So, I painted french tips and did some stamping using Spoiled Pretty In Punk...which may become one of my favorite pinks by the way!

School was insane so far this week, so I had to do something that wouldn't take a whole lot of time, but would still pack a punch. I'm pretty happy with what I came up with. What do you think?

Giveaway from YumiiDoesNails!

YumiiDoesNails is having an appreciation giveaway, and the first bundle monster set is up for grabs. If you do not already, follow her on facebook, and let her know that I sent you by posting on her wall. I'm trying to get 10 new fans to her in order to qualify for the giveaway. I don't even have 10 fans, haha, so we'll see how that goes. Anyway, once you do that, all you have to do is like the post on facebook announcing the giveaway, and then get 10 of your fans over there. Seems like kind of a cheap way to get fans if you ask me, but I really want to try those Bundle Monster plates, and I'm poor. :) I'll be posting tomorrow with my first mani for the 10 Day/Week Challenge, so keep an eye out for that. Have a good night, all!

Copy Cat Sat - Let Them Have Polish

For today's Copy Cat Sat, I did my first water marble, using my mom as a guinea pig. I was really surprised about how well it turned out. We used Revlon Make Mine Mango for the base. Then we used OPI Nice Color, Eh? from the Canadian Collection, Zoya Snowsicle, and essie sure shot for the water marble. I decided to just do an accent nail for this one as seen in a manicure done by Let Them Have Polish. Take a look!

 I'm seriously so excited about how well these turned out. We had a little issue with some debris getting on one of the nails, but we were able to clean it off and touch up the nail without having to redo it. Look at how pretty it is!

I especially love this one!

So there you have it - I'm capable of water marbling, which means you will probably be seeing a full mani at some point!

Also, I just wanted to add that I have decided to begin a 10 Day Challenge this week, so make sure you check that out too. I'm pretty excited!

Wet n Wild Through The Grapevine Nail Art

Happy Friday! My little break from school is quickly coming to an end. I probably won't have a lot of time for nail art over the summer semester, but we will see. Maybe it won't be so bad. I am taking 3 classes, and of course still have to go to work every day. Being a grown up sucks! :) Anyway, I have to show off this color and also my awesome idea for nail art. It was super fun and I love getting the chance to get all creative, so here goes.

Wet n Wild Through The Grapevine, essie Go Overboard, Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet & Lacey Lilac

What do you think? I think I like it. Haha - it actually looks the same way on my nails as it did it my head. I love it when that happens. Now here is a plain swatch so you can see this color in daylight.

Isn't it just so lovely?? It's a great purple, and unlike any of the other purples that I have. And most importantly, it was free! These were on sale at Walmart for $.99 and there was a $1 off any Wet n Wild product coupon in this week's Red Plum circular. No complaints when it comes to free things!

Here are a couple of pictures to illustrate how I did this. My first tutorial!

For these square shapes, I used small foam squares from my scrapbooking supply and placed them back to back around a toothpick. I tested out some colors to make sure they were opaque enough and then just stamped the square shape onto my nail, just like the sponge painting I did when I was a kid!

I decided to add a few dots using Zoya Wednesday.

Then I added my top coat to seal it all in ad give some good shine.

What do you think? Is it better with the dots or without? I couldn't decide. :)

As always, thanks for looking, and I hope you enjoyed today's nail art! I think I'm going to do my mom's nails this weekend. If all goes well, I will feature her on this blog maybe next week. She has nice long nails, so I should be able to do something pretty nice...and maybe even something fun and different if she lets me!

My Little Pony Nail Art for Rainbow Honey Nail Art Contest

I just wanted to share some nail art that I did for a contest being held by Rainbow Honey. If you love awesome glitter polishes, you will love this polish. I don't actually own any of the polishes now but I would LOVE to get my hands on Koi Pond - it is gorgeous! Anyway, I'm going to show this one off in steps - starting at the finished product.

 I already gave you a glimpse of this lovely color from Spoiled called Plenty Of Fish In The Sea. It is a gorgeous green-blue shimmer that makes me think some mermaid nails are in my future! Here it is before my nail art was painted on.

It's actually a bit more green than this in real life!

 For the next step, I painted on clouds using Pure Ice Super Star!, which is a very nice bright white.

After that, I added some My Little Pony themed nail art complete with rainbows using acrylic paint. The free hand was  a bit tricky for me, since I have tremors, but they stayed mostly under control for me tonight thankfully, so I am pretty happy about how it turned out.

After that, I added a few bits of glitter to jazz it up a bit. Can you have My Little Pony without glitter?!

Then I added topcoat and voila! This is probably the most intricate nail art I have ever done. I hope you like it. If you do, please consider voting for my entry. It can be found at the Rainbow Honey blog, or facebook. If you use facebook, all you have to do is 'like' my photo to vote! Thank you so much for looking!

Blog Hop & Spoiled Plenty Of Fish In The Sea

I am participating in a blog hop and have already discovered a couple of new blogs that look like they are going to become some of my favorites! To join in on the blog hop, visit Island Girl Insights.

 And now, for some nail pretties! I tried out this lovely blue-green shimmer polish from Spoiled a few days ago, and just wanted to share its gorgeousness with you. The color is called Plenty Of Fish In The Sea, and it really does make me think of the ocean every time I look at it! Even though these polishes are dirt cheap, they go on very nicely. This was just two coats of polish. Take a look!

This is in natural light (cloudy of course).

Here it is with the flash.

I love this color. Of course I didn't just stop there, but I can't show you the nail art I did with this color quite yet. I will share it soon though! Thanks for looking, and as always, let me know if you have any suggestions for my blog!

Copy Cat Sat - Nailed It.

My mani today was inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Nailed It. This girl has such a steady hand, it's unreal. Mine shakes like crazy, but I am really working on getting more under control, so I chose this one specifically to help me master this. You can find her original post here. I don't have a yellow neon, but I do have orange and pink! So, I decided to do this with another color...and since I couldn't decide what color, I used them both! Two accent nails are better than one. Haven't you heard?! Here it is!

Spoiled Jail Bait, Spoiled Tip Your Waitress, ORLY Jet Black, NYC Tribeca Silver

I am pretty happy with how this turned out. I still struggle to get the striper brush under control, but practice makes perfect! Let me know what you think. I'll have another post for you soon!

Stamping with Zoya Myrta and Wednesday with Revlon First Class

So, I know it has been a looong time, but I have been completely slammed with finals all week, and working some overtime at work. Anyway, this mani took a bit of time to do, so I finally finished it last night. I've been dying to use these new Zoya polishes that I got a while back, and when I found this Revlon polish at Target, it was a match made in heaven. I still love the way this mani turned out, but I am a bit bummed out that Wednesday didn't show up as well as I thought it would. It seemed so opaque, I thought for sure it would look brighter. Anyway, here is a pic of all the bottles I used - don't these colors look awesome together?!

Zoya Myrta, Revlon First Class, ORLY Sunset Peach, Zoya Wednesday

Now, here is my mani. I had some more adventures fun time with my stamping set, and am excited to be getting better at it, but already want more plates. Eek! Well I guess I know what's going on my Christmas list - yes I'm already looking forward to Christmas haha! Check it out!

 All in all, I like the way it turned out, although I think  it would have been better/brighter if I would have used Myrta over Wednesday...maybe I will try that some other time. :) Thanks for looking!

I heart Target - Revlon and COS BAR!

I won a Target giftcard at work, and although most of it went toward groceries...I had to spend a little on myself when I saw these - heehee! First up is this Revlon polish called First Class. It's an exclusive color for Target and it is gorgeous!! Such a beautiful bright blue, I already know what I'm going to do with it...but that's a post for another day. ;)

I also got this lovely purple from a brand called COS BAR, which is now selling its wares at Target. It comes from one of my favorite places, Aspen! I had one of the best vacations of my life in Aspen, and it was the only vacation my husband and I have ever been on where it was just the two of us. So, needless to say, anything that says Aspen on it immediately makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Anyway, they have a very limited selection. After looking all over the bottle, there is no name for the color anywhere, not even a number, so we're just going to call it purple. They have a chartreuse-y green, a bronze color, and an orange color as well. I'll be doing a mani with this one too pretty soon, so stay tuned!

Here they are! Lovely, huh?

Here's a close-up of the bottles

Oh, one last thing! I got a goody to share with my readers. I have never tried Julep polish, but have a friend who uses it and loves it. That lovely friend of mine shared with me that you can try out the Julep Maven subscription for just a penny! I just signed up and it is so real, I am stunned right now. I think I can afford $0.01!! So, this will be mine in a short while. Yay! Check it out! Just enter in the code SHAREONMAY at checkout!
JULEP

Blog Awards!

I was awarded the One Lovely Blog Award by PassionForPolish and I couldn't be more thrilled to hear it! And then, to top that off, I receive an award from datyorkLOVES who nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award! Being pretty new to the nail art blogging world, it means a lot to me. Thank you so much!

One Lovely Blog Award Rules!

• List 7 things about yourself.
• Award 15 other bloggers.

7 Things:

1. I love chick rock - Veruca Salt, Joan Jett, Metric, etc
2. My favorite color is green - any shade - I can't get enough of it!
3. I can't stand clothing, purses, and other items that are covered in logos (my coach purse is plain leather with only 1 small logo)
4. I always crave chocolate and cheese - at the same time
5. I am married to my best friend in the whole wide world
6. I bought my first house when I was 20, and still live in it
7. I have been in college for over 8 years, and it looks like I will finish at around the 10-11 year mark, so I'm actually getting kind of excited about it now.

Awards: (in alphabetical order)

1. Aly Loves Lacquer
2. Cave Bitch
3. datyorkLOVES 
4. Gettin Girlie/Canadutch
5. Hooked!
6. Iloveamexican
7. Lace and Lacquers 
8. lacquer pamper
9. Monkey A, Monkey B, and Me
10. Precious Polish
11. rebecca likes nails
12. SakuraBlossom
13. super purdy!
14. The Scarlet Nail Diaries
15. Seriously - you're luck I thought of 14!

Make sure to check out these blogs. I know they are not all nail-related, but some of these people are just plain great writers, and I love to read what they have to say!

Versatile Blogger Award Rules:

• Nominate 12 fellow bloggers that are relatively new to blogging.
• Let them know you have nominated them.
• Share 7 random facts about yourself.
• Thank the blogger[s] who nominated you by linking their blog.
• Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post.

12 Nominated Blogs:

1. Cave Bitch
   
2. Gettin Girlie/Canadutch
3. Little Nails
4. Iloveamexican
5. Monkey A, Monkey B, and Me
6. Nails_r_us
7. PassionForPolish
8. Precious Polish
9. rebecca likes nails
10. So Nailed
11. super purdy!
12. The Scarlet Nail Diaries 

7 (More) Facts About Me:

1. I have a sister who constantly gets mistaken for my twin even though we are 5 years apart.
2. I am a snowboarder and usually get out to ride between 30-50 times each winter.
3. I have friends and family all over the country, but hardly ever travel (maybe some day).
4. I am still a total daddy's girl - I adore my dad!
5. My mom is one of my best friends, and I don't feel right if I don't talk to her at least once a week.
6. I love Walmart & Target so much, sometimes I go in there just to window shop.
7. I am celebrating my 10 year wedding anniversary this summer!

Thanks again for nominating me for these awards! It is such a nice feeling to know that there are a few people out there who see what I am doing and like it! :)

Maybelline Color Show Crushed Candy

I randomly saw this display for these new polishes called Color Show from Maybelline at Walmart while I was buying some stuff for the house, and of course I had to stop and take a look. And that's when I found this little gem. I grabbed it because it looks so much like my favorite OPI shade that was discontinued years ago, Victoria Velvet. I absolutely love love love that polish. Not only is it very pretty, but I get very nostalgic about it because when I was a little girl, my mom would take me to the salon with her and I would get my nails painted in this color EVERY TIME. Because I have VERY little left in the bottle, I couldn't bear to paint all my nails just for the purpose of swatching it, but here it is on only my ring finger with my new Maybelline polish on the rest of the nails. Not as close as I thought - haha. Oh well. It's the memories that are important to me - Victoria Velvet can never be replaced. (But, if OPI re-made it I would buy ten bottles in a heartbeat and give a couple to my mom.) :P

Pardon my oddly-shaped nail on my index finger - I chipped it doing chores over the weekend.

Once I had these colors on, I decided it was time to try my hand at stamping...it didn't start out well, and I'm willing to show the picture only so that others who decide to try it aren't discouraged. Here it is.

See, I told you! I persevered though and ended up with this after giving up on that design (it really didn't fit well on my nail). Here is the other design on my left hand!

Maybelline Color Show Crushed Candy and OPI Victoria Velvet

Now here it is with the flash!

I am not at all disappointed with this purchase. The color is very pretty, and it went on in two nice and smooth coats. I would definitely buy more of these polishes if I could (but I'm broke!), so maybe by the time I can buy more, they will be on clearance. ;) Now here's a quick story about my crazy nailpolish-obsessed rambling at Walmart that day.

When I found it at Walmart, there was no price, and I had no idea what to expect, so I took it up to the register with my groceries, and asked the girl to scan it. She said "Two Ninety-Seven", and I said "Yep! That will be mine." I'm pretty sure the girl thought I was nuts as I went on to explain that it looks very similar to my favorite OPI polish, but she seemed to share my happiness in terms of the great price. She said, "And it's a lot cheaper than OPI!" Yes it is, random cashier at Walmart, yes it is. :) I was nearly giddy as I walked out to my car, no joke. So even though it is not really close at all (bahaha), you should definitely try it out - it will not disappoint!

Also, I have entered a nail art contest on facebook, and would love it if you would consider voting for my entry.
Summer Lovin Nail Art Contest by My Lacquer Family

Thank for looking/voting!