Nails of the Day - Yellow & Blue Cheetah Print

What a creative title for this mani, hey?

I was planning on doing an entirely different design tonight but it was really late when I finally sat down to do my nails so I just decided to do something quick and simple. Basically, any type of animal print is always my fall back when I'm not feeling very creative or when I don't have a lot of time so of course, that's what I ended up doing tonight.




Products:
Seche Clear Base Coat
Color Club - Almost Famous (base)
Zoya - Robyn (spots)
OPI - Black Onyx (outline of spots)
Seche Vite Top Coat Read Full...

Color Club - Resort to Red

Bleh, I have a horrid head and chest cold and am beyond miserable so forgive my lack of posting.  I haven't forgotten that I need to throw a bit of a bash, I just need to get back on my feet. 

I will admit that currently I have no polish on my nails, the smell sends me into coughing fits.  And get this, I bashed my thumb up pretty good somehow (don't you just hate when you can't recall how you injured yourself?) so it's all bruised and nasty looking.

I do have some pics that have been sitting in limbo for whatever reason so I'm going to use those as some short and sweet fillers until I'm feeling more human again. 

 Love this color, this is Color Club Resort to Red

 Two coats

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Thanks for sticking with me.  Have a good one!

Read Full...

Valentine's Day Nail Art Series - Glitter Kisses

Hey guys!

Today I have the second design in my Valentine's Day series and this is one that I'm actually going to leave on for longer than half an hour! I removed my Lovebug design about half an hour after I posted it and put on my Neon Rainbow Cheetah Print for the second time. However, I actually really like this Valentine's Day mani so this one will be a keeper. :)



Products:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
OPI - Alpine Snow (base)
Orly - Winter Wonderland (white glitter)
China Glaze - Pom Pom (pink glitter)
Color Club - Art of Seduction (red glitter)
Revlon - Belle (silver glitter top coat over everything)
OPI - Black Onyx (lips)
Seche Vite Top Coat Read Full...

Color Club Pucci-licious, China Glaze Electric Lilac & IsaDora Black Tag

Color Club - Pucci-licious, 2 coats

Um, just wow. The formula in this was WONDERFUL, probably the best I've come across so far. Color Club calls Pucci-licious a neon but most don't consider it as such. It dries slightly matte, though but it's not retina-searing like neons tend to be.

Color Club - Pucci-licious & China Glaze - Electric Lilac, 2 + 1 coats

Electric Lilac has been in my untrieds since last summer and I figured it'd go great with the similarly coloured Pucci-licious. It was a nice combo, sure, but not really earth-shatteringly gorgeous.

Color Club - Pucci-licious, China Glaze - Electric Lilac & IsaDora - Black Tag, 2 + 1 + 1 coats

... And of course I had to see what the black IsaDora crackle polish would look layered on top of these two. I guess it looks okay but this combination devours top coat like nobody's business. This is with three coats of TC and it still wasn't smooth.

Read Full...

Color Club Rule Breaker

Ever just feel "meh" about a polish? I mean for no good reason. Not that it looks horrid or anything. Maybe it's just a mood thing but that's where I'm at with Color Club's Rule Breaker, just "meh".

It's actually a really pretty teal that leans more to the green side, and the application (two coats here) was nice and smooth, no streaks. This was the last polish I've bought in months! Ahheeeeee...polish purchasing withdraws!!!

Actually, the more I look at it, trying to figure out why I don't care for it, the more I'm liking it. :)

Yeah, it was just a mood thing.

Thanks for stopping by and reading. Until next time, have a great day! Read Full...

Nails of the Day - New Year's Eve + Giveaway Update

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a great year in 2010 and I wish you all the best for 2011. I was going to do a simple firework design (as you can see on my thumb) for my New Year's Eve manicure but I thought it looked a little too plain so I ended up drawing the "2011" as well. Hope you like it!



Products:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
OPI - Black Onyx (base)
OPI - I Get a Kick Out of Gold (numbers and the gold fireworks)
Color Club - Sultry (outline of numbers and the gold fireworks)
China Glaze - Cheers To You (silver fireworks)
Gold and silver rhinestones from eBay (center of fireworks)
Seche Vite Top Coat


Also, this week is going to be very hectic for me and thus I will be unable to get to the post office. Therefore, I have decided to extend the deadline of my giveaway by one week.
This means that you now have until 11:59pm on the evening of Friday, January 7th, 2011. Read Full...

Color Club Positively Posh & A Christmas Manicure

This is 2 coats of Positively Posh, a dusty medium creme that I feel indifferent towards. The formula is a bit runny so there was quite a lot of clean up. I have other browns that I much prefer so this one is going to my "to be frankened" bin.
Next I tried some nail art that really isn't my style but I like to try things a little outside of my comfort zone from time to time. I think I would have preferred a more intense green. I used Color Club Feel the Beat & Maybelline Khaki Fringe.


Thanks for reading!
April Read Full...

Christmas Nail Art Series - Christmas Lights

Hey everyone!

Today I have another Christmas manicure for you. I'm trying to get as many more Christmas designs in as possible so I'm doing as many as I can! This design has been done a hundred times before but I have always liked it so I wanted to give it a try myself.




Products:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
China Glaze - Midnight Kiss (base)
L.A. Colors Art Deco - Forest Green (cord)
China Glaze - Grape Juice (purple bulbs)
China Glaze - Dorothy Who? (blue bulbs)
Orly - Star Spangled (red bulbs)
Nicole by OPI - Fresh Squeezed (orange bulbs)
Zoya - Ivanka (green bulbs)
Color Club - Sex Symbol (glitter highlight on bulbs)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Click here to see the next design in my Christmas Nail Art Series! Read Full...

Christmas Nail Art Series - Santa's Belly

Hey!

Today in the midst of researching and writing papers I was able to complete the next design in my Christmas series: Santa's big ol' belly! Except my nails aren't very wide so they don't do justice to the roundness of Santa's belly so I think this would be a great design for someone with wider nail beds.

Anyways, here it is:



Products:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
China Glaze - Ruby Deer (Santa's suit)
OPI - Alpine Snow (white fur on Santa's suit)
L.A. Colors Art Deco - Black (belt)
Color Club - Sultry (belt buckle)
Black rhinestones from eBay (suit buttons)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Click here to see the next design in my Christmas Nail Art Series! Read Full...

Color Club Covered In Diamonds

Here we have Color Club Covered In Diamonds over 3 different polishes. Definitely not for wearing alone but it's a very interesting and unique top coat. Pictured above is Strange Beautiful Cinder Block.
Next we have Covered In diamonds over this franken from a few weeks ago. One coat on my pointer & middle fingers and 2 coats on the other fingers.


Last we have 2 coats over my latest franken from my last post. The second picture was taken in the shade.

This polish is made of pieces of super thin plastic or mylar. It's a little difficult to get the pieces to lie flat but you can do it with a bit of extra effort and a thick topcoat. Fun for occasional use.

Thanks for reading!
April

Current Giveaways
American Apparel Polish Giveaway! Ends 12/3. Read Full...

Christmas Nail Art Series - Snowflakes

Hey everyone!

I want to start off by apologizing again for my lack of posting. It's final exam time now and although I only have 1 final, I have 4 final papers to write so that has been eating up my time like crazy.

Nonetheless, I was still able to get started on my Christmas series tonight and here is the first in that line of nail designs:



Products:
China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
China Glaze - Dorothy Who? (base colour)
OPI - Alpine Snow (snowflakes, snow)
Color Club - Sex Symbol (glitter highlight)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Click here to see the next design in my Christmas Nail Art Series! Read Full...

Color Club Soft As Cashmere

Nice color but it's super sheer & thin. This is coats, & you can see below that it's not nearly enough. This would take at least 4 coats, possibly 5! No thanks for a polish that isn't unique. I'm actually wondering if I got a bad bottle since I haven't seen anyone else have this problem. Does that happen though?
Essie Chinchilly is very similar, maybe a bit less yellow toned than Soft As Cashmere. This one's going into my to be frankened pile.

Thanks for reading!
April

Current Giveaways

• American Apparel Polish Giveaway! Ends 12/3.

Read Full...

Color Club Pretty In Platinum

This is 2 coats of the lovely Color Club Pretty In Platinum. I really love this slightly frosty, super pale gray/silver! I think its very flattering and looks great with most of my wardrobe. It reminds me of a silver Silly Putty Egg I had at some point.

Thanks for reading!
April

Current Giveaways

• American Apparel Polish Giveaway! Ends 12/3.

Read Full...

Color Club De-Luxe-Cious & A Ruffian

This is 3 thick coats of Color Club De-Luxe-Cious. It could have used a fourth but the formula was difficult to work with so I stopped.

I know this looks pretty in the pictures but don't be fooled into purchasing this one. It's a great idea for a unique polish but it just doesn't work in this case. It's a gorgeous dusty cornflower blue base with gold & turquoise glitter that gives an almost foil like finish. But even with a good topcoat it dries dull & bumpy. It was also extremely difficult to remove.
This one's going into my "to be frankened pile".

The next night, I added Maybelline Matte Sapphire. This is my second attempt at a ruffian manicure and I really like the end result this time.


Thanks for reading!
April Read Full...

Color Club 'With Abandon' (Giveaway?)

Pardon my pictures, they were done in late afternoon sunlight. I'd finished painting them late in the day and knew I had to take pictures while they were still pretty or they'd be hammered by the next day. I don't know what I do, but my mani's never stay pretty past the first hour or so.

A rather quick post today. I may have mentioned that I have military duty this week so my nails are being neglected. I was proud of myself for managing to rub some Burt's Bees cuticle cream in this afternoon while I was standing around. They really needed is, I've had to trim off three hangnails in the last couple of days. Since I'm not polished I pulled this out of my un-posted archives that I keep just for such occasions. So, on with the show.

I just wanted to bring your attention to a lovely fall color. With Abandon is a black jellee with tons of brown/copper/gold micro-glitter. This is actually one of the polishes that I got for giving away because I liked mine so much I had to get some lucky reader their own bottle. Aren't I just a sweety?

Application was quite easy and although the first coat was a wee bit streaky, it all balanced out though and looks just lovely if you ask me.
I hope you enjoy this polish, if you don't already have it, stick around and you'll have a chance to win it...

Hmm, Since I probably won't be able to post to much this week shall we have a teeny tiny give away this week?...say for this polish and a surprise item? What do my readers say?

Until next time have a great day! Ciao! Read Full...

Halloween Nail Art Series - Jack-O-Lanterns

Alright, here's the next nail art design in my Halloween series - Jack-O-lanterns!



This one took quite a long time because I wanted the detailing to be perfect and so a lot of time was spent on just editing and cleaning up lines.
Also, the glitter was an afterthought and I wish I would have thought about it before I started the design of the faces because it took much longer to try and get around the face designs with the glitter then it would have had I just used the glitter on top of the black base. However, when I finished it just seemed like it was missing something so I added the glitter to make it look more like night time and that the jack-o-lanterns are shining through.

Products:
• China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat
• China Glaze - Liquid Leather (base)
• L.A. Colors Art Deco - White (base for face details)
• Orly - Crush On You (lighter orange)
• OPI - Brights Power (darker orange highlight)
• Color Club - Si Vous Please! (glitter top coat over black base)
• Seche Vite Top Coat Read Full...

Haul Saturdays - Volume 17

Welcome to Volume 17 of Haul Saturdays - a weekly post chronicling whatever beauty related purchases I made throughout that week.


Winners:
• Color Club - Glitter Vixen Set

Wal-Mart:
• Nicole by OPI - Hint of Mint and Wavy Navy

Lawton's Drug Mart:
• LA Splash - Splash Proof Eyeshadow Sealer/Base (review coming soon)

Shopper's Drug Mart:
• Benefit - Her Name Was Glowla Kit (review and swatches coming soon) Read Full...

Color Club Nothing but Truffle

We had about an hour of sun today, otherwise it's been overcast and rainy. But with that bit of sun I managed some pictures so as promised, here is Nothing but Truffle. I decided that I'm categorizing it as a chocolaty red, very deep and very rich. What do you think?

Did you notice? You're getting to see my before now never seen right hand! (Pardon the "I forgot to moisturize" cuticles.) The reason being that I have another mani going on my left hand that was also waiting on pictures. That and a tutorial for the look will be my next post.
Anyway, This is actually three coats of polish, all which applied beautifully. I forgot to do a quick dry top coat last night and woke up with some dings and sheet marks hence the third coat but if you were careful, this could almost be a one coat polish. It's a little on the thick side but it's not unmanageable. If you're looking for something dark with a hidden shimmer to it I think this would work well for Konading.

Off topic, I was hanging out on my computer last night and got interrupted. Apparently Toulouse thought I needed a break.

You all have a great rest of the weekend and until next time, ciao! Read Full...

Nail art stamping spam!

I should preface this post by stating that I'm really bad at stamping. It may be because of the shape of my nails which are super curved - they're half spheres, actually. In addition to the normal Konad rubber stamper I got myself a brandless one made of silicone. Smaller designs I can stamp with the Konad one but larger full nail designs are impossible without using the silicone stamper I rarely bother with stamping just because the whole process is so time consuming and the results I get often disappoint me.

Make Up Store - Dolly, Wet 'n' Wild - Black Creme & Konad M66 w/ Konad special white

Dolly is a pretty one with iridescent yellow shimmer in a blue/mint green base and I think Misa Silk Robe is a close relative of hers. I love this polish although it needs some extra decor or it looks like poo with my skintone. I think I was inspired by (= ripped off) one of Konad's promo pics.

Revlon - Not So Blue-Berry & Konad M69 w/ Konad special white

Not So Blue-Berry was my first scented polish - it's such a pretty blurple foil and smells delicious, but oh how it bubbled on me! I had to make sure that the first coat was bone dry until I carefully applied the second coat, hoping that it would cover the rash-like texture.

 Revlon - Grape Icy & Bundle Monster 03 w/ Konad special white

Another one of Revlon's scented polishes was Grape Icy from their 2010 Scents of Summer collection which I was somewhat disappointed with. It was streaky and sheer, recquiring three coats for opacity, plus the colour is very ordinary (I must have half a dozen near dupes). The smell was nice, though.

Color Club - Yachty Yachty Yadda & Konad M39 w/ red franken

A manicure with super girly pink base and super girly magenta butterflies make for a happy Bruno.

Grey franken, GOSH - Wild Lilac & Konad M3 w/ Wet 'n' Wild black

This one was actually inspired by a studded t-shirt I found in a secondhand store! The base was some random quick grey franken using Wet 'n' Wild black and white polishes, then adding a gradation with GOSH Wild Lilac and a makeup sponge. Next, I stamped on tons of stars and finally added small violet paillettes from a craft store.

Read Full...

Purple spam! Pt. 3

OPI - Who Are You Wearing, 2 coats

OPI - Who Are You Wearing & NYC - Love Letters, 2 + 1 coats

 Sinful Colors - Daddy's Girl, 3 coats

 Sinful Colors - Daddy's Girl & Sally Hansen - DVD, 3 + 2 coats

Color Club - Electronica, 2 coats

Read Full...