Springy Flowers

Did you all have a good weekend?  I was non-stop and I'm paying for it this morning.  A service organization I'm a member of had a work day and we dug holes for a retaining wall, scraped and painted a porch, removed debris and tons of yard waste all for an 80 year old woman that just couldn't do it anymore.  It waas so satisfying although I could only help for a few hours.  Worst part? The news station interviewed me. It was like my worst nightmare came to life.

Anyways,  I have a ome floral nails for you today.  I tend to gravitate towards purples and lavenders, so that's what I grabbed here. This is probably one of my top favorite polishes, OPI Do You Lilac It? and OPI My Vampire is Buff.  I just freehanded on some dots and stripes,  and topped with the flowers on two nails. It was really kind of boring and flat, so I added a topcoat of Essie's Pure Pearlfection to give it a light shimmer.

Sunday was great until about 4 pm hit. Then the skies opened up, the wind kicked up into overdrive and now it is supposed to rain for the next like 10 days. Good thing I snapped this while I still had some sunshine!

Have a great Monday!
April

Swap Swatch

Rain, rain go away. Why do we expect 80 degrees and sunny every day? I know I don't live in San Diego,  but a girl wants to have nice days.

So. I'm in a polish swap group, and we put together a wish list and go at it. I've been blessed to be in this group for a few months now, and I want to share two different wish list items that I've received,  and they are AMAZING!

First off, let me tell you, I am new to the indie world. I've been gawking at indies for probably 2 years at least,  but I never purchased because I'm not a good online shopper.  I like to touch, see, feel things. Online, you take a risk and hope that you like it.  It seriously makes me sweat buying online.

Which is why I love this group.  I can place those indies that I am so nervous about purchasing on my wishlist,  and then sometimes I get them! Now, I have kind of created an indie monster.  I want them all.

One of my OPI lemmings was Roadhouse Blues.  It's a dark blurple cream. I love it that this doesn't have shimmer in it like most blurples do. Pure creamy goodness.

Then, I have one of the prettiest glitters to slop on top.  This is Crowes Toes Drahon in Drag. Holy amazing sparkle and flash. This is a teal, green, blue and purple glitter topper that just speaks for itself.  Check out this stunner:

Of course I used my OPI Glitter Off,  so this should come off really easily.  I would have chewed this off in the past. Thanks, OPI!

Well, I just can't help but stare at this, and shine it at different angles.  So pretty.  Tell me, is there an indie that I need to try? Something that isn't like over $40 like an Enchanted Polish,  but something cool. Lemme know in the comments!

Have a great weekend!
April

Doctor Lacquer Dopamine

Hello!  Did you have a good weekend?  Easter weather here was amazingly beautiful.  But wait for it, it's Iowa, so we went from 90 degrees back down to 50-60. Sigh. Oh well, at least I know summer is coming.

What I have for you today is a polish that I ordered last week. It's made by Doctor Lacquer,  and this one is called Dopamine.   Doctor Lacquer is known for their thermal polishes, and I've been dying to try one. So of course,  I gravitated towards this one... I mean, come on. Purple base, circle glitter,  golden yellow, bright yellow glitters AND then it turns aqua when warm? This should have been called April.

Cold, purple

Transition

Warm, aqua

Here's what I learned with thermal polish:
1. Don't apply this sitting outside on an almost 90 degree day. That was weird.
2. My hands are apparently mostly cold all the time. I pretty much knew this, because I'm that annoying girl in your office that no matter how warm it is, I still whine that I'm cold. But I thought it was interesting that my thumb and pointer would be in the transition phase, when  my pinkies would stay purple almost all the time.
3. Taking it off was cool. I used my OPI Glitter Off,  so I was able to peel this, and it at the time was blue since I just came home from the gym, and then it would come off purple. Fun!


I would totally recommend this brand. I purchased this polish from their Store Envy store, but they also have an ETSY store.

Now I need more thermals. Pronto. =)
Cheers,
April

OPI Glitter Off Review

Hey guys! I'm sure someone guessed that I purchased a bottle of OPI's Glitter Off. There has always been that Pinterest tip out there to use Elmer's glue as a base coat, because it peels off when done. I was always skeptical,  I mean, glue? That's weird.  I saw that this came out and I knew I wanted to try it. Plus, my nail polish buddy for the month had it on her wishlist,  so that gave me an even better excuse,  lol.

I believe I've mentioned it before,  but hi, my name is April,  and I'm a an polish peeler. I know how bad it is for your nails, because I would see little white bumps after I peel. So bad. That's why I was so excited for this product.  Here we go!!!


The bottle is the same size as a regular OPI. The brush is shorter and not as thick. It's not even comparable to their base or top coat brushes, as those are bigger too.

Open the bottle, and I smelled it. Yup, it smells like glue. You put on a thin coat of this on your bare nails, and let it dry until it's clear.

Then you tackle the glitter polish.  I used a Different Dimension polish that is super glitter dense, and also a glow in the dark. It has so much glitter in it, I've been nervous to try it out, because who likes to take off glitter polish?  Ugh, not me. This is two coats of Merry Go Round over the Glitter Off.

I wore this for several days. I believe I did this on a Thursday evening,  and then took it off Sunday night. It stayed on the entire weekend without chipping. Here's what the removal process was like:

So you are supposed to take an orange stick and push and nudge the edge of the polish. I chose to use another nail because my cuticle pusher is metal.  It lifted off right away! It's a polish peelers dream!

Here's my nails after I peeled it all completely off.

So... verdict.  I never used the glue method,  so I'm not sure if that works. This product reminds me of white glue, but I'm sure there is probably something else in there that makes it work so well. I'm totally hooked, and I've been wearing glitter polish all the time now. I've heard of some people say that the base lifted before they forced it to come off. I didn't have that problem.  One weird thing that I did notice was that the first coat of polish crackles a little. I'm wearing another glitter this week that I did late Sunday night,  and it's still going strong. Bottom line: it has my stamp of approval.

I purchased this bottle at Beauty Brands. I couldn't find it at my Ulta. (Although they've really been sucking lately. They still don't have the Zoya Cosmos pixies. WTF)

Let me know if you've tried this and had the same success. I'd also like to hear any fails too.

Super SPAM of the past week

Hey guys and happy Monday to you all.  Did anyone have fun weekend plans?  Some friends went with us to a beer festival in Peoria on Saturday and it was a blast. I'm typically an IPA girl,  but shockingly I really gravitated towards the alcoholic ginger beers. They were delicious! Plus it was almost 80 degrees and sunny,  so they were super refreshing. Now today it is dreary,  rainy and cold. Darn Midwestern weather.

I'm going to hock my Instagram page again today,  because I tend to update that more often because it's so much easier. I've taken on the Californails April challenge, do I have the past 2 prompts to share today.

First is from day 8, chevron. Have I mentioned how much I want some of those dang nail vinyls?  I get so frustrated using tape. Here I've got OPI's Chic From Ears to Tail,  which is a pretty pink shimmery crelly. The glitter is Cult Nails Center of Attention. COA is one I acquired through a swap and I love it.  It's so sparkly and it has a golden / Iridescent shimmer in it too.  Now for my chevron. Ugh. I used Essie Chinchilly, but that frigging tape kept messing up  so I free handed this.  So frustrating.

But I did really like how this turned out. It felt springy and glitzy at the same time.  I love chevron,  but I need some help.

Second prompt is for today,  Peeps!  Ok,  seriously,  peeps?  Kind of weird,  but whatevs. I had another swapped polish from Polish Addict,  called Candy Pop. To me it looked like fluffy candy,  so I wanted to use that for sure.

For the peep and the logo,  I used my sticker method. I free hand paint with polish on a sandwich baggie,  top it with a top coat and let it dry. Peel it off the plastic,  and it's a sticker that you just place on and top coat to seal. 

I kind of like the little bugger. Although I hate Peeps with a passion  (marshmallows make me gag when not in s'more form) I think this was a sweet Easter look. 

I've actually got a review of a product for you all next post. Hint : my 3 nails covered in glitter.  =)

Have a great day!
April

Day 8, Favorite

Hello! I very rarely post on a Tuesday,  so this is weird, ha!

I picked up the April challenge this month,  I figured why not? It had more interesting prompts than March, so I'm doing it!!!

Today's prompt is Favorite. I at first was just going to swatch my favorite polish. Well how on earth do you pick a favorite? ?? I have too many!!

So instead,  I started to think about my favorite things.  Coconut. Tickles. Herbal tea. Raw honey. (Yeah, that would be cute- a raw honey mani) I moved on to things that would translate well in polish.  Flowers. Yes.

My favorite flower is the Stargazer Lily. They were my wedding flower, I grow them, I love them. I free handed some splotchy green patches on my nails and then went in with a million different colors of polish and painted the lily. (Side note, I use all polish for my painting... no acrylic paint here).

I love, love, love this. Might be one of my new favorites. So that's two favorites in one post. Lovely.


Enjoy the day!!
April

P.S,  here are some of my favorite polishes:
-Essie No More Film
-Zoya Darcy
-Essie The More the Merrier
-Essie In the Cab - ana
-OPI Do you Lilac It?
-OPI Pamplona Purple
-OPI My Vampire is Buff
-OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls

Spring Weather

Hey guys! Do you have weekend plans?  I'm super excited that I don't have any!! A whole weekend with nothing to do.  Sounds like heaven.

So I decided to pick up the April challenge. I missed the first day because I was crazy busy. So I combined the two: autism and weather.

It's finally starting to get warmer here, so I wanted to do something to keep my spirits up. Also, I wanted to on have something blue for the first day I missed. Clouds!!

I used Essie's Rock The Boat and then painted on the clouds. I can't believe I haven't used Rock The Boat more often.  It's such a pretty periwinkle blue with a pearl shimmer. I wanted the whole look soft and shimmery, so I topped it off with Essie's Pure Pearlfection.

I liked this, it lifted my spirits and helped get me out of the longest winter ever funk.


Thanks for checking this out!
April

S Nail Polishes Post

Hey there! Look at me squeezing in a post on the first week!

I've mentioned it before,  but I'm in a polish group that on Mondays we go through the alphabet and everyone posts a mani with the letter of the week. The week was the letter S, so I of course had to go overboard again and use three different S polishes.

I started with a white base and then sponged on a gradient of Essie's Sunday Funday and China Glaze Sunshine Pop. The accent nail is Orly Starburst. I think I have an issue with circle glitter.  The issue is that I'm OBSESSED!!! Haha.

I really liked this. I was inspired by a post on Instagram by Sloteezy, but her gradient was much brighter, and more pink fading into the yellow. Since I didn't have any hot pink polishes that started with S, I had to go with the red / coral color that Sunday Funday is. She didn't do an accent nail,  but having all 5 fingers match really drives me crazy.

I thought that after a day of wearing this that it looked like candy corn, lol. So I will most likely revisit this look in the fall.  But it definitely was warmer and this girl needs some sunshine.  I think I'm turning translucent.


That's all for today! Have a wonderful day!
April