Thursday, January 30, 2014

Golden Oldie Thursday - Dots

Good morning! I have some dots for you today featuring some more of my ancient nail polish! I started off this manicure with an AVON polish I bought at least 9-10 years ago. It was surprisingly still in great shape - no thinner required - and went on well. This is AVON Watermelon Shimmer.


After that, I added some dots with two more old polishes: Loreal Presto and Sally Hansen Heartbeat Creme. I've had both of these for at least the last 8 years. They are old, but were also still the perfect consistency. Yay! I tried a new pattern with my dots - not creative at all, I know - but it's new to me!


Here is AVON Watermelon Shimmer all by itself. It's pretty nice - the dents in the polish are my fault: I was a little impatient. :)


Thanks for checking out my nails today. Make sure you look at everyone else's dots, too!

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

January Tri Polish = Red, Orange, Yellow - Day 4 (3 for me!)

Ok, so I skipped last Tuesday because I just couldn't stand the red, orange, and yellow, but now here I am. Nail art is an addiction, people. I can't tear myself away from it! :) The three colors I used in this mani are Sally Hansen Lemon Zest, NYC Broadway Burgundy Frost, and COS BAR orange, which has no name. I also used some white, which was my go-to white, Pure Ice Superstar!.


I feel like these came out kind of crazy. If you cannot tell, I was trying to emulate Tartofraises (cute nails), but I feel like I ruined it when I added the dots and swirls. The flowers became a little overshadowed. Oh well, I tried, darn it. :)


This is my favorite flower of them all. It was the third one I did. The first one was on my thumb, and that one is definitely the worst. I love these one-stroke flowers. I need to do more of them!


Here is Sally Hansen Lemon Zest by itself. This is a great yellow. Unlike most yellows, it goes on mostly opaque. This is just two coats. I was very impressed.


Well thanks for looking! Make sure you look at what everyone else did with these three colors.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Nail-Art-A-Go-Go Challenge!

So, I am already dedicated to a few challenges, which means I do not have time to do a manicure every day. BUT, I really love the idea of this challenge that Missy came up with and I want to do it. I have decided that I will participate as I can, and then do the ones that I miss as I have the time once the challenge is over. Yay!

It starts on 2/1 and will run through 2/28. I am planning to pick my favorite one each week (or maybe two!) and do them in accordance with the dates that everyone else will be doing them. I wish I had the time to do all of these, but I just don't.


I'm excited! I can't wait to give some of these a try!

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Golden Oldie Thursday - Blue

Oh dear. I should have paid attention to what was next when I did my stripes last week because I had to really dig to find an old blue that I haven't shared and didn't share last week! I love blues, so I tend to use them all at least once. Well, I have another high-school polish from Pure Ice which I have never used on this blog, but which is waaayyy more than half-empty because I love it so much! Iris is more of a topper and has to be worn over another polish. On it's own, it is extremely sheer. I decided to try my hand at stamping with it to see how it turned out.


And, it turned out AMAZING. I broke out my new Red Angel plates and had MUCH more success this time. The image stamped perfectly; my only complaint is that they are small images, which don't fit on my nails at this length, but I filled in the gaps with some freehand, so you would probably never know if I didn't tell you. They are slightly bigger than the images on Bundle Monster plates, and smaller than Mash plate images. This particular image is from RA-107, and I LOVE it. It is so pretty.


Now, I sort-of cheated a little because I had to wear a dark polish underneath to make it pop, and the polish I used was a new polish I got for Christmas - butter London Royal Navy. I only did that because I felt like I could 'kill two birds with one stone' and get Royal Navy swatched at the same time, so that I can show it off later. :P


I did an accent nail with just Pure Ice Iris over butter London Royal Navy , so that you can see how awesome it is on its own. Iridescent beauty right there. Oh, I love it.


Well, there you have it, Pure Ice Iris - a hidden gem in my Melmer, that I should have busted out on this blog earlier and didn't. Make sure you check out what pretty blues all the others have to share for today!

Monday, January 20, 2014

Revlon Parfumerie Wintermint

Good morning! I found this polish just after Christmas, and it was the first thing that I bought with Christmas money. It was a random buy - I was attracted by the bottle, the minty green color, and the glitter. When I read the bottle and realized it was scented too, it was pretty much a done deal. I wasn't leaving the store without it.


Isn't it gorgeous??? I love this color. It is everything that I wanted in a polish, and I'm just going to point out that it looks like a certain Deborah Lippman polish that is MUCH more expensive, and not scented. Yay! Mermaid nails for half the price: MINTY mermaid nails!


So, I haven't said it yet, but the smell is pretty good. I was sniffing my nails the entire time I had it on - and I may have shoved my nails at a lot of people's faces urging them to smell the minty goodness. Here is the adorable bottle.


I seriously love it. This is all-around a great polish. Thanks for taking a look at it with me! Have a great day!

Saturday, January 18, 2014

January Julep It Girl Box

Hi everyone! I received my January box from Julep a couple weeks ago, and finally have my swatches ready to share. The colors were very muted and wintery. I was actually really bored with them and planned to skip, but as usual, I forgot to skip. After swatching them, I decided that I am glad I didn't skip because now I own a good nude color. I didn't have one before.


The first color I am going to show to you is Farrah. It is called a silk finish, so I did not add any topcoat. It was semi-matte. It's funny I didn't think I would like any of these colors, but I kind of like this soft purple shimmer. I think it will look great in a Spring manicure. It went on very nicely too. This is two coats.


This satin finish white, Hope, is my least favorite of the bunch, but then again, it is probably just the absence of color that makes me dislike it. It was not a great opaque white, so the only thing I can think of that I will do with this is use it was a base for some nice matte nail art, or under some neons.


This last color is the nude that I was talking about at the beginning of my post. It is named Annemarie and is very neat looking and would be great for a job interview, or some time when you need your nails to be somber and serious.I can definitely use this in some fab nail art down the road, too, so yay! This was a better cream than the white. It only took two coats. Ignore the mess on my thumb - I have got to find a better fast dry topcoat. Seche Vite is killing me with its shrinking act.


Well that is all, I am going to go play video games now and maybe paint my nails after that! Woo!

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Golden Oldie Thursday - Stripes!

For this mani, I pulled out a few more ancient polishes that I have plus one that I have had for nearly a year and never used. I have three of these polishes since middle/high school. We're talking 15+ years old. I keep them because they haven't dried out and I actually really love the blue glitter in them. The light blue is from a company called Natural Glow and the color is Cornflower Pearl. The blue glitter is from Victoria's Secret. It came in a set I received for Christmas with two other awesome glitters, but unfortunately the other two have not made it this long. The name of the color is Sleigh Bells. The medium blue shimmer is from Cover Girl and is called Starry Blue. The fourth color I used is from The New Black. It is a navy cream from the Runway Collection.


I painted Cornflower Pearl on my nails first, and then carefully used a striping brush to do horizontal stripes with Sleigh Bells, Starry Blue, and the navy from The New Black.



Here is Cornflower Pearl by itself. This is three coats; it is a very thin polish. I think I need to use it again in the spring!


I hope you like my mani today! Be sure to check out what everyone else has done!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

January Tri Polish Challenge = Red, Orange, Yellow - Day 2

For today's Tri Polish Challenge, I decided to switch out two of the colors from the last manicure. Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow is making a return. I used Wet n Wild Club Havana for my orange, and Julep Scarlett for my red.


I saw an image like this online somewhere. I think it was a painting on Pinterest, but I can't find it for the life of me. I sponged Mellow Yellow over Club Havana in a small section of each nail and then painted the red hearts over top of it. I then went back and did some slight outlining around each heart with Mellow Yellow.


Here is Wet n Wild Club Havana all by itself. My camera has a rough time with orange, so it is actually a bit darker than this, but this was as close as I could get it. :)


I like the way this one turned out. Thanks for looking, and please make sure you check out what the others did for this challenge!

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Holiday Haul!

So, I don't do a whole lot of 'haul' posts, but around Christmas and my birthday, I feel it is necessary. I like looking at other people's haul posts, so I'm thinking all of you will probably enjoy seeing all of my new nail/beauty goodies. I'm pretty excited because I got a LOT of awesome gifts and when I see them all together in this picture, all I can think is "OH MY!". :)



I had to take a second picture of another gift I received from my friend, Anna, because I had already taken my picture and opened some of the items when I saw her and she gifted me. :)


So, here is what I received:
  •  butter LONDON Kitten Heels, Rock Off, and Stiletto Stick, and 3 polishes: Petrol, Royal Navy, and Cream Tea
  • a set of MASH Nail Art Brushes
  • a Black Poppy pink and blue glitter polish
  • China Glaze It's a Trap-eze
  • Benefit They're Real Mascara - best mascara EVER!
  • Zoya Remove + and 2 polishes: Blaze & Dream
  • an Ulta giftcard for $25 which I have yet to spend
  • 2 bottles of Seche Vite
  • 2 tubes of Blistex
  • Red Angel plates
  • homemade lip balm from my sister - mint chocolate!
  • Renew Skin Therapy hand cream
  • Aveda Hand Relief
  • and 2 new nail files
  • from Anna, I received 2 Estee Lauder polishes: Caviar & Le Smoking, Lancome Juicy Tubes Lipgloss in Berry Bold, and Lancome La vie est belle fragrance body lotion
 Whoa. That is sooo much stuff! My melmers are at capacity. I may need a trip to Michaels in the near future. :)

Thank you so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Golden Oldie Thursday - Pink!

Good morning! Today I am showing off an old pink polish that I have never worn. It actually took me a while to find one I hadn't worn, but I am pretty sure these are the oldest pinks I own that I haven't worn. I received these in a giveaway back in June 2012 and still have never tried them out. I am generally not a fan of frosty and neutral colors, but I figured I would pull them out and give them a try. This duo is from Avon's line called mark. These two colors are called Meltdown Fusion and Sure Fire Infallible.


These two colors do look very nice together and I feel like I could definitely use them again now that I have seen them together. I unfortunately had some trouble with the stamping plates that I used which made me a little sad. I am going to try the plates out again with my stamping polishes to see if they work better with other colors.

Here is the image on my thumb - it is the one that stamped the best. I'm pretty disappointed, but hopeful it will stamp better with stamping polishes.


Here is the image on my ring finger. This one did not stamp too bad, either, but for some reason a lot of the polish didn't transfer over.




The two plates that I used were from my new set of Red Angel Plates (RA-104 and RA-109). Here is what mark. Meltdown Fusion looks like by itself. Try to ignore the brushstrokes - they are mostly my own fault. I don't have the patience for frosts! :)


And here is Sure Fire Infallible by itself. I failed to take a picture of it right away, so there is a bit of tip wear.


Thanks for checking out my blog today. I will have another bunch of old polishes to share next week!