Is this lipstick a good shade for me?

The thumb is part of an entry for a nail art contest. More on that when she releases the entries to be posted. Of all the nails I had done in different ways, I couldn't bring myself to remove the thumb. It was too cute and needed a mani all of it's own. So I built the rest around it.

The polishes I used are China Glaze Secondhand Silk, China Glaze For Audrey (my frankened shimmer bottle), and Sally Hansen Lavender Cloud.

The lipstick you may recognize from The Illustrated Nail, I took inspiration from one of their designs. I used acrylic paints for it, so that it would stay flat and not be super thick.

A girl at work then asked me, "What's the deal with just one nail being a color that doesn't match?" And she was almost snippy and mean about it!

So I told her, just as snippy back.... "It does match! It all coordinates with my lipstick *showed my thumb* and how have you not noticed my nails before? They've been a lot crazier than this!"

Some people..... just don't understand....

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Popeye

No, not Popeye's Chicken! But that is my fave fried chicken. ;) *jingle* "Louisiana Faaast!"

Popeye was suggested by Angelica via my handy-dandy suggestion box embedded form at the bottom of the page. Check it out ;)

Thanks Angelica!

Bluto & Popeye

Swee' Pea & Olive Oil

I've finally got enough nails done to start affixing them to my shadowbox! Hooray, now I'm just realizing how much of a pain this has turned into.... but it will look utterly fabulous and totally worth it! Can't wait to show you guys!!!!

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Swaafie's Franken

Here is another polish I finally finished swatching as part of my 3rd place prize in Swaafie's contest.

This one is a franken she made in a H&M polish bottle.

I really like the bottle shape, these store so flat and compact. Love it.

It's a nice teal color. There is shimmer in the bottle, but it doesn't show on the nail.
I needed a medium teal, so this fits the bill!
Thanks Swaafie!

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My Little Pony Tales

I used to LOVE this show growing up. And I loved playing with the little pony toys also. They were so cute.

Angelique suggested these and I've been looking forward to painting them. :)

For the first one I used the same colors as in the title rainbow, then freehanded the text first in black, then on top of that with white. I wasn't able to mimic the exact font because it's just so teeny tiny. :(
Then a little blue chick with pink hair.

Then two views of a white pony with pink hair. I love how the bow turned out! Just perfect! I added some heart glitter extra thingy's to her behind to serve as her "tramp stamp." I'm not really sure why the cartoonists decided to add the identifying image to each pony, on their rear end!?

Base polish on all of these is Zoya Marley

Did you like these guys when you were growing up? I stumbled across a cartoon the other day with the same name..... but it's not the same ponies. :( Now they have more of an anime look to them and they aren't nearly as cute.

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Born Pretty Store - Nail Foils Review

I was contacted by the lovely people over at the Born Pretty Store to potentially review some of their products, so here we go!

The item they sent me was a set of nail foils.

"16pcs Black & Silver Grid LV logo Foil Nail Sticker Nail Art DIY" sells on the website here for $5.37.

 I love the rainbow effect in the writing on the package.

The directions are listed on the back and are pretty standard as far as full nail stickers.

Lightly buff nails, remove all remaining residue. Select the nail foil that is closest to the size of your nail, peel it from the backing and lay rounded edge against cuticle. Rub the foil firmly to adhere, you can stretch them to avoid creating ridges. File off remaining foil that extends past the free edge of the nail.

They went on easily, I didn't have any big problems. It was a little difficult to find an exact fit for my nails, but if I had been more patient and cut a larger one down to size... I'm sure that would have worked. I did find it very easy to lift up an area and reposition if need be, so that was nice. It helped me to smooth out the wrinkles.

They are very shiny and Minx like. I still had a few wrinkles, but they weren't too bad. It seemed to me like the edges wouldn't lie flat. Around the cuticle, it kept looking like it was rolling up. :(

 The directions do not state that you need to use a topcoat. The removal process states wash hands in warm soapy water and peel off. So you can't wash your hands and expect these to stay on? That seems a little ridiculous to me. How much wear time can you really expect like that? The package states "11 day wear," I see no way that would be possible. (And gross! So you can't wash your hands for 11 days?!)

I decided to apply a topcoat after I initially put them on to see if that would improve the wear time.

In 2 hours mine came off because I had washed my hands and they kept rolling up anyway. The edges wouldn't lie flat. :(

Removal was easy, they peeled off in one sheet and the little bit of adhesive left on a few of my nails came off with a little nail polish remover.

Look at what happened when I put topcoat on it! This was one coat of Seche Vite over the sticker and it freaked out and developed all of these insane ridges immediately!

Eew, creepy looking!

Index was regular slow drying topcoat,

Middle was Seche Vite.

Ring was no topcoat, just the sticker by itself.

Pinky was Seche Vite, but no crazy reaction. ???

I don't much see the point in purchasing these unless you want super shiny mirror like nails for just a few hours. Maybe some kind of event? If you want to impress someone for just a short period of time? If you never intend to wash your hands again? That's just my opinion. :)

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Smurfy!

The new Smurf movie opens in theaters today! I'm excited to see it, mainly because I'm a big fan of Neil Patrick Harris! I love the series How I Met Your Mother, oh and any SNL that he has hosted, etc. I'm not planning on seeing it tonight, but I do hope to catch it sometime while it's in theaters.

I previously did a Smurf nail art tutorial here. I did want to include them in my larger project, so this set is on falsies of course.

Smurfette & Papa Smurf

Brainy & Grouchy

Vanity & Azrael

Background polish is Hard Candy Lava.



If you see the Smurf movie let me know if it's awesome!

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Ulta 3 - Pacific Fever

Cathy was nice enough to include this polish in with the Vegemite! I enjoyed the polish a little more than the Vegemite.... Lol. I initally thought the polish would be sheer from the way it looked in the bottle, but it was surprisingly opaque. It covered well with two coats.

It's a beautiful color, and I never would have gotten the chance to try it if it weren't for Cathy!

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Vegemite?!

"What does Vegemite have to do with nail polish?" You might ask...

Have you ever tasted Vegemite?

Do you remember Cathy's Vegemite nails in my "Good Enough to Eat" contest?

It was then that this all began.

When I asked Cathy from Australia "what does Vegemite even taste like..." she said this:

"Well, it’s a very salty and savoury spread, intended to be spread very thinly.  It has a similar consistency to peanut butter but would taste similar to Marmite or Bonox?

It can be used as a flavour enhancer for stocks and gravies, so it has a flavour likened to concentrated dark mean like beef.

Sounds gross doesn’t it, but we grew up on it and love the stuff!!" 

After the nail art contest my mom was determined to order some Vegemite online and try it. Cathy was nice enough to offer to send me some! Isn't that sweet of her?! 

 

Well it came in last week and I made sure to record our taste testing session. The first picture is the small toothpaste size tube she sent us. Yeah, we didn't need a big jar of the stuff...

Please excuse our appearance in the video. Some of us were busy painting a bedroom so we were in our functional and not-so-cute clothes without a stich of makeup on...

Basically, none of us were big fans of it. It is terribly hard to describe the taste. Imagine putting a beef bullion cube in your mouth, but ten times saltier and it has a funky gel consistency... I am glad to have tried it, now I can say I know for myself what it tastes like. But I don't see myself eating it all the time, or ever again for that matter. Lol. My mom said she wanted to take it to work and make everyone else try it too. She's crazy!

Thanks again Cathy! You provided us with a funny afternoon activity, and a lifelong memory!

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BK - 25 Polish

I finally finished swatching the polishes I got as part of my 3rd place prize in Swaafie's contest.

This one is BK and she called it 25.

I really like the bottle shape, it's pretty cute. Also stores nicely.

This was two easy coats, it's pretty much just a straight forward pink with a shimmer. Hope you like it!

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Essie - Tart Deco + Comparison

I received Essie Tart Deco recently in a swap. It had been on my wishlist, and I'm glad to have it! It is fairly similar to some other polishes I already have, so I thought I would share the pics.

Essie - Tart Deco

Left - China Glaze I Wanna Lei Ya

Middle - Essie Carousel Coral

Right - Essie Tart Deco

It's different enough that I'm still happy to have it, but if I had known just how close it would be.... I probably wouldn't have wishlisted it.

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OPI - The One That Got Away

I'm pretty sure I've featured this polish before, but it's one of those that I forget how lovely it really is. It's a favorite of mine for those rare occasions that I'm in the mood to wear a red or pink polish.

I should really start concealing my artistic abilities... At work I'm now the go-to girl for anything remotely crafty. Remember the toddler Potato Head t-shirts? Making posters for a St. Jude fundraiser..... designing a baby nursery.... I'm starting to run short on time! Maybe I should learn that it's ok to say no sometimes.

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The Wuzzles

The Wuzzles

This is a "special request" by my brother in law, Micah. So here ya go!

Bumblelion

Butterbear

Eleroo

Moosel

Hoppopotamus

Rhinokey

I don't remeber watching this as a kid.... I think it was a little before my time ;) But I do think that they are too stinking cute! So good choice Micah!

Good news!!! I'm almost done with my exhibit project! I just have room for 6-8 more nails and it'll be finished! Stay tuned!!!

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Most Beautiful Polish Bottle?

I think so! I saw this pic online somewhere and I'm shocked I haven't come across this before. I think it's gorgeous! Megan Miller Collection. A cork handle with a raffia bow. Adorable! I have no idea about the quality of the polish, but I'm tempted to buy it just to display in my polish room. They are for sale at this link for $12.00. I also saw where they were sold on Anthropologie for $14.

(pictures were taken from the Megan Miller Collection website.)

Have you ever seen this polish before? Has anyone tried it? I really want to know! Drop me a comment.

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Pleasantly Plaid Tutorial

I realized while at work that my nails could easily be jazzed up with some plaid. What a great opportunity to do a quicky tutorial! These are super easy, I encourage all of you to try them. The first plaid nails I did were a few days ago on Sara, seen here. 

(Oh, and sorry for the ashy cuticles, I was trying to clean up before each pic! I didn't realize how much of it showed!)

Start with your base colors, whatever they may be. Add one stripe of the complimentary color to each nail. Vary it up by moving the stripes to the left side of the nail, right side of the nail, or directly in the middle.

Using a white striping polish, add two lines alongside the initial stripe.

Then draw another two lines that intersect. Also vary this up by doing some towards the cuticle, some towards the free edge, some directly in the middle.

That's it! Topcoat to blend it all together and smooth out bumps. :) If you try it, send me a link! I'd love to see it! 

(Base colors are from previous post. Essie Absolutely Shore and China Glaze Agent Lavender.)

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NaildeRoyale Opinion

OMG 700 FOLLOWERS! I'm amazed that you guys are interested in my ramblings! Thanks to all of you!

Have you ever ordered from www.NaildeRoyale.com? 

I was contacted by them to post a link and potentially review products. I had never come across their site before but was very pleasantly suprised by their prices! 

OPI for $6.50

China Glaze for $3.50

Essie for $5.25

Seche Vite for $5.95

I wanted to place a small order to see for myself.

Again, very pleasantly suprised!

The ordering process was very simple and straight forward. I loved that I received e-mail updates with each step towards receiving my order. Email confirmation, payment was received, order packaged, order shipped with a tracking number. I'm neurotic in that I look forward to tracking my packages and watch them getting closer to me. :)

When I received my order just a few days later, I was again impressed by just how well they packaged my order!

Each individual bottle was wrapped in plastic wrap. I can definitely see the benefit of this should there be an accident and a bottle breaks. It would keep the polish from leaking all over the other bottles! Other nail polish distributors could learn something from this. (This means you TransDesign!)

Then the plastic wrapped bottles were lined up nicely and wrapped thoroughly in bubble wrap. Nice and snug so that they were not bouncing around.

The bubble wrapped bundle was then in a thin shipping envelope surrounded by packing peanuts.

And that's not all!

Then that shipping envelope was put in a cardboard type shipping envelope addressed to me.

Everything got to me very safely!!!!

I am simply amazed by the care they put into packaging. It was almost frustrating because with each layer I opened, there was another layer! I am so glad that they wrap them in such a way to prevent breakage. Truly a happy customer here!

They did not ask me to do this post, it is just a result of my opinion. :)

I strongly encourage you to check out their site!

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Are You Absolutely Shore, Agent Lavender?

Just a quick look at a combo I wore to work last night. Essie Absolutely Shore on three nails and China Glaze Agent Lavender on the accent nails. :) I like it!

I really liked the formula on Absolutely Shore, on the other hand... I've always had issues with Agent Lavender. It covers well but has really poor self leveling properties. It finishes with a strange ridged up mess. Thankfully topcoat smoothes it all out into a beautiful finish...

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Sew Psyched to be Always Winning

I wanted my nails to coordinate with an olive green shirt dress I would be wearing. So this is what I came up with.

Solid base of Essie Sew Psyched

 Love this color!

Then I added two coats of Cult Nails Always Winning on two accent nails. I really liked the combination of how it turned out, but it took forever to dry! The accent nails were still "dentable" several hours later! :( I even used Seche Vite.... Oh well, it was still gorgeous.

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Transformers

I might incorporate the actual characters further on down the line, but for now I just have the two symbols that represent them.

Left- Autobot

Right- Decepticon

Background is a Dollar Nail Art Foil.

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Sinful Colors - Thimbleberry

Simple swatch to show you the bright beauty of Sinful Colors Thimbleberry. I see it as a neon coral/orange color. But I've been known to be wrong before. Not that I'm color blind, it's just that my descriptions are not always the best. Anyway, here's the pictures!

 This was 2-3 coats.

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Guest Nails - Sarah

Now for "Sarah with an H" nails! She was interested in all my nail goodies, so these are the two manis I showed her how to do while I was visiting.

Zoya Mira with toothpick leopard spots. (It ended up looking like camo in my opinion, which isn't necessarily a bad thing!) The spots are Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Mint Sorbet and then Sephora by OPI - Ocean Love Potion.

These were sweet and fun. China Glaze - Pink Voltage Neon and the I showed her how to do polka dots using a white Sally Hansen nail art pen.

I love it when others let me do their nails, but I'm always paranoid that they aren't going to like how it turns out.... Or what if it starts chipping really quickly? They'll blame me! Oh my goodness, so much pressure I put on myself.

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