Happy New Year!

This is the post where I apologize profusely about the state of my cuticles and skin in general.  Every winter I quite literally shed my skin a few times and I am in the midst of one of those times.  So I'm very aware that they look horrid (and this is an improvement on what it has been),  and yes, I probably should wait until my shed is over before posting pictures but who knows when that will be.  So be gentle with me.
I'm actually thinking of taking a bit of a break until after the new year so don't be surprised if you don't hear from me for a few days.  I'll be back with bells on and details on my 200 follower giveaway.  

 This is three fairly thick coats of China Glaze's Fireside Glow.  This is an amazing mixture of fine copper and holographic glitter. 

 The weather here has been so overcast I couldn't get the sun to coordinate with the times when I had my camera, these are all taken under a "natural" lamp which does so not do this polish justice.

 The application on this was really great, while it didn't exactly flow onto the nail, the coverage was very even and built up really well.

 I love how it's a more subtle glitter effect with an almost neutral look where most of the glitters that have come out this season have had a lot more contrast.

Above is the closest I could get to a money shot to show off the beautiful glow this polish has.  So that's it for this one folks, I hope you have a wonderful New Year.  Be safe and I'll see you in 2012!

Merry Christmas

I want to wish each of you, my wonderful readers a wonderful holiday, whichever one you choose to celebrate.
Thank you all for taking the time out of your day to read and comment on my posts.  I hope that I can continue to educate and/or entertain into this coming year.

Until next time, safety, health and peace to you all.

Snowy the Snowman

Can you believe it,  Christmas Eve!  It seems just days ago it was only Thanksgiving.  
So, what happens when you mix some hand painting with your nail stickers?  Pretty darn adorable nails if I do say so myself.

I found these super cute nail stickers at my salon supply store.  They were the most popular of three different styles, how do I know?  This was the last one left while there were scads of the others.

I started with my base coat of Cold Metal from the Color Club Foiled Collection, then I painted all but my ring finger with two coats of Color Club Jingle Jangle, a clear based glitter that shifts tones depending on the light.  In some light it's pinkish lavender and greenish blue, in others the blue is darker and icy while the lavender deepens to purple.  And can I just say that for a glitter, application was a breeze and the finish was surprisingly smooth.

I took some acrylic paints and painted the background for Snowy by hand to create some depth and dimension.  He needed some snow drifts, and of course a snow storm.  I let that dry completely then applied one coat of a regular top coat because I have found that nail stickers doesn't like to stick to acrylic paint very well and will lift.

I finished up by sticking Snowy on the nail, he looked so happy in his new home!  Every nail then got two thick coats of Seche Vite to smooth things out and give lots of shine.  I love how this turned out.  I'm going to try more paint/sticker combinations.  

An Award for Moi?

Erp, sorry everyone, I'm getting a bit behind in following up on my comments and responses, not to mention getting to visit blogs of my new followers.  I'm getting there though so be patient with me. 
I want to give a huge thanks to Nail Designs xox for awarding me with the Versatile Blogger Award. 

So I'm first supposed to tell you 7 things about myself.  This is always so much harder than it seems it should be .  I'm going to try and make this stuff that you don't know about me and since you are already fully aware of my nail polish obsession we'll move right along.

1. In addition to my main hobby of nails I'm also a crafty person, I enjoy quilting, knitting, spinning (making my own yarn, not the kind you do at the gym), beading and scrap booking to name a few.  I seem to rotate through my other hobbies depending on the time of year, but nails are year round.

2. I have a weakness for things that smell good.  I have a huge collection of scented candles and the scent packs for my Sentsy warmers (four of them throughout the house) as well as several shelves worth of body washes, body sprays as well as lotions, which is crazy because half the time I forget to even put on the spray or lotions.  I even use linen spray to scent my towels and sheets after I pull them from the dryer.  I do coordinate household scents though so it doesn't smell like a cheap bordello or anything. 

3.  I love animals, I have cats, dogs, chickens and a parrot.  I used to have ferrets too until they passed on.  Most of my pets are rescued animals.  I am a firm believer that you should only get a pet if you are prepared to give it a forever home and not just as long as it's convenient.











4. I have a wonderful supportive family consisting of my beautiful daughter who just turned seventeen this month and my handsome fiance whom I've been best friends with for over four years now.  They put up with my moods and my clutter and tell me how wonderful I am.

5. I've been in the Air Force since 2000.  I served three years on active duty and the rest have been as a traditional reservist.  I'm very proud of being able to serve my country as well as serving as a positive and strong role model to my daughter.

6. I met my best friend umpteenhundred years ago when my (now ex)husband decided to tell me that he was in love with her (the feeling wasn't mutual).  I had decided to use the philosophy of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer and we've been like sisters ever since. 

7.  Whew, finally number 7! While I have lots of "stuff"  the only thing I really collect other than nail polishes are tea cups with matching saucers and dessert plates.  If I were just collecting the cups and saucers it would be easier, it's actually kind of hard to find the full sets of three.  I love all things tea and coffee related and have a kitchen cupboard...and a half that is designated exclusively to all these things from the actual tea and coffee to the accessories like strainers, sugar and creamer containers and what not.

So, that covers my 7 random facts about me, now the hard part.  I can't ever pick who to pass these awards onto, so I award this to all of my fellow bloggers.  If you are reading this, you're an awesome and Versatile Blogger in my book, so consider yourself awarded!

Spring Can't Come Soon Enough

I've never made it any secret that cold weather and I don't mix, and as of late it's been really, super cold.  So my idea is, been there, done that, bring on Spring!  Yeah, I know that won't happen.  Anyway, since my fingers are constantly freezing I thought I'd paint them a lovely shade of blue so it looks like they're supposed to be that color. 

 Color Club Cold Metal seemed to fit bill.  It's a gorgeous deep, icy blue which to me personally seems to be more shimmery than foil-y. 

 The application on this was amazing, I've got two coats on here and there was no streaking or dragging like I encountered with Perfect Mol-ten. It wasn't terribly shiny on it's own so I added a coat of Seche Vite and not only did it make it drool worthy in terms of shine, but it seemed to make the color even richer. 

pardon my thumbnail, I over did my gel trying to keep a break from happening.

When the Foiled collection came out it didn't seem that outstanding and I got a couple of them more to say I did then anything, but I'm really happy that I picked up this polish, it's really pretty and perfect for a winter mani.  And I've got some artistic plans for it coming up, so stay tuned.  Thanks for stopping by and reading, until next time, take care!

Copycat - Let it Snow

I loved the YouTube Let it Snow Collaboration of nail designs.   There were some amazing designs, several of which I want to try myself.  The one that stuck out to me the most was Let it Snow by JaeMarie2008.  

 Maybe it was because I had red glitter nails like she started out with.  For whatever reason I decided to try out her look.  I didn't want to cover up all my glitter though so I just did a couple of accent nails.

 I'm wishing now that I hadn't tried to add the red spots, they fade into the background too much and the resulting snowflakes have nothing to frame them so they look rather out of place.  I used too thick of a brush as well, oh well, live and learn right?

 Using JaeMarie2008's tutorial made creating these nails super easy but they look really detailed.  People have noticed them and think that they took hours to paint.  Little do they know.  

So did you follow the YouTube Let It Snow collaboration?

Just Add Sizzle

It seems that no sooner to I get one on than I'm looking at which one to put on next.  This time I had my eye on Ring in the Red, a sizzling hot red glitter from China Glaze's Let It Snow collection. 

 This polish is amazing!  I keep having to look at my nails because they're just so hot!  It's been a while since I came across a polish that was this...dare I say, sexy.

 I layered two coats of this over my OPI Wocka Wocka but if you're willing to go for several layers you could get this effect on it's own.  I love that it's dense enough to build up while still being thin enough for layering. 

 While red glitter polishes are easy to come by I think I may be in love with this one.  The finish is really quite smooth for a glitter and those flashes of red and fiery orange just get to me.  This seems to have two sizes of glitter which adds to the depth.

It looks fabulous in direct sunlight and in low indoor lighting too.  It's a real eye catcher, I've had several people catch a glimpse and their comments are all pretty much "OOooo, pretty polish!"  Yeah, I love it.

Thanks so much for stopping by and reading and commenting.  Until next time, have a great one!

OPI - Waka Waka

I'm having writers cramp at the moment and can't come up with anything terribly interesting about this polish.  So rather than strain my brain I'm going to stick with the basics and call it good.

 Wocka Wocka is from OPI's Muppet Collection which I pretty much love.  I have to admit that I could never figure out why Fozzie Bear always said Wocka Wocka Wocka!

 This is a warm toned red shimmer that is so festive and Christmasy to me that it's seems perfect for adding a bit of holiday cheer to my nails. 

 It's a little on the sheer side as you can see, I've got two coats on and you can see a hint of visible nail line.  Three coats would probably take care of this, but I was too lazy and called it good at two. 

The formula is great, no streaking or dragging and this was the easiest I've had a polish go on in a long time.  These pictures are without any cleanup it went on that easy!  It also has a nice shine, I don't have a top coat in any of these pictures. 

Sorry to be  a bit of a bore on this entry, thanks so much for stopping by and reading, until next time, take care!

Gem Crush - Lady Luck

I picked up a couple of the new Sally Hansen Gem Crush polishes when I was at my local druggist a week or so ago but haven't gotten around to trying one of them until now.  Now however, I am totally in love and hope that I'll be able to go back and get more of their colors.  This is Lady Luck that I'm wearing here.

 The coverage for having a clear base is pretty impressive but I wanted a completely opaque background without having too many layers so I used a coat of China Glaze Ahoy as a base color.  It's very similar and with a bit of shimmer of its own, added a bit more depth.

 Lady Luck is gorgeous, it's comprised of fine magenta glitter suspended in a clear base with lots of small holographic hexes that flash a rainbow of color at you whenever you move your fingers. 

 Application was wonderful, the formula is perfect and allows the glitter to spread evenly over the nail.  I applied two coats to get the depth and bling I was looking for. 

 My only complaint is that it dried a bit gritty and really benefited from a top coat for smoothness and shine.

Well worth it though in my opinion.  I very much want to invest in more of the Gem Crush Colors. Have you tried any of these?

One Brand, Two Names, One Color.

How often have you run into a brand that puts out the same color twice in the same year but under a different name?   Kiss Me Mistletoe is from the Color Club Scent-suous Holiday Collection and is exclusive to Sally Beauty.  They also have the Foiled line that has Perfect Mol-Ten.  The only difference is that Kiss Me Mistletoe makes your nails smell like a Christmas tree for about 12 hours. 

 I used Kiss Me Mistletoe on my pinky, middle finger and thumb, Perfectly molten on my ring and index finger.  There is absolutely no difference in the color either in the bottle or on the nail. 

 Neither one of these polishes wore well either, this is after one day which, where I work, is notoriously hard on nail polish, but still this wear is a bit extreme by my standards.

 The polish is pretty, but nothing spectacular, I'm almost disappointed to have spent the money on the two of them.  I didn't care for the application as it was streaky on both of them.  I do like the smell of Kiss Me Mistletoe, it really is reminiscent of Christmas Trees, (or mistletoe, I just don't know what mistletoe smells like).  The scent is short lived though, only lasting for about 12 hours at most.

In the realm of take it or leave it, I would leave both of these "colors"  behind.  I think that Color Club should have changed one of them at least a bit color wise before putting it out there as a new color.  Sorry, but in my opinion, adding a  scent doesn't count.  Overall you may color me unimpressed. 

All That Glitters

Just a quick post today as it's going to be a long and busy one. 

I recently picked up a couple of Color Clubs Foiled collection.  This one is Cold Metal. It's a intensely saturated silver based blue foil that is just gorgeous.  I had a little issue with the color dragging a bit so some of the nails needed three coats to get full coverage, but it was well worth it.

I topped off my ring finger with some LA Girls Glitter Addict Celebrate, a multi sized, shaped and colored glitter polish with great coverage (this was only one coat.) I topped everything off with a coat of Seche Vite, for smoothness and shine.

Thanks for stopping by.  Until next time, take care!

Golden Flowers

I did warn you that Snowed In was my newest favorite base for nail art.  Here is one more manicure that uses it, after this we'll find something new to use for a bit.  

 

 They say that practice make perfect, I'm pretty far from perfect, but I am becoming more comfortable with one stroke painting on my nails.    Even working on my right hand is becoming easier and looking better.

This time around I used a metallic gold and black paint to do some simplistic five petaled flowers.  The color matches an antique fan that I inherited from my mother.  She got it in Japan years before she even met my dad.

Give me another year or so and maybe I'll be able to do some of the amazing nail art like I see done in some of the other blogs and on YouTube.  You never know, meanwhile I'll keep practicing.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Until next time, take care.

Poinsettias in the Snow

This was my first attempt at painting poinsettias, and while it wasn't anything to write home about, it turned out fairly well, especially when you consider the distance that your nails are seen from most of the time. (Thank goodness.)

As you can see, I started off with my Snowed In manicure as the base for this one.  I thought that the two would tie in well together.  The only difference this time was that  I used Orly's *** as the glitter coat. 

Once the base mani was done and dried with a bit of help from Seche Vite I took some red acrylic paint and painted in the rough shapes for the poinsettias once I'd got the layout done I took a liner brush and added the outline and details.

The centers were just a cluster of black dots made with my large dotting tool, then me going over them with a neon green paint with the small dotting tool.

I finished the whole thing off with some loose holo gold glitter in the petal centers, some Seche Vite and viola, Poinsettias in the Snow.
I hope you like this holiday look, I've got a few more.  Let me know if you're interested in tutorials on any of them and I'll do my best to comply.  
I passed 200 followers!  I'm thinking up a giveaway so stay tuned.  Until next time Lovelies, take care!