Monday, November 5, 2012

ELF Red Velvet (Swatch!)

I love this red.

I've been looking for a red just like this for ages and I have finally found it. It stayed on my fingers for a while too because you see that bandaid? That's what happens when you lift a box much larger than you and run into a plexiglass display corner... :( I sliced my thumb!

I also found a $15 mini-bottle ELF nail polish collection at Target and needless to say, my heart skipped a beat. I was supposed to be just looking at sheets... but well, you know.
















It's a cool red, so for those with cool undertones like myself, rejoice! It's the perfect red for the holiday season which, according to my job, is already here. Cheers!!!

The formula on this is decent. It goes on smoothly, and I don't have to be terribly finicky about super thin coats. However, it chips easily and I had tip wear a few hours in, even with wrapping. I'll definitely be wearing it more. :)

Sunday, November 4, 2012

D's Nails by DECOY Opening Reception

Hey guys!

So for those who love art and manicures, I have something super special to present. I went to an opening reception at The Fridge, which is a local art venue that promotes community and youth engagement in the arts. A local artist, named Decoy, presented her exhibit there and did manicures for free!!! They are super cute and I have one to share. :)

I love bows, first of all, so when I saw that she had several designs featuring bows, I was head over heels and couldn't wait. Little did I know, that there would be actual bows involved...




























EEEEEE SO CUTE.

What do you guys think of the bows and 3D Nail art in general?

PS- That yellow you see? Remnants of Illamasqua's Optimist, which is difficult to remove when you're using nail polish remover in the dark.


Monday, October 29, 2012

Layering with Butter London's Knackered

Part of my new acquisition is Butter London's Knackered.

It's a beautiful true duochrome with holographic glitter in it that is a must have for layering. I personally didn't like it on my bare nails and was going to give it away. But then I layered it over black and was really impressed.

Of course I can't capture the duochrome in today's lighting- I'm stuck inside because of Hurricane Sandy! But you can see it in the bottle at the very least. I also can't really think of a true dupe of Knackered which is great considering I feel like so many colors this fall have had several repeats.




















Forgive the chipping- I didn't use Seche Vite for this and that's the only top coat that prevents chips the day after a manicure is done for me.

YAYYY

It's been a roller coaster of a ride the past month and a half but I've FINALLY settled into my new place. I've been here for a while, but didn't want to establish a posting schedule again until I got everything in the right place, including my nail polish. It also took my landlord an ungodly amount of time to get everything in proper order.

Well, that's not true. My collection is somewhat still scattered throughout several boxes I have yet to unpack.

I started a new position, which I mentioned- I've already been promoted twice. First to full time, then to a higher position within the company. Getting all my training out of the way, I've worked a cumulative of 55+ hours each week for the past month and a half.

But I've also been expanding my collection. I've accumulated a total of 21 new bottles, which will be indicated in my current collection page in bold. I also have a manicure that I'll be posting very soon!

But the point is- I'm back.


Sunday, September 23, 2012

Update

Hi Guys!

I'm in the middle of a sudden move! My nail polish is currently packed up. However, once I'm settled, I'll be posting again. :)

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Non-Nail Wednesday

Ok so I worked from 8:30 am until 9:00 pm so yeah this is coming late. :( IM SO EXHAUSTED! I'm doing the same thing tomorrow. Comparatively, Friday is a shorter day and hallelujah I am off on Saturday for once. Training for the new position is fantabulous and life is peachy.

However, I managed to get three pairs of shoes today for mega cheap (we're talking under $35) and some Butter London nail polish for only $11. So, needless to say, Michele is quite the happy camper!

Okay, so here's one of the shoes I purchased today- I also got a pair of nude flats and basic pumps because I actually have more non-basic shoes than I do just plain wear-with-everything. Yeah... that just needs to be corrected.


















I'll be pairing these with a caviar mani super soon. No idea what I'll wear with them quite yet but they'll be worn super soon.

Oh, on another note, look for my Julep box post. I got it today and I am super excited for the colors in it. I got a pinky-red and a gold frost.

Whatcha think of the shoes?!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Sunset Gradient

Happy Tuesday! I hope you had a great day. Apart from my poor feet, I had a good day. The morning was decidedly meh but the day picked up as I started my new and improved job!

Tomorrow I'm debuting something different from nails. I'll post it on Wednesdays- I haven't decided on every Wednesday or every other Wednesday, but we'll see. :)

Last night I did this mani- you can tell because even with a top coat, the next day I will almost always have tip wear. I also did not feel like cleaning it up last night so the clean up that I did this morning was er, a little hairy, because it was the first thing I did after rolling out of bed. HOWEVER, I love the colors. Do I love the mani? Uhm... well I'm taking it off as soon as this post is written.
















It reminds me of a sunset at a beach. I definitely thought of home- I was going to add some yellow and maybe a few black lines to mimic the silhouette of a seagull or two BUT that will wait for another day when I  have thought more about how to go about this.

The polishes I used are:

China Glaze: Bahamian Escape
Essie: Tart Deco
SOPI: High Maintenance

Peter thinks it looks like parrot inspired. So, is a sunset, or a parrot?

Sunday, September 9, 2012

New Polishes!

A few days ago I ordered from 8ty8beauty and picked up two polishes from China Glaze's Safari Collection- Jungle Queen and I'm Not Lion.

Jungle Queen is a dusty purple whereas I'm Not Lion is a beautiful dense glitter with gold, silver, green and blue glitter. It was opaque in two coats. Jungle Queen liked to pool at the edges but other than that, application was fine. I just needed, like with almost all China Glazes, thin coats. I'm a sucker for purples and have to tell myself to not buy all of the purple.

Here's the mani I did with it. I will probably be using these colors again to liven it up a bit more and "refresh" the manicure.
















The glitter is incredibly glitzy but it wasn't translating perfectly into pictures. If you end up buying this, know that it dries matte but with a top coat becomes super shiny!

I love the color combo. It's a great fall combo and one thing I love about fall & winter is the excuse to wear as much glitter (and sequin skirts/shirts) as I can. I originally meant to get I Herd That but that will have to wait another day... I guess I was just too excited and ended up ordering the wrong one. Oh well, I love it nonetheless!

I have a super busy week ahead but I'll still keep up. I'll be introducing something new on Wednesday so stay posted.

I'm also submitting this post as part of a link up!



If you're a manicure blogger, you should do it too.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Oreo Candy bar Mani

Last evening I went to a friend's place to do her nails. She saw my galaxy nails post and wanted me to do that for her, so we did! I hope she likes them. :) While I was there, I also painted my nails since she has a great collection of colors I don't have. So, I decided I wanted to do a jelly sandwich that ended up reminding me of an Oreo candy bar!

I used Rescue Beauty Lounge's Bella and Lynnderella's Connect the Dots. I layered two or three coats of Bella, then two coats of Connect the Dots and then added one more layer of Bella to finish my sandwich.
















Please excuse the staining- the red and pink got everywhere last night when I was removing my previous mani.

The Mister says it reminds him of a speckled egg. I think I definitely prefer thinking of this as candy-inspired! What does it remind you of? Speckled eggs or oreo candy bars?

Friday, September 7, 2012

3-2 Nails

I got a new job! This time in management, thank you baby jesus. It's a dangerous job too- for my bank account and for my wallet because 40% off everything = a hell of a lot more shoes. Oh god I love shoes. I could blog about shoes too but nail polish is my true love. This company is also a bit more fashion forward (not that my current location isn't) and hopefully, not as restricting on what I can wear.

ANYWAY-

Today I have 3-2 nails. What that means is three of my nails are one color, and the other two are a different color. For the colors today, I have Sephora by OPI's High Maintenance which is a gorgeous bright red with orange and yellow undertones. I forgot how much I love this color! I also have China Glaze's Purple Panic on. I wasn't super excited about the color combination  until I had it dried. There's something super duper refreshing about the color combination. I've been very matchy-matchy/color coordinating lately so maybe it has something to do with that. It's new, and it's the last few weeks of summer.

In the shade
In the sun































Yayyy! Now all that I need to do is figure out what in the world I'm going to wear today.

What's your favorite off-beat color combination?

Thursday, September 6, 2012

All You Need Is Love

This manicure was inspired by a client. I was having a rough day until one of my newest clients came to see me. As she was leaving she walked straight up to a manager and said, "Michele deserves a promotion!" Her walk was definitely determined- I was actually terrified for a moment, thinking that she was actually going to complain, or something. It's particularly great because I've been chasing one for god knows how long now. Finally some support!

She made my day. So this manicure is for her- she says she only wears black, grey and navy but an outfit I put together for her proved otherwise!

















The base coat is Otherwise Engaged by OPI. It's their Spring 2009 Softshades collection. Even after years of having this- it still applies beautifully even if the dry time leaves me watching tv for two hours. Seriously if I don't have t.v. on or something that doesn't require hands while I do my nails, I will 100% always ruin it.

The hearts are China Glaze Dance Baby and Spoiled Pink Flamingo (the darker/neon pink).

Don't forget to make someone's day- do a random act of happiness. :)

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Glitter Gradient & a note on Fall

On Pinterest a few weeks ago I saw a beautiful manicure that I needed to recreate. It is called a Mermaid manicure, and it's super easy. My nails look like a million bucks!

Recently, nail art has become a huge trend; to the point that it's actually being used as an accessory. So that makes my life easier- I don't have to wear as much jewelry. I'm not big into jewelry anyway! However, I do love sparkly nails.

This manicure screams summer. Now that labor day is passed and we're getting into September (holy moly!), I only have a few weeks in which I feel like I can rock the super bright colors. I mean, I'll probably wear neons into fall to be perfectly honest, but it will be for nostalgia. I have some great fall looks coming up, however. Among it, I have two series- a wedding/fall-love manicure series, which I'll debut on September 22nd, and a halloween series that I will start in October. I'll be showing how to coordinate fall trends with nail art/manicures and fall events.

On to the nail pictures-

















First I painted my nails with Milani's Fresh Teal. I've raved about this before. It's on of my favorite colors and I use it pretty consistently. I actually need to get a new bottle soon. After that dried, I sponged on Wet 'N Wild's Diving for Pearls to create a gradient. I would start at the tips of my nails, when I had the most polish on the sponge, and gradually moved up the nail until I had none. So the color would be concentrated at the tips and sparse towards my cuticles so Fresh Teal shown more.

After that dried, I repeated the same sponging technique with Sally Hansen's Bling-tastic, which is a part of their Gem Crush collection. If you don't have this blue glitter polish, you need it in your collection. It has small blue glitter with larger circle silver glitters. It coats pretty well on its own.

It's super important that you wrap your tips in this mani- the glitter does sit on the very tip of your nail where it's most concentrated. So if you don't wrap your tips, it will chip within a day or so. I mean, you should always wrap the tips but especially so with this mani. It will prevent the glitter from snagging on anything too.

What are you looking forward to most this fall? What is your favorite trend?


Monday, September 3, 2012

A poorly planned mani

I was super scatterbrained this weekend. I was just completely out of it, and wasn't thinking for much of it. I need more than just one day off! This mani is just as confused as I am! I also ran out of q-tips for clean up...

I went into this thinking I was going to do a Chevron mani. Then, I realized I set up wrong. The neon pink should have been the base coat.  So I thought, "Ooh! I'm going to do hour glasses!" But no, that didn't happen either. But it will, because I'm sure I can think of some crazy fashion inspiration for it.

Speaking of inspiration, I was thinking chocolate and I always imagine chocolate coming in bright pink packaging even though it doesn't. Since Peter the Great picked up scotch tape for me, I decided to attempt a chevron mani... I mean they aren't difficult by any means, but I got my colors reversed. Sigh. 

Despite how completely baffled he is by this obsession, he's been pretty supportive. He even picked up a nail polish I've been wanting for a while for me and endured a trip to Sally Beauty Supply yesterday! What a trooper.

For this mani, I used China Glaze's Call of the Wild as a base, China Glaze's Purple Panic, and Milani's Fresh Teal.

Fresh Teal is one of my favorite polishes. It's in my top rotation. The formula is great, but like most neons you definitely need a top coat for it. Cool toned pale people rejoice! This is SUCH a beautiful teal cream. I can wear it year round and while a neon, it isn't "you need sunglasses'" so it's a bit more versatile. It has the best of both worlds- vibrant, but pliant.

Anyhoo:















This photo was taken in the evening shortly after completing the manicure.


















The second one was taken in sunlight whereas the third one was taken in shade.

What do you think of the chocolate and pink combo?

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Galaxy nails!

Let me start of with saying: I love this manicure.

It's super easy despite how complicated it looks on the nail. All you need is a black base, 3-4 nail polish colors for sponging, a white (or glitter nail polish) for stars, and a cosmetic sponge. I tear my sponges into tiny pieces, but some people have issues with sponge lumps so you can also cut the sponges.

I actually did this on my friend's nails! A few days ago, I walked into work with these nails and she demanded that I do them. So I'm quite happy to do them for her, especially since she's moving away to FL.

But anyway, have a picture!














The weather was pretty icky today- we have the remnants of Hurricane Isaac so unfortunately this was the only good shot I got because lighting was kind of difficult.


I used:

  • Mourning Glory by OPI (Your standard black creme base)
  • Turquoise & Caicos by Essie
  • Purple Dragon by China Glaze
  • Pink Flamingo by Spoiled
  • Snow Globe by China Glaze

Thanks R for providing your fingertips! Enjoy your nails. :)

Saturday, September 1, 2012

NOTD

Happy Saturday! I know most people stateside are enjoying three day weekends so I hope that they're relaxing and/or super fun!

I originally had work today but then I didn't so that means I'm going to enjoy an actual day off. Otherwise, I would have been working 8 days in a row before I had one day off and then started work again.

Last night I also noticed that my top coat was getting goopy again. I already applied thinner to it, so I dragged the Mister to Sally Beauty supply where they had Seche Vite because it's way cheaper there than at CVS. Also added Call of the Wild from China Glaze's Safari Collection.

Today I have a classic look with a little twist- it's your simple french manicure but with the Material Girl Psychedelic I swatched yesterday and then Pure Ice Best Friend for the tips. I did it free hand because I couldn't locate my tape. I originally was going to do a gradient, but couldn't decide on a color! So I kept it simple and refined with the champagne color. However, I'm already over it! My poor nails- from typing, to yoga, to handling clothes (You would think fabric would be nice to handle on a daily basis!), my manicures don't last long.

I've tried several Pure Ice polishes before and can't really complain due to their price point. However, I believe Charlotte Russe sells them and I don't have one near me. Chances are, I probably wouldn't go anyway since on a day-to-day basis I'm wearing fancy clothes like this beautiful wrap dress.

Best Friend is a champagne frost. I'll eventually swatch it, but the end result shows brush strokes. This isn't surprising, considering it's a frost finish, but for that reason I rarely use it for a base. It's similar to OPI's I Only Drink Champagne but is a bit more opaque.
















But oh! You can actually see the pink shimmer that I referenced in my last post.


What are your favorite color combinations for a french tip?

Friday, August 31, 2012

Intro & Psychedelic by Material Girl Swatch

Hello!

First post, yay! I'm still in the process of designing a header and other fancy stuff for this blog but I was too excited to just wait any longer. I just can't shut up! So here we are.

I started painting my nails constantly because it's the one thing my job can't restrain me on. :) Then, it just sort of developed from there, and now, well, I'm hooked. So the story goes for almost any nail polish/nail care blogger on the net. I also did it because my nails were peeeeeeeling like whoa and contrary to a lot of huff and puff, my nails are ten times stronger! Nailtiques 2 also helps. So does a great base coat.

To start off, I have a beautiful color to show you. I just bought it yesterday at Macy's for $3.50! I also bought Guilty Conscience because well, they were half off so why not? Now I'm itching to go back and get their black nail polish with bronze microglitter... I really can't resist a great black! They're from the collection Material Girl which I think is a label Madonna and her daughter created.

Psychedelic by Material Girl


















I ALMOST dropped my digital camera while on my way out to my balcony so my index finger suffered the wrath of a not-quite-dry top coat.

The color is beautiful. I used three very thin coats and I almost stopped at one to be perfectly honest because the first coat is this soft pink-y sheer purple. But then I remembered I hate visible nail line. Formula wise, the viscosity is great but definitely wait between coats. I noticed on my right hand that there were a few bubbles. For a shimmer, the brush strokes aren't as obvious as some. Oh, and what didn't translate in the picture is this gorgeous pink micro glitter, which you can sort of see in the bottle.

I'm plotting to use this in a gradient soon. What colors do you think would be great for a gradient  with this?

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